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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(