President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron agreed Friday to a joint effort to fight domestic terrorism after last week's deadly attacks in France.
Cameron said the shootings in Paris were a reminder that Britain and America face threats to national security from people who hate what the two countries stand for. "We must also fight this poisonous ideology, starting at home," Cameron said.
Obama, speaking at a news conference alongside Cameron after two days of meetings, said they spent much of their time talking about the fight against terrorism. He called the Paris attacks, which killed 17 people, "vicious" and said both the U.S. and Britain stand with the French and all allies fighting the "scourge" of terrorism.
U.S. President Barack Obama, right, escorts British Prime Minister David Cameron to a working dinner at the White House in Washington January 15, 2015. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
He said the U.S. and Britain will "do everything in our power to help France seek the justice that is needed."
Fears of further violence by Islamic extremists are growing, with police in Belgium saying they killed two suspects in a raid Thursday to stop another major impending attack.
Cameron said, "We know what we're up against and we know how we will win," he said.
Obama and Cameron huddled with their top aides at the White House Thursday and Friday, the week after 17 people died in terror attacks in France spurred by a satirical newspaper's caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad.
Social media
Fears of additional attacks by Islamic extremists grew Thursday, when police in Belgium killed two suspects during an anti-terror raid launched to preempt what officials called a major impending attack.
Cameron has argued that intelligence agencies must be able to intercept terror suspects' communications on encrypted social media and messaging sites. However, his view has struck a nerve in the U.S. and in Britain, countries that both have grappled to find a balance between security and privacy.
'Together we can do something infinitely more powerful: build security, strengthen justice and advance peace.'- Barack Obama and David Cameron
White House spokesman Josh Earnest wouldn't say whether Obama would support a government "backdoor" to get around encryption and allow authorities to monitor communications that might help to protect national security, but Earnest said the issue surely would arise in Obama's meeting with Cameron.
"I think our British counterparts would agree that it is imperative that we properly balance the need for government, intelligence agencies and national security agencies to access to certain kinds of information to try to protect their citizens," Earnest said.
Cameron arrived at the White House Friday for an Oval Office meeting with the president, followed by a joint news conference. The two men also held a working dinner Thursday night, with herb-encrusted lamb, pickled wild mushrooms and warm pear cake on the menu.
While Cameron's trip to the U.S. was planned before the attacks in France, his visit is seen by the White House as an opportunity to show trans-Atlantic solidarity in the fight against terrorism.
Fresh relevance
"The terrorists know only how to destroy, but together we can do something infinitely more powerful: build security, strengthen justice and advance peace," Obama and Cameron wrote in The Times of London in an opinion piece in advance of Cameron's visit. "The United States and Britain will continue to work closely with all those who believe in peace and tolerance."
The White House said the leaders also would discuss the global economy and cybersecurity, another matter that has taken on fresh relevance following November's hacking of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which the U.S. blamed on North Korea.
Ahead of the visit, Cameron announced that the U.S. and U.K. will stage cyber "war games" together and launch a joint "cybercell," where officials from the FBI and the National Security Agency will team up with Britain's GCHQ and MI5 intelligence and security agencies to share information on cyberthreats.
The first round of war games, scheduled for later this year, will simulate an attack on banks and the financial sectors in London and New York, with more exercises to follow later to test the resilience of national infrastructure.
"This is about pooling our effort so we stay one step ahead of those who seek to attack us," Cameron said.
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