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Al-Qaeda 'on Britain's doorstep'

From correspondents in London
November 15, 2004

POLICE and intelligence agencies had prevented international terrorists from striking Britain by disrupting planned attacks, the head of London's police said today.

However, the minister in charge of law enforcement said the threat of a terrorist attack in Britain remained.

"Al-Qaeda and the international network is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over months to come, to be actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives," Home Secretary David Blunkett said on BBC TV.

He was referring to several terror suspects expected to go on trial in the coming year.

"They may be found not guilty. But our security and policing services have been securing our wellbeing over the last few years," Mr Blunkett said.

Earlier, Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens said London's police had "thwarted a number of attacks".

"There's a large number of people going through the courts," he said on BBC TV. "We can't talk about the details of that, which is slightly frustrating.

"But we have had considerable successes and that's been the result of working extremely hard with the intelligence services."

Mr Stevens had previously said that discussing the cases of alleged terrorists in detail could compromise future trials.

Five days after the March 11 train bombings in Madrid, Mr Stevens said a terrorist attack in Britain was "inevitable".

Today, he said the terrorist threat remained "real".

"When I said attacks were inevitable, during that period of time there was an attack taking place on London. But we are there to ensure that that attack does not take place, and, thank God, up to date we have been successful," he said.

He did not give details of the planned attack. However, in late March police arrested six men and seized 600kg of potential bomb-making fertiliser. The men have been charged with conspiring to cause an explosion and their trial is tentatively set for September.

Mr Stevens said co-operation between European countries on combating terrorism had improved "massively" in the past nine months.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,11389251%255E1702,00.html