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Features

The troubled ex-informers neglected by MI5

Agents are essential to the fight against terrorism. But our gratitude sometimes seems to come with an expiry date

15 August 2015

9:00 AM

15 August 2015

9:00 AM

When a terrorist group is active in the UK — as Islamist extremists and dissident republicans are at the moment — there is no more essential figure in the prevention of carnage than an agent working for the security services. Reliable intelligence is what defuses bombs, intercepts arms caches, and apprehends suspects.

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