suprise suprise! Lack of resources cited in fight against terror...exactly the same as the 911 report found that the intelligence agencies needed to be re calibrated...that means new tougher laws and a new mandate for secrecy...all very useful!

MI5 must pay for a scandalous error

By Con Coughlin (Filed: 12/05/2006) - telegraph.co.uk

MI5 knew the identities of two of the London bombers a full two years before they launched their suicide attacks on the capital's transport system last July, killing 52 innocent people. But the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), the parliamentary body that is supposed to scrutinise the work of the various agencies responsible for protecting us from attacks, yesterday said that MI5 could not be blamed for failing to prevent them.

The 10 committee members responsible for drafting this latest Whitehall whitewash have drawn an astonishing conclusion in their report into the 7/7 attacks. Although MI5 twice deemed it necessary to target Mohammed Siddique Khan, 30, the acknowledged ringleader of the London bombers, and Shazad Tanweer, his 22-year-old accomplice, the decision by Security Service chiefs to divert their resources to other more pressing matters was, in the words of the report, "understandable".

British security officers even had a photograph of Siddique Khan which, had they bothered to show it to terror suspects held in Pakistan following the overthrow of the Taliban, would have revealed that he was a known Islamic radical who had spent time training with al-Qa'eda sympathisers in Pakistan as far back as 2003.

Siddique Khan and his accomplices were similarly known to detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, but no one thought to do even the most rudimentary checks with American officials about the terror threat in our midst until after London had been attacked. Then, as The Daily Telegraph reported earlier this year, Guantanamo detainees were able to provide detailed information not just about Siddique Khan, but also about other members of the group.

MI5's pathetic excuse for allowing the Siddique Khan trail to go cold is that it had insufficient resources to pursue him because it was busy following a number of other, more important leads. In the words of the report, MI5 had more "pressing priorities".

Just what could be more pressing than a plot to blow up London's transport infrastructure we are not told - for legal reasons. Nor are we allowed to know whether MI5's resources were being properly managed, because key information has been removed from the report by government lawyers.

British taxpayers spend billions of pounds each year funding this country's intelligence and security apparatus, whose primary task it is to protect the public from attack, whether by enemy powers or fanatical terrorists.

More than £1.5 billion is spent on funding MI5, MI6, and the high-tech GCHQ base at Cheltenham, and billions more are spent on the nation's police forces, which include Special Branch and the Anti-Terrorism Branch.

But all this money - and all the "resources" that it buys - counts for nothing if our security chiefs can't be bothered to carry out even the most rudimentary identity checks on potential terror suspects, the kind of checks the police are only too ready to conduct for the most inconsequential traffic infringements.

For had any serious effort been made to check the identity of Siddique Khan between 2003 and 2004 then, as the report makes clear, other intelligence material from Pakistan, which clearly identified him as a major terror threat, would have persuaded even MI5's security chiefs to channel their precious resources in the right direction.

The picture of MI5 that emerges from a careful reading of the ISC report is of an organisation that feels at ease with its own complacency.

This, after all, is the same organisation that, in the 1990s, allowed London to become a world-renowned centre for Islamic extremists, earning the capital the unwelcome soubriquet "Londonistan". It was here that the Paris Metro bombings in 1995 were masterminded, and most of the key figures responsible for planning the 9/11 attacks had strong ties with the British capital.

The terror cell that carried out the London bombings, it is true, is not the only radical Islamic group to target Britain since 9/11, and MI5 and its sister agencies have been successful in thwarting a number of potentially deadly attacks against the British public - many of the details of which remain sub judice.

But the fundamental task of intelligence is to prevent terror attacks, and the fact that London was devastated by a carefully co-ordinated series of suicide bombings last July means that this country's intelligence and security apparatus palpably failed in its duty under the Intelligence Services Act (1994) to protect the British public.

This is not an argument that seems to have made any headway with the ISC members, who appear to have swallowed whole the excuse provided by Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, MI5's director-general, that her department simply did not have sufficient resources to track the bombers - and this despite MI5 receiving 73 per cent of the extra funds made available by Gordon Brown in 2004 to prosecute the global war on terrorism.

