Britain’s MI6 chief warns of ‘unprecedented’ terror threat to UK

[webfact]

Britain’s MI6 chief warns of ‘unprecedented’ terror threat to UK

 

 

LONDON: -- ISIL militants are using the chaos created by the Russian backed military campaign of Bashar al-Assad in Syria to plot attacks against the UK and its allies, the head of MI6 has warned.

 

In his first major public speech since taking the top job at the Secret Intelligence Service in 2014, Alex Younger, said the continuing war posed a major risk to Britain.

 

“The scale of the threat is unprecedented. The UK intelligence and security services have disrupted 12 terrorist plots in the UK since June 2013. And MI5 and the police continue to run hundreds of investigations into those intent on carrying out or supporting terrorist atrocities against our citizens,” said Younger.

 

Since the London attacks in 2005, that killed 52 people, the UK has been largely spared from Islamist inspired terrorism.

 

However, the MI6 chief, said that Britain also faced a threat from ‘hybrid warfare’ from hostile states attempting to undermine western democracies. Without identifying any country, he said that cyber attacks, propaganda and the subversion of the democratic process represented a fundamental threat to sovereignty.

 

 

-- © Copyright Euronews 2016-12-09

[Borzandy]

Because Muslims don't agree UK leaves EU.

[yooyoo]

Yes sure and therefore the government should have the right to listen in and tap people's phone calls... its all in the name of politics... oops I meant security . . 

[phantomfiddler]

6 minutes ago, yooyoo said:

Yes sure and therefore the government should have the right to listen in and tap people's phone calls... its all in the name of politics... oops I meant security . . 

 

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times. Islam has removed what little pleasure there was in flying anywhere, and now they have caused a need to tap phone calls. Get used to it because it is going to get worse !

[impulse]

57 minutes ago, phantomfiddler said:

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times.

 

Then both the terrorists and the fascists have won.  An unlikely alliance, but they seem to have the same end goal.  Taking away our personal freedoms- our way of life.

[hugh2121]

Islam's professed goal is for worldwide sharia law and the demise of all other religions including atheism. When, oh when will the politicians wake up and ban this religion(?) and all those who practice it? 

[YeahSiam]

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

 

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times. Islam has removed what little pleasure there was in flying anywhere, and now they have caused a need to tap phone calls. Get used to it because it is going to get worse !

 

Not with a no-log VPN provider, it won't.

[thai3]

Should read unprecedented Islamic terror threat to UK

[RuamRudy]

1 hour ago, phantomfiddler said:

 

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times. Islam has removed what little pleasure there was in flying anywhere, and now they have caused a need to tap phone calls. Get used to it because it is going to get worse !

 

Do you believe your government when they tell you that they require to log each and every keystroke on your computer in order to preserve peace and public safety? The NSA has been carrying out mass electronic surveilance for years and the number of terrorist attacks foiled as a result of this surveilance is exactly ZERO.

 

Your government is not concerned about keeping you safe - they want to make sure that you are kept down. There is no other reason for them to be prying into your private correspondance because, as has been shown, they cannot prevent terrorism by spying on and storing for ever your emails.

 

[impulse]

5 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

Your government is not concerned about keeping you safe - they want to make sure that you are kept down. There is no other reason for them to be prying into your private correspondance because, as has been shown, they cannot prevent terrorism by spying on and storing for ever your emails.

 

On the plus side, those hundreds of thousands of intelligence jobs can't be offshored to China or India...

 

Yes, that's tongue in cheek.

[RuamRudy]

7 minutes ago, impulse said:

 

On the plus side, those hundreds of thousands of intelligence jobs can't be offshored to China or India...

 

Yes, that's tongue in cheek.

 

Buy shares in data storage companies!

[jesimps]

25 minutes ago, RuamRudy said:

 

Do you believe your government when they tell you that they require to log each and every keystroke on your computer in order to preserve peace and public safety? The NSA has been carrying out mass electronic surveilance for years and the number of terrorist attacks foiled as a result of this surveilance is exactly ZERO.

 

Your government is not concerned about keeping you safe - they want to make sure that you are kept down. There is no other reason for them to be prying into your private correspondance because, as has been shown, they cannot prevent terrorism by spying on and storing for ever your emails.

