Newcastle University Academic Says Britain Has Become a Less Free, Less Private State Since 7/7

CHRONICLE LIVE: Response to London bombings has seen individual freedom sacrificed for security according to Newcastle University professor Dr Martin Farr

Since July 7 it can be argued that the streets of England are safer but at what cost?

Surveillance has been ramped up, individual privacy and liberties curtailed, controversial legislation proposed and in some cases followed through.

The depth of the scrutiny has been revealed by Wikileaks and CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

But while there is not been another 7/7 on British shores, the threat overseas is ever present as shown by the recent shootings in Tunisia when 30 British tourists were among 38 victims of gunman Seifeddine Rezgui.

Most legislation proposals are preceded by ominous warnings. » | Mike Kelly | Tuesday, July 7, 2015

WikiLeaks: Fear of Offending Muslims Allowed Extremists into Britain ahead of 7/7 London Bombings
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A fear of offending Muslims allowed extremists into Britain before the 2005 London Tube and bus bombings, a former Labour minister with close links to the intelligence services has admitted.

Kim Howells blamed “political correctness” for fostering a situation in which dozens of extremists being sent to fight the West after being indoctrinated in Britain.

The Daily Telegraph has disclosed this week how terrorist recruits from across Africa and the Middle East flocked to London to claim asylum.

According to leaked detainee files from the US detention camp in Guantanamo Bay, obtained by the WikiLeaks website and passed to The Daily Telegraph, at least 35 detainees were sent to fight against the West after being indoctrinated in Britain.

Mr Howells, a former foreign office minister and chairman of the influential Commons intelligence and security committee, blamed “political correctness” which meant that the extremists and their views were not challenged.

He said: “There is a great reluctance to talk about the whole issue. » | Christopher Hope, Whitehall Editor | Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Oh, for Christ's sake, grow a spine! (No blasphemy intended! Literally, for the sake of Christ! Otherwise the West will not belong to Christ.) You lot in Westminster and in other institutions are so, so weak. What the hell are we paying you weaklings for? Spineless creatures! Spineless to the Nth degree! Quite sickening! – © Mark

We Have Not Learnt the Lesson of the July 7 Suicide Bombing
THE TELEGRAPH: In the five years since suicide bombers killed 52 people in London, placatory government policy on Islamist terrorism has achieved little but store up trouble for the future, argues Douglas Murray.

Whose law? Members of Islam4UK leave a London press conference in January. Photograph: The Telegraph
Tomorrow [Today] marks the fifth anniversary of the day suicide bombing came to Britain. On July 7, 2005 three young British-born men exploded their devices simultaneously on the London Underground. A fourth man detonated his an hour later on a bus in Tavistock Square. Together they left 52 people dead, many more injured, and a country only starting to realise that a problem it had long exported had found its way home.

While July 7 was the first time that jihadi terrorism had come to British streets, these were not the first streets to which British-born Islamists had brought terror. Two years earlier, two young British men had gone to Mike's Place, a bar in Tel Aviv, and carried out a suicide bombing. Almost a decade before July 7 – in 1996 – the man said to have been Britain's first suicide bomber died in Afghanistan, self-detonating to kill opponents of the Taliban forces he was fighting alongside.

By 2005 British-raised jihadis had fought around the world, spurred on by radical clerics at home, backed by British networks and allowed to operate by a government and security service who believed that this was a problem for other people. It took 10 years for Britain to extradite to France the Algerian man accused of blowing up the Paris Metro in 1995. Britain had become a soft touch: a magnet for foreign jihadis and a hub of home-grown radicalisation.

To coincide with the fifth anniversary of July 7 this week, the Centre for Social Cohesion is releasing Islamist Terrorism: the British Connections. It is a 500-page, telephone directory-sized work that aims to present an overview of every traceable Islamist convicted of Islamism-inspired terrorist offences and attacks over the last decade. It also examines the scope of British-linked Islamism-inspired terrorism threats worldwide since 1993, listing many foreign combatants and extradition cases and British citizens convicted abroad.

It presents a timeline of the jihad, a list of the major networks and analysis of the data, presenting the most accurate picture possible of what makes up a violent British Islamist. Terrorism expert Marc Sageman has already said it "will become the indispensable reference for any future inquiry into British neo-jihadi terrorism". Yet it is a work that neither the Home Office nor the Crown Prosecution Service, nor any other department of government, has got around to compiling. >>> Douglas Murray* | Tuesday, July 06, 2010

*Douglas Murray is director of the Centre for Social Cohesion

Related article >>>

Five Years On, Victims of 7 July Bombings Are Remembered
THE GUARDIAN: People gather at memorial to 52 victims of London underground and bus bombings to pay their respects

The Hyde Park memorial to the victims of the 7 July London bombings. Photograph: The Guardian
At 8.50am on the 7 July 2005, three bombs exploded on underground trains in central London. The explosions were followed, within an hour, by another on a London bus.

At 8.50am today, under a grey sky, a handful of people gathered quietly at the eastern side of Hyde Park, where 52 steel pillars represent those killed in the bombings.

They came to pay their respects, to remember loved ones, to be quiet for a few moments as the traffic rumbled past in the background. >>> Alexandra Topping | Wednesday, July 07, 2010

7/7 Ripple Effect: The “Documentary” which Blames “the British and Israeli Secret Services” for the 7/7 Bombings

Hat tip: JihadWatch >>>

Jihadists from Leeds Sentenced to Seven Years in Jail for Planned Terror Trips
TIMESONLINE: Two men who planned to attend a terrorist training camp were both sentenced to seven years in jail today.

