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3 terrorist attacks thwarted in the UK since 7/21
U.K. security forces have thwarted three terrorist attacks since the failed London bombings of July 21, Chancellor of the Exchequer Gordon Brown will say in a speech tomorrow, as he seeks to raise his profile beyond financial matters in his bid to lead the nation after Tony Blair.``The terrorist threat has not diminished and will not diminish until we defeat it,'' Brown is due to say, according to excerpts the speech released by his office. ``Let us be in no doubt that three attack plans threatening Britain have been thwarted since July 21,'' when four bombs placed on London subways and a bus failed to detonate. He will pledge more money to combat terrorism and will call for a ``British solution'' to finding the right balance between security and liberty, according a Brown aide. He will speak in London to the Royal United Service Institute. Brown, 54, is beginning to address topics such as national security and national identity that are the traditional terrain of the prime minister. While Blair has said he wants to serve a full third term, which could last until 2010, political analysts widely expect he will step down in the next 18 to 24 months, with Brown succeeding him. Blair and four Labour Cabinet ministers already have endorsed Brown as the next leader of the government. Conservative Party leader David Cameron, 39, has said he himself is the heir to Blair and represents a fresh direction for Britain. Brown's increasing reach on government affairs beyond the Treasury comes as Blair this week faces close parliamentary vote on identity cards, a smoking ban in pubs and restaurants and terrorism. The Guardian newspaper on Feb. 7 reported that Blair's personal pollster, Philip Gould, and his former communication chief Alastair Campbell now meet Brown regularly to advise him on how to see off a challenge from opposition Cameron. In his speech, Brown will tell his audience: ``For nine years as Chancellor, my aim has been a Britain strong in our stability,'' Brown is due to say. ``In the years ahead, I want a Britain both strong in stability and strong in security, so that it can be said not just that our national stability is safe in our hands, but that our national security is safe in our hands.'' Brown also will present evidence gathered by the U.K. of the international networks financing and planning terrorist acts across the world. The government will adopt new measures to make Britain's borders less porous by introducing an electronic border security system, Brown will say, which links biometric passports and visas with electronic checks on entry and exit. He will also pledge to review in July national security financing, which the Treasury says will double to 2 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) a year by 2008. ``A priority for the spending review will be to examine our future security needs for intelligence gathering and policing,'' Brown will say. The chancellor called on Jan. 14 for limits on government power and for a greater sense of ``Britishness,'' the first sketch of his political program as he seeks to succeed Blair. He said he wants stronger checks on the ``power and discretion of the executive'' to go to war and greater freedom for leaders of schools, hospitals and local government to make their own decisions. Posted by: Dan Darling 2006-02-12 |
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