Iraq war fueled UK terrorism, former envoy says

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) – The former British ambassador to the
United States, delivering yet another political blow to British
Prime Minister Tony Blair at the end of a turbulent week, said
the war in Iraq had fueled home-grown terrorism in Britain.

Christopher Meyer, who was heavily involved in the planning
that led up to the war, said he disagreed with Blair’s view
that joining the United States in the 2003 invasion of Iraq had
not exposed Britain to terrorist attacks.

Islamist suicide bombers killed 52 people in coordinated
attacks on the London transport system four months ago.

“There is plenty of evidence around at the moment that
home-grown terrorism was partly radicalized and fueled by what
is going on in Iraq,” Meyer told Saturday’s Guardian newspaper
in an interview ahead of his memoirs being published.

“There is no way we can credibly get up and say it has
nothing to do with it. Don’t tell me that being in Iraq has got
nothing to do with it. Of course it has,” Meyer said.

Communities and Local Government Minister David Miliband
dismissed Meyer’s claim, telling BBC Radio “Christopher Meyer,
I think I am right in saying, is an expert on foreign policy.
He is not an expert on the domestic issues that are going on
inside communities in this country.”

Meyer, ambassador in Washington from 1997 to February 2003
but now retired from the diplomatic service, said he backed the
invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in Baghdad and still felt the
war was right in principle.”

But he criticized how the aftermath was handled, telling
the paper: “I don’t believe the enterprise is doomed
necessarily though, God, it does not look good. A lot of people
think what we are going to end up with is precisely what we did
not want.”

Meyer, currently chairman of Britain’s Press Complaints
Commission, said he opposed pulling U.S. and British troops out
early from Iraq but added: “I think the U.S. and ourselves are
on the horns of an absolutely impossible dilemma.”

To abandon rebuilding of Iraq would leave “the relatives of
at least 2,000 American servicemen and 98 British servicemen
with a legitimate question about what they died for.”

Meyer’s damaging critique appeared on the front page of the
newspaper alongside an interview with Blair himself who
conceded that his ruling Labor government faced a critical
time.

He was speaking at the end of one of his roughest weeks as
prime minister when close cabinet ally David Blunkett resigned
and his parliamentary majority was cut to one in a vote on
proposed new anti-terrorism laws.

“This is a very tough and critical moment for the Labor
Party, I do not doubt that at all,” he said.

Critics believe Blair could increasingly become a lame duck
leader after his pledge to stand down before the next election,
due by 2010. But he insisted: “For me a fourth election victory
is critical to everything I want to achieve in politics.”

Failure would mean defeat for the Labor party and for him
personally, Blair said.

An election in May cut Blair’s parliamentary majority to
66, about 100 less than before, meaning a rump of disaffected
Labor members can cause havoc by voting with opposition
parties.