Now that the Terrorist Threat Level is CRITICAL (again), what exactly are we meant to do (again) ??
In the aftermath of the inept self-immolation attack by the occupants of a Jeep Cherokee which rammed Glasgow Airport Terminal Building, who were then subdued by airport workers, Gordon Brown grabbed the TV cameras and personally has announced that the Terrorism Threat Level has been raised to Critical from Severe.
Where is the new Home Secretary Jacqui Smith ? She seems to have been kept away from the mainstream media.
Here is the Home Office's press release on their website:
Threat level raised to critical30 June 2007
The threat level in the UK has been raised to the highest level.
In a statement, Home Secretary Jacqui Smith said:
'I can confirm that the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) has raised the national threat level to CRITICAL. This is in response to the events of the last 48 hours. Critical is the highest level of threat, and the threat level will be closely reviewed on a regular basis. Appropriate security measures have been put in place.'
A threat level of critical means that an attack is expected imminently.
We did get our "MI5 Security Service threat level change alert email, sent just after 9pm (British summer time) - about 3 hours after the alert level was changed to Critical, and about 6 hours after the Glasgow incident.
Their current website front page (re-designed in the last couple of months with a new style, if not content, since the new Director General Jonathan Evans took over in April) is still showing the previous alert status of Severe:
Here is the as yet still secret Critical graphic:
The MI5 Security Service and Home Office and Cabinet Office Intelligence.gov.uk website changes might take until Monday morning.
So, we will ask the same question as we did the last time, back in August 2006:
Comments
What are we meant to do? Well, be scared of a largely mythical terror organisation, give up more rights, give further powers to the politicians, military and police....I'm sure most people know the routine by now.
Posted by: Telecide | June 30, 2007 9:41 PM
Well we're supposed to panic and blindly follow our leader of course. Either that or take a suitably whimsical-yet-defiant picture and post it on werenotafraid.com.
I was going to register wereshittingourselves.com but, as it's such an obvious idea, someone got there first.
P.S. All I've seen on the news today is Jacqui Smith telling us all to be vigilant. If only she'd told us to do that a couple of days ago we'd have caught those potential terrorists by now.
Posted by: Veg | June 30, 2007 11:14 PM
You must be looking at a locally cached copy of those websites. The "Critical" graphic was certainly on there last night and I saw the Home Office website on Sky News around then as well... If you press Ctrl+R while looking at those pages, you'll force the browser to reload them, rather than pulling the page from your local cache.
Posted by: Timbo | July 1, 2007 11:37 AM
The only reason I can see for changing the threat level is to warn us to be more patient through security checks at airports etc. The terrorists are just as determined to maim and kill now, as they were before any threat levels were raised post-9/11.
Hopefully Brown's government wont use this new critical level to sneak in further legislation that will tighten their surveillance over the majority of us - who are not terrorists.
Posted by: smith.w6079 | July 2, 2007 8:47 PM
The threat levels on web sites are pointless, since there is nothing practical that anyone can do unless a specific threat at a particular location has been identified. The only thing they really achieve is providing a little scare value for the public, and allows the politicians to be seen to be doing something.
Posted by: Bob Mottram | July 3, 2007 4:40 PM
SEVERE again - we have had our email alert from the MI5 website, sent around 18:30 BST, telling us that the
The Joint Terrorism Assessment Centre (JTAC) has lowered the UK threat level from CRITICAL to SEVERE. This means that future terrorist attacks are still highly likely, but no longer thought to be imminent.
Do you really feel any safer now ?
Posted by: wtwu | July 4, 2007 7:32 PM