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| Serious doubts on MI6 ability to prevent any terrorist strikes |
| MI6 face serious doubts about its ability to deal with future terrorist attacks by failing to understand the scale of the threat posed by al-Qaida. The Parliamentary Intelligence and Security Committee said that MI6 along with other government intelligence services were aware last July that an attack by Osama bin Laden group was in the "final stages of preparation." "While U.S. or Israeli interests were the most likely targets, U.K. interests were at risk, including from collateral damage in attacks on U.S. targets," the report said. "This lack of intelligence access to a notably hard target meant that the U.K. did not know who was going to carry out attacks, how the attacks were going to be mounted or where the attacks were going to take place." The agencies warned lawmakers of a "pressing need" to gather more intelligence but the committee said more should have been done. "The shortage of specific intelligence and Osama bin Laden's record could have warned all concerned that more urgent action was needed to counter this threat," the report said. British agencies discussed the al-Qaida threat at a joint summit with their U.S. counterparts in June. A Joint Intelligence Committee report concluded the al-Qaida attacks were in their final stages of preparation. The agencies were granted an additional 54 million pounds a year soon after Sept. 11, the committee said it was now essential that they received additional resources. MI6 needed to increase staff numbers, particularly linguists, the report said. "There will be a particular need for operational officers with the skills and experience to undertake unconventional deployments," the report said. |