Title: Intelligence Reports
Description: Who knew what and when?
Description: Who knew what and when?
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:02 PM (GMT)
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| MI5 said bomber was not a threat One of the London bombers was investigated by MI5 last year but was deemed not to be a threat, it has been revealed. Mohammad Sidique Khan, 30, was subject to a routine assessment by the security service because of an indirect connection to an alleged terror plot. He was one of hundreds investigated but not considered a risk. It had previously been believed that the four bombers were unknown to British security services. 'Concentric circles' Fifty-five people died in the London attacks, including the four bombers. Khan, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, killed himself and six other passengers in the Edgware Road bombing on the London underground. Hasib Hussain, 18, from Holbeck, Leeds was responsible for the Number 30 bus bombing, in which 13 people died; Shehzad Tanweer, 22, from Beeston in Leeds for the Aldgate Tube blast, which killed six, and Germaine Lindsay, 19, from Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, for the King's Cross Tube explosion in which 26 people were killed. Former Scotland Yard Commander Roy Ramm told BBC News the news about Khan and MI5 was not surprising. "It doesn't surprise me that this man has been identified in MI5's operation because this thing is like concentric circles, the further out they are the less likely MI5 are to have resources that they can apply to them in terms of surveillance, and surveillance is very costly." Earlier, Lord Chancellor Lord Falconer said no internal inquiry had been launched into why the London bombers were not picked up by the security services. He said "now is not the time" for an inquiry, but for a decision on what legal steps were needed against terror. And he denied proposed new anti-terror measures, to be discussed by the three main political parties on Monday, were "slamming the stable door after the horse had bolted". BBC News |
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| 7 July bomber 'filmed last year' Last Updated: Tuesday, 25 October 2005, 17:43 GMT 18:43 UK London bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan featured in a surveillance operation by intelligence services last year, a BBC investigation suggests. Khan was secretly filmed and recorded speaking to a UK-based terror suspect, according to a well-placed source. A Radio 4 File on 4 and BBC Two Newsnight investigation also suggests he was in contact with al-Qaeda activists for the last five years. The Metropolitan Police declined to comment on the investigation. 'Intelligence failure' The programme makers stress there is no independent corroboration that Khan was secretly filmed by intelligence services talking to the terror suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons. But they say that, if correct, it would amount to "a serious failure of intelligence" in the run up to the 7 July bombings. If true, the new information "would show the intelligence services had him well in their sights but allowed him to slip away", BBC correspondent Richard Watson said. Until now it had been thought that the plans of Khan, 30, from Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, had remained secret because he and the other bombers had no track record in terrorism and no traces by the intelligence services. But the BBC investigation suggests that is not the case. Al-Qaeda confession A terror suspect held in connection with the 2002 Bali bombings has alleged that Khan travelled to Malaysia and the Philippines in 2001 to meet leaders of extremist Islamic group Jemaah Islamiah (JI), which is closely linked with al-Qaeda. The BBC has interviewed academic researcher Dr Rohan Gunaratna who spoke to the Bali suspect after the London bombing. The suspect said that, after Khan was hosted by notorious JI leader Hambali in Malaysia, he was taken to the Philippines to meet and train with other leaders of the group, suspected of carrying out a number of terror attacks including the Bali bombings of 2002 and 2005. A careful study of his [Khan's] background and contacts reveal a number of clues to his extremism which the British intelligence apparently missed BBC correspondent Richard Watson And in 2003, Khan met with an Islamic extremist in Pakistan who has since confessed to supplying military equipment to al-Qaeda, the BBC has learned. The extremist, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is a US citizen from a Pakistani family from New York who travelled to Pakistan a week after the 11 September attacks. Khan and the man also saw each other together in Leeds in 2003, the BBC understands. "Mohammed Sidique Khan was running a strong cover with his work as a caring teaching assistant in Leeds," BBC correspondent Richard Watson said. "But a careful study of his background and contacts reveal a number of clues to his extremism which the British intelligence apparently missed." Recruitment issue Viewers and listeners to Tuesday night's programmes will also hear criticism from experts and academics about how radical clerics have "recruited openly" in Britain. Academic researcher Dr Gunaratna said: "The radical clerics have radicalised young British and European Muslims and have done al-Qaeda's work for them." And Sir Paul Lever, the former head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, which advises the prime minister on intelligence threats, said there had been a "failure to understand the significance of allowing these clerics to recruit openly". BBC News |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:05 PM (GMT)
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| Intelligence experts believe that the 7/7 attacks on London were the handiwork of al-Qaeda. One official said: "Even the picture background used when the interview of Khan is recorded before he carried out his suicide bombing is a typical al-Qaeda signature. They have used a cloth on the wall and this is what al-Qaeda guys do whenever they have to record a statement." Pakistani intelligence agents believe that Khan was connected to a division known as the Osama Group. The theory came to light after the authorities smashed an arm of the group last month that was using a call centre to channel messages to Britain and other Western countries. In Britain, MI5 is investigating the possibility that Khan, believed to have been his cell's leader, travelled to Pakistan to get final instructions on what target to attack in the United Kingdom. The Security Service also believes that he may have attended a training camp, possibly in Afghanistan. A Whitehall official told The Sunday Telegraph: "Khan could have travelled to Pakistan and received instruction on what type of target to attack, was given the go-ahead to launch an attack and then returned to brief the remainder of his team. It is also possible that he was still recruiting at the time the video was made." He said that MI5 had no evidence to support reports that the video was produced in Leeds on the eve of the July 7 attacks on three Tube trains and a bus. He said the absence of all the members of the terrorist cell lent weight to the theory that it was produced outside Britain. "If this video was made in the UK, in a back room in Leeds, then why are all the bombers not pictured together? Telegraph |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:08 PM (GMT)
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| 3 November 2005 EXCLUSIVE: TERROR COPS TRACKED ALL 7/7 BOMBERS Furious MPs demand new terror security shake-up By Bob Roberts And Graham Brough FEARS were last night growing over the ability to stop terror attacks after the security blunders that let the London bombers slip through the net. The four men who brought carnage to streets of the capital on July 7 were watched by intelligence officers a year before they killed 52 people on Tube trains and a bus. But security chiefs called off the operation after it was decided the gang posed no threat. Last week the Mirror revealed how 30-year-old ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan was filmed with a terror suspect last year and spotted chatting to an al-Qaeda fixer. No action was taken against him. And last night a police source said the other three bombers - Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18 - were also being tracked. They were on a list of up to 100 people throughout the country feared to be Islamic fanatics. A fifth man, thought to be an al-Qaeda operative, was being watched. He is on the run, believed to be in Pakistan, and could return to attack Britain again. Field agents kept an eye the men's behaviour for several weeks but decided there was nothing out of the ordinary and pulled the plug. The police source said the four "did not fit the preconceived terrorist profile". A year later, the gang travelled to London from Yorkshire carrying their deadly cargo of explosives in rucksacks and blew themselves up in the morning rush-hour. Angry MPs last night called for an overhaul of the surveillance system for suspected terrorists. Shadow homeland security minister Patrick Mercer said: "These men appear not to have been as unknown to the security services as was first thought. "If this is true, it suggests there are many more questions that need to be asked about our intelligence preparations prior to July 7. We will be demanding that these questions are answered." And Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said the blunder shows the need for more cash to carry out surveillance operations properly. The MP said: "This shows the importance of giving our intelligence services more resources and more people on the ground so they have the manpower they need to do their job. "The Government should learn protecting this country from terrorists is not just about new laws, it is about money as well." The police source also said there were no suspicions about the men's behaviour in the immediate run-up to the attack. Tanweer was filmed arguing with a cashier about being short-changed at a petrol station hours before he blew himself up. He was also seen playing cricket with friends the night before the attacks on the capital. The source added: "The Russell Square bomber (Hussain) is actually seen going into shops and bumping into people." It is known a fifth man must have been involved with all four suicide bombers. Police found an unused explosive rucksack in the men's car which was abandoned at Luton. Metropolitan Police chief Sir Ian Blair has warned more terror attacks are being planned. He said: "The sky is dark. Intelligence exists to suggest that other groups will attempt to attack Britain in the coming months." The Mirror |
