Spy chief warns of Afghanistan ‘morale boost’ for extremists in wake of Taliban resurgence

Published

3 years ago

September 10, 2021

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The head of MI5 has said terrorist attacks on UK soil will likely happen on his watch and that his officers and the police have foiled six “late-stage” plots during the pandemic.

Ken McCallum revealed the number of terrorist plots the Security Service has to deal with has grown since the September 11 attacks on the United States 20 years ago, but they are generally smaller and less sophisticated.

And he said that his officers are planning for the possibility of a greater security risk to the UK flowing from Afghanistan following the exit of all US, British and other allied forces.

He warned the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan will have “heartened and emboldened” some extremists.

The comments came in a rare interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 atrocities in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Recalling that day, McCallum said he and some fellow officers had turned a television on in the corner of a room they were in after the first plane hit the World Trade Centre. He had been based in Northern Ireland at the time, running agents.

“As the second plane struck, a colleague quietly said ‘Osama Bin Laden’,” the security chief said, referring to the then leader of the terrorist group al Qaeda. Bin Laden directed the attack from Afghanistan, when the previous Taliban regime had been in power.

McCallum said a second colleague then said: “‘I guess we all know what we’re doing for the next 10 years of our lives’. And so it proved.”

The 9/11 carnage triggered the US-led invasion of Afghanistan and what then President George Bush dubbed the “war on terror”.

The director general of MI5 appeared resistant to that term, though, saying it gave undue credit to extremists as soldiers when they should be treated as criminals.

He said efforts by his agency, working with MI6, GCHQ, the police and partner nations, had reduced the ability of terrorists to launch so-called “spectacular” attacks – like 9/11 or the Bataclan devastation in Paris in 2015.

But their “broad success” has resulted in a growth of “inspirational terrorism”, with groups like Islamic State using the internet to inspire and instruct lone supporters to kill.

“The numbers of plots that we disrupt nowadays are actually higher than the numbers of plots which were coming at us after 9/11,” the security chief said.

“But on average they are smaller plots of lower sophistication.”

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Giving a sense of the tempo of activity, he said MI5 and the police had disrupted 31 “late-stage” terrorist plots in the past four years, including six during the period of the coronavirus pandemic.

The majority of these plots was by Islamist extremists, though he said there was also a growing right-wing terrorist threat.

Asked whether he thought there would be an attack on UK soil during his time as director-general, he said: “It would be reckless of anyone in a job like mine ever to claim that we would be able to provide 100% security.

“We never can. Of course there are likely to be terrorist attacks on UK soil on my watch.

“We wish it were not so and we spend our lives working as hard as we possibly can with partners to stop these things happening and constantly challenge ourselves on how we can learn lessons and innovate.”

The current threat level for a terrorist attack is “substantial”, meaning an attack is likely. This is two rungs down from the highest threat level of “critical”.

On Afghanistan, the MI5 chief said the threat from that country will not change overnight given that it takes time for a terrorist group like al Qaeda to be able to direct sophisticated plots again, including building training camps and other forms of infrastructure.

But the Taliban takeover had been an overnight “psychological boost, a morale boost” to extremists, he said.

“There is no doubt that recent events in Afghanistan will have heartened and emboldened some of those extremists,” he said.

The Taliban has pledged not to allow their country again to be used as a launchpad for international terrorism and the MI5 chief reiterated that the UK government’s position was to judge Afghanistan’s new rulers by their actions.

Be he appeared not to be taking any chances.

“We have to plan on the basis that more risk progressively may flow our way,” he said.

“And so we, working with our partners in MI6 and GCHQ and the police and international allies, need to do everything in our power to get ahead of those kinds of risks re-emerging.”

World

Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Published

24 hours ago

May 4, 2024

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Health warning issued as heatwave grips South and Southeast Asia

Countries in South and Southeast Asia have been coping with a weeks-long heatwave which has seen record temperatures sweep parts of the region.

Pupils in the Philippines, India and Bangladesh have been told to stay at home and learn remotely due to a severe health risk.

Schools in Cambodia have also cut back on their hours.

Cambodia faces its hottest temperature in 170 years, according to meteorologists – as high as 43C (109F).

Bangkok in Thailand has reached 40C (104 F), but the heat index is said to have topped 50 C (122 F) due to the heat being trapped among the mass of buildings.

The United Nations Children’s Fund warned in April that the heat could put the lives of millions of children at risk and asked people who care for them to take extra precautions.

A spokesperson for UNICEF said around 243 million children were exposed to hotter and longer heatwaves.

They said the increased heat was “putting them at risk of a multitude of heat-related illnesses, and even death”.

Thirty people in Thailand have died from heatstroke in the past month, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

People are being advised to avoid outdoor activities and to stay hydrated.

Several towns in Myanmar were included on lists of the hottest spots globally last month, with temperatures reaching 48.2C (118F) in at least one case.

Parts of eastern India also experienced their hottest April on record.

Kerala, on India’s west coast, this week instructed all schools and colleges to close until Monday, while influencers in Bangladesh have encouraging people to plant trees in response to the record heat.

