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| Britain |
| 230 of the 963 terror suspects arrested since 9/11 allowed to stay in UK |
| 2006-05-22 |
| MORE than 230 foreigners identified by MI5 and Scotland Yard as suspected terrorists have been allowed to stay in Britain as asylum seekers. Home Office records show that nearly a quarter of the 963 people arrested in counter-terrorism operations in England and Wales since September 2001 have claimed refugee status, saying their human rights would be violated if they returned to countries such as Algeria, Iraq and Somalia. While their applications are processed, all are entitled to state benefits such as free housing and legal aid to pursue their claims that they would be persecuted in their home countries. Critics say the figures make a mockery of a much trumpeted announcement by Tony Blair after last July’s London bombings that the government would automatically refuse asylum to anyone engaged in terrorism. The disclosure will increase pressure on John Reid, the home secretary, who already faces claims that he misled the public over the affair of five Nigerians who were arrested last week working as illegal immigrants at the Home Office. Reid boasted that the arrests showed that the system for detecting illegal migrants worked. But the company that employed them later revealed that the men had been working at the department for years. With Reid due to be grilled by a Commons committee over the immigration debacles, the figures on terrorist suspects have reignited the debate over Britain’s “porous borders”. Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman for homeland security, said terrorists were being wrongly led to believe that they could take advantage of Britain’s lax border controls. The Tories want a US-style national border police to stop dangerous terrorists and criminals from entering the country. Baroness Cox, a former deputy speaker of the Lords who has been pressing ministers to disclose the statistics, said that allowing so many terror suspects to seek asylum sent the wrong message. “This is quite a signifiant group of people who could be a threat to society,” she said. “It shows a remarkable lack of due care and vigilance by the government.” Sir Andrew Green, the former British ambassador to Saudi Arabia and chairman of MigrationWatch UK, an independent think tank, said: “This is clear evidence of the abuse of the asylum system by potential terrorists. We have long urged that we need a much tougher and more realistic approach to applications from countries we know to be potential sources of terrorism.” Latest Home Office figures show that of the 963 people detained under Britain’s terrorism laws between September 2001 and November 2005, 232 were identified in the department’s records as having applied for asylum, 214 of them before being arrested. Scotland Yard said an additional 34 people had been arrested as suspected terrorists in the period to March this year, bringing the total number to 997. If one in four has also claimed asylum, that would bring the total of asylum seeking terror suspects to about 240. The Home Office says most of those arrested are never brought to court. More than half are released without charge while dozens more are charged under other laws with crimes such as murder, grievous bodily harm or the use of firearms. Several men charged in an alleged plot to target Britain with the deadly poison ricin were asylum seekers. Among them was Algerian-born Kamel Bourgass, the ringleader. He was sentenced to life imprisonment last year for the murder of Stephen Oake, a Manchester special branch officer. Abu Qatada, a radical Muslim cleric said to be Al-Qaeda’s “ambassador in Europe”, came to Britain as an asylum seeker from Pakistan in 1993. The Home Office is trying to deport him to Jordan, the place of his birth, claiming that his presence is “not conducive to the public good”. It has also emerged that two men charged over the July 21 attacks on London had come to Britain as dependents of asylum seekers from Somalia and Eritrea. Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, said yesterday that he would ask the European Court of Human Rights to review its absolute bar on deporting people to countries where they could face death or torture. Goldsmith said the government wanted to be able to take into account British security considerations. Experts warned that article 3 of the human rights convention, which is enshrined in the government’s human rights act, meant that it was almost impossible to remove people from Britain even if they were terrorists. “Tony Blair has quite deliberately misled the public in suggesting that we could just remove people suspected or found guilty of terrorism,” said Green. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #10 Fixed - I removed it from anon2u's post. Readers can find the article at the link in my comment above. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-05-22 17:28 |
| #9 How about putting the URL inside a link? It's busted the page width, at least on my screen... |
| Posted by: Dave D. 2006-05-22 17:26 |
| #8 I forwarded it to the list. It's up now for comment here. |
| Posted by: lotp 2006-05-22 17:24 |
| #7 Fred hasn't approved this yet, but via Lucianne and it's behind a wall: Six years after Democrat Al Gore won the popular vote but lost the presidency to Republican George W. Bush, there's a new move afoot in the California Legislature and other states to ensure that such things never happen again. The linchpin is a proposed "interstate compact," designed to guarantee that presidents will be selected by popular vote, without amending the U.S. Constitution or eliminating the Electoral College. |
| Posted by: anonymous2u 2006-05-22 17:20 |
| #6 Well said. It's equally deep here, 5089. But America's a very big country - and sentiment is turning. Problem is that everyone likes to focus on some outside group of "others" instead of the kindly neighbor next door who often blindly marches to the beat of the enemy drum. To win this war, we will have to fight a civil war of sorts to put down the framework and structure that makes it all happen - corrupt politicians, the media, University burn outs and "liberalism", a true faith religion of self-hate and blame whose followers seeks to elevate themselves as the righteous ones - much in the same way as the Islamists do. I think there is still time. Americans can see what's happening in Europe and it's giving all but the most blind believer pause. And contrary what others may believe - I believe that it won't be anyone country or faith that will turn the tide on this - but ordinary folks globally, that seek to put down those who wallow in hatred and destruction. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-22 12:52 |
| #5 Yes, me too, as I think islam is nothing more than a carrion, or if you wish, of an opportunist seeking advantage of the weakness of its archennemy... weakness bron from within. Do you really think all of this would have been possible in the pre 1918 West? In the 40's, 50's? Any pre-1960's era? Compare the french handling of the algerian war with France's present appeasement and top-down multiculturalist, pro-islam de facto surrender. All this is *suicide*. Don't know if it's because of the WWI butchery, because it's a corrective mega-trend from an Elliot wave, because it's the neo-leftist of the Frankfurt school, or the result of the successful memetic war fought by marxism since the 30's (to me, communism has won the cold war, at least in the West), or a failure of modernity. Either way, we're talking survival, and I wouldn't bet on us. But perhaps I'm so negative because I'm an euro, and the rot is much more deeper here, and because we're the Prize? |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-05-22 12:16 |
| #4 I still maintain that our biggest threat is not from the Muslims - not even from the Islamists. Our biggest threat is from within. |
| Posted by: 2b 2006-05-22 10:56 |
| #3 Here, too. Our county sheriff has been arresting illegal aliens for the past six months, and billing (unsuccessfully, thus far) the federal immigration department (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,ICE) for their incarceration. According to the local paper Saturday, the most recent arrestees were released, because the local police can't make arrests of those breaking federal laws. Not exactly Al Qaeda cadres, but the point about not being permitted to enforce the law was made. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-05-22 07:23 |
| #2 Sounds just like our state department and imigration and naturalization service but it would only apply to common criminals. |
| Posted by: Sock Puppet of Doom 2006-05-22 04:11 |
| #1 This simply wouldn't be the case if they'd attacked parliament rather than tubes full of punters. Definite smell of lefty conspiracy here - the left are now suggesting an amnesty for ALL illegals! Sound familiar? |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2006-05-22 03:40 |