by Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com
1/25/2010
Over the last few days, the UK raised its terror threat level to “severe,” prompting a number of changes in their approach to air-traffic security. The Mirror reports on one potential explanation for this concern — a sudden increase in attempts by people on the “no-fly” list to board planes destined for the US:
Two men were stopped boarding US-bound planes at Heathrow days before Britain’s terror threat was raised to “severe”.
News of the incidents came hours after Home Secretary Alan Johnson lifted the threat level amid fears that al-Qaeda is planning an attack. …
Security sources say an Egyptian was stopped last Saturday as he tried to board an American Airlines flight to Miami. A man from Saudi Arabia was banned from boarding a United Airlines flight to Chicago the next day and sent back to Saudi. …
Anti-terror officials said the past week had seen an “unusually high” number of people on their no-fly list trying to board US-bound planes.
The British have a number of reasons to move the threat level up. Hamid Karzai will pay a visit to the UK, as will Hillary Clinton and UN Secretary-General Ban-ki Moon, to discuss the security issues in Yemen and the NATO mission in Afghanistan. Without a doubt, an attack on this conference would be quite a coup for terrorist groups, and the UK is well aware of the risks.
But still, the threat they’re seeing is not so much aimed at the UK as it is at the US…
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