I WANT TO RUN THE UNITED STATES SENATE!!
Posted on 10/15/2002 4:30:44 PM PDT by blam
Blair: This war is as important as any war we have fought before
By Paul Waugh and Raymond Whitaker
16 October 2002
Hamish McRae: The terrorists have targeted our youth Tony Blair compared the war against terrorism to the Second World War yesterday when he vowed that the Bali atrocity would not deflect him from taking firm action against Iraq.
In an emergency statement to Parliament, the Prime Minister sent out a message of "total defiance" to the murderers of the 180 people killed in the car bomb attack at the weekend.
Mr Blair disclosed that Britain was poised to proscribe Jemaah Islamiyah, the extremist group thought to be responsible, under the Terrorism Act 2000. Although it has no known British members or even links to organisations in this country, a ban is expected today or tomorrow.
His remarks came as two men were "intensively questioned" by Indonesian authorities about the attack, and shocked Australian ministers visited the site of the bombing.
Australian and British police and counter-terrorism experts arrived in Bali to help with the investigation. The Indonesian government came under intense international pressure to bring those responsible to justice and crack down on Islamist groups.
An opinion poll to be published today shows that public support in Britain for military action against the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, has risen from 30 per cent to 40 per cent since the bombings.
Mr Blair discounted criticism that Iraq was a distraction from the threat of global terrorism."I reject that entirely. Both, though different in means, are the same in nature. Both are the new threats facing the post-Cold War world," he said. Because of that, he argued, the two threats should be tackled together.
The Prime Minister also stepped up the rhetoric against al-Qa'ida and declared that the fight against terrorism could stand comparison with any of the conflicts Britain had previously faced. "The war on terrorism is indeed a war, but of a different sort to the ones we are used to. Its outcome, however, is as important as any we have fought before," he said.
Mr Blair said nine Britons were confirmed dead, but up to 30 British people might have been killed. The bomb blast was "an act of pure wickedness", but it had not undermined his determination to prosecute the worldwide fight against violent extremist fanatics, he said.
"We have had a fresh reminder – if we needed one – that the war against terrorism is not over," the Prime Minister said. "In the last 10 days, there have been attacks in Kuwait and in Yemen. The threat to all people, at any time, in any place in the world is real."
Alexander Downer, the Australian Foreign Minister, and his colleague Chris Ellison laid wreaths at the mangled wreckage of the Sari Club in Kuta Beach, which took the brunt of the explosion and the fireball that followed.
One of the two men being questioned, a security guard, had said he was present at the time of the attack, Da'i Bachtiar, Indonesia's national police chief, said. The second person under interrogation was reported to be the brother of a man whose identity card was found at the scene.
Mr Bachtiar added that investigators had questioned a witness at Paddy's Bar, across the road from the Sari Club, who saw a man placing a white plastic bag at the scene.
"When he walked up to the man, he ran away and afterwards the place exploded," the police chief said. Police and witnesses had described a small blast at Paddy's, followed by a much larger explosion, possibly a car bomb, outside the Sari Club.
The most important clue may be the discovery of traces of C-4 plastic explosive at the scene. C-4, which is easily moulded and highly stable, was used by the British "shoe bomber", Richard Reid, who has pleaded guilty to trying to blow up an airliner on its way to the United States.
"This attack has been well planned and it required expertise in handling high-tech [bombs]," Indonesia's intelligence chief, Mohamad Ahmad Hendropriyono, said. "It is a very complicated task and is outside the ability of local hands."
The Indonesian government has conceded that al-Qa'ida is probably operating on its soil, but in Australia there were suggestions that the presence of C-4 could indicate that members of the Indonesian military might have given the explosive to local extremists connected with the terror network.
Yesterday the Australian Prime Minister, John Howard, told the Canberra parliament that his country would seek to have Jemaah Islamiya – a pan-Asian organisation with close ties to al-Qa'ida, which wants an Islamic government across south-east Asia – listed as a terrorist organisation by the United Nations.
One of its key figures is said to be Abu Bakar Bashir, a radical Muslim cleric who has been called "the Osama bin Laden of Asia".
Meanwhile, fears of global terrorism were heightened when Saudi police foiled an attempt by a gunman to hijack a Saudi Arabian Airlines flight heading from Sudan to Jeddah.
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