BRITAIN RAISES TERROR ALERT – AT 5:16 P.M. ET:  The cousins across the pond assure us that they don't see anything imminent, but they do see something coming.  (Try figuring that out.)  From The Times of London:

Britain's terrorist threat level was raised tonight from “substantial” to “severe” - meaning that counter-terrorism agencies believe an attack is “highly likely."

The measure was approved at a meeting of the Government’s Cobra emergency committee and announced by Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary.

The Times understands that the decision to raise the threat level is connected to the conference on Afghanistan taking place at Lancaster Gate, London, next Thursday.

Sources said there had been intensive discussions throughout the day relating to intelligence suggesting a possible attempted “spectacular” by an al-Qaeda affiliated group.

But the shift was also described by one source as “precautionary” rather than rooted in any firm information that an identified terror cell was plotting an attack.

COMMENT:  Britain has a split personality on terror.  On the one hand, some of its security services are first class, and internal security has, for the most part, been taken seriously.  On the other hand, political correctness in Britain is a high art, and Arabist circles still wield great power.

In a way, Britain hasn't changed since before World War II.  Then there were those, like Churchill, who pushed for full mobilization to confront Nazism.  There were others who were openly sympathetic to Hitler.  The BBC in the thirties, by the way, was led by a man who despised Churchill and what he stood for.  Nothing has changed.

January 22, 2010