CIA warns Barack Obama that British terrorists are the biggest threat to the US

Originally posted by Wotan
I think its time we turned away from our 'so-called' special relationship status if this is what our so-called best ally is up to. Friends do not spy on other friends.
[edit on 8/2/09 by Wotan]

Every country is spying on every other country. I think this has been the case for many many years.

I would place my house on a bet to say there were British spy's in America and like wise here.
Most of our allies will always be looking over their shoulders at us.

Well that is my 2 pence of thought.

All we need to do now, is plant evidence in and around 10 Downing Street and the house of parliament, making it look like Brown & co are members of Al-Queda and sit back and watch as the government is incriminated. Problem, reaction, solution.

Originally posted by SKUNK2
It's logical to assume that British muslim terrorists pose the most threat to the US as British Muslims have easier access to America than any other terrorist group in the world.

I don't expect half you guys to understand this.

But being British and muslim ISN'T a terrorist group. I don't expect the other half of you to understand this.

reply to post by sheepchronicles


I guess it makes sense.

We have a warped sense of priority over here, and people see it as an opportunity to take advantage of.

Just look at some of the things that have seen little action...
The protester dressed as a suicide bomber allowed to do so without arrest.
Clerics delivering hate-speech in the street outside a mosque where he was being politely "pushed out".

These people should rightfully be deported in cases where they were not born here, and where they were, they should face charges of inciting hatred.

I'm all for defending liberties and freedom of expression, but a person can face charges in this country for homophobic and racist behavior in public, why is it ok for a religious fanatic to openly call for the harming of others?

Personally, I know we are trying to catch up in the hiring of staff to deal with threats. We have a government site near my town, and they are advertising almost every week for staff.
I have considered applying for a position there, because I know that there would be many things that I could do, and the position would be relatively secure.
But, the process of doing so is a minefield. It put me off almost immediately.

I understand the need for security (I am in the security industry), but there are few chances of hiring adequate staff until they loosen their strict regime of hiring specifically trained personnel for even the most civilian duties. Not many meet all the requirements of any position they advertise, and so most are put off. They're constantly searching for that needle in a haystack while not giving adequately intelligent people the chance to train and learn a role.

All a person should need is relevant skill or ability and an adequate MoD clearance. Instead they request all of the above, and a whole lot more in experience, training, paperwork...

Even so, we are managing. Where are all the recent terrorist events? We must be doing something right if we have seldom seen attack.
We are currently experiencing less disruption than during the IRA era, and yet the response is far more invasive to public life and liberties.

Who would have thought large numbers of Pakistani's with access to some of the greatest universities in the western world would be a threat? Combine English language training with knowledge in chemistry and you have the potential for a better training camp then you could find anywhere in the middle east.

reply to post by tjeffersonsghost


Thanks for the good word.

reply to post by mr-lizard


I enjoyed a bit of the humor in your post, however

MI5 did publicly acknowledge by its Director a fundamental and overwhelming lack of human resources and has trying to do the 2x and 3x growth curves that the CIA had tried to do to resurrect human assets about a decade back.

Saying Pakistan was skipped is not really fair in your commentary.

The article refers to an unreasonable count of individuals to surveil (2,000+). One presumes a reduction in that pathway with their [MI5] building up assets.

Also note the modification to the US Visa Waiver Program a few months back wherein the REGISTRATION requirement comes into play. You essentially have to enter your information on the FIRST TRIP ONLY to the USA and then have your name run against a WASH LIST.

This looks to be a primitive first round filtering technology to pre-wash the VISA Waiver traffic that would include the U.K. and this potential risk angle.

reply to post by Damezthe2nd


A few thousand American floating around across an entire country. My 1,000+ stamp passport doesn't even get a second glance in the U.K.

reply to post by mr-lizard


Don't turn this into a Religious or Race play....... I realize that Americans in particular may at times seem unfriendly to Islam but this angle your playing on does not work. There are massive numbers of Muslims in the UK and they population is grower at a far greater rate than any other religion in the UK and there is a thread on ATS about this. No one is suggesting in any way shape or form in this article or otherwise suspicion be placed upon Muslim masses. This is a very small cross-section of population they refer to surveilling.

