The Defence of the Realm
Page 139
146 On Crawley, see above, p. 704.
147 Security Service Archives.
148 McGladdery, Provisional IRA in England, p. 205.
149 Security Service Archives.
150 Security Service Archives.
151 Security Service Archives.
152 Security Service Archives.
153 Stephen Lander, ‘Terrorism: The Genie out of the Bottle’, closed lecture to Strategic and Combat Studies Institute, Staff College, Camberley, October 1996.
154 Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander.
155 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Sir Stephen Lander.
156 Security Service Archives.
157 Security Service Archives.
158 Security Service Archives.
159 Security Service Archives.
160 Bew and Gallagher, Northern Ireland, pp. 359–65.
161 Ibid., p. 365.
Chapter 2: Holy Terror
1 ‘The Paladin of Jihad’, Time, 6 May 1996.
2 The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 56.
3 Security Service Archives.
4 The 9/11 Commission in the United States later reported that the Yemen attacks remained ‘unknown’ to the US intelligence community until 1996–7. The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 341.
5 Security Service Archives.
6 Security Service Archives.
7 Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, p. 262.
8 Security Service Archives. During the Khomeini era only one of the attacks against Iranian dissidents (in 1987) had taken place in the UK.
9 Security Service Archives.
10 ‘Salman Rushdie: His life, his work and his religion’, Independent, 13 Oct. 2006.
11 Security Service Archives.
12 Security Service Archives.
13 Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, p. 262.
14 Security Service Archives.
15 Security Service Archives.
16 The Security Service concluded in December 1998: ‘Despite the assurances given by [President] Khatami and Foreign Minister Kharrazi, there are indications that elements of the Iranian regime, not under their control, remain committed to carrying out the fatwa . . .’ Security Service Archives. Over the next few years, however, no specific intelligence emerged of a plot to assassinate Rushdie in the UK.
17 David Shayler’s various allegations against the Security Service later included the claim that it had possessed intelligence which would have enabled it to prevent the attack on the embassy, but had failed to act on it. After investigation by the Service, the Home Secretary wrote to the editor of the Mail on Sunday on 30 October 1997: ‘It is not the case that such information as the Security Service had in their possession would have enabled it to prevent the Israeli Embassy bombing from happening. I can, however, see how Mr Shayler, as a junior member of the Service who was not involved in the relevant area of work at the time, could have gained this mistaken impression.’ Security Service Archives.
18 Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander.
19 Security Service Archives.
20 Security Service Archives. Appeals by the two convicted Palestinians, Jawad Botmeh, an electronics expert, and Samar Alami, were dismissed by the Court of Appeal in November 2001. Their later application to the European Court of Human Rights was dismissed in June 2007.
21 Security Service Archives.
22 Security Service Archives.
23 Security Service Archives.
24 Security Service Archives.
25 Security Service Archives.
26 ‘The Paladin of Jihad’, Time, 6 May 1996.
27 Security Service Archives.
28 Security Service Archives.
29 Security Service Archives.
30 Security Service Archives.
31 Security Service Archives.
32 ‘Britain accused of harbouring New York bomber’, Evening Standard, 17 Jan. 1997. Security Service Archives.
33 Bodansky, Bin Laden, p. 101. Bodansky’s biography, published in 1999, contained a glowing tribute from Professor Jeane Kirkpatrick of Georgetown University, formerly US representative at the United Nations. A new edition, repeating the claims about Bin Laden’s residence in Dollis Hill, was published two years later, after 9/11.
34 Recollections of Dame Stella Rimington.
35 Security Service Archives.
36 Security Service Archives.
37 Security Service Archives.
38 Security Service Archives.
39 Security Service Archives.
40 Wright, Looming Tower, pp. 270–72.
41 The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 116–17. Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 117.