 

I've got nothing to hide either on my phone or internet, therefore I have no objection to the government carrying out electronic surveillance on me. I do however, strongly object to being blown to smithereens by Islamic terrorists.

[YeahSiam]

38 minutes ago, jesimps said:

I've got nothing to hide either on my phone or internet, therefore I have no objection to the government carrying out electronic surveillance on me. I do however, strongly object to being blown to smithereens by Islamic terrorists.

 

Then it seems the authorities have succeeded in lulling you into a false sense of security.

Just because you don't think you've anything to hide doesn't mean something you consider to be innocuous can't be used against you to great effect.

Dozens of government agencies can gain access to your "harmless" information and, contrary to what the government has insisted, some of those agencies can and will do so without a court order.

 

Governments have a vested interest in keeping their citizens living in fear.

I'm not saying the threats aren't there - obviously they are - but there's no harm in protecting yourself with encryption "just in case".

[RuamRudy]

1 hour ago, jesimps said:

I've got nothing to hide either on my phone or internet, therefore I have no objection to the government carrying out electronic surveillance on me. I do however, strongly object to being blown to smithereens by Islamic terrorists.

 

But no government has detected any plot through their mass surveilance programs. They simply cannot keep you safe through the collection and indefinite storage of anyone's private online activity.

 

You have every right to object to being subject to a terrorist attack, but the snooper's charter will do absolutely nothing to prevent any attack in the future. You have given away yours and your descendents' right to privacy because you fell for a cynical lie. This law is there to be used against you, not the threat they pretend to be fighting.

[Mosha]

We can thank the PMs from Thatcher to the present day for the threats the UK is facing.

Sent from my SMART_4G_Speedy_5inch using Tapatalk

[Baerboxer]

5 hours ago, phantomfiddler said:

 

I believe the government has the right to do absolutely anything it deems necessary in order to preserve peace and public safety in these troubled times. Islam has removed what little pleasure there was in flying anywhere, and now they have caused a need to tap phone calls. Get used to it because it is going to get worse !

 

And do you also believe "the government" can be trusted not to misuse the private information collected about its citizens for political purposes?

 

Do you believe a government should be unaccountable to the law?

[Baerboxer]

2 hours ago, RuamRudy said:

 

But no government has detected any plot through their mass surveilance programs. They simply cannot keep you safe through the collection and indefinite storage of anyone's private online activity.

 

You have every right to object to being subject to a terrorist attack, but the snooper's charter will do absolutely nothing to prevent any attack in the future. You have given away yours and your descendents' right to privacy because you fell for a cynical lie. This law is there to be used against you, not the threat they pretend to be fighting.

 

Indeed. And many Western governments, like the UK, have actively disarmed their citizens and undermined their ability to protect themselves. 

We are becoming reliant, under threat of law to make us so, on our governments for protection. And as we see, they aren't always able to do so.

More about control and neutering their citizens resistance capabilities than actually fighting terrorism.

[impulse]

4 hours ago, Mosha said:

We can thank the PMs from Thatcher to the present day for the threats the UK is facing.

 

Nope.  We're seeing the long term consequences of Euro colonialism going back 500 years.  Combined with the centuries of the stupidity of Euro nations bankrupting each other with non-stop petty, incestuous squabbles.

 

I'd point the longest finger at Winnie and the promises he made (and broke) and the lies he told to garner 3rd world support against the Germans.  Twice.  But he was just one in a long chain- one that continued through Thatcher and into today. 

[thaibeachlovers]

Britain has carried out a campaign of terror against other countries for centuries- just ask the Irish about that!

Seems they don't like it when it's the other way.

 

Seriously, ignoring the fact that the threat comes from a particular religious grouping because of insane PC dogma run rife in UK government is not the way to combat this threat.

[RuamRudy]

4 hours ago, Mosha said:

We can thank the PMs from Thatcher to the present day for the threats the UK is facing.

 

 

But those threats will not be stopped through the collection of, indefinite storage of, and multi-agency access to, yours and my emails or other online activity. The government is putting in place a big brother domestic agenda specifically designed to identify and curtail internal dissent; they are colouring their snooping as terrorism prevention measures when they know it is not for those purposes.

