Where it's again very evident is in unstable places like Colombia, Niger and Sudan, where they're practising very large-scale kidnapping, so where you've got foreign companies, like oil and raw material exploration companies, the real premium is on kidnapping the foreign technicians, really skilled people, and holding them to ransom. At the moment, there are about 16,000 people round the world who are being held to ransom. The most recent case involves the Chinese National Oil company in Sudan, about eight of whose people have been kidnapped, three of whom were killed in the snatch. So it's not an exclusively Western problem. Or take the Niger Delta, where the terrorist organisations posture partly as environmentalists, and partly that they're saying that Western oil companies are not employing enough native labour, the skilled positions are all occupied by foreigners, so that's a big problem. And of course the FARC in Latin America, which has evolved from being notionally some kind of Marxist organisation into a professional kidnapping outfit. FARC's heavily involved in cocaine trafficking, and has connections with its charming neighbour [Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez.

DJ: Luke mentioned the point that businesses are particularly vulnerable because they're under pressure from their shareholders and customers, and business depends so much on confidence

LJ: Goodwill, people feeling safe and staff not feeling threatened.

DJ: And on a grander scale, when terrorists launch a whole-scale attack on the business community then there is always the danger that business may put pressure on the politicians to concede whatever is needed. But it also works the other way - sometimes politicians don't back up businessmen who are being intimidated. Luke, have you on the whole found that the authorities did back you up?

LJ: I've been very impressed by the reaction of the authorities as regards the animal rights activists. It seems to me that the legislation in recent years has changed in Britain, and they have created a special arm of the police to deal with this particular threat. Clearly it took some years of very serious intimidation, in cases like Huntingdon Life Sciences, and an enormous amount of lobbying by the pharmaceutical industry and medical research. Serious people stated that if Britain wishes to remain a civilized destination for investment, jobs and medical discoveries then they need protection from these very dangerous people. There have been one or two high-profile prosecutions with very long sentences, huge deterrents, and our direct experience with the authorities is that they are well-resourced, they understand their enemies extremely well, they have some impressive databases, and that if you involve them, they can be very proactive.