76 posts
Trust is good, control is better? US & EU at a crossroads
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In the Lisbon Treaty preamble the member states of the European Union confirmed their attachment to the principles of liberty, democracy and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and of the rule of law. The EU shall offer its citizens an...
"No to SWIFT" says European Parliament rapporteur Hennis-Plasschaert
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In her report on the SWIFT agreement regarding the exchange of banking data between the USA and the EU, European Parliament rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert has recommended to the EP to reject the SWIFT agreement in the vote tomorrow. After lon...
Growing opposition against EU-USA SWIFT or TFTP agreement
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Active opposition against the so called SWIFT agreement on the rendition of financial data from the European Union to the United States of America seems to be growing among experts, in the European Parliament and beyond.One the one hand, there is the...
“Civil contingencies 2010″: the experts and suppliers tackling tomorrows threats
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The Civil Contingencies 2010 conference was held in London earlier this week. It featured “20 expert speakers” and “numerous carefully selected suppliers” in the business of preparing for “major disruptions”. The d...
Handbook on Terrorist Organisations
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Did you know that the EU is working on a "Handbook on Terrorist Organisations"? It could be that this thing already exists although the search term on Google doesn't produce any results. But in the summary of discussions of the last meeting of the E...
Courage and resolve
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I'm in Karachi where over 30 people lost their lives in a bomb attack last week. You can't visit Pakistan without being struck by the huge sacrifices people are making as they tackle terrorism across the country. It's not just about the military's re...
Yemen - the next target for the War on Terror?
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“Somebody in our government said to me in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, Iraq was yesterday’s war. Afghanistan is today’s war. If we don’t act pre-emptively, Yemen will be tomorrow’s war.” (Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn.) On December 25...
Nudie Pics at the Airport?
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I’ve just touched down in London after a whirlwind tour through the US, and I think I’ll be happy to not see another plane again for a long while. Flying back from Chicago to London I could already see the effects of the attempted Christmas terro...
Honour and Terror
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Good piece by Shuggy on terrorism and how the usual view of it is Eurocentric – Jacobin France, Tsarist Russia, Baader-Meinhof. But there is an old tradition of terrorism in the USA:- In 1870, a federal grand jury designated the Ku Klux Klan...
Terrorism: Still a growing problem
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It is only a matter of time when a major terrorist attack will occur in the West. Until Christmas day, there was a feeling of relative security and that governments had matters under control. The extensive airport security has been re-assuring unti...
A European Saves Americans on Flight 253
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The 9/11 attacks and the failed Christmas Day airplane bombing have two things in common: US agencies had enough information about the terrorists and could have intervened if they had properly analyzed and shared the information that they had, but in...
Face facts: the Islamicists are fascists and they want to kill us
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Before I go any further I must make one thing plain. It shouldn’t be necessary, but I’m afraid it is, given the political illiteracy now prevalent on much of the so-called “left” and the dishonesty prevalent on the Islamist re...
As threats multiply and power fragments, the coming decade cries out for realistic idealism | Timothy Garton Ash
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A foiled terrorist attack must not lure us back to simplistic illusions. Strategic co-operation between old and new powers is the order of the next decade if we are to tackle the big issuesAn Islamist terrorist caught trying to crash a plane over Det...
Adopting scanners; a pretext for more surveillance
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Dutch press EU to adopt scanners; Dutch authorities want the EU to make passenger scanners mandatory, saying they might have foiled an airline bomber. They could foil the attack if intelligence network really worked. It seems that even the father of...
Muslim tries to blow something up, so must be Al-Qaeda
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The British media has been getting itself into a lather about the latest attempt by some nutter to blow up an airliner, this time on a flight between Amsterdam and Detroit. The alleged culprit is a Nigerian Muslim, so hence there’s the allegati...
the theatre of terrorism has a backcloth of newspapers
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Australian “security beauty” (at least that’s what the other side call her) Leah Farrell on Swiss minarets: To my mind the most telling thing is that this is yet another example of people failing to realise that terrorism’s effica...
EU-USA SWIFT & TFTP agreement materials
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The home affairs part of the Justice and EU Home Affairs Council 30 November 2009 contains the following conclusions on the approved EU-US agreement on financial messaging data for counterterrorism investigations (document 16883/09; page 11): EU-US A...
Europe's SWIFT Bow
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Remember when US President Obama bowed to the emperor of Japan? And when he was...
Nevsky Express crash might be terror attack ?
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Yesterday evening a terrible news to violate the beginning of the weekend of Russia. Prime Minister Putin has not had time to enjoy the successes visit to France. At least 26 people are reported dead, 95 more injured after an express train traveling...