But we have been here before. Arguably, the greatest intelligence failing of all time was MI6's assessment that Saddam Hussein had active stockpiles of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. The ISC was just one of numerous government and quasi-judicial bodies that conducted exhaustive inquiries into the failure of British intelligence to realise that Iraq's psychotic leader was engaged in a dangerous game of bluff, but, by and large, all the senior intelligence officers at MI6 responsible for misleading both the Government and the British public on Iraq emerged unscathed.

Whether Mrs Manningham-Buller succeeds in pulling off a similar feat of escapology for herself and her senior officers will depend on the ability of the justifiably outraged survivors of the London bombings, and the victims' families, to insist that the Government now sets up an independent public inquiry.

Certainly it could be argued that the failure of senior MI5 officials to subject Siddique Khan and his accomplices to basic surveillance is far worse than the Home Office allowing hundreds of convicted rapists and armed robbers to escape deportation. That scandal cost Charles Clarke his job.

But Tony Blair has always appeared to be more tolerant of the failings of his intelligence services than those of his ministers, and it will take more than mere parliamentary scrutiny if our security chiefs are ultimately to be held accountable for their inaction.

"The report appears to be suggesting that in some cases officials are more worried about what may happen in court than reaching the right conclusion on public safety.

"We need to scotch that as soon as possible," Falconer said.

He said Britain was not leaving the European Convention on Human Rights, but needed to make clear how human rights law should work in practice.

That might involve introducing new legislation to say "public safety comes first", Falconer said, rather than amending the Human Rights Act itself.

The act came into force in October 2000, making rights from the European Convention enforceable in British courts.

On Wednesday Tony Blair called a High Court ruling an "abuse of common sense" after a judge said the government had abused its power by refusing to allow nine Afghan hijackers to remain in Britain as refugees.

The Afghans had hijacked a Boeing 727 plane in February 2000 after it left Afghanistan's capital Kabul and ordered the pilot to fly to Stansted airport.

Judge Jeremy Sullivan criticised the government for failing to implement a 2004 appeal panel decision that, under human rights law, the nine could not be sent home because their lives would be at risk.

dramatic rise in potential terror suspects...

again! since when did being a suspect make you a terrorist???

Number of Islamic terror suspects in UK rise by 50%

London, May 14: The number of Islamic terror suspects being targeted by Britain`s security service M15 has increased by 50 per cent since the London bombings last year, according to intelligence sources.

"The number of Islamic terror suspects in Britain being targeted by the security service MI5 has soared to 1200, a 50 per cent rise since the London suicide bombings last July," the senior intelligence source was quoted as saying by The Observer newspaper.

In a warning about the threat posed by Islamic radicals living in Britain, the source told the paper that some of the public and politicians were failing to realise the risk facing the UK.

"In July 2005 we had 800 targets. I wish it was still at that level. MI5 had identified another 400 targets since the bombings, suggesting that, rather than the threat to security from British-based terrorists being reduced, it had escalated since the attacks which killed 52 people," the source said.

He said the threat posed by Islamic radicalisation was "current, relentless and increasing".

In September 2001, the security services estimated the number of UK-based terror suspects posing a `risk to national security` at around 250, a figure that now stands almost five times higher.

The revelation of this dramatic rise in potential terror suspects comes as it emerges that the radical imam who played a critical role in influencing one of the 7/7 bombers is to walk free from prison within weeks.

Abdullah al-Faisal was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2003 after being convicted of inciting murder and racial hatred.

Bureau Report

MI5 missed six chances to stop 7/7 bombings

JAMES KIRKUPPOLITICAL EDITOR - scotsman.com

MI5 OFFICERS had to pass up several chances to thwart the 7 July suicide bombers because they lacked the necessary staff and resources, an official inquiry found yesterday.

With greater resources, the Security Service would have had an "increased" chance of stopping the attacks that killed 56 people, the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) found.

And despite massive increases in funding, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, has admitted the service is now more stretched than last July and will be unable to prevent future terrorist attacks in Britain.

The inquiry paints an alarming picture of four young men who planned and executed the atrocity with a few thousand pounds, some household goods and only minimal support from terror groups such as al-Qaeda. Most worryingly, the four men underwent "radicalisation" far more quickly than police or MI5 analysts had previously thought possible.

