Report and response to the 7 July 2005 London attacks

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Report and response to the 7 July 2005 London attacks

The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) has released its official investigations into the 7 July 2005 terrorist attacks. The Government has also released their response to the ISC report.

http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/publications/reports/intelligence/isc_7july_report.pdf

Intelligence and Security Committee
Parliamentary oversight of SIS, GCHQ and the Security Service is provided by the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), established by the Intelligence Services Act 1994. The Committee examines the expenditure, administration and policy of the three Agencies. It operates within the ?ring of secrecy? and has wide access to the range of Agency activities and to highly classified information. Its cross?party membership of nine from both Houses is appointed by the Prime M
inister after consultation with the Leader of the Opposition. The Committee is required to report annually to the Prime Minister on its work. These reports, after any deletions of sensitive material, are placed before Parliament by the Prime Minister. The Committee also provides ad hoc reports to the Prime Minister from time to time. The Chairman of the Intelligence and Security Committee is the Right Honourable Paul Murphy. The Committee is supported by a Clerk and secretariat in the Cabinet Office and can employ an investigator to pursue specific matters in greater detail.

Committee members (July 2005)
Rt Hon Paul Murphy MP (chair)
Rt Hon Michael Ancram QC DL MP
Rt Hon Alan Beith MP
Baroness Ramsay of Cartvale
Ben Chapman MP
Rt Hon George Howarth MP
Rt Hon Michael Mates MP
Richard Ottaway MP
Dari Taylor MP

 

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MI5: We will have new 7/7

SPOOKS at MI5 have warned the 7/7 bombings WILL happen again?because they don't have enough spies.

A disturbing report will reveal intelligence services are overstretched and have failed to penetrate Muslim terror groups.

It says another bombing is a CERTAINTY unless gaps are plugged.

Three attacks have been thwarted since the London bombings. And another six possible plots are being monitored now.

But intelligence agents have told MPs there must be other undetected terror cells who will succeed.

An official enquiry into 7/7 by the super-powerful Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee concludes that MI5 failed to infiltrate radical British Muslims because of a severe "resource problem".

Spy chiefs are still desperately short of surveillance teams, undercover agents and transla
tors.

The committee's report, published on Thursday, will reveal that at one stage just 20 agents were trying to keep tabs on 400 terror suspects linked to al-Qaeda.

And surveillance on 7/7 ringleader Mohammad Sidique Khan, 31, was called off because of lack of manpower.

He recruited Hasib Hussain, 18, Shehzed Tanweer, 22, and Jermaine Lindsay, 26, for the suicide bombings.

The report warns Britain will face another attack unless MI5?still geared to fighting decades of Irish terrorism?is overhauled.

Danger

The committee, made up of MPs and chaired by former Northern Ireland Secretary Paul Murphy, examined top-secret papers and heard evidence from senior spies.

They are the only independent body monitoring the security and intelligence services and have full access to its shadowy commanders.

Their report is important because it is the only authoritative inquiry into the 7/7 bombings.

It concludes that MI5 had too many white, middle-class a
gents who could not work undercover in tight-knit Muslim communities.

And although the intelligence budget doubled since the New York attacks in 2001, the money was too late to stop the bombings here.

A senior intelligence source told the News of the World: "With Irish terrorism there was a clear pattern. With Islamic extremists it is harder to tell whether these are kids talking tough, bigots or genuine terrorists.

"That is why another attack will happen at any time."

Tory homeland security spokesman Patrick Mercer said: "There is no doubt that there is a clear and present threat. The only priority now for the security services is the prevention of further Islamic fundamentalist attacks."

"There are continued warnings of attacks in Britain by Osama bin Laden and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. These have to be taken seriously."

He added: "I am waiting to see how much truth we are going to get from the government about these events.

"After 9/11 and the Madrid bomb
ings both the American and Spanish governments carried out extensive independent inquiries.

"All we are getting is a narrative which has come from the hands of civil servants and a heavily-censored report by MPs.

"It is crucial we have an independent inquiry before we are attacked again."

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Spies ?hid? bomber tape from MPs
Bugging revealed earlier plot

MI5 is being accused of a cover-up for failing to disclose to a parliamentary watchdog that it bugged the leader of the July 7 suicide bombers discussing the building of a bomb months before the London attacks.

MI5 had secret tape recordings of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the gang leader, talking about how to build the device and then leave the country because there would be a lot of police activity.

However, despite the recordings, MI5 allowed him to escape the net. Transcripts of the tapes were never shown to the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC), which investigated the attacks.

The disclosures prompted allegations of a ?whitewash? from politicians and victims of the attacks this weekend.

Last week the committee, whose members are appointed by
Tony Blair and report to him, cleared MI5 of blame after it failed to thwart the attacks, which killed 52 innocent people and injured more than 700. It concluded that MI5 had no reason to suspect Khan of plotting attacks in Britain. He was regarded as ?peripheral? to higher priorities.