A Year since the Mumbai Attacks
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This week marks a year since the devastating attacks in Mumbai that left nearly 200 innocents dead. My thoughts are with the families of those who so tragically lost their lives.But what struck me more than anything in the aftermath of those terrible...
Eight Years On
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Everyone will remember where they were on 11 September 2001. I was in Newcastle giving a speech on manufacturing in the north east, and in a taxi was told by the cab driver of a terrible incident in New York. But it was only the TV footag...
You are a Terrorist
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It has been 8 years since 9/11 and we are still dealing with the consequences. Not only in Afghanistan, Iraq, or somewhere else (obviously these a major problems as well) but also ‘at home’ in Europe. So here is something to think about:...
Toys and terrorists
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It's the middle of August and there's almost no political news, especially not of the EU variety, given the whole of Brussels is on a (well deserved?) five-week holiday.But if you look hard enough there's always something worth writing about. Henrik...
7/7 attacks, four years on
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If you haven’t, read the liveblog from the day, have a look at the one year on post, much of which still stands (though, thankfully, this country seems to be rather less hysterical about terrorism these days), and flick through the London Terro...
Your neighbour is probably a terrorist
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There is something really incomprehensible about Britain’s approach to terrorism. It seems that the government wants to use every technological, physical and PR tactic they can to make people feel more scared safer. The most recent is a bi...
Legal issues in fighting terrorism in the EU: A response from the member states
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The Commission has published a compilation document namedSynthesis of the replies from the Member States to the Questionnaire on criminal law, administrative law/procedural law and fundamental rights in the fight against terrorismOne of the main quot...
EU may help US close Guantanamo
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One of the European Union’s most important officials, Commissioner Jacques Barrot is visiting the US this week with some good news for the US administration. The Frenchman, who is charge of Justice affairs and security is dropping hints about E...
Graham Watson Calls for the Resettlement of Guantanamo Prisoners
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Today the European Parliament will most probably adopt a resolution calling upon Member States to accept Guantanamo inmates in the EU.
Tackling Terrorism
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President Obama's interview on Al Arabiya sets out in clear terms the foundation of his Administration's approach to the Muslim world(s). The watchwords are clear: respect for difference, smart use of power, building a coalition&...
Guantanamo
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President Obama's formal announcement of the decision to close Guantanamo is welcome. He has spoken in strong terms about the need to combine high ideals with strong policy. The British position has been to do our bit. We have taken back all...
9/11 is not in the German mindset (anymore)
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Werner Schultz is running for the EU parliament and told the delegates of the Green Party congress last weekend: "Today the people are more afraid of their investment adviser than of Al Qaeda." A remarkable quote that was cited in many Germ...
Should Europe accept Guantanamo detainees?
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Since President Obama issued the executive order that the Guantanamo Bay Base be shut down within a year, there has been some debate over what will happen to the detainees. Those that will be released will be sent back home, but some cannot be sent b...
What’s wrong with the phrase ‘war on terror’?
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Normblog - ‘the weblog of Norman Geras’ - is often quite good and I read it when I get the chance, but this recent post of his was pretty bad. Norman says that those who, like Shirley Williams, dislike the phrase ‘war on terror̵...
Is there a war on terror?
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British foreign secretary David Miliband has declared, in a change to what was understood to be previous policy, that the UK is not involved in a war on terror. (Read his article in the Guardian here.)President Bush famously introduced the term as a...
What…No Osama?
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As the U.S. Presidential elections drew to a close, media pundits and intelligence experts alike waited in anticipation for bin Laden to address the world. On October 29, 2004, just a few days before the general election, he released a message to t...
Icelanders are not terrorists (but what does a terrorist look like?)
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I’ve just beens sent this link to a website entitled Icelanders are NOT terrorists. The Icelander who informed me is a friend and political contact - Eirikur Bergmann Einarsson - who has been mounting a one man defence of his country in the UK...
Seven Years Later
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Osama bin Laden is still at large. If you haven’t read 110 Stories, you should. Last year. Edward, in 2004.
Terrorism, the Security Council and EC law: Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P
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The Court of Justice has handed down a major judgment in Joined Cases C-402/05 P and C-415/05 P Yassin Abdullah Kadi and Al Barakaat Foundation v. Council and Commission on the right to have measures adopted by the EC to...
Terror papers left on a train - a convenient timing coincidence?
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Two top secret papers about al-Qaeda and on the state of Iraq’s security forces were left on a London Waterloo to Surrey train yesterday, found by another passenger, and passed to the BBC (BBC News Story). Serious enough in itself. Only today i...
