17 July 2005 01:26
Labour MPs blame bombings on Iraq war
By Colin Brown and Andrew Grice
Published: 16 July 2005
The uneasy truce inside the Labour Party over the London bombings ended
last night as an ex-cabinet minister and left-wing Labour MPs linked the
attacks with the war in Iraq.
Left-wing Labour MPs said they would use a conference in London today to
pile the pressure on Tony Blair to hasten the withdrawal of British troops
from Iraq. And Clare Short, the former cabinet minister, said in a
television interview to be broadcast tomorrow that she "had no doubt" that
the bombings were connected to the Iraqi conflict.
Ms Short said the anti-terror legislation being planned by Mr Blair would
act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. She said it was wrong
that Muslims should grow up in Britain willing to contemplate killing
innocent civilians, but coupled her condemnation of the bombing with
criticism of British foreign policy.
"Some of the voices that have been coming from the Government that talk as
though this is all evil, and that everything we do is fine, when in fact
we are implicated in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians in Iraq
and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians creates this
sense of double standards - that feeds anger," she said in a recorded
interview for GMTV.
John McDonnell, chairman of the 500-strong Labour Representation
Committee, which is staging the one-day conference, will lead calls for
Britain to pull troops out of Iraq. He will tell the Prime Minister:
"Please do not try to tell us that the war in Iraq played no part. This
assertion is simply intellectually unsustainable. Now is the time to
prevent further violence by renouncing violent solutions ourselves.
"For as long as Britain remains in occupation of Iraq, the terrorist
recruiters will have the argument they seek to attract more susceptible
young recruits to bomb teams. Britain must withdraw now."
Downing Street has published a list of al-Qa'ida attacks on the West from
the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, to show that they started
before the Iraq war. But a member of the left-wing Campaign Group said:
"We are going to set the cat among the pigeons. No Labour MP has uttered a
word about Iraq since the bombings, but they have to be seen in context.
The uneasy truce inside the Labour Party over the London bombings ended
last night as an ex-cabinet minister and left-wing Labour MPs linked the
attacks with the war in Iraq.
Left-wing Labour MPs said they would use a conference in London today to
pile the pressure on Tony Blair to hasten the withdrawal of British troops
from Iraq. And Clare Short, the former cabinet minister, said in a
television interview to be broadcast tomorrow that she "had no doubt" that
the bombings were connected to the Iraqi conflict.
Ms Short said the anti-terror legislation being planned by Mr Blair would
act as a recruiting sergeant for the terrorists. She said it was wrong
that Muslims should grow up in Britain willing to contemplate killing
innocent civilians, but coupled her condemnation of the bombing with
criticism of British foreign policy.
"Some of the voices that have been coming from the Government that talk as
though this is all evil, and that everything we do is fine, when in fact
we are implicated in the slaughter of large numbers of civilians in Iraq
and supporting a Middle East policy that for the Palestinians creates this
sense of double standards - that feeds anger," she said in a recorded
interview for GMTV.
John McDonnell, chairman of the 500-strong Labour Representation
Committee, which is staging the one-day conference, will lead calls for
Britain to pull troops out of Iraq. He will tell the Prime Minister:
"Please do not try to tell us that the war in Iraq played no part. This
assertion is simply intellectually unsustainable. Now is the time to
prevent further violence by renouncing violent solutions ourselves.
"For as long as Britain remains in occupation of Iraq, the terrorist
recruiters will have the argument they seek to attract more susceptible
young recruits to bomb teams. Britain must withdraw now."
Downing Street has published a list of al-Qa'ida attacks on the West from
the first World Trade Centre bombing in 1993, to show that they started
before the Iraq war. But a member of the left-wing Campaign Group said:
"We are going to set the cat among the pigeons. No Labour MP has uttered a
word about Iraq since the bombings, but they have to be seen in context.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article299456.ece
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