Home-grown ISIS terrorists are the biggest danger to Britain, MI5 boss warns
HOME-grown ISIS terrorists are the biggest danger to Britain today, the boss of MI5 has warned today.
Sir Andrew Parker said the danger from Islamic State has not diminished in Britain even though it’s been almost entirely wiped out in Syria and Iraq.
Extremist ideology and hate thoughts don’t need “territory to survive”, he told the Evening Standard, and they can still launch “large scale attacks”.
Four out of five terror plots in Britain and the West were thanks to home grown terrorists inspired by ISIS but without having contact with its members, he revealed.
“We must not be complacent,” he said, and that “Islamist terrorism remains the most acute” of the multiple threats facing the UK.
The fall of ISIS abroad has been “symbolic” only, he said.
“In the UK, there remain individuals who are inspired by Daesh propaganda despite having shown no interest in travelling to Syria.
“The pull of this propaganda is startling: of the plots thwarted by police and MI5 and our Western allies in 2018, 80 per cent were conducted by people inspired by the ideology of Daesh, but who had never actually been in contact with Daesh figures in Syria or Iraq.
“We also know that, despite their losses, the intent of Daesh’s remaining members to direct terrorist attacks around the world, including on European soil, has not diminished. ”
His words come just weeks after the horrific murder of hundreds in Sri Lanka in a series of bombings on Easter Sunday.
And earlier this week the reappearance of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a video calling on supporters to carry out attacks.
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Vital evidence needed to foil the plots were being “buried” online overseas and on social media, Mr Parker added.
Despite leaving the EU Britain has been “deepening” its ties with European intelligence agencies, with all sides committing to work together when we’re out.
“Increasingly, the vital piece of information that might stop an attack is unlikely to be held by MI5 but buried somewhere else in the mountain of data generated each day, often scattered across the world,” he explained.
And Britain’s intelligence services were using artificial intelligence and machines to try and sift out information across the globe to stop people being radicalised, spreading hate and plotting murder, Mr Parker added.
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