TERRORISTS from al-Qaeda have infiltrated Britain's security services, the Sunday Mirror can reveal.| Breathlessly. |
Spymasters found some of the agents in Britain's universities and colleges and persuaded them to pass on information about suspected terrorists. But a senior ministerial source has told the Sunday Mirror: "The truth is that it has now been discovered that some of those people have strong links with al-Qaeda.
"There was always a risk that with such a speedy and widespread recruitment some would turn out to be bad eggs.
"But the recruitment has meant we are now in a much better position to stop al-Qaeda attacks than we have ever been before. Several planned attacks have already been stopped thanks to the high quality of our intelligence." But the disclosure that suspected terrorists have infiltrated the security services will be a further embarrassment to Government Ministers.
They came under ferocious pressure last week after an official report claimed MI5 had failed to follow up vital leads before the July 7 bombings. The report from the Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) said greater coverage by M16 - Britain's overseas spies - in Pakistan and more manpower "might have alerted the agencies to the intentions of the July 7 group".
But MI5 director-general Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller is masterminding a campaign to hire hundreds more intelligence officers to the service. She is looking for IT experts, technicians and language specialists to help monitor "traffic" via emails and phone calls between al-Qaeda terror cells across the world. MI5 is also offering £27,000 a year for "mobile surveillance officers" to follow targets who are part of "national security investigations".
But the service warns that its strict vetting process means it takes up to eight months to consider applications.
| And a less strict vetting process lets al-Q in the door. |