U.K. Official: Iraq Fuels Terror Threat

LONDON -- Britain's support for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has put the public at greater risk of terrorist attacks, the main opposition Conservative party leader David Cameron said Monday _ opening a division on the issue with Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Cameron, setting out interim findings of a security policy review, said his belief the threat to Britain was now greater as a result of the war was "a statement of fact."

"It is clear that over the last few years decisions that have been taken, the difficulties there have been in Iraq, clearly have had a wider effect," Cameron said, speaking at London's Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank.

"That's not to say for one second that in any way disagreeing with British foreign policy justifies in any way any sort of terrorism _ of course it doesn't," he said.

Blair has refused to acknowledge that the Iraq invasion had increased the threat of terrorism to Britain, citing incidents prior to 2003 _ including the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States _ as evidence.

"The threat did not begin with Iraq, it was there before Iraq and before 9/11," Blair's official spokesman said Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity according to government rules.

Shehzad Tanweer, one of four bombers who attacked London's subway and bus network on July 7, 2005 _ killing 52 commuters _ claimed in a video recorded before his death that the invasion had been a motivating factor.

He said attacks on Britain would continue until forces were withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq. Britain has around 7,000 soldiers in Iraq, mainly based around the southern city of Basra.

Also, a study released Tuesday by London's Chatham House, a leading think tank, said Blair's foreign policy ambitions have stalled because he is unable to exert real influence on the White House _ despite offering the United States close to a decade of unflinching support.

Blair, aiming to jump-start the Middle East peace process on a regional tour, had overestimated his political capital in Washington, said outgoing director Victor Bulmer-Thomas.

"The root failure of Tony Blair's foreign policy has been its inability to influence the (President George W.) Bush administration in any significant way despite the sacrifice _ military, political and financial _ that the United Kingdom has made," said the report.

"Blair has learnt the hard way that loyalty in international politics counts for very little."

Bulmer-Thomas said Blair's term in office would be defined by the "terrible mistake" of relying on flawed intelligence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a justification for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.