MI5 tracking '30 UK terror plots'

BBC News:
MI5 knows of 30 terror plots threatening the UK and is keeping 1,600 individuals under surveillance, the security service's head has said.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller warned the threat was "serious" and "growing".

Dame Eliza, who rarely speaks in public, gave a speech to a small audience on Thursday, detailing what she believes her organisation and the UK is facing.

She said that, since the 7 July bombings, five further major conspiracies in the UK had been thwarted.

"Today, my officers and the police are working to contend with some 200 groupings or networks, totalling over 1,600 identified individuals - and there will be many we don't know - who are actively engaged in plotting, or facilitating, terrorist acts here and overseas," she said.

Sounds to me like there's a bit of exaggeration going on here.

MI5 has increased in size by nearly 50% since 9/11 and now stands at roughly 2,800 staff.

Keep the British public in a constant state of fear to justify government spending on their continuing 'war against terror' and then wonder why ethnic minorities are being targeted by hooligans in the name of patriotism.