Waheed Ali, 25, and Mohammed Shakil, 32, were cleared of helping the 7/7 bombers to select their targets but convicted of conspiracy to attend a training camp for terrorists after they were arrested before boarding a flight for Pakistan in 2007.

Mr Justice Gross sentenced the pair to seven years each at Kingston Crown Court.

Both men have already spent more than two years in custody, which will be deducted from the time they will serve. They admitted attending terrorist training camps in the past, before it had been made an offence.

Ali and Shakil stood trial with Sadeer Saleem, 28, for assisting the 7/7 attacks on London. Yesterday all three were found not guilty. The three men, from Beeston in Leeds, were re-tried after an earlier jury failed to reach verdicts. >>> Times Online | Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Three Cleared of Helping July 7 London Bombers
THE TELEGRAPH: Three men - Mohammed Shakil, Sadeer Saleem and Waheed Ali - have been cleared of helping the July 7 bombers plan their attacks.


The three men, all from Beeston in Leeds, who have been acquitted by a jury, were the only people ever to be charged in relation to the bombings of July 2005.

They had been accused of conducting a "hostile reconnaissance" mission for the bombers seven months before the attacks.

They were joined by two of the bombers as they travelled to King's Cross, along with the London Eye and Natural History Museum, eight days before Christmas in December 2004.

Objects belonging to each of the men were also found in the flat used as a bomb factory in the area of Hyde Park, Leeds.

All three had also been on training camps in Pakistan with Mohammed Sidique Khan, the leader of the bombers, the last just months before the attacks.

Two of the men, Waheed Ali and Mohammed Shakil, were convicted of conspiracy to attend a place used for terrorist training after they were arrested on their way to Manchester airport in 2007.

But Ali, Shakil and Sadeer Saleem were all cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions. >>> By Duncan Gardham, Security Correspondent | Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The Sick Video of Siddique Khan – the 7/7 Bomber’s Farewell
Watch the BBC Video Here
Read the story HERE

The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Paperback - UK)
The Dawning of a New Dark Age (Hardback - UK)

Secret Papers Reveal Threats from Prince Bandar If British Government Refused to Drop Inquiry into Corruption at BAE
Photo of Prince Bandar, head of Saudi Arabia’s national security, courtesy of The Guardian
THE GUARDIAN: Saudi Arabia's rulers threatened to make it easier for terrorists to attack London unless corruption investigations into their arms deals were halted, according to court documents revealed yesterday.

Previously secret files describe how investigators were told they faced "another 7/7" and the loss of "British lives on British streets" if they pressed on with their inquiries and the Saudis carried out their threat to cut off intelligence.

Prince Bandar, the head of the Saudi national security council, and son of the crown prince, was alleged in court to be the man behind the threats to hold back information about suicide bombers and terrorists. He faces accusations that he himself took more than £1bn in secret payments from the arms company BAE.

He was accused in yesterday's high court hearings of flying to London in December 2006 and uttering threats which made the prime minister, Tony Blair, force an end to the Serious Fraud Office investigation into bribery allegations involving Bandar and his family.

The threats halted the fraud inquiry, but triggered an international outcry, with allegations that Britain had broken international anti-bribery treaties.

Lord Justice Moses, hearing the civil case with Mr Justice Sullivan, said the government appeared to have "rolled over" after the threats. He said one possible view was that it was "just as if a gun had been held to the head" of the government.

The SFO investigation began in 2004, when Robert Wardle, its director, studied evidence unearthed by the Guardian. This revealed that massive secret payments were going from BAE to Saudi Arabian princes, to promote arms deals.

Yesterday, anti-corruption campaigners began a legal action to overturn the decision to halt the case. They want the original investigation restarted, arguing the government had caved into blackmail. BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince - Spectre of 'another 7/7' led Tony Blair to block bribes inquiry, high court told >>> | David Leigh and Rob Evans

LISTEN TO GUARDIAN AUDIO: 'It was remarkable the way the government had just rolled over': Two pressure groups are appealing against the decision to drop an investigation into BAE's dealings with Saudi Arabia

THE GUARDIAN: A cover-up laid bare: court hears how SFO inquiry was halted: Papers show how arms giant tried to avoid revealing secrets; Saudi threats meant 'no other choice' but to stop investigation

THE GUARDIAN: Full Coverage: The BAE Files

DAILY MAIL: Blair accused of forcing BAE fraud probe to fold by applying 'irresistible pressure

THE INDEPENDENT: Blair used 'irresistible pressure' to halt investigation into BAE-Saudi arms deal | Robert Verkaik, Law Editor

Mark Alexander (Paperback)
Mark Alexander (Hardback)

British Muslims In Denial Over 7/7
DAILY MAIL: Almost 60 per cent of British Muslims believe the Government has covered up the truth about the July 7 terror attacks, a survey reveals.

One in four believes the authorities or security services were in some way involved in the outrage.

A similar proportion say they do not believe that the four men identified as the suicide bombers were actually responsible, despite the fact that they were caught on CCTV and left 'martyrdom' videos.

The poll of 500 Muslims will come as a serious blow to Ministers on the day of a high-profile conference aimed at improving relations with the British Muslim community. 59pc of UK Muslims believe there was a cover-up over 7/7 By Rebecca Camber

Mark Alexander