[Peace-discuss] Smart spook

[C. G. Estabrook]

[MI5 is the British equivalent of the FBI.  It developed during the First World 
War as "military intelligence, section 5." (Modern spy and propaganda agencies 
were established by British and American governments during that war, as the 
nazis pointed out as they copied them between the wars.) Its formal name is 
"Security Service," but the acronym is apparently considered unfortunate.  This 
interview suggests that a more active (and reflective) anti-war movement seven 
years ago could have exposed the "huge overreaction." --CGE]


	Response to 9/11 was 'huge overreaction' - ex-MI5 chief
	Richard Norton-Taylor
	The Guardian, Saturday October 18 2008

A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 
attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq 
influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism.

In an interview with the Guardian, Stella Rimington calls al-Qaida's attack on 
the US "another terrorist incident" but not qualitatively different from any others.

"That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a 
good part of my working life and this was as far as I was concerned another 
one," she says.

In common with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who retired as MI5's director 
general last year, Rimington, who left 12 years ago, has already made it clear 
she abhorred "war on terror" rhetoric and the government's abandoned plans to 
hold terrorism suspects for 42 days without charge.

Today, she goes further by criticising politicians including Jacqui Smith, the 
home secretary, for trying to outbid each other in their opposition to terrorism 
and making national security a partisan issue.

It all began, she suggests, with September 11. "National security has become 
much more of a political issue than it ever was in my day," she says. "Parties 
are tending to use it as a way of trying to get at the other side. You know, 
'We're more tough on terrorism than you are.' I think that's a bad move, quite 
frankly."

Rimington mentions Guantánamo Bay, the practice of extraordinary rendition, and 
the invasion of Iraq - three issues which the majority in Britain's security and 
intelligence establishment opposed privately at the time.

She challenges claims, notably made by Tony Blair, that the war in Iraq was not 
related to the radicalisation of Muslim youth in Britain.

Asked what impact the war had on the terrorist threat, she replies: "Well, I 
think all one can do is look at what those people who've been arrested or have 
left suicide videos say about their motivation. And most of them, as far as I'm 
aware, say that the war in Iraq played a significant part in persuading them 
that this is the right course of action to take."

She adds: "So I think you can't write the war in Iraq out of history. If what 
we're looking at is groups of disaffected young men born in this country who 
turn to terrorism, then I think to ignore the effect of the war in Iraq is 
misleading."

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/oct/18/stella-rimington-9-11-mi5

... She argues that we should "treat terrorism as a crime, and deal with it 
under the law - not as something extra, that you have to invent new rules to 
deal with"...

The response to 9/11 was "a huge overreaction", she says. "You know, it was 
another terrorist incident. It was huge, and horrible, and seemed worse because 
we all watched it unfold on television. So yes, 9/11 was bigger, but not ... not 
..." Not qualitatively different? "No. That's not how it struck me. I suppose 
I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life, and this 
was, as far as I was concerned, another one."

Rimington hopes President Bush's successor will stop using the phrase "war on 
terror". "It got us off on the wrong foot, because it made people think 
terrorism was something you could deal with by force of arms primarily. And from 
that flowed Guantánamo, and extraordinary rendition, and ..." And Iraq, I 
suggest. "Well yes," she says drily. "Iraq"...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/oct/18/iraq-britainand911