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LONDON, Sept 17: Britain said on Friday the Al Qaeda had targeted parliament and called for an urgent security shake-up after two embarrassing breaches in 24 hours.
"The security services briefed me sometime ago about intelligence they had about Al Qaeda operatives in Britain focusing on parliament," said the government's leader in the House of Commons, Peter Hain.
Mr Hain declined to give details of the intelligence information but added: "I was very determined to act upon it." Intelligence-driven fears that extremists could wreak havoc in the "mother of parliaments" have underlined the urgency of setting up a 21st century security operation.
Many believe it is time to turn to professionals after centuries of parliament being policed by "men in tights" - the Sergeant-at-Arms and his ceremonial ushers in traditional dress, with swords at their side.
Fox hunting supporters who stormed the debating chamber revealed that they breezed into parliament on Wednesday without challenge, and the next day an undercover reporter managed to smuggle fake bomb-making equipment into parliament.
"This is the age of the suicide terrorist," said Hain. "What I want is a new professional director of security who has responsibility and authority right across parliament."
Hain even congratulated the Sun tabloid for the stunt by a reporter who got a job as a waiter with bogus references and showed what a farce security had become at a time when Britain is a prime terror target due to its pro-US foreign policy. "What if - as the Sun has exposed - that had been a suicide terrorist? That is the horrifying reality we now face," Hain told BBC Radio.
RISIBLE SECURITY: Eight hunting protesters made a laughing stock of security with their stunt on Wednesday. One revealed the plan had been "put together, literally on the back of an envelope, 24 hours before".
"We all gave ourselves a one-in-a-thousand chance of getting there and we got there like odds-on certainties. It was risible," David Redvers said. Denying they had been helped by an insider, he added: "it was frighteningly simple."
Dressed as builders, they even pretended they were the camp pop group Village People singing "YMCA" on the way to parliament. "That is how stupid we looked," he said. They were eventually wrestled to the ground by the quaintly-dressed ceremonial guards in a farcical scene that caused bemusement around the world. "Men in tights with swords? Come on," sneered former British crack commando Andy McNab.
It was the first time protesters had reached the floor of parliament since a mob storming in 1647. But some warned against overreaction in a relaxed parliament that prides itself on being open to the public.
Robin Cook, Hain's predecessor in the Commons, said no one had got so heated when lesbian demonstrators abseiled into the upper chamber and a protester dumped manure over the Commons balcony.
"We cannot square a fortress parliament with an open democracy," he wrote in the Independent newspaper. The fox hunting protesters ranged from the son of rock singer Bryan Ferry to a polo-playing friend of the royal princes. "Does anyone really believe that we would feel any better about parliament this week if Otis Ferry had been shot dead at the door of the chamber?" Cook said. -Reuters