42 Security Service Archives.
43 Security Service Archives.
44 Security Service Archives.
45 Next on the list of ‘successes against international terrorism’ in 1998–9 came the ‘disruption of UBL-instigated attack in the Gulf through the passage of pre-emptive intelligence; winding up of Algerian Islamic extremist cell in London through the arrest of eight Algerians and 2 Tunisians’. Security Service Archives.
46 The Security Service believed that other possible reasons which Bin Laden might have for planting false reports of impending terrorist attacks were:
(i) to test for leaks. UBL believes that his organisation is penetrated by hostile intelligence services. Thus, he may spread a rumour about an attack plan to a select number of people and then see if there is a response by the security authorities.
(ii) to maintain morale. It is possible that UBL activists may become disillusioned with the lack of attacks against western interests. UBL may spread rumours to buoy up morale among his cadres.
Security Service Archives.
47 Security Service Archives.
48 Security Service Archives.
49 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
50 Security Service Archives.
51 Recollections of a Security Service officer.
52 The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 71–3.
53 ‘Crashes in NYC had grim origins at Logan’, Boston Globe, 12 Sept. 2001.
54 Security Service Archives.
55 ‘Men “Planned Fireworks Business” ’, BBC News [online], 8 Feb. 2002. ‘Bomb Maker Jailed for Twenty Years’, BBC News [online], 27 Feb. 2002. ‘Abedin Team May Go Abroad’, BBC News [online], 27 Feb. 2002.
56 Security Service Archives.
57 Speech by DG, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 9 Nov. 2006; the full text appears on the Security Service website.
58 This was the conclusion of the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre (JTAC). Security Service Archives.
59 Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 260.
60 Security Service Archives. Claims that UBL had also fallen for a ‘red mercury’ scam in 1993 are disputed. Wright, Looming Tower, pp. 190–91, 411–12.
61 Security Service Archives.
62 Security Service Archives.
63 Security Service Archives.
64 Security Service Archives.
65 Security Service Archives.
66 Security Service Archives.
67 Security Service Archives.
68 Security Service Archives.
69 Interview with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007. Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander. Significantly, Alastair Campbell’s published diaries, which begin in 1994, contain no reference to the Security Service (save for a reference to the government injunction against Shayler) until 9/11 – at which point they begin to acknowledge that Lander was ‘pretty impressive’ and ‘very good on big picture and detail’.
70 Campbell, Blair Years, p. 560.
71 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007.
72 Campbell, Blair Years, pp. 560–61.
73 Security Service Archives.
74 Campbell, Blair Years, p. 561.
75 Ibid., p. 563.
76 Interview with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007.
> 77 Security Service Archives.
78 At Langley they were joined by Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, who happened to be in Washington. Recollections of Baroness Manningham-Buller.
79 Tenet, At the Center of the Storm, p. 174.
80 Campbell, Blair Years, pp. 567–8.
81 Blunkett, Blunkett Tapes, p. 333.
82 Security Service Archives.
83 Campbell, Blair Years, p. 578.
84 Security Service Archives.
85 Security Service Annual Review 2001–2.
Chapter 3: After 9/11
1 Security Service Archives.
2 ‘Guard admits stealing secrets’, BBC News, 17 Dec. 2001. ‘Guard jailed for stealing secrets’, BBC News, 1 Feb. 2002.
3 Security Service Archives.
4 It would have been shorter still but for Bravo’s decision to take a brief holiday abroad. Security Service Archives.
5 Security Service Archives.
‘Guard admits stealing secrets’, BBC News, 17 Dec. 2001. ‘Guard jailed for stealing secrets’,
6 BBC News, 1 Feb. 2002.
7 Security Service Archives.
8 Security Service Archives. ‘Plane engineer admits spying’, BBC News, 29 Nov. 2002. ‘Southend sting halts a spy called Hazard’, Guardian, 30 Nov. 2002. ‘Spy engineer jailed for 10 years’, BBC News, 4 April 2003.
