UK Academics Arrested For Researching al-Qaida

D Afifi writes "Two political researchers at the University of Nottingham, in the UK, have been arrested under the Terrorism Act for downloading Al-Qaida material from a US government website. The material was to be used for research in terrorist tactics. There has been a huge public outcry, with university staff planning a march to demonstrate against the attack on academic freedom. Yet, one of the students, an Algerian, is still held in custody under immigration charges and is being fast-tracked for deportation."

No surprise...

[amrik98 (1214484)]

The UK is the country furthest along the road to 1984.

Re:No surprise...

[Laukei (1099765)]

Every day I read comments online about the UK going to hell via 1984... and every day I find new evidence to back up these claims.

It's an awful state of affairs when academics are being prosecuted under terror legislation.

I've lost all faith in the the UK and US governments since 9/11.

~Rob

Re:No surprise...

[Dunbal (464142)]

Surely you mean Airstrip One.

Re:No surprise...

[Ethanol-fueled (1125189)]

From TFA:

"...Yezza, who is Algerian, was immediately rearrested on unrelated immigration charges and now faces deportation..."

Just wanted to clarify why he's being deported. The brits' reaction to the downloading of the document was a bit extreme, but if ya want to live in a country then ya gotta play by their(sometimes idiotic) rules.

Re:No surprise...

[Ethanol-fueled (1125189)]

If you want to be idiotic and live in a country whose citizens are idiotic and keep voting idiots into their congress, then ya gotta play by their rules. As for those of us who were born in the US(or UK), there are other places to move. I'm thinking Canada or the Netherlands if the US dosen't get its shit together in the next few years.

More like "Brazil"

[ArchieBunker (132337)]

1984 assumes the government is competent and really out to get everyone. In reality its more like the movie Brazil. Everyone mindlessly doing their job without any critical thought. Watching Brazil and comparing it to current events is truly horrifying.

More types of "Illegal Data"

[corsec67 (627446)]

Sweet, now there are even more kinds of "illegal data" out there.

Under-age porn, "terrorist" material, DRM removing software, MAFIAA products, etc...

they need to spread fear...

[crazybit (918023)]

in order to control the masses.

Fear is a common tactic used since the begging of civilization to manipulate people.

- Zeus will destroy you all!
- The devil will come for you and burn you for all eternity!
- Terrorists! omg! seek shelter at once!

Re:they need to spread fear...

[by Anonymous Coward]

And also proof that you're more likely to be struck by lightning then die in a terrorist attack. And do you remember who it is who throws lightning bolts?

That's right, Zeus.

Spread it around?

[FooAtWFU (699187)]

Anyone have a link to the material in question? (Is it in English?)

Re:Spread it around?

[MisterBlueSky (1213526)]

http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/terrorism/alqaida_manual/ [af.mil]

Re:Spread it around?

[syousef (465911)]

Short version:

1. To go to heaven you must be martyr
2. To be martyr you must blow yourself up
Handy hint for 2: Make sure to kill many infadel when blowing yourself up.
General hint: If you have attempted 2 and are reading this, you failed. Do not go to heaven. Do not collect 200 denar.

There is NOTHING wrong with this

[zappepcs (820751)]

All this means is ...... WTF????

Information hosted on a US government website? That is forbidden material? Entrapment anyone? How about err... uhhh... holy fuck!

So the UK government noticed this material being downloaded and never looked at where it came from? WTF? Is the US Government now hosting terrorism inciting materials for the internets?

This, I truly hope, leaves buckets full of egg and chicken shit on the faces of some government employee types.

Re:There is NOTHING wrong with this

[zappepcs (820751)]

Exactly. I understand that there were some monks in not too distant history that have given you a golden example of how to go first; quiet, flame-boyant, interesting. Let me just get my camera first....

I'm guessing that Mr AC doesn't remember that other 'terrorist' attack in the US. Down in Oklahoma? Memory getting better? There is very little reason to think that a Muslim is more likely than a white to create an act of great violence inside the US borders... school shootings anyone? Kent state? There are lots of examples. My how the black man cheered when the DC snipers turned out to be black... their first notable serial mass murderer. Up till then, all mass murderers were expected to be white.

