Training | 2010.01.03
Tories claim Brown 'playing politics' over anti-terror plans
Conservatives have accused Gordon Brown of "playing politics" with public safety after it emerged that a new US-UK programme to tackle terrorism in Yemen which was announced by Downing Street over the weekend had already been established.
A foiled attack on a US passenger jet on Christmas Day, in which a 23-year-old Nigerian allegedly trained in Yemen is accused of trying to blow up the plane as it approached Detroit, has focused British and American attention on the growing threat from al-Qaida in Yemen. But in their attempt to display the nimble reaction of the prime minister, Downing Street officials engaged in some overzealous briefing.
A statement issued on Saturday said Brown and Barack Obama had spoken by phone and personally agreed further measures, including a new counter-terror unit to tackle the growing threat of Islamist extremism in the country.
"Amongst the initiatives the prime minister has agreed with President Obama is US-UK funding for a special counter-terrorism police unit in Yemen," the statement said. It also said that in a series of phone calls following the failed Christmas Day attack, Britain and the US had agreed to support the Yemeni coastguard.
But Brown was forced to concede on the BBC\'s Andrew Marr programme that the initiative had been in place for some time and that the decision this weekend to upgrade it had not been one personally struck between him and Obama but was done by officials.
Pressed by Marr, Brown said he had not held direct talks with Obama on the subject and the initiative was "a continuation … but a strengthening of what we\'re doing. The truth is we\'ve been doing this for some time".
In Washington, a senior administration official told the Associated Press that American and British forces already provide the Yemeni police with counter-terrorism assistance, and that he was unaware of any new joint effort.
The Conservatives accused Brown of playing politics with the issue of terrorism.
The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, said: "We need a measured and sensible debate about how we respond to the threats we face — exaggeration and spin by Downing Street has no place in that debate."
Brown is thought to want the evolving threat from Yemen and Somalia placed on the agenda for the EU general affairs council in January.
He has also called for stronger action on Yemen from the Financial Action Task Force, an intergovernmental body set up to combat terrorist financing, and a further discussion of the UK\'s response to the suspected bomb plot at a special meeting of the ministerial committee on national security, international relations and development.
Britain is forecast to give more than £100m in aid to Yemen in 2011.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/[...]ying-politics-antiterror-plans
