U.S. officials: British planes threatened

U.S. officials: British planes threatened
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 Posted: 3:17 PM EST (2017 GMT)



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Two days after Britain moved to put armed marshals on some flights to the United States, U.S. officials said Tuesday that the United Kingdom had received intelligence recently regarding general threats to Britain's airliners.

British airlines were informed of the intelligence, U.S. officials said, and some, including Virgin Atlantic Airways, began manning flights with armed officers. It is unclear when the airlines began doing so.

The Virgin Atlantic office in London said the company never comments on security operations.

On Sunday, the British Home Office said it was placing sky marshals on certain passenger flights to the United States. A day later, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called on foreign airlines to put guards on some flights that fly to, from or over the United States.

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http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/12/30/british.plane.threats/index.html

what can you say...when in doubt....fear..fear...fear

where have I heard that before?

:crazy:

end terror:crazy: The devil has came for Englands dues:evilgrin: and they thought the IRA was bad. They ain't seen nothing yet.

"The US Government has told the British Government that they need to say that they just learned...."

That's exactly what happened. Sometimes these guys have a helluva time keeping their stories in synch but this time the Brits remembered that they were told they needed to say they just learned....

Jazzgirl }(

First it was France. No, then it was Mexico. Now it's Britain.

Oh well whatever.

Will it turn out to be like that story a couple, three weeks back claiming that Kenya's hotels and banks were going to blow, and then the Kenya police came back and said it was just some folks wanted some time off work making hoax calls and the U.S. had wayyyy over-reacted?

Hmmm.

Terrorists have it cheap and easy if all they need is a pocket full of phone cards to cost the states and nations millions if not billions on terror alerts.

Also from British Intelligence:
"That Saddam had sought to purchase uranium from Africa".

How can they still be believed by anyone ?

:puke:

As well as targets all over the world. And it is almost certainly true that any terrorists planning such attacks would at least consider striking on a major holiday, since that would be even more intimidating.

Whether this particular threat is serious enough to worry about is something that is nearly impossible to judge, given the number of these stories over the past two years. It's sort of like having your local police circle your block shouting over and over again: "We understand that muggers are more interested in ripping you off today than they were yesterday! There are more muggers out of jail this month than ever before! Muggings have increased in this neighborhood by 3% over last year!" It turns the warnings into background noise.

By which I mean, go out on a street corner near you and stand a vigil! Take a candle, take a friend, stand a vigil.

Helping John Ashcroft and our democracy all at the same time. What could be more patriotic?

It seems to me that if a flight has a recognized risk that warrants placing armed marshalls on the flight, then the risk is great enough to ground the flight.

Of course if you don't think a couple of human lives are as important as demonstrating that a low velocity bullet can kill a terrorist, and possibly a couple of collateral passengers, then innocent civilians just aren't as important as the deterrent image of a flying cowboy with a badge and a gun.