..."A group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West," Director General Parker said in a rare public speech at MI5 headquarters in London. His last public speech was in October 2013.
In the speech, planned before the killings in Paris, Parker said seasoned al Qaeda militants in Syria aimed to "cause large-scale loss of life, often by attacking transport systems or iconic targets" in the West....
"DARK PLACES"
Parker said around 600 British extremists had traveled to Syria, many joining the militant group which calls itself "Islamic State" and has taken control of swathes of Iraq and Syria.
The group, an offshoot of al Qaeda, has beheaded two U.S. journalists and an American and two British aid workers in an effort to put pressure on a U.S.-led international coalition bombing its fighters in Syria.
Islamic State militants in Syria were plotting attacks on Britain and making sophisticated use of social media to incite British nationals to carry out violence, Parker said.
MI5, established in 1909 to counter German espionage ahead of World War One, had stopped three potentially deadly "terrorist plots" against the United Kingdom in recent months, he said.
"We face a very serious level of threat that is complex to combat and unlikely to abate significantly for some time," said Parker, who has argued strongly for more surveillance powers to spy on militant communications on the Internet....
Video Bill Maher on Paris: "This Is Like Groundhog Day, Except If The Groundhog Kept Getting His Head Cut Off" http://t.co/LzC3knxmnE
— Wolverine (@Nickarama1) January 10, 2015
