Former spy chief opinion

Britain’s Former Spy Chief Talks Terrorism, Mass Surveillance

On the U.K.’s terror threats

“Certainly a big concern of us in the U.K. are young people going out to places like Syria, joining what they might see as an uprising against a tyrannical regime, but falling in with a terrorist organization, going along with their extremist narrative, and being sent back to the U.K. or to other European countries, to commit attacks. Obviously you get some homegrown terrorists, people who become self-radicalized through what they read on the Internet or what they watch on YouTube. But I think the biggest problem is this link between communities here in Europe and U.K. and extremist organizations in places like Syria. There’s a lot of naivety and idealism in these people.