British al-Qaida threat ‘thrives’

THERE are more than 200 al-Qaida-trained terrorists walking the streets of Britain in a threat which “thrives”, the country’s former police chief warned yesterday.

Writing in the News of the World, Sir John Stevens vigorously defended the government’s controversial anti-terror plans and attacked opponents for failing to understand “the brutal reality of the world we live in.”

The former Metropolitan Police Commissioner says his hair was made to “stand on end” by shocking reports of atrocities that al-Qaida and its associates were planning.