Officials: UK now al-Qaeda's no. 1 target
British intelligence chiefs estimate organization chose Britain as main target for terror attacks, Guardian reports. Experts fear extremists are intent on carrying out huge spectacular on the scale of US 9/11 terror attacks; security source estimates July 7 bombings in London 'were only the beginning'
The British intelligence agencies have revised their views about the strength of the network abroad, and the methods terrorists are able to use in the UK.
Intelligence chiefs with access to the most comprehensive and up-to-date information have told the Guardian that al-Qaeda has substantially recovered its organization in Pakistan, despite a four-year military campaign to seek out and kill its leaders.
In that time, the organization has become much more coherent, with a strong core and a regular supply of volunteers.
More worrying, officials note, is evidence of new techniques that would-be terrorists within the UK have adopted. The experts say that the structure of individual al-Qaeda-inspired groups is much more like the old Provisional IRA cells, with self-contained units comprising a lead organizer/planner, a quartermaster in charge of weapons and explosives acquisition and training, and several volunteers.
The same intelligence experts fear the UK is a target as never before, with extremists intent on carrying out a huge spectacular, on the scale of the 9/11 terror attacks in the United States.
"They viewed 7/7 as just the beginning," said one senior source. "Al-Qaeda sees the UK as a massive opportunity to cause loss of life and embarrassment to the authorities."
A second source agreed: "Britain is sitting at the receiving end of an al-Qaeda campaign."
New recruits carefully selected
The experts have concluded that Britain is an easier target because of its traditional links with Pakistan, which is visited by tens of thousands of people each year. Intelligence agencies have found it very difficult to penetrate the camps there.
Previously, security chiefs described the UK terrorist threat as comprising small groups which shared the same basic jihadi philosophy but lacked structure and were largely self-taught. Now, according to the report, intelligence suggests a much more hierarchical system, with a far greater degree of organization and inter-linkage, and sophisticated methods of recruitment, training and planning attacks.
According to the Guardian report, potential new recruits are carefully selected and targeted - mainly Muslim men in their late teens and early 20s - with recruiters often shunning the more obvious recruiting grounds of mosques and Islamic bookshops.
In August, the British police announced that it had thwarted an attempt to carry out simultaneous terror attacks in a number of passenger airplanes headed to the US. According to the reports, the planes were to take off to the US from airports in London, Glasgow and Manchester. Following the revelation, Britain upgraded its security alert status from "severe" to "critical."
The London police reported that terrorists had planned to place explosive devices in handbags and smuggle them into a number of passenger airplanes. The devices were to be detonated simultaneously.
