Economic crisis increases our terror risk, warns MI5 head

THE world economic crisis could heighten the terrorism threat facing Britain, the head of MI5 has cautioned.

In an interview Jonathan Evans, the director general of the security service, said a potential shift in the balance of economic power away from the West could prove to be a "watershed moment" causing new risks to security to emerge.

The 2012 Olympics remained a major target, he said, but a "chilling effect" of 86 successful terror prosecutions over the past 18 months had diminished the overall threat faced by the UK.

His most significant assessment was that the economic slump could leave the country more vulnerable to radicalisation, spying and terrorism.

Mr Evans did not specify how this might occur, but said history had shown that previous worldwide recessions had serious repercussions. "Where there have been watershed moments, there have been national security implications from that - a new alignment," he said. "The world will not stay the same.

"Our focus in the next few years will be international terrorism, al Qaeda and its associates, but we are also looking at the global economic crisis."

Among the threats are spying by Russia and China, which are understood to have stepped up espionage interest in key economic sites in this country. Mr Evans also said telephone calls had been discovered between members of the Pakistani Lashkar-e-Taiba group, accused of being behind the Mumbai bombings, and people in Britain, but these had not been of "security significance".

British Muslims were still travelling to Pakistan, Afghanistan and Somalia for terrorist training. Pakistan remained the main source of danger, with 75per cent of MI5 investigations revealing links between that country and extremists here.