9 Security Service Archives.
10 Security Service Archives.
11 Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, ‘Learning from Experience – Counter Terrorism in the UK since 9/11’, the Colin Cramphorn Memorial Lecture, 24 April 2007. On 30 October 2003, Manningham-Buller told the Sub-Committee on International Terrorism of the Ministerial Committee on Defence and Overseas Policy:
At that stage [9/11] the intelligence suggested that the United Kingdom was seen as a comparatively safe haven and secure operating base for A[l] Q[aida], with little indication that they were intent on carrying out attacks here. Since then our understanding of the threat had evolved significantly. As a result of our investigations here and intelligence from overseas, it had become clear that the United Kingdom itself and our interests overseas were a prime target for attack by AQ and its allies.
Security Service Archives.
12 In 1997, with ministerial approval, Lander had appointed Manningham-Buller as the only DDG, discontinuing the practice since 1985 of having both a DDG(A) and a DDG(O).
13 ‘Fairy Godmother of the security service’, Daily Mail, 11 August 1997.
14 DG talk to Lady Margaret Hall London dinner, 21 May 2003.
15 Security Service Archives.
16 See above, p. 815. The PUS at the Home Office, Sir Clive Whitmore, wrote to Rimington in October 1992: ‘I welcome the news that Eliza Manningham-Buller is to be promoted to Director [in 1993] and that as Director A she will be in a position where she can build on the links that she is at present making with the police on intelligence against the PIRA on the mainland.’ Security Service Archives, Home Office Archives.
17 Interview with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 3 April 2007. The first paragraph of her application, despite a reference to ‘step-change’, embodied the ‘Miss Continuity’ approach:
I see plenty for the Service to do: developing our work on International Terrorism and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in response to the threat to the UK, including the provision of security advice to a significantly wider range of customers; shaping a changed role for the Service in countering Irish terrorism with the devolution of policing to the Northern Irish Assembly; evolving the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre and the Service’s work on electronic attack; helping to strengthen law enforcement intelligence and assessment skills to improve the UK’s approach to serious crime; delivering an IM [information management] programme so that there is a step-change in the Service’s efficiency and effectiveness; and making best use of the extra resources allocated to the Service to generate more intelligence, action and advice to reduce the threat to the UK’s national security.
Home Office Archives.
18 Home Office Archives.
19 Home Office Archives.
20 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 3 April 2007.
21 See below, p. 817.
22 Ricin had been used to murder the Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov almost a quarter of a century previously; see above, p. 648.
23 Clarke, ‘Learning from Experience: Counter-Terrorism in the UK since 9/11’. Security Service Archives.
24 The initiative for an earlier Al Qaida-linked plan, to attack Heathrow, was believed to have originated outside the UK.
25 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
26 Security Service Archives.
27 One of the plotters, Salahuddin Amin, then in Pakistan, handed himself in to the Pakistani authorities, who arrested him on 2 April. He was repatriated and arrested in the UK in February 2005.
28 Security Service Archives. On 14 April the DG circulated to staff written congratulations from the Prime Minister. Together with other intelligence chiefs, Lander had attended meetings of the Afghan War Cabinet in the winter of 2001/2. Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander.
29 On 30 April 2007, Omar Khyam, Anthony Garcia and Waheed Mahmood were sentenced to a minimum of twenty years’ imprisonment, Jawad Akbar and Salahuddin Amin to a minimum of seventeen and a half years’. Two other defendants were cleared of all charges. In June 2004 Mohammed Junaid Babar had pleaded guilty in the USA to a range of terrorist-related offences, including ‘providing material support to terrorist activity, specifically, the British bomb plot’. He subsequently acted as a witness for the prosecution during the CREVICE trial.
30 Security Service Archives.
31 See above, pp. 229–30.
32 Intelligence and Security Committee, Annual Report 2006–2007 (Cm 7299), Jan. 2008.
33 MI5 website. Security Service Archives.
34 The threat levels were listed in Intelligence and Security Committee, Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (Cm 6785), May 2006.
