Intelligence Scoop: The Biggest Threats to Britain, Live From MI5

David McCloskey (0:03)

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Are Russia and Iran escalating their attacks on the UK? Could artificial intelligence help terrorists develop deadly bioweapons? And what really happened at RAF Fairford? Well, welcome to The Rest Is Classified, I'm David McCloskey.

Gordon Corera (0:40)

And I'm Gordon Corera.

David McCloskey (0:41)

And it has been a very busy few weeks, lots of threats and Gordon, you are quite literally just out of MI5 headquarters, which I guess begs the question, why did they let you in in the first place?

Gordon Corera (0:55)

That is a good question, but once a year, the head of MI5, Sir Ken McCallum, does open up MI5 headquarters at Thames House on the river in Central London to a select group of journalists to give them an overview of the threats facing the UK. There's a speech on camera on the record. Some of the details of what happened inside the building are strictly off the record, although I did get special dispensation to reveal that the pastries were very, very good, a kind of Biscoff croissant. But anyway, that's probably not what people are really interested in.

David McCloskey (1:25)

So the MI5 director gives an on-the-record speech. That is also followed by a Q&A time. And you, I understand, Gordon, were one of the lucky journalists who was permitted to ask a question.

Gordon Corera (1:39)

Yeah, that's right. And I asked him about Iranian threats to military bases in the UK. And that's obviously in the wake of this very interesting and mysterious story of what happened at RAF Fairford, an American airbase in Britain.

David McCloskey (1:54)

And for those who haven't followed the story, it is an absolutely kind of wild tale about a group of men who were arrested outside the base. And then a week later, 12 US B-1 bombers that had been stationed at Fairford and that had been used to conduct strikes against Iran, are essentially evacuated from the base in a very major hurry.

Gordon Corera (2:16)

Later in the episode, David, we'll be diving deep into what we know about what really happened there, and what the head of MI5 told me about the Iranian threats. But before that, we're going to look at some of the other threats that MI5 identified as facing us, including Russia, and interestingly, a lot about artificial intelligence. But first, a quick word from our sponsors at HP.

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David McCloskey (3:46)

So, Gordon, what is the view from MI5 about the threats facing the UK?

Gordon Corera (3:52)

So, there was certainly a message about the big state threats, as MI5 puts it. The head of MI5 Chemicalum said MI5 was devoting more resources to countering these state threats than during the Cold War. So, caseload dealing with these things, which are espionage, sabotage, that kind of enemy action, that's quadrupled in the last 10 years, he said.

Russia remains aggressor number one, in his words.

Ken McCallum (4:20)

Russia remains aggressor number one, as Putin's Kremlin continues to lash out at the UK and its allies. Like a number of national leaders have recently highlighted, the Russian military and intelligence services are once again escalating their attempts at hybrid warfare.

Gordon Corera (4:35)

Basically trying to intimidate and also weaponize division, particularly through social media and information flows.

David McCloskey (4:42)

It's interesting. One of the major debates in the UK has been whether or not Russia interfered in the 2016 Brexit referendum. And I believe our counterparts on The Rest Is Politics, Rory and Alastair, actually got Prime Minister Andy Burdham to essentially admit that they did.