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| Bombers 'tracked before July 7' Staff and agencies Thursday November 3, 2005 All four July 7 London suicide bombers were tracked by intelligence services a year before the attacks, it was claimed today. Quoting unnamed police sources, the Mirror reported that field agents had Shehzad Tanweer, Jermaine Lindsay, Hasib Hussain and Mohammed Sidique Khan on a list of 100 feared religious fanatics before the watch was called off because they failed to "fit the preconceived terrorist profile". It is not the first time claims have emerged from likely whistle blowers that the four were not "clean skins" unknown to the security services, as was originally believed. The BBC alleged last week that Khan, the suspected ringleader, was caught on film and recorded by the security services before the suicide bomb attacks on the capital's transport system that killed 52 people and injured more than 700. He is reported to have been associating with people identified by western security services as being suspected of involvement in terrorism. The BBC did not specify who its sources were or from which agencies they came, though they appeared to be from the counter-terrorism community. Its report said that a man in custody in Indonesia said the 30-year-old former classroom assistant met a terrorist called Hambali, the alleged operations chief of al-Qaida-linked Jemaah Islamiyah, after travelling to Malaysia in 2001. The detainee told academic researcher Rohan Gunaratna that he took Khan to meet and train with leaders from the extremist group blamed for the 2002 Bali bomb attacks. The BBC report also linked Khan to a US-based Islamist, now in custody, who is alleged to have ties to al-Qaida and whom the BBC described as an "al-Qaida fixer". The Mirror today claimed that security services had a fifth man, who is now believed to be in Pakistan, under surveillance. The report came this morning as members of the London Assembly committee reviewing the handling of the attacks listened to a 999 call made to emergency services on the morning of the four bomb attacks. In the recording the caller is heard describing the scene in Tavistock Square where Leeds-born Hussain detonated his device on the number 30 bus. The caller told the police emergency operator that the double decker had just exploded outside the window, and went on to describe "people lying on the ground". "I think there's ambulances on the way but there's people dead and everything by the looks of it," the distressed caller said, as emergency sirens sounded in the background. The Guardian |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:16 PM (GMT)
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| Ministers 'shocked' at MI5's lack of information Antony Barnett and Martin Bright Sunday October 2, 2005 The Observer Ministers, senior police officers and top civil servants were shocked at MI5's lack of intelligence after the 7 July terrorist attacks, according to a senior Whitehall source present at meetings of Cobra, the government's crisis command group convened to react to the London bombings. The Whitehall official who attended the emergency meetings in the aftermath of the attacks has told The Observer there was general 'shock' at the absence of information coming from the intelligence services about who was behind the London bombings. He said: 'We were all waiting for some answers. We lived in hope that the security service would provide a thread, or a sliver, but no. That was a shock to the system.' The official said there was a question whether MI5 had 'ever really engaged with the possibility that terrorists would be home-grown, British, English-speakers'. The senior official, who would only comment if his identity remained a secret, said: 'There was a real understanding that this was our 9/11, but at least in the US reports had come in about concerns over the hijackers. Here there was nothing.' His remarks come as the director general of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, is preparing a staunch defence of the security services this month. She will be one of the key witnesses who will be grilled behind closed doors by MPs on parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. The committee, which meets in secret, is investigating the intelligence issues surrounding the July attacks that killed 52 passengers and the four bombers. Senior security sources have said that while Manningham-Buller is likely to admit there was an intelligence 'gap', the MI5 boss will deny there had been an 'intelligence failure'. They say that MI5 had no information that could have prevented the attacks. Yet this will be questioned by members of the committee, who will want to know whether the secu rity services should have paid more attention to Mohammad Sidique Khan, the 30-year-old ringleader who blew himself up at Edgware Road tube station. There had been suggestions that Khan was known to MI5 after he was connected to an earlier - thwarted - London bomb plot by British Pakistanis. Senior security sources said that Khan's name was known to the security services, but that contact between him and a group of British Islamic militants was indirect. He is understood to have been in contact with an associate of the terror gang who were planning to use a truck bomb to launch a suicide attack in the capital. 'His name was a tiny blip on a radar along with hundreds of others,' said the source. The head of MI5 will also be asked why Britain's terror alert was downgraded weeks before the July attacks. That month, a leak of a secret intelligence report from Whitehall's Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre, a body in which MI5 plays a key role, said it was safe for Britain to downgrade its terror alert. Written three weeks before the 7/7 bombings, it said: 'At present there is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to attack the UK.' Three months on from the London bombings, security sources believe the threat of another attack remains high. They are concerned that young British Muslims who have returned to the UK after fighting with insurgency groups in Iraq now pose a serious terror threat. Observer Guardian |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:18 PM (GMT)
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| July bomber in link to foiled London terror plot Antony Barnett and Mark Townsend Sunday November 13, 2005 The Observer The man suspected of masterminding the 7 July terror attacks on London was directly linked to another major plot to bomb the capital that was foiled last year, the head of MI5 has admitted. In evidence to the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee on the July bombings, Eliza Manningham-Buller is understood to have admitted that Mohammad Sidique Khan had 'direct' contact with an individual known to have been involved in the earlier plot. The foiled attack is thought to have involved the use of a vehicle full of home-made explosives. Until now, Khan was said to have only an 'indirect link' to other terrorists, with reports last month revealing he was recorded speaking to a UK-based terrorist suspect as part of a top-level surveillance operation. However, police sources have distanced themselves from more recent reports that Khan's accomplices in the London bombings - Shehzad Tanweer, 22, Jermaine Lindsay, 19, and Hasib Hussain, 18 - had been watched by intelligence officers a year before they killed 52 people on tube trains and a bus. The increased profile of Khan will again raise questions about intelligence failures leading up to the London bombings. Manningham-Buller is understood to have told the committee - which holds its hearings in secret - that the London bombings were not a result of an 'intelligence failure', referring instead to an 'intelligence gap' which allowed the 7 July terrorists to carry out the attack. Security sources point to the fact that since the London bombings MI5 has successfully managed to thwart 'a number' of suicide terrorist attacks targeted at the capital's infrastructure and popular shopping locations. The revelation comes amid ongoing concern over the practice of radicalised Muslims infiltrating Britain after visiting conflict regions abroad. A Metropolitan Police source identified the Balkans, Chechnya, Afghanistan and more recently Iraq. Last month Andrew Rowe was jailed at the Old Bailey for terrorist offences after spending over a decade travelling the globe in pursuit of jihad. British security sources believe that there are some 70 British jihadists fighting in Iraq, yet little information of any organised network has emerged. Observer Guardian |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:24 PM (GMT)
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| January 22nd 2006 MI5 knew of bomber’s plan for holy war David Leppard BRITAIN’S top spies knew that the ringleader of the London bombers was planning to fight for Al-Qaeda more than a year before the July 7 suicide attacks, security sources have revealed. MI5 bugged Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, a second bomber, for two months as they talked about Khan’s desire to fight in what he saw as the Islamic holy war. Agents also listened in as the men talked between themselves about Khan’s plans to return to Pakistan where he had attended a camp for British terrorists. They also spoke about engaging in crime to raise money for Islamic extremism. However, police and MI5 officers ruled that the two men were not an “immediate risk” and did not present a “direct threat” to national security. The detectives’ assessment was that the men were primarily involved in fraud rather than preparing to mount attacks in the near future. As a result, surveillance on them stopped, allowing the attacks that killed 52 people and injured 700 to go ahead. Security sources said that the disclosures come from a trawl by officials of MI5 files on all intelligence held on the four bombers. The agency has traced the origins of the July 7 plot back to the summer of 2003 when Khan visited a terrorist training camp in northern Pakistan. It has established that the camp was set up by Al-Qaeda soon after Tony Blair sent British troops into Iraq. The aim of the camp, security sources say, was to train would- be terrorists such as Khan to plan and carry out bomb attacks in Britain. A source said that when Khan returned from the camp in the summer of 2003 he was fully versed in how to make bombs. The intelligence agency should have picked up the early warning signs about Khan and Tanweer’s intentions as they travelled together around England during 2004. The disclosure is expected to lead to renewed calls for a public inquiry into the July 7 attacks and the potential intelligence failings. Last month Blair ruled out in inquiry, saying it would distract from the task of fighting terrorism. Instead the government is to publish an official “narrative of events” leading up to July 7. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, said at the time of the bombings that they had “simply come out of the blue”. Security officials said the suicide bombers were “clean skins” — men not previously known to the intelligence services. Two weeks after their denials, intelligence officials admitted that they knew at the time that Khan was “on the fringes” of terrorist activities. Officials said that hundreds of others had been in a similar situation, adding that they had made a “quick assessment” and ruled that Khan was not an immediate threat to national security. The new evidence, uncovered in the trawl ordered by the Home Office of all relevant documents at Scotland Yard and MI5, shows the intelligence services knew far more about Khan and Tanweer than the government has publicly admitted. A senior Whitehall official, defending the intelligence services last week, said that with hindsight, and the discovery of new evidence about the suicide bombers, MI5 had changed its view of them. Hundreds of pages of transcripts obtained from the surveillance are contained in secret files being prepared by MI5 and Scotland Yard. Clarke has asked for the files to be collated so the government can prepare the official narrative of events. Members of the parliamentary intelligence and security committee, which is holding a confidential inquiry into the intelligence agency’s handling of the attacks, have also been briefed on the findings. This weekend Rachel North, an advertising executive from north London who was injured in the King’s Cross bombing, said: “This is a compelling reason why we need a full public inquiry. The public has a right to know what the risks were and why this happened.” Patrick Mercer, the Tories’ homeland security spokesman, said: “We need the government to reveal the full details of what it knew of the threat at the time. This absolutely underlines the need for an independent inquiry.” MI5 has now established that Khan travelled to other camps in Pakistan in the summer of 2003 and may well have visited Afghanistan. His and Tanweer’s last known visit was in November 2004, according to immigration officials in Pakistan. MI5 has calculated that the entire plot cost less than £10,000 to carry out. It has also employed a team of in-house psychologists to analyse why the four men became terrorists. Khan, who was 31 when he blew up himself and six others at Edgware Road Tube station, had been working as a learning “mentor” in a primary school in Leeds. Tanweer, 21, blew himself up at Aldgate station, killing eight others. When the files go to Clarke they will be reviewed by William Nye, the new director of counter-terrorism and intelligence at the Home Office. He will advise Clarke on how much of the intelligence material on the four bombers should be made public in the narrative of events. It is expected to be complete by the spring. The Times |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:26 PM (GMT)
