BRITAIN: The head of Britain's Security Service MI5, says it is "only a matter of time" before terrorists attack a Western city with a "crude" form of chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear device.
While conventional weapons and suicide bombers remained the preferred weapons of terrorists, Ms Eliza Manningham-Buller said: "We are faced with a realistic possibility of a form of unconventional attack that could include chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN). Ms Manningham-Buller told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute in London that "renegade scientists" had given terrorists groups the information needed to create such weapons.
She warned: "It is only a matter of time before a crude version of CBRN is launched on a western city." Describing al-Qaeda as "the first truly global threat" she said recent fatal attacks in Saudi Arabia, and Morocco proved that al-Qaeda and other groups still posed a "potent threat". Ms Manningham-Buller said al-Qaeda retained a deadly capacity and that the threat would be "with us for a good long time," adding: "If this is a war that can be won it is not going to be won soon."
She continued: "They \ still remain an organisation capable of deadly terrorist attacks. The threat from international terrorism is with us for a good long time. The supply of potential terrorists among extreme elements is unlikely to diminish. Breaking the link between terrorism and religious ideology is difficult."