Use and abuse of intelligence

[Briar]

Use and abuse of intelligence

Tony Blair takes advice from his security experts when it fits with his foreign policy, and ignores it when it doesn't

Richard Norton-Taylor
Tuesday July 19, 2005
The Guardian

If ministers and MPs cannot bring themselves to acknowledge that the invasion of Iraq has increased the threat from terrorism, then let others do so. We can begin with senior officials responsible for protecting our national security and Britain's interests abroad.
On February 10 2003, a month before the onslaught on Iraq, Whitehall's joint intelligence committee told Tony Blair that "al-Qaida and associated groups continued to represent by far the greatest terrorist threat to western interests, and that threat would be heightened by military action against Iraq". It added that the collapse of the Iraqi regime would increase the risk of chemical and biological warfare agents or technology finding their way into the hands of terrorists.

Yesterday the Royal Institute of International Affairs published a paper co-written by Paul Wilkinson, a professor at the University of St Andrews. He is no radical polemicist, rather an epitome of conventional wisdom.

"The UK is at particular risk," warns the paper, "because it is the closest ally of the United States" and joined US-led military action in Afghanistan and Iraq. It says a key problem facing the government is that it "has been conducting counter- terrorism policy 'shoulder to shoulder' with the US, not in the sense of being an equal decision-maker, but rather as a pillion passenger compelled to leave the steering to the ally in the driving seat".

....


The limitations of intelligence were amply demonstrated in London on July 7. The security and intelligence agencies have said they will learn lessons. Is it too much to hope that Blair and his foreign policy makers will too?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,3604,1531287,00.html

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. All Bush can do is say

"They hate us for our freedoms", ignoring the REAL underlying causes of terrorism. The Guardian has it right-Blair is just following Bush's lead. If the root causes of terrorism aren't addressed, terrorism will not go away.