Revealed, how MI5 missed online hate messages of Rigby killer
MI5 missed internet messages that could have alerted them to the threat posed by the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby.
A long-awaited report by Parliament’s intelligence watchdog is expected to say Michael Adebolajo was posting extremist material on social media sites in the six months before the attack he carried out with Michael Adebowale.
The messages would have been sufficiently serious to justify the security services – who had had Adebolajo on their radar for eight years – putting him under more detailed surveillance.
But officers only found out about them after the sickening murder of the 25-year- old soldier outside Woolwich Barracks in May last year.
Internet service providers – who have come under intense pressure to do more to help police and the security services – did not raise the alarm about the ex t r e me messages.
The Intelligence and Security Committee report is also expected to highlight a failed attempt by MI5 to recruit Adebolajo as a source – but, crucially, it will say that officials could not have prevented the attack on the day.
The findings, due to be made public by the end of this month, come at a time of heightened con- cern about use of the internet and social media by would-be terrorists. Earlier this month, the head of GCHQ accused firms such as Twitter and Facebook of turning into ‘the command and control networks of choice’ for terrorists.
Robert Hannigan said some USbased tech firms were in denial about the misuse of their services by fanatics who could use them to facilitate mass murder.
The ISC report is expected to say that Adebolajo had been known to MI5 for eight years.
He was a regular member of a small group of fanatics closely linked to the extremist preacher Anjem Choudary.
He was also pictured in violent scenes during a protest outside the Old Bailey in 2006 and spent three months i n prison i n 2008 f or assault.
The key incident came when he was stopped in Kenya where he
‘Facilitate mass murder’
had been caught trying to join the al-Shabaab terrorist group.
He appeared in court in Kenya but was not charged and returned home. His then-lawyer claimed he was freed on the recommendation of the British High Commission and avoided a formal deportation.
Adebolajo told the Old Bailey there was ‘more to the story’.
The report is expected to say the security services tried to recruit him as an informant but he rejected their approaches.
Officials argue that trying to recruit terror suspects and extremists is a vital part of MI5’s work and t hat not every attempt will succeed.
They also point out that, with several thousand Islamists on MI5’s radar, they are forced to prioritise on the basis of available intelligence.
In a speech last year, director general Andrew Parker said it was impossible to stop all terrorist attacks.
He added: ‘Knowing of an individual does not equate to knowing everything about them.
‘ Being on our r adar does not necessarily mean being under our microscope. The reality of intelligence work is that we only f ocus the most i ntense intrusive attention on a small number of cases at any one time.’
Adebolajo, 29, was sentenced to a whole-life term earlier this year. Adebowale, 23, was jailed for a minimum of 45 years.
I t was t he fi r st successful terrorist attack on British soil since the July 7 suicide bombings on the London transport system.