Oh, for heaven's sake: land of the free, perhaps – but home of the brave?
US travellers ‘to get Europe terror warnings’
Press Association, tonight
The Obama administration is considering a broad warning for US citizens to avoid public places in Europe due to new al Qaida threats, officials said today.
Such a move could have significant implications for European tourism.
US officials told the Associated Press that the State Department may issue a travel warning as early as Sunday advising Americans to stay away from European tourist sites, transport hubs and other facilities because of new threat information. (….)
The implications of a blanket “travel warning” for all of Europe could be big. There are hundreds of thousands of Americans in Europe at any one time, including tourists, students and businesspeople.
While the government cannot stop people from travelling there or force them to return home, a warning could result in cancelled airline and hotel bookings as well as deter non-US travellers from going to Europe. In addition, many US college and university study-abroad programmes will not send students to countries for which a warning is in place for insurance and liability reasons.
(….)
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When I happened to be travelling to or from the US the first thing the one in charge of my travelling would check was the colour of the alert for that day. Normally it was either red or orange.
I always wondered what one should do with this amount of information. Same applies for this warning. For how long should the Americans put on hold their travelling plans to Europe?
Bush junior once declared with a smile: “We got him!”. I thought they got Bin Laden but instead they got Saddam Hussein who was totally opposite to Bin Laden on matters of religion.
It’s all smokes and mirrors. Al Qaeda was created by the CIA in the 1980s and the links have persisted in the underworld. Tr’rrst cells created by intelligence plants are labelled Al Qaeda the moment they’re busted. Let’s hope they don’t pull another ‘Mumbai massacre’ – there’s ample evidence that that was yet another CIA-backed false flag operation.
And Bin Ladin? Formerly CIA agent ‘Tim Osman’? It seems he’s been dead since December 2001/ early 2002.
And, by the way, it has been admitted that those Bin Ladin videos are fake.
Do your research. The truth is much stranger than fiction – so strange you wouldn’t believe it’s even worse than strange.
At times, the ‘truth’ we’d love to believe is as subjective as anybody else’s.
Some time back you labelled the creators of the H1N1 flu jabs ‘mass murders’ (or something to that effect) and, to support your argument, you quoted a certified Polish nutcase who also claimed the US was actively suppressing UFO information.
She also claimed that there’s an elite organisation (in the US obviously) which would like to selectively wipe out more than half of the world’s population (with the cunning use of deliberately tainted flu vaccines).
A few years back, your ‘research’ also led you to predict the imminent collapse of the US and so on.
You’d believe and quote an Enid Blyton book if it suited your agenda.
Taf thawwad, NGT. The exposed swine flu scam was a huge failure for the scaremonger WHO, even if it profited big pharma in countless billions. Meanwhile, the laws enacted in many Western countries during the scare aimed for forced mass vaccinations still stand. It’s more than just a racket, of course, but who am I to tell you? You wouldn’t know about the tip-toe effect, anyway.
So, my advice to you is: take your flu shot, NGT. It’s got mercury and other exotic ingredients – all good for you. And if you get the best shot, it will also save you from H1N1 since it’s been incorporated in most brands. If you have kids – filled them up too.
Actually I didn’t take the H1N1 shot and neither did my kids. Most vaccines contain Mercury, including the MMR which they had just had – hence my reluctance to give them a second vaccine so close to the first. But fyi Mercury wasn’t some recent secret ingedient, although most people without a medical background seem to be under that impression.
I wish you’d put a stop to that condescending attitude of yours – you know, the name/label dropping – makes you come across as a right pathetic runt who’s desperately trying to impress – which, I’m sure is not the case. You’re not the first person to discover the fact that books contain ‘knowledge’. Quite a few people discover that… whilst still at school. They also learn that not everything that’s published ought to be taken at face value.
For once I am willing to be in agreement with kev. There are to too many conspiracy theories around for, at least, one not to be true.
I have just finished reading The Tranceformation of America and I really don’t know what to make of it. Seems too far-fetched but on the other hand many things make sense! Anyone else?
That argument is a fallacy. Here’s another one
“There are too many types of bacteria to say that one of them isn’t secretly a mass murderer out to get all the Germans.”
I’m not saying that all conspiracies are false. I’m just saying your reasoning is terrible.
Why, pray, is my reasoning addirittura ‘terrible’? Are you maybe saying that the CIA is a transparent organisation? Are you implying that there is nothing shady about the CIA’s operations?
And can you kindly explain the connection between your stupid example and my reasoning?
Galian – get your news from http://www.infowars.com with selected links to both the corporate media and the fast-growing alternative media.
This is one example – http://www.infowars.com/bill-gates-says-vaccines-can-help-reduce-world-population/
@kev
Are you serious? I love a good conspiracy theory but some articles on that site are so far out that even Alan Alford’s theories seem tame in comparison.
Loved the “Shop and Save – Get American Conspiracies for FREE when you buy 2 DVD’s”.
