duke of url

Britain on red alert as terrorist threat rises
MINISTERS are preparing to place the UK on 'red alert' in an
unprecedented peacetime move that would see the streets of Britain
flooded with armed police.
The plan to step up to the highest possible security state follows
last week's devastating terrorist attacks on British targets in Turkey
and growing fears that a direct assault on the UK is inevitable.
The nationwide alert would result in tougher security checks across
the country and give intelligence agencies and police emergency powers
to increase surveillance, phone-tapping and the detention of terror
suspects on the basis of intelligence reports.
Fears of "martyrdom operations" by terrorists against targets in
Britain were heightened last night after it emerged that a possible
poison attack in London was thwarted last year. A terror group
attempted to buy half a tonne of toxic chemicals from a UK firm which
was suspicious about the quantities needed and reported the matter to
police.
It was also claimed last night that security services are hunting two
al-Qaeda cells they believe are preparing to carry out "spectacular"
terrorist attacks on Britain.
Up to 10 terrorists from north Africa and Saudi Arabia have reportedly
mounted surveillance operations on vulnerable commercial targets such
as big banks and shopping centres, and even made "dummy runs" to
practise suicide car-bombings against the premises.
MI5 director-general Eliza Manningham-Buller was last night reported
to have warned ministers of the potential for attack, and told senior
MPs of the threat posed by al-Qaeda "sleepers" based in Britain.
Barely a week ago, on the eve of President George Bush's visit to
Britain, the country was placed on its second highest state of alert,
'severe general', after intelligence emerged suggesting al-Qaeda was
planning an attack.
Now, as British embassies around the world scramble to improve their
defences, Home Secretary David Blunkett has concluded the threat
facing Britain within its own borders is more serious than ever
before.
Blunkett, who yesterday said he was "sick and tired" of people
pretending there was not a threat from terrorists, has held talks with
senior intelligence and security advisers about the likelihood of
cranking up defences still further.
Britain's top policeman, Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir John
Stevens, has warned an attack in London is both imminent and
inevitable.
A Home Office source last night stressed the escalated alert would
only be triggered by the most specific intelligence about imminent
attacks, but added there was growing "resignation" within the
department that the move would be necessary sooner rather than later.
"These are not things we make up as we go along," he said. "There is a
plan for what happens when the emergency is seen as imminent, an
off-the-shelf strategy. We have to keep this under review. It is being
looked at in the light of events."
Security experts last night confirmed that the move to the highest
state of alert would see more police on the streets issued with guns
and tougher security checks at ports and airports.
There would also be increased armed protection of possible targets,
including barriers at government offices, courts and other sensitive
buildings.
The emergency legislation rushed through following the September 11
attacks gave Blunkett a series of powers, including the right to
detain indefinitely suspected terrorists, and monitor accounts, phone
calls and e-mails.
In an unreported statement last week, he announced that 16 foreign
terror suspects have been detained without trial under the powers
during the past two years, with the latest internee picked up in
October.
Admiral Sir Alan West, the First Sea Lord, warned yesterday: "It is
not a question of if, it is a question of when. I cannot imagine there
will not be an event in the UK."
Andrew Garfield, director of the International Centre for Security
****ysis at King's College, London, said: "To even think of cranking
up the alert above what it was already would mean they are probably
working on very high intelligence of a specific threat. If they go
ahead with it, it will mean very active measures are introduced.
Sometimes they will publicise the alert to encourage the public to be
vigilant, but mainly they are just trying to make it obvious to the
terrorists that they know what they are up to and they won't succeed."
Details of the government's dramatic next steps in the defence against
terrorism were disclosed as ministers were accused of not doing enough
to protect British interests at home and abroad from attacks.
The Conservatives' homeland security spokesman, Patrick Mercer, said
the United States was taking terrorism warnings far more seriously,
and major targets in Britain were not being given the same protection
as the US embassy in London.
He added: "I do wonder why the government can't see the value of
making people alert, training people in what to look for, and
therefore creating in almost everybody who has got a set of eyes and
ears a set of intelligence nodes, if you like, that can be aware of
what's coming and may be able to prevent this type of activity."
Blunkett said he would announce any specific high-level warnings if it
would help people protect themselves, but he maintained that they
could be worried by general warnings.
"It is very good intelligence that actually saves you in the end, not
massive concrete blocks around every piece of British territory abroad
or, for that matter, all our iconic buildings," he said.
Blunkett backed Stevens' claim that Met officers had already foiled
planned terror attacks on London, although he refused to confirm the
reports about the would-be plot to kill thousands of people with toxic
chemicals.
The group attempted to buy 500kg of saponin, which could be mixed with
ricin or another toxin to cause widespread poisoning if the concoction
was smeared on surfaces in public places. But the supplier they were
dealing with, Amersham Biosciences, alerted police after becoming
suspicious. Company spokesman Lennart Arlinger said the organisation
making the order was funded by "the Islamic community".
As security is tightened at UK embassies, it also emerged that Tony
Blair and Bush are planning a fresh attempt to urge allies around the
world to join in their crackdown on terror suspects.
The two leaders are understood to have agreed to step up the
international effort to rein in al-Qaeda and the terror groups
affiliated to it, particularly in states such as Saudi Arabia, which
has been accused of being too complacent in tackling terrorists in its
backyard.
http://www.scotlandonsunday.com/index.cfm?id=1292792003

