LONDON: Britain’s intelligence services came under pressure yesterday to explain how they let two Islamist extremists suspected of hacking a soldier to death in the streets of London slip through their net.
Both of the men, under armed guard in London hospitals after being shot by police at the scene, were previously known to the intelligence services but were reportedly assessed as not posing a deadly threat.
One of the men, identified as Michael Adebolajo, 28, had attended meetings of a now-banned Islamist group and reportedly sold extremist leaflets in Woolwich, south London, where the attack took place on Wednesday.
Adebolajo had reportedly tried to travel to Somalia to fight alongside the country’s Shebab insurgents but had been turned back and had his passport confiscated by police.
He was captured on film shortly after the attack near a barracks in Woolwich holding a bloodied knife and meat cleaver and claiming he had killed soldier Lee Rigby because British soldiers killed Muslims every day. “It is an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,” he says in the footage.
Both Adebolajo and the other suspect, named as 22-year-old Michael Adebowale, are the children of Nigerian immigrants.
As police tried to piece together how Adebolajo apparently went from an outspoken convert — he became a Muslim in 2003 — to a cold-blooded murderer, the government was forced to defend the security services against criticism they missed signs which might have helped prevent the grisly murder.
A parliamentary committee will look into the role of the security services, but communities minister Eric Pickles said even if the men had been known to intelligence agencies, it was impossible to keep tabs on everyone all the time.
“Peers and MPs will do a thorough investigation in terms of what the security forces knew, but I’ve seen experts on security explaining how difficult it is in a free society to be able to control everyone,” Pickles told BBC TV.
AFP
