– THE GREATEST THREAT

 

 

 

Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair has described, on Thursday 09/02/2010, radical Islam as the greatest threat facing the world today.

Tony Blair made the remark in a BBC interview in Dublin on the prime-time entertainment program – The Late Late Show, marking the publication of his memoirs. He said radical Islamists believed that whatever was done in the name of their cause was justified – including the use of chemical, biological or nuclear weapons. Tony Blair, who led Britain into war in Afghanistan and Iraq, denied that his own policies had fuelled radicalism. Tony Blair contradicted the testimony of the former head of MI5 Baroness Aliza Manningham-Bulle, who testified in the Chilcot Committee, on 07/20/2010, and said that The invasion of Iraq “substantially” increased the terrorist threat to the UK (see – Chilcot-Buller).

Asked about the argument that Chechens, Kashmiris, Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghans were resisting foreign occupation, he said Western polices were designed to confront radical Islamists because they were “regressive, wicked and backward-looking”.

The aim of Al Qaeda in Iraq was “not to get American troops out of Baghdad [but] to destabilize a government the people of Iraq have voted for”, he told the BBC’s Owen Bennett Jones in a World Service interview. But Tony Blair ignored the fact that there was no Al Qaeda in Iraq prior to the allies invasion in 03/2003.

The former British leader – who now acts, cynically, as the Middle East envoy for the international Quartet – said that Iran was one of the biggest state sponsors of radical Islam, and it was necessary to prevent it by any means from developing a nuclear weapon.

“We need to give a message to Iran that is very clear – that they cannot have nuclear weapons capability, and we will stop them,” he said. Tony Blair said he was not advocating military action, but simply saying no option could be taken off the table.

Tony Blair told the BBC his view of foreign policy had changed as a result of the 9/11 attacks: “After 11 September, rightly or wrongly, I felt the calculus of risk had changed. “There is the most enormous threat from the combination of this radical extreme movement and the fact that, if they could, they would use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.”You can’t take a risk with that happening” he said.

Tony Blair said he agonized over how to respond to radical Islam and still had doubts that he was right. These are really difficult issues, he said, but added: “This extremism is so deep that in the end they have to know that they’re facing a stronger will than theirs.”

Tony Blair has also expressed optimism about the prospect of peace in the Middle East. Direct talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians began in Washington on Thursday (see – 13 groups 09.03.10).

* Related topics –

• 07/2010 -EXPORT OF TERROR
  2010 -THE ISLAMIC GRIP ON U.K
  11/2009 -BROWN’S FUZZY SPEECH
  LONDONSTAN    

***************************

Read more ;