Foreign Correspondence

[Amaunet]

MI5 'will move to secret HQ in the event of terrorist attack'
By Sean Rayment, Defence Correspondent
(Filed: 19/06/2005)

MI5 is preparing an alternative headquarters outside London, to be used in the event of a terrorist attack on the capital.

According to a secret document leaked to The Sunday Telegraph, the arrangements must be ready by 2008. The paper, Security Service Plan 2005-2008, contains a pledge by MI5 chiefs to "ensure the service has robust arrangements to enable it to continue to function in the event of damage to Thames House [its headquarters] or a major catastrophe in central London".

Officials are believed to have identified buildings in London and other cities where the service's 2,000 staff could be deployed in the event of an attack. Unlike Thames House, whose address near Parliament is known, they will be a secret.

Eliza Manningham-Buller, the director-general of MI5, has said that the only question is when - not whether - terrorists will launch a "catastrophic" attack in central London. The organisation's headquarters is thought to be a prime target.

The document, effectively MI5's "mission statement", also reveals that its chiefs plan to spend hundreds of millions of pounds on covert intelligence-gathering equipment, to put it on equal terms with the CIA.

The plan is revealed in a booklet, issued to all Security Service members in March this year. It states that MI5 will "expand to over 3,000 appropriate trained staff with particular focus on leadership, professionalism, foreign language, analytical and operational skills". A Whitehall official said that it was aimed at MI5's own staff. "The Security Service prides itself on its internal communications system," he said.

Officials said that the Security Service would press ahead with the plan although officers within the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre - located within MI5 headquarters - advised ministers two weeks ago that the threat to Britain from international terrorism was at its lowest since September 11, 2001.

One official said the threat facing Britain remained "serious and real".

He added: "This threat assessment means that three weeks ago there was an extremely high risk of terrorists attacking the UK, now there is high risk. . . the threat has not gone.''


http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtm...06/19/nhq19.xml