[Infowarrior] - MI5 to post terror threat level on the internet

[Richard Forno]

 MI5 to post terror threat level on the internet
By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/07/10/nterr10.xml&
sSheet=/news/2006/07/10/ixuknews.html

The public is to be given more information about the terrorist threat levels
facing the country under plans to be announced by John Reid, the Home
Secretary, today.

His initiative is likely to stop short of the routine release of
colour-coded warnings that operate in America, which are often criticised as
confusing and unduly alarmist.

But ministers have accepted that greater openness is needed. The existing
system of threat levels was introduced in 2003 after the Bali bombings led
to complaints about the way international warnings had been framed. It has
seven stages, ranging in seriousness from negligible to critical.

The present threat level is 2(G) - severe general - which means that
available intelligence and recent events indicate that terrorists have an
established capability and current intent to mount an attack.

It is also assessed that an attack is a priority for the terrorists and is
likely to be mounted. A review of the system has been undertaken since the
July 7 bomb attacks on London last year after it emerged that the threat
level had been reduced only a few weeks earlier from "severe general" to
"substantial".

Threat levels are determined by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre and
issued as part of a detailed MI5 report on terrorist groups that is
circulated across Whitehall.

These are used to inform decisions about the state of alert to be observed
in defence establishments and Government departments.

Such reports, which include details of terrorist groups, activities and
intelligence sources, are highly classified and have limited circulation.

However, summaries containing fewer details are produced with a far lower
classification. They are more widely circulated but are still not made
public.

Mr Reid will announce a streamlined system of five warning categories, which
will be posted on the Home Office and MI5 websites with advice to the public
on what action to take.

In America, the Homeland Security Department also has a five-tier system
which is made public.

The levels range from green (low), through yellow (elevated) to red
(severe).

However, the system has been widely derided because it is lowered and raised
so regularly.

Mr Reid's announcement coincides with fresh speculation about the background
of the July 7 suicide bombers, a few days after the first anniversary of
their attacks. A BBC documentary tomorrow will claim that Mohammed Siddique
Khan, the ringleader, had previously met two British Muslims who went to
Israel to carry out a suicide mission.

It quotes an alleged witness, who has not come forward before, as saying
that he collaborated with Omar Sharif, from Derby, and Hanif Asif, from
Hounslow, north-west London, to recruit young Muslims for training camps in
Afghanistan five years ago.

Kursheed Fiaz, a businessman who runs an information technology company in
Manchester, says that he had four or five meetings - the first in 2001 -
with Khan, who was initially accompanied by Sharif and later by Asif.

If true, this would have significant implications for the investigation into
extremist jihadi groups, suggesting closer links than had been realised.

However, this connection is unknown to police and MI5 officers who have been
compiling a profile of Khan and his associates in the year since the London
attacks. There is some scepticism about the claim among counter-terrorism
specialists, not least that the operation mounted by the two Britons in
Israel was carried out by Hamas, not al-Qa'eda.

€ The Crown Prosecution Service is expected shortly to reveal its decision
on whether to prosecute any police officers over the shooting of Jean
Charles de Menezes, an innocent Brazilian man, at Stockwell Underground
station, south London, last July. He was mistaken for a suicide bomber.