MI5 warns of terrorist recruitment drive
Updated on 05 November 2007
Children living in Britain are being "groomed" by al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks in the UK, the head of MI5 has warned.
Giving his first public speech since becoming director-general in April, Jonathan Evans said al-Qaeda is waging a "deliberate campaign" against the UK.
He said: "Terrorist attacks we have seen against the UK are not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups.
"The majority of these attacks, successful or otherwise, have taken place because al-Qaeda has a clear determination to mount terrorist attacks against the United Kingdom."
Mr Evans continued: "This remains the case today, and there is no sign of it reducing. As I speak, terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country.
"They are radicalising, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism. This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity."
Mr Evans said the security service is facing "the most immediate and acute peacetime threat" in its 98-year history.
He told the Society of Editors Conference in Manchester that the number of individuals in the UK identified as having links with terrorism had risen to at least 2,000 from 1,600 in 2006.
And he said MI5 suspects there could be a similar number again who they did not know about.
While in the past much of the planning had come from al-Qaeda's "core leadership" in the tribal areas of Pakistan, there are now signs that its representatives in Iraq are seeking to promote attacks outside that country while there is terrorist training and planning in Somalia directed against the UK.
Mr Evans also admitted the service is still having to divert resources to counter "unreconstructed attempts" by countries such as Russia and China at Cold War-style espionage.
He said: "It is a matter of some disappointment to me that I still have to devote significant amounts of equipment, money and staff to countering this threat.
"They are resources which I would far rather devote to countering the threat from international terrorism - a threat to the whole international community, not just the UK."
While MI5 had expanded since the September 11, 2001 attacks - and is expected to reach 4,000 staff by 2011 - he said there is a limit to what intelligence can achieve.
"We cannot know everything. There will be instances when individuals come to the notice of the Security Service or the police but then subsequently carry out acts of terrorism. This is inevitable," he said.
"Every decision to investigate someone entails a decision not to investigate someone else. Knowing of somebody is not the same as knowing all about somebody.
"And it would be perverse for my service to avoid knowing of somebody for fear of being held to blame if they later become involved in an attack.
"I think we should be very careful to bear this in mind when talking about so-called 'intelligence failures'."
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