SECURITY agencies are monitoring around the clock two active terrorist cells known to be planning attacks in Britain.
The cells stand out from dozens of police and security services operations because they have discussed methods of attack, and “soft targets” that could result in large-scale civilian casualties, according to security sources.
The disclosure came on the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 attacks on London that killed 52 innocent people and injured 700. Andy Hayman, the former assistant commissioner who led the 7/7 investigation while head of counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, says Britain is under its biggest ever threat from terror. “There are now probably more radicalised Muslims, their attack plans are more adventurous and the UK still remains under severe risk,” he says.
The Times understands that some groups have discussed trying to copy the attacks in Mumbai in 2008 during which heavily armed men attacked a hotel, a railway station and a synagogue.
In response, the British authorities have been drawing up plans for how they might counter such an attack.
The details emerged as British Prime Minister David Cameron ordered an official inquiry yesterday into claims that Britain’s intelligence services had been complicit in the torture of terror suspects held abroad in the wake of the 9/11 attacks.
The Prime Minister said the reputation of Britain’s security services had been overshadowed for too long by the allegations, which were being exploited by extremists for propaganda.
“It is time to clear this matter up once and for all,” he said.
Mr Cameron faced criticism, however, for seeking to wind up – with the offer of compensation – the dozen civil claims from former detainees alleging mistreatment in the presence of British officers before the inquiry begins.
A lawyer for Binyam Mohamed, one of those individuals, said his team would try to block any attempt to halt civil court proceedings, which would prevent potentially embarrassing disclosures being made in public. “We would object to any halt in the process,” said Sapna Malik, a partner at Leigh Day & Co.
Clive Stafford-Smith, the director of Reprieve, a charity that fights to protect prisoners’ rights, doubted that former detainees with civil cases against the government would accept a payoff.
Mr Cameron told MPs it was vital that the security services were free to concentrate on keeping Britain safe from terror threats rather than fending off legal action. “We cannot have their work impeded by these allegations. We need to restore Britain’s moral leadership in the world,” he said.
The inquiry will begin this year, but not before the one related criminal case has been concluded in court and there has been progress in the civil cases.
The panel will be chaired by Peter Gibson, a former Court of Appeal judge, who is now the statutory commissioner for the intelligence services. It will take evidence in private, where necessary, to avoid compromising intelligence, but will publish a report.
Mr Cameron said none of the claims against the intelligence services, which he described as the best in the world, were proven. But he said the country needed answers to “if things went wrong, why, and what we must do to uphold the standards that people expect. The longer these questions remain unanswered, the bigger the strain on our reputation as a country that believes in freedom, fairness and human rights grows.”
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