Blair consults Muslims about anti-terror laws

LONDON – Prime Minister Tony Blair appealed to Muslim leaders on Tuesday to combat the “twisted logic” of terrorism and offered to help them counter extremism with reason. In a show of vigilance, police deployed dogs for the first time to sniff out explosives on London’s Underground.

The developments in London came as police in Pakistan focused their investigation on the eastern city of Lahore, rounding up seven Islamic militants linked to al Qaeda and suspected of having ties with the British suicide bombers. And in Cairo, the Egyptian government said a detained chemist wanted for questioning by Britain had no links to the attacks or to al Qaeda.

British officials were also examining whether bomber Jermaine Lindsay, a Jamaican-born Briton, used perfume bottles to make his bomb deadlier. The explosions on three subways and a double-decker bus in London killed at least 56 people.

Asked about the inquiry into the July 7 attacks by Lindsay and three other bombers, Ian Blair, chief of the Metropolitan police, said key questions remain, including: “Who is the chemist? Who are the people who trained them? Who facilitated their trip to Pakistan?”

“Whoever is doing that is still out there,” the police chief told a meeting of Christians, Muslims and Jews that was attended by the Associated Press.

Tony Blair met with two dozen representatives of the Muslim community to discuss anti-terror legislation the government plans to introduce by year’s end. The leaders fear the laws target their community.

“It’s fair the government should ask itself whether policies such as those involving the Iraq war have contributed to this,” said Dr. Zaki Badawi, head of the Muslim College. “We need a partnership between government and Muslims to show people they are not being ignored and that their concerns will be heard.”

The prime minister denied any link between the Iraq war, which was opposed by many Britons, and the attacks in London. He insisted that terrorists will always find an excuse to kill.

“Of course these terrorists will use Iraq as an excuse. They will use Afghanistan,” Blair said after meeting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

“September 11, of course, happened before both of these things, and then the excuse was American policy, or Israel. They will always have their reasons for acting,” Blair said. “But we have got to be really careful of almost giving in to the sort of perverted and twisted logic with which they argue.”

Karzai agreed.

“There is no link,” Karzai said. “They are simply merchants of death.”

In Pakistan, police said they were holding seven Islamic militants with possible links to the London suicide bombers.

Three of the London suspects – Hasib Hussain, 18, Mohammed Sidique Khan, 30, and Shahzad Tanweer, 22, all Britons of Pakistani descent – traveled to Karachi in southern Pakistan last year.

Police officials in Pakistan said the seven men were from two outlawed militant groups, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi and Jaish-e-Mohammed. Both are linked to al Qaeda, and some of their supporters have been arrested for trying to assassinate President Gen. Pervez Musharraf.

Investigators are trying to establish whether the bombers received training, encouragement or other aid from extremists in Pakistan, or even if the plot was hatched there.