Christmas attack 'highly likely'...

[mobypaterson]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6166195.stm

[simonralli]

Yep - for some reason I am a bit worried about London and Trafalgar Square on New Years Eve as an obvious target.

Let's hope this is just scaremongering and that they are not planning another big one. However, there is the small issue of Iran to soften us up for.

Si

[SHERITON HOTEL]

I've just checked the 'terrorist attack drill timetable' and there's not one planned over xmas

[Hazzard]

http://www.falseflagnews.com/

Start prowling boys and girls.

[Wokeman]

I lived throughout the '50s, '60s, 70's, and '80s, especially when the IRA was active. We didn't feel this degree of panic then and the potential threat to the UK. Of course, it was manifestly worse for some folks who lived in the Six Counties, in the north of Ireland. The terrorist threat from Islam has been created since 9/11 and I'll sleep safely in my bed tonight.

[Hazzard]

Thats becuase SIS or MI5 never told IRA to use dirty bombs.

But what makes me so angry guys ( and I hope you spread this around ) is that if they use a dirty bomb, it really isnt that big of an explosion reletivly. It simply just throws small amounts of radioactive material around.

But when THEY plant THEIR bomb, its gonna be bloody enormous. And they will claim that was a dirty bomb when any expert will tell you there was no way.

Either that or they will claim it was one of the missing suit case nukes.

[Busker]

[Mark Gobell]

Festive terror attack threat 'extremely high'

CHRISTOPHER CLAIRE

http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1872642006

EUROPEAN intelligence and security chiefs are said to be on "tenterhooks" over the "extremely high" threat of a Christmas terror attack by Islamic militants.

A senior French counter-terrorism official has said that "all of the warning lights are red", even though they had yet to uncover any specific plan.

"The threat is at its highest level," said the official, who spoke anonymously.

"All [security] services are on tenterhooks, and it's not just us [in France]. Work is under way everywhere, but nothing concrete is emerging." Those fears were echoed in Britain, already on edge after the alleged failed plot to bring down airliners over the Atlantic in August.

Home Secretary John Reid said last weekend it was "highly likely" terrorists would attempt to mount an attack over the holiday period.

Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, has said her agents are tracking almost 30 terrorist plots involving 1,600 suspects, and that at least five major plots had been thwarted since the 2005 bomb attacks in London.

In Washington, US intelligence and law enforcement officials said there was no specific, credible information pointing to a holiday threat.

The FBI recently sent a bulletin to state and local law enforcement agencies, urging them to be on the lookout for suspicious activity around Christmas.

But the intelligence officials say authorities are more concerned about an attack in Europe than the United States at present.

French prime minister Dominique de Villepin announced this month that he had called in reinforcements for beefed-up military patrols of public transportation, railway stations and airports.

Villepin also promised that a 1,000-man reserve force would also be available in case of emergency. France's terror alert level remains at red, the second-highest rank out of four.

It was not immediately clear what measures, if any, other European nations were planning as Christmas approaches.

In Spain, police said they would increase security at airports only if they received word of a specific threat.

In Italy, officials said security was always put on high alert during the festive season, especially around the Vatican and other sites that attracted pilgrims and tourists.

[Hazzard]

What like CIA or MI6 poking their noses around litter bins in city centers?

[Serge]

John Reid is a lying toe rag. He is always using this US style scaremongering scam. Like he did over the airline plot where nearly all arrested suspects have been released without charge.

How anyone can be taken in by his lies/fraud I don't know. Complete rubbish and anyone who thinks about what lies he says, will easily cotton onto that fact.

To hell Reidy, spout your lies elsewhere.

[jason67]

[outsider]

Don't pay any attention to John Reid - he's just a tin-hatted conspiracy theorist. Cracking on about tens - thirty - conspiracies out there! He's going to give us 'proper' conspiracy theorists a bad name!

[Mark Gobell]

OK it's easy to dismiss these things, I know just as you do. But.

We have been handed several warnings lately.

All of which, are not accidental warnings.

They may be metaphysical warnings, and they may be part of a plan.

Individually, nobody knows when to listen to them or ignore them.

Collectively, they are laid out for all to see.

See we told you so and you didn't listen.

[Skeptic]

^ Indeed.

