Police chief condemned for Bin Laden costume

A senior British policeman, who has trained police in Afghanistan, has been reported to the police watchdog on Thursday for daring to be dressed as Osama Bin Laden at a carnival.

Few days before the seventh anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks, Chief Superintendent Colin Terry was photographed wearing a lifelike Bin Laden mask, robes and traditional Arab scarf.

He wore the costume at a carnival and parade in the village of Grampound, Cornwall, on Saturday.

Devon and Cornwall police said in a statement it took the incident "very seriously" and had referred Terry to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

"Whilst we believe his actions were misguided rather than malicious, they were clearly inappropriate," it said.

"We would condemn any such actions by any police officer as unacceptable."

Terry is on secondment to the Foreign Office, but might have faced disciplinary proceedings had he still been with his local force, the statement added.

A Foreign Office spokesman said Terry had been helping to train police in Afghanistan as part of a European Union project.

"He will not be returning to the EU mission," he added. The spokesman would not say if the decision was directly linked to the carnival costume.

Terry said he hadn't meant to cause offence. "I am quite horrified that someone would see this negatively," he was quoted as saying in the Guardian. "This is a local event that has been running for many, many years, raising money for charity."

Nearly 3,000 people were killed in the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in which four hijacked planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon in Washington, and a field in Pennsylvania. Al Qaeda leader Bin Laden, who masterminded the attacks, is still at large.