MI5 focuses on British jihadists returning from Syria

More than half of MI5’s anti-terror investigations involve Britons who have travelled to fight in Syria, highlighting the growing security threat posed by homegrown jihadists, reported the financial Times.

The dramatic shift in the focus of casework by the Security Service shows how much the terrorist landscape has changed in recent months, according to senior Whitehall officials. Intelligence chiefs say the Syrian conflict is stoking the biggest terror threat to the west since the September 11 attacks in New York 13 years ago.

Arrests of British jihadists and those connected to them have increased in recent weeks in an attempt to prevent attacks against the UK. At least one such plot is understood to have been foiled.

So far, an estimated 400 Britons have gone to fight in Syria, and more than half of them have returned. Some have been radicalised by the experience.

Experts conservatively estimate that over 2,000 fighters have travelled to Syria from Europe, with many thousands more joining them from the Gulf states and north Africa.

Investigations into British jihadists represented a “growing proportion” of MI5 casework, the agency’s chief, Andrew Parker, said in a speech last October.

Speaking to the Financial Times this week, James Brokenshire, the UK security and immigration minister, said that the problem posed by fighters returning from Syria would persist for as long as the Syrian crisis continued.

“The security services and the police will be dealing with issues relating to Syria for the foreseeable future,” he said, adding that it was “very difficult” to know whether the number of Britons heading to Syria to fight was slowing down.

“[The risk is that] people who have travelled out come into contact with extremists or al-Qaeda linked organisations . . . [and] that they then return home and pose a risk”.

“Our key message is that people should not travel. We understand the desire that people may want to help in Syria [but] the Syrian people have said very clearly that they want humanitarian aid, they do not want foreign fighters,” said Mr Brokenshire.

[The risk is that] people who have travelled out come into contact with extremists or al-Qaeda linked organisations . . . [and] that they then return home and pose a risk

– James Brokenshire, the UK security and immigration minister

UK police have made a spate of Syria-related arrests in recent weeks. Four people were taken into custody on Tuesday. At the end of February, Moazzam Begg, a former Guantánamo detainee, was arrested in Birmingham on suspicion of attending a terrorist training camp in Syria.

His arrest has sparked a backlash from many in the Muslim community who say they are being unfairly targeted.

Government officials say they are aware of the thin line they must tread in dealing with the problem. At the forefront of efforts to stop Britons travelling to Syria to fight has been a blitz from the Home Office to counter online extremist content.

The government’s counter-terrorism internet referral unit has authorised 8,000 “takedowns” of content in the past eight weeks alone, according to people familiar with the matter, compared with 21,000 similar legal removals over the past four years.

In addition, the government is lobbying internet companies to better moderate content online. Security officials were recently granted special permissions by Google to screen rapidly YouTube video content.

Trial date for former Guantánamo detainee

A provisional October trial date has been set for a man accused of terrorism offences relating to the conflict in Syria, writes Jane Croft.

Moazzam Begg, 45, of Hall Green in Birmingham, a former detainee at the Guantánamo Bay camp in Cuba, appeared at the Old Bailey on Friday via video link from Belmarsh prison in south east London and confirmed his name.

Mr Begg denies allegations that he provided terrorist training or instruction, and also denies that he was involved in funding terrorism overseas.

His plea hearing is due to take place on July 18, and Mr Justice Sweeney has set a trial date of October 6.

M.A.