terror alert
 

A relative phoned to tell us about the terror alerts for railways, highways and public transportation in Italy. I'm nervous about traveling there in the next couple of weeks. Yet I think this will also mean heightened security. Any thoughts?

As many others have said --- GO! Your chances of getting killed crossing the street or in a car accident at home are still far greater than being involved in a terrorist attack overseas. Don't give in to those idiots who want to change our lives.

Well, you can stay at home (if you're from the US) and enjoy the terror alerts we have here for our public tranportation venues. Orange I believe is the level.

Maybe you just better stay in your house for the rest of your life.

:S-

New York has been on an orange alert since 9/11...and our lives go on pretty normally each day.
The first two posters have said it all quite accurately.

Patrick - They are going to Italy! The risk of getting killed crossing the street is higher in Italy than here.

You just have to work it out for yourself and your own comfort level. I'd go tomorrow anywhere!!!!! I sooooo need a vacation. My neice is leaving for Copenhagen for a year in a couple of weeks. I've heard several times on the news that Denmark has been threatened as a target. I know my brother is going nuts....he's a worry wort and I know in his heart he wished my neice would stay home and I know she is NOT going to stay home. Her dad won't try to stop her but I know he wished she would change her plans...but you just can't. Who knows when or from where the next thing will come....and I have no doubt it will come but I'm too damn old to say I'm stayin' home..I don't have that much time left. Now would I go to Darfor at this moment? No, I think not...and there are several other areas that I would just as soon stay away from, but to not go to the places I wish to visit when time and opportunity show themselves...well, I just can't do that..I will go.

If you are going to die, would you rather it be in Italy, or waiting for a bus in your hometown.

Well, that crossing the street story was not meant to be taken lightly. I've told this before, but good friends of mine were in France visiting their son and family who live there during 9/11. The cut their trip short and returned to the US, thinking they should and that they'd be safer at home in Florida. A week after returning she was crossing the street near their house and WAS killed by a bus.

Unfortunately statistically speaking because of 9-11 you are more likely to be in a terrorist attack in New York than even in Tel Aviv, based on casualty counts, I hate to be morbid at such a sensitive time but facts are facts.

We have an orange alert here in Boston.

Lets see-my son left for England tonight; my daughter just phoned and needs to be evacuated from her college in Florida by 4PM tomorrow and I fly to Rome every week for work....What stress?????? Keep traveling people otherwise you know when your "number is up"- even that tree outside could fall on your house in a storm!

Terrorists depend on cooperative news media and the government (yes, the government) to fan hysteria after even the most minor terrorist attacks. The idea is to do something that is frightening (even though the damage and casualties may not be huge in absolute terms), and then let media sensationalism, public hysteria, and government desire for ever-increasing control over the population do the rest.

Recent terrorist activities have been extremely successful in this respect. Small investments, highly visible results, and the willingness of the media and government to do the rest for the terrorists.

It doesn't always work. London survived the Blitz, and Hitler eventually had to give up when it became obvious that he could bomb the UK until doomsday and they'd never spook. Unfortunately, today many people lack the courage of the British in those days, especially in the USA.

India also! They are amazing.

Hear! Hear! Anthony A.

Those cable news channels have 24 hours to fill every day.

Personally, I'm feeling very much on high alert. I've been pacing back and forth between my computer and my windows, checking for terrorists. They could be *anywhere*.

Seriously elle7 -- Go, don't worry.

I remember when...10 years ago or so, I was sitting in Epcot Center in Disney World, at the British pub there, where I met a couple who were on their honeymoon from the UK. I remember so innocently asking them how they lived the day-to-day of constant threats of IRA bombings. They said "you get used to it and live your life." Boy, I sure know all about that now.

Go, live your life. A rock could fall on you from outer space, a car could spin out of control, or you could just get a nasty virus that could kill you, all in the comfort of your own home.

Personally, I think it would be much more glamorous to die in Italy.

Jules

Jules, funny you should say that. Friends we shared the evening with, leave tomorrow for Italy and said the same thing when someone asked them if they were scared.

It is understandable that Elle should feel a little uneasy but I am with Patrick. That is what these people want!Have courage and live life as well as we can and don't let these things cower us. I wish you well Elle and hope you go and enjoy that lovely country.

You could look at it this way:

The attacks were very well coordinated, so some planning had to happen first, so this was not a spur-of-the-moment action.

All this speculation about whether these carefully-planned attacks were designed to protest the G8 meeting, to protest Iraq, to disrupt the Olympics - all this is speculation leading nowhere. The real purpose? The real purpose of these attacks is to create TERROR!

