Al-Qaeda 'bid to infiltrate British Security service MI5'

BBC NEWS, UK
"Al-Qaeda sympathisers have been trying to infiltrate the British security service MI5, the BBC has learned.

Whitehall officials confirmed what some had long suspected, says BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner.

But those with al-Qaeda sympathies were weeded out during a six to eight-month vetting process, officials added.

Meanwhile anti-terrorism police probing the 7 July London bombings say people who knew the attacks were being planned would face prosecution.

Officers at a Scotland Yard briefing said they continued to be very concerned by the intelligence picture, with 70 investigations continuing and some of the information received described as 'very sinister'.

The head of the Metropolitan Police's anti-terrorist branch, Peter Clarke, said 60 people were awaiting trial in the UK for terrorist-related offences.

But he warned: 'This is unprecedented, and the flow of new cases shows no sign of abating - if anything it is accelerating.'

MI5 believes, from polls, that around 400,000 people in the UK are 'sympathetic to violent jihad around the world', said Frank Gardner." Read more.