PM - necessity of action in Afghanistan

The Prime Minister also said that more has been done to disable Al-Qaeda over the past year than in any year since 2001 and described the fight against global terrorism as one of the great issues of our time, one that requires global solutions and cannot be answered by one country or one continent in isolation.

He said:

"The greatest immediate threat to our national security, the greatest current risk to British lives, is that of international terrorism.

"We know that from New York, Bali, Baghdad, Madrid, Mumbai, Peshawar and Rawalpindi to London, men and women - Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, of every faith and none - have been victims of international terrorism.

"I will never compromise when it comes to the safety and security of the British people. We have trebled our domestic security budget, doubled our security service staff, and increased by over two-thirds the numbers of police dealing day-to-day with terrorism in the UK, and will always do what is necessary.

"And I know from my four visits to Afghanistan in the last 15 months that our Armed Forces understand our security priority and share that commitment.

"Let me say that the courage, skill and professionalism of our forces serving there are truly inspiring.

"In some of the hardest conditions, they have enhanced their already peerless reputation as the finest in the world. And we pay tribute to each and everyone of them this evening."

Mr Brown said that he wanted to remind people that despite successes against Al-Qaeda they and their associates still have active plans to commit terrorist atrocities in the United Kingdom and to make it clear why it is only by standing up to this terrorist threat at its source that we can properly defend our shores:

"Tonight I can report that, methodically and patiently, we are disrupting and disabling the existing leadership of Al-Qaeda.

"Since January 2008 seven of the top dozen figures in Al-Qaeda have been killed, depleting its reserve of experienced leaders and sapping its morale.

"More has been planned and enacted with greater success in this one year to disable Al-Qaeda than in any year since the original invasion in 2001.

"Today 28,000 Pakistan security forces are inside South Waziristan, again narrowing the scope for Al-Qaeda to operate. And our security services report to me that there is now an opportunity to inflict significant and long-lasting damage to Al-Qaeda.

"We understand the reality of the danger and the nature of the consequences if we do not succeed.

"We will never forget the fatal Al-Qaeda-led attacks in London on 7 July 2005, the unsuccessful Al-Qaeda-inspired attacks two weeks later, and the Al-Qaeda-sanctioned plot to capture and behead a British soldier in the Midlands in January 2007.

"Some plots remain under investigation and so for obvious reasons I cannot elaborate. On others I can.

"In 2007, five individuals were found guilty of what we now know was an Al-Qaeda-inspired conspiracy to cause explosions with possible plans to target shopping centres or clubs in London and the South East.

"And in total since 2001, nearly 200 persons have been convicted of terrorist or terrorist-related offences - almost half of those convicted pleaded guilty.

"And day-by-day we are continuing to track a large number of suspicious individuals and potential plots.

"Make no mistake, Al-Qaeda has an extensive recruitment network across Africa, the Middle East, western Europe and in the UK.

"And we know that there are still several hundred foreign fighters based in the FATA area of Pakistan and travelling to training camps to learn bomb-making and weapons skills.

"It is because of the nature of the threat, and because around three-quarters of the most serious plots the security services are now tracking in Britain have links to Pakistan, that it does not make sense to confine our defence against terrorism solely to actions inside the UK.

"Al-Qaeda rely on a permissive environment in the tribal areas of Pakistan and - if they can re-establish one - in Afghanistan. Al-Qaeda has links to the Afghan and Pakistan Taliban. We must deny terrorists the room to operate which the Taliban regime allowed the 9/11 attackers.

"So that is why I say the Afghan campaign is being prosecuted not from choice, but out of necessity."

Mr Brown went on to say that the coalition of 43 countries working to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan does not intend to become an occupying army:

"It is building the capacity of Afghanistan to deal themselves with terrorism and violent extremism, what we mean by 'Afghanisation'.

"Today the Army has published its new counter-insurgency doctrine. Partnering the Afghan army and police is fraught with danger, as we have seen in recent weeks; and building up local level Afghan governance in areas which have not known the rule of law for decades, if at all, is daunting.

"But as I have emphasised in recent weeks, we have not chosen this path of Afghanisation because it is a safer or easier option, but because it is the right strategy.

"Following the inauguration this week of President Karzai, I have urged him to set out the contract between the new government and its people, including early action on corruption.

"And I welcome today's announcement that the new government in Afghanistan will dedicate the next five years to fighting corruption. I have pledged full UK support in this effort.

"The international community will meet to agree plans for the support we will provide to Afghanistan during this next phase.

"I have offered London as a venue in the New Year. I want that conference to chart a comprehensive political framework within which the military strategy can be accomplished.

"A strong political framework should embrace internal political reform to ensure representative government that works for all Afghan citizens, at the national level in Kabul and in the provinces and districts.

"It should identify a process for transferring district by district to full Afghan control and if at all possible set a timetable for transferring districts starting in 2010.

"For it is only when the Afghans are themselves able to defend the security of their people and deny the territory of Afghanistan as a base for terrorists that our strategy of Afghanisation will have succeeded and our troops can come home."

Concluding his thoughts on Afghanistan, Mr Brown said:

"We are in Afghanistan because we judge that if the Taliban regained power, Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups would once more have an environment in which they could operate.

"We are there because action in Afghanistan is not an alternative to action in Pakistan, but an inseparable support to it.

"As I have shown, the world has succeeded in closing down much of the space in which Al-Qaeda can operate, and we must not allow this process to be reversed by retreat or irresolution."