SPY chiefs warned the British Prime Minister Tony Blair that joining the United States in its unwise decision to unjustifiably invade Iraq has made Britain more vulnerable to terror attacks “for many years to come.”
But first time it’s being officially recognized that the Iraq war motivated the four four-British-born men of Pakistani descent, accused of carrying out the brutal bombings that hit the British capital in July 2005 was by the government in a major report into the 7 July attacks, according to The Observer.
According to The four-page memo, entitled International Terrorism: Impact of Iraq), Iraq war has “exacerbated” the threat by radicalizing people provoking them carry out anti-western attacks, and inspiring the four bombers who are responsible for the July incident.
A top-secret memo released by the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), the senior intelligence body in Britain responsible for issuing assessments of the extent of threats to Britain’s national security, contradicts the British Prime Minister’s public speeches, and attempts by Downing Street to play down suggestions that the conflict has made Britain a target for terrorists and that the invasion of Iraq has instigated a war against Britain.
“It has reinforced the determination of terrorists who were already committed to attacking the West and motivated others who were not,” said the memo, approved by Eliza Manningham-Buller, the head of MI5, John Scarlett, the chief of MI6, and Sir David Pepper, head of GCHQ, the government’s eavesdropping centre.
“Iraq is likely to be an important motivating factor”
The Home Office inquiry into London bombings concluded that the attackers were inspired by UK foreign policy, mainly the decision to join the United Stated in attacking Iraq.
Shortly after July attacks in London, Blair blamed an “evil ideology”, not the war, for motivating the bombers:
“If it is Iraq that motivates them, why is the same ideology killing Iraqis by terror in defiance of an elected government?” the British PM said.
In a separate speech he dismissed suggestions that London bombings were inspired by Iraq war:
“What they want us to do is to turn round and say, ‘Oh it’s all our fault’.”
“The people who are responsible for terrorist attacks are terrorists.”
Also, Charles Clarke, the home secretary, following the attacks in London, accused those who said that the war lead to the bombings “serious intellectual flabbiness”.
The findings of the report, written in April last year and circulated to Blair and other senior ministers before the July attacks, will prove highly embarrassing to the British Premier, who boasted at the beginning of Iraq war that invading the country would make Britain safer.