Ministers warned of Iraq link to UK terror

Ministers warned of Iraq link to UK terror

Richard Norton-Taylor, Vikram Dodd, and Hugh Muir
Wednesday July 20, 2005
The Guardian

Fresh evidence emerged yesterday that the government was privately warned by the intelligence agencies that the conflict in Iraq could provoke terrorist acts in Britain and compound anger among young British Muslims.

A month before the July 7 London bombings, security and intelligence officials warned that "events in Iraq are continuing to act as motivation and a focus of a range of terrorist-related activity in the UK".

The warning was issued by the Joint Terrorist Analysis Centre (Jtac), British officials confirmed yesterday. Sections of the report were published by the New York Times newspaper. A link between the government's foreign policy and disillusion among young Muslims - strenuously denied by ministers - was also made in a paper prepared for Tony Blair on the orders of the home and foreign secretaries last year.

The paper, Young Muslims and Extremism, which included input from the security services, said British foreign policy "seems a particularly strong cause of disillusionment amongst Muslims, including young Muslims".
It referred to "a perceived 'double standard' in the foreign policy of western governments ... in particular Britain and the US".

http://www.guardian.co.uk/attackonlondon/story/0,16132,1532135,00.html

Of course invading a country is going to result in some kind of response. Definitely political, sometimes even quasi-military (or criminal if you prefer). The more Blair denies it, the stupider he looks.