Funding cuts will risk 2012 London Olympics: Brit intelligence chiefs

London, June 1(ANI): British intelligence chiefs have warned that Al-Qaeda bombers could wreak havoc at the 2012 London Olympics, if funding cuts go ahead.

Brit intelligence agencies MI5, MI6, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and police counter-terrorist units all face cuts in the Comprehensive Spending Review.

"There will be a real risk to British lives if the counter-terrorism budget is not increased, let alone cut," The Sun quoted a senior security source, as saying.

"The 2012 Olympics present a massive opportunity to Al-Qaeda to pull off a spectacular attack. It will be then that we'll be most vulnerable," the source added.

Security chiefs want one billion pounds on top of the 3.5 billion pounds now spent on the fight against terror.

Up to 600 million pounds is needed to safeguard the Olympics and MI5 needs 400 million pounds for a secret project to track terrorists' communications, officials said.

Meanwhile, ex-Security Minister Lord West warned the Government against the funding cuts, and said: "I believe we should ring-fence the security and intelligence agencies' budget, and a large chunk of the counter-terrorism budget as well. This is simply not an area we can take a risk with, it's too important."

"The Government needs to think extremely hard about whether it is prepared to give away capabilities and I would urge them to be extremely careful about doing this," Lord West added. (ANI)