9/11 Was An Overreaction

(Photo from the Guardian)
Stella Rimington has condemned the politicisation of national security since she left the secret service. Photograph: Graeme Robertson

Response To 9/11 Was 'Huge Overreaction'
- Ex-MI5 Chief -- The Guardian

A former head of MI5 today describes the response to the September 11 2001 attacks on the US as a "huge overreaction" and says the invasion of Iraq influenced young men in Britain who turned to terrorism.

In an interview with the Guardian, Stella Rimington calls al-Qaida's attack on the US "another terrorist incident" but not qualitatively different from any others.

"That's not how it struck me. I suppose I'd lived with terrorist events for a good part of my working life and this was as far as I was concerned another one," she says.

In common with Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, who retired as MI5's director general last year, Rimington, who left 12 years ago, has already made it clear she abhorred "war on terror" rhetoric and the government's abandoned plans to hold terrorism suspects for 42 days without charge.

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My Comment: This former MI-5 Chief completely misses the support, growth, and dangers that Al Qaeda represents .... a development that has been ongoing since the late 1980s. This type of thinking and negligence resulted in 9/11 .... an event which cannot be compared as "another" terrorism incident.

Thank god she does not run any intelligence branch today.