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| The Times January 23, 2006 Bomber spotted a year before July 7 By Michael Evans Analysis of surveillance tapes found that the terrorists' leader cropped up more than was thought THE leader of the London suicide bombers, Mohammad Sidique Khan, appeared on surveillance tapes a year before the attacks on July 7, the security services have admitted. MI5 has been trawling through transcripts of eavesdropping tapes and video footage of surveillance carried out on a large number of terrorist suspects over a period of about 12 months, leading up to the attacks on the London Underground and a double-decker bus. Its analysts have been checking to see what could have been uncovered about Khan’s activities and preparations for the suicide bombings. Previously it had been admitted that one surveillance tape had identified Khan but he had been judged to be only “on the periphery” of suspected terrorist endeavours and, with limited resources available, he was not considered a priority. Like many other potential suspects caught up in the process of long-term surveillance operations, Khan escaped the net because there was insufficient evidence against him to merit a full-scale monitoring programme, which can take up to 20 MI5 officers for each suspect. However, since the July 7 bombings, MI5 and other secret agencies have produced a wealth of intelligence that has enabled the Security Service to pinpoint Khan’s activities in the previous year with more accuracy. Security sources said that with the new intelligence it had been possible to identify Khan on a number of surveillance tapes, matching what were often grainy pictures taken in the dark with the features and profile of the suicide bomber. The sources said that it was not just a question of benefiting from hindsight. It was the post-July 7 intelligence that had helped to build up a fuller picture of a potential terrorist plot and the key individuals who were to be involved. Apart from Khan, there was also some prior knowledge of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the other suicide bombers. The discovery of more tape and video evidence puts MI5 in a sensitive position. While the organisation can argue that it did not have the resources to follow every suspect who flitted in and out of its long-term surveillance operations, the more that the Security Service finds from the past records, the more difficult it will be to satisfy the families of the 52 victims of the London bombings that everything possible had been done to try to prevent the terrorist attacks. The parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee, headed by Paul Murphy, the former Northern Ireland Secretary, has questioned Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director-General of MI5, and several of her most senior intelligence officers on a number of occasions as part of its inquiry into the July 7 bombings. The committee is examining whether there were intelligence failings and is expected to publish a report in March or April. Separately, the Home Office is also drawing together a publishable “narrative” of the events leading up to July 7, which is expected to be published in the spring. Tony Blair has ruled out holding a public inquiry into the bombings. ON THE TRAIL OF A TERROR SUSPECT Mohammad Sidique Khan was spotted on several occasions meeting other terrorist suspects He visited a terrorist training camp in northern Pakistan in 2003 Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were bugged talking about raising funds for Islamic extremism The pair went to Pakistan together in November 2004 Khan learnt how to make bombs in the Pakistani al-Qaeda camp The Times |
Kier - February 9, 2006 01:31 PM (GMT)
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| Leaked MI5 London Bombing report may be disinfo A supposed leaked MI5 report suggests that the intelligence agencies have no leads and know very little about who was behind the July 7 attacks. “We know little about what three of the bombers did in Pakistan, when attack planning began, how and when the attackers were recruited, the extent of any external direction or assistance and the extent and role of any wider network.” This is very convenient for MI5 because it means they have "exhausted their efforts" and are basically conceding that the matter will now be laid to rest. The report, by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC), also states that MI5 still does not know whether the attacks of July 7 and July 21 were linked and whether there are any Al-Qaeda links. “We do not know how, when and with whom the attack planning originated. And we still do not know what degree of external assistance either group had... Whilst investigations are progressing, there remain significant gaps in our knowledge... We still have no insight into the degree . . . of command and control of the operation.” |
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| One intriguing aspect of the London Bombing report is the fact that the MI5 codename for the event is "Stepford". The four "bombers" are referred to as the "Stepford four". Why is this the case? There is no place in the UK called Stepford, the word HAS to be a reference to the novel and film The Stepford Wives. Of course the plot of this sci-fi film is that the the wives of Stepford are actually completely submissive servants, gynoids created by an elite group of men. The only entry in the dictionary for the word Stepford has the following description: pertaining to a person with a conforming and compliant attitude, much like a robot . So does this explain why the four bombers seemed to be completely calm, acting normally, going for Big Macs, buying return tickets, arguing over being short changed before they blew themselves up? I am NOT suggesting that they were literally robots before that gets taken out of context, yet the MI5 codename is very revealing in that it suggests the operation was a carefully coordinated and controlled one with four compliant and malleable patsies following direct orders. Now if MI5 has no idea who was behind the operation or whether there were any orders coming from a mastermind, why would they give the event the codename "Stepford"? We welcome any rational alternative explanations for this. Prison Planet |
Kier - February 9, 2006 06:13 PM (GMT)
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| London bombings: ‘British intelligence was woeful ... and that was all the government’s fault’ Waging war on Iraq brought terror to UK, says expert By Neil Mackay, Investigations Editor THE conduct of the British police and intelligence services over the July 7 London bombings was a “massive failure from start to finish” for which the government must take the blame. This withering criticism comes from Crispin Black, who worked for the Joint Intelligence Committee, was an army lieutenant colonel, a military intelligence officer, a member of the Defence Intelligence Staff and a Cabinet Office intelligence analyst who briefed Number 10 on terrorism. Black says the bombings made UK spies appear “laughable” and left the police looking like “the Keystone Cops”. He claims the UK government’s refusal to accept that its role in the invasion of Iraq had increased the risk of home-grown terrorism meant that MI5 did not look as closely at British radicals in the run-up to the bomb attacks as it should have done. “The system failed – fatally,” Black said, adding that the biggest error was the “misappreciation of the extent to which the aims and aspirations of international terrorists had penetrated into small elements of the UK’s domestic Muslim population”. In his new book, 7-7 The London Bombs: What Went Wrong?, Black savages MI5’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) for reducing the UK terrorist threat level just over a month before the suicide bomb attacks. JTAC also claimed that there was no group in the UK with the intention or capability of launching a terror attack. Black said the JTAC decision “took our eye off the ball” and showed that “we have a bad and confused attitude to terrorism”. “The disturbing thing about this assessment is that it was moving in diametrically the opposite direction to what was about to happen on the ground,” he said, adding that politicians “had set the tone” for such failures. “The entire investigation was a massive failure from beginning to end. “I felt strongly and still do that we had failed the people killed and wounded that day – badly,” claimed Black. “The way we were organising ourselves to protect our law-abiding citizens against the random and ghastly violence of terror had not worked.” He is now calling for a public inquiry to examine how mistakes were made. “We pay [politicians’] salaries first and foremost to make sure that we are safe … They risk forgetting their core function,” he stated. Black said that Britain “went to sleep” in the run-up to the attacks. The intelligence services had previously monitored the leader of the July 7 bombings, Mohammed Siddique Khan, as part of an anti-terror inquiry, but failed to follow up on his activities. “The authorities decided that he did not constitute a threat. The lead was tragically not exploited,” said Black. However, some of the most scathing criticism was reserved for the government’s refusal to accept that Iraq played a part in fomenting home-grown terror. “We know that MI5 accepts the Iraq war has been a radicalising factor pushing a small number of British Muslims towards violence,” said Black. “But given the government’s absolute unwillingness to accept a link between the British presence in Iraq and terrorism, it would have been difficult for [MI5] expressly to give the correct priority to this question. “Second, a lack of understanding or inquisitiveness on this matter would also tend to reinforce [now old-fashioned] thinking about Islamist terrorism – that in the UK it is essentially an imported rather than home-grown or semi-homegrown phenomenon.” Black also lambasted the police and intelligence services for allowing Hussain Osman, one of the alleged July 21 “copy-cat” bombers, to flee the country under their noses. “The object of one of the biggest manhunts in British history was able to escape from the country a few days later on the Eurostar after walking past his own wanted poster in Waterloo Station.” The way the government “cooked the intelligence books” over the invasion of Iraq played into the hands of terrorists, he said. “It is not just that many people view the war as unjust and illegal, but they believe it was based on a lie. The enabling atmosphere for Islamist terrorism feeds off the way we went to war as well as the perceived nature of the war itself. “The intelligence scandals could not have been designed better to cause offence, disaffection and alienation among the Muslim community. The irony is that cooking the intelligence books may well be one of the causes of our current difficulties, and one of the most powerful tools we have against terrorism are our intelligence services – compromised by this cavalier approach.” 20 November 2005 Sunday Herald |
