<text>  MI5 has been condemned over its handling of the case of bloodthirsty Islamist Jihadi John pictured No organisation is more important in the fight against terrorism within our society than MI5. The security and intelligence services crest rightly reminds its officers of their duty to defend our realm. Yet in recent days the service has been ferociously attacked over its handling of the case of the bloodthirsty Islamist Jihadi John, now unmasked as Mohammed Emwazi, a computer graduate from the University of Westminster. Much of this condemnation has focused on the revelation that, before he left to join the IS jihad in Syria, Emwazi was known to MI5 as an extremist and may even have had links to the 2005 London bombers. But there have also been noisy complaints, widely relayed across the media, that it was MI5s supposedly heavy-handed surveillance which drove Emwazi down the path to radicalism. All too predictably, the verbal assault on the security service has been led by the BBC which, with typical self-importance and disdain for our national interests, has set itself up as judge and jury over the saga. Like the left-wing Guardian newspaper, the BBC has been giving copious airtime to the nauseating pressure group Cage, which has a long record of providing support for Islamist terror suspects. Given an undeserved platform by the BBC, Cages spokesman Asim Qureshi peddled the revolting propaganda line that Emwazi had been a gentle and beautiful man until apparently forced to become a sadistic executioner because of MI5s cruel harassment. According to Qureshis grotesque theory, this harassment by MI5 began after Emwazi had attempted to go on safari to Africa with a couple of other Muslim extremists he was arrested on landing in Tanzania en route to Somalia following his graduation. The complaint of heavy-handedness in dealing with extremist suspects is simply absurd. Spooking people like Emwazi is absolutely necessary. They should feel they are being monitored. To inflict on the British public such special pleading as Qureshis and twisting of the evidence in support of a murderous death cult is a betrayal of BBC values. It is the moral equivalent of giving Joseph Goebbels a slot on BBC Radio Fours Thought for the Day. There have also been noisy complaints that it was MI5s supposedly heavy-handed surveillance which drove Emwazi down the path to radicalism - an attack which is both unfair and counter-productive The drivel about Jihadi John was then reinforced by senior Tory MP David Davis on yesterdays Jeremy Vine programme on Radio Two. He rejected the theory that Emwazi had merely gone to Africa on safari. But he repeated accusations he had already made in the Guardian a paper which has already done deep damage to our national security by publishing intelligence documents leaked by US National Security Agency traitor Edward Snowden, that MI5 were guilty of confusion of aims and ineffective tactics that leave known terrorists to carry out evil deeds and recruit more conspirators. In his ill-informed contribution, he further suggested that MI5 should simply arrest jihadis and bring them to trial. Asim Qureshi, spokesman for pressure group Cage, said Emwazi had been gentle until he was apparently harassed by MI5 . All this criticism of MI5 is both unfair and counter-productive. The only people who gain from it are the terrorists and their supporters. The attack on their work, delivered from the cosiness of media studios, represents little more than the politics of distraction, putting the blame for extremism on those who are trying to defend us, while letting off the zealots who are the real threat. The problem with MI5 is not that it is too interventionist, as Cage and many of the chattering classes pretend, but that, because of its lack of resources and powers, it is insufficiently interventionist. Too often it wants to act as a fire-fighting unit, where it really needs to be a fire-prevention one. But it needs the tools and manpower to do so. Contrary to all the nonsense talked this week, we should recognise that MI5 has done a remarkable job in foiling a vast number of Islamist plots. Its successes are the terrorist plots that are disrupted and the planes that dont get blown out of the sky. We dont get to hear about these. Of course, there have been disastrous failures, such as the 2005 London bombings, and, before this, a reluctance to recognise that Al Qaeda regarded the entire West as the enemy, not just the Middle East. MI5 have learned that lesson now; some say too late. I would say better late than never. It is now a security service we should and can be proud of. MI5 are still keeping us safe. Most fair-minded British people would say: good on them. Professor Glees is director of the Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies at the University of Buckingham . 