[A-List] UK state: strategy of tension

["Michael Keaney" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>]

Ministers release security advice to calm public fears
MICHAEL SETTLE
The Herald, 13 November 2002

MINISTERS last night sought to calm public fears of an imminent terrorist
attack by taking the unusual step of releasing the government's latest
security advice to ports and ferry operators.

They were forced to act after details of the confidential circular issued by
Transec - the security division of the department of transport - were leaked
to the press.

The memo referred to a recent warning from the French and Dutch authorities
of a "possible terrorist act" against ferries, although it concluded there
was no "credible information or intelligence" to support the claim.

Nevertheless, it reminded recipients of the need to maintain "increased
vigilance" in the current "heightened security environment". Fears of the
heightened threat were featured prominently on yesterday morning's BBC news
bulletins.

Security concerns were said to centre on the fear that terrorists could
drive a lorry packed with explosives on to a roll-on roll-off ferry. They
followed hard on the heels of Tony Blair's speech on Monday night when he
said British intelligence was receiving daily warnings of new threats and
predicted the country would have to pay a painful price to defeat terrorism.

Last night, at a media reception in London, the prime minister said he told
the press: "If you are given a story, you want to run it but on the other
hand you are making a judgment too about what is responsible to say about a
particular event."

A man claiming to be Osama bin Laden warned US allies in an audio tape aired
yesterday that they would be targets of new attacks if they continued to
back the "White House gang of butchers". In the tape bin Laden hailed
anti-western attacks in Bali, Kuwait, Yemen, and Jordan, and last month's
hostage-taking in Moscow.