Nobody will be hurting as much as MI5 officers

AT first glance these failings by MI5 and the police to stop the attacks seem appalling.

But only those involved in the fight are aware of just how difficult it is to combat an increasingly cunning and undetectable attacker.

Take Kuram Butt, the London Bridge mastermind, who deliberately pretended he and his pals were performing some domestic removals on the day.

There was hardly time to react once they hit their first victim – even though armed police killed them in minutes.

In short it was virtually impossible to detect this kind of attack, which triggers no alarms to investigators.

MI5 is one of the most regulated intelligence agencies, governed by oversight reviews at every step. Officers even have to justify on record if they look at a target’s Facebook as an act of surveillance.

DANGER

MI5 officers are working at a breakneck pace not seen in decades, against the clock, making life-and-death decisions and risking everything to hunt down evil plotters.

Every day they are prioritising at speed, upgrading investigations and downgrading others as they, just like everyone else, have finite resources.

Every meeting with a source puts them potentially in danger.

Their only reward is the knowledge they may have saved lives. Most of their work goes unrecognised, with even close family not knowing.

They believe in the fight against terrorism – and nobody will be more hurt by this report than they are.