- - - - - - - - - -The Channel tunnel has been targeted by a group of Islamic militant terrorists aiming to cause maximum carnage during the holiday season, according to French and American secret services.
The plan, which the French DGSE foreign intelligence service became aware of earlier this year, is revealed in a secret report to the French government on threat levels. The report, dated December 19, indicates that the tip-off came from the American CIA. British and French intelligence agencies have run a series of checks of the security system protecting the 31-mile tunnel but the threat level, the DGSE warns, remains high. British security services remain on high alert throughout the holiday period.
According to the French sources, the plan was put together in Pakistan and is being directed from there. The plotters are believed to be Western Europeans, possibly Britons of Pakistani descent. The DGSE say that levels of ‘chatter’, the constant communication that takes place between militants, has not been so high since 2001. Last week Sir Ian Blair, the head of the Metropolitan Police, described ‘the threat of another terrorist attempt’ as ‘ever present’ adding that ‘Christmas is a period when that might happen’.
‘It is a far graver threat in terms of civilians than either the Cold War or the Second World War,’ he said. ‘It’s a much graver threat than that posed by Irish Republican terrorism.’
American security sources told The Observer that the threat was ‘sky high’.
Those Chunnel trains must be a tempting target right now, packed as they are with
‘A successful attack on such an installation would be almost as spectacular as September 11’, said one terrorist expert. ‘Al-Qaeda and those they inspire are trying everything from low-level strikes to major attacks on critical infrastructure.’
[…]
The detail in which the attacks have been planned in Pakistan will worry British counter-terrorist services. The UK is in a particularly vulnerable position as a result of its close alliance with America, its physical accessibility compared with the US, and its large Muslim minority, many of whom have links with Pakistan.
Osama bin Laden and other key senior al-Qaeda leaders are thought to be based in the tribal territories along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. There is believed to be a steady stream of British militants making their way to the newly reconstituted al-Qaeda bases in the region. More than 400,000 British citizens travel to Pakistan every year. Though the vast majority are visiting family or friends, some have exploited the ease of travel for darker reasons: at least two of the 7/7 bombers spent time in the south-west Asian state.
That’s a startling statistic: 400,000 Britons traveling to Pakistan every year. Think how hard it must be to monitor the traffic — the plotters can count on a low probability of being watched by British intelligence as the move back and forth.
Last week news reports in America detailed a squad of a dozen English-speaking militants, nine of whom are said to be British who, having sought out the al-Qaeda bases, have now been trained to a high level in terrorist tactics. The group is known as the English Brothers because of their shared language. Apart from the nine Britons, the squad is made up of an Australian and two Norwegians. It was reported that Bin Laden and other militant leaders hope they will lead a new wave of terror attacks on the continent.
Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, recently disclosed that UK intelligence services are monitoring more than 200 networks and 1,600 individuals in Britain. She said that her investigators had identified nearly 30 plots ‘that often have links back to al-Qaeda in Pakistan, and through those links al-Qaeda gives guidance and training to its largely British foot soldiers here’.
How many personnel does MI5 assign to these tasks? Is it like a CPS caseload, with one harassed, demoralized, and overworked caseworker for every hundred “clients”?
One hopes the British intelligence services are doing some serious racial profiling right now…
Hat tip: LN.
12 comments:
I stopped by here to wish you at Gates of Vienna a Merry Christmas. And I find this story! Don't get me wrong--I support your posting this on Christmas Eve. The threat is grave.
Since the advent of the EU there have been no customs or immigration checks at either end.
How stupid is that!?
May French and British intelligence prevent any such attack.
Tragically, the West will continue to sleep until the next attack. And more tragically still, THAT may not be enough. The Islamic savages have not been discreet or obscure in their intent. They intend to conquer Europe and then the USA. And still we sleep. The terminal illness of leftism, multiculturalism and relativism have rendered us impotent in defending our civilization. Why we can't even muster the will to reproduce in sufficient numbers to stem the tide of the Islamic barbarians!
As far as I'm concerned the next attack can not come soon enough. Let the games finally begin in earnest. Our biggest battle with not be the Islamic animals. No, they could be dealt with tomorrow once and for all. Our biggest battle will be the entrenched cancer of leftism that has seized the body politic and is destroying its immune system. And like cancer, when we cut it out, it will be a race to see what is destroyed first. The body politic or the cancer. The longer this cancer grows unabated the more devastating the consequences of its removal.
God Bless the United States of America and Merry Christmas!
Look, we westerners need to acknowledge that there will be several more large destructive attacks before our societies wake up to the threat. Tens or hundreds of thousands will die--at the least.
Muslim terrorists are essentially stupid, but they get lucky every now and then. They got lucky that Clinton was president of the US for 8 years, allowing them time to build in strength and plan 9/11. They got lucky in the last US elections in November.
But every time they strike, they precipitate a counter-reaction that mitigates against their good fortune in american elections. Imagine the results of the November elections had al qaeda attacked the Chunnel in October 2006? Holding off on terror attacks is the smartest strategy for muslims currently.
But if you look at the map of muslim countries, and consult figures on average IQ, you see that the average muslim IQ is below 90. Are they stupid because they are muslim, or are they muslim because they are stupid?
Regardless, most muslim terrorists are incompetent and need a lot of help from american elections to make progress.
Great--hats off to the CIA, MI5 and all the adult professionals who got busy on this. Speaking of adult professionals, meanwhile, our juvenile media is stuck in its Hillarybama monomania to even inform us about this.
Guys--here's what we truly need.
We need at least one strong leader.
We need to get hold of at least major medium of communication.