Kier - February 9, 2006 06:17 PM (GMT)
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| Clarke may reveal secret intelligence on July 7 bombers Rosie Cowan, crime correspondent Wednesday December 14, 2005 The government is considering the unprecedented step of making public secret intelligence on the July 7 bombings, it was revealed yesterday. Charles Clarke, the home secretary, is consulting the prime minister, police and the security services about producing an edited version of what is known about the four London suicide bombers. There were demands for an independent judicial inquiry after the attacks, which killed 52 innocent people on three underground trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and King's Cross, and a bus in Tavistock Square. But some felt this would duplicate much work already being undertaken and could drag on for years. Security sources have said that the Home Office thinks some sort of narrative about the bombers, the attacks themselves and the immediate aftermath could satisfy public desire for more information without compromising security concerns. Police and other agencies have already gathered material about the backgrounds of the four British-born bombers - Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer, Hasib Hussain and Jermaine Lindsay. Ten days after the bombings it emerged that Mohammad Sidique Khan had featured on the fringes of an M15 investigation into a suspected terrorist cell. Agents looked at the Leeds-born teaching assistant last year but decided he did not pose a risk. On Monday Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner, warned that the terrorist threat had intensified since July 7 and active cells were still plotting suicide attacks in the UK. A Home Office spokesman said that Mr Clarke was considering "what materials he might be able to make available to support the parliamentary inquiries which are currently under way into various aspects of the 7 July atrocities. "In this context he has been considering whether an account of what happened on 7 July could be prepared by the Home Office - including drawing together intelligence and police material - without the risk of compromising intelligence sources or prejudicing any possible prosecutions," the spokesman added. "We hope to be able to say something further on these issues in due course." The Guardian |
Kier - February 9, 2006 06:23 PM (GMT)
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| UK was warned of July suicide attacks Antony Barnett Sunday February 5, 2006 Senior White House officials have confirmed that Britain received a warning about a potential attack on London involving a cell of four bombers just a few months before the July atrocities in which 52 people were killed. In the wake of the revelation, bomb victims' families have renewed calls for the government to hold a public inquiry to find out whether vital intelligence was missed that could have prevented the attack. In August The Observer revealed that Saudi intelligence had passed warnings to British and US intelligence in Riyadh in December 2004 about a terror plot aimed at London. At the time the Foreign Office refused to comment on the claim, but privately downplayed the suggestion. Yet well-placed sources have now said that senior counter-terrorism officials at President Bush's National Security Council have confirmed that such a warning was received by American and British officials early last year. The British authorities receive a lot of general information about the terrorist threat, but the details of the plot obtained by the Saudi authorities were specific. British intelligence was told an attack was being planned by four Islamic militants and some of them would be British citizens. The information suggested the attack would take place within six months and target the Underground or a London nightclub. A Saudi security adviser said he was 'convinced' that the information they passed on was 'directly linked' to the July plot. The revelation will raise serious questions about the decision to lower the threat level to Britain three weeks before the attacks. It is understood that the House of Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, which is investigating various intelligence issues surrounding 7 July, is keen to discover whether the decision was correct. Parents of victims of the July bombings have been calling for a full public inquiry into the tragic events after mounting evidence has emerged of potential intelligence mistakes, including disclosures that two of the bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shahzad Tanweer, were known to MI5, the British security service. Marie Fatayi-Williams, whose son, Anthony, 26, died in the Tavistock Square bus attack, has accused the authorities of treating relatives with disdain in not holding a full inquiry. Responding to claims that the Saudis warned the UK of an attack, she said: 'Whatever lapses happened, we need to know. We need to learn from the mistakes to ensure it does not happen again. We need to know our loved ones did not die in vain. They have not given one good reason why they do not want a public inquiry. What are they trying to hide?' Saudi authorities claim they obtained the information after a Saudi militant was arrested. The Saudis say that during his interrogation the militant told them he was on a mission to fund a plot to target London. He handed over a Syrian telephone number from which he said he was to be given orders. He described the main 'disperser' of funds to Islamic extremists in Britain as a Libyan businessman, who is the subject of an international intelligence operation. A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: 'The government takes all reports of alleged or possible terrorist threats or activity extremely seriously, and all reports are thoroughly investigated. But we do not comment on the outcome of such investigations.' Observer Guardian |
Kier - February 9, 2006 07:01 PM (GMT)
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| Yesterday, the French daily Libération reported that Khan, the oldest of the London bombers, had been one of the targets of last year's operation, but had "escaped". The paper quoted a senior French police official as saying that Khan had subsequently been on a Scotland Yard "target list" for 15 months, but under the name "Mohammed Kayoun Khan" with a different date of birth. The report follows statements on Wednesday from Nicholas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, that "a part of the team" behind the London blasts had been the subject of a counter-terrorism operation last spring. That remark appears to refer to Operation Crevice, a string of raids last 31 March that led to several men being arrested and charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. British officials yesterday publicly refused to confirm or deny the French report, but privately some admit that there is evidence that Khan had been in contact with one of the men arrested last year. The circumstances of that contact are uncertain, and all the details surrounding Operation Crevice now are understood to be under review by MI5 and Anti-Terrorism Branch detectives. Scotsman |
Kier - February 14, 2006 09:17 PM (GMT)
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| 20 July 2005 OUR LACK OF INTELLIGENCE THE BLUNDERS: MI5 investigated Khan and said he was no danger; CIA watched Lindsay but UK ignored their tip-off; Three bombers' trip to Pakistan went unnoticed By Bob Roberts Deputy Political Editor BRITAIN'S security services were last night under the spotlight as fears were growing over their ability to prevent further terror attacks. In the wake of a leaked report that revealed spy bosses shrugged off the idea of an al-Qaeda attack on these shores just weeks before the London Tube blasts, questions will be raised about the intelligence failings that had deadly consequences. And in a further embarrassment to the Government, the document warned that "terrorist related activity in the UK" was being fuelled by events in Iraq. The report from Whitehall's Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre declared no attack on Britain was imminent. It said: "At present there is not a group with both the intent and the capability to attack the UK." Three weeks later 56 people were killed in the London Tube and bus explosions by four British Muslims. Leader of the House of Commons Geoff Hoon admitted mistakes had been made after MI5, MI6 and the police downgraded the country's terror threat from "severe defined" to "substantial" in mid-June. He said: "We have to make judgments on the best intelligence that is available at the time. It is not, and no one suggests that it can ever be, an exact science. "But obviously we continue to review the sources of information and our assessment of them." The report's contents, leaked to the New York Times, adds to a growing list of blunders by the security services and the police. Senior officers have admitted the Leeds-based terror group that hit London were "under the radar" and they had no knowledge of the bombers before the attack. One, Mohammed Sidique Khan, was investigated by MI5 last year but deemed not to be a threat. Three of the four visited Pakistan within the last year. And there were reports that Jamaican-born Jermaine Lindsay had been investigated by the CIA in America but not the British authorities. Home Secretary Charles Clarke and the Metropolitan Police have insisted lowering the terror threat had no practical effect on security precautions taken in the capital. And last night Tony Blair dismissed links between terror activity here and the US-led Iraq war. He said: "Of course these terrorists will use Iraq as an excuse. They will use any excuse to recruit people. "But we have got to be very careful because nothing justifies what they're doing. "There is a tendency in the west to think this began with 9/11 but it was going on long before that." No 10 also pointed out that al-Qaeda attacks had been mounted against countries all over the world for years before the Iraq war and subsequently against those not involved in the conflict. But the Muslim Council of Britain's Inayat Bunglawala said: "The Government should ask itself whether policies such as Iraq have contributed to this." British Muslim religious leaders and scholars issued a fatwa outside the Houses of Parliament yesterday in response to the London attacks. It condemned the use of violence and insisted suicide bombs were "vehemently prohibited". Egyptian biochemist Magdy El Nashar, who was being linked to the bombers, is to be released soon. The 33-year-old was arrested at his parents' home in Cairo last week and quizzed by Scotland Yard officers. But the British Embassy's Caroline Alcock said: "British police have said he is not a terror suspect. "If he was he would be in detention for much longer than a few days." Egyptian minister Habib El Adley branded British authorities "hasty" over El Nashar's arrest. Detectives in London were last night granted more time to question a 29-year-old man arrested over the London blasts. Metropolitan Police chief, Sir Ian Blair and Home Office minister Hazel Blears yesterday joined 140 people of all faiths at a Hindu ceremony in the Victoria Embankment memorial garden set up in the wake of the attacks. The Mirror |
The Antagonist - February 20, 2006 01:00 PM (GMT)
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Minor point, but does a different name and a different date of birth not suggest reference to a different person unless there is some other way of proving it was indeed one and the same man?
