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| Britain |
| Blair sez the IRA are not al-Qaeda |
| 2005-07-26 |
| Al-Qaeda terrorism is not on the same par as the IRA, Prime Minister Tony Blair has suggested. He said IRA political demands or their previous atrocities could not be directly compared to fundamentalists who carried out the 9/11 US attacks. It was invidious to make comparisons because "terrorism is wrong", he said. "I don't think you can compare the political demands of republicanism with the political demands of this terrorist ideology we're facing now," he said. He was speaking at his weekly news conference on Tuesday No serious person could ever negotiate on the demands of terrorists who have been using suicide bombers to kill people, said the prime minister. "I don't think the IRA would ever have set about trying to kill 3,000 people," he said. "In America, it could have been 30,000 instead of 3,000 and they would prefer that. My entire thinking changed from 11 September - the belief that you have a different form of terrorism." Mr Blair also said he was continuing to work at ending the IRA's ongoing activity. He vowed not to "give an inch to terrorism" and said Iraq was no excuse for the London bombings. He acknowledged Iraq was being used to recruit terrorists, but insisted the roots of extremism were much deeper. He said 11 September 2001 was a wake up call for the international community, but argued some people "then turned over and went back to sleep again". The prime minister was speaking to reporters after talks about new terror laws with Tory and Lib Dem leaders. "We are not going to deal with this problem, with the roots as deep as they are, until we confront these people at every single level," he said. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #6 JE #3 :> |
| Posted by: Shipman 2005-07-26 14:34 |
| #5 So what the heck were PIRA terrorists doing training terrorists in Iraq? |
| Posted by: Edward Yee 2005-07-26 13:06 |
| #4 Mr Blair also said he was continuing to work at ending the IRA's ongoing activity. May I suggest you use your nightstick officer? |
| Posted by: Secret Master 2005-07-26 12:53 |
| #3 Ay laddy ... we be fallen Irish Catholics, lapsed into Lenninist atheism. Don't confuse the lads with the Mohammadans. |
| Posted by: Jeper Elmeath5805 2005-07-26 12:37 |
| #2 Blair's instinctively Leftoid lack of basic principles is leaking out of this head again in a quite disgusting manner. "Well yes, as a matter of fact there are good murderers and bad murderers..." |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2005-07-26 12:24 |
| #1 Dead civilians are dead civilians, terrorism is terrorism. Popping a couple of civies cause they've seen you at a bank robbery or popping a couple cause they've seen you shove the Algerian ambassador in the back trunk of your car is all the same in my book. |
| Posted by: Crans Thaling7071 2005-07-26 12:05 |