Slightly EFL - Tony B continues to fight the good fight.
The threat of terrorism means Britain cannot afford to "err on the side of caution", Tony Blair has said in one of his starkest terror warnings yet. In a speech, he argued: "The threat we face is not conventional. It is a challenge of a different nature from anything the world has faced before." The prime minister warned of the "mortal danger" of under-estimating the threat of unconventional attacks. Mr Blair also rebutted challenges to the legality of the war in Iraq. BBC diplomatic editor Brian Hanrahan said the speech marked Mr Blair’s strongest language yet in describing the danger posed by terrorists. The global terror from groups such as al-Qaeda represented a "new type of war" - and Mr Blair warned of his fears that they would obtain weapons of mass destruction. The attacks of September 11th were a "revelation" to him, said Mr Blair, which had revealed the intentions of "fanatics". "It is monstrously premature to think the threat has passed. The risk remains in the balance, here and abroad," he said.
Fighting terrorism would mean relying increasingly on intelligence, said Mr Blair as he described the decisions that politicians had to confront. "A short while ago, during the war, we received specific intelligence warning of a major attack on Heathrow. To this day, we don’t know if it was correct and we foiled it or if it was wrong," said Mr Blair. "But sit in my seat. Here is the intelligence. Here is the advice. Do you ignore it? But, of course intelligence is precisely that: intelligence. It is not hard fact. It has its limitations." Mr Blair also gave details of how intelligence had revealed a pattern of growing threats. "We knew that al-Qaeda sought the capability to use weapons of mass destruction in their attacks. Bin Laden has called it a "duty" to obtain nuclear weapons," he said. Tackling the threat of terror was not only about intelligence and military action, he said. It was also important to tackle the roots of extremism, he said urging more action on "poverty in Africa and justice in Palestine". Mr Blair also called for an overhaul of the United Nations, so that its "security council represents 21st century reality". It must be able to "act effectively as well as debate".
"The true danger was not to any politician’s reputation, but to our country," said Mr Blair.
Although accepting that there was so far no "physical evidence" of weapons of mass destruction, Mr Blair said that the threat of their development was indisputable. Conservative leader Michael Howard said during a visit to Scotland: "I entirely agree with the prime minister that we face a real threat from terrorism and it is vital that we take effective action to deal with that fact. "Where the government takes effective action to deal with the threat from terrorism we should give them our full support."
Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy warned that the prime minister’s calls for reforms of the United Nations should not allow the organisation to be undermined. "Unless we invest in the political credibility of the United Nations, we are going to be in very difficult long-term situations indeed - and that is not something that any British government should be pursuing," said Mr Kennedy, speaking on BBC Radio 4’s World at One. And he repeated calls for full disclosure of the advice given to the government on the legal basis of the war in Iraq. Earlier, the decision to go to war against Iraq faced a further challenge from former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix, who claims the war was illegal. "I don’t buy the argument the war was legalised by the Iraqi violation of earlier [United Nations] resolutions," he said.
| He doesn't buy any arguments. He doesn't want to buy any arguments. Made up his mind already, he has. |
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