The Antagonist - February 20, 2006 03:42 PM (GMT)
Two from the Scotsman (one of which is quoted in part above):
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| Fri 15 Jul 2005 Security services 'failed to arrest bomber last year' JAMES KIRKUP INTELLIGENCE officials are urgently investigating the possibility that one of the London suicide bombers could have slipped through the net of a major counter-terrorism operation last year. Mohammed Sadique Khan, a 30-year-old teaching assistant who died in the Edgware Road blast last Thursday, was yesterday named as one of the targets who escaped an anti-terrorist swoop mounted last March in southern England and North America. The worrying suggestion that Khan could have been stopped before the attacks that killed 53 people came as police warned that it could be "months" before they find the terrorists who co-ordinated, supplied and inspired Britain's first suicide bomb attacks. Led by the Queen at Buckingham Palace, people across Britain and around Europe yesterday observed a two-minute silence in memory of those who died on three London Underground trains and a No 30 bus. But, as the focus of the investigation shifted further towards the search for the masterminds of the London blasts, the last of the four suicide bombers was identified as Lindsey Germaine. Germaine is believed to be a Jamaican-born Muslim convert from Buckinghamshire. The other three bombers were British-born Muslims of Pakistani descent who lived in West Yorkshire. Ministers and intelligence chiefs have admitted that last week's attacks came as complete surprise to the security services, suggesting that the four bombers had been "lilywhites" or "clean skins" - people who were previously completely unknown to anti-terrorism officials. However, that has been called into question by French security sources. Yesterday, the French daily Libération reported that Khan, the oldest of the London bombers, had been one of the targets of last year's operation, but had "escaped". The paper quoted a senior French police official as saying that Khan had subsequently been on a Scotland Yard "target list" for 15 months, but under the name "Mohammed Kayoun Khan" with a different date of birth. The report follows statements on Wednesday from Nicholas Sarkozy, the French interior minister, that "a part of the team" behind the London blasts had been the subject of a counter-terrorism operation last spring. That remark appears to refer to Operation Crevice, a string of raids last 31 March that led to several men being arrested and charged under the Terrorism Act 2000. British officials yesterday publicly refused to confirm or deny the French report, but privately some admit that there is evidence that Khan had been in contact with one of the men arrested last year. The circumstances of that contact are uncertain, and all the details surrounding Operation Crevice now are understood to be under review by MI5 and Anti-Terrorism Branch detectives. Raising further questions about whether Khan had a history of links with extremism, it emerged last night that one of his acquaintances contacted police following the London attacks to raise fears that Khan was a trained terrorist. Speaking on condition of anonymity, the acquaintance last night told BBC Radio 4: "From what I've heard, he used to travel extensively overseas, especially to Asia - Pakistan, Afghanistan. "He used to regularly be out of the country, going to Afghanistan and carrying out training, every year or so. "It would be regarding being trained up, being a fighter, being skilled in the use of army-type training, the use of weapons, explosives and simply military discipline as to how action should be carried out in the field." While there was no way to confirm the Libération report, the paper's police source was clearly very well-informed about the London investigation. Alone among European media outlets, Libération identified Germaine as the fourth bomber yesterday morning. At that time, most British newspapers and even many police officers believed the fourth bomber to have been another Leeds man of Asian origin. Germaine's identity was only established yesterday afternoon after forensic experts matched DNA samples from a house in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, to shreds of tissue retrieved from the Piccadilly Line train that exploded near Russell Square. It was also reported last night that British officials had been warned several months ago by their counterparts in the United States about a possible attack on transport networks. Persistent reports in the US have suggested that Faraj al-Libby, a senior al-Qaeda figure captured in Pakistan in May, had been providing information about planned attacks, though the intelligence is believed to be extremely vague and there is no confirmation that it was ever passed on by US agents. However, if it should emerge that any vital clues about the suicide plot or the bombers had been missed, there would be severe embarrassment for the British intelligence agencies and for the government. Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, has staunchly defended the security services and refused calls for a public inquiry into the events before the attacks. However, Mr Blair has carefully avoided stating categorically that the agencies had no intelligence about the suicide plotters before last Thursday. In the House of Commons earlier this week, the Prime Minister said only: "I know of no intelligence specific enough to have allowed them to prevent last Thursday's attacks." Now that the identity of the four suicide bombers has been established, other suspects are emerging. All four suicide attackers were caught on CCTV at King's Cross station minutes before last week's blasts, along with a fifth man, a "mastermind" who may since have fled Britain. A sixth man, believed to be Magdi El-Nashar, a 33-year-old PhD biology student, is also being sought. He rented a flat in the Leeds suburb of Burley, where police on Tuesday found a bathtub full of the same explosives used in the London blasts. While the identification of the bombers was a significant breakthrough, the investigation is far from over and Peter Clarke, head of the Metropolitan Police's Anti-Terrorism Branch, yesterday warned the next stages could be far slower. "There are a number of things we need to establish," he said. "Who actually committed the attacks? Who supported them? Who financed them? Who trained them? Who encouraged them? "This will take many months of intensive, detailed investigation," Mr Clarke said. Source: The Scotsman |
And:
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| Wed 8 Feb 2006 FBI 'gave prior warning to Britain about 7/7 bomber' JAMES KIRKUP FURTHER evidence suggesting that British security forces were alerted in advance to the danger posed by the leader of the London suicide bombers emerged yesterday. Reports in the United States indicated American law enforcement officers had raised concerns with their British counterparts over Mohammad Sidique Khan, believed to have led the 7 July attacks. According to the New York Daily News, the FBI told British officials well before the bombings that Khan "was trouble" and should be "checked out". The information passed on by the FBI is said to have come from a Pakistani-born al-Qaeda supergrass, who is currently in protective custody having pleaded guilty to a range of terrorist charges in the US. The informant cannot be named in Britain because he is alleged to be connected to men about to stand trial in London charged with terrorist offences. Some critics have suggested the British authorities' prior knowledge of Khan shows that the July attacks, which killed 52 people as well as the four bombers, were the result of an intelligence failure. Chuck Schumer, a US senator, likened the situation to the events before the 11 September, 2001 attacks on American cities by men who were known to the CIA. "This is the British version of pre-9/11, where a country receives a generalised warning and ignores it with terrible consequences," he said. British security sources say the reality is that Khan was not "ignored". They say that MI5 has already told ministers that officers did, indeed, monitor Khan in 2004, as he was an associate of one of the men about to stand trial in London. At that time, MI5 officers judged the considerable costs of the surveillance operation were not justified by a man whose criminal activities were believed to be limited to shoplifting. While the US report largely supports previously-known facts about British intelligence before the July attacks, it could also provide clues about how the investigation into those attacks is proceeding. If proven, a connection between Khan and the US-based informant would be more evidence of the international dimension of the July plot, and the much-theorised role of the al-Qaeda network. MI5's continuing investigation into the July attacks is now firmly focused on Pakistan. Last night a senior French intelligence chief claimed the UK failed to take action against radical Islamic cleric Abu Hamza for years, despite evidence that he was involved in terrorism. Christophe Chaboud, director of France's national anti-terrorism co-ordination unit (UCLAT), said evidence implicating Hamza was passed on from French intelligence. He said Hamza sent dozens of people from Finsbury Park mosque to terror training camps in Afghanistan. He said: "We thought it would have been necessary to take action, to arrest and prosecute him." A report in today's Guardian newspaper claimed France was so concerned that it ran undercover missions with the mosque as the target. Source: The Scotsman |
The Antagonist - February 27, 2006 10:07 PM (GMT)
Drip, drip, drip....
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| MI5 rebels expose Tube bomb cover-up David Leppard February 26, 2006 MI5 is facing an internal revolt by officers alarmed about intelligence failures and the lack of resources to fight Islamic terrorism. To illustrate their concern, agents have leaked more topsecret documents to The Sunday Times because they want a public inquiry into the “missed intelligence” leading up to the July attacks in London. They believe ministers have withheld information from the public about what the security services knew about the suspects before the bombing of July 7 and the abortive attacks of July 21. The documents include an admission by John Scarlett, head of SIS, the secret intelligence service (also known as MI6), that one of the July 21 suspects was tracked on a trip to Pakistan just months before the attempted bombings. Until now it was not known that any of the July 21 suspects, who are awaiting trial, were familiar to the intelligence services. It has been disclosed that MI5 had placed two of the July 7 bombers under surveillance before their attack, but judged them not to be a threat. The new documents show that MI5, which is responsible for national security, allowed the July 21 suspect to travel to Pakistan after he was detained and interviewed at a British airport. Once in Pakistan he was monitored by SIS, which gathers intelligence overseas. MI5 then conducted what the leaked memo says was “a low-level short-term investigation” into the suspect, who cannot be named for legal reasons. It stopped monitoring him because it said “the Pakistani authorities assessed that he was doing nothing of significance”. Scarlett revealed details of the operation to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) last November. The committee, comprising MPs and peers picked by Tony Blair, is conducting a secret inquiry into the “lessons learnt” from the July attacks. It is due to be completed in April. The Scarlett memo — marked top secret — was leaked by the dissident officers who want a public inquiry similar to that undertaken in America after the 9/11 attacks. They believe it would highlight the need for MI5 and SIS to be given more resources to deal with Al-Qaeda. They are critical of Blair, who has ruled out an inquiry saying it would distract the security services from fighting terrorism. The leaked memo refers to Scarlett as C — the traditional codename for the head of SIS. It states: “On the events of July itself, and the question of whether intelligence was missed, C noted that SIS had previously been involved in an earlier investigation of one of the July 21 (suspects) in Pakistan. “This had been at the Security Service (MI5)’s behest and should be discussed with MI5.” Another document, MI5’s November 2005 memo The July Bombings and the Agencies’ Response, has also been shown to The Sunday Times. It names the suspect who was the subject of the 2004 investigation and shifts responsibility for the decision to stop monitoring him to the Pakistani intelligence authorities. “(The suspect) had been the subject of a low-level short-term investigation concerning a visit he made to Pakistan after he was interviewed on departure from the UK,” it states. “However, the Pakistani authorities assessed that he was doing nothing of significance in a terrorist context.” The assessment echoes a decision by MI5 to halt surveillance on two of the July 7 bombers 16 months before the attacks. Both were filmed and taped by MI5 agents as they met two men allegedly plotting to carry out a terrorist attack in England. After making what an official called “a quick assessment”, MI5 concluded Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer were not immediate threats. As the MI5 memo puts it: “Intelligence at the time suggested Khan’s purpose was financial crime rather than terrorist activity.” David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “These leaks show that the need for an independent inquiry is incontrovertible.” There is a growing consensus in Whitehall that the intelligence services will be seen to have made critical errors in failing to assess adequately the threat from at least three of the July suspects. Scarlett conceded to the ISC that his agency had reacted too slowly. “Summing up the position before July 2005, C noted SIS were conscious of the size of the target, but equally conscious of what we did not know; we were thinly spread in North and East Africa; we were looking at new ways of increasing our reach; and we had sought funding to grow as fast as we thought feasible. “Turning to the lessons learnt, C noted that SIS had understood the nature of the threat and that there was a great deal that we did not know. SIS had developed strategies to meet this threat. “The attacks had shown that our strategies were correct, but needed to be implemented more extensively and more quickly,” the memo noted. Scarlett said that even before the attacks, SIS had planned to expand overseas. “C concluded by explaining how post-July SIS were speeding up implementation of the pre-July strategy.” He said the agency did not want more money for staff. The dissident officers believe the buck-passing revealed in the memos demonstrates that there should be closer co-operation between the agencies. They support calls for a unified department of homeland security, along the lines suggested by Gordon Brown, the chancellor, this month. Source: The Sunday Times |
"[The state] is a product of society at a certain stage of development; it is the admission that this society has become entangled in an insoluble contradiction with itself, that it has split into irreconcilable antagonisms which it is powerless to dispel. But in order that these antagonisms, these classes with conflicting economic interests, might not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, it became necessary to have a power, seemingly standing above society, that would alleviate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of 'order'; and this power, arisen out of society but placing itself above it, and alienating itself more and more from it, is the state."
