Intellectuals with blood on their pens

Jul 10, 2010 English 1st Paragraph

Early this week a former senior official from Scotland Yard accused the Labour government of slavishly following the American neocon view of Islam and terrorism. According to him, the Anglo-American assault on Iraq and Afghanistan and British complicity in torture of suspects at Guantánamo greatly increased the risks of terrorist attacks on the UK, notwithstanding New Labour’s strenuous attempts to deny such a causal connection…

Read this on the Guardian.

• slavishly following the American neocon view = following the American neoconservative view like a slave (without thinking about it and questioning it)
• assault = attack
• complicity = involvement
• notwithstanding = despite the fact that
• strenuous attempts to deny such a causal connection = trying hard to deny that British involvement (in torture of suspects etc) caused the risk (of terrorist attacks on the UK) to increase