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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6134516.stm

Last Updated: Friday, 10 November 2006, 08:51 GMT

"MI5 tracking '30 UK terror plots'"

ARTICLE SNIPPET: "MI5 knows of 30 terror plots threatening the UK and is keeping 1,600 individuals under surveillance, the security service's head has said.
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller warned the threat was "serious" and "growing".

She warned future terrorists could mount chemical or nuclear attacks and that many of the plots in question "linked back to al-Qaeda".

A spokesman for the Muslim Council of Britain said Muslims would work with security services to thwart such plots.

Hard choices

MI5 has increased in size by nearly 50% since 9/11 and now stands at roughly 2,800 staff.

But according to Dame Eliza the concern is that even with this rapid growth it will not be able to investigate nearly enough of the activity that is currently under way in the UK. She said hard choices would have to be made about resources.

"I wish life were like Spooks [the TV series] where everything is, a, knowable, and, b, soluble by six people," she explained.

Tomorrow's threat may - I suggest will - include the use of chemicals, bacteriological agents, radioactive materials and even nuclear technology
Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller

Dame Eliza's terror warning

Dame Eliza's warning comes days after a UK man was sentenced to at least 40 years in jail for planning a series of attacks.

Attacks planned by Dhiren Barot, 34, from London, included using a so-called "dirty bomb" using radioactive material.

In response to Dame Eliza's warning, Massoud Shadjareh, of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, said he accepted there was a terrorist threat but said it had to be put into perspective."