Posted on 04/08/2004 12:22:22 PM PDT by dennisw
'Negotiate with Bin Laden': Mowlam Apr 8 2004
Former Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam has called on the British and American governments to open talks with Osama bin Laden and al Qaida around a negotiating table.
The former Labour MP for Redcar said that by carrying out military campaigns in the Middle East, Britain and the US were acting as a "recruitment officer for the terrorists".
In a television interview which will be broadcast on Easter Sunday, she described the current hardline approach to the war on terror as "completely counter-productive".
Ms Mowlam told Tyne Tees TV's Sunday Interview that Britain and America must open a dialogue with their enemies.
Interviewer Tony Cartledge asked if she could imagine "al Qaida and Osama bin Laden arriving at the negotiating table".
She replied: "You have to do that. If you do not you condemn large parts of the world to war forever.
"Some people couldn't conceive of Gerry Adams or Martin McGuinness getting to the table but they did."
She added: "If you go in with guns and bombs, you act as a recruitment officer for the terrorists."
Ms Mowlam said she was ready to criticise the Government she once served in her new one-woman show, particularly about its policy on Iraq and the Middle East.
She also confirmed on the programme that she has completely recovered from a brain tumour. She stepped down as an MP in 2001.
My son chose this quote to put next to his senior picture in his yearbook...the American Flag is behind him in the picture. He starts Virginia Military Institute in August.
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