USA – Britain – And Much Of Asia Raise Their Levels Of Preparedness

Oven the last four days, eleven countries publicly announced elevated levels of preparedness against Islamist terror and six other countries raised their levels, but in a quieter manner.

Just today (January 24) Osama bin Laden took credit for the failed Delta bombing attack at Christmas and asserted that there would be more attacks, adding that, America would have no peace unless there was "security for Palestinians".

Palestinians however were generally dismissive of his call for ‘Palestinian security’ saying, "What good does Bin Laden’s speech do for us? All his talk is very well known among al-Qaeda, therefore, this speech is merely to prove he exists’, and "Pro-al-Qaeda jihadists should refrain from finding excuses for Bin Laden’s twisted ideology. First of all, Bin Laden ought to disavow the killing of innocent people around the world and stop verbal attacks on Hamas. It’s time to revise al-Qaeda’s ideology".

Airlines and airports in India, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka went on high alert for a possible airplane hijacking by al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taibem, and the U.K. elevated its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" which is one below the highest and it suspended direct British airline flights to and from Yemen.

Just last week, five Britons were apprehended at Islamabad airport attempting to pass their boarding passes to five others, and Yemen stopped issuing entry visas at Sanaa airport. Britain said it had evidence indicating that an attack would be carried out by "International terrorists" and was careful to avoid saying the words Islamic or Muslim.

Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates have taken their own precautions and Jordan’s security services have been fully mobilized since the attempt to blow up an Israeli embassy convoy on Jan. 15.

U.S. airport authorities were warned that at least two female suicide bombers of "non-Arab appearance" and bearing Western passports may have been sent to America by al Qaeda-Yemen – either to blow up U.S. bound flights or to commit suicide attacks inside the country and White House counter-terrorism adviser Richard Clarke told ABC, "There are others who are still out there who have been trained and who are clean skins, and that means people who we do not have a record of, who may not look like al Qaeda terrorists, who may not be Arabs, and may not be men".

I have no idea what "clean skins" means, and only the phrase "the great unwashed" comes to mind.