Intelligence chiefs warn Blair of home-grown 'insurgency' 

By Raymond Whitaker and Francis Elliott 

08/07/05 "The Independent" -- -- Intelligence chiefs are warning Tony
Blair that Britain faces a full-blown Islamist insurgency, sustained
by thousands of young Muslim men with military training now resident
in this country. 

The grim possibility that the two London attacks were not simply a
sporadic terror campaign is being discussed at the highest levels in
Whitehall. Fears of a third strike remain high this weekend, based on
concrete evidence supplied by an intercepted text message and the
interrogation of a terror suspect being held outside Britain, say US
reports. 

As police and the security services work to prevent another cell
murdering civilians, attention is focusing on the pool of migrants to
this country from the Horn of Africa and central Asia. MI5 is working
to an estimate that more than 10,000 young men from these regions have
had at least basic training in light weapons and military explosives. 

A well-connected source said there were more than 100,000 people in
Britain from "completely militarised" regions, including Somalia and
its neighbours in the Horn of Africa, and Afghanistan and territories
bordering the country. "Every one of them knows how to use an AK-47,"
said the source. "About 10 per cent can strip and reassemble such a
weapon blindfolded, and probably a similar proportion have some
knowledge of how to use military explosives. That adds up to tens of
thousands of men." 

Even though the vast majority had come to Britain to escape the
lawlessness of their homelands, the source added, there remained an
alarmingly large pool of trained men who could be lured into violent
action here. 

This threat had been largely neglected while attention focused on
British-born militants who had been through training camps run by 
al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan. 

"There has been a debate on whether we are facing an insurgency or
terrorism," said the source, "and the verdict is on the side of an
insurgency." 

[...]

(c) 2005 Independent News & Media (UK) Ltd. 

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Full article at Information Clearinghouse ...
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9697.htm


Cheers, Steve..

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