The beginning of terror is fear, fear of the unknown - what if there is another terrorist attack when I/my loved one is in ...(name a country)?

As the others have said, don't succumb to this line of "thinking". It's where the terrorists want you to go.

The way to defeat the terrorists is not to go where they want you to go.

You could look at it this way. If you did, then you would go on your trip and have a good time.

Remember, we non-terrorists are billions strong!

easytraveler
(yes, I have a loved one in London and families of several good friends are in London at this moment)

A year ago in March, a friend and I flew to Spain for a tour. We arrived there one week after the bombings and there was still evidence of it at the large Atocha Railway station. Some people scheduled for the tour cancelled. We had a wonderful two weeks and were glad we had not cancelled. The Spanish people we met thanked us for coming in spite of the violence. Previous posters are correct--if you let fear guide your life, you might as well lock your doors and never leave your house. Then, again, locked doors don't always save you. Just my opinion.! mhm

My thoughts are to use more taxis and rental cars when traveling.

Just back from Italy and thought I was going to meet my maker while crossing the Piazza Venezia in Rome.

I'm leaving for Italy tomorrow! Flying out of New York. The most risky part of my trip? The drive TO the airport. On a recent flight, after we touched down, the piolet came over the loudspeaker and said "welcome to New York, as you continue your journey home, remember the most dangerous part starts now". He was right.

Just remember that on 9-11, in Madrid, and now in London - all of the people killed and injured were just going to work. So you are much safer going on vacation than going to work. So - vacation more, work less, live longer.

dude, go to italy!! i am going with my boyfriend to italy for new years. sure it is scary to travel out there now, but so what. you only live once. you gotta see the world. i went to europe two weeks after 9/11. my travel buddies all backed out on me at the last minute. but i was hell bent on going. i didnt want some stupid extremist jerks to be able to dictate what i did in my life and what i was going to get out of it. so i went alone. i had the greatest time. and am glad that i went. life is short. we are here for a good time, not for a long time. do all you can with the time you have left!

Boy! I think the terrorists are getting exactly what they want. They won't keep us away from Italy or anywhere else we might want to go...

I saw two American sisters on ABC and a French girl on France2 who were injured on vacation. One American (that I know of) was killed.

But your odds are still pretty good.

In our local paper today...7 people were killed in traffic and 1 woman chopped up with a machete by an ex-boyfriend!

I'm off to London soon!

Elle, would a bodyguard make you feel better? I'm pretty lethal with caneloni at 10 paces and able to detect suspicious ravioli well before consumption.

But seriously, I would say the alert was issued as the result of the London bombings and would be standard and sensible procedure.

Go on you trip and have fun.

How does an animal draw a vehicle? Paws wouldn't be very good for holding crayons or paintbrushes or pencils. Hmmmm, maybe a chimp or mountain gorilla. But do they have the fine motor skills and cognitive ability to accomplish such a task? Sounds a bit far-fetched to me.

elle7, last summer we went to Italy and at the time, there were also fears of railways being possible targets! I took my family to Italy anyway and we enjoyed the train. Considering all the people who are using the great train travel system in europe, chances are very slim that YOU will be on the wrong train at the wrong time.

In fact, statistically we would have been more likely to have an accident on the freeway right here at home in southern California I'm pretty sure!!!

It's pretty hard to predict where terrorists will strike next...you can't plan your life around that. Best thing to do if the terrorists are scaring you is to TURN OFF THE NEWS AND stop reading the papers for a week. I'm not kidding. This is what I do, and it settles me down. I resume looking at the news when I have calmed down.

We are all still here!

Let's put it this way: the people taking the elevators at the WTC at 8h30 on 9/11 felt super hyper safe, and they would probably have violently rejected proposals to spend vacations at places vaguely related to the Middle East, such as Turkey or Lebanon, for fears of terrorist attacks. The rest is history.

Re the previous post, I'm not sure the WTC is the best example, given it had been the target of a terrorist attack in 1993. I'm not suggesting any particular course of action, however, because there's just no way to know.

Rufus: I got that one from one of RY Pelton's books (he cited a FAA url that I think has since be taken down). It may be far fetched, but I thought it was humorous. As for animals drawing, there are several elephants at a variety of zoos producing "paintings" which are sold for charity events. The probably could produce a picture of a vehicle of sorts (albeit of a rather abstracted, impressionist sort).

