MI5 missed big chance to stop arena bombing
Inquiry finds agency had a ‘significant’ opportunity to stop the attack but failed to act on intelligence
The head of MI5 has issued an unprecedented public apology after an inquiry concluded its spies missed a “significant” opportunity to stop the Manchester Arena suicide bomb attack. The security service received a vital piece of information about Salman Abedi before he murdered 22 people in May 2017, but did not act swiftly enough, a public inquiry found. It could have led officers to the Nissan Micra in which he was storing his homemade bomb.
THE head of MI5 has issued an unprecedented public apology after an inquiry concluded its spies missed a “significant” opportunity to stop the Manchester Arena attack.
Ken Mccallum said there was a “slim chance” they could have prevented Salman Abedi killing 22 people in May 2017 had they acted sooner, the public inquiry into the atrocity found.
Sir John Saunders, the inquiry chairman, said a better response from MI5 “might have prevented the attack” and concluded the intelligence agency took a “risky” approach to investigating returnees from Libya, where it is believed Abedi learnt to build the bomb.
Following the publication of the inquiry’s final report, families of the victims blamed MI5 for playing a part “in the murder of our children”.
Mr Mccallum, the director general of the intelligence agency, said: “The chair of the inquiry has found that ‘there was a realistic possibility that actionable intelligence could have been obtained which might have led to actions preventing the attack’. I deeply regret that such intelligence was not obtained.
“Gathering covert intelligence is difficult – but had we managed to seize the slim chance we had, those impacted might not have experienced such appalling loss and trauma. I am profoundly sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack.
“MI5 exists to stop atrocities. To all those whose lives were forever changed on that awful night: I am so sorry that MI5 did not prevent the attack at the Manchester Arena.”
At the time of the terror attack, Mr Mccallum was deputy director general, and the attempts to prevent terror attacks fell within his remit.
Matt Jukes, head of counter-terrorism policing, also apologised and promised to “act quickly” on the findings, insisting officers will remain “relentless in our work to keep the public safe”.
MI5 came close to uncovering Abedi’s plot when it received a piece of intelligence that could have led to him being stopped when he returned to the UK from Libya four days before the bombing. The specific nature of the intelligence has not been disclosed to the public, for national security reasons, but Sir John said the first MI5 officer to assess it failed to immediately raise concerns with colleagues.
When the officer did eventually write the report, it “did not contain sufficient context” and the delay led to a missed opportunity to take action, Sir John said. There was said to be a “real possibility” that a quick investigation would have produced “actionable intelligence” and meant Abedi’s return to the UK on May 18 2017 “would have been treated extremely seriously by the security service”.
The report said this could have led to Abedi being followed by agents to the Nissan Micra where he was storing the homemade device which detonated after an Ariana Grande concert.
If Abedi had been stopped at Manchester airport four days before the attack, Sir John said, there was a chance officers would have found him to be in possession of the switch for the bomb.
After the report was published, Caroline Curry, who lost her son Liam, 19, in the bombing, delivered a statement on behalf of herself and Lisa and Mark Rutherford, who lost their daughter, Chloe, 17. “From top to bottom, from MI5 to the associates of the attacker, we will always believe you played a part in the murder of our children,” she said.
Andrew Roussos, whose eight-yearold daughter, Saffie-rose, was killed in the blast, said: “This was a cataclysmic failure, and it is clear from all of the evidence we have heard about Abedi that there were many opportunities for the security services to have ensured the bombing never happened.”
He later told Sky News that the apology from the head of MI5 was “insulting” for claiming the agency only had a “slim chance” of stopping the plot.
Much of the evidence heard during the final phase of the inquiry was given amid significant secrecy, with closed hearings staged for four MI5 witnesses and 10 police officers.
The inquiry’s work was held up on several occasions by individuals linked to Abedi refusing to cooperate. Sir John used his report to call for new powers to stop witnesses fleeing the UK after Abedi’s brother, Ismail, returned to Libya when he was due to give evidence.
A statement on behalf of 11 families, given by their lawyer Richard Scorer, said the conclusion that the attack could have been prevented was “devastating”.
Downing Street said the Government was committed to learning the lessons from the inquiry into the “callous and cowardly” attack.