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January 18, 2006
UK: Islamist Suspect Arrested, Terror Bill Neutered In Upper House
UPI via Big News Network reported yesterday that a 27 year old man had been arrested on suspicion of involvement in the attempted bombings on London Transport.
These attempted bombings took place on July 21, a fortnight after the devastating attacks of 7/7, July 7 2005, when 52 people had been killed. Apparently the suicde attacks failed because four rucksack bombs contained ageing ammonium peroxide. This chemical, employed in the 7/7 blasts, is lethal and unstable when fresh. It becomes less reactive when old. It appears the chemical batch employed in the failed attacks of July 21 had deteriorated since its creation.
The suspect who was arrested is the 44th person so far to be questioned in the inquiry into London's bomb attacks. The man has not been identified. A police spokesperson said that searches were being carried out at two residential premises and one business location in West London.
Today, UPI announce that a controversial clause in the government's new anti-terrorism bill has been expunged by the House of Lords, parliament's upper house. The Lords voted 270 against 144 to drop the clause of the bill which would make "glorification of terrorism" an offence.
The bill's second reading, which went to the House of Lords in November, has already had another controversial clause removed. On December 15 we reported that the clause allowing mosques where extremism is preached to be temporarily closed down was removed from the bill.
Both clauses had received criticism from the Association of Chief Police Officers. The proposals to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir were also opposed by the association. These clauses were all criticised by Muslim groups such as the Muslim Council for Britain.
The House of Commons, the lower house, had originally voted on November 9 to limit the bill's proposal to allow detention of suspects for 90 days. The MPs voted 291 for and 322 against the 90 day limit, but a second motion voted through a proposal to keep suspected terror detainees for 60 days.
Following the removal of the latest clause, of glorifying terrorism, which had been criticised by Abdurahman Jafar of the MCB as "counter-productive", ministers have pledged to raise the issue again when the bill returns to the House of Commons.
Baroness Scotland of Asthal said: "The government does not believe it acceptable that people should be allowed to make statements which glorify terrorism and in doing so make it more likely their audience will themselves commit acts of terrorism."
Many peers argued that the definition of what constitutes a terrorist act was vague and could be hard to delineate legally in a court case. Previous critics had argued that one person's terrorist was another person's "freedom fighter",
The bill is expected to go back to the lower house after the end of next week. The government is likely to reintroduce the clause, and then see if the Upper House will still refuse to accept it into legislation.
Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at January 18, 2006 5:51 PM
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