35 Security Service Archives. JTAC’s record as a multi-agency organization was praised in the 2004 Butler report.
36 Security Service Archives.
37 Interview with a former Security Service officer.
38 MI5 website.
39 Security Service Archives.
40 Interview with a former Security Service officer.
41 CPNI website.
42 The response rate of 60 per cent was 6 per cent down on the 2000 survey but was considered still good enough by BDI to give confidence in the findings. The overall satisfaction rate was up 4 per cent on the last survey in 2000. Ninety-nine per cent of respondents believed the Service’s work was important. Ninety-five per cent were ‘proud to work for the Service’ and understood how they as individuals contributed towards its aims.
43 Security Service ‘War on Terry (WOT)’ revue in June 2007; the pirates drew some inspiration from a sketch by the broadcaster and scriptwriter Andy Hamilton.
44 December 2006 report by ‘Investors in People’.
45 Security Service Archives. The US 9/11 Commission Report identified Barot, under his alias Issa al-Britani, as an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
46 Metropolitan Police website.
47 Robert Wesley, ‘British Terrorist Dhiren Bharot’s Research on Radiological Weapons’, Terrorism Focus, 14 Nov. 2006.
48 Clarke, ‘Learning from Experience: Counter-Terrorism in the UK since 9/11’.
49 Press Association, ‘Barot operation posed complex challenge’, 7 Nov. 2006.
50 CBS News, ‘British Terror Plotter Gets Life in Prison’, 7 Nov. 2006.
51 Security Service Archives.
52 Such bogus leads were not uncommon. Interview with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
53 Interview with a former Security Service officer.
54
Intelligence and Security Committee, Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (Cm 6785), May 2006.
55 Security Service Archives.
56 Interview with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
57 The Security Service had other reports on an unidentified extremist whom it discovered only after 7/7 to be Siddique Khan. Intelligence and Security Committee, Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (Cm 6785), May 2006.
58 Interview with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
59 Intelligence and Security Committee, Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (Cm 6785), May 2006. ‘Links between the 7 July bombers and the fertiliser plotters’, MI5 website. On 30 April 2007 Panorama (‘Real Spooks’, BBC 1) made the sensational (but, in the author’s view, unconvincing) claim that ‘the ISC was either never given all the precise details by the Security Service or was fully informed but chose to omit [information] that would have fuelled demands for an independent or public inquiry.’
60 A Ghanaian, Manfo Kwaku Asiedu, who was carrying a fifth bomb, changed his mind and dumped it in a London park.
61 Security Service Archives.
62 The Service had no involvement in the tragic shooting during the man-hunt of the Brazilian electrician, Jean Charles de Menezes, who was mistaken by police for Osman.
63 Asiedu was sentenced to thirty-three years’ imprisonment.
64 Interview with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.
65 Intelligence and Security Committee, Report into the London Terrorist Attacks on 7 July 2005 (Cm 6785), May 2006, p. 36.
66 Clarke, ‘Learning from Experience: Counter-Terrorism in the UK since 9/11’.
67 Intelligence and Security Committee, Annual Report 2006–2007 (Cm 7299), Jan. 2008, p. 12.
68 Intelligence and Security Committee, Annual Report 2007–2008 (Cm 7542), March 2009, pp. 12 22
69 Intelligence and Security Committee, Annual Report 2008–2009 (Cm 7807), p. 8
70 See above, pp. 251–2, 450–51, 476.
71 Baroness Manningham-Buller, Parl. Deb. (Lords), 5 Feb, 2009.
72 House of Lords judgment in case of A and Others v Secretary of State for the Home Department, 8 Dec. 2005.
73 Security Service Archives.
74 Security Service Archives.
75 Security Service Archives.
76 Security Service Archives.
77 Intelligence and Security Committee, Rendition (Cm 7171), July 2007, pp. 33–4.