I’m trying to figure out exactly what is the benefit of terror alerts. I can understand how security and protective services could utilize such a system internally to attempt to prevent the materialization of potential threats, okay. But what is the average person to do when the threat level is increased? It seems to be an elaborate excuse to take away civil rights and direct spending toward ’security’ programs that do the same.
I think the alert systems are useless and an embarrassment if they are meant to imply any semblance of security. For example, how is it possible at a time when the US and Britain are on high alert that four “dangerous Arab al Qaeda militants” are able to escape from a detention center in Afghanistan?
Meanwhile average citizens traveling in the US are being detained, inappropriately searched, questioned and having their property confiscated (then sold on eBay for profit) without justification.
Let’s take a look at the alert system in Britain:
Imminent - Precise intelligence of a planned attack with timing and location known
Severe - Specific intelligence warning of a known terrorist plot
Severe General - A high possibility of attack at some stage but without knowledge of the timing or target
Substantial - Still a high alert but no intelligence of a specific plot
I see a problem right off with the highest level. Isn’t the nature of a terrorist plot that it is secretive - meant to catch people off guard in order to cause more destruction? If the timing and location of an attack were known, wouldn’t the act fall out of the terrorism category? Perhaps that’s the reason the threat level in Britain has never been raised to ‘Imminent’.
Now, since the London bombings July 7, the terror alert in Britain is the highest ever: Severe. Aside from the fact there is a manhunt for those that set off the July 7 bombs, I can’t locate new ‘intelligence’ information released to the public suggesting where terror will strike next. Just to reiterate, ‘Severe’ means Specific intelligence warning of a known terrorist plot. Maybe they mean a plot that has already been carried out, since they now know about it.
So what’s the difference between the remaining two levels, Severe General and Substantial? A high possibility of attack at some stage but without knowledge of the timing or target vs. Still a high alert but no intelligence of a specific plot. Hmmm, I can’t see the difference, can you see the difference?
At this point I’m reminded of the remarkable words of Donald Rumsfeld: “As we know, there are known knowns - there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don’t know we don’t know..”
I think his quote pretty much sums up the basis of these terror alert systems, don’t you? After all when it comes to terrorism, there’s plenty that we don’t know we don’t know - the unknown unknowns.
Even when there are known knowns, such as July 31, 2001 when the FAA issued a warning to airlines: ‘terrorists are planning and training for hijackings’ - even then - terrorism is difficult to avoid.
There always has been and always will be the threat of terror. Further propagating a culture of fear (including with terror alerts) divides people, divides entire communities and divides nations. It’s counter-productive, and it’s expensive; a 2003 survey of the U.S. Conference of Mayors showed that “cities nationwide spend about $70 million a week on additional homeland security during periods of high alerts.”
