Terror Convictions Quashed

Wilberforce Wed Feb 13, 2008 at 11:48:30 PM GMT Print-friendly version Facebook

So the 'Bradford 5' are now free....
But how free are any of us, when mere thoughts of rebellion are considered enough to convict?



In a week that has seen an outcry over Sharia law - requested not by Muslims but by the head of the Anglican church - and criticism for marrying cousins, this is perhaps a 'good news' story for British Muslims, albeit one that was better never to have happened at all.

I am glad that this conviction was quashed, as I too was a prolific downloader of extremist Islamic literature and videos for many years- even though my intentions were to prevent rather than encourage and join acts of terror.

But when 'mens rea' is enough to convict over 'actus rea' then society has crossed a line and stepped into thought policing.  

Its sobering to think that I could have shared a cell... and confirms my opposition to 42 detention without trial...

Do you think the Daily Mail brigade will be baying for blood? Or is this a real victory for British justice and the real British values we beleive in..?


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Terror Convictions Quashed | 7 comments (7 topical)

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#1)

by swatantra on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 11:16:54 AM GMT

I've said this before. All this business of 'terrorism' is a load of b***s. Its been so hyped up, the Govt has become so paranoid and deluded us into thinking that the threat is immediate. They are arresting so-called terrorists on the merest suspicion, holding them for long periods of time and still theres no evidence of actual intent.

My advise,wait till you've got the evidence first or wait till the incident has happened, before you move heaven and earth to get these nutters, these deranged fanatics. The London bombings were a one-off; there was a copy-cat incident, but you'd expect that. There are unlikely to be any more.


Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#3)

by JM on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 11:37:11 AM GMT



[ Parent ]

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#4)

by rwendland on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 12:42:54 PM GMT

While Daniel Finkelstein does have a point that there might be a small copycat following from successful terorism, he fails to explain the miniscule scale of terrorism deaths against other causes in the UK. Even allowing for this our anti-terrorism spending is difficult to justify in a statistical analysis.

With annual death rates from accidents of about 11,000/year, and mental health related deaths/suicide at about 17,500/year, the terrorism death rate (50/year ?) is minute, as is any realistic increase. I would have thought a more rational use of resources would be to increase mental health spending, rather than more on anti-terrorism.


[ Parent ]

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#5)

by JM on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 01:05:58 PM GMT

I think that's exactly the point that Finkelstein is making.

The likelihood of someone smuggling a nuclear bomb into London may be 100-1 or even a 1000-1, but the consequences would be so immense that the spending and anti-terrorism measures (not that I agree with all of them) are justified.

The other reason to support the measures are that, even if the likelihood of dieing in a terrorist incident is small, the insecurity such incidents create in the population is huge. Imagine a situation where there's a 7/7 once or twice a year - statistically, it would still be only be tiny number of people dieing compared to other things (car accidents for example), but it wouldn't be long before the insecurity felt by people manifested itself is some pretty unsavoury people getting elected with a promise to "get a grip" on it.


[ Parent ]

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#6)

by swatantra on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 02:03:52 PM GMT

The point is its counter productive to the 'terrorists' to repeat atrocities. The more they do, the more innocent casualties, including muslims. There comes a stage at which there is complete revulsion within the muslim community including the hardliners, when they turn on the islamic facists in their midst with a vengence. We are fast reaching that stage.


[ Parent ]

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#7)

by rwendland on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 02:58:52 PM GMT

> The likelihood of someone smuggling a nuclear bomb into London may be 100-1 or even a 1000-1

The likelihood of terrorists doing this is remote. Building a nuclear weapon, even if you can steal enough fissile material (highly unlikely), requires larger scale industrial resources than terrorists have.

More realistic is that a commando team with maybe 10+ modern anti-tank weapons could breach the containment of a nuclear power station, rendering perhaps a tenth of the England uninhabitable. Or use an aeroplane. A strong, but usually overlooked, argument against building more nuclear power stations.


[ Parent ]

Re: Terror Convictions Quashed (#2)

by treborc on Thu Feb 14, 2008 at 11:18:58 AM GMT

Lets just hope we do not regret this in a few years, I've no doubt these lads might have been planning something, it might have been marching to London to demand something, it might have been to discuss what ever, it might have been death and destruction. and then again it might have been next weeks football match.


because the Police acted so swift we might never know or we might be saying in a few years told you so.


Terror Convictions Quashed | 7 comments (7 topical)