MI5 warns on home-grown terror

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Britain is no safer today than it was on the day of the 7/7 bombings because of the upsurge in home-grown terrorism triggered by the Iraq and Afghan wars, intelligence chiefs have warned.

Despite the enormous extra resources that have been poured into the war on terror, they fear the relentless increase in threats to the UK have left MI5 overstretched.

"Society isn't safer today," a senior source claimed. "We are containing the threat but we are not gaining on it."

The revelation that MI5 believes the invasion of Iraq is behind the terror threat is an embarrassing blow to Tony Blair.

He has steadfastly refused to accept that his foreign policy has inspired attempts at home and abroad to attack the UK.

Military chiefs, senior civil servants and most ministers now believe that the Prime Minister's decision to back George Bush and go to war has radicalised young Muslims and encouraged terrorism.

But one intelligence source said: "The 2003 invasion triggered it all, but that's a reality we can't say in public."

Whitehall sources say that despite the secretive agency's best efforts, the volume of terror plots being monitored has stretched its resources to the limits.

The Security Service's leadership believes the increase has been fuelled by Britain's involvement in the war in Iraq.

There is also evidence that young Britons of Afghan origin are becoming radicalised as a result of Britain's high-profile involvement in the fight against the Taliban.

Late last year, MI5 chief Dame Eliza Manningham- Buller said her 3,000 agents were tracking 200 plots involving 1,600 young British muslims, including 30 Priority 1' conspiracies to cause mass murder.

MI5 is expected to reach 3,800 staff by next year, but is still having to make daily decisions about which information to prioritise.

Experts say the level of resources needed to keep every potential suspect under surveillance would amount to creating a Soviet-style police state. Dame Eliza subsequently surprised MPs by announcing that she will stand down in April after 33 years with the service and four years in charge, sparking claims that she jumped before she was pushed.

Her friends say she had told the then Home Secretary Charles Clarke of her decision to quit in 2005, before the July bombings.

But some officials claim she was growing increasingly frustrated by the "demands of Labour politicians" and wanted to get out before what is expected to be a painful time for the service. The Daily Mail has been told that MI5 fears being used as a "political football" by ministers following her resignation.

The Secret Intelligence Service – MI6 – suffered a devastating blow to its reputation over claims that it allowed Downing Street to exaggerate the threat posed by Saddam Hussein in the so-called "dodgy dossier".

The admission that MI5 is finding it a challenge to keep up with the spread of Islamic extremists comes ahead of what are likely to be searching questions about its performance in coming weeks.

The counter-terrorism budget has soared to £2billion and MI5 has seen its staff nearly double since the attacks on America in September 2001.

The Security Service is bracing itself for a barrage of criticism when details of how much it knew about the July 7 bombers comes to light. It has launched a damage limitation exercise in an attempt to give its version of the events that led to the attacks.

MI5 had the ringleaders of the attacks that killed 52 people in London in 2005 under surveillance 18 months before, but did not discover their significance until it was too late.

Critics say it should have reacted better to evidence that Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer posed a threat.

But MI5 insists they were clean skins' – not known suspects – and not enough was known about them to justify using limited resources to keep them under constant surveillance.

 

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