Metro
Sunday, January 04, 2010
Prime Minister Gordon Brown speaking on The Andrew Marr Show
The prime minister made his rem arks as Britain and America closed their embassies in Yemen following threats from Islamic militants.
Mr Brown told the BBC: ‘We’ve got to expose the extremists and we’ve got to, like the Cold War in the 1950s, we’ve got to use every method of communication possible because there are at least 5,000 internet sites promoting Jihadist violence.’
His comments also came on the day it emerged that the first full body scanners would be brought into use at British airports within weeks.
The embassies in Yemen were closed as Britain and America revealed they had set up a counter-terrorism oper ation in the ‘failing state’.
However, the threat of an attack by al-Qaeda sparked security fears for embassy staff in the poverty-stricken country. No details emerged of the nat ure of the threat and no date was given for the embassies to re-open. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the radical suspected of plotting to blow up a passenger plane over Detroit on Christmas Day, was said to have been equipped by al-Qaeda in Yemen.
On The Andrew Marr show, Mr Brown said: ‘We have got to get back to the source of this and that is Yemen, Somalia, Pakistan.’
He also backed the use of the new airport scanners, which can produce a near-naked image of travellers, saying: ‘Our first duty is to the security of the people of this country.’
Seven of the devices, which cost about £100,000 each, have been
ordered and they will come into use at Heathrow ‘as soon as practical’,
airports owner BAA said.
However, their use has angered civil liberties campaigners, while critics said they would not have stopped the Christmas Day bomber.
http://hiiraan.com/news2/2010/Jan/gordo ... error.aspx