MI5 spy tells how he foiled a Muslim terrorist attack - plan was to kill 2 coach loads of children and their parents

As an MI5 agent "Tom Marcus" risked his life for more than eight years, secretly tracking Islamic extremists and IRA dissidents on the streets of Britain. But when he left MI5 - with a CV full of inexplicable holes - he found himself taking jobs in a call centre and burger bar.

Tom Marcus is still jittery three years after retiring as a spy, he tells the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire programme. Walking down the street, he sometimes sees suspicious behaviour where there is none - shady people lurking in doorways; unusual bulges in coats; nervous, furtive glances.

Tom - not his real name, it can't be used for security reasons - saw plenty during his eight years as an MI5 surveillance officer to make him suspicious.
On one occasion he helped thwart a plan to blow up two coaches full of schoolchildren returning from a trip to France.

Undercover as a homeless man, and positioned near a mosque, he had noticed that a young Muslim man he had been tracking - who had fought with militant Islamist group Boko Haram in Africa before returning to the UK - had entered the place of worship but not left it. He had also counted more women leaving the building than going in.

He decided that one of the "women" leaving must have been the male extremist disguised in a burka. He informed his superiors, and the man - found to have six home-made bombs in his car - was arrested. The bombs were all set to go off at the same time via a mobile phone found on the suspect, meaning Tom almost certainly saved lives that day.

The biggest operation in which Tom was involved stopped a planned bombing of a shopping centre in Manchester over an Easter weekend, potentially saving hundreds of lives. This was one part of a highly co-ordinated attack on people in the UK and US, directed from Pakistan, which also aimed to explode car bombs at the site of the Twin Towers on the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Tom himself became a target for an attempted beheading when extremists developed a plan to kidnap MI5 operatives in the UK. The extremists had assigned people to watch the spies while they were following a suspect, and had covered the floor of a house in Kentish Town, north London, with plastic sheeting in anticipation of taking one captive. A black flag, three butchers' knives and a video camera, suggesting it would be filmed, were also found at the house.

Tom - who has written his memoirs, Soldier Spy - says that were it not for the extremists' "targets team" backing out at the last moment, he would not be here to tell the tale.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37504999




Watch the interview here...


http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p049tcrt



The lefties want to let more of these highly dangerous Islamist scum into our country!

It seems to me the UK government should have a better exit plan for people who do work like this -- maybe a cushy, well-paid desk job. Don't let that experience go to waste!

And Tommy, don't be ridiculous -- nobody wants to let terrorists into your country.

They must want terrorists in here because they are against proper controls over our borders and proper checks over people trying to get in here...

We've always had excellent intelligence in the UK. Perhaps they would rather the terrorists did come here, to be observed, tracked and thwarted and hopefully imprisoned. Better that, than floating around planning God knows what.

I'd rather they stayed in their home countries...

HoratioTarr wrote:We've always had excellent intelligence in the UK.   Perhaps they would rather the terrorists did come here, to be observed, tracked and thwarted and hopefully imprisoned.  Better that, than floating around planning God knows what.

My reply was snuffed out before seeing the light of day so i'll tone it down to say I agree with HT.