CIA sees British Muslims as most dangerous threat

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
On January 4, intelNews relayed reports from officials in Washington and London of an “unprecedented intelligence-gathering operation in Britain” by the CIA. The reason behind this intense activity appears to be that the Agency considers militants in Britain’s one-million-strong Muslim community to be “the most likely source of another terrorist spectacular on US soil”. Now a follow-up report in Britain’s Daily Telegraph newspaper reveals that US President Barack Obama has been briefed in detail by CIA officials about the “dramatic escalation in American espionage in Britain” in recent months. CIA’s intelligence operation, which involves “record numbers of informants in [Britain’s] Pakistani community”, appears to have intensified since last November’s militant attacks on the Indian city of Mumbai by Lashkar-e-Taiba paramilitaries. CIA and MI5 officials believe that the hardline Pakistani group “has an extensive web of supporters in the UK”. The Daily Telegraph article quotes a “British intelligence source” as stating that 40% of all CIA operations against potential militant attacks on the US are currently “conducted against targets in Britain”. As intelNews explained over a month ago, this statistic points to an intelligence-gathering operation of unprecedented magnitude in an allied nation by the CIA.