Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan contributed to the terrorist attacks in London, a respected independent think tank on foreign affairs, the Chatham House organization, said yesterday.
According to the body, which includes leading academics and former civil servants among its members, the key problem in the UK for preventing terrorism is that the country is "riding as a pillion passenger with the United States in the war against terror."
It says Britain's ability to wage counter-terrorism measures has also been hampered because the US is always in the driving seat in deciding policy initiatives.
PHOTO: EPA
The report says the security services -- diverted by fighting the IRA over Northern Ireland and the rise of animal activists committing terrorist acts -- failed to give priority in the early 1990s to monitoring Islamist terror activists setting up in Britain, so "the British authorities did not fully appreciate the threat from al-Qaeda."
In the most politically sensitive finding, Chatham House, which used to be known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs, concludes that there is "no doubt" that the invasion of Iraq has "given a boost to the al-Qaeda network" in "propaganda, recruitment and fund raising," while providing an ideal targeting and training area for terrorists.
"Riding pillion with a powerful ally has proved costly in terms of British and US military lives, Iraqi lives, military expenditure and the damage caused to the counterterrorism campaign."
This finding runs directly counter to the line from Downing Street, which has sought to detach Iraq from the London attacks.
On Saturday, Tony Blair said the fanatics who struck in London and launched other attacks around the world were driven by an "evil ideology" rather than opposition to any policy, and that it would be a "misunderstanding of a catastrophic order" to think that if we changed our behavior they would change theirs.
"Their cause is not founded on an injustice. It is founded on a belief, one whose fanaticism is such that it can't be moderated, can't be remedied. It has to be stood up to."
The dispute over the role of Iraq in the motivation of the bombers came as the debate grew over proposed new terror laws in Britain. The Tories will today offer Charles Clarke, the home secretary, the chance to speed up new terror laws, provided that the government delays proposals to revise the controversial control orders system for detaining suspect terrorists until next year.
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, will ask the government to bring forward full details of one of the most divisive parts of the new legislation -- the indirect incitement to terrorism offense -- by a month to September, so MPs and human rights groups such as Liberty can study them properly.
Tropical Storm Usagi strengthened to a typhoon yesterday morning and remains on track to brush past southeastern Taiwan from tomorrow to Sunday, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was approximately 950km east-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost point, the CWA said. It is expected to enter the Bashi Channel and then turn north, moving into waters southeast of Taiwan, it said. The agency said it could issue a sea warning in the early hours of today and a land warning in the afternoon. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving at
UPDATED FORECAST: The warning covered areas of Pingtung County and Hengchun Peninsula, while a sea warning covering the southern Taiwan Strait was amended The Central Weather Administration (CWA) at 5:30pm yesterday issued a land warning for Typhoon Usagi as the storm approached Taiwan from the south after passing over the Philippines. As of 5pm, Usagi was 420km south-southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan proper’s southernmost tip, with an average radius of 150km, the CWA said. The land warning covered areas of Pingtung County and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春), and came with an amended sea warning, updating a warning issued yesterday morning to cover the southern part of the Taiwan Strait. No local governments had announced any class or office closures as of press time last night. The typhoon
DISCONTENT: The CCP finds positive content about the lives of the Chinese living in Taiwan threatening, as such video could upset people in China, an expert said Chinese spouses of Taiwanese who make videos about their lives in Taiwan have been facing online threats from people in China, a source said yesterday. Some young Chinese spouses of Taiwanese make videos about their lives in Taiwan, often speaking favorably about their living conditions in the nation compared with those in China, the source said. However, the videos have caught the attention of Chinese officials, causing the spouses to come under attack by Beijing’s cyberarmy, they said. “People have been messing with the YouTube channels of these Chinese spouses and have been harassing their family members back in China,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said there are four weather systems in the western Pacific, with one likely to strengthen into a tropical storm and pose a threat to Taiwan. The nascent tropical storm would be named Usagi and would be the fourth storm in the western Pacific at the moment, along with Typhoon Yinxing and tropical storms Toraji and Manyi, the CWA said. It would be the first time that four tropical cyclones exist simultaneously in November, it added. Records from the meteorology agency showed that three tropical cyclones existed concurrently in January in 1968, 1991 and 1992.
RSS