Your logic is terrible. Just because there is a lot of something, it does not mean it is more likely to be true. I made no statement about the CIA. I made a statement about logic, a tool used in formal debate.
It’s philosophy 101 for a reason. You can’t do a variant of ‘argumentum ad populum’ and expect to get away with it.
Mine was another example of such a fallacy, where I say there is a lot of something (you said conspiracy theories, I said bacteria types), and so something unrelated must be true (you said CIA transparency, I said German Extermination).
But if you made that mistake, you probably won’t get this either, and will think it’s just as stupid.
I hate to break it to you Kev, but you’re an idiot.
The last laugh’s on you, Marku. If you relish smoke and mirrors, please do carry on. I happen to know a thing or two about reliable evidence, state-mandated smokescreens, political minions, staged terror, and the underworld of state agencies and their global institutional overlords. I also understand why most of you lot are sound asleep. I can assure you: you are living in Lalaland… on a Lilliputian rock off Lalaland, to be exact.
And where are you living, Kev? You seem reasonably intelligent, so why hasn’t it occurred to you that maybe you’re just being wound up.
I’m not saying who’s doing the winding.
Perhaps you, La Redoute, can answer the question which broke Luigi’s back.
How many buildings came down demolition-style on 9/11?
Another marvellous marvel comics conspiracy.
It’s time for another sort of bedtime reading. Have you tried Dr Seuss?
Midterm elections 2nd November.
All these tales about Bin Laden, Al Qaeda and the CIA are pure speculation without a shred of evidence..
Having said that, I would not put anything beyond the CIA, MI 6 and Mossad.
When I think that all three agencies work in tandem I get the creeps.
You should get the creeps when the world is in the hands of Islamist extremists. Then you can post your feelings freely on the web.
Another John – ‘Islamic extremists’ is the new bogeyman feeding the ‘war on terror’ scam. Get that into your head. And now that they enacted enough anti-terror laws to make Hitler envious, they will use them on “white-trash” (it’s alright to say that, very politically correct say our overlords).
It’s the white al Qaeda, you see – the terrorists are everywhere and it could even be your neighbour… It never stops, Joe Stalin’s Soviets had traitors, anarchists, agitators and saboteurs to deal with and the show trials were hugely successful. But now we know better, don’t we?
Yes, right Kev. And the Communist/Soviet threat of the post-WWII period was also a CIA invention. And Muammar Gaddafi is a CIA stooge who just threatens Europe on behalf of the CIA.
And obviously, since the demise of the Soviet threat, the CIA needed to find and invent another threat and invented Islamic extremism.
The Sharia in certain countries is another fabrication that actually does not exist. Only in the western hemisphere are we subjected to living under evil hegemonic leaders/empires, while the peoples of Africa and the Middle and Far East are living totally free lives. Now that my eyes have been opened, I’m packing up to go and live in the Swat Valley.
Another day, Another John. Meanwhile, carry on watching TV.
kev, you’re spot on about this conspiracy theory. Now go wash your face, make yourself a strong cup of coffee and read L-orizzont for more crap.
…And when you are ready, turn to maltastar.com to forget all about it with a good laugh.
It is good to be brave but not to be rash. It also better to be cautious.
The United States. as any other state, has the right and duty to protect its citizens if there is a clear threat of harm. Isn’t it better to be safe than sorry?
Ah yes, but a “clear threat of harm” would deserve a warning that is not “credible but not specific” (AFP) methinks.
In these circumstances, it’s better to live like a coward than die like a hero…..
[Daphne – We live in Europe, Brian, remember?]
Sorry Kev, this has nothing to do with CIA bogeymen or your Michael Moore-style conspiracy theories. There is indeed a pattern of behaviour here which is truly disturbing, but for reasons that you have not touched upon.
Ever since 9/11, whenever a US ally has managed to foil a nascent terrorist plot, rather than praising the ally for its vigilance, Washington responds by warning its people to steer clear of the country in question.
This subliminally reinforces the average American’s belief that everything that threatens the US homeland comes from elsewhere, be it Pakistan, England, Germany or Canada.
It also serves to deflect awkward comparisons between the success of foreign policing efforts and the massive failure of US intelligence, management and coordination that allowed the horrors of 9/11 to unfold as they did.
The second purpose served by these new travel warnings is good old American protectionism.
It is an extension by indirect means of the “Buy American” provisions in Obama’s economic stimulus legislation. If insurers refuse to cover US travellers heading to Western Europe, then one can imagine that several of those tourists and student groups will spend their travel dollars much closer to home, likely within the US itself.
In the case of business folk who need a face-to-face meeting with their Euro counterparts, well I suppose if Mohammed won’t come to the mountain…
Michael Moore? Michael MOORE? Michael Moore-style conspiracy theories?
It’s where I stopped reading your comment, Luigi. Michael Moore is a dickhead stuck in the red-blue rut. If you think Michael Moore is a CT you are evidently still in kindergarten.
