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 MI5
says they're 'providing financial and logistical support'
(4.12.06)
MI5 has identified five
Islamic terror groups in Ireland linked to al-Qaida.
 They
are Egyptian Islamic Jihad, al-Gama'at al-Islamiyah, the
Algerian Armed Islamic Group, Hamas and Palestinian
Islamic Jihad.
An MI5 document describes them as "providing financial and
logistical support to other terror groups abroad."
The presence of the groups - believed to number "around
200 in all" - is the first success for MI5 officers
operating from their new $50 million headquarters at
Palace Barracks in Holywood, near Belfast.
The security service headquarters in Northern Ireland is
the largest MI5 has outside Britain. It employs over 100
field agents and support staff who have been sent from
Thames House in London.
Their brief is to hunt jihadists who MI5 believe are using
Ireland as a backdoor route into Britain from North
Africa, the Middle East and Europe.
When completed by May next year, the five-story building -
including a bomb-proof basement - is designed to take over
as a "no break" operation in the event of a chemical or
"dirty bomb" attack on Thames House.
Installed in the Holywood headquarters is a carbon copy of
MI5's surveillance system, which has made London the most
watched city in the world. On average, each person in the
city is caught on CCTV cameras 450 times a day. A number
of the cameras are operated by MI5.
The British embassy in Dublin, from where MI5 runs its
operations in the Republic, also has recently had its
surveillance system updated.
CIA agents based at the U.S. Embassy in Ballsbridge, a
Dublin suburb, work closely with MI5 agents in the city to
keep track of the Islamic groups based there.
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