Europe Travel Alert: Just an Overreaction?

European officials are not happy about the travel alert issued for the continent by the US yesterday. The new warning was not a result of any new intelligence, officials say, and they are "irritated" the US leaked warnings of possible shooting attacks before more intelligence could be gathered, the Guardian reports. Other responses to the terror alert:

• "The US alert is an unhelpful overreaction and a kick in the teeth for the European tourist industry," declares the Independent. "America is hardly without its own domestic terror threat ... yet if European governments were to issue a travel alert on America, the US would, understandably, be irritated."

• Europe is less safe, and it's because of anti-Muslim laws, write Christopher Dickey and Sami Yousafzai at Newsweek. And they're looking at you, Nicolas Sarkozy: Because your anti-burka law "is aimed against a specifically Islamic custom, jihadists denounce it as an insult to Muslims everywhere, making France an even more tempting target for terrorists."
• "As a charter member of the 'you're far more likely to be killed on your way to the airport than at the hands of a terrorist' club, I certainly wouldn't scrub a trip or put off planning one" as a result of the extremely vague alert, writes Laura Bly in USA Today.

(More travel advisory stories.)