Britain Ramps Up Security Campaign to WWII Levels
- From: Phaedrine <Phaedrine.Stonebridge@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 05 Aug 2005 11:09:43 -0500
<http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/05/international/europe/05london.html>
Britain Goes on High Alert, Spurred by Hint of Attack [excerpt]
By DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: August 5, 2005
LONDON, Aug. 4 - Exactly four weeks after a team of bombers attacked
London with a deadly strike, the British police on Thursday mounted
their largest security campaign here since World War II as intelligence
officials said they had picked up information that another team might be
planning a synchronized bombing in London or elsewhere in Britain.
The most recent information came from a cellular phone text message
intercepted recently and the interrogation of a suspected terrorist
being held outside Britain, said senior counterterrorism and
intelligence officials based in Britain, Europe and the United States.
The actual text of the message was not made available. The officials
said the information was not specific about the timing of such an
attack, or whether the team was already in place.
A senior American police official said he was told by his counterpart in
Scotland Yard that the latest intelligence information was "specific
enough to worry them that something is coming."
A senior intelligence official based in Europe, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said, "The British have told us - they feel sure there
will be a third wave of attacks."
Scotland Yard officials declined to comment about the latest
intelligence or about the intensifying speculation in the British press.
Earlier this week The Sunday Times reported that "a third Islamist
terror cell is planning multiple suicide bomb attacks against tube
trains and other 'soft' targets in central London."
A Metropolitan Police spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity,
would only say, "We have to assume there are more people of the same
mind-set who want to attack London."
On Thursday, British officials said they were surprised that new details
about explosives used in the two attacks in London had been disclosed in
New York City during a briefing that police officials gave to local
security directors. The officials said they were not consulted by the
New York police before the briefing on Wednesday.
Paul J. Browne, the New York City Police Department's chief spokesman,
said he was in error when he told reporters that department officials
had cleared the material in the briefing with their British
counterparts. The error, he said, resulted in a misunderstanding he had
with another New York police official. But Mr. Browne said the
department was comfortable with the briefing and noted that the
information provided to the security directors came from open sources
and was not classified.
Also on Thursday, a videotape was broadcast showing Ayman al-Zawahiri,
Al Qaeda's deputy to Osama bin Laden, declaring that there would be more
bloodshed in London. Mr. Zawahiri said any additional terror attacks
would be the fault of the British prime minister, Tony Blair. "Blair has
brought to you destruction in central London, and he will bring more of
that, God willing," Mr. Zawahiri said in the tape, which was broadcast
on the satellite channel Al Jazeera. The tape's authenticity could not
be immediately verified.
He also threatened more attacks against the United States unless it
withdrew its troops from Muslim countries. "Our message to you is clear,
strong and final - there will be no salvation until you withdraw from
our land, stop stealing our oil and resources and end support for
infidel rulers," Mr. Zawahiri said.
President Bush said the videotaped comments by Mr. Zawahiri "make it
clear that Iraq is a part of this war on terror, and we're at war." Mr.
Bush, speaking during a joint appearance at his ranch with the president
of Colombia, lvaro Uribe, said that Mr. Zawahiri and people like him
"have a ideology that is dark, dim, backwards."
"They're terrorists and they're killers," he said. "And they will kill
innocent people trying to get us to withdraw from the world so they can
impose their dark vision on the world."
So far, there has been no link established between Al Qaeda and either
attack in London.
Two other American officials played down the significance of the
cellphone text, saying that British investigators are so concerned about
another attack that some pieces of information take on added
significance. A high-ranking American law enforcement official said he
was aware of the reports of a cellphone text and a human source
confirming the worry about another attack, but he added, "I think the
immediacy of it has been toned down."
Both the police and the public are clearly jittery about the possibility
of an attack. Some commuters acknowledged on Thursday that they had
changed their habits as a result....
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