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.
EXPRESSING GRATITUDE: Without its Taiwanese partners which are ‘working around the clock,’ Nvidia could not meet AI demand, CEO Jensen Huang said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and US-based artificial intelligence (AI) chip designer Nvidia Corp have partnered with each other on silicon photonics development, Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said. Speaking with reporters after he met with TSMC chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) in Taipei on Friday, Huang said his company was working with the world’s largest contract chipmaker on silicon photonics, but admitted it was unlikely for the cooperation to yield results any time soon, and both sides would need several years to achieve concrete outcomes. To have a stake in the silicon photonics supply chain, TSMC and
SILICON VALLEY HUB: The office would showcase Taiwan’s strengths in semiconductors and artificial intelligence, and help Taiwanese start-ups connect with global opportunities Taiwan has established an office in Palo Alto, one of the principal cities of Silicon Valley in California, aimed at helping Taiwanese technology start-ups gain global visibility, the National Development Council said yesterday. The “Startup Island Taiwan Silicon Valley hub” at No. 299 California Avenue is focused on “supporting start-ups and innovators by providing professional consulting, co-working spaces, and community platforms,” the council said in a post on its Web site. The office is the second overseas start-up hub established by the council, after a similar site was set up in Tokyo in September last year. Representatives from Taiwanese start-ups, local businesses and
‘DETERRENT’: US national security adviser-designate Mike Waltz said that he wants to speed up deliveries of weapons purchased by Taiwan to deter threats from China US president-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for US secretary of defense, Pete Hegseth, affirmed his commitment to peace in the Taiwan Strait during his confirmation hearing in Washington on Tuesday. Hegseth called China “the most comprehensive and serious challenge to US national security” and said that he would aim to limit Beijing’s expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, Voice of America reported. He would also adhere to long-standing policies to prevent miscalculations, Hegseth added. The US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing was the first for a nominee of Trump’s incoming Cabinet, and questions mostly focused on whether he was fit for the
IDENTITY: Compared with other platforms, TikTok’s algorithm pushes a ‘disproportionately high ratio’ of pro-China content, a study has found Young Taiwanese are increasingly consuming Chinese content on TikTok, which is changing their views on identity and making them less resistant toward China, researchers and politicians were cited as saying by foreign media. Asked to suggest the best survival strategy for a small country facing a powerful neighbor, students at National Chia-Yi Girls’ Senior High School said “Taiwan must do everything to avoid provoking China into attacking it,” the Financial Times wrote on Friday. Young Taiwanese between the ages of 20 and 24 in the past were the group who most strongly espoused a Taiwanese identity, but that is no longer
RSS