UK threat level has entire world on alert for terrorism
By Joseph L. Giacalone / joe@theklaxon.com / 01.23.2010
Updated on: 01.24.10 at 6:58 pm
Luojie, China Daily, China/caglecartoons.com
The terror alert has been raised in the United Kingdom from “substantial” to “severe,” though terror officials deny the possibility of an attack.
But nothing means something.
Early Friday, Indian officials faced a scare about a possible airline hijacking. This should jog memories to directly after the “underwear” bomber when British officials warned the United States that there were 25 trained al-Qaeda operatives ready to blow themselves up on U.S. airliners.
It will not end.
The threat in India may even be more nefarious than a simple hijacking. Officials are pointing to the Pakistan-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba—the group responsible for the Mumbai hotel attacks. Both countries have nuclear weapons, and the Hindus and Muslims historically do not play well in the sandbox.
The warring between the two religions has occurred for centuries. How long can India show restraint and not retaliate? The U.S. would be caught in the middle. We need Pakistan’s cooperation to weed out al-Qaeda and the Taliban, but India is an important ally.
There seems to be something deeper when you scratch the surface. Trains and hotels have been bombed in India during the last decade, and the incidents have been tied to Islamic terrorists from Pakistan.
Al-Qaeda operatives may be provoking India for some other reason. It could be the continuous battle over Kashmir, an important piece of completing the elusive Caliphate, or it could be that India is a lot like the United States, which would naturally drag the nation into the fray. Something we cannot afford to do at the moment.
When the threat level was raised in Britain, the terrorist red flag went up. According to reports, six people on the No-Fly list attempted to board planes worldwide Friday, two at Heathrow Airport in London.
There’s many other recent red flags: the Christmas Day 2009 “underwear” bomber, the Jan. 8 arrests of alleged terrorists in New York City and Friday’s hijacking threats in India.
There are too many red flags that it’s starting to look like China.
The silence from counterterrorism officials is deafening. And intelligence indicates the question seems no longer to be if, but when.
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