CIA Helping To Track 4000 UK Terror Suspects
January 4, 2009 by national
Filed under Homeland Security News
The CIA has begun an unprecedented intelligence-gathering operation in Britain to help MI5 monitor 4000 terrorist suspects.
More than four out of 10 CIA operations to prevent attacks on US soil are now conducted against targets in Britain.
This has led to friction between British and American spies, with some US intelligence officers irritated that resources are being diverted to gather intelligence on suspects in their closest ally’s backyard. British intelligence officers do not know the identity of all the CIA informers and are uneasy about some of the uses to which the intelligence has been put.
MI5 as a whole is glad of the help, however, and works closely with its sister service. US spies share information when it concerns security in Britain.
Intelligence from CIA informers is believed to have helped thwart more than one terrorist atrocity on British soil. Information passed on by a CIA source in Britain was also instrumental in locating Rashid Rauf, a British-born al-Qaeda operative killed by a US air strike in Pakistan on November 22.
A British official said: “There is a great deal of CIA activity inside the UK. The CIA has been given a free rein to raise, handle and process from intelligence sources inside the UK.
“In many cases we do not know who their assets are. Several of the recently foiled terrorist plots inside the UK were uncovered by informants run by US source handlers. We’ve been able to interdict these plots.”
via CIA tracking 4000 UK terror suspects | theage.com.au.
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=4404c018-7ae1-486b-a8f1-bd26ca57ec58)
I think you have to look beyond the turf issues and pool resources for the good of each ally.
This is where you find your friends, when you are in need. I am not sure a totally agree with the unregulated free rein approach is a good idea however the fact professionals can put aside their ego’s for the greater good is commendable.
Please keep up the good work.
A note to the British Government, please refrain from letting every immigrant, asylum seeker, freeloader and illegal immigrant from staying in the UK will go some way to mitigate the overall security situation.
I take it on board that the majority of these people may be citizens, but prudent housekeeping ensures issues do not surface 5, 10 years form now, its called being proactive!
Pandora’s box is open and we are reaping what politically corrupt politicians have sown decades ago.