| 
  The conviction of an Algerian man for plotting 
 poison attacks in London has focused new attention on Britain's asylum 
 policy just three weeks before a general election. 
  The political opposition is hammering the government of Prime Minister 
 Tony Blair for its handling of the case of Kamel Bourgass, an Algerian 
 convicted of murdering a policeman and plotting a terrorist attack.
  The leader of the opposition Conservative Party, Michael Howard, says 
 Bourgass should have been deported long before he concocted his plot, since his application 
 for asylum already had been rejected.
  "Kamel Bourgass, an al-Qaida operative, should not have been in Britain 
 at all," he said. "He was one of the quarter of a million failed asylum 
 seekers living in Britain today who should have been deported. His case 
 underlines the chaos in our asylum system."
  The Conservatives propose stricter border controls and asylum 
 procedures as they try to tap into voters' anger over those issues before 
 May's general election.
  Mr. Blair's home secretary, Charles Clarke, admits the Bourgass case 
 underscores the problem of dealing with a backload of asylum 
 files.
  "I am not absolutely confident that the processes are as 
 they should be. We've reduced the time taken for applications to be 
 considered from a situation where 80 percent of them took about 20 months 
 to 80 percent taking two months. But it is still too long and I have to 
 concede that."
  The Blair team is fighting to not be outflanked by the Conservatives on 
 security and terrorism issues.
  Cabinet officers point out the Conservatives blocked a Blair initiative 
 to create national identification cards, and held up passage of a law that 
 gives police limited powers to place suspected terrorists under house arrest.
  The Conservatives objected to both measures on grounds they could 
 violate civil liberties and be subject to abuse by authorities.
  The convictions of Kamel Bourgass were revealed Wednesday when a court 
 lifted restrictions on media reporting of the trial. Eight other North 
 African men were cleared of conspiring in the case, which police say was 
 Britain's biggest terrorist plot since the 2001 attacks against the United 
 States.
  But defense lawyers say the government exaggerated the threat and they 
 describe Bourgass as an anti-social loner with no evident ties to global 
 terrorism.   |