Security inquiry rejected following London blasts
No internal inquiry is under way to determine why security services did not pick up the London bombers, the Lord Chancellor has said.
Lord Falconer told BBC News that now was “not the time” for an inquiry, but for a decision on what legal steps were needed in the fight against terror.
His comments follow reports in a Sunday newspaper that MI5 assessed one of the bombers last year, but decided he posed no risk.
The Sunday Times claims Mohammad Sidique Khan, suspected of the Edgware Road bombing, first came to the attention of the security services after his name came up in an inquiry into an alleged plot to explode a 600lb truck bomb outside a target in London, reported to be a Soho nightclub.
Spy chiefs reportedly discovered in 2004 that the 30-year-old teaching assistant had visited a house used by a man who met one of the suspected plotters.
An unnamed Government official told the Sunday Times that a “quick assessment” had been made of Khan and that intelligence services decided to take no further action, determining that he posed no threat to national security as he was “indirectly linked” to the investigation.
Speaking on Sunday, Lord Falconer stressed that the London bombings did not mean the intelligence services had failed, or that existing legislation was wrong.
“We have got to learn the lessons and that is why we are bringing forward these new laws. Now is not the time for any form of inquiry,” he said.
On Monday Home Secretary Charles Clarke will meet his opposition counterparts to discuss the Government’s proposed new anti-terror offences to outlaw “indirect incitement” and “acts preparatory” to terrorism.
A third offence would deal with those “providing or receiving training” in terrorism, according to plans outlined in a letter by the home secretary to Tory David Davis and Liberal Democrat Mark Oaten.
Lord Falconer told the BBC that under the new laws, those “attacking the values of the West” and “glorifying the acts of suicide bombers” could be imprisoned for long periods or deported.
Mr Davis, the Shadow Home Secretary, told BBC News 24 he hoped for, “a pretty constructive outcome” following the cross-party talks, with new anti-terror legislation expected to be on the statute book by next summer.
