Brown’s Terror Strategy Called ‘Fatally Flawed’
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
LONDON — Britain’s new crackdown on terrorism following the attempted car bomb attacks in London and Glasgow is “fatally flawed” amid fears of widespread failings on immigration checks, the government was warned last night.
As new concerns were raised that the intelligence services are struggling to monitor more than 200 extremist groups operating in Britain, it emerged that a loophole on student visas could allow terrorists in.
Many students from “hot spots” of Muslim unrest around the world are thought to obtain visas for study but “go under the wire” by failing to show up for their courses when they arrive in Britain.
The head of Interpol also accused the authorities of failing to check visitors to Britain against its global database of 11,000 suspected terrorists.
Amid warnings that the terrorist threat could last a generation, Gordon Brown sought to adopt a strong position on combating the threat by calling yesterday for a new worldwide database on suspects. Data sharing between countries was “a matter of urgency,” the prime minister said.
But the Tories warned that any crackdown was in danger of being undermined by a failure to monitor immigrants
They said that without tackling immigration issues such as this, Mr. Brown’s overall strategy against terrorism was “fatally flawed.”
A Tory spokesman said the student visa loophole had to be closed as soon as possible.
Damian Green, a shadow Home Office minister, told the Daily Telegraph: “If someone does not show up for their course and explain immediately, their visas should be cancelled at once. It’s an appalling loophole that the Government has to deal with urgently.”
David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “We welcome the prime minister’s sentiments but they are undermined by the revelation that Britain is not checking potential immigrants against an existing global database of terror suspects. Yet again it is not the government’s policy that is the problem — it is their lack of competence in delivering on that policy which is threatening our security.”
Mr. Davis was referring to a claim by Ronald Noble, the Interpol secretary-general, who said it had the passport numbers, fingerprints, and photos of more than 11,000 suspected terrorists on its database.
