Propaganda Alert
compiled by Cem Ertür
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
30 June 2009
1) UK government: Terror threat lowest level since 7/7 bombings (July 2009)
2) [from the archives] UK interior minister: The threat of a chemical or nuclear attack is now more real (March 2009)
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excerpts from: Terror threat lowest level since 7/7 bombings
by Martin Bentham, Evening Standard, 20 July 2009
The official terrorist threat level was today downgraded to its lowest level since before the 7 July London bombings in 2005.
The decision to reduce the classification from “severe” to “substantial” means that although an attack is believed to remain a strong possibility, it is no longer regarded as highly likely.
The change, which follows a renewed assessment of the danger by the Government’s Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, was announced by Home Secretary [i.e. UK Interior Minister] Alan Johnson. […]
The last time the official threat level – which can range across five classifications from “low” to “critical” – was set at substantial was in May 2005, two months before the July 7 bombings.
Since the London attacks it has generally remained at “severe”, despite occasionally and briefly rising to “critical” […]
The threat level was last at critical in June 2007 following the attack on Glasgow Airport and the failed car bombings in central London.
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from the archives:
excerpts from: UK interior minister: The threat of a chemical or nuclear attack is now more real
by Sam Marsden, Independent, 24 March 2009
[emphasis added]
Terrorist group al-Qa’ida is likely to fragment in the coming years but an attack on Britain involving chemical or nuclear weapons is now “more realistic”, the Government warned today.
Home Secretary Jacqui Smith highlighted the danger posed by new technologies and failed states around the world as she published an updated counter-terror strategy. The report – known as Contest Two […] contains a stark warning about the likelihood of an attack involving a “dirty bomb”. […]
Ms Smith was asked whether there was a greater threat of a CBRNE [i.e. chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives] attack than five years ago. She replied:
“There is the potential, given the international situation, what we believe to be the aspirations of some international terrorists, that it could be.”
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related links:
Gordon Brown: Police foiled ‘very big terrorist plot’ (10 April 2009)
The United Kingdom’s Strategy for Countering International Terrorism (Contest 2) (24 March 2009
UK interior minister: British hotels put on alert over Mumbai-style terror attack (21 March 2009)
UK foreign minister: The security situation in Pakistan is fuelling terrorist plots in Britain (6 March 2009)
UK interior minister: Gaza attack fuels Al Qaida extremism in the UK (8 January 2009)
https://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2009/01/09/gaza-attack-fuels-al-qaida-extremism-in-the-uk/
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