Intelligence officials were braced for an offensive - but lowered threat l

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1523647,00.html

Intelligence officials were braced for an offensive - but lowered threat levels

Group linked to al-Qaida cites UK's Iraq actions

Richard Norton-Taylor and Duncan Campbell
Friday July 8, 2005
The Guardian

A group of terrorists, affiliated or inspired by al-Qaida, carried out the series of coordinated bomb attacks in London, intelligence officials and independent analysts said yesterday.
A group calling itself the Secret Organisation of the al-Qaida Jihad in Europe posted a claim of responsibility for the attacks, saying they were in retaliation for Britain's involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

....

But Whitehall's Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre (Jtac) last month reduced the threat level from al-Qaida terrorism, from "severe - general" to "substantial".

The Guardian has learned that Jtac made the decision on the grounds that the al-Qaida leadership did not have the ability to order a coordinated attack in Britain. But that did not mean a group of individuals broadly sympathetic to al-Qaida did not have the ability to mount attacks on their own initiative.

<</SNIP>>

[Up2Late]

1. I heard about this today

What? Did they think we wouldn't find out?

[Justice]

2. That is why Blair's voice was shaky.

They keep telling us how bad these guys are and then go and reduce threat levels to save money.

[lateo]

3. Does it say "why" they lowered the threat?

[Schema Thing]

4. Idiots. Hell, *I* have "the ability to order a coordinated attack in...

Britain". Groups of individuals broadly sympathetic to al-Qaida, however, don't pay much attention to me, but even George Bush could see that they would pay attention to "al-Qaida leadership".