Britain on terrorist alert?!

aine · 08-01-2003 9:03am #1

"BRITAIN ON POISON ALERT
Police in London are hunting for more people who may be involved in a plot to use the ricin toxin in a terrorist attack."

Sky news are carrying this as one of their headlines, what does everyone think? will britain be the next terrorist target? and if so is it Tony's fault for backing Bush on absolutely anything?

PH01 · 08-01-2003 9:25am

Does anyone else think that this 'War on Terrorism' is a bit over the top?
So few Islamic fundamentalist have a bottle of poison. And a couple of westerners are at risk. And it's headline news?! Big deal!!
And this 9/11 bùll$hit - 3000 people dead and a couple of billion dollars up in smoke. Yes, it's sad but big deal! Bush has spent and is going to spend tens of billions on this 'War on Terrorism' and about 8000 people have died because of it so far.

A couple of million people are going to die in Africa this year, and where are the headlines???!!!

KdjaCL · 08-01-2003 10:32am

If Image doesnt work follow link to daily mirror frontpage.

kdjac

growler · 08-01-2003 10:49am

i'm starting to get a bit nervous about this now , i work not far form the american embassy and i now almost subconciously watch for anything "suspicious" (out of pure self preservation) , i never gave a damn when the ira were at large but i feel a lot less safe now.

however u can't let these guys ruin your life , i am sure london is next on the list for terrorists, not too surprising given their new 51st state status, the idea of poison gases , water contamination can have a very profound effect on people.

Does anyone else get the impression these terrorists cant be very good at their chosen profession (they keep getting caught) and that the uk media and government are determined to have the public in a permanent state of fear ?

Xterminator · 08-01-2003 11:54am

Its not like there is no precedent for poison gas attacks.

Remember the Japanese terroists who released Sarrin on a tube train.

I think its a pretty scary situation. The no. of deaths does not matter to these people (though you know they will try to maximise casulties). Their aim is to affect the psyche of the nation, leave u feeling like your not safe anywhere ...

Also if the link to Al Queada is further substanciated, it retrospectivly shows G W Bush's action to have been appropiate to the threat posed.

I heard the other day about a Pakisstani spokesman who announced that Al Queada had been given 'gifts' of chemical weapons by 'friendly' governments.
At the tme it was played down a little, but given the recent developments ... shows that perhaps the intelligence depts of UK/US have been well informed, and the skeptics the ones who were dreamimg.

X

daveirl · 08-01-2003 12:01pm

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growler · 08-01-2003 12:50pm

of course there was some sense that the ira were out to cause economic or political damage.. military casualties etc. but not necessarily large scale civilian casualties , these nutters revel in civilian deaths , its a whole new mind set to deal with. Terror without a political point is errrr pointless.

dathi1 · 08-01-2003 4:05pm

I don’t think there is any comparison between this threat and the 30-year Ira campaign. The objective of these illegal immigrants is too step up the divisions between Islam and the west by playing on the backs of their Christian Fundamentalist counter parts in Washington. Both have their respective objectives in a global conflict i.e.: Armament supplies / GEC Pleesy, Marconi, Boeing etc, Oil and a new colonial foothold in the middle east to back up their Israeli colony. The Islamists main objective is to destabilise the west by all means necessary including killing all infidels. Both have GOD on their side

daveirl · 09-01-2003 8:00pm

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The Gopher · 09-01-2003 10:01pm

It is over dramatised IMO.It is not suitable for launching a large scale attack.Whenever there is hype over germ/chemical terrorism I always just think to myself that if it were in any way easy to isperse this stuff that thousands of Israelis would have been killed.The reality is that germ warfare is a hit and miss type of attack-the chances of thousands dying are remarkably small.

Do you know that before and after Sept 11th there were several plots uncovered to commit mass casualties in the UK that recieved little or no news attention.For example I doubt you ever heard that on Sept 11th a plan by Al Quaida to hijack a plane out of Heathrow and fly it into Westminister was aborted as all flights were grounded.This story recieved zero tv news attention,but a few terrorists with ricin(and I doubt they are even real terrorists.And a group planned to attack Scottish New Year celebrations but this recieved only a mention in the News in Brief sections.Two of the arrested suspects are under 18,its most probably Bin Laden followers who got a recipie from the internet)get a load of news attention.Real plots to inflict mass casualties get no attention for some reason.

PalerPaul · 10-01-2003 4:19pm

All the british press has agendas more so than Ireland. If I'm gonna die I aint going to get the choice.

Victor · 10-01-2003 4:36pm

Is the Prevention of Terrrorism Act still in operation?

dathi1 · 13-01-2003 9:53pm

Dathi, they're not all illegal immigrants. Many of the Al'Quaeda members arrested in the US and in the UK were legal immigrants and many were also US and UK citizens.

hmmm..... http://uk.news.yahoo.com/030108/140/di40r.html

daveirl · 13-01-2003 10:22pm

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Mercury_Tilt · 13-01-2003 10:38pm

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dathi1 · 14-01-2003 12:04am

2 out of the 7 were Asylum seekers. NOT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS.

There are no asylum seekers in the UK and Ireland. The interface countries Spain, France etc...are all democratic nations.

growler · 14-01-2003 1:54pm

"There are no asylum seekers in the UK and Ireland. "

how do you work that out ? is it not possible to FLY to england and claim asylum or do u have to do that whilst in spanish/ dutch etc airspace ?

dathi1 · 14-01-2003 7:21pm

I get your drift...but I think you can see my point.

daveirl · 14-01-2003 7:45pm

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Meh · 14-01-2003 8:18pm

Originally posted by daveirl
Asylum seekers are allowed to claim asylum in which ever country they choose. Dathi.

Actually, under the Dublin Convention, asylum seekers are supposed to make their asylum claim in whichever EU country they arrive in first. Anyway, isn't this getting a bit off-topic?

daveirl · 14-01-2003 8:24pm

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rien_du_tout · 14-01-2003 9:04pm

I think that such revelations about terrorist attacks being blown out of proportion could be an aid to getting public support for a war on iraq? I've been in austria for the past while (rockin' country!:) so I'm not sure how the news of it was presented over here. Judging from what your saying here it was a bit sensationalised. I watched some of it on CNN and as far I could figure out the chemical had never been used a a massive scale before. That it had been used for an asassination and that there is no atidote(sp?)........ Obviously it is a major enough story due to potential loss of life and the removal of that threat. I wouldnt compare it to people dying in Africa though......I agree that certain problems/areas in the world seem to be covered and then given a break........ which seems not to make sense to me.

seán

Britain on terrorist alert?!

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