Nearly 20 years after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, it is time for Western intelligence agencies to refocus on stopping covert operations by foreign state actors, according to the director of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency. General Ken McCallum is a 20-year career officer in the Security Service (MI5), Britain’s counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence agency. He assumed the position of director in April of 2020, amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
In a rare public speech
on Wednesday, General McCallum said it made sense why, in the aftermath
of the 9/11 attacks, Western spy services dedicated unprecedented
attention and resources to countering terrorist threats. Efforts during
these two decades have concentrated on preventing attacks by religious
extremists, both domestically and abroad. General McCallum went on to
say that, in light of the ongoing instability in Afghanistan, Syria and
elsewhere, religious extremism will continue to require both attention
and resources by Western spy agencies.
But he added that, even though
counter-terrorism remains MI5’s primary task, the agency recognizes the
need to “refocus attention” to threats from state actors. The attention
given in the past two decades to non-state groups has allowed countries
like Russia, China and Iran to develop “a growing assertiveness” in the
areas of covert operations, said General McCallum. As a result, their
activities in the fields of espionage, sabotage, and even
assassinations, have become “increasingly daring” and threatening.
Spies working for foreign countries have
killed targets, stolen sensitive technology, and tried to recruit public
figures and other key individuals through blackmail. They have also
attacked telecommunications infrastructure and have perfected a host of
methods for launching cyber-attacks on both the public and private
sectors, with potentially catastrophic consequences, he said.
The MI5 chief illustrated his statements
by revealing that British counterintelligence officers have “disrupted
hostile power activity” on British soil, which could otherwise have
resulted in the killing of a targeted individual. He said that this
operation took place after the attempted assassination of former Russian
military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal in Salisbury, England, in
the spring of 2018, but provided no further details.
General McCallum’s statement came as prosecutors in the United States charged
four Iranian intelligence officers with participating in a plot to
kidnap Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American New York-based journalist and
human-rights activist, who is known for her critical stance of the
government in Tehran.
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