The Defence of the Realm (198 page)

152
 Security Service Archives.

153
 Stephen Lander, ‘Terrorism: The Genie out of the Bottle', closed lecture to Strategic and Combat Studies Institute, Staff College, Camberley, October 1996.

154
 Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander.

155
 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Sir Stephen Lander.

156
 Security Service Archives.

157
 Security Service Archives.

158
 Security Service Archives.

159
 Security Service Archives.

160
 Bew and Gallagher,
Northern Ireland
,
pp. 359
–
65
.

161
 Ibid.,
p. 365
.

Chapter 2: Holy Terror

1
 ‘The Paladin of Jihad',
Time, 6
May 1996.

2
 
The 9/11 Commission Report
,
p. 56
.

3
 Security Service Archives.

4
 The 9/11 Commission in the United States later reported that the Yemen attacks remained ‘unknown' to the US intelligence community until 1996–7.
The 9/11 Commission Report
,
p. 341
.

5
 Security Service Archives.

6
 Security Service Archives.

7
 Hoffman,
Inside Terrorism
,
p. 262
.

8
 Security Service Archives. During the Khomeini era only one of the attacks against Iranian dissidents (in 1987) had taken place in the UK.

9
 Security Service Archives.

10
 ‘Salman Rushdie: His life, his work and his religion',
Independent
, 13 Oct. 2006.

11
 Security Service Archives.

12
 Security Service Archives.

13
 Hoffman,
Inside Terrorism
,
p. 262
.

14
 Security Service Archives.

15
 Security Service Archives.

16
 The Security Service concluded in December 1998: ‘Despite the assurances given by [President] Khatami and Foreign Minister Kharrazi, there are indications that elements of the Iranian regime, not under their control, remain committed to carrying out the
fatwa
. . .' Security Service Archives. Over the next few years, however, no specific intelligence emerged of a plot to assassinate Rushdie in the UK.

17
 David Shayler's various allegations against the Security Service later included the claim that it had possessed intelligence which would have enabled it to prevent the attack on the embassy, but had failed to act on it. After investigation by the Service, the Home Secretary wrote to the editor of the
Mail on Sunday
on 30 October 1997: ‘It is not the case that such information as the Security Service had in their possession would have enabled it to prevent the Israeli Embassy bombing from happening. I can, however, see how Mr Shayler, as a junior member of the Service who was not involved in the relevant area of work at the time, could have gained this mistaken impression.' Security Service Archives.

18
 Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander.

19
 Security Service Archives.

20
 Security Service Archives. Appeals by the two convicted Palestinians, Jawad Botmeh, an electronics expert, and Samar Alami, were dismissed by the Court of Appeal in November 2001. Their later application to the European Court of Human Rights was dismissed in June 2007.

21
 Security Service Archives.

22
 Security Service Archives.

23
 Security Service Archives.

24
 Security Service Archives.

25
 Security Service Archives.

26
 ‘The Paladin of Jihad',
Time
, 6 May 1996.

27
 Security Service Archives.

28
 Security Service Archives.

29
 Security Service Archives.

30
 Security Service Archives.

31
 Security Service Archives.

32
 ‘Britain accused of harbouring New York bomber',
Evening Standard
, 17 Jan. 1997. Security Service Archives.

33
 Bodansky,
Bin Laden
,
p. 101
. Bodansky's biography, published in 1999, contained a glowing tribute from Professor Jeane Kirkpatrick of Georgetown University, formerly US representative at the United Nations. A new edition, repeating the claims about Bin Laden's residence in Dollis Hill, was published two years later, after 9/11.

34
 Recollections of Dame Stella Rimington.

35
 Security Service Archives.

36
 Security Service Archives.

37
 Security Service Archives.

38
 Security Service Archives.

39
 Security Service Archives.

40
 Wright,
Looming Tower
,
pp. 270
–
72
.

41
 
The 9/11 Commission Report
,
pp. 116
–
17
. Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
,
p. 117
.

42
 Security Service Archives.

43
 Security Service Archives.

44
 Security Service Archives.

45
 Next on the list of ‘successes against international terrorism' in 1998–9 came the ‘disruption of UBL-instigated attack in the Gulf through the passage of pre-emptive intelligence; winding up of Algerian Islamic extremist cell in London through the arrest of eight Algerians and 2 Tunisians'. Security Service Archives.

46
 The Security Service believed that other possible reasons which Bin Laden might have for planting false reports of impending terrorist attacks were:

 (i)  to test for leaks. UBL believes that his organisation is penetrated by hostile intelligence services. Thus, he may spread a rumour about an attack plan to a select number of people and then see if there is a response by the security authorities.

(ii)  to maintain morale. It is possible that UBL activists may become disillusioned with the lack of attacks against western interests. UBL may spread rumours to buoy up morale among his cadres.

Security Service Archives.

47
 Security Service Archives.

48
 Security Service Archives.

49
 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Jonathan Evans, 3 Feb. 2009.

50
 Security Service Archives.

51
 Recollections of a Security Service officer.

52
 
The 9/11 Commission Report
,
pp. 71
–
3
.

53
 ‘Crashes in NYC had grim origins at Logan',
Boston Globe
, 12 Sept. 2001.

