Intelligence Committee Launches Inquiry into Forest Gate

[Wokeman]

By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor
Published: 13 June 2006
Intelligence failures leading to the raid in Forest Gate in east London are to be investigated by the Prime Minister's Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC).

The committee, chaired by the former Northern Ireland secretary Paul Murphy, will question top intelligence officers in the coming weeks about the false information that led to a public relations disaster. Two brothers whose house was raided, one of whom was shot, were released without charge on Friday.

The ISC will look into claims that doubts about the intelligence were passed up the command chain to officials working under Sir Richard Mottram, the Government's security and intelligence coordinator. It was reported at the weekend that police had doubts about the credibility of the intelligence source, who was a known informer.

Downing Street denied yesterday that there was any split between the police and the intelligence services.

Tony Blair's spokesman said: "There was a whole system whereby matters such as these were assessed. If it was viewed by all concerned to be credible intelligence, then it was the duty of the appropriate authorities to act on that, and the Prime Minister fully supported all concerned in doing so."

It is believed that government officials, not ministers, were briefed before the Forest Gate raid by the police and MI5, but that Sir Richard was on holiday at the time.

The Metropolitan Police Authority has asked the Commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, for a full report into the issues surrounding the Forest Gate operation.

Len Duvall, the authority's chairman, said: "The public have a right to expect that questions should be asked about the way the police operation was conducted. There was clearly credible intelligence leading to the police operation at Forest Gate but, as with any operation, it is important afterwards to review it and to see whether there are any lessons that can usefully be learnt from the way it was conducted."

The ISC expressed concern in a report on the July 7 bombings that the Joint Intelligence Committee, now chaired by Sir Richard, appeared to have misjudged the threat from "home-grown" suicide bombers.

The committee said last March, before he took up his appointment, that suicide bombings would not become the norm in Europe. That was despite evidence that UK citizens, such as Richard Reid, the so-called shoe bomber, were prepared to undertake suicide missions.

"We are concerned that this judgement could have had an impact on the alertness of the authorities to the kind of threat they were facing and their ability to respond," said the committee.