Iraq war inspires new terror recruits

Iraqi enthusiasm and trust is "ebbing away"

Foreign Affairs Committee members heard sobering evidence at their ongoing inquiry into foreign policy aspects of the War on Terrorism.

MPs were told how the war in Iraq had inspired new recruits to al-Qaeda and had provoked a heightened threat of terrorism in Europe.

Analysts from the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) gave opinion on the latest in the US-led 'war on terror'.

Viewers watching the broadcast will also get a rare peek at two faces from the news magazine The Economist, whose journalists usually remain anonymous.

Al-Qaeda

Jonathan Stevenson, IISS terrorism expert, said latest intelligence suggested al-Qaeda was enjoying a resurgence of willing recruits.

The intervention had increased "al-Qaeda's recruiting power", because the US's actions appeared to have confirmed "Arab preconceptions".

Greg Pope MP asked Dana Allin, a European and US foreign policy analyst at IISS, if the people of New York and London could consider themselves safer now than they were before the war.

"No, I don't," came the emphatic response.

Iraq

The US was criticised for its management of the transition to democracy and security in Iraq.

Mr Allin said it was "somewhat shocking" that there weren't enough experts on developing democracy within the Coalition Provisional Authority.

According to journalist Nick Pelham, Iraqi society was currently experiencing an "ebbing away of enthusiasm and trust" for the coalition.

Improvements were one-sided. Salary payments, "sweeteners", may have gone up but there were few cranes to be seen among Iraq's cityscapes.

Iraqis, he said, are "baffled by the inability of the Americans to deliver the shock and awe of reconstruction".

You can watch the Foreign Affairs Committee session on BBC Parliament on Monday 10 November at 1100GMT