Coming to America

Less than 24 hours after taking office in June, British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was facing a terrorist plot. Two car bombs were found by police in Central London. The next day, two men crashed a Jeep into Glasgow airport, raising Britain's terror alert to "critical." At the time critics applauded Smith for her cool composure in resolving the crisis. Since then Smith has endured her share of criticism, particularly after she judged the streets of London "unsafe" to walk around after dark. As Britain's Home secretary (and the first woman to hold the post), she is responsible for national security, immigration and tackling crime. On Sunday, she flies to Washington to meet with U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey to discuss terrorism and the U.K.'s controversial new terror proposals. NEWSWEEK'S Jessica Au spoke with Smith at the Home Office in London on the eve of her trip. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: You will be meeting with Secretary Chertoff and Attorney General Mukasey. In what ways do the U.K.'s policies on combating extremism differ from that of the U.S. government's?
Jacqui Smith: Well, we haven't fallen out about anything yet! In fact, I see Secretary Chertoff and the U.S. as one of our closest partners in terms of the work that we do in countering terror, and our security agencies work very closely together to share information. I think that we have strongly shared values, and we have a strong condemnation of terrorism.

Will there ever be a need for a Department of Homeland Security in the U.K.?
Not perhaps in the same way as in the U.S. But don't forget that less than a year ago we reorganized our government so that now within the Home Office we have an Office of Security and Counter-Terrorism that coordinates across the government our response to terrorism, in particular, as well as across broader issues related to security. We did that because we wanted the focus in one department to strategically lead across government.

Your government recently announced that it was issuing civil servants with a new counterterrorism phrasebook, which effectively avoids a lot of the "War on Terror" language used by the current U.S. administration. Why was it deemed necessary to introduce a new lexicon on terrorism?
We need to be very strong in the resources that we give to both our policing and our security services in order to counteract the immediate threat. But if we are to counteract the long-term threat from terrorism in this country, we need to prevent young people from being radicalized and turning to terrorism. We can't do that on our own as government. We need to enlist the support of communities in the U.K., who might have a Muslim faith, but who share our values, believe in the rule of law and recognize the threat from terrorism. I want to build a strong alliance in doing that, and, therefore, sometimes in the past some of the communities have said that some of the language that has been used, if it implies that what divides us as communities in the U.K. more than what joins us, might have prevented that from happening.

How do you think a new U.S. administration next year, regardless of party, will change their approach on the so-called War on Terror?
That will be one of the things that will be interesting to consider when I am in the U.S. I would expect that whoever becomes the new administration in the U.S. will, firstly, maintain their very strong and very important links with the U.K.; secondly, their very strong commitment to countering terror; and, thirdly, the recognition that this needs to be done in a way that recognizes international partners and democracies. It will be very important for us to engage early with the new administration to continue the very good relations that we have had up until now. I am optimistic that that will happen.

 This January marked the sixth year of America's use of its base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for detaining terror suspects. Would you be interested in working with a new U.S. administration to close the camp?
The U.K. government has been clear that we want to see the closure of Guantánamo. And we have made that clear to President Bush, as well. We have certainly tried to play our part in helping to take back, for example, U.K. citizens and U.K. residents who have been in Guantánamo, to support the action that would be necessary to empty the camp. We have taken a practical approach to supporting our political objective, which is to see the eventual closure of Guantánamo Bay.