The parliamentarians, who had access to classified material and intelligence chiefs, identify several opportunities MI5 had to apprehend at least two of the bombers before the attacks.

Mohammed Siddique Khan, the plot's leader, became known to the service as an associate of suspected terrorists in 2003. In 2004, he appeared again as a contact of another suspect. Khan's contact from 2004 is now the subject of a continuing terrorist court case, and cannot be identified for legal reasons. A second July bomber, Shazad Tanweer, was also known to be an associate of the 2004 suspect.

Surveillance operations on the two men were not initiated because MI5 judged they were "peripheral" to the operation that led to the ongoing trial. Evidence available did not suggest either was planning attacks against Britain.

The parliamentary investigation also found that in early 2004, information from suspected terrorist detainees held by unidentified foreign governments was passed to MI5 referring to a British man who had travelled to Pakistan seeking to make contact with al-Qaeda leaders. Only after the July bombings was it established that the man in question was Khan.

A similar report reached MI5 last February referring to a British man using a false name who had travelled to Afghanistan in the late 1999s. It was only after last July's attacks that he was revealed to be Khan. In 2004, MI5 officers showed a picture of Khan to informers and prisoners held abroad. But the image was not shown to a man in US custody who, following the July attack, was able to identify the British bomber as having attended meetings with al-Qaeda associates in Pakistan.

And as part of earlier operations, MI5 records held telephone numbers registered to Khan and to Jermaine Lindsay, another bomber.

Despite all the questions the report raises, however, it concludes that the failure to stop the bombings was inevitable and understandable, given the service's limited resources. Given the other urgent anti-terror operations MI5 was undertaking, the committee says, the decision not to pursue the leads on Khan and Tanweer was understandable.

"The story of what was known about the 7 July group prior to July indicates that if more resources had been in place sooner, the chances of preventing the July attacks could have increased," said the committee.

But despite their broadly sympathetic conclusions, the MPs also suggest that there are serious limitations in British intelligence about extremist activities in Pakistan and about the potential use of suicide tactics.

The report into the attacks reveals some worrying gaps in Britain's defences against terrorism, especially security officials' understanding of the radicalisation process that transforms ordinary people into fanatical bombers. Underlining the potential risks from terrorists acting in the name of Islam, the inquiry heard that some of the bombers had been radicalised far more quickly than police and MI5 analysts had previously thought possible.

The implication for future operations is that "the window of opportunity for identifying and disrupting potential threats could be very small," the committee concludes, warning that the entire British intelligence community urgently needs a "better understanding" of the radicalisation process.

Taking evidence from intelligence chiefs, the ISC also heard that even with the security budget rising dramatically, the threat from home-grown terrorists was such that some attacks were inevitable.

In one evidence session, Dame Eliza said that even with its increased resources, the security service could not have stopped the four 7/7 bombers. "I think that position will remain in the foreseeable future. We will continue to stop most of them, but we will not stop all of them," she told the committee. MI5, she added, is "carrying more risk now than on 7 July, 2005, in terms of the stretch on resources and the amount of worrying activity."

The ISC report confirms that, as The Scotsman revealed yesterday, the number of terror suspects in Britain is now more than 800, too many for MI5 to be able to monitor them all.

John Reid, the Home Secretary, echoed the warnings, telling MPs: "Even if there was infinite resources, the fact of the matter is that we can never be 100 per cent certain - there is not 100 per cent security." Dr Reid said the government accepted the committee's broad conclusions that the security service was not at fault over the July attacks, which killed 56 people including the four bombers.

That position was yesterday attacked by opposition parties and the survivors of the bombings. Many say only a full public inquiry will satisfy them.

Nader Mozakka, whose wife, Behnaz, was killed in the bombings, said the government was "acting as judge and jury" over the attacks. "People are being radicalised left, right and centre - I'm not saying I know the answers, but let somebody have a look at security policy and what happened on 7 July," he said.

Michael Henning, a stockbroker who was eight feet from Tanweer when he detonated his bomb, called the suggestion that more resources could have prevented the attacks a "scandal".

In the Commons, the opposition parties kept up their calls for a statutory inquiry.