I’ve revisited your comment, Luigi, but got stuck in the second paragraph (yes that’s how impatient I am with kinder-politicos like you).
“Ever since 9/11…” – let me break your pathetic bubble – 9/11 was an inside job, perpetrated by the CIA and their federal cohorts with the involvement of Mossad and a network of t’rrst shills with their CIA-backed minders, all supervised by Dick Cheney and his minions in honour of thier patrons. The evidence is abundant, even if most witnesses have since died, and the raw footage speaks for itself while no-nonsense physicists and engineers have come out to explain to the sheeple why they’re being hoodwinked to such extents. The bigger the lie the better it’s believed – now who said that?
Let me ask you a question, Luigi. How many buildings came down demolition-style on 9/11?
Lucky you, kev, living in a world where you are free to foment as much nonsense as you like, and to broadcast it as widely as you wish.
Kevvy, your ‘humurous’ twitterings are becoming tedious. Perhaps you should engage the help of a psychiatrist–one who specializes in self-indulgent delusionists.
Why can’t you answer a simple question, Luigi?
How many buildings came down demolition-style on 9/11 ?
Two reasons: (i) your question is entirely irrelevant to the topic at hand and to my original response; and (ii) your allegations are irresponsible, baseless and indicative of a truly sick mind.
No Luigi, my question is very relevant to the topic under discussion. Had you managed to answer that simple question – which you’re clearly unable to – there would have been a set of further questions indicating who’s mind is “truly sick”.
Kev, I for one salute our new hegemonic overlords, whoever they may be.
This shouldn’t matter much. Only 30% of Americans have a passport as very few of them are interested in venturing out of their own country. Of those, only 13 million decide to travel to Europe each year.
The alert can be flaming red for all I care. Nothing will keep me from going to Italy, France or any other European country. If we really had to heed this and all similar advice (remember SARS, avian or swine flu, terror alerts for Rome and the Vatican and a host of other threats?) we would live our lives crippled by fear in a bunker somewhere. After all, I was in Malta when I was almost raped and strangled to death.
So, let’s see, which Italian city am I going to next? If I die on holiday, perhaps after a good meal with a glass of wine in hand, I’d surely die a happy death.
Kev, if there is no threat, why are you getting all worked up? Vodka supplies, despite the grain shortage, are holding up. So there is nothing to worry about.
I went to Asia when there was bird flu.
I was in Al-Hamra district some ten hours after the US embassy complex was attacked in Jeddah.
I was in Cairo when a whole bus full of tourists were killed in front of the museum.
I was in Britain when there was mad cow disease, and in Thailand just after the tsunami when people did not dare go (beaches were all empty and planes full of people looking for their relatives).
I had to be in Spain two days after the train bombing in Madrid, and had to travel in nearly empty jumbos after 9/11 (I liked being upgraded to first class or at least sleeping on a row of five seats).
I think it is more dangerous walking in the Maltese countryside; one stands a good chance of getting killed because of some fireworks factory explosion.
Very vague warning to US tourists in Europe to avoid public places, public transport, monuments, museums. Might as well remain at home or is that the actual message between the lines.
What I find amusing is how the US, with all its technology and intelligence, can issue such a broad warning to its citizens, specifying the whole of Europe – I mean from the Atlantic to the Urals – as a travel risk zone.
Unless I am naive, these alerts are a clear indicator that the intelligence is a total failure.
I am not sure how the US can justify all the money spent on security systems (including the famous or infamous biometrics) and all those laws to restrict the freedoms of people, when all they can come up with is a vague warning to everyone travelling everywhere in Europe, stating also that “an attack was not expected to be carried out imminently.” (BBC, 3 Oct 2010)
Well, at least, the peak tourist season is now over.
And to think that Al Qaeda had managed to plant bombs inside the three buildings that collapsed demolition-style on 9/11! Planes and bombs, eh! Dawn zgur m’hemmx alla ghalihom.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8n-nT-luFIw
And Elvis lives in Levis.
Even the corporate media is now pissing on US fearmongering:
“British intelligence denies US terror warnings sparked by new info: US warning of commando terror attacks in Europe irritates European officials, who say no evidence plot is imminent”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/03/europe-commando-terror-attack-us
Why do your comments put me in mind of Marvel comics?
The weather must really be ugly in Brussels.
Because you read too many of them.
The number I’ve read has been precisely zero for at least three decades. You’re doing a good job of promoting the genre. I think I’ll pick up the habit again. May I borrow your stash?
http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20101004/local/sweden-japan-issue-europe-travel-warnings
Is Sweden no longer part of Europe?
Maybe they’ve appointed somebody from Mlatsrat to write their articles.
The message is (economically)clear : “Don’t travel to Europe – take your holidays at home “.
If that is the message, then the message behind it is: do not buy Euros, and let’s protect the dollar.
That could be very dangerous, as it may mark a new round of economic protectionism.