Columbia International Affairs Online: Policy Briefs

CIAO DATE: 09/2008

PolicyWatch #1260: British Counterterrorism Efforts: Implications for the United States

Simon Henderson

July 2007

The Washington Institute for Near East Policy

Abstract

British police have been praised for their speedy and effective efforts in thwarting terrorist attacks this month in London and Glasgow, as well as for the arrest and subsequent prosecution of four men who attempted to bomb the London transport network on July 21, 2005. Today, those bombers were each sentenced to a minimum of forty years in prison. (Two alleged accomplices, on whose guilt the jury could not agree, face a retrial.) But details of the cases and official comments suggest that Britain's vulnerabilities to al-Qaeda-style terrorism remain acute and could lead to tension with the United States.