BRITAIN ON GUARD - AT 3:10 P.M. ET:  From London's Daily Mail:

Sixty thousand civilians are being trained to spot terrorists, Gordon Brown revealed yesterday.

In the latest Labour anti-terror initiative, huge numbers of staff on rail networks, at airports, shopping centres, public buildings and sports venues have been picked out by MI5 and the police to be taught how to watch for 'suspicious behaviour' and respond swiftly in the event of an atrocity.

The Home Office plans are likely to raise questions over the effectiveness of an army of amateur 'terrorist-watchers'.

There are fears they will swamp the police and security services with spurious alerts or single out law-abiding British Muslims, which could also inflame religious tensions.

COMMENT:  Well, there may be "fears" and "concerns."  There always are.  But at least the British are taking this seriously, a lot more seriously than we are. (Please see our posting at 8:42 a.m. called, "This is Not the Politics of Fear.")  In fact, there's a clear level of urgency in British planning, which, I assume, means that the Brits have credible information about planned attacks.  In Washington we have just put in place a decidedly left-wing top tier at the Justice Department, and planning for terror attacks appears to be far down on the priority list.  Kindness toward detainess, and being loved in the Muslim world, are much higher up. 

March 24, 2009