International security concerns and their global implications

¶ … UK, the U.S., and in Israel to Terrorism Threats?

The Response by the United Kingdom (UK)

The United Kingdom is a long-time member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), an organizations that responds when there is an act of terrorism to one of its members. The UK is one of 26 nations allied through NATO, and any attack against one member is considered an attack against all of them (www.direct.gov.uk).

But in addition to its involvement in NATO, the British government has taken many steps of its own to prevent terrorism from killing and injuring its citizens. The UK knows first hand that it faces ongoing threats from al Qaeda, as in fact the London subway bombings on July 7, 2005 (that killed 56 people and injured 700) proved beyond doubt. The government's Director General of the Security Service (called M15) is Jonathan Evans, who claims that the UK "…continues to face a real threat from Al Qaeda-related terrorism" (www.direct.gov.uk). That threat is "…diverse in both geography and levels of skill involved," Evans explained (2010). But the threat is "persistent and dangerous and trying to control it involves a continual invisible struggle. There remains a serious risk of a lethal attack taking place," he stated.

After terrorist bombers tried to kill civilians in London (on busses, in the subway and elsewhere) on July 21, 2005, London police and terrorism specialists arrested four suspects by July 30, using "electronic interception" (phone taps), phone tips, and other strategies.

The Response by the United States

As the world knows, the U.S. was the site of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that brought down the World Trade Center, killed about 3,000 people and caused serious damage at the Pentagon as well. The U.S. Congress passed the "Patriot Act" (legislation that authorized the government to look into citizens' private phone calls) and the George W. Bush Administration used torture to try to fight terrorism. But apparently none of those strategies were effective in locating the man most responsible for terrorism in the world, Osama bin Laden, until President Barack Obama ordered the CIA to make the killing of bin Laden a top priority, something Bush had not done in the later years of his presidency. So the answer to the question, what is the U.S. strategy to terror threats, is, once the CIA and other intelligence agencies verified the location of the number one terrorist in the world, the president sent in Navy SEALS to kill the leader of al Qaeda. A month later, the U.S. used a drone missile to kill top one of the top al Qaeda operatives in Pakistan, Ilyas Kashmiri, on June 3 (CNN, 2011). Kashmiri was considered the possible replacement for bin Laden, and is also believed to be the brains behind the bloody attacks in Mumbai, India, in 2008.

The Response by Israel