If anything sets my teeth on edge, it's these posts that cheerily act like nothing's going on in the world, that make all sorts of inapposite comparisons to calamities that might befall them in their own country, and that airily dismiss any danger to them in a foreign country by going ahead and putting themselves in harm's way while on holiday-the ones who love to wear their bravado on their sleeve as a badge of honor. Foolish foolish foolish.

But this I will say as to the issues raised on this post. DO NOT, elle7, make the mistake of confusing Italy's approach to terrorism with the hapless Brits. That would be a BIG mistake.

World's speculation about Italy's raising the threat level is NOT accurate. I am not going to raise the anxiety level about threats against Italy unduly, but suffice it to say, on the same day as the first bombings, there were specific threats issued against Italy and Berlusconi (the PM of Italy) in particular, and those threats were renewed yet again some days ago just after the Egypt bombings. A number of Italians died in the Sharm attacks. Needless to say, the PM of Italy does not bend to threats, but they cannot dismiss them either. There is little credibility with the group that issued the threats-they have put their rantings on a website. However, Italy must take these threats deadly seriously, and Italians were addressed on national TV last night concerning the threats and defense of the homeland.

Italy stepped out after the July 7 bombings in London with TWO THOUSAND carabinieri from the top to the bottom of the boot, zeroing in on areas and persons who were under surveillance as a national security threat. In addition, they have just finished putting together a "pachetto" of anti-terrorism security measures that will go far in securing the country's borders- start to finish the new laws took 3 weeks. The Italian people were told by their Interior Minister within the last day or so that the threat against them from terrorist attack was "intense" and "prolonged." He also advised all Italians going on holiday in August to carefully consider their holiday destination in light of the terrorist threat. (This also means tourists to Italy should be aware, and think about which means of public transport they wish to use, for example, even though I know that Rome's subway is being heavily surveilled-I have a choice, so I will not use it. I will not use the bus either. I really have no choice with the train to other destinations in the country).

By contrast, Tony Blair made a speech day before yesterday, he said that GB would consider new anti-terrorism laws sometime in October. He also said, and I quote: "The world fell asleep after 9/11" meaning that the world had let its guard down, and was no longer as alert to terrorist threats as it was just after 9/11-which was supposed to be some sort of justification as to why Britain was caught so off guard by the London bombings.

I can state categorically that his words met with a deafening silence in the world law enforcement and intelligence community. Whatever Blair was trying to accomplish with that remark, it was clear that he was acting as a party of one.

What Is Misleading About Statistics:

If you live in a rural area without many cars, your odds of being killed by an animal-drawn vehicle are astronomically higher than if you live in London. It's the Mark Twain ice water/boiling water thing.

As my friend Juan put it, "If the stop signs in your neighborhood read ALTO, your chances of dying by gunshot are significantly higher than the national average."

I look at it this way, every day that I get on the tube and walk the streets in London at the moment, I take it as a 'life-affirming' experience (god that sounds so schmaltzy, how terribly un-English!).

Realistically you're not likely to come to any harm if you consider the law of averages - but what you can do is consider each night how lucky you have been to not encounter anything nasty.

A bit like the thrill of Russian Roulette, I guess! But a LOT less dangerous... :-)

Pack your bags, grab your passport and stop worrying about life.

No link at msnbc.com, but I see a brief Breaking News headline at the top, "Italy says a suspected London bomber arrested in Rome". I'll take this as good news.

I'm planing a trip right this minute to London, never even gave it a thought and I don't know why anyone would. Don't give those idiots what they want!

Hey, I forget to ask, what's the weather in London like in early September, I'm trying to decide what to wear? LOL

Elle7 -- It's normal to be concerned about going to Italy given the threats. Take them into account, weigh them according to your tolerance level and values in life, and do what you feel is right for you.

Personally I don't bend to terrorists on the one hand, or Spygirl's scaremongering on the other. I find both of them offensive and irrelevant to my life and how I choose to live it.

I'm going to London in September, then on to Paris. There will be no change of plans on my part, whether they arrest 10 or no terrorist suspects between now and then. It won't be the "same" trip as if there were no terrorism in the world, but I live life as it IS not how I wish it to be. And I choose not to get scared off by some wackos, whether they work for my government or al-Qaida.

There will be additional security, and if you've ever been through the Istanbul airport where you go through metal detectors 5 times to get to your gate, you'll find it comforting.

Just do what is right for you. Period.

Happy travels,

Jules

Avoiding terrorism reminds me of the Jewish professor who fled the Nazi persecutions of the '30s by moving his family to a place as far away from Germany as he could think of: an insignificant island in the Pacific called Guadalcanal.