Tony Blair's dire warnings of threats from "an arc of extremism" came home to Britain today as the country's airports ground to a halt under a new terrorism alert. Scotland Yard have announced that 21 people have been arrested across southern England on suspicion of trying to blow up planes in mid-flight with small explosive devices hidden in hand luggage.
The Home Office and MI5 websites have declared a "critical" state of threat from terrorist attack; this is the highest of the five categories of security alert and implies that a major terrorist attempt is imminent. The Home Secretary John Reid has described the security threat to the people of this country as being "the worst since the days of Hitler".
Last week, Tony Blair warned in a major speech at the Foreign Affairs Council in Los Angeles of the threat
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It’s time Blair and Reid told us what they really know, writes robert fox |
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from "an arc of extremism". He said: "We are engaged in an existential struggle against radical Islam."
Blair has also begun to link the Shiite Hezbollah with the mainly Sunni al-Qaeda, the first time a major world leader has done so. Hezbollah's leaders have hinted at a global terror campaign if they came under pressure in Lebanon. With 30,000 Israeli soldiers about to advance to the Litani river, Hezbollah's threat gains urgency.
But critics in Blair's own party have warned that Blair's stance on Iraq, the Middle East and particularly on Israel's war in Lebanon, have been too strident and supportive of the neo-conservative strategies of George W Bush.
They say his refusal to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon has been needlessly provocative and invited trouble from Muslim extremists against British people 
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