Britain unveils "anti-terror
list" and new rules of the game!
(24.08.2005)
Home Secretary Charles Clarke has published the new "anti-terror
list" setting out the "unacceptable behaviors" that
could result in a person getting kicked out of the country.
Charles Clarke said "The terrorist threat facing the UK
remains real and significant and it is right that the government
and law enforcement agencies do everything possible to counter it".
Perhaps if Britain had not taken part in the illegal invasion of
Iraq, this "terrorist threat" would not exist?
Some of the behaviors on the list are shown below:
- Fomenting terrorism or seeking to provoke others to terrorist
acts
- Justifying or glorifying terrorism
- Fomenting other serious criminal activity or seeking to provoke
others to serious criminal acts
- Fostering hatred that may lead to "inter-community violence"
in Britain
- Advocating violence in support of particular beliefs
A member of the UN criticized Britain's plans to
deport people to countries that may have committed human rights abuses
in the past and despite Britain's attempt to seek agreements with
those countries, to make sure deportees will not be tortured, there
are very few guarantees.
At the moment, the list only applies to any non-UK
citizen and is in respect of behaviors using any method, including
writing, preaching, running a Web site or using a position of responsibility
such as a teacher, community or youth leader.
Unfortunately, the list is still very vague and
it is not clear whether a web site that is "critical" of
a governments policy on terrorism, will be considered as a candidate
for deportion? Charles Clarke said "Individuals who seek to create
fear, distrust and division in order to stir up terrorist activity
will not be tolerated by the government or by our communities".
Would criticism be considered as creating "distrust" or
"division"?
We wonder how this new list would apply to Pat
Robertson in the U.S. who went on TV and said that the U.S. government
should assassinate Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Isn't this "Advocating
violence in support of particular beliefs"? Will Robertson be
allowed into Britain after this, or does this new rule only apply
to Muslims who might promote hatred?
One
could perhaps accuse Tony Blair of breaking one of these new rules
(Fostering hatred that may lead to "inter-community violence"
in Britain). After the London bombings on the 7th of July, he placed
the blame on Islamic terrorists before this was actually proved to
be the case. Had this not been true (and it is still debatable), couldn't
this have caused "inter-community violence" and claims that
he was perhaps a racialist? Of course, with the attackers already
"set-up", he knew who to blame without waiting for confirmation.
We should of course be careful about allowing people
to promote violence of any kind (whoever is at the receiving end),
but encouraging people to support the illegal war in Iraq is not so
much different in our book. Unfortunately, there are two sets of rules
to the game that Blair is changing.

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