David Davis, for the Conservatives, said yesterday's reports raised more questions than they answered and demanded "a fully resourced independent inquiry into what was clearly a major failure of our intelligence systems".

Nick Clegg, for the Liberal Democrats, said some of the most important questions "remain unanswered."

Replying to those calls in the House of Commons, Dr Reid said the ISC inquiry and a separate government account had answered all relevant questions.

A statutory inquiry, he said, would force MI5 and the police to devote staff time to preparing evidence. "That diversion of resources could truly put others at risk," he added.

EXCLUSIVE: MI5 INFILTRATED BY AL-QAEDA

Muslim recruits suspected

By Vincent Moss Acting Political Editor - 14 May 2006sundaymirror.co.uk

TERRORISTS from al-Qaeda have infiltrated Britain's security services, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.

Bosses at M15 believe they unwittingly recruited the Muslim extremists after the July 7 suicide bombings in London last year which killed 52 people. They were signed up as part of a drive to find more Muslims and Arabic speakers to work as spies to help prevent future attacks by Osama bin Laden fantatics. Spymasters found some of the agents in Britain's universities and colleges and persuaded them to pass on information about suspected terrorists.

But a senior ministerial source has told the Sunday Mirror: "The truth is that it has now been discovered that some of those people have strong links with al-Qaeda. "There was always a risk that with such a speedy and widespread recruitment some would turn out to be bad eggs. "But the recruitment has meant we are now in a much better position to stop al-Qaeda attacks than we have ever been before. Several planned attacks have already been stopped thanks to the high quality of our intelligence." But the disclosure that suspected terrorists have infiltrated the security services will be a further embarrassment to Government Ministers.

They came under ferocious pressure last week after an official report claimed MI5 had failed to follow up vital leads before the July 7 bombings.

The report from the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said greater coverage by M16 - Britain's overseas spies - in Pakistan and more manpower "might have alerted the agencies to the intentions of the July 7 group".

But MI5 director-general Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller is masterminding a campaign to hire hundreds more intelligence officers to the service.

She is looking for IT experts, technicians and language specialists to help monitor "traffic" via emails and phone calls between al-Qaeda terror cells across the world.

MI5 is also offering £27,000 a year for "mobile surveillance officers" to follow targets who are part of "national security investigations". But the service warns that its strict vetting process means it takes up to eight months to consider applications.

The ISC report last week found that two of the July 7 bombers - Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer - were known to the security services. But they were not seen as a high priority and M15's manpower was diverted to investigate other suspects. The pair were among the four suicide bombers who detonated their homemade devices on three Tube trains and a bus in the worst terrorist attack in British history.

SECRET HISTORY OF CENTURY OF SPYING

MI5 was founded in 1909, but its title then was the Home Section of the Secret Service Bureau. IT wasn't until 1916 that it was called MI5, standing for Military Intelligence Section 5, although its official title is the Security Service. MI5's primary role is to gather intelligence on those posing a threat to homeland security. MI6 keeps tabs on Britain's enemies abroad.

the story below is presumably because MI5 was so infiltrated by Al Queda that they kept the bombers secret in order to ...er hang on! some needs to be fired here...surely?

MI5 kept Parliament in dark over 7/7 bombings

Report by Michael Evans and Sean O'Neill - May 15, 2006 Times

Calls intensify for an independent public inquiry after key information is withheld from Intelligence and Security Committee

THE full extent of what was known about the July 7 bombers was not disclosed to the parliamentary committee that investigated intelligence failings in the run-up to the suicide attacks.

MI5 is alleged to have kept back material from bugging operations and data gleaned from computer analysis of the bomb cell from the Intelligence and Security Committee before its critical report last week.

Doubts have also emerged about when the identity of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the ringleader of the gang, became known to intelligence services.

The omissions have intensified calls for an independent inquiry into how Britain's security machinery failed to thwart the bombings that killed 52 Tube and bus passengers.

David Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, said last night that there was a need for an independent inquiry headed by a senior judge. "If it is the case that information has been withheld from the ISC then that is a scandalous situation which undermines the whole basis of the committee's judgment and reinforces the requirement for an independent inquiry," he said. "The issue at stake is the safety of the public and it is necessary that we do everything possible to improve the performance of our security services."