The Antagonist - March 30, 2006 05:29 PM (GMT)
No slip-ups on the Intelligence front but then it must be difficult to have advance warning of power surges:
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| Security 'not at fault on 7 July' A parliamentary report on the 7 July attacks in which 52 people were killed says intelligence and security services cannot be blamed, the BBC has learned. The Commons intelligence and security committee does not accuse any agency of negligence over the four suicide bombings on London's transport network. But the cross-party committee is asking why the lead bomber, who was known to police, was not investigated. Levels of intelligence on UK militants in Pakistan are also criticised. Four suicide bombs on three Tube trains and a bus killed 52 people and injured hundreds on 7 July 2005. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner said the committee had for six months been "interviewing and examining the work of the intelligence and security agencies to see if the July 7 bombings could have been prevented". "Could they have been prevented with better intelligence? Yes. Could they have been prevented given the resources that the agencies had? They think probably not. "They are not pointing the finger of blame at anybody," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "Inevitably there will be suspicions of a whitewash here, public suspicions." But he added: "It certainly doesn't exonerate [the agencies] - the bombers got through, they failed to stop it happening. "But was anybody actually negligent? No." Recommendations The committee did make a number of recommendations, including suggesting changes to the "secretive and complicated" system of alert and threat levels, Mr Gardner said. The national threat level was lowered from "severe, general" to "substantial" just before 7 July 2005. Committee members believe this made no difference to the bombers' plans, but that the public needs to be better informed. The committee interviewed many members of the police and intelligence community. Counter-terrorism officials say lead bomber Mohammed Sidique Khan, who prior to 7 July was suspected of petty fraud and not terrorism, was considered a low priority to whom it was not worth diverting resources. But the committee questions why he was never fully investigated, despite being known to security officials. Whitehall officials told the BBC that the risk of home-grown terrorist attacks on Britain has increased substantially since 2003. They say that new plots are being detected, and that 50% of them involve British citizens living in the UK. Languages The committe said it accepted that gathering intelligence on the activities of British militants in Pakistan was extremely difficult prior to 7 July, but says it should still have been better. Our correspondent said there had been a "sea change", with the Pakistani authorities becoming more co-operative, since the bombings. He also said the committee was "very aware that the security and intelligence agencies - MI5 and MI6 - didn't have and still don't have enough people with languages - that's their problem". "The whole 'oil tanker' of intelligence needed to turn round a lot faster than it did, away from the Cold War to confronting the threat of religiously-inspired terrorism." Professor Anthony Glees, head of the Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies at Brunel University in west London, told BBC News the security service had failed. "It is the body that is charged with having good predictive intelligence and what the London attacks show is that there was no good predictive intelligence," he said. "They did not look carefully enough at the sort of people who might be tempted into becoming terrorists." Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/4859464.stm Published: 2006/03/30 13:40:39 GMT |
Kier - December 16, 2006 08:50 PM (GMT)
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| MI5 chief quits as full story of July 7 is about to emerge Last updated at 23:47pm on 15th December 2006 The head of MI5 has resigned weeks before full details of the role of her agents in a surveillance operation involving two of the July 7 bombers are due to be revealed. Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, whose organisation has been at the forefront of the war on terror, is leaving after more than four years as director general. Dame Eliza, 58, said the date of her departure after 33 years with the security service had been agreed with the former Home Secretary Charles Clarke, who was sacked in May. She has maintained an unprecedentedly high profile in the fight against terrorism, revealing last month that the security services knew of 30 plots by Islamic extremists. But it is for the failure to prevent last year's attacks in London that, some believe, her tenure as MI5 chief will be remembered. Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, the leaders of the July 7 suicide bombers, were picked up by MI5 surveillance on five occasions but were not investigated further. The two British-born bombers did not merely pass through the 'periphery' of an intelligence operation monitoring other suspects but were photographed and recorded on several occasions. More details of the operation are likely to emerge in the New Year. Intelligence sources say the men were first seen in early 2004, nearly 18 months before the suicide attacks in London, which left 52 people dead on three Underground lines and a bus. On one occasion, Khan was monitored driving his car with suspects in it and on another was recorded talking to them about training for jihad. They also talked about carrying out financial frauds, which helped persuade MI5 that they were not interested in attacks in the UK. Last night security sources rejected suggestions that Dame Eliza jumped before she was pushed. They stressed that she agreed her departure date - April 2007 - with Mr Clarke in 2005, before the July bombings. They claim there will be 'no surprises' that might have called her position into question when further details of the surveillance operations enter the public domain. 'Everything there is to know about how MI5 handled the 7/7 bombings, and what happened before, has been presented to the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee,' a source said. 'There are no surprises in store that will alter the view of how the Security Service worked. Her departure is a routine event, longarranged. The Home Secretary has full confidence in her.' Dame Eliza, who is paid £150,000 a year, took over counterterrorism operations a year after the attacks of September 11, 2001, and has overseen a transformation in MI5 as its budget and staff have increased to focus on the threat of Islamic extremists. She has made the agency far more open, recruiting agents through newspaper advertisements and by setting-up a website. Terror risk assessments have been published for the first time. Dame Eliza said recently that the security services had identified 1,600 people plotting actively, or facilitating, terrorist acts in Britain and abroad. The daughter of a former Tory Lord Chancellor, she is described as a 'feisty lady, full of character and intellectual drive'. She was chosen to run a unit set up to tackle Irish terrorism after MI5 was granted lead responsibility in the area ten years ago Tony Blair led tributes to Dame Eliza, highlighting her ' outstanding leadership' following July 7 and saying the country owed her a debt of honour. In a statement, the Prime Minister said: 'Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller has dedicated herself to the protection of this country, our people, and our way of life. 'She has led the Security Service through a time of significant change and growth, as it responded to the challenge of international terrorism.' Home Secretary John Reid, who will announce her replacement in the New Year, said: 'Her contribution to the security of our nation has been invaluable.' In a statement, Dame Eliza, the second woman to head MI5 after Stella Rimington, said: 'By April 2007, I shall have been an officer of the Security Service for 33 years, the last ten as either deputy director general or director general. 'I decided in early 2005 that it would be time by then to stand down. 'I have been privileged to lead the service when it is facing the two challenges of a very serious threat and the consequent need to grow and change at a dramatic rate to tackle that threat.' 'I'm confident that the service will continue to serve the UK to the best of its ability.' |
Kier - January 14, 2007 01:02 AM (GMT)
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| MI5 braced for fresh 7/7 disclosures Security services listed Tube bombing ringleader Khan as a 'desirable suspect' a year before the attack Antony Barnett Sunday January 14, 2007 The Observer The 7 July bombers who killed 52 people in terrorist attacks in London in 2005 were once described by Britain's security service as 'clean skins'. The vivid phrase implied that a gang of homegrown terrorists had come from nowhere, without an intelligence trail. But Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of MI5, is bracing herself for embarrassing revelations on the full extent of what the British intelligence community knew about the bombers, and in particular the ringleader of the attacks, Mohammad Sidique Khan. The disclosures will add to pressure for a full public inquiry. Manningham-Buller is retiring in April and some Whitehall sources have suggested this is a pre-emptive move by MI5 to avoid embarrassment over revelations about intelligence failings. Senior security officials insist it was always known Manningham-Buller would leave her post in April. MI5 now admit that far from being a 'clean skin', Khan had been on their radar screen since 2003. And The Observer can now reveal that more than a year before he detonated his Tube bomb, Khan had been listed as a 'desirable suspect' by MI5, along with fellow bomber Shehzad Tanweer. One senior security official gave a chilling warning that even with the increase in resources MI5 has now been given, it is unlikely they would have been able to pick up somebody like Khan, given the information they had at the time. He said: 'If the threat was the same as in 2005 - that is, we were looking at 50 potential terror networks in the UK - we would have a better chance of picking up somebody like Khan. But we are now dealing with some 200 potential terror networks in the UK and to be quite honest we wouldn't have a hope in hell. 'We can't put every person who expresses anger about British foreign policy under 24-hour surveillance, or we would be talking about a Stasi-style secret police force.' Although legal restrictions mean The Observer is not able to report the full extent of MI5's intelligence on the events of 7 July, this paper has seen remarkable detail about the security service's knowledge of Khan, including transcripts of conversations involving him that were picked up by MI5 surveillance officers. They show that a year before the July attacks, Khan had jihadist leanings and wanted to help militants in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The transcripts reveal that he was also highly critical of Britain. At one stage Khan mentions terrorism, although there is no indication he has knowledge of any operation or planning of an attack. Reports from the Home Office and from Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee inquiry into the July attacks cleared MI5 of any blame for not forestalling the bombings. They accepted the security service's claim that officers were fully stretched investigating other active terror plots and resources were spread too thinly to mount surveillance on every potential Islamic militant. However, the MPs on the Intelligence and Security Committee were not given transcripts of the conversations now seen by The Observer. MI5 believed that the recorded conversations showed no evidence of terrorist intent, but merely of discussions about financial fraud. Before 7 July, MI5 had recordings and photographs of Khan on file, and he was viewed as a potential Islamic terrorist. He had been picked up by MI5 surveillance officers involved in a counter-terrorism operation that had focused on more than 50 potential British terrorists in Britain. MI5, however, did not consider Khan a top priority because there was no indication he was preparing an attack. Instead of labelling him an 'essential' suspect and putting him under full surveillance - a costly affair that can take up to 20 officers - he was described only as a 'desirable' suspect. Photographs were taken of Khan at the home of another terror suspect under surveillance. At one stage a photograph of Khan was distributed to foreign terror suspects imprisoned overseas. The Observer has learnt however that a photograph of Khan was not shown to a detainee who knew of his extremist views, because it was not thought to be of sufficient quality. This detainee recognised Khan after seeing his picture following the 7 July bombing. Had Khan been identified from his photograph earlier, he might have been picked up sooner. In February 2005, the security service received a report naming two individuals who had travelled to Afghanistan, both with extremist views. Although MI5 tried to discover who these individuals were, it was only after 7 July that one of them was identified as Khan. Despite the growing body of evidence that the security service missed the opportunity to thwart the 7 July attacks, senior security officials remain adamant they could not have done anything differently. They claim it was only after the London atrocities that it was possible to work out that Khan was the individual in certain bugged conversations. He was often known by a different name and was simply an unidentified individual in separate counter-terrorism surveillance operations. They point out that at the time the priority of MI5 officers was to target those known to be a 'real and live' threat. As a result, security officials say, at least two other terror attacks were prevented. |
numeral - January 14, 2007 04:14 AM (GMT)
| QUOTE (Kier @ Jan 14 2007, 01:02 AM) | ||
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I am not yet convinced of that it was Khan here
suspecta - January 14, 2007 01:30 PM (GMT)
Re the Observer report of MI6's 3-year surveillance of Khan, is it all possible that MI6 could have set him up without MI5's knowledge, official or otherwise? I have no idea about the links between the two services and whether they always work together or sometimes at cross purposes?
