Individuals who have radicalised themselves cause greatest concern to UK security services, writes Sandra Laville
T he names Andrew Ibrahim, Nicky Reilly and Roshonara Choudhry are etched on the minds of counter terrorism police and security service officials as they prepare for what is the biggest security operation ever mounted in Britain.
In the past five years it is these individuals who have come closest to bringing death and destruction to the streets in the name of Islamist extremism. They are what the security services call lone wolves, individuals who are not operating under the direction of al-Qaida, but have radicalised themselves on the internet and remained under the radar of the security services before emerging to strike.
In the years immediately after 9/11 it was al-Qaida-directed plots, using people returning from training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, that caused the greatest concern to UK security services. But today it is these lone wolves who present the biggest terrorist threat to the safety of the Olympics in London by virtue of their unknown quantity and unpredictability.
Choudhry radicalised herself over an intense six months using the internet and listening to the sermons of al-Qaida's now dead leader in the Arab peninsula, Anwar al-Awlaki. She came closest to killing when she stabbed the Labour MP Stephen Timms twice in the abdomen at his constituency surgery in east London; it was in revenge, she said, for the Iraq war.
Ibrahim, a public school pupil from Bristol, used the internet to make himself a suicide vest. Reilly attempted to blow himself up in Exeter with a homemade nail bomb in the lavatory of the Giraffe restaurant.
Amateurs they might be, but it only takes one home-grown, self-radicalised, extremist to get lucky once – while, in the words of the IRA after the Brighton hotel bombing in 1984, the security services and police "will have to be lucky always".
More than 500 MI5 officers have been assigned exclusively to the Olympics; they will be examining chatter, as well as planning and ensuring all the security systems are operating correctly. In the coming weeks the numbers of officers are certain to increase significantly.
Another threat comes from the al-Qaida-inspired separatist group al-Shabaab in Somalia. Britons are believed to make up about a quarter of the 200 or so of its foreign fighters, according to the Royal United Services Institute, the UK security forum. Individuals returning via uncharted routes from Somalia will have had weapons and explosives training but still face the difficulty of finding the wherewithal of carrying out terrorist attacks in the UK.
The hunt in Kenya for a woman, who is believed to be the widow of the 7 July bomber Germaine Lindsay, has highlighted the attraction for British jihadists of al-Shabaab and its growing terrorist campaign against tourist resorts in Kenya. Samantha Lewthwaite was not considered a threat by security services in the aftermath of the 7 July bombings when she condemned the attacks. Scotland Yard forensic experts are examining the remains of her computer seized by Kenyan police in a suspected bomb-making factory in Mombasa amid suspicions that she may be part of a terrorist cell.
Fellow suspect Jermaine Grant, from Newham, east London, who is charged with explosives offences, is being held by the Kenyan police. They are also hunting Habib Ghani, from HouslowHounslow, west London, on suspicion of preparing terrorism.
These individuals are now well known. And the security service is confident it knows the identity of many of the British jihadists fighting in Somalia. But there is always the likelihood someone could slip through the net.
Other strands of threats include the continuing activities of dissident Irish republican terrorists and the issue of the so-called imported threat.
Also with about 120 heads of state in the UK for the Games, police and security services are alive to the enemies of some of these heads of state choosing to mount assassination attempts on British soil.
Counter terrorism police already have experience of such attacks. Police in London are still hunting the killer of the Pakistani politician Imran Farooq, who was stabbed to death in what police believe was a contract killing outside his home in north London in 2010.
Farooq was a senior figure in the Pakistan's MQM party (Muttahida Quami Movement) and was living in exile in London. And Scotland Yard last year issued Osman warnings (threats to life warning notices) to two Rwandan dissidents in Britain.
High-profile exercises involving the military and police will take place in the skies above London, on the streets, and on the Thames, as the countdown to the Olympics begins. Tough, zero tolerance, policing is likely to be more obvious.
The Metropolitan police commissioner, Bernard Hogan-Howe, has indicated the potential greater use of tasers, and made clear that large numbers of police will be used to avoid a repeat of the December 2010 student fees protest when officers seemed unable to contain an outbreak of violence.
Away from the reassuring public messages, there is no doubting the tension and anxiety of those charged with protecting Britain during the Olympic Games.
Cressida Dick, assistant commissioner of the Met, in charge of counter terrorism, is refusing interview requests in order, her office says, to concentrate on the work ahead.
Scotland Yard plays down any concerns that Dick is the fifth national counter terrorism police lead to be appointed since the suicide bombings on 7 July 2005 which killed 52 people. But Dick admitted, as she gave evidence to the home affairs select committee in January, that there had been instability at the top of Scotland Yard as it faced its greatest challenge."There has been some instability at the board level," she said. "Certainly there have been a number of changes, but our commissioner now has his feet firmly under the table… to cut to the quick, w "We are looking forward to a period of stability," she said.
She also gave an insight into the planning for the events. "We have done some very detailed planning over the past few months on the counter-terrorism side … we have tried to learn from Olympic Games all round the world, and not just [the] Games, but other large-scale events, and from colleagues around the world. London is an attractive target in some respects … There is a lot more work to do. I am not complacent."
Away from the reassuring public messages, there is no doubting the tension and anxiety of those charged with protecting Britain during the Olympic Games. One security observer told The Guardian: "It is difficult to exaggerate the nervousness of the police and the security services over what is an unprecedented and enormous challenge ahead."
More than 500 MI5 officers have for many months been assigned exclusively to the Olympics examining chatter, planning and making sure all the security systems are operating correctly. In the coming weeks these numbers are certain to increase significantly.