But tonight Channel Four news can reveal that MI5 tried to recruit the radical Muslim cleric Abu Qatada to inform on his fellow extremists.
The revelation comes in a judgement by the Special Immgration Appeals Tribunal: which ruled in January that Qatada should continue to be detained without trial in Belmarsh high security jail. You can read the document here: (pdf document)
According to the document, British intelligence officials thought they'd got the terror suspect on side.
The man the Special Immigration Appeals Commission commented in its judgement is a truly dangerous individual.
According to the intelligence services he is the most senior named Al Qaeda figure in the UK, now detained without trial in Belmarsh Prison.
But the same man classified as a threat to national security and confined to a prison wing, was once someone MI5 was negotiating with to inform on Islamic extremists in Britain.
Startling revelations about the cleric dealings with the security services are contained in this document.
The SIAC judgement justifying Abu Qatada's continued detention under our emergency anti-terrorist laws.
Much of the hearing late last year took place in secret, in a basement chamber in the building behind me.
But information has emerged for the first time about MI5 awareness of the extent of Abu Qatada's influence and how it could help keep terrorism off the streets of the UK."
The Four Feathers Club in West London was where Abu Qatada became reknown for his fiery ideology.
Hundreds of followers would attend his classes in the nineties. It's acknowledged that at that time, the self-proclaimed Islamic scholar was against overt action against the UK.
He claimed to wield powerful, spiritual influence over the Algerian community in London and was confident that he could use this influence to prevent any terrorist repercussions.
The appellant said that he did not want London to become a centre for settling Islamic scores and, in the view of the officer concerned, he 'came the closest he had to offering to assist me in any investigation of Islamic extremism'.
‘He welded considerable spiritual, if not operational influence on an extensive number of Islamists of various nationalities and that, as a resident of the United Kingdom, I fully expected him to use that influence, wherever he could, to control the hotheads and ensure terrorism remained off the streets of London".
‘He said that those over which he had influence were no risk to the country's security and he would not bite the hand that fed him.’
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