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Al-Qaeda plot against London 'inevitable'
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-02-05 09:21
It is "inevitable" that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network will try to stage
an attack in London, the British capital's new police chief said in an
interview.
Sir Ian Blair's warning in the Daily Telegraph newspaper echoed similar
concerns expressed a year ago by Sir John Stevens, his predecessor as
Metropolitan Police commissioner.
![It is 'inevitable' that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network will try to stage an attack in London, the British capital's new police chief, Sir Ian Blair seen here in 2004, said in an interview. [AFP/File]](xin_470202050905949144322.jpg)
It is 'inevitable'
that Osama bin Laden's Al-Qaeda network will try to stage an attack in
London, the British capital's new police chief, Sir Ian Blair seen here in
2004, said in an interview. [AFP/File] | "It is inevitable that terrorists connected with Al-Qaeda will attempt to
carry out an atrocity in London," said Blair, 51, who took over as Britain's
most senior police officer on Tuesday.
"I know that because they have. It is difficult to calculate whether it is
inevitable that they will get through."
Al-Qaeda, perpetrator of the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington
in 2001, is regarded by the British government as "the most significant
terrorist threat" to the nation.
Besides day-to-day policing in greater London, the Metropolitan Police is
responsible for anti-terrorist operations all over Britain.
Blair told the Daily Telegraph that he backed the introduction of identity
cards in Britain, saying they would help identify suspects in anti-terrorist
raids. He also called for telephone wiretaps to be allowed as evidence in
terrorist trials.
Stevens, who has retired, spoke of the "inevitability" of an Al-Qaeda attack
on London shortly after the Madrid commuter train bombings in March last year in
which 191 people died.
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