Wednesday, 7th January 2009
MI5 is winning the battle against terrorism, says the internal security organisation's chief.
Terrorists "are keeping their heads down," said Jonathan Evans yesterday in the first on-the-record briefing of its kind ever staged by a serving spy chief.
Explaining his confidence that the terror threat was on the wane, Evans said, "there have been 86 successful convictions since January 2007 of whom approaching half pleaded guilty, which has had a chilling effect on the enthusiasm of the networks."
Evans is worried the recession might help foster terrorism and that the London Olympics in 2012 might be a focus for an attack, but appeared relatively relaxed about London and Britain's security.
Maybe that's because the numbers are on his side. Evans reported that MI5 are keeping tabs on 2,000 people they believe to have links to terrorism.
Meanwhile, MI5 itself now has 4,000 staff, double its strength of five years ago. Add in police anti-terrorism units and other government spook bodies, including GCHQ and the Defence Intelligence Staff and there are at least 3 spooks to each terrorist, even assuming all 2,000 suspects are guilty.
The picture shows Thames House, MI5's London HQ near Lambeth Bridge. It's a bit of a QI-style wah-wah blunder to think MI5 do their thing at the Lego-style place at Vauxhall - that's where James Bond's pals at MI6 plot Blofeld's demise.
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