Saturday, September 10, 2011

9/11: Bin Laden death was important, says Blair

Tony Blair Tony Blair said the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks was "immediately clear"
The killing of Osama Bin Laden was "immensely important" in the battle against terrorism but al-Qaeda remains a threat, Tony Blair has said.
In an interview marking 10 years since the 9/11 attacks, the former UK prime minister said there had been significant advances against the group.
But "large numbers of people" still shared al-Qaeda's ideology, he added.
Bin Laden, widely thought to have been the 9/11 mastermind, was shot dead in Pakistan by US forces in May.
He had been on the run since 2001.
Interviewed by the Reuters news service, Mr Blair said: "The risk is still there, but we have gone after them [al-Qaeda]. We have degraded a lot of their capacity and capability. We have either captured or killed many of their leading people."
He added that, although there had been "significant advances, the struggle still goes on".
Mr Blair said: "I think the narrative and the ideology of the movement is still there. So killing him [Bin Laden] was actually immensely important.

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There is still a massive threat from Islamic extremism”
David Cameron Prime minister
"It dealt a huge psychological blow to their movement but it doesn't alter the fact there are still large numbers of people out there who buy the narrative of this terrorist movement, even if they do not share or even agree with the methods."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister David Cameron has warned that there is still a great deal of work to be done before the UK and other countries are safe from Islamic extremism.
He said Western powers had to think carefully about how to deal with the threat in the future, despite adding that the world had become a safer place in the past decade.
Global policy change "There is still a massive threat from Islamic extremism, so the level of vigilance that we have and the amount of work that the government, the security services and the police service has to do is still very, very high," said Mr Cameron.
In his interview, Mr Blair, who is now a Middle East peace envoy, recalled when he first found out that the World Trade Center in New York had been attacked.
He said: "I was preparing to give a speech to the Trades Union Congress in Brighton. I was in my hotel room. I was then interrupted by one of my aides who said 'Come and see what's happening on the television'. The first plane had already flown in and hit the tower.
"I was actually very, very clear right from the very outset that this was not just a terrorist attack of an extraordinary magnitude but one that had to change global policy. So really everything that followed from that, in a sense, followed from that event."
Mr Blair remained a close ally of then US President George W Bush as he launched a "war on terror", sending UK troops on US-led invasions of Afghanistan in 2001 and Iraq in 2003.
Libya relations Mr Blair has been criticised in recent weeks for his links to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader who was ousted last month amid allegations of widespread human rights abuses.
But the former prime minister defended his government's decision to restore normal relations with the regime in 2004.
He said: "The external policy of Libya changed. They gave up their chemical, nuclear weapons programmes.
"It was a great thing for the world, really important. They gave up sponsoring terrorism, co-operated in the fight against it.
"The trouble is, in the end they were not prepared to reform internally, to their people. So they were less of a threat to the outside world, but inside, they were a threat to their people.
"And then, when the uprising happened, again there was a big choice. I remember actually speaking to Colonel Gaddafi at the time (the uprising) happened and saying this is the moment to realise you are going to have to go and be the person that gives it up, but... I am afraid that was not."

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