Suspecta
Suspecta
Bridget - May 1, 2007 03:38 PM (GMT)
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| MPs agree to review 7/7 evidence Press Association Tuesday May 1, 2007 2:23 PM The Parliamentary committee which gave MI5 a clean bill of health after the July 7 bombings has formally agreed to look at the evidence again in the wake of latest revelations. The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) will review the Security Service's handling of intelligence about two of the July 7 bombers, Mohammed Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer. Its announcement is unlikely to placate 7/7 survivors and relatives who are demanding a public inquiry, especially as ISC chairman Paul Murphy MP on Monday issued a statement backing his committee's original conclusions. Mr Murphy said on Tuesday: "The Intelligence and Security Committee met this morning to discuss the Prime Minister's request that we review the Security Service handling of intelligence about two of the July 7 bombers, in the light of what may have emerged as a result of the Crevice trial. "The committee has agreed to the Prime Minister's request. Further details will follow in due course." It remained unclear how further work by the committee would throw new light on MI5's alleged failures. On Monday Mr Murphy issued a statement which appeared to offer a firm conclusion that MI5 was not to be blamed. In the 1,000-word statement - released within 30 minutes of the Old Bailey jury returning its verdicts - Mr Murphy said: "Since our report was published we have been kept fully informed by the Security Service and have revisited what we said in the July report. "I can confirm now that the facts in our report still stand." He added that the committee, which oversees the work of MI5 and MI6, remained satisfied there were "no culpable failures" by the agencies in relation to the July 7 atrocities. |
numeral - November 18, 2007 10:22 AM (GMT)
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| MI5 chief 'did not quit over 7/7' The former head of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, has denied that she quit her job as a result of criticism over the 7 July London bombings. Revelations that MI5 had once tracked one of the bombers prompted speculation the attack could have been halted. Dame Eliza, who stepped down as head of the service earlier this year, said she set her retirement date soon after first being appointed in October 2002. The BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs interview was her first since retiring. She stepped down as MI5 director general in April. Mohammad Sidique Khan, one of the four men who would go on to attack London in a series of suicide attacks, was being followed by MI5 some time before the bombings but a decision was made not to investigate him further. Dame Eliza told the programme she wished the criticism both she and MI5 had faced over the attacks which killed 52 people, "had happened while I was still there, so I could have defended the service, so when I left, it could have gone with me". 'Unproductive' memoirs Dame Eliza said there may have been mistakes made in decision-making processes with the service, but that it was unreasonable to expect intelligence to anticipate the movements of every person MI5 has ever looked at. She added: "There are too many people with this sort of intention in the UK for us to be confident, as no service could be confident, of stopping 100%. We have stopped very, very many." Dame Eliza also said she would not write her memoirs - when asked whether a book was on the horizon, she said: "Most certainly not. "I think it would be not only wrong but unproductive and unsellable." Her record choices for Desert Island Discs include the Rolling Stones singing Street Fighting Man, and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself by the White Stripes. Desert Island Discs is on BBC Radio 4 at 1115 GMT on Sunday |
Unmissable!
Kier - November 18, 2007 10:53 AM (GMT)
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| Her record choices for Desert Island Discs include the Rolling Stones singing Street Fighting Man, and I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself by the White Stripes. |
Seriously?
The Antagonist - November 18, 2007 12:51 PM (GMT)
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^
Seriously? |
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| 1. Sarabande from Bach’s English Suite No 2 in A Minor Performer Angela Hewitt Composer Bach CD Title English Suites Track Cd1 Trk 11 Label HYPERION Rec No CDA674512 2. The Kyrie from Mozart’s Requiem Performer Les Arts Florissants Composer Mozart CD Title Mozart: Requiem Track 2 Label ERATO Rec No 0630106972 3. I Just Don’t Know What to Do with Myself Performer The White Stripes Composer B Bacharach & H David CD Title Elephant Track 4 Label XL Rec No XLCD 162 4. Street Fighting Man Performer Rolling Stones Composer Jagger/Richards CD Title Rolling Stones: Forty Licks Track 1 Label ABKCO Rec No 9870718 5. The opening of Schubert’s String Quintet in C Performer Lindsay Quartet with Douglas Cummings Composer Schubert CD Title Schubert: String Quintet Track 1 Label ASV Rec No CDDCA537 6. Millennia Performer Soweto String Quartet Composer S Khemese/M Mnguni/R Khemese/T Khemese CD Title Rhythms of Africa Track 1 Label WRASSE Rec No 74321684542 7. Do I Love You? Performer Ella Fitzgerald Composer Cole Porter CD Title Ella Fitzgerald sings the Cole Porter Song Book Track 7 Label VERVE Rec No 5372572 8. Beethoven’s Symphony No 7 in A Major Performer Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Carlos Kleiber Composer Beethoven CD Title Beethoven:Symphonies 5 & 7 Track 8 Label DEUTSCHE GRAMMOPHON Rec No 4474002 Record: Schubert String Quintet Book: The Rattle Bag – Anthology of poetry edited by Ted Hughes & Seamus Heaney Luxury: Large supply of pencils and pens |
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| For rights reasons Desert Island Discs is not available as a listen again item. |
The Antagonist - January 14, 2008 02:52 AM (GMT)
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| Britain failed to protect London even after Israel warned Britain of coming Al-Queda terror – inefficiency or conspiracy? India Daily News Bureau Jul. 7, 2005 Israel knew and warned United Kingdom of possible terror plots to disrupt life in London. But British authorities failed to respond accordingly to deter the attacks, according to an unconfirmed rumor circulating in intelligence circles. Israel is keeping quiet for the time being with a lot of pressure on them. Fact of the matter is that British Authorities knew it is coming, warned the Israelis before the first bomb. The Associated Press reported July 7 that an anonymous source in the Israeli Foreign Ministry said Scotland Yard had warned the Israeli Embassy in London of possible terrorist attacks in the U.K. capital. The information reportedly was passed to the embassy minutes before the first bomb struck at 0851 London time. The Israeli Embassy promptly ordered Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to remain in his hotel on the morning of July 7. Netanyahu was scheduled to participate in an Israeli Investment Forum Conference at the Grand Eastern Hotel, located next to the Liverpool Street Tube station -- the first target in the series of bombings that hit London on July 7. The biggest question of the day is British Authorities knew and protected Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, then why not common British citizens in London? Several hours later, Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom officially denied reports that Scotland Yard passed any information to Israel regarding the bombings, and British police denied they had any advanced warning of the attacks. The British authorities similarly denied that any information exchange had occurred. But the fact is Israeli Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stayed in his hotel knowing very well what was coming. Why British Authorities did not tell the common people of Britain about what was coming if they knew that Al-Queda was about to strike? According to international rumor circle, Britain just failed to act even after being warned by the Israelis days before the attack. |
The Antagonist - January 14, 2008 05:21 PM (GMT)
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| Was Israel Warned Ahead of First Blast? Friday, 8 July 2005, 1:07 am Article: The Scoop Team Was Israel Warned Ahead of First Blast? Reports just in suggest U.S. Army Radio quoting unconfirmed reliable sources reported a short time ago that Scotland Yard had intelligence warnings of the attacks a short time before they occurred. The Israeli Embassy in London was notified in advance, resulting in Finance Minister Binyamin Netanyahu remaining in his hotel room rather than make his way to the hotel adjacent to the site of the first explosion, a Liverpool Street train station, where he was to address and economic summit. At present, train and bus services in London have been suspended following the series of attacks. Israeli officials have stressed the advanced Scotland Yard warning does not in any way indicate Israel was the target in the series of apparent terror attacks. |
The Antagonist - January 15, 2008 04:17 AM (GMT)
