Anti Terror Chief: Britain Is Now No 1 Al-Qaida Target

Officials say group sees July 7 attacks as 'just the beginning' of UK campaign

Taken from the Guardian, UK, October 19, 2006
Rosie Cowan and Richard Norton-Taylor

Britain has become the main target for a resurgent al-Qaida, which has successfully regrouped and now presents a greater threat than ever before, according to counter-terrorist officials. They 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-Qaida has substantially recovered its organisation in Pakistan, despite a four-year military campaign to seek out and kill its leaders. In that time, the organisation has become much more coherent, with a strong core and a regular supply of volunteers.

More worrying, officials say, is evidence of new techniques that would-be terrorists within the UK have adopted. The structure of individual al-Qaida-inspired groups is much more like the old Provisional IRA cells, with self-contained units comprising a lead organiser/planner, a quartermaster in charge of weapons and explosives acquisition and training, and several volunteers.

Officials describe these groups as "multi-tasking" - involved in fraud and fundraising and courier work as well as planning attacks. "There is a hierarchy within each cell with a very tightly run command and control," said one counter-terrorism source.

Many suspects appear to be aware they are under surveillance and have taken to having important conversations outside - in parks and other public spaces - similar to the tactics used by PIRA leaders during the Troubles.

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 US atrocities in 2001.

"They viewed 7/7 as just the beginning," said one senior source. "Al-Qaida 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-Qaida campaign."

Britain is an easier target, they have concluded, 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, intelligence suggests a much more hierarchical system, with a far greater degree of organisation and inter-linkage, and sophisticated methods of recruitment, training and planning attacks.

However, core al-Qaida figures in Pakistan and their emissaries to Europe are still happy to delegate initiatives to different cells. The cells, intelligence shows, have different approaches - some might discuss a method of attack before talking about a target, while others discuss a potential target first.

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.

These young men are then put through a psychologically compelling indoctrination of weekend and evening briefings which start with legitimate religious lectures and prayer, but move gradually to more radical teachings and political discussions about the position of Islam in relation to the western world.

"It's all about building up these recruits to consider themselves as Muslim 'patriots' and encouraging them to make the leap and ask themselves 'This is how the west treats Muslims, what are we going to do about it?'" said one source.

The next stage often involves technical instruction in bomb-making, and during this phase, the recruiters do their best to engender a sense of brotherhood and bonding, sometimes putting recruits through bizarre initiation rites, such as staying out all night in remote areas in bad weather to prove their macho credentials and that they will not let their comrades down.

From this, the cells will move into latter-stage preparations, making martyrdom videos and shaving all their body hair off in readiness for an imminent suicide attack.

Even though the police and M15 have disrupted terror plots and groups influenced by al-Qaida, they describe the networks as very resilient.

They say there is a frightening number of young men willing to step up and replace those who have been arrested or gone to ground.

"It's like the old game of Space Invaders," said one senior counter-terrorism source. "When you clear one screen of potential attackers, another simply appears to take its place."