PerspectiveTerrorism in the U.K.: Number of Suspects Tops 40,000 after MI5 Rechecks Its List
MI5 is aware of more than 43,000 people who pose a potential terrorist threat to the U.K., according to a government report — almost twice the number of terror suspects previously disclosed. David Gadher writes that after the 2017 attacks at London Bridge and Manchester Arena, it was revealed that MI5 had about 23,000 current and historic suspects on its radar, divided into 3,000 subjects of interest (SOIs), and 20,000 closed” subjects of interest (CSOIs). The Home Office has been quietly recategorizing its lists, and now says that there are 40,000 CSOIs, “where MI5 judges there to be some risk of re-engaging in terrorist activity.”
MI5 is aware of more than 43,000 people who pose a potential terrorist threat to the U.K., according to a government report — almost twice the number of terror suspects previously disclosed.
David Gadher writes in The Times that after the 2017 attacks at London Bridge and Manchester Arena, it was revealed that MI5 had about 23,000 current and historic suspects on its radar. This included 3,000 so-called subjects of interest (SOI) who were under active investigation, as well as 20,000 people who had been investigated in the past and who might engage in terrorism in the future. The latter are known as “closed” subjects of interest (CSOI) and included terrorists such as Salman Abedi, who went on to kill 22 people in the Manchester Arena suicide bombing.
Data quietly published by the Home Office last month in the early stages of the coronavirus crisis shows that after a process of recategorization there are more than 40,000 CSOIs “where MI5 judges there to be some risk of re-engaging in terrorist activity.”
However, the report is at pains to point out that the higher number of CSOIs is not comparable with the 2017 figure and does not mean that twice as many people in the U.K. are now at risk of engaging in terrorism.
