MI5 and Britain's Police Chiefs in Furious Row Over Claims That Al Qaeda Has Sam-7 Missiles in UK

Jan. 27, 2003
by Gordon Thomas

A furious row has broken out between MI5 and Britain's Association of Chief Police Officers. It follows the BBC publication on its world-wide news service of claims attributed to the Association's counter-terrorist expert that Al Qaeda cells in Britain possess Sam-7 anti-aircraft missiles.

The security service say the report could compromise the on-going hunt for Al Qaeda sleepers operating in this country.

The BBC report says the Association's counter-terrorism expert, Superintendent Stuart Harrison, made the claims when he addressed a US government sponsored conference in Las Vegas.

He was introduced to delegates as a counter-terrorist expert who "offered a rare insight into the intelligence community".

He said that the UK had "reorganised its counter-terrorism efforts" in the face of what he describes as "a new threshold of threat. This is bigger than everything ever imagined before. We are in this for the long run. It will be 35-50 years before we get it cracked".

The BBC report then claims that was when he made his comments about the Sam-7 missiles.

It was those remarks which have infuriated MI5.

"This kind of thing should never be made public. He is in a position to know what the score is", said an MI5 source.

Stuart has denied making the statements. But he also refused to be interviewed by Globe-Intel - or to ask the BBC for a retraction.

Association spokesman Tim Marney said: "He has told us he did not make the remarks. We do not have a copy of his speech available for you. I am not prepared to say whether he spoke off the cuff. And we will not be issuing any formal denial of what the BBC reported".

The BBC claimed that Stuart told the conference "suicide bombers are inevitable. We are seeing UK being attacked overseas. But it is no means certain we will avoid an attack for very long".

ends

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