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| Friday 15 July 2005 (09 Jumada al-Thani 1426) Police Warn of New Attack on London http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&...d=15&m=7&y=2005  People observe a two-minute silence in remembrance of the victims of the London terror attacks at King’s Cross train station in London on Thursday. (AFP) LONDON, 15 July 2005 — British police have warned that a second terrorist attack on London is even more likely, following the uncovering of a massive explosives factory in a safe house in Leeds. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair gave the somber warning to Londoners yesterday and stressed that “there are lots more secret Al-Qaeda terrorist cells operating within the UK.” Anti-terrorist branch officials estimate that there was a hard core of about 200 to 300 Al-Qaeda-trained Muslim radicals in Britain, all of whom are under the constant surveillance of the intelligence services. However the four Brit bombers who exploded the four bombs in London on July 7 never appeared on the radar screen of the intelligence services. This is worrying government officials, the security services and community leaders. Police yesterday cordoned off another premise in Beeston in Leeds — a shop which has been closed for some time. In fact, residents in the immediate vicinity have been evacuated and prior to that were asked by police to take clothings for three nights. Reports suggest that the shop has a substantial store of explosives, which may be unstable or primed, hence the evacuation as a safety measure. On Wednesday evening, police raided another house in Northern Road, Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire, where it is believed the fourth bomber may have lived. Forensic experts have been combing the house, although police have confirmed that no explosives have been recovered and no arrests were made. It is now believed that the fourth bomber is a Jamaican-born Briton. Police also confirmed that the death toll now stands at 53, as the painstaking task of identifying body parts as a result of the bomb blast on the Picadillay line at King’s Cross continues. Reports from US intelligence sources quoted in London suggest that Britain was warned two months ago that Al-Qaeda was planning a “Madrid-style” attack on the London transport network. Captured Al-Qaeda operative Abu Faraj Al-Libbi, who was arrested in Pakistan and who is now in the custody of the Americans, has apparently briefed US intelligence interrogators to this effect. British Home Secretary Charles Clarke has stressed that the attacks in London “came out of the blue” and there were no warnings from the intelligence services. Sir Ian also had a strong message for Britain’s 1.6 million Muslims. “For the Muslim community,” he said in an interview with the London Evening Standard, “their worst nightmare has been fulfilled. We will be offering them the opportunity to closely work with us. The message must be that there is nothing wrong with being a fundamentalist, but help us stop the slide into extremism. In my view the people who did this are equivalent of the people who shoot abortion doctors in southern American states in the name of Christ. It’s the same perversion of a religious position. We’ve got to help the community make that absolutely clear.” Home Secretary Clarke has started an urgent review of anti-terror measures including an automatic ban on Muslim extremists who have been excluded from the US, from entering the UK. The ban would prevent controversial personalities such as Dr. Yusuf Al-Qaradawi and Professor Tariq Ramadan from entering the UK. In fact, Professor Ramadan is due in London this week for a conference. Asylum seekers and those with permanent residence in the UK may also be subject to strict conditions including a ban on inciting or encouraging terrorism. Clarke also announced a review of deportations, revealing that the government will be seeking a new agreement with North African countries which would allow the UK to send back foreign nationals who pose a security threat to the UK. The new arrangements would seek guarantees that those nationals who are deported to countries such as Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, would not be tortured or face the death penalty in their countries of origin. Londoners, in the meantime, have been paying tribute to the victims of the bombings. Yesterday evening Ken Livingstone, the London mayor, led a vigil under the theme “London United” in Trafalgar Square where a crowd of about 15,000 people gathered in a reflective tribute to the victims, highlighted by speeches by survivors; emergency services personnel; and a host of celebrities including Lord Coe, chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Bid Team. Joined by others from Bali to Spain — both targets of previous Al-Qaeda attacks — Britain earlier came to a standstill at noon in silent tribute to the people killed. From Buckingham Palace to Downing Street, to Tavistock Place and King’s Cross, Londoners came out in their thousands to show their solidarity and defiance against the terrorists. For two minutes the wrold’s eyes were focused on London. In Kabul and Baghdad, British Embassy staff and other well-wishers observed the silence. In Paris, President Chirac inspecting a Bastille Day parade similarly led his prime minister and thousands of Parisians into observing the two-minute silence. Prince Charles stressed that “the way in which London has coped in the past week is a cause for real national pride. It is the duty of every true Muslim to condemn this behavior.” |
Sinclair - January 30, 2008 04:58 PM (GMT)
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| Margaret Beckett appointed as chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee - 2006 - 2007 Annual Report published Posted by wtwu on January 29, 2008 11:18 PM The veteran former Labour Foreign Minister Rt. Hon. Margaret Beckett MP has been appointed as the replacement Chair of the Intelligence and Security Committee. She certainly has relevant Ministerial experience of reading classified material, but whether she is the right person to usher in the alleged new powers and more transparency into the Committee, which is what Prime Minister Gordon Brown was promising last summer, remains to be seen. We are struggling to recall any notable successes in her long Ministerial career. The Intelligence and Security Committee's Annual Report for 2006 - 2007 (.pdf 51 pages) has also been published. Why this 51 page censored report took only 7 weeks for the Prime Minister to publish, whilst the much shorter Interception Commissioner and Intelligence Services Commissioner reports (less than 8 pages each) took him 3 months, is a mystery. There are some points to look out for if you can be bothered to read the censored Report: * There is no mention of the return to the Cold War with Russia, following the radioactive Polonium murder of Alexander Litvinenko in London, and the iti for tat diplomatic expulsions, harassment of the British Council etc. over the failure to prosecute Andrei Lugovoi. * There is no mention of the alleged Chinese cyberspace attacks against British Government Departments and companies. * There is no mention of the Government and European Union plans to censor the internet , either of bomb making instructions or of radical extremist grooming and indoctrination, something which would require technical and manpower resources drawn from the intelligence agencies. * Neither is there any mention of the embarrassingly inept MI5 website email notification affair. * Recruitment and expenditure on all three intelligence agencies is up. * The SCOPE secure electronic network, whilst still not complete or fully rolled out, is starting to have some of the promised benefits of swifter communication. * There was a major systems failure leading to a loss of data at the SCOPE Operations Centre, which is supposedly now sorted out. * GCHQ coped with the Summer Floods along the the Severn Valley, but might have been seriously disrupted if they had gone on for any longer. * The Secret Intelligence Service MI6 managed to lose track of some secret payments to agents and contact reports were not always filled out properly. Supposedly the financial audit trails and contact report discipline have been dealt with by MI6 management. Or is this a cover up for some actual theft of public funds, hidden behind the cloak of secrecy, as has happened historically with other intelligence agencies around the world ? * The Security Service MI5 now seems to be spending 80 % of its increased resources and efforts against international terrorism, and tacitly admits that it is taking its eye off other responsibilities - probably this means that Russian, Chinese and other foreign government agency espionage is being ignored somewhat. * The ISC Report rubber stamps the scandalous political interference which led to the abandonment of the BAE / Saudi Arabian princes corruption investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. * They also trot out the same old justifications for not allowing the use of Intercept Evidence in either terrorism trials, or to prevent the scandal of Control Orders, or even in Serious Crime cases, even though other countries, including the USA do allow such evidence. They seem to have been bamboozled by talk of the technical challenges involved with trying to snoop on new internet telephony technologies like Voice over IP, without giving any consideration to the the fact that not everyone actually uses them at the moment, and nor are they likely to do so in the foreseeable future. * The ISC does ineffectually criticise the Government, particularly the Home Office, for not handing over reports in time for the ISC to consider properly. There is also some document which the ISC has been trying to get hold of for several years now, but which they have failed to get hold of. * The ISC moans at the mainstream media for not all submitting to the voluntary DA Notice system. There was particular criticism of the media over the Police raids in Birmingham, regarding the alleged plot to kidnap and video the murder of a random British Muslim soldier. The media were tipped of to this raid, and had already published details of it, even before all the suspects were in custody. The Government's response to the ISC Report praises this criticism, and obscures the suspicion that it was their own political spin doctors who leaked this tactical information. The ISC again, seem to be wholly oblivious to the Internet, the blogosphere and to all the leaks to foreign news media. The Intelligence and Security Committee Report mechanism does not provide the public with enough detail and transparency, to be able to trust the competence or motives of the Security Service MI5, the Secret Service MI6, GCHQ, the Defence Intelligence Staff, SOCPA or Police Counter-terrorism Commands etc. or of the Whitehall mandarins and Labour Government politicians.. We repeat - the democratic Checks and Balances on the the British Secret State, are not working properly. source:SpyBlog |
Page 4 of the Intelligence and Security Committee's Annual Report for 2006 - 2007 has the following:
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| In May this year the Prime Minister asked the Committee, and the Committee agreed, to examine the links between the CREVICE plotters and the 7 July London bombers, in the light of evidence that emerged from the CREVICE trial. We are carrying out a thorough and wide-ranging investigation, re-examining earlier evidence and holding new evidence sessions. |
However there is no further discussion/conclusions presented within the ISC report.
Bridget - July 25, 2008 08:45 PM (GMT)
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| July 7 prevention report due 2 hours ago A long-awaited report into whether the July 7 bombings in London could have been prevented will be published later this year, it has been confirmed. The Intelligence and Security Committee will issue its review on September 10, after publication was delayed by on-going legal proceedings. The committee of MPs and a peer oversee the work of the security services. PA |
The Antagonist - July 25, 2008 11:05 PM (GMT)
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| Report into prevention of 7/7 attacks due A long-awaited report into whether the July 7 2005 bombings in London could have been prevented will be published later this year, it has been confirmed. The Intelligence a |