Senior UK spy gives evidence at bombings inquest

A senior British spy testified Monday that the ringleader of the 2005 suicide attacks and his No 2 were on MI5's radar for more than a year before the bombings but it wasn't clear an attack was imminent. The suicide bombings Western Europe's first killed 52 people.
MI5, Britain's domestic intelligence agency, fought to prevent its staff being questioned in public at the inquest into the bombings. But presiding Judge Heather Hallett said victims' families had the right to know whether the attacks could have been prevented.
Reporters were only allowed to hear not see the MI5 witness identified only as 'Witness G,' who has been a member of MI5 since 1991. At the time of the bombings, he was a senior manager working in international counterterrorism operations.
He testified Monday it wasn't clear that bombers Mohammed Sidique Khan or Shehzad Tanweer were planning an imminent attack before the July bombings. He also said it was difficult to determine when or if terror suspects moved from supporting terrorism to actually planning an attack. In April 2004, an al Qaida informant alerted MI5 that two men called 'Ibrahim' and 'Zubair' had travelled to a terrorist training camp in Pakistan in 2003. In August 2004, the informant was then shown surveillance pictures of Khan and other bomber, Shehzad Tanweer, but he failed to identify them. Khan and Tanweer were being watched because of their ties to other terror suspects.