Terrorism and Animal Rights Extremists in 2005

“Terrorism and Animal Rights Extremist (ARE) terrorist activity in Europe will grow with more ambitious strategic targeting. £16bn of Research & Development is invested in the UK economy annually by the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector alone, and this is now at stake if the economic threat from ARE is not addressed. There are interesting parallels between the economic agenda, not to mention the borderless ambition, of the AQ and ARE networks. This £16bn is not the value of a single strike, but would be an annual loss to the UK economy, as Sarbanes-Oxley and other pressures force international business leaders to assess the level of risk to which they expose their staff. Aegis believes that, short of a radical engagement by UK authorities, companies will have little option but to relocate key functions to less hostile environments, probably in Asia. As the UK Government and industry fail to act effectively against ARE, so the activists will maintain their momentum in establishing effective offshoots in a number of European countries (especially Italy, The Netherlands, Sweden and Russia). As they become more successful, their morale will rise still further, and they will be tempted to target major multinationals. Share prices will be significantly eroded in those companies in the AREs’ sights, and in the secondary and tertiary targets associated with them. It is too early to predict whether the initial small signs of UK Government anti-ARE activity will develop into anything very effective, but we are not optimistic.” [This is a *.pdf formatted document]