MI5 boss: UK now faces ‘worst of both worlds’ 25 years on from 9/11

The boss of MI5 has warned that “we now face the worst of both worlds” in an article identifying the threats the UK faces now, 25 years on from 9/11.

Sir Ken McCallum, director general of the UK’s security service, has underlined the need to adapt to “markedly different” threats than those faced on September 11 2001, in an op-ed published in the Independent on Friday.

He said security needed to be treated as a “shared national endeavour” as the victims of 9/11 should be owed “preparation, resilience and the courage to adapt”.

“We must resist the temptation to admire the defences we built yesterday and instead build the ones we will need tomorrow,” he wrote.

Mr McCallum, who was appointed as director general in 2020 and has spent more than 25 years in the service, said he was “proud” of the work MI5 did in disrupting al Qaeda in the wake of September 11.

The moment hijacked United Airlines Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001

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Director general of MI5 Sir Ken McCallum

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He noted the “relentless adaptation” central to that response, which remains pivotal for “still more complex” challenges in the 2020s.

The MI5 boss did not go into the often controversial war in Afghanistan that followed, led by US and UK forces, other than to say that foreign policy is “harder than many commentators allow”.

He added that al Qaeda’s capabilities are a “fraction” of what they were in 2001.

Looking to modern threats, Mr McCallum spoke about the recent attacks on synagogues in the UK and how many of the “assets, systems and services under threat” are now owned by the private sector, rather than by nations.

He wrote: “In the aftermath of the Cold War, CIA director James Woolsey spoke of the West having “slain a large dragon” but facing a “bewildering variety of poisonous snakes”.

“With a nod to David Kilcullen, we now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are back, but snakes persist.

He added: “The horrors of 9/11 will never leave me. What sits with me every day, 25 years on, is MI5’s perpetual responsibility to keep adapting, at even greater pace, as we seek to deepen the UK’s resilience – now to both dragons and snakes.”