Westminster killer ‘was on MI5’s radar for 13 years’
The Westminster terrorist was on MI5’s radar 13 years before his murderous rampage, an inquest heard yesterday. Khalid Masood’s phone number was found on a contact list belonging to a key member of the fertiliser bomb terror cell in 2004. At the time, the plot was considered unprecedented in size because the gang planned to blow up a nightclub, shopping centres and utility companies with massive homemade fertiliser bombs. The plotters were jailed for life in 2007. Waheed Mahmood, described as the ‘spiritual leader’ of the cell, had Masood’s number, although did not make reference to him by name. MI5 agents who found the phone number made no attempt to identify who it belonged to, the security service said. This was one of several ‘missed opportunities’ to fully investigate Masood, 52, before he killed four pedestrians and a policeman in March last year, it was said. Giving evidence at the Old Bailey inquest into victims of the attack, a senterror ior MI5 officer refused to say if Masood and Mahmood had been in contact with each other. Gareth Patterson QC, representing the families of the murdered pedestrians, asked him: ‘Given the gravity of this plot and the unprecedented scale of what they were planning, didn’t your agents examine who they were talking to?’ The agent, known only as Witness L, said Masood’s number was one of hundreds linked to the fertiliser bomb plotters and it was not possible to investigate them all. he told the court that Masood had a ‘long association’ with a terror suspect who was being probed by MI5 between 2004 and 2009. The unknown suspect was linked to the fertiliser bomb plot and other terror activities. he had Masood’s address, email addresses and phone numbers. But once again MI5 decided not to attempt to investigate Masood. Witness L admitted it would have been fairly easy to identify Masood from these details but said ‘it wouldn’t have been proportionate to do so’. The agent refused to name the terror sus- pect connected with Masood ‘for reasons of national security’. MI5 did investigate Masood in 2010 amid concerns he posed a risk to national security. Agents suspected the fanatic, who was teaching english in Saudi Arabia, might be trying to help suspects travel to an area of Pakistan controlled by al-Qaeda for jihad training. MI5 asked police for Masood’s criminal record and discovered he had a history of violent offending. Later that year, the security service closed the probe after concluding he was ‘not considered to be of national security significance’. Witness L told the court the file was closed because MI5 was satisfied that Masood was not responsible for attempting to help terror suspects travel to Pakistan. Masood was subsequently in intermittent contact with members of the banned extremist group Al-Muhajiroun who were being investigated by MI5. The court has heard that Masood attended the Langley Green mosque in Crawley, West Sussex, where the fertiliser bomb cell met. he also worked out at a Luton gym used by a terror cell jailed for plotting to bomb a Territorial Army base. In 2013, MI5 learned that Masood expressed ‘contentment’ that the September 11 attacks in New York had attracted people to Islam. Despite his links to extremism and terror plots, MI5 decided not to reopen the probe into Masood. Mr Patterson said: ‘I suggest a proper investigation would have been likely to have revealed not only his extremist views … but the danger that he posed.’ Witness L replied: ‘I believe such a hypothetical investigation would have exposed his extremist views, I don’t believe it would have exposed his attack planning. We were satisfied he was not involved in attack planning or facilitation. We are not large enough to investigate every extremist we come across.’ The spy chief said 26 terror plots have been thwarted since the killing of Fusilier Lee Rigby in Woolwich, south-east London, in 2013. Of these, 13 were foiled after the Westminster attack. In just 82 seconds Masood killed Kurt Cochran, 54, Leslie Rhodes, 75, Aysha Frade, 44, and Andreea Cristea, 31, as he drove an SUV down Westminster Bridge before stabbing PC Keith Palmer, 48, outside Parliament on March 22 last year. Dozens more were injured. The rampage ended when he was shot dead by a plain-clothes officer. The inquest continues.
‘We can’t investigate every extremist’