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Vertaal:

Vrijdag, 21 November, 2008

Door David Morrison | Stella Rimington, laatste maar één hoofd van MI5, werd geïnterviewdm door Decca Aikenhead in de Beschermer op 18 Oktober 2008. Zij vroeg haar over het effect van Groot-Brittannië? s invasie van Irak op de terroristenbedreiging voor Groot-Brittannië:

Ik vraag Rimington welk belang zij op de oorlog, in termen van zijn effect op de terroristenbedreiging zou plaatsen. Zij pauzeert voor tweede, antwoordt dan stil maar stevig: ? Bekijk wat die mensen die' ve gearresteerd of zelfmoordvideo's zeggen over hun motivatie verlaten. En de meesten van hen, voor zover ik bewust ben, zeggen dat de oorlog in Irak een significante rol in het overreden van hen speelde dat dit de juiste cursus van actie is te nemen. Zo denk ik u niet de oorlog in Irak uit geschiedenis kunt schrijven. Als wat wij bekijken groepen ontevreden jonge mensen geboren in dit land is die aan terrorisme draaien, dan denk ik om het effect van de oorlog in Irak te negeren ben misleidend. [1]

Decca Aikenhead scheen om bij deze openhartige bewering door een ex-hoofd worden verrast van MI5 van een oorzakelijke verbinding tussen Groot-Brittannië? s invasie en beroep van Irak en de verhoogde terroristenbedreiging voor Groot-Brittannië. Zij becommentari�ërde:

Dit zouden geen unremarkable meningen voor de meeste lezers van de Beschermer kunnen zijn - van wie Rimington één is. Maar volgens Rimington, zijn zij wijdverspreid binnen de intelligentiedienst - dan meer zo het meeste publiek, en misschien in het bijzonder de lezers van de Beschermer, ooit verdachte.

Officiële MI5 mening

In feite, is het de officiële mening van MI5, en verscheidene jaren geweest, dat zulk een oorzakelijke verbinding bestaat. Ik weet dat omdat ik het op MI5 las? s- website in Juli 2005, op het tijdstip van het bombarderen van Londen. Daar, op een pagina getiteld Bedreiging voor het UK van Internationaal Terrorisme, las ik:

De laatste jaren, is Irak een dominante kwestie voor een waaier van extremistische groepen en individuen in het UK en Europa geworden.

Ik was verbaasd om dit te lezen aangezien het dat de activiteit al-Qaeda, op zijn minst voor een deel, een reactie op Westelijke interferentie in de Moslimwereld was, eerder dan gedreven door een kwade ambitie om onze manier van het leven in het Westen erkende, als onze politieke leiders te vernietigen gehouden vertellend ons.

At that time, Prime Minister Blair was (understandably) trying to deny the existence of a connection between the invasion of Iraq and the bombings in London on 7 July 2005, lest somebody accuse him of having blood on his hands. That was not an unreasonable accusation, given that, having been warned in advance by the intelligence services that the threat from al-Qaida ?would be heightened by military action against Iraq? (see Intelligence & Security Committee report of 11 September 2003 [2], Paragraph 126), he chose to make Britain a less safe place by invading Iraq in March 2003.

I made considerable efforts to draw the attention of The Guardian and other newspapers to the extraordinary fact that the words coming out of the Prime Minister?s mouth were at variance with what was published on the MI5 website. This seemed to me to be newsworthy. But to no avail. To the best of my knowledge, this plain, publicly stated, view of MI5 was never quoted in the columns of The Guardian, until a letter by me was published on 3 July 2007 [3]. That Guardian readers are ignorant of MI5?s view on the issue is due to the failure of Guardian journalists to bring it to their readers? attention.

International Terrorism: Impact of Iraq

Lest there is any doubt that the intelligence services have long held the view that invading Iraq increased the terrorist threat to Britain, listen to this from a Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC) assessment entitled International Terrorism: Impact of Iraq dated April 2005, extracts of which were published in The Sunday Times on 2 April 2006:

Iraq is likely to be an important motivating factor for some time to come in the radicalisation of British Muslims and for those extremists who view attacks against the UK as legitimate.

