The Security Service,also known as MI5,is the United Kingdom's domestic counter-intelligence and security agency and is part of its intelligence machinery alongside the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6),Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ),and Defence Intelligence (DI). MI5 is directed by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC),and the service is bound by the Security Service Act 1989. The service is directed to protect British parliamentary democracy and economic interests and to counter terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom (UK).
Elizabeth Lydia Manningham-Buller,Baroness Manningham-Buller,is a retired British intelligence officer. She worked as a teacher for three years before joining MI5,the British internal Security Service. She led the newly created Irish counter-terrorism section from 1992 and then became director in charge of surveillance and technical operations. She became Director General of MI5 in October 2002 and,in that capacity,led the Security Service's response to the 7 July 2005 London bombings. Following her retirement in April 2007,she became a crossbench life peer in 2008.
Moazzam Begg is a British Pakistani who was held in extrajudicial detention by the US government in the Bagram Theater Internment Facility and the Guantanamo Bay detainment camp,in Cuba,for nearly three years. Seized by Pakistani intelligence at his home in Pakistan in February 2002,he was transferred to the custody of US Army officers,who held him in the detention centre at Bagram,Afghanistan,before transferring him to Guantanamo Bay,where he was held until January 2005.
The 7 July 2005 London bombings,also referred to as 7/7,were a series of four coordinated suicide attacks carried out by Islamist terrorists that targeted commuters travelling on London's public transport during the morning rush hour.
Mohammad Sidique Khan was a Pakistani-British terrorist and the oldest of the four Islamist suicide bombers and believed to be the leader responsible for the 7 July 2005 London bombings,in which bombs were detonated on three London Underground trains and one bus in central London,suicide attacks,killing 56 people including the attackers and injuring over 700. Khan bombed the Edgware Road train killing himself and six other people.
Anwar Nasser Abdulla al-Awlaki was an American Islamic scholar and lecturer who was killed in 2011 in Yemen by a U.S. government drone strike ordered by President Barack Obama. Al-Awlaki became the first U.S. citizen to be targeted and killed by a drone strike from the U.S. government. U.S. government officials argued that Awlaki was a key organizer for the Islamist terrorist group al-Qaeda,and in June 2014,a previously classified memorandum issued by the U.S. Department of Justice was released,justifying al-Awlaki's death as a lawful act of war. Civil liberties advocates have described the incident as "an extrajudicial execution" that breached al-Awlaki's constitutional right to due process,including a trial.
Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula,abbreviated as AQAP,also known as Ansar al-Sharia in Yemen,is a Sunni Islamist insurgent terrorist group,which is part of the al-Qaeda network and primarily active in Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It is considered the most active of al-Qaeda's branches that emerged after the weakening of central leadership.
The international activities of Al-Qaeda includes involvements in Europe,where members of the group have been involved in militant and terrorist activities in several countries. Al-Qaeda has been responsible for or involved in attacks in Western Europe and Russia,including the 2004 Madrid train bombings,2010 Moscow Metro bombings,2011 Domodedovo International Airport bombing,and the January 2015 Île-de-France attacks.
The attempted bombing of Northwest Airlines Flight 253 occurred on December 25,2009,aboard an Airbus A330 as it prepared to land at Detroit Metropolitan Airport following a transatlantic flight from Amsterdam. Attributed to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP),the act was undertaken by 23-year-old Nigerian national Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab using chemical explosives sewn to his underwear. These circumstances,including the date,led to Abdulmutallab being commonly nicknamed either the "Underwear bomber" or "Christmas Day bomber" by American media outlets.
Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab popularly referred to as the "Underwear Bomber" or "Christmas Bomber",is a Nigerian terrorist who,at the age of 23,attempted to detonate plastic explosives hidden in his underwear while on board Northwest Airlines Flight 253,en route from Amsterdam to Detroit,Michigan,US on 25 December 2009.
Cage is a London-based advocacy organisation which aims to empower communities impacted by the War on Terror. Cage highlights and campaigns against state policies,developed as part of the War on Terror. The organisation was formed to raise awareness of the plight of detainees held at Guantánamo Bay and elsewhere and has worked closely with former detainees held by the United States and campaigns on behalf of current detainees held without trial.
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American-Yemeni cleric killed in late 2011,who was identified in 2009 by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a known,important "senior recruiter for al Qaeda",and a spiritual motivator.
Inspire is an English-language online magazine published by the organization al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The magazine is one of the many ways AQAP uses the Internet to reach its audience. Numerous international and domestic extremists motivated by radical interpretations of Islam have been influenced by the magazine and,in some cases,used its bomb-making instructions in their attempts to carry out attacks. The magazine is an important brand-building tool,not just of AQAP,but of all al-Qaeda branches,franchises and affiliates.
On October 29,2010,two packages,each containing a bomb consisting of 300 to 400 grams (11–14 oz) of plastic explosives and a detonating mechanism,were found on separate cargo planes. The bombs were discovered as a result of intelligence received from Saudi Arabia's security chief. They were in transport from Yemen to the United States and were discovered at stopover locations:one at East Midlands Airport in the UK and one in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.
On 14 May 2010,Stephen Timms,the Labour MP for East Ham,was suddenly stabbed whilst holding a constituency surgery by Roshonara Choudhry,a 21-year-old British student and an Islamic extremist,in an attempt to kill him. She was found guilty of attempted murder and jailed for life with a minimum term of 15 years. Choudhry was the first Al-Qaeda sympathiser to attempt an assassination in Britain.
Samir ibn Zafar Khan was a Saudi Arabian naturalized U.S. citizen,terrorist,and the editor and publisher of Inspire magazine,an English-language online magazine reported to be published by the Islamic terrorist group al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). He was killed in a drone strike in Yemen together with Anwar al-Awlaki.
Islamic extremism in the United States comprises all forms of Islamic extremism occurring within the United States. Islamic extremism is an adherence to fundamentalist interpretations of Islam,potentially including the promotion of violence to achieve political goals. In the aftermath of the September 11,2001 terror attacks,Islamic extremism became a prioritized national security concern of the U.S. government and a focus of many subsidiary security and law enforcement entities. Initially,the focus of concern was on foreign Islamic terrorist organizations,particularly al-Qaeda,but in the course of the years since the September 11 terror attacks,the focus has shifted more towards Islamic extremist and jihadist networks within the United States.
The United States is widely considered to have one of the most extensive and sophisticated intelligence network of any nation in the world,with organizations including the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Agency,amongst others. It has conducted numerous espionage operations against foreign countries,including both allies and rivals. Its operations have included the use of industrial espionage,cyber espionage. and mass surveillance.
Morten Storm,alias Murad Storm and Murad Storm Al-Denmarki,is a Danish,former convert to Islam and a former Islamic radical,who became disenchanted with Islamism after 10 years and went to work as an agent of the Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) operating in Islamic militant circles. His identity became public knowledge in 2012 when he came forward in the newspaper Jyllands-Posten.
al-Qaeda has five distinct phases in its development:its beginnings in the late 1980s,a "wilderness" period in 1990–1996,its "heyday" in 1996–2001,a network period from 2001 to 2005,and a period of fragmentation from 2005 to 2009.
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