By Newsmax Wires

Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday proposed new laws that would give police the power to seize the passports of Britons suspected of having traveled abroad to fight with terrorist groups.

Speaking to Parliament, Cameron said his government is also working on plans to block such suspected British jihadi fighters from re-entering the U.K. The power to monitor such suspects who are already in Britain would also be strengthened.

“What we need is a targeted power to exclude British nationals from the United Kingdom,” the prime minister told lawmakers in London today. “We need to address any potential gap in our armory to keep our country safe.”

The plans to widen Britain’s anti-terror laws, which are likely to be approved by parliament, are aimed at preventing attacks by Islamist militants returning from terror training in trouble spots in the Middle East.

Like other Western countries such as the U.S., France and Germany, Britain is worried that citizens who travel abroad to join terror groups could threaten their home country when they return.

Intelligence and security services suspect that around 500 Britons have gone to fight in Syria and potentially Iraq. Cameron has described the extremism posed by the Islamic State group as the biggest security threat of modern times — surpassing that of al-Qaida — and said it poses a direct threat to Europe.

Britain’s Home Secretary already has the authority to withhold passports in some cases, but Cameron said more is needed to ensure police at border crossings could act in time when they spot a suspect.

“We will introduce specific and targeted legislation to fill this gap by providing the police with a temporary power to seize a passport at the border, during which time they will be able to investigate the individual concerned,” he said.

Authorities on Friday raised Britain’s terror threat alert from “substantial” to “severe,” the second-highest level, in response to the crises in Iraq and Syria and concerns that terrorist groups could target Europe. The alert means that an attack on Britain is “highly likely” — though the government did not provide information to suggest an attack was imminent.

On Aug. 20, Islamic State released a video of a masked militant, apparently with a British accent, beheading the U.S. journalist James Foley. Security services on both sides of the Atlantic are working to identify the man and Cameron has asked officials what else they could do to prevent young Muslims becoming radicalized and traveling to conflict zones.

While the government has the power to revoke a passport, police are currently unable to exercise it when they encounter someone at the border whom they suspect of planning to travel to a war zone, the prime minister said. Police will get the power to confiscate travel documents at the border while investigations are carried out, Cameron said.

Cameron also said guidelines requiring airlines to share flight data with security services will be formalized, and those who fail to comply won’t be allowed to land in Britain.

Image: Cameron: We’ll Seize Passports to Fight Jihadists (Paul Hackett/AFP/Getty Images)

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Related story:

While Obama ponders ISIS action, UK’s David Cameron takes charge

By Courtney Coren From Newsmax

While Great Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron cut his vacation short to deal with the Islamic State (ISIS) crisis, President Obama was golfing on Martha’s Vineyard.

While Cameron took action, raising Great Britain’s terror threat to “severe,” Obama told Americans “We don’t have a strategy, yet.”

So, while President Obama has spent Labor Day weekend raising money for Democrats, is it any wonder why some lawmakers and political analysts, including Red State’s Erick Erickson are asking: “Can we borrow David Cameron?”

Even New York Rep. Peter King on Sunday said he wishes “our president was showing the same leadership David Cameron showed.”

“What is President Obama waiting for?” King said in an interview Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

Cameron said on Friday that the terror level in the U.K. was raised to “severe” in response to more news of violence by ISIS in the two countries where the group is trying to establish a caliphate. Several members of the jihadist group may be British citizens, FoxNews.com reported.

“This is not some foreign conflict thousands of miles away that we can hope to ignore,” the U.K. prime minister said.

“The ambition to create an extremist caliphate in the heart of Iraq and Syria is a threat to our own security here in the U.K.,” he said.

“We cannot appease this ideology,” he added. “We have to confront it at home and abroad. To do this we need a tough, intelligent, patient, comprehensive approach to defeat the terrorist threat at its source.”

While he did return to Washington briefly during his vacation and made formal statements from Martha’s Vineyard, Obama was sharply criticized for hitting the golf course just minutes after making a statement about the beheading of American journalist James Foley.

Cameron had previously called the killing of Foley an act of murder, which was allegedly carried out by former U.K. rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary. The prime minister returned from his holiday in Cornwall immediately after learning that Foley’s executioner was British.

The U.S. has launched airstrikes and provided humanitarian aid in ISIS-captured regions of Iraq. But Obama has not mirrored Cameron’s action on the terror alert, despite suspecting there are hundreds of Americans fighting for ISIS.

Meanwhile, the White House scrambled on Friday to explain comments Obama made on Thursday that his administration doesn’t “have a strategy yet” for how to deal with ISIS.

White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” that the Obama administration does have a “comprehensive strategy” for confronting ISIS, adding that Obama was referring to military strikes in Syria and whether he will “seek congressional authorization to order military strikes inside of Syria.”

King told Newsmax Friday that “there’s no way any of us can excuse” Obama’s admission that he doesn’t have a strategy for dealing with ISIS, explaining that it makes the United States look weak to both our allies and our enemies.

The contrast between Obama’s response to the ISIS threat to that of Cameron’s was noted by conservative commentators and on Twitter.

Townhall.com’s Cortney O’Brien wrote Friday that “unlike someone we know, it sounds like United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron has a strategy for defeating Islamic extremists.”

Erickson tweeted Friday:

“Can we borrow David Cameron? He fights.

Obama is headlining several fundraisers over the Labor Day weekend.

Cameron on Monday said he will force airlines to share flight-lists with security services and give police the power to confiscate passports as he set out Britain’s response to the rise of Islamic State.

In a statement to Parliament, Cameron also said the government will look at how it can restrict the movements of suspected terrorists in Britain and stop those who are British nationals returning to the U.K.

“What we need is a targeted power to exclude British nationals from the United Kingdom,” the prime minister told lawmakers in London today. “We need to address any potential gap in our armory to keep our country safe.”

President Obama appeared to be downplaying the Islamic State as well as Russia’s threat against Ukraine while speaking to Democratic donors at a New York fundraiser Friday, saying that this “is not something that’s comparable to the challenges we faced in the Cold War.”

“The world has always been messy,” Obama said. “We will get through these challenging times just like we have in the past.”

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