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British government has angrily rejected a report which said its
backing for war in Iraq had raised the risk of terrorist attack, as
ministers cast around for new laws to help stop a repeat of attacks
on London.
The respected Royal Institute of International Affairs (RIIA) said
the invasion of Iraq and its bloody aftermath had boosted
recruitment and fund-raising for al Qaeda, suspected of being
behind London bombings on July 7.
Police said on Monday the death toll from the London underground
train and bus bombings had risen by one to 56.
The RIIA report was issued as interior minister Charles Clarke met
opposition party leaders to seek a consensus over tougher
anti-terror legislation.
The government is due to meet members of Britain's Muslim community
to discuss responses to the bombings.
On Monday, Imams from about 500 British mosques issued a fatwa, or
edict, condemning violence and presented it to politicians at
Westminster. The fatwa will be read out at mosques during prayers
this Friday.
Officials say the government is looking to target extremists,
particularly Islamic clerics, who glorify or encourage terrorist
acts. Such figures could be banned from entering Britain or
deported if they are already in the country.
The government also wants to outlaw "acts preparatory to
terrorism", such as giving or receiving training for attacks.
Clarke said he and his opposite numbers had agreed to publish
legislation in October with a view to passing it into law by the
year-end.
"We will cooperate with the government to ensure that the
legislation ... does the job it is set out to do and it is put on
the Statute Book as quickly as possible," opposition Conservative
home affairs spokesman David Davis told reporters.
Police searching for a support network of planners, bomb-makers and
financiers, say they have found no indication the explosives
carried timers, meaning they were manually detonated by the four
bombers.
Pakistan visits
Three were young British Muslims of Pakistani descent. The fourth
was a Jamaican-born Briton.
Pakistani immigration officials said three of the bombers entered
Pakistan through Karachi last year.
Several militants have been detained in Pakistan since July 7
although no link had been established.
Prime Minister Tony Blair will meet British Muslim community
leaders on Tuesday to find ways of tackling the root causes of
terrorism and preventing the message of extremists
resonating.
"We all have to recognise where this perversion of Islam comes
from," Blair's spokesman said. "We all have to stand together and
deal with it. That includes the Muslim community."
The RIIA said Britain had created its own problems by playing
"pillion passenger" to Washington. "The UK is at particular risk
because it is the closest ally of the United States," said security
experts Frank Gregory and Paul Wilkinson.
That provoked a strikingly robust rebuttal from Britain, the United
States and Australia.
"The time for excuses for terrorism is over. The terrorists have
struck across the world, in countries allied with the United
States, backing the war in Iraq, and in countries which had nothing
whatever to do with the war in Iraq," Foreign Secretary Jack Straw
said in Brussels.
In Washington, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Australian
Prime Minister John Howard challenged any notion that a country
could be made safer from terror by avoiding confrontation.
"I think that people who think that terrorists pick and choose
discriminately don't understand how it works. The United States had
done nothing on September 11 when it (the attack on America) was
done," Rumsfeld said.
"People who think they can make a separate peace with terrorists
will find that it's like feeding an alligator, hoping it eats you
last," the secretary told reporters at a Pentagon press
availability with visiting Howard.
"I have a similar view," said Howard. "No country can allow its
foreign and defence policy to be malleable in the hands of
terrorists."
