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Double Agents
Al-Qaeda sympathisers have been trying to infiltrate British security service MI5, according to reports released today.
MI5, which runs much of Britain's counter-terror operations, has been pushing for new recruits from ethnic minorities. However, it discovered several potential infiltrators among the 100,000 applicants for jobs advertised last year, and "weeded them out."
MI5 took on 400 new staff in last year's recruitment drive: More are expected to join next year as part of the government's battle against home-grown terror plots. Only last week, a parliamentary committee warned of the dangers of expanding staff levels so quickly, though MI5's bosses hope that by declaring the attempted infiltration, they are demonstrating that their net is effective enough.
What seems strange to us is that the notoriously secretive organisation released news of the attempted infiltration. Some security experts might suggest that it is wiser for the service to keep quiet about such things - others might go so far as to suggest Britain's spooks should have recruited some of the terror sympathisers, to keep a close eye on what sort of information al-Qaeda and its operatives desire.
News of the infiltration bid came as the head of London's Metropolitan Police Peter Clarke announced that four major terror attacks had been foiled by police since the 7/7 tube bombings last year. One of the plots was said to involve poison. Seventy investigations are ongoing in Britain and abroad, he added, and sixty people are awaiting trial on terror-related offences. One of the accused is sixteen years old.
The BBC's correspondent reports that MI5 claims 400,000 British muslims are "sympathetic to violent jihad around the world." Of this stunning figure, only around 1,200 are thought to be "activists" involved in the planning of terror attacks at home and abroad. Clarke warned that the counter-terror effort would inevitably lead to "shocks" between Muslims and the police - the arrests last month in London, where one Muslim man was shot and wounded in an operation that failed to uncover damning terrorist activity, was one such incident. "We must make sure the trust and linkages are strong enough to survive those inevitable shocks," he said.
* NB thanks to PD for pointing out that MI5 is security: MI6 is intelligence.
