War on terror 'not working'
20/02/2007 23:43  - (SA)  

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Brussels - The United States-led invasion of Iraq has had a negative impact on efforts to stop Islamic terror groups such as al-Qaeda, said a former senior British intelligence official on Tuesday.

Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, the former chair of Britain's joint intelligence committee, told a conference on terrorism in Brussels that the West's record in the fight against terror was "not very good".

"I was much in favour of intervention in Iraq. But that had a negative impact," she said.

"The intervention in Afghanistan managed to divert al-Qaeda a bit, but not to beat it. There have been other attacks with al-Qaeda participation," said Neville-Jones, nowadays a BBC governor.

She cited the deadly 2004 attacks in Madrid as an example.

Iraq "has been turned into a training ground for terrorists, not just a recruitment office," said Neville-Jones.

The former foreign affairs adviser to ex-prime minister John Major said the same thing was happening in Afghanistan with the appearance there of suicide attacks.

"We have had successes in counter-terrorism, but not in diminishing it," she added.

- AFP

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