Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
In a televised statement from Downing Street, UK PM Theresa May said Britain has increased its security threat level to the highest possible “critical” from “severe”, following Monday’s suicide attack in Manchester that killed 22 people, and she also said members of the army would be positioned at key sites to free up police for patrols and military personnel might be deployed at public events such as concerts and sports events as a further attack was seen as potentially imminent.
“Members of the armed forces deployed in this way will be under the command of police officers,” May said, adding that “we cannot ignore that there is a wider group of individuals linked to Manchester attack”.
The Prime Minister also said the independent body which sets the threat level had recommended it be raised from “severe” after a man named by police as Salman Abedi set off an improvised bomb on Monday night as crowds streamed out of a concert.
“It is now concluded on the basis of today’s investigations that the threat level should be increased for the time being from severe to critical,” she said in a televised statement following a meeting of the government’s crisis response committee. This means that their assessment is not only that an attack remains highly likely but that a further attack may be imminent.”
May continued: “I do not want the public to feel unduly alarmed. “We have faced a serious terror threat in our country for many years and the operational response I have just outlined is a proportionate and sensible response to the threat that our security experts judge we face.
“I ask everybody to be vigilant and to co-operate with and support the police as they go about their important work.
“I want to end by repeating the important message I gave in my statement earlier today. We will take every measure available to us and provide every additional resource we can to the police and the security services as they work to protect the public.
“And while we mourn the victims of last night’s appalling attack, we stand defiant. The spirit of Manchester and the spirit of Britain is far mightier than the sick plots of depraved terrorists, that is why the terrorists will never win and we will prevail.”
May, who is facing a national election in two weeks, said the man named by police as the attacker, Salman Abedi, was born and brought up in Britain and investigations into whether he was working alone were ongoing.
Full Statement:
* * *
Britain’s threat level has been at the “severe” level since 2014. It has only been at a “critical” level twice before, in 2006 and 2007 (see table below). May said the independent body which sets the threat level had recommended it be raised after a man named by police as Salman Abedi set off an improvised bomb on Monday night as crowds streamed out of a concert.
Terror threat now critical. And 5k troops on streets guarding parliament, stations etc.
Extraordinary https://t.co/518XSmX3NY— Paul Johnson (@paul__johnson) May 23, 2017
May mentions “Operation Temperer” which has been prepared since 2015 (as The Telegraph details)
More than 5,000 soldiers could be deployed on the streets of Britain in the wake of major terrorist attacks, under a secret Government plan, it has emerged.The troops would be sent to guard key targets in major cities if Isil or other terror groups launched multiple attacks on UK soil, under the plan, codenamed Operation Temperer.
Details of the operation were disclosed by the Mail on Sunday after accidentally being uploaded to the National Police Chiefs Council website last week.
Officers had been briefed on the plan by Deputy Chief Constable Simon Chesterman, the ‘national lead’ for armed policing, during an NPCC meeting in Leicester in April.
Under the heading ‘counter terrorism post Paris large scale military support to the police’, minutes of the meeting disclosed that up to 5,100 troops could be deployed “based on force assessments of how many military officers could augment armed police officers engaged in protective security duties”.
Soldiers would serve alongside armed police officers to protect against further attacks while plotters were hunted down.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Defence said: “The MOD works closely with other government departments and agencies to ensure that it is able to provide appropriate assistance in response to any security threats, including national security. We keep contingency plans under constant review.”
May says the public should not be “unduly alarmed” and says the deployment is proportional to the situation. The good news is these ‘critical’ alerts usually do not last long…
The last two occasions the threat level was raised to Critical the alert lasted no more than a few days: pic.twitter.com/GpzWJF4jMX
— Alan Travis (@alantravis40) May 23, 2017
Not exactly reassuring.
Martial laws & threats levels escalated in two countries in 24-hours only because of #ISIS. Panic is going from regional to global now.. pic.twitter.com/7bnnt8nHHH
— Rami (@RamiAILoIah) May 23, 2017
Allways the same plot …….
The West never learns. Standing Armies can defend hard targets with relative ease, however the terrorists ( that the West has flirted with ) have a strategy of hitting soft targets as they often do in Syria and Iraq. They hit everyday meeting places such as markets, mass transit and sporting events that are easy to strike. I expect a VBIED style of attacks as they are fast and deadly.
So because the UK and US deployed their armies in the ME we now have terrorism, and the way to fix this is to deploy their armies at home? What could possibly go wrong.
