socialmedian: Labour splits over Afghanistan war strategy

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Labour splits over Afghanistan war strategy

Source: The Guardian

Nov 03, 2009

Summary

Former minister Kim Howells calls for pullout and more domestic spying

A major fissure opens up in Labour's support for the Afghan war with a call from the former Foreign Office minister Kim Howells for the phased withdrawal of British troops from Helmand.

Howells, who is now Gordon Brown's intelligence and security watchdog, said the billions of pounds saved should be redirected to defending the UK from terrorist attacks by al-Qaida.

Writing in the Guardian, Howells, who had ministerial responsibility for Afghanistan until 2008, said: "It would be better to bring home the great majority of our fighting men and women and concentrate, instead, on using the money saved to secure our own borders, gather intelligence on terrorist activities inside Britain."

Controversially, he accepts that such an approach would result in "more intrusive surveillance in certain communities" – a tacit acknowledgment that Britain's Muslims would be subject to greater scrutiny by police and intelligence services.

He also calls for an expansion of UK intelligence operations abroad, grea

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