British PM outlines national response to terror threat
Xinhua, November 17, 2015 Adjust font size:
British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday revealed details of his intended response to the threat of international terrorism, highlighted by Friday's Paris attacks.
Cameron told his audience at the annual Guildhall Speech, which welcomes the new Lord Mayor of London, that the attackers in Paris were "callous murderers," saying that Britain would "redouble its resolve to defeat" terrorism.
Cameron outlined three areas of response, "When you are dealing with radicalized European Muslims, linked to ISIL in Syria and inspired by a poisonous narrative of extremism, you need an approach that covers the full spectrum -- military power, counter-terrorism expertise and defeating the poisonous narrative that is the root cause of this evil."
He said that a strong security response was needed, and that Britain was ready to use "military force where necessary."
A total of seven terrorist plots had been foiled in Britain in the past year, said Cameron, and the security agencies needed more resources.
He said that next week's reshaping of the military budget, to be unveiled in a Strategic Defense and Security Review, would include extra money for 1,900 additional security and intelligence staff and more money to increase a network of counter-terrorism experts in the Middle East, North Africa, South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Cameron also targeted the ideology of the terrorist attackers, which he branded as the "poisonous ideology of extremism itself... a belief system that glorifies violence and subjugates its people -- not least Muslim people."
He said that there needed to be improvements in integration in British society, by moving "away from segregation in our schools and communities and inspecting and shutting down any educational institutions that are teaching intolerance," and to encourage reforming and moderate Muslim voices to speak up and challenge extremists. Enditem