The war of independence wouldn't have even happened without these two factors. Without them, however, I fear that we may remain a group of likely-minded lovers of freedom "commiserating with each other here in Cyber Space" (as one poster put it).
Merry Christmas to all!
Scott,
They DO address it if you attempt to defend yourself. YOU will be jailed! Thomas Hobbes and John Locke (both Englishmen) must be spinning in their graves.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒΕ!
scott:
"This is the daily newsfare in the UK nowadays and it is this quotidian litany of honor killings, street crime, drug smuggling, welfare and immigration fraud etc being perpetrated by an alien and hostile community within their midst that is of greater concern to the average citizen than the occasional grand terrorist incident, worrisome though that maybe."
100% agree with this. The Muslim Brotherhood and most of the Islamist organisations know that too much mass-slaughter terrorism would eventually provoke a reaction from the supine native populations, so contrary to popular belief they are not all planning to blow us up. Enough violence to intimidate us, combined with demographics, will they think give them victory in Europe within a few decades. Al Qaeda's desire to provoke armageddon through mass-slaughter terrorism can work to the advantage of the smart Islamists, but their strategy is far more subtle.
Thank God, THANK GOD [!!] that we have the right to keep and bear arms. I've often said that the foundation of all of our rights is the sanctity of private property. I'm not so sure that statement shouldn't be amended to the foundation of ALL of our rights as free citizens is the right to keep and bear arms. Were it not so, there would be absolutely no check on an overreaching government. Were it not so, we would be huddled in our homes fearful for our life and property. Were it not so, there would be no final bulwark of free citizens to fight for our liberties when the time comes.
Whatever the number of lives lost every year attributable to gun ownership that is a cheap price to pay for the protection of our liberties.
MOLON LABE!!
I hope and pray the Islamic savages are too ignorant to realize all they have to do is bide their time. I hope and pray for the attacks that will awaken the West from its slumber. For the loss of life will ultimately be considerably less the sooner the despicable Islamic swine strike. The ONLY solution is for all Muslims to be banned from Western nations. The practice of Islam must be outlawed in the West as a hate crime against humanity.
Merry Christmas to you two, and to your son and whoever else you are spending the Holiday with.
Dear Baron and Dymphna, and the young Baron, a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year and if your Danish and Dutch readers don't wish it let me wish you a “Glædelig Jul og godt Nytǻr” and a “Prettige Kerstdagen en Gelukkig Nieuwjaar”. I hope everything goes well for you and the job or a job. We have been struggling with the same problem for the last few months and finally the wife has found the job she likes and starts in January. Enjoy your Christmas dinner and the Church Service you will certainly be attending either tonight or in the morning. I tend to prefer the more pagan aspects of Christmas, although in my younger days I used to attend the Midnight service on Christmas Eve. There is something special sitting late at night in a Norman Church lighted only by candles listening to OUR Vicar who spent the odd hour is the local hostelry with us Heathens but had spent years in Changi Jail under the Japanese. His simple genuine faith always impressed me he was missed in the village when he died. By the way did you know that Yule tide comes from the Danish Hjul tid the time of the wheel. I hope I have spelt it right or I am going to get your Danish readers down on my neck. Christmas was a celebration of the Solstice of the return of the Sun God, but then perhaps I have got it wrong, I am certainly dyslectic and perhaps I should have spelt it the return of the Son of God. Merry Christmas.
Deep regards
Yorkshire Miner
agree with martel
the sooner the next major attack the better. hopefully they hit europe hard. the euros are too far gone to be redeemed anyway, maybe the smoking ruins of their cities will be enough to convince Americans (but i fear it is too late for us as well). here's to hoping the wake up call is no more than necessary and no less
Scrilla, Martel,
I know your motives for stating what you've stated, and I know them to be for the greater good. However, I find that wishing for a major attack on innocent people--with the resulting carnage, destroyed lives, families torn apart, etc.--is quite chilling. To regard the lives of (potentially) thousands of innocent people as little more than faceless pawns to sacrifice for this greater chess-game is ethically wrong. Using other's lives as means rather than ends is *always* wrong, and I beg you to reconsider your positions.
Besides, there are two major fallacies with what you are saying. The greater one is that you simply don't know that any other major attack would necessarily result in a positive change in resolve. It can equally result in more calls for appeasement--or worse, in a general numbness to attacks as "something we'll just have to live with (let's just hope it happens to the other guy and not me)."
The other has to do with something Scrilla said. So you wish for an attack to Europe, stating that Europeans are "too far gone to be redeemed anyway." That's simply false. There are millions and millions of Europeans who look upon what's happening now with as much anxiety and trepidation as we do. Only, their impotence is all the greater because of the watered-down version of direct representation they have in their governments (I am speaking generally).
Lasly, what if the major attack on Europe to which you attach adverbs like "Hopefully" happens to tear down some landmarks of the Western soul--like (God forbid!) St. Peter's basilica, Windsor castle, the Louvre or another such place dear to us all? And for what? In the hope that the flabby bureaucracy in Europe and the rest of the West will finally say "Ok, that's enough, it's war now"?
Have you looked around in the past 6 years? Have you not seen how much thirst for appeasement there is? Have you not realized that there is a HUGE class of leaders for whom anything that happens is, ultimately, the West's fault--including 9-11 and any other 9-11 on whatever scale? Have you not seen the results of the last election in the USA? Don't you see how the newspapers and news media spin EVERYTHING that happens as being caused by an American Republican administration? What on God's green Earth would make you think that another attack would produce anything more than more calls for appeasement, more internal fingerpointing, more opportunistic politicians privately traveling to kiss tha hand that struck us--and, without a doubt, more innocent lives lost forever?
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