How many Muslims are in the world?

The Muslim population in 2006 is 1610.42 million.

from http://www.islamicpopulation.com/world_general.html [islamicpopulation.com] That's 1.6 BILLION or so Muslims.

Of that, 25 or so have attacked US citizens. Lets be generous and say 50 have attacked western countries. That amounts to... uhmmmm about 3.1047801194719389972802126153426e-6 percent of the Muslim population seems to be hell bent on knocking down buildings. The rest are trying to survive where they are. That, by the way, is a huge bunch of non-violent Muslims. Racial profiling does seem to make sense on face value, but dig a bit deeper and you find that the risk of violence from not invading privacy and personal rights is smaller than ... say... getting hit by a fucking bus.

I don't care if you are afraid of shadows, diminishing MY rights because of your irrational fears is still wrong, will always be wrong, and always has been WRONG.

Thanks for playing

Guns don't kill people; people kill people..

[brxndxn (461473)]

I mean.. Information doesn't kill people; people kill people!!! It's what you do with the information that counts!

I got curious once and looked up how to make a hydrogen bomb. Does that make me a terrorist? NO. Because I only use my hydrogen bomb for personal self-defense!

Re:Guns don't kill people; people kill people..

[bsDaemon (87307)]

My mother was Princeton class of 1977. Back in those days it wasn't exactly 'common knowledge' with 'easy access' how to make nuclear weapons.

One of her good friends who was, I believe, reading for Physics, did his senior thesis on how to make a nuclear weapon. I also believe, though I'm not clear as its been a while since she told me this story, that the fellow in question was not exactly American.

His thesis brought him to the interest of some of the old-line type of "terrorist" organizations like the PFLP. *THAT* brought him to the attention of the FBI and he was arrested and interrogated.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Immigrant.

[hlt32 (1177391)]

There are 2 issues here that I can tell.

#1 Arrest under Terrorism act for having al-Qaida-related material.

#2 Immigration charges and subsequent deportation.

The two are related insofar as discovering 1 resulted in 2.

#2, the illegal immigration, *should* result in deportation - he is perfectly able to make a claim on humanitarian grounds or claim asylum. The fact remains that illegal immigrants should be deported.

#1 should be approached as:

a) person found with dodgy material
b) person was investigated
c) things happen

Now, the main objection is vs c). he was engaging in legitimate academic research (you COULD argue he is a terrorist and this is a clever coverup, but I wont go there ;) ) therefore should not be treated as a terrorist.

The fact that "An illegal immigrate faces deportation" is no surprise and should not impact your judgement here.

This probably comes acros as a bit confused - its been a long day. :p

Re:Immigrant.

[tftp (111690)]

The fact that "An illegal immigrate faces deportation" is no surprise and should not impact your judgement here

The problem is that the guy is "Facing Imminent Deportation Without Hearing" and that's the real issue here. Looks like the police just wants him swept under the rug. As reported, he has a visa, but there are questions: due to confusion over his visa documentation, charged with offences relating to his immigration status. He sought legal advice and representation regarding these matters whilst in custody. On Friday 23rd May, the Home Office informed his solicitor that he was being removed on Sunday 1st June and Hicham was moved to an immigration detention centre. Now, is it reasonable to deport someone (who lived in the country for 13 years) within only 7 days, without proper court hearings, presentation of witnesses, debates about the applicable law? The Home Office just wants him out, and with him being out there will be no hearings, and no inconvenient truth will come out. But until his status is investigated, and his lawyers can speak for him and argue his status, we can not say that he is legal or illegal immigrant. That is to be determined, and the fight is for his right to be heard in court, and his status determined by the judge - not by a bureaucrat.

Re:Immigrant.

[PCM2 (4486)]

We have visas, and green cards for a reason.

