Martha Kearney's week

By Martha Kearney
Presenter, BBC Radio 4's World at One

Bob Quick's blunder meant an anti-terror operation had to be changed

What would be a trivial matter for most people - letting a document be photographed - is a matter of life and death for the country's most senior counter-terrorism officer.

That was the view of Sir Chris Fox, the former head of the Association of Chief Police Officers.

It was certainly echoed by many inside the police force and beyond. Operation Pathway had to be brought forward.

Instead of a raid in the middle of the night when suspects would be in bed, the arrests were in broad daylight.

That potentially would make it harder to identify the right people, mean that civilians could get caught up and also make it harder to gather the vital evidence for prosecutions.

On its own, that mistake gave grounds for dismissal. But there were other considerations too within Whitehall. How could Bob Quick discipline junior officers for carelessness?

Would he have been open to prosecution under the Official Secrets Act as happened to hapless civil servants who have left documents on trains?

Targeting students

We won't know if the operation was compromised until much later. Interestingly, there are slightly different views on its significance between the police and other security sources.

The sources maintain that there was no known target and are cautious about whether there was an imminent threat - though the police clearly believe there was one.

The arrests raise the issue of student visas. Professor Anthony Glees, an intelligence and security expert at the University of Buckingham, believes that al-Qaeda is specifically targeting students.

He argues that universities are too strapped for cash and don't check their students properly.

Professor Glees, like many others, believes that moving onto our third terror chief in 18 months isn't good and looks like confusion at the top.

The former London mayor Ken Livingstone went further and said that the resignation would be a gift to al-Qaeda.

The whole affair has certainly become highly politicised. The former Home Secretary John Reid told us that it had been wrong for the Conservatives to criticise Mr Quick so strongly while Operation Pathway was under way.

Private irritation

Sir Chris Fox too maintained that it was wrong for politicians to "shout from the headlines".

Others voiced their concern that London Mayor Boris Johnson had rushed onto the radio to announce the end of Mr Quick's career... as head of the Metropolitan Police Authority.

He was the one who had formally received the letter. But there was private irritation at the Home Office as the role of counter-terrorism is under its remit and it had been Jacqui Smith in discussion with Mr Quick, not Boris Johnson.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of his resignation, the generosity of his pension has meant that Mr Quick has now joined Sir Fred Goodwin and MPs who exploit the expenses system as public hate figures.

It does make me wonder if there's something about the difficult times we are facing that means we are more inclined to extremes of hatred and and anger on the one hand and then idolisation on the other?

If you caught any of Jade Goody's funeral, you'll know what I mean.