Britain's counterterrorism chief: "We shall be attacked again"

The New York Times reports that this is what Peter Clarke, the top counterterrorism police officer in Britain, told Policy Exchange, a private research group.

According to the Times:

He said that about 100 terrorism suspects awaited trial — in addition to several on trial — and that their cases would confirm a trend that had emerged since 2004 of young British Muslims traveling to Pakistan for training and instructions, then returning home to plot attacks.

As the Times goes on to report:

British terrorism has been largely associated with a Muslim minority of 1.6 million people — just 3 percent of the population — many descended from Pakistanis who immigrated in the 1960s. “The fact is that there are, in the United Kingdom, many young men who are vulnerable to being drawn into extremism and violence,” Mr. Clarke said. “Of all the things I have seen over the past few years, one of the most worrying has been the speed and apparent ease with which young men can be turned into suicidal terrorists.”

But he insisted that homegrown terrorists had not acted alone. “In case after case, the hand of core Al Qaeda can be clearly seen,” he said. “Arrested leaders or key players are quickly replaced, and disrupted networks will re-form quickly.”

But as the Times goes on to say:

British Muslims have frequently expressed skepticism about police motives, citing several high-profile raids and arrests that yielded no charges.

Police say that even if terrorist suspects are often released without charge, they have no choice but to intervene and arrest people based on the intelligence they do have. Their primary concern in these cases, obviously, is to foil terror plots as opposed to wait and criminally prosecute the perpetrators after they are able to carry out their plans.

Not surprisingly, the community most often under suspicion - i.e., British-Pakistani Muslims - is still resentful that its members are often misidentified as terrorists.

Clarke gets the negative impact false alarms can have as well on the community. As he reportedly told Policy Exchange, it was “no exaggeration to say that the lack of public trust in intelligence is in danger of infecting the relationship between the police and the communities we serve.”