Britain:The former head of British intelligence (MI6) called yesterday for a complete rethink of the strategy to combat the Islamist terrorist threat.
Sir Richard Dearlove said that despite setbacks, al-Qaeda was thriving and the position of Britain and the US was "strategically weak" in Iraq and elsewhere.
"A strategic rethink is probably the point that we have now reached," he told business leaders in the City of London. "Al-Qaeda is showing an extraordinary ability to mutate in response to our successes." He said a new policy was essential to combat the worldwide terrorist threat, and specifically the threat within the UK from home-grown extremists who followed al-Qaeda.
Sir Richard, who ran MI6 in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq and the time of Downing Street's "dodgy dossier" on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction, said there had to be engagement with Muslim communities. The best people to root out al-Qaeda-inspired extremism in Britain were in British Muslim communities.
What was needed was a policy in which al-Qaeda was no longer seen as an attractive ideology to young Muslims.
"We need to create the circumstances, in the Muslim world, but beyond as well, in which al-Qaeda becomes an isolated entity rather than a mainstream ideological force," he said. "At the moment it is very easy for al-Qaeda to recruit its foot soldiers. The most effective way for Muslim communities to police the al-Qaeda influence in the UK is to do it themselves. Community policing in the UK has failed in this specific area."
He said al-Qaeda had created a very powerful and attractive brand. The West had to make its position as attractive. "If you wish to recruit from within the opposing forces you need a clear moral position to engage the Muslim elite."
Sir Richard said the longer the current situation went on the more complex and dangerous the threat would become.
Sir Richard, who was talking at Lloyds of London to an audience of insurers, business leaders and underwriters, said: "The policy has to change. It is time to reconsider, to move on. If you are fighting the war you have a strategy and the worst thing to do is to keep it in the same place."