The new evidence shows MI5 monitored Khan when he met suspects allegedly planning another, separate attack; that he had knowledge of the ?late-stage discussions? of this plot; and that he was recorded having discussions with them about making a bomb and leaving the country. He was also recorded talking about his plans to wage jihad ? holy war ? and go to Al-Qaeda terrorist camps abroad.

Yesterday David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: ?If this is true, it completely undermines the basis on which the ISC did its report.?

Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman on homeland security, said: ?Unless there is a proper independent inquiry, there is a danger of the committee?s report being interpreted as a whi
tewash.?

A committee member, who asked not to be named, admitted that it had not seen transcripts of MI5?s recordings of Khan. Instead, it had taken evidence from senior security officials and accepted their judgment that there was no reason to regard Khan as a serious threat.

The MP said that if the transcripts showed Khan had been involved in discussions about bomb-making and another possible attack, the committee had been seriously misled. ?If that is the case, it amounts to a scandal,? said the source. ?I would be outraged.?

Rachel North, a survivor of the bomb at King?s Cross, was shocked by the disclosure: ?I am shaking with anger.

In the absence of an independent inquiry answering the public?s questions, I had hoped that those who heard the evidence behind closed doors on our behalf would find out the answers for us.

?They did not find out nor tell us the whole truth, and I feel badly, desperately let down.?

The disclosures will increase pressure for a pu
blic inquiry into the atrocity, with greater powers to demand evidence and interrogate witnesses.

The government also failed to address concerns about what MI5 knew when they were raised in unreported exchanges in the Commons last week. Davis referred to the existence of the tape recordings when he addressed John Reid, the home secretary.

?It seems that MI5 taped Mohammad Sidique Khan talking about his wish to fight in the jihad and saying his goodbyes to his family ? a clear indication that he was intending a suicide mission . . . he was known to have attended late-stage discussions on planning another major terror attack. Again, I ask the home secretary whether that is true.?

Reid said the questions were ?legitimate? but failed to answer them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2179602,00.html

 

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Terror suspect numbers soar

MI5 source reveals a 'current, relentless and increasing' security threat since 7 July attacks as radical imam is set to be released from jail

Sunday May 14, 2006

The number of Islamic terror suspects in Britain being targeted by the security service MI5 has soared to 1,200, a 50 per cent rise since the London suicide bombings last July.

In a stark warning about the threat posed by Islamic radicals living in Britain, a senior intelligence source told The Observer that some of the public and politicians were failing to realise the risk facing the UK: 'In July 2005 we had 800 targets. I wish it was still at that level.'

He said that MI5 had identified another 400 targets since the bombings, suggesting that, rather than the threat to security from British-based terrorists being reduced, it had escalated
since the attacks which killed 52 people. In September 2001, the security services estimated the number of UK-based terror suspects posing a 'risk to national security' at around 250, a figure that now stands almost five times higher. The intelligence source offered no explanation as the reason for the continued growth in Islamic radicalisation, but said the threat was 'current, relentless and increasing'.

Disclosure of this dramatic rise in potential terror suspects comes as it emerges that the radical imam who played a critical role in influencing one of the 7 July bombers is to walk free from prison within weeks. Abdullah al-Faisal was sentenced to seven years in prison in 2003 after being convicted of inciting murder and racial hatred.

The government's official account of the 7 July bombings published last week makes it clear that Jermaine Lindsay attended at least one of Faisal's lectures and listened to his lectures on tapes.

At his trial a court was told how Faisal, who brand
ed non-Muslims cockroaches that should be exterminated, called on his followers to learn how to use rifles, fly planes and use missiles to kill 'unbelievers'. In one tape, Faisal - who attended Brixton Mosque in south London, where the shoebomber Richard Reid met Zacharias Moussaoui, the only man to be jailed for his part in the 11 September attacks on America - tells Muslim women to prepare their children for jihad by giving them toy guns.

The Observer understands Faisal is soon to be released having served little more than half of his sentence. In preparation for his release, an order for deportation to his native Jamaica was filed by Home Office officials on 30 March. His lawyers are believed to have made representations to the Home Office in an attempt to secure his release on parole pending deportation. The move is likely to raise concerns that Faisal will be free to preach his extremist views once he has been returned to Jamaica, from where a number of Islamic terrorists have originated, includ
ing Lindsay.

Meanwhile this week lawyers acting on behalf of the family of one of the victims of the London bombings will notify the Home Secretary, John Reid, they are launching legal action over the government's response to the 7 July attacks.

Having sought legal opinion following last Thursday's publication of the two investigations into the attacks, City law firm Leigh Day & Co will commence a legal challenge against the government's decision not to hold a public inquiry into the atrocities. Opposition politicians joined survivors of the attacks and victims' families calling for such an inquiry.

Acting on behalf of the family of Behnaz Mozakka, 47, who was killed when Lindsay detonated his explosive on the Piccadilly line tube, lawyers will cite a number of key unanswered question that the government has a 'duty to answer'.

Their case will be brought using human rights legislation which indicates that a state has a duty to investigate where it can be claimed that a govern
ment could bear some responsibility.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1774409,00.html