Tackling terror 'will take 15 years'
Updated on 08 July 2007
Tackling radicalisation could take 15 years, Gordon Brown's new security minister has warned.
Admiral Sir Alan West conceded the Government was failing to get its anti-terror message across, but stressed that preventing people being recruited to extremism was central to beating terrorism.
And Sir Alan called for some un-British "snitching" from the public to help the cause. He said: "This is not a quick thing. I believe it will take ten to 15 years, but I believe it can be done as long as we as a nation apply ourselves to it and it's done across the board.
"Britishness does not normally involve snitching or talking about someone. I'm afraid, in this situation, anyone who's got any information should say something because the people we are talking about are trying to destroy our entire way of life."
The security minister, one of Mr Brown's ministerial appointments from outside party politics, was thrust into the limelight by the London car bomb attempts which happened before his new job was even announced.
Sir Alan said he would seek consensus across political parties where possible but accepted differences would cause problems.
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