Wednesday, 10 May 2006
INTRODUCTION
Ladies and Gentlemen. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you today. Terrorism is an international problem and it is therefore critical that the international community works together to find a solution. The breadth of experience and expertise from across the world represented at this important conference is very impressive and I am honoured to have been asked to give the closing address.
The title of my speech this evening is "UK Terrorism Legislation in an International Context". You have asked me particularly to talk about the UK legislative response to the threat of terrorism and that is what I shall focus on.
It hardly needs me to say that terrorism is a huge international challenge. But terrorism is a particular challenge for democracies who must strive to protect individual liberties whilst at the same time ensuring collective security. The need to reconcile these competing demands is the theme of my speech this evening and I hope to explain how the UK has sought to achieve the right balance in enacting its domestic legislation on terrorism.
The lesson of the last few years is surely that no country is immune from terrorism. September 11th provided evidence of the ability of the terrorists to strike at the heart of the western world to devastating effect. Since then in Europe we have had the Madrid train bombings, and then last summer the attacks on the London underground in which four British born suicide bombers killed 52 innocent commuters. Elsewhere the terrorists have struck in Russia, Israel, Jordan, Indonesia, Iraq to name but a few. And we know that the terrorists keep trying to perpetrate more of their deadly outrages.
Of course terrorism is not a new phenomenon. In recent years thousands of lives have been lost to terrorism in Europe, whether as a result of campaigns by indigenous groups such as the IRA or ETA or at the hands of international terrorists, for example, Black September’s attack on the Munich Olympics in 1972 or Abu Nidal’s attacks on Vienna and Rome airports in 1985. Nor is the bombing of transport systems a novelty – we remember the horror of the bombing of the Paris metro in 1995.
But while terrorism is not new September 11th changed the landscape of terrorism forever. These new outrages are, I believe, of a different nature from older forms of terrorism and therefore more difficult to tackle: it is not just the scale – over 3000 people of many different nationalities were killed in the Twin Towers – but the aspirations of the terrorists – they would have killed 10 times as many if they could have; the use of suicide bombers – it is very hard to guard against attacks by people who not only do not care if their lives are lost but positively want it; the use of modern technology – to attack: commercial planes and dirty bombs if they could get them; and to communicate: no more do terrorists need to conspire in a darkened cellar where they might be overheard but through encrypted emails and scrambled telephone messages which are much more difficult to intercept. And they are international in nature: modern day terrorism is carried out through a network of cells and different organisations able to call on help from people in different countries. This diffuse and globalised structure presents enormous challenges to national law enforcement agencies.
It is against that background that we must consider the most appropriate steps to protect our citizens from the threats posed by terrorism. The primary responsibility for this in any modern democratic state falls on the government. It is, in the first instance, for governments to assess the need for action. It is their responsibility to protect the security of the people. A government’s response to the threat of terrorism will need to be on a number of different levels – new legislation perhaps, a subject to which I want to return later, increased international co-operation, new methods of infiltrating terrorist cells, new ideas as to how to combat the root causes of terrorism.
When he addressed the Institute on 13th February 2006, Gordon Brown outlined a number of the key steps that have to be taken to meet the imperatives of the deeply threatening situation in which we find ourselves: major investment in our domestic frontline forces, building on the world-class capacity of the Metropolitan police, other police forces and the security and intelligence agencies; cutting off the sources of terrorist finance; improving border controls.
It is essential also that we have a robust and well resourced capability of dealing with terrorism both to detect and disrupt and to prosecute. Prosecutors in the Crown Prosecution Service for which I am responsible work closely with the police and intelligence agencies to produce that robust response. We have reorganised the prosecutors into a special counter terrorism division to assist that process. I am determined too that they have all the available tools which is why it is right that we continue to examine making intercepted communications admissible in evidence in court as other countries do. And I will encourage prosecutors to press for tough sentences for terrorists and those who commit criminal offences whilst supporting or encouraging terrorists.
But in all of these initiatives, I believe that it is essential to preserve our democratic way of life, our right to freedom of thought and expression and our commitment to the rule of law; the liberties which have been hard won over the centuries and which we hold dear. These are the very liberties and values which the terrorists seek to destroy, not only through mass murder and destruction of property but also through the climate of fear that their actions create, and are intended to create, and which threaten those values and our way of life.
