Britain: 30 Active Terror Plots, 200 Networks, 22,000 Terrorists

Sat, Apr 12, 2008 at 9:08:28 pm PDT

The Islamic terror threat in Britain is getting worse, and most of the government is in complete denial, refusing to do anything to deal with the situation: Smith says monitoring 30 U.K. terrorism plots.

LONDON (Reuters) - British police and security agencies are currently monitoring 30 terrorism plots, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said in extracts of a newspaper interview released on Saturday.

“We now face a threat level that is severe. It’s not getting any less, it’s actually growing,” she said in an interview to be published in Sunday’s News of the World.

“We task the police and the security agencies with protecting us ... There are 22,000 individuals they are monitoring. There are 200 networks. There are 30 active plots,” she said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s Labour government is seeking to extend pre-charge detention of terrorism suspects to 42 days from the current 28-day limit.

But Smith faces a tough task steering the controversial provisions through parliament.

The Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties have both said they will vote against extended detention. Labour backbenchers are also threatening to rebel and vote down the clause in the Counter-Terrorism Bill.