Chunnel Is Terror Target!
 

Today's Guardian carries a story about the Channel Tunnel being a terror target during the Christmas travel season.

Just think that the Chunnel, which now carries 8,000,000 a year - if it were to even be put out of operation for a lengthy time what chaos that would cause. Hopefully security has been beefed up and since the Chunnel (sic!) always seemed to be a prime target to me, security already is very tight.

The Guardian article begins (full text at www.guardian.co.uk

Channel Tunnel Is Terror Target


Jason Burke in Paris
Sunday December 24, 2006
The Observer

The Channel tunnel has been targeted by a group of Islamic militant terrorists aiming to cause maximum carnage during the holiday season, according to French and American secret services.

Bob - where you been? This has been on US TV for days. Sneaky SOBs are out there plotting and waiting for a chance to strike. Stay alert and strong in the face of evil!

Do you think we can talk them out of an attack?

"Do you think we can talk them out of an attack?"

Well, I for one hope so, as my husband is going through the tunnel right now. And one or both of us in the tunnel every week.

BTike: have you noticed any heightened security in place - perhaps we would not notice the extra security measures however. There was a picture in the Guardian showing personnel walking thru the Tunnel. suppose certain profiles will have increased security.

I plan to journey thru the Tunnel myself in coming weeks.

I am kinda surprised it took THIS long to figure out that tunnel might be a prime target.

Cato, do you think they can talk us out of leaving the Middle East?

Wow, I just posted a message about my daughter planning to ride Eurostar from Lille to London and back. She is planning to go on Jan.26, and I am worried!

OK - i'm planning to ride Eurostar about the same time and i am not worried at all. Because? now that plot has been exposed this will be the safest train to t ake in Europe i believe as element of surprise is gone. Rest assured and rather sorry i posted the news that, albeit i guess has been all over American TV for days.

PalB, short answer: no, not really. My husband drove through security this afternoon with nothing more than a cursory glance. Same thing when we came back from Belgium to the UK on the 24th. However, I suspect we are considered low risk--a middle aged Canadian/American couple with an English cocker spaniel in a late model Renault Laguna.
Although, one thing on our Christmas eve trip--my husband just got a new Canadian passport with the newly redesigned UK Right of Abode certificate pasted in. So both British and French security got their colleagues over to check it out, it was the first of that particular combo they'd seen. They weren't grilling us about it, just looking it over and trying to decide if the new RoA was "prettier" than the old one.

Given the amount of security added in the past few years in order to deal with the Daily Mail's Bete Noir - Illegal Islamist Asylum Seeking Gay Gypsies - I would think any decent Islamist group could find lots easier targets that would generate as much publicity & chaos.

If the Chunnel goes, the Daily Mail would probably applaud the terrorists (see above) and the backers of the Chunnel would breath a sigh of relief given the size of it's debts

Hi B,

>She is planning to go on Jan.26, and I am worried!<

Stop worrying. The threat, if there actually is one, will be over by then.

((I))

Ira,
Mothers worry any way...

What a load of nonsense. Can't anybody worry about real problems...

Logos, dear,
Did you forget July 7, 2005?

Keep in mind the amount of people killed in traffic, by lightning... If you're actually scared of a few "terrorists", well you'd better stay at home. Some day we'll all die, but none of us actually posting in this thread will be killed by a terrorist. Don't you feel relieved? :D

The whole Western world has become a terror target. No scoop.

Brazilnut with that attitude I'm surprised you even dare get out of bed in the morning as after all there may be a terrorist attack on any day of the year

And my advice to you about not worrying about Eurostar follows July 5, 2005 - after that i opined that i thought the London transports would thereon be ultra safe due to increased scrutiny - thank God the plot not long after on similar targets failed. Terrorists operate on weaknesses - the element of surprise and do not announce their real targets ahead of time.
I can appreciate your angst, as a parent, but common sense dictates otherwise in this case.

AlanRow,
Maybe in the US and Europe, but Not where I live!

PalBob
I am not worried to the point where I would not let her go (she is old enough to make her own decisions, anyway), but I keep on thinking that the Chunnel is an awful target, there is no way to get out fast if anything happens.

I remember July 7,2005, because I have stayed near (and even on) Tavistock Square, several times, and taken the underground in Russell Square. And I was in London a week before the underground attempt happened!

Yawn.

I had a worrisome mother too. In the event you do decide to take the "chunnel" I'll pass along her advice: "be sure to wear clean underwear just in case".

MorganB - you obviously don't have children. And even though this thoughtful mother will be worried and would be better off warning her daughter of London pedestrian crossings - to look the other way - as i believe many more foreign tourists are injured or killed crossing streets in England than by terrorists, a parent's worries often defy reasonableness.

brazilnut - perhaps I shouldn't go to the US because of 4/19, 9/11, Beltway snipers...

Or if you are in Brazil perhaps I shouldn't go to a place where the murder rate is 3 times that of even the US - or 10 times that of the UK.

Patrick, did we have the same mother, lol. And do mothers ever say that anymore?

About mother's worrying, I agree. I think it comes with the instruction book.

...and here's me praying we would be able to continue carrying unlimited amount (well within reasonable range) of luggage and liquid on Eurostar!

On a more serious side, I would assume any public transportation can be a potential terror target. Having said that, do we see enhanced security measures after 7/7 on London Underground? No, aside from more noticeable metropolitan police presence.