I have more Muslim friends than Christian or Jewish friends to pre-empt any counter along those lines that might come forth.

The article itself narrows a scope to 2,000 British born individuals of Pakistani decent. Out of that find the subet that interacts with persons known to have interacts with someone with a HARD LINK to terrorist planning or other activity abroad.

Keep carving down subsets until you find a smaller count to surveil.

reply to post by Britguy


MI5 ASKED FOR HELP..... I'm not defending the SHEEPISH paranoia but face it ... MI5 ASKED FOR HELP on that project.

Wow aren't the CIA clever? Did they suddenly reach this conclusion? They are right though. It's been in the media about British terrorists training in the ME. I met a guy in the British MOD, I wont mention area of service, but he told me hearing West Midlands and Lancashire accents in Afghanistan is an everyday occurance! I think it's Britain top of the list however, USA is too on top of the war on terror security wise. Britain is a joke.

reply to post by mr-lizard


What about the Scousers?

Actually, I imagine Scotland Yard, and MI5 have their hands full keeping tabs of a lot of these domestic groups anyways, and share the info with the FBI/CIA.

reply to post by azzllin


CAN't DROP VISA WAIVER...

If you dropped VISA WAIVER the financial harm to the U.S. would be an issue...... massive reductions in business and tourist traffic because people just do not want to bother going through the REALLY ANNOYING and SUBJECTIVE U.S. visa application process.

Instead, the front-end 72 hour pre-apply on the Internet animal was installed to wash the quick list or give time to route the request to a specialist for the yea or nay.

MI5's Director said; WE CAN'T DO THIS. The U.S. provided supplemental human assets some cooperative and some unknown to MI5 which is to be expected.

Ally's always have Human Assets in play in other Ally countries so get used to that reality.

U.S. has more ISRAELI MOSSAD in the U.S. than operatives of any other U.S. ALLY.

Its perfectly acceptable to have a U.K. operative working under non-official cover as a businessman to monitor someone linked to a British security issue. No issue there and Vice Versa.

You have visions of constant extreme rendition and movies with blatant kidnappings and executions running through your mind I suspect instead of dull and boring surveillance and a hint of illegal wiretapping.

This just in, the entire world is a threat to the US due to the US ticking off most of it.

But the US isn't wrong... nope... it's just that the entire world is a bunch of crazies that hate the states for absolutely no reason. (sarcasm)

I hope at some point the US finally wakes up and realizes bombing other countries doesn't make them like you.



Quick, build a wall around the states... make it waterproof. That'll keep you safe.

I have found an interesting article detailing CIA/MI5 relationship since the 50'sCIA/MI5/Labour Party
Also to be noted that british intelligence agencies helped train the OSS ( now the CIA)so a close working realtionship between the 2 and possibilty of boots on the ground, so to speak is very real. Also I worked with an ex-NSA analyst while in the DHS after 9/11 that was stationed for 4 years outside of London in a rather indescript office building ( so he claimed). He has claimed to me that they monitored Echelon data. He would not go any further into it but I would bet that CIA and MI's have a working agreement to help monitor each others borders as well as world events, etc. US Intelligence agencies have been on UK soil for a better part of 30 years if not longer, in multiple capacities.

reply to post by NightoftheComet


U.K. is VISA WAIVER... but also considered lower risk overall...

The U.S. VISA WAIVER program was expanded a few months back to include KOREA and CZECH and another I can't recall.

The US CBP has so many relatively new employees that whether your caucasian American and middle eastern appearing Pakistani you can expect some frustrations and lack of professionalism along the way.

Bottom line is that U.K. doesn't seem foreign to them in their "personal point score" if you will in many cases. Very new agents see thick passports and can't understand why or how anyone could travel that much sometimes or just expect something bad to be under every rock. Senior guys with 20+ years of experience are much more professional and yet smart about how they gauge risk. I have given a thorough verbal chastizing to several on account of their inexperience.

That being said, the past few years they are very quick to proper supervisory personnel on demand and in my experiences provide Port Operators very quickly by telephone when you feel something isn't right as far as their actions, behavior, or things they miss.

reply to post by johnsky


Funny...

