US and UK spy chiefs warn Middle East crisis could raise domestic terror threat
MI5 and FBI chiefs say Jewish communities and other groups could be threatened by lone actors, Iran or militants
The heads of MI5 and the FBI have issued an unprecedented joint warning that the crisis in the Middle East could increase the risk of a domestic terrorist attack.
The chiefs of the fight against terrorism declare that the communities and youth organizations, including those of other groups, are at risk of confrontation due to the sole criticism of Hamas and the Iranian militants American.
Ken McCallum, director general of Britain's MI5 intelligence agency, said there was a risk that "self-initiated" people who may have become radicalized online responded "spontaneously" or "unpredictably" after the terror attack in Britain could escalate in a prolonged conflict.
Addressing a public summit of intelligence chiefs in California, sitting next to FBI Director Christopher Wray, McCallum said there was also a risk that terrorist groups or Iran could step up their violent actions and that Jewish individuals or organizations could be targeted by neo-Nazis and Islamists could advise. "There is a real possibility that profound events in the Middle East could create a greater threat to the UK or reshape it in terms of its aims and ways. "People will be inspired," he said.
An assassin shot two Swedish football fans in Brussels on Monday evening. Belgian prosecutors initially said there was no evidence linking the attack to the conflict between Israel and Gaza, but a spokeswoman said Tuesday that an investigation into the connection was ongoing.
France was under high security alert on Friday after a suspected radical Islamist killed a teacher and injured three others in the north of the country.
These incidents occurred at a time of great concern about the fight against terrorism, given the level of violence triggered by the Hamas attack on Israel ten days ago.
Wray, director of the FBI, said that terrorist threats in the United States are rapidly evolving and that “we cannot and do not rule out the possibility that Hamas or other foreign terrorist organizations could exploit the conflict to unite their followers "to incite attack."
He said there had been a "surge in reported threats" against "Jewish or Muslim Americans, institutions and places of worship" in the United States in the past week, repeating a warning he sent to the San Diego police chief on Saturday had. .
McCallum was less specific about the threats reported in the UK, but said that MI5 was already "particularly vigilant" against threats from isolated actors and that "in the specific case, individuals or organizations of Jewish origin or
McCallum and Wray spoke at the start of a meeting of Five Eyes spy chiefs hosted by the FBI in California. The heads of national authorities from Australia, Canada and New Zealand were also present, and Tuesday would be the first time all five would appear together in public.
The intelligence chiefs planned to discuss what Hamas’s attack on Israel earlier this month meant “both in the region and in our homelands,” McCallum said, as well as the threat from Chinese economic espionage.
Wray and McCallum both condemned Hamas’s attack on Israel. Wray said he wanted to express “once again how horrified I am and continue to be by the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel” while his UK counterpart said “these were monstrous attacks which saw 1,400 people murdered” including at least six British citizens.
He indicated that MI5 was “playing a role” in efforts with Israeli and other authorities to locate British hostages captured by Hamas fighters. The FBI has already said it is working to locate and identify unaccounted-formissing Americans.
The British intelligence chief also received a specific warning about Iran, warning that it may be prepared to take “preventive measures” against Israel ahead of a planned ground invasion of Gaza.
“Events in the Middle East clearly increase the likelihood that Iran will decide to pursue new paths,” McCallum said. "I don't rule out that this could include the UK, but we already face a strong threat from Iran."
Last year, the head of MI5 warned that Iran had threatened to kill ten people within a year to kidnap or kill in Britain. This week, staff at the BBC's Persian News Service in London told them they were afraid to go out alone because they risked being persecuted by Iranian authorities.
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