Former Spy Boss Tells Public: Put Down Your Phone and Look For Bombs

Members of the public must take personal responsibility when it comes to staying safe in the age of terror attacks and get used to daily disruptions to their lives, Baroness Neville-Jones, who was head of the Joint Intelligence Committee, has warned.

Official guidance is to be “alert but not alarmed” at the threat from jihadists, but Lady Neville-Jones, 76, lamented that citizens are not as vigilant as they could be. She told BBC Four:

“I think being alert is very important. I am alarmed by the number of people I see wandering along the street entirely engaged in their mobile telephones and with their ears plugged into music and they are not aware of their surroundings. You need to be aware of your surroundings.

“You do have to take some personal responsibility. I do think we can be more alert than we are.”

She added that the public would prefer the security services “to be cautious and occasionally have closed something that it turned out wasn’t necessary”.

The advice comes after a spate of terror alerts that saw the Brussels fireworks display cancelled and two railway stations closed in Munich on New Year’s Eve.

Lady Neville-Jones said action such as that in Germany would become more likely. She added: “I do think we are going to have to get used to what we have seen in Germany – that is to say alerts which close places of public functions and higher levels of security in big public gatherings.

“That is prudence and proper caution on the part of intelligence and the police authorities.”

German Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said closer cooperation with foreign security services was needed to avoid future scares.  He said: “In the new year the situation will remain very serious.

“In future, we will depend more intensively than before on close cooperation with security services from other countries and the exchange of information.”

As Breitbart London reported, Munich train stations reopened and trains were running Friday, as Bavaria’s top security official said that the warning about Islamic State extremists intending to blow themselves up in the German city was no longer acute.

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