Former British Spy In Al-Qaeda Warns: Its Not If, But When, A Mega-Attack Will Occur

NEW YORK (VINnews) — A former British spy, who before being recruited by the MI6 security service had previously been active in al-Qaeda, is warning of the possibility of imminent terrorist attacks, claiming that it is not a question of if but when.

Ayman Dean, a former Al-Qaeda operative who later became an agent for British intelligence, was quoted in British media as saying that an attack on the scale of the September 11 attacks in the United States or the July 7, 2005 bombings in London could occur at any moment. According to him, hundreds of dormant operatives currently live in Britain and could be activated to carry out attacks.

Dean, who served for eight years in British intelligence and also gathered information for MI5, said that the primary threat to the West today is “the spread of Islamic extremism and Iranian influence.” In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun, he argued that Western countries are focusing too much on Russia, while Iran, in his view, should be at the center of security policy.

According to Dean, Iran hosted al-Qaeda for approximately 25 years, creating opportunities to establish sleeper cells capable of harming British civilians. He also linked this to deadly attacks against Britons carried out in the United Arab Emirates.

Dean estimated that future attacks are likely to take the form of lone-wolf operations. He added that while it is impossible to know exactly how many al-Qaeda sleeper operatives are in Britain, the number is at least in the hundreds. According to him, these operatives could be used to launch an attack at any given time.

Dean’s personal background is unusual. As a teenager, he met Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, considered the architect of the September 11 attacks, and later traveled to Afghanistan, where he spent months learning how to build explosive devices. He operated alongside senior figures in the organization, including Abu Khabab, who was responsible for developing weapons that caused many casualties in al-Qaeda operations until he was killed in a CIA drone strike in 2008.

Dean said the turning point in his life came after the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which around 200 people were killed and thousands wounded. Following those attacks, he cut ties with the organization, left Qatar, and decided to quit al-Qaeda.

Shortly afterward, MI6 operatives approached him, and after being convinced that he had indeed left the organization, recruited him as an agent. Dean returned to operate within al-Qaeda while secretly passing classified information to the British. According to him, this intelligence helped thwart attacks and save many lives, including a planned attack on the New York subway.

His cover was eventually exposed following an article published on the Time magazine website. Although his name was not mentioned, enough details were revealed for al-Qaeda to identify him. He fled to Britain, was placed in a safe house, and given a new identity. He later published a memoir about his activities as an undercover agent.

Last week in Britain, indictments were filed against two Muslim ISIS terrorists who planned to carry out deadly attacks against Jewish community targets in the UK. British police said those attacks could have been “the deadliest in the history of the kingdom.”