There is a clear consensus within the UK extremist community that Iraq is a legitimate jihad and should be supported. Iraq has re-energised and refocused a wide range of networks in the UK.

We judge that the conflict in Iraq has exacerbated the threat from international terrorism and will continue to have an impact in the long term. It has reinforced the determination of terrorists who were already committed to attacking the West and motivated others who were not.

Some jihadists who leave Iraq will play leading roles in recruiting and organising terrorist networks, sharing their skills and possibly conducting attacks. It is inevitable that some will come to the UK. [4]

Blair?s blowback

Even Tony Blair eventually acknowledged that his military adventures in the Muslim world had produced ?blowback?. Here?s is what he said in his resignation speech in Sedgefield on 10 March 2007:

Removing Saddam and his sons from power, as with removing the Taliban, was over with relative ease. But the blowback since, from global terrorism and those elements that support it, has been fierce and unrelenting and costly. [5]

The Guardian has yet to report this confession by the former Prime Minister that he has made Britain a less safe by his military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq and, in the process, he has caused the deaths of around 400 British soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Iraqis.

Crucial point erased

Today, the MI5 website still has a page about ?international terrorism? [6], but you won?t find a word about Iraq on it. The previous plain statement by MI5 that there was a causal connection between Iraq and the risk of terrorism in Britain was removed some time since June 2007, when I last saw it there. Now al-Qaeda?s motivation is described in the following terms:

The terrorists draw their inspiration from a global message articulated by figures such as Usama bin Laden. The message is uncompromising and asserts that the West represents a threat to Islam; that loyalty to religion and loyalty to democratic institutions and values are incompatible; and that violence is the only proper response.

It doesn?t quite go so far as to say that al-Qaeda is out to destroy our way of life in the West, but the crucial point ? that al-Qaeda terrorism in the West is a response to Western interference in the Muslim world ? has been erased.

Jacqui Smith speaks
Fresh from her ignominious defeat in the House of Lords on 42-day detention on 13 October 2008, the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, made a major speech on ?the threat of international terrorism? to Britain on 15 October 2008 [7]. Like the MI5 website today, her speech omits to mention British intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq as a motivating force for al-Qaeda activity in Britain. In a 3,000-word speech, she provided the following penetrating analysis of what drives al-Qaeda to commit terrorism: “They want a reordering of global political structures and a separation of faith groups ?. and to subvert our institutions.?

Most of her speech was taken up with detailing the measures she was taking to counter al-Qaeda in Britain. Four regional counter-terrorism policing hubs, in London, Manchester, Birmingham and Leeds have been established and a fifth one is on the way on the M4 corridor. These are tasked ?not only to investigate conspiracies and terrorist operations but to understand radicalisation and radicalisers and to tackle them effectively?.

Several Government departments are also involved in countering ?radicalisation?: the Department for Children Schools and Families in providing advice to teachers on how to deal with signs of radicalisation; the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills in working with student bodies and higher and further education to do something rather similar; the Department for Culture, Media and Sport in considering what impact the issue of counter radicalisation should have on their programmes; ditto the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department of Health; the Department of Justice is addressing the problem of radicalisation in prisons; and, last but not least, the Department for Communities and Local Government is working on the Preventing Violent Extremism plan. And she holds ?a Weekly Security Meeting with senior representatives from each of these Departments and others across Whitehall to discuss their work and the current threat with the police and the security and intelligence agencies?.

How any of this is meant to reduce or prevent ?radicalisation? in circumstances in which the main driver ? the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq ? is still going on is not clear. Withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan would certainly diminish, and perhaps eliminate, the threat to Britain from al-Qaeda. In other words, if we ceased spending money and blood invading Muslim countries, we wouldn?t need to spend money protecting the British homeland from terrorism emanating from the Muslim world in response ? and blood would not be spilled on our streets when the protection proves to be fallible.

Notes
[1] The Guardian
[2] Intelligence & Security Committee (pdf)
[3] The Guardian
[4] The Times
[5] Labour website
[6] MI5
[7] Home office.

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This entry was posted on Friday, November 21st, 2008 at 5:53 am and is filed under War & Terrorism News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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