- Four terror attacks in London and Manchester claimed lives this summer
- Police and MI5 carried out internal reviews of their handling of suspects
- Despite widespread concerns at the time, review expected to clear agencies
- One attacker appeared on TV while others and crossed borders unchallenged
A review is expected to clear police and MI5 over their handling of the four terror attacks which rocked Britain this year – despite fears about at least three of the extremists having been previously flagged.
Internal reviews were set up after the spate of attacks in the UK this summer, with police and security services carrying out their own inquiries, overseen by a barrister.
But concerns the authorities are ‘marking their own homework’ will be increased after reports today that the review is expected clear agencies of any blame for the attacks.
The Westminster Bridge attack was the first in a wave of terrorist atrocities this summer. A review of security services and police is expected to clear them of any blame
Despite recommending a number of measures in how to improve monitoring of extremists, no one in power will be criticised,The Guardian reported today.
The conclusion comes despite a series of revelations about past fears over those who carried out the attacks in Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge and Finsbury Park this year.
Khuram Butt, the man who led two others into the London Bridge attack, had even appeared alongside other high-profile extremists in a Channel 4 documentary called The Jihadis Next Door.
His friends had also alerted authorities to his extremism after he talked about going to Syria to fight with ISIS.
The Manchester attacker Salman Abedi had also been flagged to MI5 over suspicious behaviour before he killed 22 in the pop concert suicide bombing in May.
It is believed he wasn’t put under surveillance because the warnings did not allude to a specific plot.
Kharum Butt and his two accomplices lie dead after they killed eight on London Bridge in June
Butt had been hiding in plain sight, having appeared on TV documentary The Jihadi Next Door
The reviews, overseen by lawyer David Anderson, are expected to call for better monitoring of posts terror suspects are putting online, using computer algorithms to spot suspicious activity.
Concerns have been raised that the reviews were carried out internally and Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee is now looking at whether to launch its own inquiry.
MI5 chief Andrew Parker’s job was on the line over the agency’s work before Manchester
Head of MI5 Andrew Parker’s job was said to be on the line if his agency was found to have missed warnings.
He said last month that MI5 were using the ‘harsh light of hindsight to squeeze out every last drop of learning so that we can be the very best we can be, now and in the future’.
He also warned that the terrorist threat the UK faces has accelerated at an alarming rate and is worse now than at any time during his 34-year career.
Police in the UK made 379 terrorism-related arrests this year, up 68% on the 226 people detained in the previous 12 months.
Westminster, 5 dead: The career criminal Muslim convert who changed after prison stretch
Extremist website: Khalid Masood
Khalid Masood, 52, killed five people and injured nearly 50 when he drove a hired 4×4 along the pavement of Westminster Bridge before stabbing a policeman outside Parliament.
It emerged in the days after the attack that he was known to police but was not linked to extremism or terrorism.
Masood (right) was a low level criminal who racked up a number of convictions while growing up in Kent and Sussex.
But he changed his name from Adrian Ajao to Masood and was rarely seen by his family after a 2003 prison sentence for a violent attack.
Instead he moved into an area of Luton known for its extremism and was alleged listed as a contact for a website which slammed Christians and Jews urged ‘war’ against ‘the enemy of Allah’.
Manchester, 22 dead: Warning signs over suicide bomber who spent time in Libya before attack
Flagged up: Salman Abedi
Salman Abedi, 22, killed 22 including children as young as eight when he detonated a suicide bomb at the exit of an Ariana Grande concert in May.
The British-born son of Libyan immigrants to the UK, Abedi (right) was on MI5’s radar after security services were alerted three times to his extremist views.
It has been claimed information passed to an MI5 regional office should have led to him being made a ‘high priority’ and being put under surveillance.
He has travelled to extremism-plagued Libya and Istanbul shortly before the attack and authorities have said he did not act alone.
UK prosecutors are currently trying to negotiate the extradition of his brother Hassem, who was arrested in Libya after the attack having previously been pictured online brandishing a machine gun.
London Bridge, 8 dead: TV jihadi, failed asylum seeker and ‘red flag’ Italian behind van and knife attack
Wanted to fight for ISIS: Khuram Butt
The London Bridge attack in June was carried out by Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba who killed eight and injured around 50 people.
Butt was well-known to security services, with friends having tipped off MI5 about his extremism.
In 2015 he had thought about joining ISIS in Syria before being talked out it and 2016 he appeared in a Channel 4 documentary called The Jihadis Next Door.
Moroccan Redouane had been refused asylum in 2009, when he was using the name Rachid Elkhdar, yet managed to stay in Britain after marrying an Irish woman in Dublin.
He had previously been arrested in Scotland attempting to travel to Northern Ireland by ferry on a fake passport.
Moroccan-born Italian Youssef Zaghba meanwhile to the Italian authorities in March 2016 when he tried to fly from Bologna to Syria via Istanbul.
His name was put on The Schengen Information System – a red flag warning system informing other European nations if criminals are trying to enter their country. Yet British border guards did not stop him entering the UK at least twice.
Failed asylum seeker Rachid Redouane (left) and extremist Youssef Zaghba (right)