A report by the U.K. Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee has found fault with the MI5, the MI6 and the Government Communications Headquarters but said the “serious errors” in security operations were “not significant enough” to have prevented the murder of Fusilier Lee Rigby in London in May 2013.
The report said the killers of Lee Rigby, Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale, appeared in seven intelligence reports prior to the murder.
The Committee has come down heavily on an unnamed Internet company, later identified as Facebook, for failing to pass on crucial information they reportedly had. A crucial online exchange between Mr. Adebolawe and an unnamed Yemen-based Al Qaeda operative in December 2012 was not reported to intelligence agencies, the report says. Mr. Rigby’s murder could have been averted had the information been passed on to the security agencies.
There has been no response from the social media giant.
This report comes a day after Home Secretary Theresa May’s detailed description of the grave terrorist threat to the United Kingdom, which she said underlay the government’s resolve to introduce a new Counter-Terrorism and Security Bill on November 26.