Didn't Ian Blair warn of a threat right before 7/7?


An attack on Xmas Day would be huge - would create so much anti-islamic sentiment it doesn't bear thinking about.

[Mark Gobell]

The shortest and darkest day of the year is normally the 21st but it's the 22nd this year.

[Mark Gobell]

London Braces for Attack; 'Miracle' If There Isn't One

December 21, 2006 10:42 AM

Brian Ross and Richard Esposito Report:

British intelligence and law enforcement officials have passed on a grim assessment to their U.S. counterparts, "It will be a miracle if there isn't a terror attack over the holidays in London," a senior American law enforcement official tells ABCNews.com.

British police have been quietly carrying out a series of key arrests as they continue to track at least six active "plots" tied to what they call "al Qaeda of England."

Officials said they could not cite any specific date or target but said al Qaeda had planned previous operations during the Christmas holidays that had been disrupted.

"It is not a matter of if there will be an attack, but how bad the attack will be," an intelligence official told ABCNews.com.

Authorities say they are seeking at least 18 suspected suicide bombers.

"They hope they are one step ahead, but they seriously fear they may be one step behind," the senior American official said.

British law enforcement and intelligence officials say the ongoing plots have been in the planning stages for at least three years. The officials say the plots are all connected and track back to al Qaeda commanders in Pakistan who have been recruiting and training British citizens of Pakistan descent.

A report by "Newsweek" says that American al Qaeda figure Adam Gadahn has served as a translator of a 12-member team of Western recruits, the "English brothers," said to be preparing an attack that would be much bigger than last year's attack on the London subway system.

Watch ABCNews' undercover video of the active al Qaeda recruitment efforts inside Pakistan.

U.S. officials say the "Newsweek" report is, in many respects, parallel to intelligence reports they have been receiving.

British Home Minister John Reid recently told reporters that it was "highly likely" that terrorists would attempt an attack before the first of the year.

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2006/12/london_braces_f.html

[Mark Gobell]

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair claims the UK is facing an unparalled and growing threat of a terrorist attack.

However, he said there was "no specific intelligence" about an imminent attack but the threat was "ever present".

Sir Ian also said he is "confident" of being cleared of misconduct over the killing of Jean Charles de Menezes.

And he defended an anti-terror raid in Forest Gate claiming the shooting of a man during the raid was an accident.

Subsequent terror plots justified the decision to launch the operation, he told the BBC's Today programme.

'No intelligence'

Defending the high security levels which have been maintained in London, Sir Ian said the threat of terrorism was "far graver" than those faced during World War II, the Cold War or the IRA.

He said although there were no details about a terrorist attack during the Christmas period, the country faced a "level of unparalleled threat".


Mr Menezes was on a Tube train in Stockwell when he was shot
He added: "I think the threat of another terrorist attempt is ever-present.

"We have no specific intelligence but listeners may remember that there was a terrorist plot in Germany against one of their Christmas markets in 2002, so it's a possibility."

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is conducting an inquiry into the death of 27-year-old Jean Charles de Menezes in July 2005.

He was shot inside a train at Stockwell Tube station by police who mistook him for a suicide bomber.

Sir Ian said: "I'd say this: I, for my own part, I am quite confident that I will not face any kind of misconduct... in relation to Stockwell."

When questioned about his confidence, he added: "I'll just say that I'm confident, shall we leave it at that?"

'Cliff-edge choice'

The commissioner criticised the length of the inquiry, adding: "It's difficult to understand how an organisation can take 13 months to investigate what I did or did not say on one particular day."

Defending the Forest Gate raid, which cost police £2m, Sir Ian said officers have to take with tough decisions.


Mohammed Abdul Kahar (right) was shot during the Forest Gate raid
"I describe that as a cliff-edge choice, if you fall one way you knock your head on the rock and the other way you fall 200ft into the sea.

"We have learnt a lot from Forest Gate and you saw that in the way we handled the airline plot."

Sir Ian also said that nowadays officers are so overwhelmed in paperwork that their work is suffering.

"When I was a young officer I could carry out three straightforward arrests in eight hours. No officer could do that now... now its one (arrest)."

Listen to John Humphrys interview here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/3681938.stm