WE COULD BE NEXT TARGET
As Paris killers are hunted in forest, MI5’s chilling warning
THE head of MI5 warned yesterday that Al Qaeda is plotting spectacular ‘mass casualty’ attacks against Britain.
Targets of the resurgent group – which is directing British-based fanatics from overseas – include airlines or a Mumbai-style gun and bomb atrocity.
The warning came as 88,000 French police officers and soldiers continued to hunt the two Al Qaeda gunmen who slaughtered 12 people in an attack on the Paris offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine.
Andrew Parker, the director-general of MI5, said it was almost inevitable an attack in Britain would succeed sooner or later. In a rare public speech, he warned: ‘Although we and our partners try our utmost, we know that we cannot hope to stop everything.’ on another day of drama yesterday: The two brothers suspected of the Paris massacre were thought to be hiding in a forest;
one of the pair was linked to a key figure at the notorious Finsbury Park
Mosque, and both men have been known to security services for up to a decade; ÷ A US official said the brothers were on its no-fly list; ÷ A policewoman was shot dead in Paris in a second attack within 4 hours; ÷ Patrols were stepped up at the UK’s borders, ports and railway stations; ÷ Ministers were warned of copy-cat attacks by fanatics inspired by the French killers.
Mr Parker’s speech, only his second since taking charge in April 013, warned that the UK was facing a string of ‘complex and ambitious plots’ against the likes of transport networks and major landmarks.
At the same time, fanatics also wish to emulate ‘crude’ attacks carried out overseas in recent months. Chillingly, tactics could include a ‘hit-and-run’ on a crowded public place using a lorry, van or car. Unlike gun or bomb plots, which involves buying weapons or equipment, such an attack would be hard for the security services to detect.
At least three plots which would have involved ‘certain deaths’ in Britain have been foiled in recent months, Mr Parker said. Officials are also keeping tabs on up to 600 British extremists who have travelled to Syria – about 300 of who are now back home.
Mr Parker said: ‘We still face more complex and ambitious plots that follow the now sadly well-established approach of Al Qaeda and its imitators – attempts to cause large-scale loss of life, often by attacking transport systems or iconic targets. We know, for example, that a group of core Al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West.’
He added: ‘The number of crude but potentially deadly plots has gone up. Last year’s attacks in Canada and Australia were examples. Such attacks are inherently harder for intelligence agencies to detect. They are often the work of volatile individuals, motivated by terrorist propaganda rather than working as part of sophisticated networks.’
But he went on: ‘It is almost always the case that someone, a member of the public or a friend, has had some prior insight into the dangerous direction they are moving in and the violent destination they are hoping to reach.
‘As we go forward into 015, we will need more help from the public in these sorts of situations.’ In his first public speech, in October 013, Mr Parker warned of the huge damage done to MI5, MI6 and GCHQ by fugitive CIA worker Edward Snowden.
Snowden revealed to terrorists sensitive intelligence-gathering techniques, making it easier for them to avoid detection. The head of MI5 said last night his ‘sharpest concern’ was the ‘growing gap between the increasingly challenging threat and the decreasing availability of capabilities to address it’.
His speech, given to an invited audience at Thames House, was planned before the ‘dreadful’ Paris attacks took place.
He said: ‘It is too early for us to come to judgments about the precise details or origin of the attack but it is a terrible reminder of the intentions of those who wish us harm.’
‘Planning mass casualty attacks’
THE grotesque image of balaclava-clad terrorists murdering a wounded and helpless policeman in cold blood on a Paris street has sent waves of shock and revulsion around the world.
His pitiless execution was the final act in a day of carefully-planned slaughter that saw 11 others shot dead, including the editor and staff members of the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
The paramilitary-style gunmen declared the attack to be vengeance for cartoons published by the magazine lampooning the Prophet Mohammed.
In truth, it was a rampage of carnage by two psychopathic brothers programmed by Al Qaeda to kill without conscience or mercy.
Yesterday the Mail’s front page described the attack as The War on Freedom. Anyone who thinks this was an exaggeration, or has any doubt that Britain is firmly in the front line of that war, should heed the chilling words of MI5 boss Andrew Parker.
In a speech last night, he revealed that a group of ‘core Al Qaeda’ terrorists based in Syria is – right now – planning ‘mass casualty attacks’ against Britain and other Western nations. The ‘complex and ambitious plots’ include attacks on transport networks and landmarks, bombs on planes and ‘Mumbai- style shootings’ of innocent people in crowded public places. So as the French people mourn and honour their dead behind the defiant slogan ‘Je Suis Charlie’, Britain must stand shoulder to shoulder with them and refuse to be cowed by these fanatics.
This is more than a gesture of sympathy and friendship. It is also an act of mutual protection against men who want to destroy liberal Western civilisation and plunge us into a new dark age of religious oppression.
Defeating this assault on our way of life will undoubtedly take courage, determination and time.
In the decade since the 7/7 atrocities, the security services have foiled dozens of bomb plots and they must now be given the powers and resources they need – within a legal framework – to step up their work identifying and tracking terrorists.
But to be truly effective, they require the committed and vigorous support of the Muslim community. The vast majority of British Muslims are peace-loving, hard-working and law-abiding but their leaders have sometimes been slow to expose the militants in their midst.
All sections of the Islamic community condemned the Paris attack yesterday but – while admirable – condemnation after the fact is not enough.
Hate preachers such as Anjem Choudary should be denounced, conspiracies such as the ‘Trojan Horse plot’ to impose Islamic fundamentalism on British schools should be fought and anyone suspected of becoming dangerously radicalised, or planning to fight jihad in Syria or Iraq should immediately be reported to the police. Some may argue that the West contributed to bringing this violence on itself by waging reckless wars in the Middle East, and the Mail concedes they have a valid point. But now it’s time to look forward, not back.
Many Muslims – or their forebears – came to this country to escape injustice or persecution in their homeland. Britain has welcomed and conferred on them a range of hard-won freedoms built up over centuries. In turn, they have been of huge benefit to our society.
Now, as we face this malevolent threat, they can make an even greater contribution – by playing a full part in rooting out the extremists who seek to use their faith as a justification for violence. Nothing less than the freedom we all cherish is at stake.