MI5 'to step up Welsh presence'

Security experts believe MI5 will step-up operations in Wales

Security experts are claiming Wales will see an increased presence of the secret service MI5.

The Home Office recently said the security service would establish its first ever Welsh office.

One expert says the intelligence service will be especially keen to monitor potentially violent extremists on university campuses.

MI5 have been considering regional offices for some time - before the bombings in London.

Glenmore Trenear-Harvey, an intelligence analyst with 40 years' experience of the security services, said Wales was likely to have up to 11 officers, based in Cardiff.

He said they would work closely with regional Special Branch officers and would look to recruiting their own sources.

MI5 bosses will look to recruit agents who can work in Muslim communities

He said: "They won't be mini MI5 headquarters, they will be liaison units. They will complement Special Branch on the ground, and they will help better operate the whole policing network."

Given the nature of the attacks on London, it is thought the security service will be hoping to recruit agents who are able to operate inside the Muslim community.

Asquar Ali, from the Medina Mosque in Cardiff, said he does not think they will have any problem in achieving that.

He said: "They will find people to be recruited, I don't think they will have any problem

"Muslims are British, because they feel British, because they live here, they will work for the security services."

Controversy remains over whether the Ramzi Yousef who studied at Swansea Institute and a man of the same name who was involved in the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre, were one and the same person.

Yousef was jailed for 240 years for his part in the attack, but the institute's vice president said he believes the man in a US jail had murdered the Kuwaiti student and taken his identity.

you've got an attitude towards free speech which will enable people to be brought into contact with people who may glamorise violence Professor Anthony Glees, Brunel University

Professor Anthony Glees from Brunel University, who specialises in security issues, said university campuses in Wales will come under scrutiny.

"Universities are important because they are potentially excellent recruiting grounds for radicals," he said.

"Universities have become mass supermarkets of knowledge. You can learn things in universities, you can learn how to make bombs - though that's not how they'd put it.

"But, in addition to that, you've got an attitude towards free speech which will enable people to be brought into contact with people who may glamorise violence - people who have maybe been to Iraq, fought against British and American troops in Iraq and then come back and travel the university circuit."