A clear opinion was expressed yesterday morning by the Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares: "We are faced with an attempt at hybrid aggression and psychological warfare" and "it is clear that there are cells in the world that act to sabotage Europe", declared the Sanchez government representative. In an interview with public broadcaster TVE, Albares added: "It will take time to clarify what happened, even if we know" who is behind the threat. “What is clear is that it cannot be a coincidence that so many exactly the same episodes occur, with the same modus operandi across Europe,” he observed.
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Minister Albares added that it is the Union that is being targeted "because Europe is at the moment the great bastion, the great hope and the most successful political project in history, which combines tolerance, democracy with economic growth, with redistribution and social justice". And he explained that "this annoys those who prefer the law of the strongest, who would prefer Europe to return to the law of the jungle, where the strong systematically subdues the weak."
Another opinion was expressed by General Vincenzo Camporini, former Chief of the Defense Staff, according to whom "discord and panic are being spread to direct future political competition. Europe is in difficulty, if you scratch it you can obtain advantages". When asked how these situations could be resolved soon, Camporini replied that "they cannot be resolved, unfortunately they cannot be controlled, they may have an organized cause but then they can trigger continuous imitation. A kid can easily send an email, which cannot be ignored. These are situations in which 99.9% nothing happens but 0.1% remains and we must react on that".
According to Camporini "we are in a climate of great unease at an international level. And in such an unstable situation someone is trying to take advantage of it". A situation from which we can try to escape "by trying to identify the source of the alarms, given that we have the tools to do so". On the possibility that the Russians could have something to do with it in some way, the general said he had "my convictions: these situations are viewed very favorably in Russia. This is my assessment at least".
Precisely as regards the possible perpetrators of these bomb scares, the Financial Times reported having received an email - sent to various newspapers - in which the sender claims responsibility for the bomb scares on European flights, defining himself as "one of the leaders of the group responsible" for the threats. "This is just the beginning. What happened this week is only a small part of what awaits Europe in the near future. Very soon we will blow up your planes, cruise ships, subway stations and trains." According to an executive at Irish public broadcaster RTE, the message was sent to 18 media outlets. The authenticity of the claim has not been verified.
In any case, European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen clarified yesterday that "we take these threats very seriously. Any threat against civilians is absolutely unacceptable and our top priority is to ensure the safety of citizens." Speaking about the series of bomb scares which have involved numerous flights in Europe in recent days, she added: "The main responsibility for investigating and shedding light on these events lies with the member states", clarified the spokeswoman, explaining that "our task at the moment is to coordinate the member states to have a complete picture of what is happening".
It was not just the flights that were affected yesterday, but also the media in Ireland: false alarms were received by the public broadcaster Rte, Virgin Media, Newstalk and the Irish Independent, for which the police opened an investigation. A situation that occurred "in the wake of disruptions caused to air traffic in Europe through similar threats" and "it seems likely that they are the result of coordinated action. The police forces, in collaboration with the Ministry of Defense and our authorities on cybersecurity and aviation, are working to identify those responsible", Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin said in an official note.
The Irish Prime Minister's office clarified that "the police forces are aware of the risk of such threats in the context of the EU Presidency and are developing appropriate protocols in response". And the Irish police had already taken into account the risk of false bomb threats in their preparations for the Irish Presidency of the Council of the EU: Dublin will host a summit of the heads of state and government of the European Union on 12 and 13 November.
Pierluigi Paganini, cybersecurity and intelligence expert, spoke to ANSA describing what "Psyops" is, the strategy of tension that falls under the great umbrella of hybrid warfare and which, together with the global geopolitical and economic situation, can create "the perfect storm": "maximization of media exposure, instilling fear and distrust in institutions. After the fridges and bomb scares, I expect more exposed targets on the security front such as industrial systems, city traffic lights, electricity meters, ticket offices. There will also be an escalation of misinformation." For Paganini "a coordinated strategy is evident that is trying to maximize media exposure". And then he added that "tension, fears and the population's perception of threat are ideal conditions for disinformation and Psyops, psychological operations".
Finally, the Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni also spoke about what has happened in recent days: according to the Prime Minister, the bomb alerts on the planes "are clearly cause for concern. The investigators are working, we are not able to say today whether the plasma attack in France, the fake bomb alerts on the planes, the attack on food are all connected, but they are certainly all telling us the same thing: that today it is civilian infrastructure that is under attack". And then Meloni underlined that what is happening "returns to a reasoning that I have been trying to make for some time: when we talk about defense and security spending in a time like this, we are not simply talking about weapons. We are talking about securing the daily lives of citizens".
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