without charge. Six people were arrested in Bournemouth on the 12th January. All released without charge. Four were arrested in raids on the 14th January in North Manchester during which a police officer was killed. Outrageously prejudicial public comments were made about the alleged killer being the mastermind behind the alleged ricin production and being a "murderer".
On the 20th January the Finsbury Park mosque in North London was stormed at 2 am. 150 officers, many armed, were accompanied by helicopters with searchlights while streets were cordoned off. Occupation The police occupation, involving minute forensic examination, lasted days. Seven were arrested, but in the end only one person was charged under the Terrorism Act. Little was found of any significance certainly no evidence of chemical weapons or a terrorist plot.
Massoud Shadjarel of the Islamic Human Rights Commission, reflected community anger in pointing out that, "even the Israeli Defence Force did not storm the Bethlehem Church when they said that terrorists were firing at them from inside".
During the February airport security scare, eight people were arrested in Hounslow, Berkshire and Yorkshire. None were charged.
Many of the "terrorism" offences charged will have been relatively minor (for instance false documentation or withholding information) falling far short of alleging planning for or engagement in any terrorist acts.
The pattern was the same when the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) was used against the Irish community. Some 7,000 were arrested in the two decades after 1974. Of these only 5% ever faced trial for "terrorist offences" - many very minor - of whom a substantial proportion were found not guilty.
Today the "charge rate" superficially seems a bit higher. But, as in the past, it would be very surprising if some currently facing charges did not find them reduced to non-terrorist offences or dropped altogether prior to any trial. In addition the new "anti-terror" Acts of 2000 and 2001 create a host of brand new "offences" and have redefined "terrorism" in such a way as to potentially encompass a broader range of activity, including conduct not previously considered criminal let alone "terrorist". Even among those convicted under the old PTA, case after case was subsequently thrown out. For example because: Defendants had been stitched up with fabricated confessions (the Guildford Four, Judith Ward) and dodgy forensic evidence (the Birmingham Six, Danny McNamee) There had been an abuse of the process of the court (Nick Mullen)
They didn't get a fair trial (the Winchester Three).
In the North of Ireland there was a period in the 1980s when so many were being remanded in custody for long periods only to have their cases dropped at the last minute, that nationalists called this "internment by remand".
Yet Tony Blair has the gall to attack anti-war protestors on the grounds that British citizens, unlike Iraqis, are not in danger of arbitrary arrest or detention without trial!
Orchestrated media smears have accompanied the current round of arrests and the government has transparently failed to act to protect the right to a fair trial. Prejudicial coverage
Gareth Pierce, an experienced and level-headed lawyer, complained to a been interned arrests
.... clothes. January. Detailed evidence was revealed of explosives and plots to assassinate the UK Defence Chief of Staff. Two weeks later they were all released without charge. It turned out they were street vendors, desperately eking out a living, who all lived in one flat on old mattresses amid piles of Blair's allies in the right wing Berlusconi government have also used the "war against terrorism" in a direct attempt to criminalise and marginalise the global justice movement and the In November and December 2002 activists were arrested on charges that included "psychological participation" in violent acts at the Genoa protests in July 2001 and "subversive association". 20 have been released, but 42 activists of the "Rete del sud ribelle" network are still under investigation.
Statewatch reports Italian activists' view that this was a "preventative criminalisation" in the run-up to the 15th February anti-war demonstration. "Political illegality"
And on the 27th January Interior Minister Giuseppe Pisanu made a detailed report to the Italian parliament warning of a growing climate of "widespread political illegality" which must be monitored and combated because it is "undoubtedly dangerous". He speculated about links between Islamic terrorist groups and Italian anarchists and the far left.
More ominously he suggested there was little difference between militant political activity (demonstrations, A recent Washington Post report states that many have been subject to "stress and duress" interrogation techniques and other abusive practices in violation of international treaties prohibiting the torture and mistreatment of prisoners. This is serving a purpose in the war drive, with supposed "intelligence" from these interrogations providing a seemingly endless justification for security threat scare stories around the world and the (now discredited) claim of an Iraq-Al Qaeda plot. Stop torture
New York-based Human Rights Watch has described the Post's allegations as "extremely serious". Pointing out that some of these detainees are being held on Diego Garcia - part of the British Indian Ocean Territory -HRW has demanded that Britain takes steps to stop the torture or risk being accused of war crime offences.
The treatment of 750 (the true figure is higher) known to have been held on "immigration charges" in the wake of September 11 in the USA has also been condemned. 80-100 of these remain incarcerated.
An HRW inquiry found that authorities had held detainees "for prolonged periods without charges, impeded their access to counsel, subjected them to coercive interrogations and over-ridden judicial orders to release them on bond during immigration proceedings". According to Amnesty, prisoners have been subjected to prolonged periods of solitary confinement.
Meanwhile, in Britain, 13 prisoners have been interned without trial for fourteen months now. They include Mahmood Abu Rideh, a Palestinian who fled here having been tortured by Israeli security forces in Gaza.
He was transferred to Broadmoor on the orders of a judge in August because he is seriously mentally ill. Described as depressed and suicidal he began a hunger strike in January.
Fortunately the anti-war movement has not been intimidated by the atmosphere of fear. We must continue to establish the truth behind the headlines, demand full rights for all those arrested and defend the communities under attack.