Al Qaeda is recruiting British teenagers as young as 15, according to MI5 counterintelligence chief Jonathan Evans. In his first public speech, Evans said al Qaeda was “the most immediate and acute peacetime threat” the service had ever dealt with since its inception in 1909. Evans, who became MI5’s director of international counter-terrorism Sept. 1, 2001, and director general this spring, was speaking to the Society of Editors Tuesday.

“Terrorists are methodically and intentionally targeting young people and children in this country,” he said. “They are radicalizing, indoctrinating and grooming young, vulnerable people to carry out acts of terrorism. This year, we have seen individuals as young as 15 and 16 implicated in terrorist-related activity.”

Teens have been found in possession of bomb and poison gas-making manuals, videos of executions and other terrorism-related materials. Some have mounted attacks.

Evans added that terrorist organizations enjoyed “a steady flow of new recruits to the extremist cause.”

MI5 currently has 2,000 extremist suspects who support terrorism and are considered a threat to national security and public safety.

“We suspect that there are as many again that we don’t yet know of,” Evans said.

A year ago, the figure was 1,600. Police sources said yesterday they are monitoring 500 people who are involved in at least 80 separate terrorist plots.

Part of Britain’s own next generation is turning against it, and al Qaeda is proving more successful than parents in some families. These realities make the failure of the fundamental British family unit become uncomfortably apparent. Britain’s many familial and societal cracks are fracturing to the point where some of its own children, whether native or immigrant, are plotting to explode, gas, or otherwise kill their neighbors.

The kinds of government-sponsored initiatives that tend to spring from alarming facts like these do not address this core issue. The problem will not be solved by more latitude for police, increased legislation, or more civil programs. The key to solving the problem of homegrown terrorism lies in strong families living by time-tested principles. For more on the core institution that leads to strong families and strong nations, read Conspiracy Against Fatherhood.