I didn't particularly notice a stricter security check on Eurostar aside from passport control and regular x-ray (shoes and coats off, but no pat-downs) and no liquid prohibition/restriction, though my last trip was in late November.

Somehow I must have been justifying that Eurostar train is less likely to become a potential flaming bomb that can hit other targets unlike aircrafts. The only (real) incidents of fire I remember on the channel tunnel was on eurotunnel freight train, and the tunnel has a parallel service tunnel. Probably more secure than antiquated London underground. (Does anyone remember King's Cross tube fire in the late 80s?)

I have had friends die in car accidents, of cancer, of many things - but none in a terror attack.

It is horrible that people want to kill others just for retaliation, or for whatever weird reason they have. But we each take a risk each day just getting out of bed and into our cars. The Eurostar could certainly be a target, as can any hotel or anyplace else.

"Cato, do you think they can talk us out of leaving the Middle East?'

Dukey, I sure wish it was that simple. Those savage nut-jobs are bent on taking the whole world back to the 12th Century. Convert or perish is what they are after. Fighting them on thier own turf is the way to go.

&quot;I have had friends die in car accidents, of cancer, of many things - <i>but none in a terror attack.&quot;</i>

I have.

&lt;&lt;&lt; Convert or perish is what they are after. &gt;&gt;&gt;

I must be watching a different ME from the one you know - AFAIK no-one associated with the violence in the ME is interested in converting folk, they are ALL into killing the &quot;others&quot; until one side or the other gets sick of it and gives up - which will probably be a cold day in Hell

A number of us know people who had family killed in terrorist attacks - but that was in the days when being a terrorist was Kewl.

alan, having it stay in the ME would be fine by me, but it's spreading around the globe. Killing people in the name of religion is such a sick concept; best left in the 12th Century.

Perhaps we should start with all the terrorist groups with a religious basis - like the IRA,Irgun...

Again, worry about what will probably kill you:
What you eat
Not exercising
Smoking
Drinking to excess
Drinking and driving
You are MUCH more likely to win the lottery or have an eagle drop a fish on your head than you are likely to be killed by a terrorist.

Thanks 2Italy!

Now I have to worry about an eagle dropping a fish on my head!

Just when I thougt it was safe to come above ground again! Maybe the lottery winnings will soften the blow a bit.

MvK

&quot;Those savage nut-jobs are bent on taking the whole world back to the 12th Century. Convert or perish is what they are after.&quot;

- I'd be wary of accepting what politicians tell you about the motives and goals of the terrorists.

In 1969 an Australian politician visiting Vietnam stated &quot;Every soldier I spoke to believed he would be fighting the Viet Cong in Queensland if we did not stop them in Vietnam&quot;. So much for our understanding of the motives and aims of our enemies. And now we're doing it again.

&quot;Fighting them on thier own turf is the way to go.&quot;

So why didn't the US invade the countries providing most shelter for al Qaeda - Pakistan and Saudi Arabia - rather than one that wasn't?

The chunnel was a possible target in 2004, too, and I worried about it then. We took it and nothing happened, obviously, but----

Terrorism the big question mark--where, when and how. Just after 9/11 there was private and government speculation about which places in the world would be ripe for attack. The chunnel was one of them then--along with Disney World in Orlando. Lots of people in one place, and a good chance of killing people of more than one nationality to make the point.

The Channel Tunnel has always, even since before it was opened, been treated by the British and French security services as a high-risk target. That's why Eurostar trains have always had airline-style security.

That identification was probably the result of the security services sharing the preposterous exaggeration of the tunnel's commercial importance held by both governments and by many easily-duped French shareholders.

In fact there's enormous redundancy in cross-Channel links, and suspension of Channel Tunnel operations has had little significant effect on anything, except the Ford Moror Company's ability to maintain a just in time logistics system between its factories.

Fog, French air traffic disputes or plain over-reaction to an aviation security threat cause far, far more disruption. There's no alternative to a plane if you want to go shopping in New York or get your Ryanair cheapo weekend in Marbella.

I'm just a little non-violent girl from the Midwest, and I thought within days of Sept. 11 that the Chunnel would make a prime target - just like the Golden Gate bridge, the Sears Tower, the British Museum, the Vatican, the Brooklyn Bridge, and every plane in the sky...

If I can figure that out, surely the terrorists did too - back in 2001, if not before.

It's just not a new threat.

(I threw caution to the wind and took the Channel tunnel from London to Paris five months after the WTC attacks - it was a fun part of our trip and I'd do it again tomorrow if I could.)

Life <i> is </i> risk.

PalB: The US is a target. Perhaps the concerned mothers of the US should send all of their children to Swiss boarding schools?

As others have mentioned the channel tunnel has been a target since it opened. So has any other high profile mode of transportation or structure in the western world. It is sadly a fact of life these days. Standing around yelling fire does not move the situation forward.

Go on with life and live it to the fullest. You simply cannot avoid a random act of terror or for that matter, natural disaster or any situation that threatens lives.

Give her a break. She's a mum. Mum's worry. It's the job description.

If I were about to travel through the tunnel myself I wouldn't be worried at all and would just think 'sod'em' as you can't let terrorists scare you off things.

If my son were about to travel through the tunnel, I wouldn't try to stop him, but yes I couldn't help but worry until I knew he was through safely. Your own kids are different somehow!