----- Original Message ----- From: Red Rebel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 8:36 PM Subject: UK: Report On New "Anti-Terrrorism Law" - The Guardian *Manchester Guardian" (UK) Guilty until proven innocent ================== The redefined Terrorism Act targets environmental activists as well as armed extremists and reverses the burden of proof, says Richard Norton-Taylor Monday February 19, 2001 From today there will be hundreds, perhaps even thousands more "terrorist suspects" in Britain. As John Wadham, director of Liberty, the civil rights group, has pointed out, under the new Terrorism Act, protesters and activists, with no interest in overthrowing the state or harming the general public, could find themselves falling under the Act's expanded definition of terrorism. Under the Act it is a criminal offence to possess any "article" or "information", including photographs, in circumstances which give rise to a "reasonable suspicion" they would be used for "terrorist" purposes - a clause which has serious implications, not least for journalists. The Act reverses the burden of proof - it will be up to the accused to prove their innocence, in other words, to prove a negative. That is not all. The definition of terrorism in the bill includes "the use or threat, for the purpose of advancing a political, religious, or ideological cause, of action which involves serious violence against any person or property". This could embrace not only armed extremists but also environmental activists attacking GM crops. For the first time, the term "terrorism" will apply to domestic groups which can be proscribed by the home secretary. It will be an offence to "provide money or other property" which may be used "for the purposes of terrorism" and not tell the police when you suspect others of doing so. It will be a criminal offence to speak at the same meeting as someone from a proscribed organisation. This will have the peculiar result of making it a criminal offence to oppose such an organisation. The meeting could be of no more than three people, private or public. It could be an informal gathering or a discussion in a pub. The Act also introduces a criminal offence of "incitement" - an offence which could catch, for example, anyone calling for the overthrow of undemocratic regimes abroad. It would have caught Nelson Mandela and other ANC leaders who supported armed struggle against the apartheid regime in South Africa. The Act gives the police an array of sweeping new powers and in effect sets up a parallel criminal justice system wide open to abuse and far beyond the provisions of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act. It gives them stop and search powers on the basis of "expediency" and of "suspicion", not of committing any offence, but of being connected, or potentially connected, to the bill's vague description of "terrorism". The Act, says Wadham, "creates a two-tier system - in which people suspected of a criminal act for moral or political reasons will have less rights than someone who commits a similar crime for reasons of lust, greed or viciousness". By concentrating on motivation, it includes activity which the vast majority of the public would not regard as terrorism, while excluding gangs of racketeers or drug-runners, for example, engaged in serious criminal activities. _______________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Marxist-Leninist-List mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.wwpublish.com/mailman/listinfo/marxist-leninist-list
