The number of British-based Islamic terrorists plotting suicide attacks against “soft” targets in this country is far greater than the Security Services had previously believed, the government paperwork discloses. It is thought the plotters could number more than 2,000.
Under the heading “International Terrorism in the UK”, the document - seen by The Sunday Telegraph - states: “The scale of al-Qaeda’s ambitions towards attacking the UK and the number of UK extremists prepared to participate in attacks are even greater than we had previously judged.”
It warns that terrorist “attack planning” against Britain will increase in 2007, and adds: “We still believe that AQ [al-Qaeda] will continue to seek opportunities for mass casualty attacks against soft targets and key infrastructure. These attacks are likely to involve the use of suicide operatives.”
The document, which has been circulated across Whitehall to MI5, Scotland Yard’s Counter Terrorist Command, the Home Office, the Cabinet Office and the Ministry of Defence, also reveals that al-Qaeda has grown into a world-wide organisation with a foothold in virtually every Muslim country in North Africa, the Middle East and central Asia.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director general of MI5, warned recently that there were more than 1,600 “identified individuals” actively engaged in plotting terrorist attacks. There were 200 known networks involved in at least 30 terrorist plots. It is thought that the number of British citizens involved in plots could be well in excess of 2,000.
The security services have their work cut out for them- the terrorists only have to get it "right" once for mass murder to occur.
1 comment:
It might not be as bad as you think. Sure there will be some fanatics out there but if the bulk of them are similar to what has been arrested they will have beheading videos, some car body filler, some nail polish remover plus a flakey instruction manual downloaded from the internet and a wildly unrealistic plan.
Of course we only need one who knows what they are doing but think about it. I bet you could come up with a decent plan in a couple of hours. Implimenting it with a bunch like the people we are jailing is another matter.
I've said before if we have 10 fanatics willing to die who have a bit of common sense and education and one good planner this country would be on it's knees by now. that is my fear.And we waste our time slapping ourselves on the bad with some of the idiots we prosecute.
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