From: Spudboy100@aol.com
Date: Tue Jun 17 2003 - 18:10:24 MDT
Does anyone believe her, or is she just doing Blair's propaganda? What impact., on this list, would such an attack have, if it were devastating, in the number of casualties? Would such an attack, change anyon's mind on public policy that have been so ellucidated on this list, over the last 2 months? Would anyone here embrace the W as a result, or curse him for not being vigilant against such an attack?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/17/uterr.xml&sSheet=/portal/2003/06/17/ixportaltop.htmlty bomb only a matter of time, says MI5
(Filed: 17/06/2003)
A biological, chemical or nuclear terrorist attack on a Western city is "only a matter of time", the head of MI5 has said.
Eliza Manningham-Buller said: "We are faced with a realistic possibility of a form of unconventional attack that could include chemical, biological, radiological or nuclear (CBRN).
"It is only a matter of time before a crude version of a CBRN is launched on a Western city."
The director-general of MI5 said intelligence suggested that "renegade scientists" had given terrorist groups the information they needed to create such weapons and that they would become more sophisticated.
But she added that conventional bombs and suicide bomb attacks remained their preferred weapons.
"They (al-Qa'eda) still remain an organisation capable of deadly terrorist attacks," she said.
"The threat from international terrorism is with us for a good long time. If this is a war that can be won, it is not going to be won soon. The supply of potential terrorists among extreme elements is unlikely to diminish. Breaking the link between terrorism and religious ideology is difficult."
Ms Manningham-Buller was making her first on-the-record speech since taking on her new job in October last year.
Since becoming director-general of the home security service, she has been involved in countering the ricin plot and was involved last month in the review of vulnerable targets in London which led to a ring of concrete protection being placed around the Houses of Parliament.
Britain was put on its second highest security alert last month. It would move to the top alert if there was specific intelligence about a time, place or target for an attack.
Ms Manningham-Buller told a conference at the Royal United Services Institute in central London that al-Qa'eda was "the first truly global threat".
Recent attacks in Riyadh and Casablanca proved it and other groups still posed a "potent threat".
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