Benjamin Horton, director of the Earth Observatory of Singapore, said there were three factors for heatwaves: a naturally-occurring climate phenomenon known as El Nino, an increase in global temperatures, and human-induced climate change.

Brazil is currently experiencing another climate phenomenon – La Nina – with 39 dead and 68 missing in floods across the country.

More than 24,000 people have been forced to leave their homes due to the flooding.

Scientists believe the naturally-occurring phenomenon has intensified due to the impact of climate change.

World

Philippine coastguard hits out at China’s ‘brute force’ after water cannon attack

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2024

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Philippine coastguard hits out at China's 'brute force' after water cannon attack

China has been branded “a bully” and an international lawbreaker after its ships blasted Philippine vessels with water cannon in the South China Sea.

Sky News was on board the BRP Bagacay when a Chinese vessel fired water at it, causing significant damage.

Philippine coastguard spokesman Jay Tarriela told Sky News that this week’s confrontation was the first time China had used “such aggression” against their ships.

“The metal parts and the railing were bent. The canopy was also destroyed. So this came as a surprise for us that China never hesitated to use brute force,” he said.

“It completely justifies us calling The People’s Republic of China a bully country.”

The Philippine coastguard was on a resupply mission to the Scarborough Shoal to deliver food and fuel to Philippine fishermen when they were struck.

The submerged reef lies in disputed waters. China claims sovereignty over the reef but it is much closer to the Philippines and lies within its legally recognised exclusive economic zone.

The vessel Sky News was on board was the closest the coastguard had ever been to the shoal – just 600 metres away from it.

Asked if the mission to the shoal was a provocative move by the Philippine coastguard, Commodore Tarriela denied they were “poking the bear” but rather “driving the bear out of our own territory”.

The Philippines has been stepping up its patrols in the area under the instruction of President Bongbong Marcos, and reasserting its claim to the shoal in recent months.

It has raised the spectre of open conflict. While neither side currently wants that, there is now a greater threat of open conflict.

Asked what the end game was for the Philippines, Commodore Tarriela said their priority was to “tell the world” about China’s aggression.

He said their secondary goal was to ensure “like-minded states” also made China “fall in line and respect international law”.

“Otherwise, it’s everybody’s loss,” he added.

Philippine government policy is not to resist using water cannon against Chinese vessels – and Commodore Tarriela insisted that policy remains in place after the confrontation.

The government also remains intensely determined to protect the waters it believes it has every right to operate in.

“We’re not going to yield and we’re not going to surrender a square inch of our territory,” Commodore Tarriela insisted.

Beijing has called the action its own coastguard took as “necessary”.

Speaking at the Chinese foreign ministry’s daily news conference, spokesperson Lin Jian described the coastguard’s conduct as “professional, proper, and lawful”.

World

Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada – in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Published

1 day ago

May 4, 2024

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Three charged over killing of Sikh separatist leader in Canada - in incident which sparked diplomatic spat with India

Three suspects have been charged by Canadian police over the killing of a Sikh separatist leader in Vancouver last June, in an incident that sparked a diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi.

Hardeep Singh Nijjar, 45, was shot dead outside a temple by masked gunmen in Surrey, outside Vancouver, on 18 June 2023.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner David Teboul said police could not comment on the nature of the evidence or the motive.

“This matter is very much under active investigation,” Teboul said.

The three suspects – Indian nationals Kamalpreet Singh, Karan Brar and Karampreet Singh – were arrested in Edmonton, Alberta, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said.

Superintendent Mandeep Mooker said: “This investigation does not end here. We are aware that others may have played a role in this homicide and we remain dedicated to finding and arresting each one of these individuals.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sparked a diplomatic feud with India when he said in September that there were “credible allegations” of Indian involvement in the killing. India angrily denied involvement.

Mr Nijjar, an Indian-born citizen of Canada, was a leader in what remains of the Khalistan movement – a once-strong group calling for the creation of an independent Sikh homeland.

He was organising an unofficial referendum in India for an independent Sikh nation at the time of this death and had denied allegations of ties to terrorism.

The Khalistan movement has lost much of its power but is still supported by some in the Punjab state in northwestern India and in the Sikh diaspora overseas.

A violent, decade-long Sikh insurgency shook north India in the 1970s and 1980s, and was ultimately crushed in a government crackdown which saw thousands of people killed, including prominent Sikh leaders.

In June 1984, Indian forces stormed the Golden Temple, the holiest Sikh shrine in Amritsar, where separatists had taken refuge.

In more recent years, the Indian government has repeatedly warned that Sikh separatists were trying to make a comeback.

Read more: What is the Khalistan movement?

The diplomatic row saw diplomats expelled by both India and Canada.

The Indian government said it “completely rejected” Mr Trudeau’s allegations and added: “We are a democratic polity with a strong commitment to rule of law.”

The dispute derailed trade talks between the two countries and ultimately saw Canada withdraw 41 of its 62 diplomats in India.

At the time, Canada did not provide public evidence to back up Mr Trudeau’s allegations. However, it did reveal the claims were based on intelligence provided by a major ally and surveillance of Indian diplomats in the country.