My only advice to you SF is to, not to be to over confident on what Zero (brain) Hedge prints in their home site, some is good, but some is downright propaganda, never ever forget that (they are after all, wankees), I read them to, but also when they write pure bullshit, witch is when they talk about wars, its there they slide into the standard manure witch is printed by the western MSM, and the Americans hate for Islam.
This goes into the line of “terror attacks” witch is to heighten security, of course, but do notice why we have terror, wars, 7 Muslims country’s is bombed as we speak, even more country’s if you dont take the Muslim aspects of it, like South-American/African lands, and the uISISa sites as ZH hammers the Gov and its people, is just an fake side show, but never have they and other uISISa sites bothered to say anything about the years of blockade and sanctions and like NK they use that to attack the respective country’s Gov and to “explain” how evil this respective lands Gov are, how convincing ZH, huh, but then again we are dealing with the dumbest people on this planet. The same smear tactics used against Palestinians, an decade of blockade and the only thing the ZHs and other freakish shit-holes drools about is how evil Hamas is. Yeah, try to debate anything with idiots and psychopath, and you end up with an head ace, banging on an massive wall of utter ignorance and pure stupidity. Like the NorDicks, the most brain washed people on this planet, even dumber than the wankees. And in all this country’s, the censure is total. No opposition what so ever.
In Norway right now we have “story’s” of how bad NKs are, yeah, nasty people, and what they have done, but then again, Norwegian MSM never ever writes about Why. Nope, not an word.
WRH whom I like is gliding into the western/Zionist mud, threading manure and throws it in every direction and everything, every bit of problems is always, without any shame, blamed upon the victims, never ever talking about the real problem, the uISISa. And why I do this now is because something is coming, I cant tell exactly, but the hate propaganda have been escalating up ward, just this last weeks, incl the Russian bashing and of course Islam. Even sites I used to read is drowning in Hate propaganda. After all this years of trying to explain, like the eCONomy, they still haven’t gotten nor understood, jack shit, Trumps eCONomy is what we have had in Scandinavia for years, legalized plundering of their own people, and the MSM hails it as an law of the nature, aka corporatism, the merge of state and corps, Norway is like Britan 100% fascistic.
I know something is coming, its vibrating, its like the fuse is lit, and everybody refuses to see it burn. Its an sad day for humanity because WE the people lost. Wanna know the ugly truth, huh, look at the stupid Greeks, wiped for so long that Stockholm syndrome is what is the new normal of mentality in the drowning dungeon formerly called Hellas. The land of light. And Thermopylae, yeah no wounder 300 could do it, when they where Nordic people, the founders of Greek/Hellas. To day, pathetic malakas rule, just muscles with no brain. THAT is the result of cowardliness, nothing else, the Greeks can turn this around in some months (drakma), but they dont have the balls for doing anything, terrified by altering the status quo, what an pathetic people, they deserve the shit they refuse to acknowledge, and I have no pity upon them at all.
peace
I am concerned this attack will boost UK support for troops in Syria. They will claim to be striking Daesh, but instead will be deployed in south Syria to help the “moderate rebels” in the area
I feel a fuc…. false fag coming for more shit on our heads
Although doubtful, may this suffering of poor people lead to a change in the policies of the UK’s government vis-à-vis Syria. The Syrian government and its people wrestles with the same monster on a daily basis. Anyway your chickens are coming home to roost whether you like it or not.
England and other are reaping what they sowed. You use these terrorists as proxies, and later they turn against you.
We can all thank the USA for this. Ever since GH Bush went into Iraq to attack his long term ally Sadam Hussein who was working for the US and attacking Iran. This all hppenwhen the Soviet Union collapsed and the Neo Cons went on an oil crusade. So first they needed to get the evil dictator Sadam out (a US ally) then it was Osama Bin Laden (also a former US and CIA ally) and the LIE of WMD’s from the false flag 9/11 attack that anyone with half a brain knows it was an inside job. This was all for oil folks. Now the people must suffer because of corporate greed. And guess who’s fault it all is? It’s OUR FAULT. WE LET OUR GOVERNMENTS DO THIS! Sure we protested but some of us supported it too. Protesting is not enough WHICH IS WHY THEY WANT TO TAKE AWAY OUR GUNS (which they succeeded in doing here in Australia)! So its up to us now. Fuck fighting wars for oil! Fuck the USA Fuck Rothschild’s and Soros. All these refugees are gonna fuck up our civilised world but who can blame them! Look what we did to their countries. Now they are radicalised and following their evil book. The USA should be sanctioned world wide. Fuck them.