All posts tagged: MI5

MI5 chief issues chilling warning on 25th anniversary of 9/11 | Politics | News

MI5 chief issues chilling warning on 25th anniversary of 9/11 | Politics | News

Published by Sam Flores

Director General of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum warned of the threats facing the UK (Image: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire) Britain is facing more danger than it was before 9/11, the head of MI5 has warned. Sir Ken McCallum admitted intelligence officers are detecting more conspiracies orchestrated by states such as Russia, China and Iran. And terrorists – noticeably Islamist fanatics – are still plotting mass casualty attacks in the UK, Britain’s top intelligence officer admitted. Sir Ken said on the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks: “The MI5 I lead in 2026 contends with a threat landscape markedly different to 2001’s. “Sadly, mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures, as in the recent conviction of an Islamist extremist who sought automatic weaponry for an assault on Manchester’s Jewish community. “But the terrorist threat now sits alongside strategic national security threats posed by capable states.” Referencing James Woolsey, the former CIA director who spoke in 1993 of the West slaying “a large dragon” after the Cold War, Sir Ken added: “We now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are …

Head of MI5 issues ‘call to arms’ in rare public intervention | UK News

Head of MI5 issues ‘call to arms’ in rare public intervention | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

The head of MI5 has issued a “call to arms” for the whole of society to treat national security as a shared challenge. In a rare public intervention, released to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the US, Sir Ken McCallum wrote that his officers must confront a “markedly different” threat landscape today than back in 2001. Image: Sir Ken McCallum pictured in October 2025. Pic: AP “Sadly, mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures… but the terrorist threat now sits alongside strategic national security threats posed by capable states,” the director general of the Security Service wrote in an article for The Independent newspaper. Follow latest: 9/11 25 years on Citing former CIA director James Woolsey, who spoke of the West slaying “a large dragon” after the Cold War, Sir Ken said: “We now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are back, but snakes persist.” Image: He discussed ‘taking down’ al Qaeda in the wake of 9/11. Pic: AP The “dragons” are thought to refer to state-based threats from Russia and China, …

MI5 and police illegally grabbed journalist’s call records to find sources

MI5 and police illegally grabbed journalist’s call records to find sources

Published by Sam Flores

A journalist whose communications data was unlawfully obtained by MI5 and the police has been awarded £20,000 in damages by a specialist tribunal. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal found that the Security Service admitted it breached Article 10 of the Human Rights Act (right to freedom of expression) when it obtained the call records of Northern Ireland-based journalist Vincent Kearney in order to find his confidential sources. Intelligence officers made numerous applications between 2006 and 2018 to view Kearney’s call data, including the timing, location and identity of calls made to and from his mobile phone. The public version of the judgment noted a 2015 ruling challenging Met Police surveillance of Sun journalists’ call records which established there was higher protection under the law for journalistic communications. Following a Press Gazette campaign, in 2015 UK law was changed to mean law enforcement officers needed judicial approval to view journalists’ call records with a view to identifying confidential sources. But before that time such snooping is believed to have been more widespread. According to the latest annual …

Neo-Nazi found guilty of planning mass gun attack after being caught in MI5 sting | UK News

Neo-Nazi found guilty of planning mass gun attack after being caught in MI5 sting | UK News

Published by Sam Flores

A neo-Nazi who drew up a “kill list” of customers and colleagues at the Tesco where he worked has been found guilty of planning a mass gun attack. Alfie Coleman was just 19 when he was caught in an MI5 sting trying to buy a Makarov semi-automatic pistol, five magazines and 200 rounds of ammunition, with £3,500 saved from his part-time supermarket job. The Old Bailey heard he branded some of his former fellow staff and shoppers “race traitors” for having partners who were not white, in a list of people who had “upset him”, alongside their number plates. One entry named a checkout-worker, whose husband was mixed race, along with the make and colour of her car, and a description of her as having “short blonde hair with bits of pink in it”. Image: Alfie Coleman. Pic: Met Police Prosecutors said he believed in an extreme right-wing ideology which included idolising Adolf Hitler and the likes of Thomas Mair, who murdered the MP Jo Cox in a gun and knife attack in 2016. Counterterrorism …

This Week in History: Labour landslide, LA riots, and an MI5 scandal

This Week in History: Labour landslide, LA riots, and an MI5 scandal

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more This week is marked by major political shifts. Tony Blair secures a Labour landslide in 1997, while over a million demonstrators in France protest against the electoral rise of the far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen. A newly published memoir exposes a 1974 MI5 plot against the former prime minister Harold Wilson. Across the Atlantic, widespread riots break out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police officers involved in the beating of Black motorist Rodney King. Decades later, US politics takes a surreal turn as President Barack Obama is pressured into releasing his birth certificate. All this and more is charted across the front pages of The Independent. 27 April 1987 – MI5 plot against Harold Wilson revealed According to the explosive memoirs of …

Reform UK interested in MI5 help on candidate vetting – POLITICO

Reform UK interested in MI5 help on candidate vetting – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Reform leader Nigel Farage in 2024 blamed a “reputable vetting company” for oversights in helping sift its candidates ahead of the general election after one praised Hitler and backed Russia’s war in Ukraine. He apologized, adding: “We have been stitched up politically and that’s given us problems.” MI5’s role in vetting is limited to its own staff and certain levels of security clearance for specific government and official roles in Whitehall. Its offer to candidates is expected to be limited to helping parties assess foreign interference risks, rather than any official security clearance. POLITICO asked the six main Westminster parties if they will take MI5 up on its offer to assist in their vetting processes. The ruling Labour Party, the Conservatives, the Greens and the Liberal Democrats all declined to comment. The Scottish National Party did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The offer from Ken McCallum is part of a wider effort by the U.K. government and security services to shore up British democracy amid a wave of espionage activity from hostile …

Failed asylum seeker left fake dynamite stick near MI5 HQ | UK | News

Failed asylum seeker left fake dynamite stick near MI5 HQ | UK | News

Published by Sam Flores

MI5 building at Thames House on Millbank, London, UK (Image: UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) A failed asylum seeker has been found guilty of leaving a fake stick of dynamite outside MI5 headquarters a day after being told he would be kicked out of the UK. Brazilian national Julian Valente Pereira, 32, mocked up an explosive device with rolled-up A4 paper, brown masking tape, and string to mimic a fuse, and left it outside Thames House in central London. The incident happened on January 1, the day after Pereira’s final appeal for asylum had been dismissed by a judge. An explosives expert from counter-terrorism policing had to be drafted in after MI5 CCTV operators spotted Pereira dropping the device near the front doors of the building along with a green cigarette lighter, City of London Magistrates’ Court heard. Pereira, who admits he “hates the Home Office”, denied carrying out a bomb hoax – insisting he never intended for anyone to believe the device was real. But Chief Magistrate Paul Goldspring found him guilty, concluding Pereira knew he was being watched – …