BRITAIN: MI5 (British counter intelligence) has identified 30 major terrorist plots being planned in Britain and is targeting more than 1,600 individuals actively engaged in promoting attacks here and abroad, Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of the agency, warned today.
The 30 plots are the most serious of many more planned by some 200 British-based "networks" involved in terrorism, she says. In a gloomy assessment of the home-grown terrorist threat, MI5 says most of those involved are British-born, and most are connected with al-Qaeda.
Dame Eliza is known for her sober assessments about the extent of the terrorist threat and has distanced herself in the past from ministers' more dramatic speeches on the subject, so her public intervention will be taken seriously.
However, sceptics will question why MI5 and the police have not acted to arrest or charge those said to pose such a direct threat to Britain's security.
Security sources argue that the alleged plotters are still being tracked because there is either insufficient evidence to apprehend and charge them or because their plans have not reached the stage when they pose an imminent threat to the public.
Dame Eliza described the extent of the threat MI5 says Britain faces in a rare public speech in which she expressed concern about the scale and speed of those being radicalised and indoctrinated and how young teenagers were being "groomed to be suicide bombers".
She said it was clear from "martrydom" videos that suicide bombers are motivated in part by "their interpretation as anti-Muslim of UK foreign policy, in particular the UK's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan".
The prime minister, Tony Blair, has repeatedly said that linking terrorism to the government's foreign policy is absurd.
Dame Eliza's speech, which will be published on MI5's website today, was cleared by John Reid, the home secretary.
It was delivered to an invited audience at Queen Mary College, University of London yesterday.
The Guardian revealed last month that counter-terrorist officials have warned that Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaeda. But this is the first time MI5 has provided figures to illustrate its assertions.
"We are aware of numerous plots to kill people and to damage our economy," said Dame Eliza.
She added: "What do I mean by numerous? Five? Ten? No, nearer 30 . . . that we know of."
These plots, she said, "often have links back to al-Qaeda in Pakistan and through those links al-Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here on an extensive and growing scale".
If opinion polls were broadly accurate, more than 100,000 British citizens considered the July 2005 attacks on London were justified, Dame Eliza said.
Some of those MI5 says it has identified are involved in financial support and fraud, according to counter-terrorism officials.
Dame Eliza said that at the extreme end were "resilient networks, some directed from al-Qaeda in Pakistan, some more loosely inspired by it, planning attacks including mass casualty suicide attacks in the UK".
Tomorrow's threat "may include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials, and even nuclear technology", she said.
She added: "More and more people are moving from passive sympathy towards active terrorism through being radicalised or indoctrinated by friends, families, in organised training events here and overseas, by images on television, through chat rooms and websites on the internet."