54
 Security Service Archives.

55
 ‘Men “Planned Fireworks Business” ', BBC News [online], 8 Feb. 2002. ‘Bomb Maker Jailed for Twenty Years', BBC News [online], 27 Feb. 2002. ‘Abedin Team May Go Abroad', BBC News [online], 27 Feb. 2002.

56
 Security Service Archives.

57
 Speech by DG, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 9 Nov. 2006; the full text appears on the Security Service website.

58
 This was the conclusion of the Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre (JTAC). Security Service Archives.

59
 Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
,
p. 260
.

60
 Security Service Archives. Claims that UBL had also fallen for a ‘red mercury' scam in 1993 are disputed. Wright,
Looming Tower
,
pp. 190
–
91
,
411
–
12
.

61
 Security Service Archives.

62
 Security Service Archives.

63
 Security Service Archives.

64
 Security Service Archives.

65
 Security Service Archives.

66
 Security Service Archives.

67
 Security Service Archives.

68
 Security Service Archives.

69
 Interview with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007. Recollections of Sir Stephen Lander. Significantly, Alastair Campbell's published diaries, which begin in 1994, contain no reference to the Security Service (save for a reference to the government injunction against Shayler) until 9/11 – at which point they begin to acknowledge that Lander was ‘pretty impressive' and ‘very good on big picture and detail'.

70
 Campbell,
Blair Years
,
p. 560
.

71
 Interview by Christopher Andrew with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007.

72
 Campbell,
Blair Years
,
pp. 560
–
61
.

73
 Security Service Archives.

74
 Campbell,
Blair Years
,
p. 561
.

75
 Ibid.,
p. 563
.

76
 Interview with Lord Wilson of Dinton, Jan. 2007.

77
 Security Service Archives.

78
 At Langley they were joined by Blair's chief foreign policy adviser, Sir David Manning, who happened to be in Washington. Recollections of Baroness Manningham-Buller.

79
 Tenet,
At the Center of the Storm
,
p. 174
.

80
 Campbell,
Blair Years
,
pp. 567
–
8
.

81
 Blunkett,
Blunkett Tapes
,
p. 333
.

82
 Security Service Archives.

83
 Campbell,
Blair Years
,
p. 578
.

84
 Security Service Archives.

85
 Security Service Annual Review 2001–2.

Chapter 3: After 9/11

1
 Security Service Archives.

2
 ‘Guard admits stealing secrets', BBC News, 17 Dec. 2001. ‘Guard jailed for stealing secrets', BBC News, 1 Feb. 2002.

3
 Security Service Archives.

4
 It would have been shorter still but for Bravo's decision to take a brief holiday abroad. Security Service Archives.

5
 Security Service Archives.

‘Guard admits stealing secrets', BBC News, 17 Dec. 2001. ‘Guard jailed for stealing secrets',

6
 BBC News, 1 Feb. 2002.

7
 Security Service Archives.

8
 Security Service Archives. ‘Plane engineer admits spying', BBC News, 29 Nov. 2002. ‘Southend sting halts a spy called Hazard',
Guardian
, 30 Nov. 2002. ‘Spy engineer jailed for 10 years', BBC News, 4 April 2003.

9
 Security Service Archives.

10
 Security Service Archives.

11
 Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, ‘Learning from Experience – Counter Terrorism in the UK since 9/11', the Colin Cramphorn Memorial Lecture, 24 April 2007. On 30 October 2003, Manningham-Buller told the Sub-Committee on International Terrorism of the Ministerial Committee on Defence and Overseas Policy:

At that stage [9/11] the intelligence suggested that the United Kingdom was seen as a comparatively safe haven and secure operating base for A[l] Q[aida], with little indication that they were intent on carrying out attacks here. Since then our understanding of the threat had evolved significantly. As a result of our investigations here and intelligence from overseas, it had become clear that the United Kingdom itself and our interests overseas were a prime target for attack by AQ and its allies.

Security Service Archives.

12
 In 1997, with ministerial approval, Lander had appointed Manningham-Buller as the only DDG, discontinuing the practice since 1985 of having both a DDG(A) and a DDG(O).

13
 ‘Fairy Godmother of the security service',
Daily Mail
, 11 August 1997.

14
 DG talk to Lady Margaret Hall London dinner, 21 May 2003.

15
 Security Service Archives.

16
 See above,
p. 815
. The PUS at the Home Office, Sir Clive Whitmore, wrote to Rimington in October 1992: ‘I welcome the news that Eliza Manningham-Buller is to be promoted to Director [in 1993] and that as Director A she will be in a position where she can build on the links that she is at present making with the police on intelligence against the PIRA on the mainland.' Security Service Archives, Home Office Archives.

17
 Interview with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, 3 April 2007. The first paragraph of her application, despite a reference to ‘step-change', embodied the ‘Miss Continuity' approach:

I see plenty for the Service to do: developing our work on International Terrorism and the proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction in response to the threat to the UK, including the provision of security advice to a significantly wider range of customers; shaping a changed role for the Service in countering Irish terrorism with the devolution of policing to the Northern Irish Assembly; evolving the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre and the Service's work on electronic attack; helping to strengthen law enforcement intelligence and assessment skills to improve the UK's approach to serious crime; delivering an IM [information management] programme so that there is a step-change in the Service's efficiency and effectiveness; and making best use of the extra resources allocated to the Service to generate more intelligence, action and advice to reduce the threat to the UK's national security.