Last night the British terror threat level was raised to ‘severe’ from ‘substantial’. ‘Severe’ is the second highest level in their terror threat advisory system. The current ranking means that their counter-terrorism agencies believe an attack is ‘highly likely’.
Apparently, concern that there might be an imminent attack in the U.K. stems from intelligence that had been gathered suggesting that al-Qaeda was planning a ‘spectacular’ attack to coordinate with a conference on Afghanistan planned to take place next Thursday at Lancaster House in London. The Home Secretary, Alan Johnson, made the announcement:
“The Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre has today raised the threat to the UK from international terrorism from substantial to severe. This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest than an attack is imminent. JTAC keeps the threat level under constant review makes its judgments based on a broad range of factors, including the intent and capabilities of international terrorist groups in the UK and overseas.
“In his statement to Parliament on security and counter terrorism earlier this week, the Prime Minister said that the first and most important duty of government is the protection and security of the British people. We still face a real and serious threat to the UK from international terrorism so I would urge the public to remain vigilant and carry on reporting suspicious events to the appropriate authorities and to support the police and security services in their continuing efforts to discover, track and disrupt terrorist activity.”
Continue reading »
