MI5 chief warns UK faces dual state and terror threats

MI5 Director General Sir Ken McCallum has issued a stark warning that the United Kingdom faces a more complex and dangerous national security landscape than it did 25 years ago, on the anniversary of the September 11 attacks. In a rare public intervention, Sir Ken stated that the UK now contends with the "worst of both worlds," facing simultaneous threats from hostile state actors and persistent terrorist groups. Writing to mark the anniversary, Sir Ken described a threat environment "markedly different to 2001's." He argued that while mass-casualty terrorist ambition endures, it now sits alongside strategic national security threats posed by capable states. He invoked an analogy from former CIA director James Woolsey, who after the Cold War said the West had slain a large dragon but faced poisonous snakes. "We now face the worst of both worlds: dragons are back, but snakes persist," Sir Ken wrote. The MI5 chief identified the principal "dragons" as Russia and China, while the "snakes" refer to radical Islamic extremist groups. He noted that while al-Qaeda's capabilities are now "a fraction of what they were" in 2001, the terrorist threat remains.