AQAP, Shabaab Already Have Cells in the UK
The Home Secretary said an “associate” of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was arrested earlier this year and was allegedly planning a terrorist attack in Britain.
One of the central figures in the organisation in Yemen is Anwar al-Awlaki, who is thought to have been behind the planned attack on passenger aircraft uncovered last week.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has emerged as a major new threat to Britain since the failed parcel bombs last week and the failed underpants bombing on Christmas Day.
But it is also part of a new network of al-Qaeda affiliated groups across the Middle East, East Africa and North Africa which are targeting Britain, the Home Secretary warned.
Mrs May said it was “highly likely” that attacks would also come from al-Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia, East Africa.
Those smaller groups now pose more of a threat to Britain than al-Qaeda's core in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, she added.
Her warning follows a series of speeches about the terrorist threat from the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
“The intelligence briefings I read on a daily basis still usually start with plots in this country directed by al-Qaeda’s senior leadership... but al-Qaeda is not the organisation it once was,” Mrs May said.
Al-Qaeda is now weaker than at any time since September 11, she said, but there are “many other terrorist groups now aspire to attack us.”
Mrs May said AQAP in the Middle East had been “at the forefront” of the security services’ thinking for some time because they had “shown the ability to project a threat far beyond the borders of Yemen.”
“Police and agencies have been working to disrupt AQAP operatives in this country,” she added, explaining: “An AQAP associate was arrested here earlier this year. He is alleged to have been planning a terrorist attack in this country. Threats such as these are likely to continue.”
She said al-Shabaab was “thriving” in Somalia, just across the Red Sea from Yemen, and had “developed links to al-Qaeda and, we assess, to AQAP.”
“It has aspirations beyond Somali borders,” she warned, and added: “We know that people from this country have already gone to Somalia to fight.”
Mrs May said it “seems highly likely, given experience elsewhere, that if left to their own devices we would eventually see British extremists, trained and hardened on the streets of Mogadishu, returning to the UK and seeking to commit mass murder on the streets of London.”
Another group threatening Britain is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, based across a stretch of North Africa known as the Sohal, which kidnapped and executed the British tourist Edwin Dyer last year.
“We do not believe the group yet has the capability to carry out a terrorist attack on British soil but I don’t doubt that would be their aspiration,” Mrs May said.
Mrs May said al-Qaeda no longer had a “strong, directive and commanding centre” and was now “joined more by ideology than hierarchy.”
The Home Secretary also referred to Anwar al-Awlaki, the AQAP leader whose online lectures also helped radicalise former student Roshonara Choudhry, who was sentenced to life in jail today for the attempted murder of the MP Stephen Timms.
She echoed pleas made by Dame Pauline Neville Jones, the security minister, in an address in Washington last week, when she called on the Americans to take tougher action on websites that carry his lectures.
“AQAP continue to broadcast propaganda to this country and to publish online material which encourages acts of terrorism,” Mrs May said. “We have seen the damage this propaganda can cause in the ongoing case of the attack on the MP Stephen Timms.”
The Home Secretary warned: “Attacks might now come from foreign nationals or from British citizens recruited by al-Qaeda, by its affiliate groups or by al-Qaeda inspired groups.”
She warned that last week’s parcel bombs, intercepted in Leicester and Dubai, were “deeply concealed” in the ink cartridge of a desktop printer represented as the latest attempt by terrorist to probe gaps in security.
The planned attack, using a device in unaccompanied baggage, “bears some resemblance to the attack on pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988,” she said.
She also talked of the need to plan for the possibility of a Mumbai-style terrorist firearms attack in Britain and promised to invest in the firearms capabilities of police. Telegraph
But it is also part of a new network of al-Qaeda affiliated groups across the Middle East, East Africa and North Africa which are targeting Britain, the Home Secretary warned.
Mrs May said it was “highly likely” that attacks would also come from al-Shabaab, a terrorist group in Somalia, East Africa.
Those smaller groups now pose more of a threat to Britain than al-Qaeda's core in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan, she added.
Her warning follows a series of speeches about the terrorist threat from the heads of MI5, MI6 and GCHQ.
“The intelligence briefings I read on a daily basis still usually start with plots in this country directed by al-Qaeda’s senior leadership... but al-Qaeda is not the organisation it once was,” Mrs May said.
Al-Qaeda is now weaker than at any time since September 11, she said, but there are “many other terrorist groups now aspire to attack us.”
Mrs May said AQAP in the Middle East had been “at the forefront” of the security services’ thinking for some time because they had “shown the ability to project a threat far beyond the borders of Yemen.”
“Police and agencies have been working to disrupt AQAP operatives in this country,” she added, explaining: “An AQAP associate was arrested here earlier this year. He is alleged to have been planning a terrorist attack in this country. Threats such as these are likely to continue.”
She said al-Shabaab was “thriving” in Somalia, just across the Red Sea from Yemen, and had “developed links to al-Qaeda and, we assess, to AQAP.” “It has aspirations beyond Somali borders,” she warned, and added: “We know that people from this country have already gone to Somalia to fight.”
Mrs May said it “seems highly likely, given experience elsewhere, that if left to their own devices we would eventually see British extremists, trained and hardened on the streets of Mogadishu, returning to the UK and seeking to commit mass murder on the streets of London.”
Another group threatening Britain is al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, based across a stretch of North Africa known as the Sohal, which kidnapped and executed the British tourist Edwin Dyer last year.
“We do not believe the group yet has the capability to carry out a terrorist attack on British soil but I don’t doubt that would be their aspiration,” Mrs May said.
Mrs May said al-Qaeda no longer had a “strong, directive and commanding centre” and was now “joined more by ideology than hierarchy.”
The Home Secretary also referred to Anwar al-Awlaki, the AQAP leader whose online lectures also helped radicalise former student Roshonara Choudhry, who was sentenced to life in jail today for the attempted murder of the MP Stephen Timms.
She echoed pleas made by Dame Pauline Neville Jones, the security minister, in an address in Washington last week, when she called on the Americans to take tougher action on websites that carry his lectures.
“AQAP continue to broadcast propaganda to this country and to publish online material which encourages acts of terrorism,” Mrs May said. “We have seen the damage this propaganda can cause in the ongoing case of the attack on the MP Stephen Timms.”
The Home Secretary warned: “Attacks might now come from foreign nationals or from British citizens recruited by al-Qaeda, by its affiliate groups or by al-Qaeda inspired groups.”
She warned that last week’s parcel bombs, intercepted in Leicester and Dubai, were “deeply concealed” in the ink cartridge of a desktop printer represented as the latest attempt by terrorist to probe gaps in security.
The planned attack, using a device in unaccompanied baggage, “bears some resemblance to the attack on pan Am 103 over Lockerbie in 1988,” she said.
She also talked of the need to plan for the possibility of a Mumbai-style terrorist firearms attack in Britain and promised to invest in the firearms capabilities of police. Telegraph
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