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London mayor blames oil policies for terror attacks Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)    http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12184227.htm http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/nation/12184227.htm Posted on Thu, Jul. 21, 2005 London mayor blames oil policies for terror attacks By Don Melvin Cox News Service LONDON - The city's outspoken mayor said Wednesday that the terror attacks in London two weeks ago may have been a reaction to decades of misguided Western policies motivated by a need for oil, remarks certain to fuel an ongoing debate in Britain over whether the country's foreign policy has made the country a target for terrorism. Meanwhile, Britain's Muslim leaders demanded a judicial inquiry into what motivated the four suicide bombers who targeted London's subway system and a crowded bus, killing at least 56 people. Home Secretary Charles Clarke warned that the death toll could rise. Several of the injured remain in critical condition and recovery workers could find more bodies in the wreckage of one of the subway trains. Mayor Ken Livingstone, known as a pugnacious maverick, criticized U.S. and British foreign policy in the Arab world and called the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a "running sore" that alienates Muslims and incites extremism. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday that he was considering calling an international conference to explore ways to root out Islamic extremism, particularly in the religious schools known as madrassas. Blair met Tuesday with Muslim leaders from Britain to discuss how to confront the "evil ideology" of violence to which some young British Muslims, apparently, may be susceptible. Wire services reported that Pakistani security officials had arrested a British Muslim thought to be wanted in connection with the attacks. The Reuters news agency identified him as Haroon Rashid Aswad. "We strongly believe he has links with the bombers," an unnamed security official told the news agency. But the country's information minister denied that anyone by that name had been arrested. Investigators say that three of London bombing suspects - British Muslims of Pakistani descent - traveled to Pakistan last year. The Pakistani government has responded by ordering a crackdown on militants. So far, most of the debate over British foreign policy has concentrated on whether the country's participation in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq inflamed Muslim sentiment. This argument has been rebutted by Blair, who has pointed out that large numbers of terrorist attacks took place before the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan. But Livingstone took a much broader tack, criticizing U.S. and British actions since early in the 20th century. He offered a sweeping indictment of Western policy from the end of World War I through the current treatment of prisoners at the U.S. Naval Station at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. "I think you've just had 80 years of Western intervention into predominantly Arab lands because of the Western need for oil," he said on BBC Radio 4's "Today" program. "We've propped up unsavory governments; we've overthrown ones we didn't consider sympathetic." Livingstone said he had no sympathy for the bombers, and he condemned all violence. But he contended that fear of losing oil supplies motivated Western governments to intervene in the Middle East time and again. "If at the end of the First World War we had done what we promised the Arabs, which was to let them be free and have their own governments, and kept out of Arab affairs and just bought their oil, rather than feeling we had to control the flow of oil, I suspect this wouldn't have arisen."

Backing war in iraq put UK at risk Father of atta approves of terrorism London mayor blames oil policies for terror attacks Ties to US made britain vulnerable { July 18 2005 } Files Listed: 4

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