The head of the British intelligence agency MI5, Ken McCallum Delivering a speech today (Tuesday) full of warnings about the future in Britain, he revealed that Islamic terrorism within the country has resurfaced and that “the most worrying trend is the escalating threat from terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the ISIS organization. After several years of significant repression, they renewed the Their efforts to export terrorism.”
The British Intelligence Agency announced that over the past month, over a third of the investigations classified as top priority were related to terrorist organizations from abroad. McCallum revealed that, in total, MI5 and the police had foiled 43 “advanced stage” terror plots since March 2017 and said some of the plot’s architects had planned mass murder using firearms and explosives.
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75% of MI5’s terror investigations are Islamist-motivated and the rest driven by far-right ideologies, but McCallum described a “dizzying range of beliefs”, given people’s widespread access to conspiracy theories, disinformation and online hate.
In his first speech of its kind in two years, McCallum said his team faced “a very difficult job” and described the multifaceted threat facing Britain, with the resurgence of terrorist organizations such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, in addition to state terrorism from countries such as Iran and Russia.
McCallum said investigations into national security threats had risen by 48% in a year, revealing that since January 2022, MI5 and the police had responded to 20 potentially deadly plots backed by Iran. He said the threat from Iran had grown “on an unprecedented scale”, and warned that it – along with Russia – were “using proxies” like organized criminals to “do their dirty work”.
According to him, over 750 diplomats in the service of Russia, many of them determined to be spies, have been expelled from Europe since Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine. While the move hit Russian intelligence, McCallum said they were on an “ongoing mission to create chaos on the streets of Britain and Europe” that included “arson, damage and more”.
In his speech, McCallum addressed those who are considering carrying out missions for those hostile countries and said: “If you take money from Iran, Russia or any other country to carry out illegal acts in Britain, you will bring the full weight of the national security establishment upon you. You will regret it.’
McCallum said the number of terror investigations against children and young people was increasing, the figure that 13% of people under investigation were children was one of the most unexpected developments – a three-fold increase in three years. McCallum said MI5 foresees “too many cases of very young people being drawn into toxic online extremism”.