The British government has credible fears that as many as eight of its police officers and civil staff have links to al Qaeda and other extremist groups. Some may have attended terrorist training camps. One suspect circulated downloaded images of beheadings and roadside bombings from Iraq. But none will be fired; the Daily Mail reports that the police do not have the “legal power” to dismiss the suspects.

The information comes from a dossier compiled with the help of MI5. British intelligence has warned before that terrorists with ties to Osama bin Laden have tried to join British security. There is even concern that the conspirators behind the failed London bombing may have received inside information about rescue procedures: The second bomb was placed at an “evacuation assembly point” where emergency service workers would have gathered after the first bomb detonated.

The eight suspects have been unofficially barred from working in sensitive areas, but political correctness has shielded them from actually being removed from service. Instead, London will maintain its trend of allowing radical Islam to grow in Britain.

The Daily Mail referred to police efforts to “increase ethnic staff” as one possible way these men could have entered the force despite Scotland Yard’s thorough counter-terrorism checks. Last November, bbc revealed that a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir (an extremist group that former Prime Minister Tony Blair advocated banning) was working as a senior official in the Home Office—specifically, in immigration.

Britain has shown little backbone in halting the spread of radical Islam, easily evidenced by its discussions to allow Sharia law in British schools, build a giant mosque in London, and its general denial of the religious roots of Islamic terrorism.

For more on how this situation has developed, please read “The Sickness in Britain’s Heart.”