LONDON: Britain has raised its terror threat assessment from substantial to severe, suggesting an attack was "highly likely", ahead of international meetings on Yemen and Afghanistan in London next week. Home Secretary Alan Johnson announced the change on Friday, four weeks after the attempted bombing of an airliner heading from Amsterdam to the US city of Detroit.
Johnson said the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, the assessment unit within the MI5 domestic intelligence agency, had taken the decision to up the threat level. "This means that a terrorist attack is highly likely, but I should stress that there is no intelligence to suggest that an attack is imminent," he said.
Johnson refused to say whether the amended assessment - now four on a scale of five - was linked to the attempted attack on the Northwest Airlines flight on Dec 25. "We never say what the intelligence is," he said, adding: "It shouldn't be thought to be linked to Detroit or anywhere else for that matter." But a US official, who requested anonymity, said "that's the implication".
The US Department of Homeland Security said the announcement brought Britain in line with US security measures introduced over the last few weeks. The 23-year-old Nigerian man charged with trying to blow up the Detroit-bound plane with explosives hidden in his underwear was believed to have trained in Yemen after studying in London. Al-Qaeda claims it sent him on the mission. Johnson said the higher threat level meant Britain put "more resources in, we heighten the state of vigilance". He stressed Britain
continued to face a "real and serious threat" and urged the public to remain vigilant. The threat level was last at "severe" in July last year when it was downgraded to "substantial", suggesting an attack remained a "strong possibility".
Alex Carlile, the British government's independent reviewer of anti-terror legislation, said the move was aimed at making the public more aware, but was not designed to scare people. He said: "The government has quite rightly decided that if you don't tell the public to be vigilant, they're not going to be vigilant. "The message from the current change of assessment is not that we should be more afraid, but that we should be a little bit more vigilant than we have been.
Mike Granatt, a former security official in the British government, told BBC radio: "The main reason for alert states is to warn people who have a specific task that they ought to do something differently, they ought to be taking more steps or they ought to move to a different phase of the security plan.
India has increased security at its airports and warned domestic airlines about a possible hijack attempt after a tip-off from Western intelligence services, but there was no suggestion of any link to Britain's move. Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Wednesday reiterated the threats Britain faced as he announced the suspension of direct flights from Yemen until new security measures were in place.
Brown said the Afghanistan-Pakistan border remained the "crucible of terrorism", but the failed Detroit attack highlighted the threat from Yemen-based militants. A meeting in Britain on Wednesday was aimed at strengthening international support for Yemen in its efforts to combat Al-Qaeda. The day after, President Hamid Karzai would attend a high-level conference in London on the way forward in violence-scarred Afghanistan. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would also take part.
Britain has been targeted by a number of attempted bombings in recent years, following the attacks of July 7, 2005, when four suicide bombers killed themselves and 52 others on the London transport system. Since the threat levels have been made public, they have twice briefly been raised to the top "critical" level, meaning an attack was expected imminently. The first time was in August 2006, after a plot to down transatlantic airliners was uncovered, and the second in June 2007, after car bombs failed to
detonate in London and a burning Jeep was driven into Glasgow airport in an attempted attack.
Britain's decision to raise its terror threat alert came as India put airline passengers through extra security screenings and sky marshals were placed on flights. India put its airports on high alert amid reports that Al-Qaeda-linked militants planned to hijack a plane. - AFP
Kuwait Times
