Al-Qaeda 'sleepers' in Britain, says MI5

The following article could signal an ominous new development in the 'War on Terror'. Note that the supposed threat is described as 'sleepers' who lead normal lives. People who “to hide in plain sight", who are "not noticed and to all intents and purposes ... live a law-abiding existence”. It's such a broad, vague description that it could be stretched to cover just about anyone. In fact the following could serve as a useful preamble to extend the definition of 'terrorism'. So that ultimately anyone who disagrees with the phoney 'War on Terror', or even its conduct, could be labelled as a 'terrorist'. And that could include me, or you or even your family and friends . . . anyone. Ed.


Osama bin Laden's terror group has “sleepers” in the United Kingdom who live normal lives but are primed for terrorist action, the head of MI5 disclosed last night.

These individuals do not fit the typical image of a terrorist but just blend into society, Eliza Manningham-Buller, the Director-General of MI5, said.

She gave an insight into “new leads” that her service and other Western agencies have followed since the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Ms Manningham-Buller said: “Western security services have uncovered networks of individuals, sympathetic to the aims of al- Qaeda, that blend into society, individuals who live normal, routine lives until called upon for specific tasks by another part of the network.”

She added: “Some of these individuals are in the UK.”

In her second public lecture since becoming the head of MI5 a year ago, Ms Manningham-Buller said that one of the lessons learnt from September 11 and other incidents was the ability of the terrorist “to hide in plain sight, to be seen but not noticed and to all intents and purposes to live a law-abiding existence”.

She delivered the annual James Smart Memorial Lecture (in honour of the first chief constable of Glasgow) at the City of London Police headquarters, saying that bin Laden’s organisation had established “a highly covert series of networks” to support and sustain terrorist activities.

This explained why al- Qaeda had been able to carry out terrorist acts since September 11, despite the worldwide intelligence-gathering operation to counter its activities.

She said that, despite many recent counter-terrorist successes, she saw “no prospect of a significant reduction in the threat posed to the UK and its interests from Islamist terrorism over the next five years, and I fear for a considerable number of years thereafter”.

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Last updated 21/10/2003

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