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From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: August 1, 2007 1:27:43 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Subject: Fwd: British Students Jailed For Possessing "Extremist"
Literature
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From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: August 1, 2007 1:04:13 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: British Students Jailed For Possessing "Extremist" Literature
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------
"America is a nation founded on the principle that all human life
is sacred...
Destroying human life in the hopes of saving human life is not
ethical."-- G.W.
Bush on the occasion of vetoing Congressional bill on stem cell
research. June
20, 2007
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/jul2007/terr-j31.shtml
*British Students Jailed For Possessing "Extremist" Literature*
By Chris Talbot
31 July 2007
Four 20-year-old Bradford University students and a 19-year-old
school student
were jailed after a trial at the Old Bailey for being found with
material said to
be "glorifying Islamic terrorism" on their computers. Aitzaz
Zafar, Usman Malik,
and Awaab Iqbaal were jailed for three years each, Akbar Butt was
jailed for 27
months and the school student, Mohammed Irfan Raja was given two
years' youth
detention.
Such is the atmosphere created by politicians and the media after
the attempted
terror bombings in London and Glasgow earlier this month that there
was very
little opposition in the media to what are police state measures --
the jailing
of these youths merely for downloading material readily available
on the Internet
The case is the first successful prosecution under the Terrorism
Act 2000 for
possessing material useful for terrorism.
Raja, at the age of 17, had run away from his home in London
leaving a note to
his parents saying, "if not in this [world] we will meet in [the
Garden of
Paradise]." According to the prosecution, he was planning to go
and fight in
Afghanistan after training in Pakistan, and for that purpose he had
joined the
four students in Bradford. No serious evidence that this was
anything more than
an adolescent fantasy is reported.
His parents talked to him over the phone and persuaded him to
return home after
three days. Raja was said to have been depressed and had discussed
Islamic
fundamentalism with the Bradford students over the Internet. His
parents
contacted the police and Raja apparently confessed, during several
interviews, of
his desire to fight "Muslim causes abroad." He directed the police
to the
Bradford students who were arrested for having the extremist
material on their
computers.
One of the students, Aitzaz Zafar, was interviewed on BBC Radio 4's
Today
programme. Asked whether the "inflammatory jihadist material" he
had downloaded
was not an indication of terrorist intent, Zafar said that he was
"researching
into my religion -- looking at all aspects of it." He had become more
"politically aware" as a student and "research had led me to
different sites and
places." The interviewer pressed him on why he had "horrific
material,"
including the video of a beheading. Zafar said that he had
downloaded a zipped
file containing more than 200 documents. "I never read all of them
and, in court,
they cherry-picked one document -- and within that, a paragraph."
Asked why he
had a copy of the "Terrorist's Handbook" on his computer, he said
he had been in
a chat room discussing the Muslim religion and politics and it was
one of the
files that had been sent him -- "people send you all
sorts." [[That smacks of
being a set-up, given the other non-evidence. They should have gone
after the
guy/agent that sent him/them said handbook!!]]
Reports of the trial claim that the five youths had made Internet
contact with a
certain British man called Imran who in one online chat had advised
them how to
travel unnoticed to Pakistan. Also mentioned was a "Brother Ali"
in New Jersey,
who had told Raja to get in touch with the Bradford students.
Whether either of
these men had sent them the zipped file or the "Terrorist's
Handbook" is not
recorded. They were not produced as witnesses and no explanation
was given of
why they were not arrested also. It is hardly a secret that such
chat rooms can
be used by provocateurs and the intelligence services.
There is clearly some disquiet in establishment circles at the way
democratic
rights are being trampled on in such cases. David Livingstone, an
associate
fellow in international security at Chatham House, home of the
Royal Institute of
International Affairs, appeared as a witness for the defence at the
trial. He
told the Today programme that there was no evidence that the five
had planned to
instigate a terrorist attack. The prosecution could "radicalise"
young Muslims
"through a perceived sense of injustice," he said.
Claiming the five youths were engaged in "mischievous" activity,
Livingstone
said, "If you are going to pursue every case of mischief you are
going to end up
with a very jammed-up criminal justice system and you will
certainly have to
build more prisons."
Livingstone called for the traditional method of debating with
students who were
attracted to Islamic fundamentalism, "instead of slugging away with
the rather
blunt instrument of the criminal justice system."
However, top political, legal and police circles are clearly
determined to
utilise the fear of terrorist attacks, not only to use such
draconian measures
but to introduce others.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has said that in the next session of
parliament he
intends to raise the 28-day limit on the time that police can hold
a suspect
without charge. Although the proposal for a 90-day period was
narrowly defeated
when put forward by Tony Blair in 2005, Brown has called for a
"consultation" on
increasing the time to up to 56 days, supporting police claims that
they need
more time to plough through computer memories and collect evidence
in terrorist
cases.
Brown also announced he is intending to bring in a "unified border
force" to
boost the "fight against terrorism," creating a "highly visible"
uniformed force
that would bring together immigration and Customs officers. He is
also calling
for identity cards to be introduced -- in the face of longstanding
opposition
from human rights campaigners. Other measures will include an
attempt to get
all-party support for using e-mail and telephone intercepts as
evidence.
Brown stated that the police and security services are now tracking
2,000
individuals, an increase of 400 in the past nine months. Security
forces claim
that there have been 15 terrorist plots discovered since 9/11 and
that there are
another 30 plots in the making.
Some indication of the increasingly oppressive regime being
implemented in
Britain by the police and security services, directed particularly
at Muslim and
Asian youth, was contained in report from the Metropolitan (i.e.,
London) Police
covering the first four months of 2007. Under the anti-terror
laws, some 23,000
"stops and searches" were carried out, an increase of 37 percent
over the
previous year. Only 27 arrests were made on terrorism offences,
but 242 other
arrests were made. At least 16 percent of those stopped were Asian
compared to
12 percent in the population as a whole.
Further evidence that the "war against terror" is allowing all
pretence at
democratic rights to be swept aside came in a Channel 4 report of
how terrorist
prisoners are being treated at Frankland Prison, County Durham.
Some 10 percent
of prisoners in this jail are Muslim and it is said to contain the
leaders of the
three major terrorism trials that took place in Britain over the
last year.
Hussain Osman, one of those convicted for the failed suicide
bombing of July 21,
2005, reportedly had his cell set on fire. Channel 4 reported that
this event
took place after death threats were allegedly made to Omar Khyam,
convicted as
the ringleader for the so-called fertiliser bomb plot in April of
this year.
Dhiren Barot, convicted in November of last year for plotting
various bomb
attacks in the U.K. and U.S., was reported having had boiling water
thrown at
him. Barot suffered severe third-degree burns, described by a
prison officer to
Channel 4 as one of the worst cases he had seen. These three
incidents had all
taken place in the last three weeks.
Omar Khyam's wife told Channel 4 that the prison authorities had
been previously
warned: "Omar in the end went into segregation himself and only a
few days later
Dhiren Barot was attacked, which shouldn't have happened because
the prison knew
that these threats were taking place."
According to Channel 4's sources, there were fascists among the
prisoners in the
jail -- members of Combat 18 or British National party supporters
-- with
swastikas daubed on the walls. A conflict had built up over where
the Muslim
prisoners were to hold their prayers.
[The WSWS invites your comments.]
Copyright 1998-2007 World Socialist Web Site -- All rights reserved.
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