BRITAIN: The United Kingdom is facing a "real and present danger" of further suicide attacks, according to the independent reviewer of Britain's terrorism laws.
Lord Carlile QC, of Berriew, said documents shown to him by the Home Office were "sufficiently alarming" for him to conclude that bombing attacks similar to those that claimed the lives of 52 innocent people in London last July "must be expected".
While recommending a tightening up of the regime, Lord Carlile's first review of the government's controversial "control orders" concluded that the system as it has been used so far was "a justifiable and proportionate safety valve for the proper protection of civil society".
Reinforcing earlier similar warnings from senior ministers and the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, Lord Carlile said: "The nature of the activities of which I have seen information is sufficiently alarming for me to re-emphasise . . . the real and present danger of shocking terrorism acts involving suicide bombers."
On the basis of the briefing material he had seen, Lord Carlile told BBC Radio 4's World at One: "One couldn't possibly exclude a high risk of a further incident, and we must be vigilant."
At the same time, the Liberal Democrat peer's report challenged the police by suggesting that some terror suspects currently subject to control orders should be investigated further to establish whether they could be prosecuted and convicted in the courts.
He warned the government he had "real concern" about the indefinite detention of nine men under deportation procedures while ministers continued to seek "memoranda of understanding" or "no torture" agreements with their countries of origin.
With Home Office attempts to reach such agreements with a number of countries seemingly stalled, Lord Carlile said: "I have a real concern about the detention under deportation procedures of persons who in practice cannot be deported at present, and who are unlikely to be capable of legally compliant deportation within a reasonable time."
With MPs due to debate the temporary renewal of the emergency measures introduced last year after the Law Lords rejected the indefinite detention of foreign terror suspects, Lord Carlile continued: "It would have been far preferable for memoranda of understanding to have been reached before the deportation detentions took place.
"Given that there is the control order system in existence, it would be preferable for that system to be used against the persons concerned until suitable memoranda have been achieved."
Home secretary Charles Clarke yesterday pledged to introduce a new definition of terrorism and to consolidate all the existing counter-terrorism measures in a single new act of parliament.