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We should talk to al-Qaeda, insists police chief



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Published Date: 31 May 2008
By Rhiannon Edward
ONE of Britain's senior policemen said yesterday the country should negotiate with al-Qaeda in a strategy to end its campaign of violence.
Sir Hugh Orde, head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, said he could not think of a single terrorism campaign in history that ended without negotiation.

Sir Hugh, reportedly a front-runner to be the next Metropolitan Police chief, said tha
t 30 years of tackling the IRA convinced him that policing was not enough alone to defeat terrorists.

He said: "If you want my professional assessment of any terrorism campaign, what fixes it is talking and engaging and judging when the conditions are right for that to take place.

"Is that a naive statement? I don't think it is … it is the reality of what we face.

"If somebody can show me any terrorism campaign where it has been policed out, I'd be happy to read about it, because I can't think of one."

Sir Hugh admitted negotiating with terrorists meant "thinking the unthinkable" and said that some of the biggest risks his officers took were talking to people that "historically they would not have dreamed of talking to".

He cited his 2004 meeting with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams as an example of how one-time enemies can become partners in peace.

Asked if he was saying "we should talk to al-Qaeda", Sir Hugh replied: "I don't think that's unthinkable."

He also called for the number of police forces to be slashed from 43 to nine to better fight terrorism.

Sir Hugh added Irish terrorists still wanted to bomb the UK mainland. They were trying to buy weapons but were disorganised, "psychopathic" and probably numbered no more than 200.







The full article contains 294 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
Page 1 of 1

  • Last Updated: 30 May 2008 8:11 PM
  • Source: The Scotsman
  • Location: Edinburgh
  • Related Topics: Terrorism in the UK
 
1

Guga II,

Rockall 31/05/2008 05:40:25
It might also help if we stopped out illegal war in Iraq, and got out of Afghanistan.
2

Frodo the Scot,

ootside lookin in 31/05/2008 06:02:49
Where does Britain get ALL these "looney-toon characters"?.This Nutter and archbishop ramsay should be thrown in the Tower of London
3

Frodo the Scot,

ootside lookin in 31/05/2008 06:18:11
Would someone Please tell this wanna-be Sand-Polly.....
sir hugh That Jerry Adams did not want to slash every non-believers throat He did NOT want to impose a Harsh set of laws(sharia law) on Brits AND he did NOT want to turn Britain into another rathole like the middle east. It is SOOO obvious that Orde has NO backbone and seemingly was Lobotomized some time ago.
4

Ivan D,

31/05/2008 07:38:43
Quote by the late Robin Cook
"Al-Qaida, literally "the database", was originally the computer file of the thousands of mujahideen who were recruited and trained with help from the CIA to defeat the Russians."
Why not cut the middle men out and "negotiate" with the CIA?
5

,

31/05/2008 09:24:50
Comment Removed By Administrator
Reason:
6

triskell,

london 31/05/2008 18:32:29
I wouldn't talk to the Police if i was Al Qaeda, (whoever Al Qaeda is). Hello officer, i'm from Al Qaeda, can i talk to you. Got any ID Mr. Al Queda? Is that how it would happen? Or am i too stupid to understand the intricacies of top level espionage? (ITS ALL DONE IN SECRET). A government that has to hide things from its citizens is not worth having. I think we have to take a big leap forward as a species and not go down that old "...get the IRA involved in the political process and emasculate them with ecomomics...." road again. It happened to the Vietnamese as well. Ecomomics is based not on the gold standard but a violent standard of behaviour. 80% of the people in the world see the political/economic system as abusive and immoral. Get the Police to talk to Al Quada? These people listen to no one. They are the police. The jail people up. They kill people in custody. They run people down in their cars. They harass children. They create an atmosphere of intimidation to keep the lid on an exploitative economic system. They can't be reasoned with. They only understand violence. Get them out of your communities! Talk to Al Quada? Don't make me laugh. Talk to the people of THIS country! The ones that are HERE now.
7

