Author: Sarah Lyall
Publication: The New York Times
Date: November 6, 2007
Britain's chief domestic intelligence official
said Monday that at least 2,000 people in Britain posed a "direct threat
to national security and public safety" because of their support for
terrorism, an increase of 400 in the last year.
The figure is not new - Prime Minister Gordon
Brown mentioned it in July. But the official, Jonathan Evans, director general
of MI5, went even further, saying there may be 2,000 more would-be terrorists
not yet known to the authorities.
Speaking at a conference in Manchester, Mr.
Evans also said that extremists in Britain were more likely than before to
be connected to networks in other countries, and that they were increasingly
grooming young people, including children, to carry out terrorist attacks.
And in a reminder that even though the cold war has ended, some of the old
conflicts persist, he complained that MI5 was being forced to divert resources
from antiterrorism work "to defend the U.K. against unreconstructed attempts
by Russia, China and others to spy on us."
Mr. Evans's stark assessment of the terrorist
threat echoes remarks by his predecessor at MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller,
in November 2006. But it is still highly unusual for the chief of MI5, which
so shuns publicity that it does not even have a press office, to speak publicly.
Opponents of the government, however, pointed
out that the speech comes as Mr. Brown prepares to make new proposals for
stricter antiterrorism laws. In July, Mr. Brown said he was considering introducing
legislation that would increase the time that suspects could be detained without
charge, to 56 days from the current 28.
The matter is highly contentious. In 2005,
after a bitter debate, Parliament rejected a government proposal to increase
the allowable detention time before charges are brought to 90 days.
"It is crucial that the security services
do not get drawn into politics," Nick Clegg, the home affairs spokesman
for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said in a statement. "Experience
suggests that breathless talk about the terrorism threat and the powers needed
to counter it can have a damaging effect on opinion in precisely those
communities that we need to keep on our side."
Mr. Evans was indeed bleak in his outlook,
saying he believed that the terrorist threat had not reached its peak and
that new recruits were arriving in a "steady flow."
"Terrorist attacks we have seen against
the U.K. are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups,"
he said. "The majority of these attacks, successful or otherwise, have
taken place because Al Qaeda has a clear determination to mount terrorist
attacks against the United Kingdom."
He said that the would-be terrorists were
cultivating ever younger volunteers and that people as young as 15 had been
implicated in terrorist activity.
"As I speak, terrorists are methodically
and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country,"
he said. "They are radicalizing, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable
people to carry out acts of terrorism."
Since the attacks on London's transportation
network in 2005, which left 56 people dead, including the four suicide bombers,
the British authorities have arrested hundreds of people as terrorism suspects
and reported that many would-be attacks have been thwarted. A foiled plan
in July to set off explosions in London and Glasgow was the 15th attempted
terrorist plot on British soil since 2001, officials say. More than 200 people
have been convicted of terrorism-related offenses in Britain in the last six
years.
Officials say the police and security services
are currently dealing with about 30 suspected plots and 200 terrorist-related
groups or networks.
Striking a slightly defensive note, Mr. Evans
said his agents were "under acute pressure to prioritize" and could
not monitor every threat. "There will be instances when individuals come
to the notice of the security service or the police, but then subsequently
carry out acts of terrorism," he said. "Every decision to investigate
someone entails a decision not to investigate someone else."
He also said espionage activities by Russia
and China, among other countries, were siphoning resources from the fight
against terrorism. "A number of countries continue to devote considerable
time and energy trying to steal our sensitive technology on civilian and military
projects, and trying to obtain political and economic intelligence at our
expense," he said.
Mr. Evans was particularly pointed in criticizing
Russia, whose relationship with Britain has cooled considerably in recent
months.
"Since the end of the cold war,"
he said, "we have seen no decrease in the numbers of undeclared Russian
intelligence officers in the U.K. - at the Russian Embassy and associated
organizations conducting covert activity in this country."
A man answering the phone at the Russian Embassy
here said he could not comment on the assertion that it as harboring spies.
