U.K. Terror Chief Warns of 15-Year Fight
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jul 8, 10:16 AM EDT
*U.K. Terror Chief Warns of 15-Year Fight*
By D'ARCY DORAN
Associated Press Writer
LONDON (AP) -- Britain's new security chief warned the battle against
terrorism could take up to 15 years, while Prime Minister Gordon Brown
said in an interview broadcast Sunday he wanted an expanded European
system to share information on potential threats.
"I want the system that we are trying to expand between Europe - a
system whereby we know who are potential terrorist suspects," Brown told
Sky News television. "It is very important that we tighten this up and
it is something we are looking at as a matter of urgency."
Adm. Sir Alan West, the former navy chief who was recently named Brown's
security minister, said Britain faced an unprecedented threat and a new
approach was critical.
One of those approaches included challenges to the British psyche, he said.
"Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about
someone," he told The Sunday Telegraph. "I'm afraid, in this situation,
anyone who's got any information should say something because the people
we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life."
He said prevention and dealing with the radicalization of young Muslims
was his top priority.
"This is not a quick thing," he said. "I believe it will take 10 to 15
years. But I think it can be done as long as we as a nation apply
ourselves to it and it's done across the board."
West also said it was wrong to talk of "the Muslim community" as if they
were separate from the rest of the population. He said Muslims see
themselves as British and that terrorists have hurt them as well.
"I think they have severely damaged one of the world's great religions -
the one they purport to support," West said.
Counterterrorism agents claim they have foiled several attacks in
Britain since the July 7, 2005, suicide bombings that killed 52 people
on London's transit system, including a plot to blow up several
trans-Atlantic flights.
An Iraqi doctor appeared in court Saturday as the first suspect to face
charges over a plot to bomb London's entertainment district and
Glasgow's main airport.
Bilal Abdullah, a 27-year-old doctor born in Britain and raised in Iraq,
is accused with another man of crashing a Jeep Cherokee laden with gas
cylinders and gasoline into the terminal.
Iraqi authorities were gathering information about Abdullah and will
cooperate with British authorities, Iraqi Interior Ministry spokesman
Maj. Gen. Abdul-Karim Khalaf said. He said the ministry was trying to
establish whether Abdullah was part of al-Qaida or belonged to other
insurgent groups.
Seven other people are in the attacks - six in Britain and one in
Australia - but have not been charged.
Two cars packed with gas cylinders and nails were discovered June 29 in
the busy heart of London's West End - one outside a crowded nightclub,
the other near Trafalgar Square. The next day, a Jeep Cherokee smashed
in flames into the security barriers at Glasgow airport.
The charge against Abdullah refers to a plot taking place between Jan. 1
and July 1, suggesting prosecutors believe the attacks were planned well
in advance.
Prosecutors suspect Abdullah and Kafeel Ahmed, believed to be the driver
of the Jeep, carried out the attempted bombings in London before
returning to Scotland - where Abdullah worked at a Glasgow-area hospital
- and attacking the airport.
Britain remains on "severe" terrorism alert - the second-highest level -
following the attacks.
Ahmed is hospitalized in critical condition in Scotland with severe
burns from the attack on the airport.
Ahmed, who is from Bangalore, India, holds a doctorate in aeronautical
engineering and studied at Queen's University in Belfast, Northern
Ireland, and at Anglia Polytechnic University in Cambridge, England.
Abdullah also lived for a time in Cambridge, a quiet university city
north of London.
Another suspect is Sabeel Ahmed, 26, an Indian doctor arrested in
Liverpool, who relatives confirmed in media reports is the brother of
Kafeel Ahmed.
Most of the suspects worked for Britain's health service and come from
countries in the Middle East and India.