We can’t stop every terror plot

MI5 Director General Andrew Parker has warned: “We will find and stop most attempts to attack us, but not all.”

The biggest threat comes from 400 or so Brits who returned from Syria and Iraq after fighting for Islamic State.

Mr Parker added: “The speed at which radicalisation can occur online and the

MI5 chief Parker MI5 Registry files as among the 3,000 people in this country on record as actively wishing us harm.

Cross-referencing with material coming in from agents on the ground showed the girl belonged to an Islamist cell seeking to attack the UK. MI5 knew where it met.

The girl had now become, in MI5 speak, a T1 – a tier one target.

Her contacts would be assigned T2 rankings, while others she was in touch with would be T3s.

In this case, an intensive investigation emphasis on relatively low sophistication but nevertheless potentially deadly plots, are two major challenges. “Meanwhile threats from al-qaeda have not gone away and terrorists continue to aspire to mass casualty attacks. All of this means the threat we are facing today is on a scale and at a tempo I have not seen before.”

uncovered a plot which could have led to mass murder.

The father’s decision to report on his daughter saved many lives. Including hers.

Weeks later the TV evening news carried a report of police anti-terrorist squad raids.

Another terror attack had been thwarted. The girl was arrested but at least she was alive.

And not wearing the suicide vest being made for her.

nigel.nelson@trinitymirror.com