British say terrorism still a threat

LONDON — Police and intelligence agencies have prevented international terrorists from striking Britain by disrupting their planned attacks, but the danger isn’t over and the need to stay vigilant remains, top security officials said Sunday.

“Al Qaeda and the international network is seen to be, and will be demonstrated through the courts over months to come, to be actually on our doorstep and threatening our lives,” Home Secretary David Blunkett told British Broadcasting Corp. TV. He was referring to several terror suspects expected to go on trial in the coming year.

“They may be found not guilty. But our security and policing services have been securing our well-being over the last few years,” said Blunkett, who is in charge of law enforcement.

Earlier Sunday, Metropolitan Police Commissioner John Stevens said London’s police have “thwarted a number of attacks.”

“There’s a large number of people going through the courts,” he told BBC TV. “We can’t talk about the details of that, which is slightly frustrating.

“But we have had considerable successes and that’s been the result of working extremely hard with the intelligence services.”

Discussing the cases of alleged terrorists in detail could compromise any future trial, Stevens has said previously.

Stevens said cooperation between European countries on combating terrorism had improved “massively” in the last nine months.