[impulse]

1 minute ago, RuamRudy said:

But those threats will not be stopped through the collection of, indefinite storage of, and multi-agency access to, yours and my emails or other online activity. The government is putting in place a big brother domestic agenda specifically designed to identify and curtail internal dissent; they are colouring their snooping as terrorism prevention measures when they know it is not for those purposes.

 

A good start would be to snap to the fact you can create more enemy terrorists bombing one wedding or funeral than you can kill bombing 3 hospitals...

[daveAustin]

6 hours ago, hugh2121 said:

Islam's professed goal is for worldwide sharia law and the demise of all other religions including atheism. When, oh when will the politicians wake up and ban this religion(?) and all those who practice it? 

 

I agree, but don't stop there, all should be banned. Let's face it, most people are only really religious because they think they will get something out of it the other end.

 

Regards the op, with the floodgates now opened into Europe, it's only going to go one way from here.

[dunroaming]

6 hours ago, thai3 said:

Should read unprecedented Islamic terror threat to UK

 

I think under these circumstances it should read Islamic terrorist threat to the UK.  No doubt that this is Islamic terrorist related but Islam is a religion and as such is not a threat.  Just like when there were Irish Catholic terrorists.

[CharlieK]

7 hours ago, YeahSiam said:

 

Not with a no-log VPN provider, it won't.

 

That is what you think, VPN or not they know what you are doing.

[impulse]

22 minutes ago, dunroaming said:

 

I think under these circumstances it should read Islamic terrorist threat to the UK.  No doubt that this is Islamic terrorist related but Islam is a religion and as such is not a threat.  Just like when there were Irish Catholic terrorists.

 

Whaddaya mean, "were"?  They're still around, contributing to society and participating in the political process.  Just like the Jewish terrorists.   And the French terrorists.  And those terrorists in Boston Harbor (well, they may all be dead by now- but you know what I mean.)

 

Contending that there's no way to deal with them just guarantees that there is no way to deal with them.  Which is excellent for a government looking for an excuse to curtail some more of its citizens' rights.  

 

We refer to it as "drinking the Kool-Aid" where I come from.  Thankfully, they haven't taken our guns away just yet.

[YeahSiam]

4 minutes ago, CharlieK said:

 

That is what you think, VPN or not they know what you are doing.

 

You don't know what you're talking about, mate.

Even if government snoopers could break 256-bit encryption, the VPN provider doesn't keep any log of the IP addresses connecting to its servers or of the websites users visit.

Combine that with Tor or similar and you're pretty much invisible.

[7by7]

Of course ISIS is a threat; only a fool would say otherwise.

 

But as usual the Islamaphobes are leaping on this to paint all Muslims as a threat.

 

Which is exactly the reaction ISIS and their ilk want from you!

 

As has been proven time and time again, the overwhelming majority of Muslim politicians, religious leaders, spokespeople, ordinary Muslims do not in any way shape or form support ISIS, their cause, their aims nor their methods.

 

But the more the ignorant lump Islam and Muslims together with ISIS, the more the ignorant discriminate against Muslims, the more hate the ignorant display toward Muslims, then the more support ISIS gets.

 

Well done; you are perfect recruiters for ISIS.

 

It was only a few months ago that the security services said the biggest terrorist threat to the UK came from Irish Republicans; as it has done for the last 50 plus years.

 

None of you were suggesting that all Irish people were a threat or in any way to blame.

[CharlieK]

1 hour ago, YeahSiam said:

 

You don't know what you're talking about, mate.

Even if government snoopers could break 256-bit encryption, the VPN provider doesn't keep any log of the IP addresses connecting to its servers or of the websites users visit.

Combine that with Tor or similar and you're pretty much invisible.

That is what they would have you believe! 

[YeahSiam]

1 hour ago, CharlieK said:

That is what they would have you believe! 

 

Maybe if you could back up your assertions with something more than Luddite ignorance, your "opinion" would carry some weight.

 

[impulse]

3 minutes ago, YeahSiam said:

Maybe if you could back up your assertions with something more than Luddite ignorance, your "opinion" would carry some weight.

 

Since the technology and its application and any secret arrangements with the providers you're discussing would be highly classified, you've requested an unreasonable level of proof.

 

We don't have a clue whether it's happening, or how.  So the probability you're correct is no higher than the probability he's correct.  The difference is that his assertions may be proven one day.  Yours can't be proven.  Ever.