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Thread Six: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1109459/posts |
Posted on 03/12/2004 8:23:06 PM PST by thecabal
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- This week's deadly train bombings in Spain will not lead to a rise in the U.S. color-coded terror threat alert system, a Department of Homeland Security spokesman said Friday.
"Based on the current intelligence, we have no specific indicators that terrorist groups are considering such an attack in the U.S. in the near term," said department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
LONDON (Reuters) - Britain would not be able to cope with a major attack on civilians, top emergency planners say, according to the Independent on Sunday newspaper.
Patrick Cunningham, chairman of the Emergency Planning Society, said that local authority planners would be able to offer little more than "a token gesture of support" in the aftermath of an attack such as the Madrid bombings this month.
The society represents professionals involved in emergency planning, crisis and disaster management, and its membership is drawn from local government, industry, the utilities and the emergency services.
"It is absolutely unbelievable," Cunningham was quoted in The Independent on Sunday as saying. "We are concerned that our own emergency plans are not going to meet public expectations. It just does not make sense."
Iain Hoult, the organization's chairman in southern England, said that Britain was "very, very badly prepared" for an attack on the scale of the March 11 train bombings in Madrid in which 202 people died.
Their comments come less than a week after Britain's top police officer, Sir John Stevens, said such an attack on London was inevitable.
On Sunday, Stevens said European police forces needed to cooperate more in their efforts against terrorism.
"There needs to be a structure which is useful, which analyzes on a pan-European way some of the information we get, and the forensics," he told BBC television.
Cunningham said he was not criticising the police, fire and ambulance services, all of which have received extra funds and equipment over the last two years.
But he warned that local authority planners, who are supposed to play a vital role in the aftermath of a disaster, could cope with a "traditional bomb" by the Irish Republican Army but not with an attack on the scale of the Madrid bombings.
Staff, whose roles could include organizing evacuations, housing victims and providing information to the public, lacked essential equipment and training.
"It is a totally unacceptable position; something has got to happen," Hoult said.
This week representatives from Britain's local authorities are expected to tell the government that funds for emergency planning - currently drawn from a 19 million pound annual budget - must be increased, the newspaper said.
Hoon insists UK ready for terror attack
Press Association
Monday March 22, 2004 12:13 AM
Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon has denied claims that Britain is not prepared for a major terror attack.
He also insisted there was no significantly increased threat to the country as a result of the Iraq war.
Challenged on ITV1's Jonathan Dimbleby programme about the Prime Minister's assertion that the world was a safer place without Saddam Hussein, he said: "Yes, certainly safer."
Pressed on whether Britain was more of a target following the Iraq war, he said: "I don't accept that for a moment."
He continued: "I do not believe that the military action to remove Saddam Hussein's regime made a significant difference to the threat posed by al Qaida and other international, global terrorist organisations."
Asked if acknowledging an enhanced risk could prove politically dangerous - as in Spain where the pro-Iraq war government was voted out after the Madrid train bombings - he replied: "I don't think anyone can precisely say why the Spanish people decided to vote as they did, in a democracy they should be free.
"Clearly there were very significant events that took place in the days before they voted, but I am not going to second guess the reason for their choice when they voted, nor should anyone else."
On claims that Britain could not cope with a major terrorist atrocity, he said: "I simply don't accept that that is true. A great deal of effort has been made, particularly since 2001."
Mr Hoon continued: "I do not accept that we are badly prepared.
"I believe that significant efforts have been made, led by the Home Office, in order to ensure that we can react properly and effectively to any such threat."
Press Association
Monday March 22, 2004 1:08 AM
United States presidential candidate John Kerry has accused the Government of threatening police reforms in Northern Ireland over delays in publishing a dossier on four controversial murders.
The leading Democrat was one of seven powerful American senators who demanded Prime Minister Tony Blair immediately discloses the long-awaited Cory report into killings dogged by allegations of security force collusion.
In a letter to Downing Street they hit out at the continued secrecy over the findings in the cases which include the shooting of Belfast lawyer Pat Finucane.
Even though the Government has confirmed the report will be released by the end of the month, the senators, who also include Ted Kennedy, expressed dismay at the six month lapse since retired Canadian Judge Peter Cory handed his findings to the Government.
With each of the cases involving claims that police or soldiers were involved in the killings, they claimed efforts to transform security arrangements in Ulster could be endangered.
Mr Blair was told: "It is of grave concern that your Government's handling of this matter is jeopardising much of the progress made to date in achieving a new beginning for policing in Northern Ireland."
The US intervention, which followed lobbying from Mark Durkan, leader of the nationalist SDLP, has put new pressure on Mr Blair.
Although details of his reports have yet to be published, Judge Cory is known to have recommended public inquiries into all four killings.
These include the the 1989 Ulster Defence Association shooting of Pat Finucane by the Ulster Defence. A major investigation by Scotland Yard chief Sir John Stevens has already concluded that rogue military and police units aided the loyalist gunmen.
The other cases involve the murder of solicitor Rosemary Nelson by Protestant paramilitaries in 1999, Loyalist Volunteer Force chief Billy Wright's assassination inside the Maze Prison in 1997 and the mob beating which left Catholic man Robert Hamill dead the same year. The Prime Minister has already pledged to hold public inquiries if recommended, yet he will be anxious to avoid a repeat of the marathon tribunal into the Bloody Sunday shootings which cost £155 million.
I wonder how many trail derailments were the norm before 9/11 as compared to now. If they caught an illegal or a foreigner with VISA problems doing it, they'd just be questioned and set free - it seems to be the new normal. The only certain terror at this moment is reading about these occurrences and knowing we seem to be the only ones alarmed about them.
Prayers for the injured in this accident. Also, how fast was the vehicle going to make the gasoline tanker explode? Would it take excessive speed or just a fender bender to cause an explosion?
Lets welcome Honestly to FR. And Cal since you can give instructions on how to post links better than I can, will you post it to Honestly.
http://www.chemtrailcentral.com/
June 8th, 2004 - 1000th day since 9-11?
1,000 Days Of Terror: Expanded Analysis of the Caldera Black Wind of Death Theory
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