The squad needed more diversity.

Up to eight police officers and civilian staff are suspected of links to extremist groups including Al Qaeda.

Some are even believed to have attended terror training camps in Pakistan or Afghanistan…

The dossier was drawn up with the help of MI5 amid fears that individuals linked to Islamic extremism are taking advantage of police attempts to increase the proportion of ethnic staff.

Astonishingly, many of the alleged jihadists have not been sacked because – it is claimed – police do not have the “legal power” to dismiss them…

Instead, the staff who are under suspicion are unofficially barred from working in sensitive posts and are closely monitored. Political correctness is blamed for the decision not to sack them…

Suspicions are growing that the gang behind the failed London bomb attacks could have received inside information about rescue procedures in the aftermath of an atrocity in the capital.

The Daily Mail can reveal that the second device parked near Haymarket was left at a designated “evacuation assembly point” where civilians and the emergency services would have gathered had the first bomb gone off…

As a result of the Stephen Lawrence public inquiry report, which accused the Met of being “institutionally racist”, Scotland Yard has in recent years employed thousands of officers and civilian staff from the ethnic minorities in an attempt to reach recruitment targets.

An excellent point from one of our commenters: “This explains where the mysterious ‘tip-off’ phone call came from that set them off running to the Glasgow airport.” Quite possibly.

If they can’t count on their cops then they’ve got only one thin line of defense left.