The director-general of MI5, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, revealed in November 2006 that
My officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1,600 identified individuals (and there will be many we don't know) who are actively engaged in plotting, or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas.
Now, Sean Rayment of London's Sunday Telegraph reports, MI5 and the police discover or disrupt "some kind of terrorist plot in the United Kingdom every six weeks. Up to 12 plots of all kinds have been discovered in the past year and a half," or since the July 7 suicide bombings – twice as many as previously been made public. (February 4, 2007)
Feb. 25, 2007 update: A confidential document, Extremist Threat Assessment, paints a frightening picture of the terrorist threat facing Britain from home-grown Al-Qaeda agents, portraying this as higher than at any time since 9/11. And whereas Manningham-Buller of over 1,600 "identified individuals" engaged in terror plots, the new study counts more than 2,000. Further, "attack planning" will increase in 2007 as Al-Qaeda "will continue to seek opportunities for mass casualty attacks against soft targets and key infrastructure. These attacks are likely to involve the use of suicide operatives." The soft targets most at risk are the transport system and economic targets (the City of London, Canary Wharf).
