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Al Qaeda ‘is greater threat to Europe than America’
Nicholas Cecil and Paul Waugh3 Apr 2009
BARACK OBAMA today warned that Europe is at greater risk than the US of attack by al Qaeda as he sought to bury past differences with France in fighting terrorism.
The US President also admitted to mistakes by America, including being “dismissive” and “arrogant” towards some allies.
Speaking in Strasbourg ahead of the Nato summit, he also stressed it was time for countries such as France to end the “excuses” for not playing a greater role in tackling the terror threat.
“We must be honest with ourselves,” Mr Obama said. “In recent years, we've allowed our alliance to drift.”
With Washington seeking thousands more troops from EU nations to bolster the battle against the Taliban and terror groups in Afghanistan, he added: “France recognises that having al Qaeda operate safe havens is a threat not just to the United States but to Europe.
“In fact it is more likely that al Qaeda would be able to launch a serious terrorist attack in Europe than in the United States because of proximity.
“This is not an American mission, this is a Nato mission, this is an international mission.”
Relations between the US and France hit a low in 2003 with the public falling-out over the invasion of Iraq between the then US president George Bush and French president Jacques Chirac.
Mr Obama said: “We got sidetracked by Iraq and we have not fully recovered that initial insight that we have a mutual interest in ensuring that organisations like al Qaeda cannot operate.”
“It is important for Europe to understand that even though I am president and George Bush is not president, al Qaeda is still a threat.”
While accepting that America had been “arrogant” and “dismissive” at times, he also criticised the “insidious” anti-Americanism in Europe.
Stressing that America wants to be a partner not a patron, he added: “I've come to Europe this week to renew our partnership — one in which America listens and learns from our friends and allies. But where our friends and allies bear their share of the burden.”
“Together we must forge common solutions to our common problems.”
Police have mounted a huge security operation for the summit in Strasbourg and there have already been violent clashes with protestors.
Mr Obama also admitted that an opportunity had been squandered after 9/11 with the row between the two countries over the Iraq war.
However, while he promised a new approach from America, including closing Guantanamo Bay, he added: “Europe should not expect the US to simply shoulder that burden alone,” he said in a question and answer session in Strasbourg.
“This is a joint problem. It requires a joint effort.”
France announced recently that it would be fully-integrated into NATO after remaining outside the military command of the alliance for decades.
Mr Obama emphasised that EU nations would be expected by Washington to take on more military and peace-keeping responsibilities.
“We would like to see Europe have much more robust capabilities,” he said.
“We're looking to be partners with Europe, and the more capable they are defensively, the more we can act in concert on the shared challenges we face.”
The US President, who shrugged off a heavy cold and tiredness to greet wellwishers, emerged today as a key power broker in the London summit.
Officials revealed that it was his personal intervention that “knocked heads together” to ensure France and China agreed a compromise deal on tax havens.
Today Mr Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed that they would both attend a 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in Normandy on June 6.
Speaking at a joint press conference, president Sarkozy said that the world could “regain confidence” because America was joining with its allies to tackle the world's problems.
“It feels good to be with a US President who wants to change the world and thinks the world doesn't boil down to American frontiers and borders. That's a hell of a good piece of news,” he said.
Both men stressed that the G20 summit would require more focus to implement. President Sarkozy said “there's a hell of a lot of work to do because there's a hell of a lot of problems” in the global economy.
President Obama also warned North Korea that it faced serious consequences from the international community if it went ahead with a missile test launch this weekend.
He also received thunderous cheers when he told a town hall-style gathering of young people that he is setting a dramatic goal of “a world without nuclear weapons.”
Washington and Moscow have launched moves to cut their number of nuclear warheads and Mr Obama promised to outline more details in Prague in the coming days.
It emerged today that British activists were among up to 1,000 anti-Nato protestors who clashed with French riot police ahead of the two-day summit.
Officers using rubber bullets and tear gas arrested 300 people in running battles on the streets. The violence erupted as hundreds of demstrators tried to enter the city centre, which the security services had locked down' before the summit.
Twenty-eight world leaders will be at the summit
jointly hosted by France and Germany.
Reader views (6)
A quick and easy solution to the al Qaeda "threat": don't let them (and we know well enough who they are!) into the country.
- Croyboy, Croydon, 05/04/2009 08:38
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Robert Phelps, to what wars are you referring? WWI, WWII, Viet Nam (I suppose you hoped we all have forgotten Dien Bien Phu) La Belle France was the snake in the grass on all of them.
- Ray, gurnee, USA, 04/04/2009 06:53
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who started all these wars around the globe in the name of peace,i don,t supose their looking for world power!!
- Robert Phelps, bussiere poitevine 87320 france, 03/04/2009 16:52
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Hes spot on,Europe and particular the UK with its relatively high concentration of Muslims is indeed more prone to attack,was it not home grown Islamic terrorists that bombed our transport system!The British government seems to me to be playing a 2 sided dangerous game,on the one hand thay are happy to send troops to Afghanistan to fight Islamic terrorism,yet at the same time thay suck up and try to appease are own home grown Muslim population,indeed some of the former leave are shores to fight British and American troops in Afghanistan.Crazy isn't the word,appeaser is though, and we will pay for the 2 faced Brown approach.
- Kev, London-UK, 03/04/2009 16:45
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The wording of your headline suggested that America was a threat to Europe, it was comforting to realise that it was only Al Queada you were talking about.
- Tom, Maidstone, 03/04/2009 16:37
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By President Obama stating this. It will give our useless Home Secretary, Pa McRuin Broone and others of that Kommie Ilk more excuses to bring in more draconian anti-civil liberties legislation. UK ID Cards will be now pushed, and pushed, and pushed by Missy Jacqui and all the other Eastern Bloc mentalists who espouse stazi methods to control us, the peasants of the UK.
Thank you Mr President!!
- Uncle Vanya, East Anglia Area UK, 03/04/2009 16:35
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