British raise national terror threat to "Substantial"

[Savwafair2012 Profile]

Maybe it's not an Earthquake that they are preparing for



The threat level to Great Britain from Irish-related terrorism has gone from moderate to substantial, meaning an attack is a "strong possibility", the Home Secretary has said.



Published for the first time, the threat assessment is "to encourage people to be alert to the increased threat from Irish-related terrorism", the Home Office said.

Overall, the threat is still lower than the threat level to the UK from international terrorism, which remains at severe, meaning an attack is highly likely, according to the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (Jtac).

There had been fears of a targeted attack on the Tory conference, reminiscent of the Brighton bombings in the 1980s.

Yet, speaking ahead of the Labour Party conference in Manchester this weekend, Sky's political editor Adam Boulton said: "It's clear that there doesn't appear to be a specific threat to party conferences this year."

Boulton went on: "Obviously they are seen very much as a potential target, and everyone who has to go to them still has to put up with a great deal of security and searches."

He added: "It's not a specific threat to party conferences, it's simply that they have raised the level of threat, which suggests that they have credible intelligence."

Factfile: Click here to read about Northern Ireland's republican groups.

The head of MI5 warned last week that dissident Irish republicans could attempt to mount a new wave of terrorist attacks on the British mainland.

Jonathan Evans, the director-general of the Security Service, said there has been a "persistent rise" in "activity and ambition" by dissident groups in Northern Ireland over the past three years.

While they did not have the capacity to return to the levels of violence caused by the Provisional IRA at the height of the troubles, he said they still represented "a real and rising security challenge".

His warning came after one group, the Real IRA, publicly threatened to target banks and other financial institutions in the City of London, accusing them of "financing Britain's colonial and capitalist system".

In a speech to security professionals in the City, Mr Evans said while MI5's "main effort" remained focused on international terrorism, it had been necessary to reinforce its presence in Northern Ireland to deal with the heightened threat.

Mr Evans also acknowledged that the recent rise in activity by dissident republicans had not been foreseen, having been assumed just three years ago to be "low and likely to decline further".

Since the start of the year, however, there had been more than 30 attacks or attempted attacks on national security targets by dissident republicans, compared with just over 20 for the whole of last year, he said.

Timeline: Click here to read a history of The Troubles.

At the same time, there were increasing signs of co-operation and co-ordination between the various groups, deploying a greater variety of attack techniques with improved weapons capability.

"While at present the dissidents' campaign is focused on Northern Ireland, we cannot exclude the possibility that they might seek to extend their attacks to Great Britain as violent republican groups have traditionally done," Mr Evans added

[Mdzz33 Profile]

rubbish,rubbish,rubbish.

[Ridee Profile Website]

it's the same thing in France since yesterday btw ...

[Flecktarn Profile]

we have been fighting the i r a for years ,once a terrorist always a terrorist ,they make a liveing out of it,, extortion,protection rackets robberys all under the disguise of a republic state ,,,trouble is the police have always knowen who the main players are same for the army ,we could of stopped them years ago ,,,but we didnt because we gained the best urban warfare traning area in the world ,,riots,bombs ,shootings ,,,all for real on our door step ,,,,,and guess what uk troops pulled out of afghan need somewere to go what better place than back on the streets of northern ireland ,,,public order training ,prepairing soldiers for whats to come soon to the uk