Ministers 'shocked' at MI5's lack of information

[emad]

Ministers 'shocked' at MI5's lack of information

Antony Barnett and Martin Bright
Sunday October 2, 2005
The Observer


Ministers, senior police officers and top civil servants were shocked at MI5's lack of intelligence after the 7 July terrorist attacks, according to a senior Whitehall source present at meetings of Cobra, the government's crisis command group convened to react to the London bombings.

The Whitehall official who attended the emergency meetings in the aftermath of the attacks has told The Observer there was general 'shock' at the absence of information coming from the intelligence services about who was behind the London bombings.

He said: 'We were all waiting for some answers. We lived in hope that the security service would provide a thread, or a sliver, but no. That was a shock to the system.'

The official said there was a question whether MI5 had 'ever really engaged with the possibility that terrorists would be home-grown, British, English-speakers'.

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1583060,00.html

[PSPS]

1. Has Blair "cronied up" the UK's bureaus?

[emad]

2. Same as his JIC's WMD fiasco. John Scarlett, now head of MI6

a good 'mate' of Alistait Campbell.

Eliza Manningham-Buller clearly caught with her pants down over this one, inlcluding Pete Clark, head of Special Branch/Anti-Terrorism. AND Ian Blair.

I blame Thatcher. She started all the whitewash that ended up in all the 9/11 intelligence being systematically destroyed in early 2000.

[Rex]

3. It is as if they were in collusion with some other entity.

Strange, like killing an innocent man with five bullets to the back of the head strange.

[jsamuel]

4. Look familiar?

I hate being like this, but I can't help it.

Would they investigate themselves? F&cking SAS killed the Brazillian...

[leesa]

5. Well, if M15 didn't know, you phonies, then why were they pissed when

Bush mucked up their observation of the group implicated?