And what is that reason? Seriously, have you ever had to carry a Green Card? Because I have. For years I was told that anytime I left the country I could be denied entry for just about any reason, owing to the fact that I was really only allowed to stay here at the pleasure of Uncle Sam. Then I had to spend thousands of dollars and be fingerprinted, photographed, investigated, and grilled by examiners before I could become a U.S. citizen. What did you ever have to do to earn the right to come and go as you please, or to vote? What makes you better than me?

The whole business is nonsense. And when you hear firsthand stories of people whose families were broken up by ridiculous immigration policies enforced by xenophobic zealots in the name of "patriotism," or "protecting our jobs," or "failure to learn our language," or whatever the excuse is this week, the situation starts to look considerably less cut-and-dried than you make it out to be.

True, there are "perfectly legal" ways to get into a country, just like there are "perfectly legal" was to buy a Ferrari, or run for President. That doesn't mean those options are open to everybody. Plus, the mere fact that this guy is pursuing an advanced degree at university should be proof enough that the "stealing our jobs" excuse doesn't apply in this case. Your kneejerk obeisance to immigration policy on the mere basis that "it's policy, ergo we follow it" is just another way of distracting attention from your own need to protect your position of privilege.

Terror

[conureman (748753)]

As I RTFA I realized that this looks like standard jobsworth cops at large and could happen any day here in the U.S. Too much responsibility too little brains.

University admin

[tzhuge (1031302)]

No one else seems to have covered this angle, so I'll bring it up. WTF is wrong with the University of Nottingham? I cannot believe a supposed institution of higher learning would sell its scholars down the river like that. This whole thing flies in the face of what a University is suppose to stand for. Perhaps I'm just naive.

BBC

[pablomme (1270790)]

Some may prefer reading the BBC article [bbc.co.uk], which for one doesn't misspell 'al-Qaeda'.

Two details should be considered before judging the situation and blaming random people:

• The document was found in a computer by university staff, it was not intercepted by the police
  
• It was the University that requested police action

This is a gross mistake anyway, but it's a quite a bit less 1984-ish than one might think from the summary.

Re:Here is proof they are not terrorists:

[by Anonymous Coward]

They were reading material from a US government website.

Well, we (the U.S.) did invade a foreign country, kill their leader and throw it into violent chaos. Sounds like terrorism to me. Maybe those UK folks are onto something.

Re:Another line a long line of insults

[jfruhlinger (470035)]

Oh yes, a war for oil. And how great has that worked out? Considering that oil is at record highs, I don't think that it was a "war for oil" because had it been a "war for oil" we would have more oil.

Hey, they didn't say it was a competently planned war for oil.

Re:Another line a long line of insults

[postbigbang (761081)]

It's just as baseless as global warming. If Bush's pipe dreams (there not being any other intelligence supporting his actions, and he had hardly any plans at all, let alone support from the international community or the UN), it had to be for oil. Bush is an oil man. His father was an oil man. His brother was in real estate (remember the S&L crises in TX in the '80s??).

It was about oil. No tin foil hat. Oil. It wasn't about Saddam. He had a fat mouth that got him lynched. Yes, he was a murderous SOB but then there are loads of them around and we don't do even a fraction of them justice.

And the plan backfired. A commodities market has grasped the weakness of the currency and the high demand, and they now are poised to raise oil until it's at the blood-letting levels, where they'll back off and ride the profits until 'something happens' to deflate the market. In the interim, the economies of the middle east, Venezuela, and Mexico (although Mexico can't capitalize assets to reduce their bleeding) are pretty much glowing with petro-currencies, largely worthless dollars.

If we were going to halt terrorism, we should have targeted the perps in the 9/11 fiasco, and dealt with them. We have not, only serving as poster boy enemies for recruiters of psycho-jihadis. And the rest of Islam looks at us, like the rest of the world, like we must be insane. Indeed our gutless leadership is just that. It takes guts to admit you're wrong, and they'll never do it. This while deficit spending is far out of control, the Fed inflates the currency instead of forcing banks/derivative holders to take a bath, and the average Joe and his grandchildren go broke.

Oddly, we don't have cameras watching our every move, and have at least a modicum of academic freedom, contrasting with the poor researchers in TFA in the UK.