DIRECTOR OF UK'S MI5: MORE THAN 2000 JIHADO-TERRORISTS IN UK

THIS HARDLY SOUNDS LIKE A MERE "BUMPER STICKER" TO ME: BBC:

There are at least 2,000 people in the UK who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism, the head of MI5 has said.

Jonathan Evans said there had been a rise of 400 since November 2006.

He said children as young as 15 were being recruited for terrorist-related activity by al-Qaeda.

Resources that could be devoted to counter-terrorism were instead being used to protect the UK against spying by Russia, China and others, he added.

... Speaking on Monday at the Society of Editors' annual conference, he said the number of individuals in the UK causing concern had risen in part due to better intelligence gathering in "extremist communities".

"But it is also because there remains a steady flow of new recruits to the extremist cause."

In order to gather recruits, Mr Evans said, extremists were methodically and intentionally targeting vulnerable young people and children.

The UK had to do more to protect these young people, he added.

Mr Evans said attacks on the UK were "not simply random plots by disparate and fragmented groups", but part of a "deliberate campaign" by al-Qaeda.

In the past 12 months, MI5 had found links between an increasing range of countries and terror plots in the UK, he said.

In Iraq, Algeria and parts of East Africa, especially Somalia, he said, the "al-Qaeda brand" had expanded and now posed a threat to the UK.

'Root causes'

Mr Evans said he did not think the level of terror threat against the UK had "reached its peak".

"Every decision by the security service to investigate someone entails a decision not to investigate someone else"
Jonathan Evans

"We will do our utmost to hold back the physical threat of attacks, but alone, this is merely containment.

"Long-term resolution requires identifying and addressing the root causes of the problem."

• ROOT CAUSES!? ER UM... MAYBE IT'S ISLAM ITSELF!? AFTER ALL: NOT MANY MULLAHS ACCUSE BIN LADEN OF APOSTASY.

• AND I DON'T THINK THEY'RE WAGING JIHAD IN SOUTHERN THAILAND OR KASHMIR OR THE MOROS OR IN MOROCCO OR IN NIGERIA BECAUSE OF GAZA. OR BECAUSE OF IRAQ OR AFGHANISTAN. OR BUSH.

• THEY CERTAINLY DIDN'T ATTACK US IN 1983, 1993 AND 1998 AND 2000 AND 2001 BECAUSE OF IRAQ.

IT'S THE JIHAD, STUPID!

MORE ON THE EUROPEAN JIHADO-TERROR THREAT HERE - WHERE THE EU'S CHIEF OF COUNTER-TERROR ARGUES THAT AL QAEDA IS THE BIGGEST THREAT TO EUROPE.