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MI5 unable to track terror suspects ahead of London bombings

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

London, May 19, IRNA -- Britain's security service did not have the manpower to do extra checks on the ringleader of the London bombings ahead of the 7/7 attacks in 2005, according to a report by the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee.

MI5 could only properly track one in 20 of the people it connected with terror cells in the run up to the July 7 bombings and Mohammed Siddique Khan was not listed as a priority even though he crossed the radar of the police and security services on at least nine occasions.

At no time was Khan properly traced and identified and neither he nor his key lieutenant in the attacks, Shazad Tanweer, were ever categorized as 'essential' targets, the long-awaited report found.

Head of MI5, Jonathan Evans, told the ISC, which reports directly to the prime minister and not parliament like other committees, that his agency did not have the ability or the resources in 2004 and 2005 to track anyone who was not involved in planning a direct attack on the UK.

Even today, MI5 had to prioritize its use of resources and could only 'hit the crocodiles nearest the boat', Evans said. a detailed analysis of the intelligence service's actions concluded today.

The 102-page report is the second review of the intelligence carried out by the committee on the 7/7 attacks on London transport system, in which 56 people were killed including the four suspected suicide bombers and around 1,000 injured.

The previous report in 2006 said that Khan and Tanweer had appeared on the periphery of another investigation but that neither man had been fully identified and there was no intelligence to suggest that they were plotting an attack.

But at a court trial a year later, it was revealed that the men had in fact appeared on the security service's radar thanks to their contacts with another group of men later arrested for plotting fertilizer bomb attacks.

The ISC again concluded that the security services cannot be blamed for allowing the 7/7 attacks to occur. "We cannot criticize the judgments made by MI5 and the police on the information that they had and their priorities at the time," it said after looking at all the evidence.