Tuesday March 22, 2005

I've Been Thinking:

The Scottsman, a British newspaper, ran a very troubling story today. I pray that the English are prepared to handle the implications and fallout.

The paper reveals that Sir David Omand, co-director of counter terrorism in Great Britain, divulged that England has knowledge of an impending al Qaeda attack.

The objective of the attack is to cripple the infrastructure of England. Electricity and other power sources. The telecommunications grid. Banks. Transportation. From the briefing, it seems the terrorists want to focus on local governments.

The idea is to overwhelm computers with viruses and emails causing them to crash and shut down. And according to Sir Omand, the people involved in this plot "have a very high level of technical awareness."

Is this something new? Is British intelligence more sophisticated than other intelligence communities?
No. It's not new. But it does show a heightened sense of awareness and intel. And that is always good.
The US and Israel have been aware of these types of threats for a very long time.

Specifically, there are substantial fears that our microwave weapons, which can burn out all computers, might fall into the wrong hands and be used by terrorists against us.

For more info, I have a chapter on this in my book What You Need to Know About: Terror.