大象传媒

After a substantial delay, the parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), has finally published its report into the 7/7 London bombings.

One group representing families of the survivors and victims of the atrocity have already said it鈥檚 a 鈥渨hitewash鈥�.听

Could 7/7 have been prevented?听 That was the central question the security-cleared Members of Parliament sought to answer in their inquiry which began in 2007.听听 The members of this committee are all considered safe enough to see the most secret of state materials.

The problem for those seeking the truth of the claims that the intelligence and security services knew more about those responsible for the London bombings than they at first admitted is that they cannot see all the facts.

That naturally leads to suspicion.听 Suspicion leads to conspiracy theories. Conspiracy theories lead to a distortion of the truth.听听 We all end up far more paranoid than we need to be and stop doing what we can to stop 鈥渢he inevitable鈥�.

Intelligence report into 7/7 bombings

bomb plot

During the trial of the men accused of the conspiracy to manufacture and set off bombs made from fertiliser, the so-called Crevice trial, new facts 鈥渆merged鈥� into the public domain about two of the London bombers Mohammed Siddique Khan and Shazad Tanweer.

From early 2003 Operation Crevice began tracking a British based Al-Qaida cell which turned out to be at the heart of a massive bomb plot.听听 When that bomb plot was foiled in 2004 the men were placed on remand whilst the case against them was prepared.听听 The trial ran for over a year between March 2006 and April 2007 and five men were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In the midst of the police inquiries which led up to the trial the London bombers carried out their attack killing 52 people and injuring several hundred.

During the Crevice trial it became clear that London bombers Khan and Tanweer had crossed the radar of the intelligence services on several occasions.听听 But it was claimed that they were not seen as significant enough players to warrant high levels of surveillance.

With hindsight it is obvious each encounter with the future bombers was a missed opportunity.听 The ISC set out see whether foresight was lacking on the part of intelligence and security agents.听 In other words, could more have been done with this information to protect Londoners from the catastrophe of 7/7?

Kurt Barling

telephone calls

It is now clear that Mohammed Siddique Khan was captured on CCTV footage by the security services as early as 2001.听 He was one of the participants in a training camp organised by two known extremists.听听 He was not identified in 2001.听听 The person in the photograph was only subsequently confirmed as Khan after police went through their files after 7/7.

As well as the photograph, there were a number of telephone calls between Mohammed Qayum Khan and Mohammed Siddique Khan during 2003 and 2004.听听 Qayum was at the centre of the Crevice plot (currently he鈥檚 serving life in prison) and a top priority for the intelligence services.听听 At the time Khan was not seen as a significant player in that network and so did not get the full surveillance treatment.

In the jargon of the intelligence services,听 Qayum was an 鈥渆ssential鈥� target whilst Khan was the lower category of 鈥渄esirable鈥�.听 The ISC have accepted that this was not a slip up but more a question of prioritising resources.听听 For example indistinct recordings of conversations would have needed a lot more work to identify Mohammed Siddique Khan but at the time Qayum was the principal target and the focus was on gathering evidence on him.

The police say and the ISC accepts that only once Khan became a key suspect after 7/7 did the surveillance material available to the police begin to make sense.听听 Only then was the allocation of resources seen as a necessity and the many hours of expert analysis dedicated to transcribing conversations was undertaken.听听 This will not be the first, nor the last time, 鈥渆vidence鈥� will be missed whilst tracking terrorist suspects.

The way the MPs put it was that for surveillance to be around the clock, MI5 would need to be a 鈥渧ery different organisation, both in terms of its size and how it operates, which would have huge ramifications for our society and the way we live.鈥�

2,000 terrorist targets

So given the difficulty of placing an increasing circle of suspects under full-time surveillance, can the intelligence and security services stop it happening again?

The Head of MI5 suggested that there are around 2,000 terrorist targets as if to emphasise the scale of the counter-terrorism task.

The security services have adapted their tactics in the light of the missed opportunities with Khan and Tanweer.听听 Now they focus more on Islamist networks and not simply on key individuals.

The government had already fashioned its strategic response in March before the ISC report was made public.听听 The strategy known as CONTEST aims to 鈥減ursue, prepare, protect and prevent鈥� violent extremism and terrorism.

Forest Gate police raids in 2006

PREVENT is the element of the strategy which aims at 鈥渟topping people becoming terrorists or supporting violent extremism鈥�.听听 Through police forces, local authorities and local partnerships the emphasis on prevention places a lot of attention on seeking out potential terrorists.听听 This has in turn put a lot of pressure on Muslim communities across London.听

Conscious of the fallout out from failures of intelligence, like the botched 2006 raids in Forest Gate, the Metropolitan Police have starting to recruit more Muslim officers into liaison roles in counter-terrorism work.听听

cash help

But at the heart of PREVENT is the objective of engaging Muslim communities in a dialogue which will end up giving no space to those wishing to engage in violent Islamist extremism.

The government is making available 拢140 million in 2008/09 to help local communities devise programmes to prevent young men and women being sucked into terrorist activities.听 The Active Change Foundation is one such group in Walthamstow East London.听听 It has recruited outreach youth workers to target vulnerable young people.听听 There may be no more terrorists in Walthamstow than anywhere else but projects like these aims to keep it that way.

All these efforts though will struggle to deliver if Muslim communities believe they are only viewed through a security prism by the police, security services and the broader community.听听听 Al Qaida and its 鈥渞adicalisers鈥� thrive on the notion of Muslims being downtrodden and discriminated against.听

The ISC believes that the decisions taken prior to the 2005 bombings by member of the security services were understandable and reasonable at the time.听 7/7 was the day our luck ran out and they believe it is 鈥渧ery possible鈥� that it will run out again.听听

PREVENT is seen by the ISC as the weakest element in the CONTEST strategy.听听 It recognises the difficulty of the problem in tackling what might be seen as a 鈥減hantom enemy鈥�.听 At least a start has been made.听听 As the Head of MI5 said back in 2007, 鈥淟ong-term resolution requires identifying and addressing the root causes of the problem.鈥