NYT: June Report Led Britain to Lower Its Terror Alert

[DeepModem Mom]

June Report Led Britain to Lower Its Terror Alert
By ELAINE SCIOLINO and DON VAN NATTA Jr.
Published: July 19, 2005


LONDON, July 18 - Less than a month before the London bombings, Britain's top intelligence and law enforcement officials concluded that "at present there is not a group with both the current intent and the capability to attack the U.K.," according to a confidential terror threat assessment report.

The previously undisclosed report was sent to British government agencies, foreign governments and corporations in mid-June, about three weeks before a team of four British suicide bombers mounted their July 7 attack on London's public transportation system.

The assessment by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Center prompted the British government to lower its formal threat assessment one level, from "severe defined" to "substantial." The center includes officials from Britain's top intelligence agencies, as well as Customs and the Metropolitan Police....

***

British officials said the reduced threat level had no practical impact on terrorism preventive measures, and the British home secretary said it did not make Britain more vulnerable to attack.

The tersely worded threat assessment was particularly surprising because it stated that terrorist-related activity in Britain was a direct result of violence in Iraq....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/international/europe/19intel.html?hp&ex=1121745600&en=f2e36abc62e3bff5&ei=5094&partner=homepage

[Rose Siding]

1. The Times couldn't get this on-the-record?

Asked to comment on the document, a senior British official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said, "We do not discuss intelligence assessments."

[DeepModem Mom]

2. Interesting also,senior official said was sharp disagreement re. lowering:

"A senior British official familiar with the deliberations about the threat assessment said there was a sharp disagreement among officials about whether the intelligence justified lowering the threat level. 'There was not an easy consensus,' said the official, who declined to elaborate."

[wli]

3. yes, of course it's a perpetual emergency

We couldn't ever let people drift out of mass hysteria, otherwise they'd start thinking for themselves and stop swallowing our propaganda.

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Guardian on this: Intelligence 'warned of Iraq terror link'

A report by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre - which includes officials from MI5, MI6, GCHQ and the police - explicitly linked US-led involvement in Iraq with terrorist activity in the UK although it concluded that no group currently had the "intent and the capability" to mount an attack, the New York Times said.

"Events in Iraq are continuing to act as motivation and a focus of a range of terrorist-related activity in the UK," the report - a copy of which was leaked to the paper by a foreign intelligence agency - said.
...
Professor Sir Bernard Crick, who wrote part of the Home Office handbook given out to new immigrants, said there was "absolutely" a link between the July 7 attacks and the UK's support for US policy in the Middle East.

"I think it is nonsense that the government denies that there is a political as well as a perverted religious dimension," he told the BBC's Today programme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1531729,00.html

[DeepModem Mom]

5. Thanks for adding this link, muriel. nt

[goforit]

6. Either way you look at it, this shows gov'ts can't protect their people

They are Negligent whether this was instigated by their
so called "terrorist" or instigated by their own intelligence.

It will be interesting how people will respond in time.