Taken Serious: al Qaida's warning same as 4 years ago

I found this post at

jihadchat.com

Good work from "whitewolf "

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Nearly four years after the Madrid train bombings, al Qaida delivered several specifically timed warnings to the United Kingdom urging the U.K. to stop supporting the war in Iraq -- "or else."

"Or else" was the attack that took place on July 7, 2005 on Britain's mass transit system. Fifty two people were killed and many more were injured. Al Qaida is back with a new "or else" that is similar to the July 7 warning and attack cycle, and it has rattled some government intelligence officials.

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1/30/2008: Intel News Brief

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Al Qaida posted the following statement on a jihadist Web site last Thursday. It's an ultimatum that mentions a date, just like the one issued back in 2005: Statement of the Leader of al-Qaeda in Britain, Shaykh Umar Rabie al-Khalaila:

From The organisation of Al-Qaeda in Britain

23, January 2008

We, the organization of Al-Qaeda in Britain, offer a truce to the British government.

Our demands are as follows:I. A complete withdrawal of the British troops from Afghanistan and Iraq.II. To free all Muslim captives from Belmarsh prison, and the foremost of them Shaykh Abu Qatada al-Filistini and Shaykh Abu Haza al-Misri.

If the British government fails to respond to our demands by the last day of March 2008 as they fail to answer to the truce of our Shaykh Usama bin Laden and to the truce of the Emir of Believers Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, then the Martyrdom seekers of the organisation of al-Qaeda in Britain will target all the political leaders especially Tony Blair and Gordan Brown, and we will also target all Embassies, Crusaders Centers and their Interests through out the country, with the help of Allah.

Finally, all praise is to Allah.

- Umar Rabie al-Khalaila The leader of Al-Qaeda in Britain

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The problem is the pattern. Osama bin Laden himself warned the British last November, and last Thursday Britian's al Qaida leader did the same.

Former CIA unit chief Mike Scheuer says this is almost the same sequence that took place three years ago and the end result was "those attacks on the British transit system in London, the subway and bus attacks occurred."

What does that mean for this warning?

"I would never say they they're going to attack on the 31st of March, but they're getting their ducks in a row," Scheuer says.

And, al Qaida may have a lot of ducks in that row.

Jonathan Evans, head of Britain's MI5, said last November, about the same time bin Laden delivered the warning, "there are at least 2,000 people in the U.K. who pose a threat to national security because of their support for terrorism." He was talking particularly about people with ties to al Qaida. Intelligence sources say there are many more unaccounted for.

Where are these people coming from?

Scheuer says they are coming directly from the tribal territories of Pakistan where al Qaida's terror camps are running without much interference at all.

In fact, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf all but confirmed that notion this week.

Musharraf, for example, in his visit this week, warned the U.K. again that they are in the target hairs of the Islamists and he said that their counter-terrorism program wasn't really up to snuff," said Scheuer.

Bob Grenier, former director of the CIA's Counter Terrorism Center, says "ungoverned space" in Pakistan is the central issue. The terrorists are free to train and move around the area at will. When they are done, they can go wherever they wish.

Grenier, now managing director of the risk management firm Kroll, says there is a robust and well-connected international intelligence community, and that is the reason why the attack hasn't happened yet.

"But I'm not sure how long we can sustain this quite frankly," Grenier says.

Homeland Security Secretary Micheal Chertoff recently said, "One of the things we have become concerned about lately is the possibility of Europe, becoming a platform for a threat against the United States."

There is little doubt the platform is there, and Britain may find out sooner or later whether the threat was real.In the meantime, Chertoff stated late Tuesday that while the threat is real, it is a threat we should approach "seriously" and not with "hysteria."

The British government did not respond to inquiries about the threat Tuesday.

Source: Morning Intel News Brief via WTOP News-Security News Wire