In The Past Three Days, 17 Countries Have Scrambled To Raise Islamic Terror Alerts

Okay, if you haven't noticed, the world is in a panic over the threats of islamic terror and just to showcase that fear, seventeen countries in just the past three days have raised their preparedness in real anticipation of islamic terror attacks.

From the article at DEBKA:

In the last three days, the governments of eleven countries have scrambled to elevate their preparedness levels for Islamist terror, or enforced extraordinarily stringent security measures. Another six governments have pursued these steps without fanfare.
Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23, India placed its airlines and airports and those of all of South East Asia -Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - on alert for a possible airplane hijacking by al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taibem. The UK elevated its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" - one below top and suspended direct British airline flights to and from Yemen.

At the same time, the British have made headlines with their preparations for an attack that they say is imminent, not just possible....but likely.

By the way, you probably should know that the United States, under Barack Hussein Obama, has NOT raised the terror alert.

More from the article:

Last week, six people on the newly-expanded no-fly list were not allowed to board US-bound flights - an Egyptian and Saudi Arabian at Heathrow, London, a man in Nairobi, another at Saint Maarten in the Caribbean and two more at home airports in Minneapolis and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Throw into this mix the latest purported audio tape from Osama bin Laden who hints of plans underway for more terror attacks and you have a world bordering on total security chaos. So, why is this all happening so seemingly out of the blue? Well, I would put forth three reasons:

1. Northwest Flight #253 on Christmas Day which saw a terrorist on board come as close as possible to bringing down that flight revealed the feeble security measures that the U.S. and other countries have in place - it brought a sense of blood in the water scenario that has attracted terrorists to move forward immediately with their plans.

2. Barack Hussein Obama. The evidence has mounted over the past year that America's new President is not only soft on terror but that he is soft on islamic talking points. While George W. Bush was seen as an enforcer of America's counter-terrorism measures, Obama is seen as not only a sympathizer to islamic outrage in the world, but is perceived as an ally to some extent.

3. America's victory in Iraq. While it is not written about in the MSM, the fact that America's fighting forces attained victory in Iraq and the fact that the Iraqi democratic form of government appears to have legs has forced the world's islamic terror groups to ratchet up the chaos. Almost in exact correlation with the American victory in Iraq, did al Qaeda really begin its onslaught on Yemen - the idea is to try and minimize any attention on Iraq's new government.

Let's be real. You can cut the tension in the air with a butter knife right now - each morning that I get up, I thoroughly expect a bombing to have taken place in London. And how many of you out there really think we can get through the next 30 days without an airliner bombing? Are we even sure that the Egyptian airliner that went down after leaving Beirut was due to "weather?"

I would say that in the next week you will see another dozen countries join these 11 countries in their terror watch preparations - it's not hysteria, it's not paranoia...it's a reaction to valid and very real threats.

Rush of terror alerts on three continents, Middle East

In the last three days, the governments of eleven countries have scrambled to elevate their preparedness levels for Islamist terror, or enforced extraordinarily stringent security measures. Another six governments have pursued these steps without fanfare.

Friday and Saturday, Jan. 22-23, India placed its airlines and airports and those of all of South East Asia -Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka - on alert for a possible airplane hijacking by al Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taibem. The UK elevated its terror threat level from "substantial" to "severe" - one below top and suspended direct British airline flights to and from Yemen.
Last week, five Britons were apprehended at Islamabad airport attempting to pass their boarding passes to five others. Yemen itself stopped issuing entry visas at Sanaa airport. The British appear to fear a fresh spate of terrorism inside the country.

Saturday, US 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 US-bound flights or commit suicide attacks inside the country.
Although the Obama administration has not formally raised the current terror alert level, vigilance and screening at American and foreign airports have been radically heightened since a Nigerian terrorist tried to blow up the Northwest airliner on Christmas day. Since Jan. 4, the airlines and passengers from 14 listed countries have faced body screening before boarding flights to the United States.

Last week, six people on the newly-expanded no-fly list were not allowed to board US-bound flights - an Egyptian and Saudi Arabian at Heathrow, London, a man in Nairobi, another at Saint Maarten in the Caribbean and two more at home airports in Minneapolis and Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Referring to the failed airline bombing, former 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 - 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."
On Dec. 26, the day after the Northwest incident, debkafile's counter-terror sources reported that since early October, President Obama and top US security officials have been aware of the new network or cluster of cells taking shape in Europe. First detected by the German BND, it appears to be structurally similar to the Hamburg cell, which planned and executed the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the United States. The German agency also tipped off Israel to its forecast of a new wave of Islamist terror threatening the US and other parts of the world.



On Dec. 11, disclosed: "Al Qaeda is believed to have taken to employing in their European networks typical Westerners of Caucasian appearance, quite different from the stereotypical Muslim."
Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates have taken their own precautions. Jordan's security services are fully mobilized since the attempt to blow up an Israeli embassy convoy on Jan. 15. Israel routinely receives terrorist advisories from Western intelligence agencies and maintains its own security regimen at home.

The Turkish media report that more than 120 people were arrested in 16 cities Friday, Jan. 22, including suspected heads of al Qaeda's local branch. According to some of the detainees had been planning an attack on the regional NATO command center in the Afghan capital of Kabul as well as inside Turkey.

debkafile's counter-terror experts note the increasing transnational nature of al Qaeda operational planning.