And ironically, the press all but IGNORES MEXICO which is really our big ISSUE and growing here.

There was a recent quote by the outgoing DCI about Mexico being the #2 risk behind Al-Qaeda but I don't have a citation link to it.

I'm an American Expat.... I think a big source of the frustration toward America comes from:

1. Inherent Arrogance - We truly believe our fecal matter does not smell. Not universal but enough people that its distasteful.

2. Cultural Xenophobia despite such a massive cross-section of the world's cultures in the U.S. You can eat Lebanese for Lunch and Thai for Dinner. You can enjoy a hookah at the Turkish restaurant and then great duck in Chinatown. YET.... So many Americans travel to other places and ask "WHY DON'T THEY DO IT LIKE WE DO... " instead of saying "ISN'T IT INTERESTING THAT THEY DO IT DIFFERENTLY". Again its the center of the universe complex left over from World War II.

3. JUDGMENT PASSING..... when friends who have not been abroad much ask me for advice the first thing I try to instill in them is DO NOT PASS JUDGMENT ON PEOPLE. The first instinct of a travelling American seems to be passing judgment or evoking moral or financial superiority over the population they are visiting and more people need to be consciously focused on reducing that.

WARS DON'T HELP........

I once said that if Israel dropped 5,000,000 Big Macs per year and 50,000,000 chocolate bars per year on GAZA with the Israeli Blag embolden on the wrappers and boxes signed your friends and neighbors of the Jewish faith that sooner or later the baby rockets will stop firing and sooner or later you could 'lease' the hearts and souls.

AFGHAN was ignored. We have 90% of street heroine coming from Afghan sources now and the Golden Triangle is just a trickle to the states now. NOW, America consumes more PRESCRIPTION NARCOTICS per CAPITA than any country in the world. We could have used all that POPPY for medicinal purposes and financially stabilized Afghanistan through PHARMACEUTICAL PRODUCTION while keeping the STREET VALUE of HEROIN in the US higher........

Instead, our Narcotic States of America are overflowing with Heroine which is cheaper now than prescription narcotics in general such as Oxycodone in particular. Hydrocodone APAP is the #4 most written RX in AMERICA. Yet we abandon Afghanistan and let them fill our street with HEROINE instead of putting their people to work making the RAW MATERIALS for our NARCOTIC PHARMACEUTICAL RAW MATERIAL industry.

I am way off topic here. Sorry for the diversion.

Does that mean US is gona invade UK soon to help out the white Brits flush out all the immigrants? ehh....umm 'islamic fanatical evil terrorists'?

Typical AL-CIAdA BS.

reply to post by Britguy


Thia is why the United kingdom is a threat to the United States:

Four suicide bombers struck in central London on Thursday 7 July, killing 52 people and injuring more than 770.

Airlines terror plot' disrupted
A plot to blow up planes in flight from the UK to the US and commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale" has been disrupted, Scotland Yard has said.

On 29 June 2007, in London, England, two car bombs were discovered and disabled before they could be detonated. The first device was left near the Tiger Tiger nightclub in Haymarket at around 01:30, and the second was in Cockspur Street, in the same area of the city.

The Exeter bombing was a failed attack which happened on 22nd May 2008 at the Giraffe cafe and restaurant in Princesshay, Exeter. Nicky Reilly, 22, a Muslim convert from Plymouth, pleaded guilty to launching a failed suicide attack on 15 October. The bomber was the only person injured.[1]

And to let you know what the CIA is doing there heres your answer

Islamic terrorist 'planned Mumbai-style massacre in Britain'
Counter-terrorism investigators believe an Islamic terrorist was planning a Mumbai-style massacre in Britain.

Police were first told about Rahman by an American informant who spoke of a man he knew as Abdul Haleem who ran a terrorist gang in east London and traveled to Pakistan in the aftermath of September 11.

Now after seeing some of the posts in here I guess bad America should not try to save British citizens from dying hell save me tax money we really cant afford it now any way!

its funny

because if they attack us and it works

then none of this saber rattling matters

and if they don't attack us

then none of this saber rattling was legitimate or practical

thus, i stay away from the terrorist updates...