Little Green Footballs

Friday, July 29, 2005

MI5 admits Iraq link to London bombings

Now I don't believe anyone who says the cause of the London bombings was exclusively the war in Iraq. Also, I don't believe anyone who says that Iraq played no part in the bombings either. These two opinions have been all over the place in the last couple of weeks. Therefore I was surprised to find that MI5 of all people were being quite honest about the situation. Far more honest in fact than the politicians, the media, the blogsphere and the your average Mr Joe Public.

Iraq has become a "dominant issue" for Islamic extremists operating in Britain, domestic intelligence agency MI5 said.

In an analysis titled "Threat to the U.K. from International Terrorism" posted on the agency's Web site, a team of MI5 analysts concludes, "Though they have a range of aspirations and 'causes,' Iraq is a dominant issue for a range of extremist groups and individuals in the U.K. and Europe."

In the wake of the July 7 bombings Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted there was no link between Britain's role in the Iraq invasion and the attacks. Their views came in contrast to a leaked assessment by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center, based at MI5, which claimed three weeks before July 7 that Iraq was continuing to act "as a focus of a range of terrorist related activities in Britain."

Blair has since acknowledged that terrorists may use Iraq for recruitment.


LINK

4 comments:

Pablo said...

It's all one war.

Well, why is it so crucial to establish democracy in Iraq now, at any cost, even if that means creating another shari'a state allied with Iran?

Um, because we're there. Because democracy is the surest cure for totalitarianism. Because Iraq is on the opposite side of Iran from Afghanistan. Because an Iraqi democracy could well be the lever that tips the entire region into the 21st century.

Iraq will not be a sharia state.

Pablo said...

Sistani has already done so.

Would you like a little wager, bd?

Pablo said...

He also ignored the rather inconvenient (for him) fact that Iraq, like Iran, has a Shia majority, and is thus unlikely to be particularly well disposed toward any U.S. attempt to affect 'régime change' in Iran.

I didn't ignore the Iranians, the Shia Muslims such as andry7 who attempted to impart some wisdom here. Iran is incredibly volatile, and you think you can draw it all down to "Iraq has Shia, and Iran is Shiite."

Review time: Logical Fallacy of the day - False Analogy

Saddam is Sunni. The House of Saud is Sunni. So fucking what?

Let's start here: Sistani, the very top doggie in Iraqi Shia, does not endorse a sharia state.

Let's move on to this: You're getting a boner over a draft document. First, the Iraqi Constitution must be finalized and passed by the legislature. Then, it needs to pass a vote of the people.

Here's the bottom line: Until it's done, we don't know what the hell it's going to be.

You are way over your head, Winston. You don't have a clue as to what the dynamics are there. Worse yet, you don't care. Ignorant and complaining suits you just fine. But then....

This is LGF Watch

Pablo said...

MI5 admits Iraq link to London bombings

Mee too. It's one war.