Posted on 07/21/2005 5:19:56 AM PDT by ConservativeMan55
From Wikipedia:
COBRA (for Cabinet Office Briefing Room A) is a name used to describe ad-hoc committees within the UK government for responding to emergencies.
It meets in the Cabinet Office briefing rooms, which are located underground beneath Whitehall. Depending on your sources, COBRA is either a permanent operation on 24-hour standby, or a fanciful name made up by the UK press based on the fact that crisis meetings tended to be held in briefing room A.
Cabinet Office Briefing Room A is Britain's main information briefing room for the Prime Minister in times of national crisis.
COBRA is based deep underneath the Cabinet Office at 70 Whitehall and linked by underground passages to 10 Downing Street. Physically it is a suite of secure rooms containing a bank of telephone lines, fax machines, computer terminals, video conference facilities, and other state of the art communication equipment. The intention is to enable the Prime Minister to obtain the vital information of the day and secure lines of communication to the police, army, hospitals, and all other relevant branches of government.
COBRA has been opened for previous crisis such as the Kosovo campaign of 1999, the Fuel Protest of September 2000, the Foot and Mouth Crisis of spring 2001. With such unique sets of circumstances - from dealing with the millions of rotting animal carcasses, to getting the fuel and lifeblood of the country pumping again - COBRA has proved its immense flexibility.
After the September 11, 2001 attacks the Prime Minister Tony Blair did not initiate COBRA, but set up a War Cabinet instead which is a much more traditional institution for dealing with possible major attacks upon the United Kingdom itself in "wartime". However, the above facilities were almost certainly used under its jurisdiction.
COBRA was convened twice during the 7 July 2005 London bombings, to coordinate the emergency response, with the Prime Minister flying directly from the G8 summit to a COBRA meeting.
Not all meetings in briefing room A are COBRA meetings, and the room is also used to host ordinary meetings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_Office_Briefing_Room_A
Simply one more example of why these bizarre outlanders can not and will not ever assimilate, much less be trustworthy.
Two words, Brit:
mushy peas
HEY! :-)
This is surprising because?
That was the first thing I thought this morning when I turned on the TV!!
Exactly
He's a Pentecostal?
Low power explosions = bio-chem dispersal mechanisms?
Sure did Galloway a lot of good sucking up to Saddam and the terrorists!
"Mein Quran".
Hence my qualifying statement. I try not to leave myself without some wiggle room.
"Has anyone blamed Bush yet"
Probably. I'll check my sources of lunatic news and get back to you.
Good to hear.
barbarians
Cobra committee leads attack response
07/07/2005 - 13:36:47
The British government’s Cobra committee is leading the response to today’s terrorist attack on the UK.
The committee is essentially the government’s emergency response team.
Despite its dynamic-sounding name, the acronym stands for the less stirring “Cabinet Office Briefing Room A”.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke confirmed he chaired meetings of Cobra this morning, and that Prime Minister Tony Blair would chair a further meeting later on his return from Gleneagles.
Heads of MI5, the police, the civil contingencies secretariat and senior ministers, would have been among those brought together at Whitehall to analyse the situation and attempt to co-ordinate responses across government.
The Security and Intelligence Co-ordinator in the Cabinet Office, Bill Jeffery, was also likely to attend.
Cobra may have met at 10 Downing Street or, if the Whitehall area was thought to have been in danger, it may have been re-located to the Citadel – the secure underground complex below government buildings in the area.
An emergency meeting of the committee was called on September 11 2001 as soon as the enormity of the attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon became clear.
It was also convened after two suicide car bombings in Istanbul hit the British Consulate General and the HQ of HSBC bank in the city in November 2003, killing 61 people including British Consul-General Roger Short.
The committee would initially need to consider whether to invoke the powers contained in part two of the Civil Contingencies Act, which allows considerable powers for the executive in times of a serious emergency.
Most of these powers were highly unlikely to be used in the event of attacks such as today’s.
In fact, they were designed to cope with a far larger strike, particularly one involving chemical or radiological material, such as a nuclear “dirty bomb”.
They would allow a minister to suspend sittings of parliament if necessary and to declare a bank holiday to shut down businesses.
By executive decree, property could be destroyed or requisitioned, assemblies banned, freedom of movement limited, the Armed Forces mobilised and special courts set up to deal with suspects if it was felt another atrocity was planned.
A cabinet office spokesman said he was unable to provide details of today’s Cobra meetings.
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