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Paddy Ashdown slams 'kneejerk' Tory response to jihadi

terror threat.Intervention comes as Cameron prepares anti-terror message, with prime minister

criticised over 'damaging' rhetoric

  The Observer, Saturday 30 August 0!"

#addy Ashdown has accused Tory ministers o$ sto%ing $ear in the minds o$ the &ritish peope(

Tensions between Conservatives and )ibera *emocrats over how to counter the terrorism threat

$rom e+tremists have been e+posed as #addy Ashdown accuses Tory ministers o$ %neeer%

responses and o$ sto%ing $ear in the minds o$ the &ritish peope(

The $ormer )ibera *emocrat eader and $ormer high representative $or &osnia and .er/egovina,

writing in the Observer, aso criticises *avid Cameron $or i-udged rhetoric that he says coud

aienate ordinary usims and hamper the batte to de$eat ihadis(

Ashdown's intervention comes as Cameron and the deputy prime minister, 1ic% Cegg, try this

wee%end to hammer out a pac%age o$ anti-terrorism measures in time to announce them to the

.ouse o$ Commons when #s return $rom their summer brea% on onday(

On 2riday the eve o$ threat o$ a terrorist attac% in the 4 was raised to severe by the 5oint

Terrorism Anaysis Centre 65TAC7 due to $ears about &ritish ihadis returning $rom Ira8 and Syria(

This prompted Cameron to warn that the danger posed by Isamic State 6Isis7 e+tremists presented

the biggest security threat o$ modern times, surpassing that o$ a-9aida(

:hie not attempting to deny or pay down the threat $rom ihadis returning to the 4, Ashdownsays that the threat eve in 1orthern Ireand has aso been severe $or the past $our years, as it was

in a o$ &ritain $or much o$ the !;<0s and !;;0s when the I=A posed the greatest danger(

.e argues that the current threat is one we have $aced be$ore and one we %now how to dea with >

e$$ectivey, without panic and without a whoe new range o$ e+ecutive powers which coud

endanger our iberties(

Indeed, when it comes to $acing threats, it was surey $ar more di$$icut to cope with I=A terrorists

sipping across the Irish Sea than it is to stop ihadis returning $rom Ira8(

In terms that are bound to anger many Tories, he says that a$ter the threat eve was increased,senior Conservatives $rom the prime minister downwards ? too% to every avaiabe airwave to te

us how $rightened we shoud be and why this re8uired a range o$ new powers $or them to e+ercise(

:hie he argues that Cameron appeared, initiay, to be aware o$ the need to avoid over-hasty

responses, Tory ministers had recenty induged in a spasm o$ %neeer%ing which woud have made

even St @itus $ee concerned( And )abour, $rightened as aways when it comes to iberty and

security, capituates to the demand(

On his )&C radio phone-in show ast wee%, Cegg, whose party prides itse$ on standing up $or civi

iberties, denied that the current regime o$ so-caed Tpims >Terrorist #revention and Investigation

easures > which are the successors to contro orders, were a so$t option and de$ended their use(

.owever, the deputy prime minister appeared to concede that $urther measures to strengthen Tpims

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coud be necessary(

I care as much as anyone ese about the sa$ety o$ the &ritish pubic, that sometimes you need to

ta%e these unorthodo+ measures, which is what both contro orders and terrorism prevention

investigation measures are, he said, adding then there's the debate about e+acty how you design

them(

Ashdown ta%es aims at Cameron's caims that the batte with Isis is about de$ending &ritish or

western vaues(

.ere it is not r Cameron's proposas that I $ear, it is his rhetoric( .e recenty tod us that this $ight

was about de$ending 'western vaues'( I cannot thin% o$ any phrase, short o$ those used by eorge

&ush during the Ira8 war, which more damages our abiity to win this batte( 2or it at once con$irms

the ihadis' anichean view that this is indeed a strugge between the west and them, whie at the

same time aienating those very Isamic moderates, whose hep we need most in de$eating Isis and

its cohorts(

The truth is that this increasingy bruta and dangerous batte wi not be won $or our 'western

vaues' but $or the universa vaues which underpin and unite a the word's great reigions and phiosophies > incuding, perhaps especiay at this moment > Isam(

The point here, which the government is studiousy missing is that the best de$ence $or &ritain ies,

not in action on the domestic $ront, but on the internationa one(

The biggest danger we $ace, is not returning ihadis, but a widening reigious war which threatens,

not ust to engu$ the idde Bast and change its borders, but to spread across the entire goba

Isamic community with potentia conse8uences $or peace on a much wider scae(

At an B summit in &russes on Saturday night Cameron was e+pected to aunch a $resh push $or

measures which woud ma%e it easier to trac% the movement o$ potentia ihadis( This incuded an

attempt to restart staed pans which woud aow poice and security services across the B to

share airine passenger detais( The pans have been boc%ed in the Buropean pariament amid

concerns over civi iberties(

The change in threat eves to severe means a terrorist attac% is considered highy i%ey,

athough the home secretary, Theresa ay, stressed there was no speci$ic inteigence( The increase

in the threat eve is reated to deveopments in Syria and Ira8 where terrorist groups are panning

attac%s against the west, ay said(

Some o$ those pots are i%ey to invove $oreign $ighters who have traveed there $rom the 4and Burope to ta%e part in those con$icts(