Biker,

Ayr 01/06/2008 11:56:35
The Copper has a point. Talking to terrorists is perhaps the only way to understand and deal with them. The IRA had a fierce bombing campagne on the mainland and when Livingston wanted to talk with them for the sake of Londoners, he was castigated severely.
I read all the invective above regarding Al Quada and questing why they take the route they do, because discussing with closed minds gives them no alternative. Guga make the point well.
8

triskell,

london 01/06/2008 17:55:57
Biker......you really can't say that when dealing with Al Quada you are dealing with closed minds. You must listen to the BBC a lot. They do Al Quadas publicity in that style. Who is Al Quada anyway? Layed-off CIA agents, assorted freedom fighters and gangsters? Which Al Quada are you going to talk to? As long as we have exploitation and injustice we will have violent reactions to it. Getting rid of the Police is a step towards a fairer world.
9

Biker,

Ayr 02/06/2008 00:27:19
Triskel. Good question, Who is Al Quada. Ok lets start with talking to the kids who are daily becoming radicalised and prepared to carry bombs. Lets then talk with the Muslim communities who sometimes harbour these people. Lets then talk with Muslim leaders in other countries who shelter and probably fund the weapons and explosives, and best of all, lets not invaid their country and f@ck it up.
As for getting rid of the police, hm perhaps not all. Just the bigots and racists. Oh and Brunstrom.
10

triskell,

london 02/06/2008 10:05:49
Biker....the trouble in the world is because of hundreds of years of imperialist exploitation by Europeans. China never threatened us. Africa never threatened us. The Middle East never threatened us. Asia never threatened us. South America never threatened us. WE threatened them. Stop the exploitation and terrorism will disappear believe me. The police are a huge component in the mechanism of exploitation. Look at their history. Get them out of your communities. I don't think it would be wise to go into Muslim communities/countries and preach to them about non-violence when the MOD has been actively exporting violence around the world for the last fifty years.

Who is Brunstrom?
11

Biker,

Ayr 02/06/2008 11:48:18
Triskell. I suspect we are agreeing on most points here except the police and armed forces. Both of these organisations take their respective leads from government and should not be judged independantly.
The police need to be IN communities with greater ties to the people. Who do you suggest keeps law and order otherwise?
I agree with your comments about attempting to discuss with Muslims, but thats the way it needs to be done. Discussing is better than hitting every time.
Who is Brunstrom? Within any organisation there is always the exception to the rule. Brunstom is the Chief Constable of North Wales Police. The man is an idiot of major proportions who considers it his position to be so important that he flauts the law at regular intervals. You should google him!
12

triskell,

london 03/06/2008 02:12:59
Biker.....you have to consider the effectiveness of the Police and what you would gain by them not being around. Do they prevent crime? No. Do they solve crime? Rarely. Do they create a climate of fear and intimidation? I'd say so. Get them out of our communities. Let us police ourselves. If the Police really wanted to do good in society they would identify the people poisoning the air supply, poisoning the water supply, poisoning the ground and stop them....not to mention the corporate criminals hoarding more money than they can spend while exploiting child labour. The Police are OK at bullying homeless people and scaring kids but they don't give a f*** about real crime. Al Quada is the bogeyman smokescreen to hide the creepy cabal of businessmen, politicians and police going round the world ransacking and murdering at a rate of knots. The bottom started to fall out of the economic system in the mid 70s.....ask the Jamaicans....so we got Reaganomics and the War on Drugs followed by the spread of AIDS. Now its the War on Terrorism. The economic system is rotten to the core. If they can derugalate it to make themselves richer it is possible to deregulate it in the opposite direction. It is just a matter of having the will and the mind to get out of outmoded and destructive systems of interaction with our fellow human beings. The police are there to make sure these outmoded and destructive systems of interaction stay in place. All the rest they do, jailing people up, killing people in custody, killing people in car chases, fabricating evidence, stitching people up and generally intimidating everyone is peripheral to keeping the class system firmly in place and smashing any critics. The army is ditto but on an international level. They used to be the force that smashed the poor people up in this country when they complained too much, while the Navy did the piracy on the high seas number, but then the Army was needed to fight Johnny Foreigner so the Police were invented
13

triskell,

03/06/2008 02:18:39
to beat up the oiks. Don't you remember The Miners Strike? The Army and the Police are outmoded and destructive Victorian institutions. You can keep them if you like Biker......i'm out of here.

 

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