helen ramsay

And you would suggest?
<snipped cause it's all here in case you missed it > ...


Cheers, Helen
--
hramsay at cogeco dot ca

adam whyte-settlar

Exactly as predicted last year.
Bush and Blair making the world a safer place I suppose.
A W-S

val adams

Not a damn thing. You are in exactly the position we were in before 9/11;
plenty of 'chatter' indicating something was in the wind, but until the fin
shows above the surface heading in a specific direction there aint diddly
you can do except tighten your belts and wait. If all of us have learned one
thing from that fiasco, at least your gov is letting you know of the
possibility. I sincerely hope it's a tempest in a teapot, as so many of our
alerts since then have been.

Some will blame your gov's alliance with ours; fair enough, but let me ask
you this:If that first strike had been more massive, if we'd gone under and
not been here to ally with...what would your folk have done? You know your
countrymen better than I possibly can; but my bet is you'd have risen up and
started kicking butt. You might have done it with more grace and majesty; as
you (generalized) never tire of telling us, you have more experience; but I
never heard you acquired it by knuckling under.

well here's a hug for now, and I hope by next week or next month you all can
send our respective Nervous Nellies a well deserved Giant Raspberry.
(((((((((( UK & Friends ))))))))))

Love, (believe it or not)
Val de Lerkan Merkan

duke of url

I would suggest being alert. We've all heard of bombers setting
packages down in cafes and briskly walking away, for example, but most
of us don't keep our eyes open. Just: ALL of you KEEP YOUR HEIDS UP -
I don't want to log onto the Scotsman and read your names in casualty
lists!

séimí mac liam

Last I heard, the Island's been sucessfully held for many hundreds of
years with only small amounts of help from former colonies.

--
Saint Séimí mac Liam
Carriagemaker to the court of Queen Maeve
Prophet of The Great Tagger
Canonized December '99

lesley robertson

We've been doing that for the last 25 years or more!
We appreciate your concern, but the threat from terrorists isn't new on this
side of the pond.
Lesley Robertson

russj41

From DEBKAfile today:

Monday, November 24, Al Qaeda marked Eid al Fitr, the festival closing the
Muslim festival of Ramadan, with a dramatic warning. DEBKAfile’s
counter-terror sources reports that a message published over al Qaeda’s
electronic channels and websites declared that the countdown has begun for
the biggest operation ever carried out in the United States. “The big blow
will fall very shortly. It will consist of a series of surprise attacks that
will cut America off from communication with its armies in Muslim
countries.” The reference is clearly to US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The largest number, around 115,000 soldiers, is present in Iraq.

Muslims living in the United States are urged to “take advantage of the
short time left” to escape the country and harm’s way.

Some of the messages say that a new Osama bin Laden videotape will soon be
out. It will also carry statements by al Qaeda members who executed the last
suicide attacks in Saudi Arabia and adherents who died in clashes with Saudi
security. They will be shown describing how they were prepared for action.
Bin Laden will intersperse these cuts with comments explaining the selection
of Saudi targets.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that some of the new messages are
signed by Abu Assam al Yamani, who also threatens to murder Abdul Rahman
Rashid, editor of the Saudi London-based paper Sharq al Awsat. Al Yamani
says the al Qaeda passed sentence of death against the editor because he not
only met President George W. Bush in the British capital last week but
interviewed him and appeared with the president in a joint photo.

http://www.debka.com/index.php


MacHamish Mór

michael.mackinnon

Och, so many ifs, buts and maybes. I don't think the UK will go down
the road of the US and removing citizens rights in order to 'defend'
the country. We're far more politically sophisticated over here. We
even have more than two parties to vote for!

M

malcolm ogilvie

In article <7o24sv8obedeuemfq567bandmehmuir3ao@4ax.com>, MacHamish
<russj41@concentric.net> writes


Presumably that means they have some means of disabling an awful lot of communications satellites!

Who funds DEBKA and why should they be believed?

--
Malcolm Ogilvie