Yeah, kinda like the Americans, Canadians and everyone else in the Western world. Bruce
Blair repeatedly failed to tackle radical Muslims in his backyard By Richard Beeston and Michael Binyon London Times August 10, 2005 The outgoing Saudi Ambassador says lack of response to warnings risked damaging relations with Riyadh TWO of Britains closest allies in the war on terrorism made scathing criticisms of the Government yesterday for being soft and indecisive in dealing with Muslim extremists at home. Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, both countries that co-operate closely with Britain against al-Qaeda, said that Tony Blairs Government had consistently failed to tackle Islamic militancy. In a farewell interview with The Times, Prince Turki al-Faisal, the outgoing Saudi Ambassador to London, said that he had been going around in circles during his 2½-year posting in a failed attempt to make Britain understand the danger posed by Saudi dissidents in London linked to al-Qaeda. Prince Turki, 60, has established himself as one of the most open and articulate members of the Saudi Royal Family and put public diplomacy at the heart of his assignment. He will be taking up his new post as Ambassador to Washington in the autumn. He looked back fondly on his time in London, with the exception of the Governments inadequate response to dealing with extremist Muslims. The most frustrating experience was being shunted around Whitehall by departments trying to pass the buck. When you call somebody he says it is the other guy. If you talk to the security people, they say it is the politicians fault. If you talk to the politicians they say it is the Crown Prosecution Service. If you call the Crown Prosecution Service, they say, no, it is MI5. So we have been in this runaround for the last two and a half years, he said. His remarks coincided with an outburst from President Musharraf of Pakistan who accused the Government of being too timid with homegrown Muslim extremists who use mosques to preach hatred. Asked by the BBC if Britain had been too soft, he said: Yes, I think so, absolutely. It should be stopped, nobody should be talking of hatred and militancy and aggression . . . That is not what the mosque is meant for. Most of Prince Turkis criticism focused on the failure of the authorities to take action against two Saudi dissidents, Saad Faqih, the head of the Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia, and his former colleague, Mohammad al-Masari. Mr Faqih, who lives in Willesden, northwest London, was placed on the UN terror list last year. He is accused by the US of involvement in the 1998 bombing of the US Embassy in Nairobi. One of the claims for the London Underground bombings was placed on his website by an al-Qaeda group. He is also accused by the Saudis of involvement in a Libyan-inspired plot last year to kill King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia. Dr al-Masari runs a jihadi website which posts videos of suicide bombings in Iraq and Israel and anti-Western propaganda. In spite of their activities, Prince Turki said that the British had largely ignored the threat. We have been urging your Government to send them back since 1996, if not earlier. During my two and a half years here it was one of the most persistent and consistent topics, he said. The matter was raised with Mr Blair Crown Prince Abdullah, as he then was, at the G8 meeting in Evian, two years ago. The Prime Minister said there was nothing he could do. Abdullah suggested he changed the law. Mr Blair promised he would, but no again action was taken. When Mr Faqihs name was placed on the UN list, the Saudis again approached the authorities, insisting that they shut down his operation. We went to them after this and said that putting him on the list means that you have to do the following: stop him from promoting his message; stop him communicating; seize his assets. The Treasury finally took against his bank accounts, which obviously he does not keep any money in. He had £20 or something, he said. We listed all the obligations now that his name was on the terrorist list. The response we got was, We are studying your proposals. Basically, Dont call us we will call you. It was very disappointing, he said. The Saudis were so angry that Prince Abdullah then warned Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, and Geoff Hoon, the former Defence Secretary, when they visited Saudi Arabia this year, that relations with Britain would be damaged if nothing were done. The message was driven home by King Abdullah last week when Mr Blair travelled to Riyadh for the funeral of King Fahd. Again the Prime Minister promised that new laws would be introduced. Prince Turki said that he hoped that the authorities would belatedly act, though he doubted whether anything would be done before his departure next month. Everybody seems to be on holiday, he said. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> <font face=arial size=-1><a href="http://us.ard.yahoo.com/SIG=12h7t0onl/M=362329.6886306.7839369.3040540/D=groups/S=1705323667:TM/Y=YAHOO/EXP=1123693512/A=2894321/R=0/SIG=11dvsfulr/*http://youthnoise.com/page.php?page_id=1992 ">Fair play? Video games influencing politics. Click and talk back!</a>.</font> --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? 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