Manchester Arena bombing victims accuse MI5 of ‘failing them’ in transparency row | Politics | News
Heartbroken families of those killed in the Manchester Arena bombing have said: “MI5 has failed our loved ones and us” as they demand greater transparency. Relatives of the bereaved said in a letter to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer that the intelligence agency had “hurt us further due to its lack of honesty”.
Spies failed to act on key clues that could have prevented Salman Abedi from killing 22 people, Sir John Saunders’ scathing 226-page review found. The intelligence may have led investigators to track Abedi, who has ties to ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists, to the Nissan Micra where he hid his explosives.
The Islamist terrorist could also have been stopped at Manchester Airport as he returned from Libya four days before the attack. MI5 director general Sir Ken McCallum apologized following the investigation.
The exact nature of the intelligence was withheld from the public report due to national security concerns.
Sir John said MI5 did not provide an “accurate picture” of what they knew.
Families, on the other hand, demanded the full inclusion of the security service in the new law designed to stop cover-ups in public life.
In the letter to Sir Keir, the bereaved families said: “You made a personal promise to bring about the law.
“We now ask you to fully deliver on this promise by ensuring that the new law applies to security and intelligence agencies as it does to everyone else.”
The letter adds: “MI5 has failed both our loved ones and us.
“He did this by failing to prevent the Arena bombing. But then he failed, and his lack of forthrightness in the aftermath of the attack hurt us even more.
“During the Manchester Arena investigation, MI5 lied about crucial intelligence it had about the suicide bomber before the attack.
“Despite MI5 lying to the public inquiry in this way, no one has been held to account.
“This lack of accountability needs to change. Creating a full duty of integrity accountability across MI5, MI6 and GCHQ is the clearest way to create this change.
“We are appalled that the draft, as it is currently written, allows MI5 and other organizations to fully evade their responsibility for candor.
“Every security and intelligence officer should be expected to tell the truth, and the leaders of the organizations must bear full responsibility.
“How many times must MI5 show that it cannot be trusted before something is done?
“We urge you to keep your word and ensure that MI5, MI6 and GCHQ are held to the same standards as everyone else.”
Lawyer Pete Weatherby, director of the Hillsborough Law Now campaign, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Tuesday that the security service should not be “left free to run a false narrative to protect themselves”.
He said: “If this law is passed and they are required to tell the truth even when things go wrong, then failures can be corrected and people can be safer in the future.”
He told the broadcaster that campaigners understood some evidence could not be made public for national security reasons.
“There are existing laws that govern things that we do not seek to change through these provisions,” Mr. Weatherby said.
“We say this, whether the testimony is given in an open or closed hearing, it must be true, even if it is not presented as evidence at all, it is told to the families or the public in general.
“MI5 should not be given free rein to push a false narrative to protect themselves rather than advance truth and justice.”
