In the course of the trial, it emerged that whilst investigated the men convicted on Monday in 2004, MI5 also tailed two of the 7/7 London bombers but did not identify them as being a risk.
Omar Khyam, the leader of the fertilizer bomb plot, had met Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, the two leaders of the London suicide bomb plot.
Info4security.com brings you the national media reaction.
“If MI5 was diverted from pursuing Khan and Tanweer, but remained suspicious of them, then the logical step would have been to alert Special Branch to keep them under watch. It is not fanciful to suggest that had this simple measure been taken, the victims of 7/7 might still be alive.
“Today, the Information Commissioner Richard Thomas will warn the Commons’ Home Affairs Select Committee that Britain may be ‘sleepwalking into a surveillance society’. The prospect of pervasive surveillance is deeply disturbing in a free country. But there are no civil liberties in the grave. The trade-off between public safety and personal freedom is now likely to be a recurring theme in our national life.”
–The Telegraph
“The longest terrorism trial in the country’s history has produced a verdict that protects the public from five men who plotted methodically to murder on a massive scale. It has also revealed more than any case so far about the scale of the continuing threat posed to civilians by Islamist extremism. And it has sewn fresh anger and anguish in the minds of hundreds of people injured and bereaved by the attacks of July 7, 2005, who now have reason to believe those attacks could have been prevented.
“Operation Crevice saved lives by foiling a plot to detonate 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate. It was a triumph of policing, prosecution and jury deliberation. Yet terrorists may have learnt more from it, in the short term, than did the security services. They cannot afford to let suspects fall through the crevices again.”
– The Times
“So serious were these apparent blunders (by MI5) that David Davis, the shadow home secretary, last night called for an independent – but not public – inquiry into the 7/7 bombings and into MI5’s performance. “We weren’t told the whole truth, or anything like the whole truth, about Mohammad Sidique Khan,” said Mr Davis. “The government’s claim that they were clean skins doesn’t appear to stand up.”
“Senior opposition figures are questioning the ability of Westminster’s watchdog, the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), to scrutinise the work of MI5. Some told the Guardian they believed MI5 had let the country down and were convinced that Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller’s decision to retire as director-general of MI5 from last weekend was prompted by the agency’s failings – a suggestion MI5 firmly denies.”
– The Guardian
“Mr Reid was in magisterial mode. He was sombre as he appraised the terrorist threat facing us and heaped praise on the security services and the police. There was no need for a public inquiry. Instead, he was asking MI5 to answer questions on its website. Does that seem surreal to you? I didn’t know spies did web-chats. We must assume that YouSpy is on its way.”
– The Times
“This should have been a good day for MI5.
“Following the conviction today of members of a jihadist cell intent on causing carnage, the security service should by rights be enjoying well-deserved plaudits for thwarting a major plot. Instead, it is in the dock of public opinion for failing to prevent another.
“Luckily for them, the 3,000 or so officers of MI5 are not in it for the glory. They inhabit a clandestine twilight where their success is measured not by the number of terrorists they intercept but those they don’t.”
– The Telegraph