Three areas of concern have emerged since the publication last Thursday of reports on July 7 by the ISC and the Home Office.

The ISC concluded that it was "understandable" that MI5 and other agencies had not pursued inquiries about Khan and his accomplice Shehzad Tanweer after they emerged as "peripheral" figures in a separate anti-terrorist investigation. The committee said that it had been told that there was "no evidence that they (Khan and Tanweer) were connected to planning terrorist acts".

The ISC members did not appear to be aware of bugged conversations in which Khan discussed a bomb plot with other terrorist suspects.

The ISC also accepted MI5's assertions that although Khan had appeared on the intelligence radar, it was not until after the July 7 bombings that he was positively identified. But the Home Office narrative of events suggests that Khan's name was already in the intelligence records. That report reveals that Khan was identified at 23.59 on July 8 as the account holder of a credit card found at the Edgware Road bomb scene.

The Home Office account adds that "in reviewing records" the next day Khan's name appeared as having "been picked up on the periphery of another investigation".

There are also concerns about how much the ISC was told about Tanweer's activities.

Sources have indicated that two weeks before July 7 he had logged on to a militant website to download information about explosives. It is believed that the website was under observation, possibly by a foreign intelligence agency.

The ISC report does not mention Tanweer's online activities while the Home Office account claims that he was not a heavy internet user.

ISC members declined to comment but some privately expressed reservations that they may not have seen all the material relevant to their inquiry. Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs spokesman, said that it would be "extraordinary" if MI5 and other agencies had not revealed everything to the watchdog committee. He said: "The ISC report was always rather limited in its remit, but frankly I don't think we had any idea that it was as limited as it now appears to be. The Government's position on resisting an inquiry is becoming unsustainable."

Security sources insisted last night that all material asked for by the ISC had been handed over and claimed that there was no surveillance material to indicate that Khan was caught up in any terrorist plotting.

But Crispin Black, a former government intelligence officer, said that he was concerned that members of the ISC had been working "blind", relying on the security services to tell them what they needed to know but not coming up with penetrating questions.

1. Khan was captured by PISCES when he entered Pakistan - July 2004

2. PISCES is a defacto Big Brother tool run by and for the CIA via a compliant anti-terror ally The Mushareff Junta

3. Khan apparently visited Parliament in ...drumroll...!....July 2004! did MI5 vet him?

Mohammad Sidique Khan: Aged 30, from Beeston, Leeds, moved to Dewsbury, married with baby. ID found at Edgware Road blast site.---above is the PISCES record of his visit to Pakistan.July 2004..

London bomber visited Westminster as MP's guest

15/07/2005 - 18:40:31 - One of the London bombers visited the Houses of Parliament as a guest of an MP, the British Labour Party confirmed tonight.

Mohammad Sidique Khan visited parliament in July 2004 in his capacity as a learning mentor at Hillside Primary School in Leeds.

The bomber, who was responsible for the Edgware Road blast, met Labour MP Jon Trickett. Mr Trickett, whose wife Sarah is headteacher at Hillside, spoke today of his shock. He said: "I was shocked to learn that someone who had grown up in the area of Beeston where I lived and which I represented on Leeds City Council for 12 years should turn out to be one of the London bombers."

It was also confirmed that Khan visited Mr Trickett and his wife at their home.

In July last year, the MP's wife took a number of her schoolchildren on a trip to London and Khan accompanied the party as a member of school staff. The school group visited a number of attractions including the London Eye and St James's Park.

During the visit, Leeds Central MP Hilary Benn joined the group in Portcullis House to talk about his role as their local MP and answered the children's questions. They then met Mr Trickett who accompanied the group on the rest of their visit around the Palace of Westminster.

As soon as Mr Trickett realised this man was one of the London bombers he informed the Chief Superintendent in charge of Commons security, the British Labour Party said. - IOL

"The number of unfounded claims and people coming into this country since 1997 . . . are down. Each of them now is fingerprinted and identity cards given out to them . . ." "It is necessary we control illegal immigration better. There are two things we need to do. Firstly, we need to introduce the electronic borders, which we have introduced now for some 26 routes . . . Secondly, we need identity cards both for foreign nationals and for British nationals"

- Tony Blair, speaking in the House of Commons May 17, 2006