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• Commission adopts the third annual report on achievements in Justice, Freedom and Security policies

  2 July 2008, by European Commission
  Today, the Commission adopted the third annual report on the implementation of the Hague Programme on achievements in Justice, Freedom and Security policies, also referred to as the Scoreboard. The Hague Programme, which covers 2005-2009, is the successor of the Tampere Programme which covered the period 1999-2004. The 2007 Scoreboard assesses progress made vis-à-vis actions envisaged in the Hague Action plan for 2007.

• Abu Qatada released from prison

  2 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  The radical Abu Qatada has variously been described as a «truly dangerous individual» and a «key UK figure» in al-Qaida-related activity by those in anti-terrorist circles who have studied his work and words. Qatada, who was released from prison last night on strict bail conditions including a 22-hour curfew, became one of the UK’s most wanted men in December 2001, when he went on the run on the eve of government moves to introduce new anti-terror laws allowing suspects to be detained without charge or trial.

• ’Bomb plot’ wife gave false name

  2 July 2008, by BBC
  A suspected airline bomb plotter’s wife has told a jury she gave police a false name and lied to protect her fugitive husband’s identity. Zora Siddique said she had initially given her cousin’s name to officers and had failed to reveal Mohammed Gulzar’s identity because he was a wanted man. Prosecutors allege that Mr Gulzar and others plotted to smuggle liquid bombs disguised as drinks on to planes.

• Counter terrorism chief praises Scottish approach

  2 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  SNP Home Affairs spokesperson, Pete Wishart MP, has welcomed comments by the Director-General of the Office for Security and Counter Terrorism praising Scotland’s community cohesion and ability to prevent young people becoming radicalised and joining terror groups. In an interview, Charles Farr, said: «I think the nature of communities in Scotland is discernibly different from the nature of communities south of the border. You have an ability to reach in and develop a strategy of this kind.»

• Muslims may not have to undergo sniffer dog checks in UK

  2 July 2008, by Times of India
  Muslim passengers may not be touched by sniffer dogs of the British Transport Police after complaints that the practice is against Islam. According to the religion, dogs are deemed to be spiritually «unclean». A Transport Department report has raised the prospect that animals should only touch passengers’ luggage because it is considered «more acceptable», the Daily Express reported.

• Crown presents strong e-mail evidence in Khawaja case

  2 July 2008, by News Agencies
  The strongest evidence in the case of the first man charged under Canada’s antiterrorism act was revealed in court – emails he wrote over the course of a year prior to his arrest. Mohammad Mowin Khawaja, 29, wrote messages to conspirators in Britain referring to detonation devices, routing recruits to a house in Pakistan, as well as ways to send money and night-vision goggles to insurgents in Afghanistan.

• Democratic Governance in a Market Society: Socializing Security in the European Union

  1 July 2008, by Scandamis Nicholas
  A vast topic like this certainly needs to be delineated right at the outset mainly in terms of the task pursued. Indeed, democracy is a concept with a long history and today it shapes itself at many different levels. Unavoidably it must be approached through its essence, the forceful idea which keeps it alive and makes it still today a polemic concept. Its fundamental imprecision needs to be handled cautiously in view also of the difficulties arising from the peculiarities of the context of what is known to be European governance; a stand which makes problematic the very use of the word democracy

• The concepts of security and liberty in the framework of the European Union: the case of the EU’s external action

  1 July 2008, by University of Athens, University of Cologne
  The concepts of Liberty and Security, both in a theoretical perspective and in view of their role in the formulation and implementation of virtually all policies in a modern polity, acquire a special place in the framework of the European Union. Taking into account the rapid development of a variety of EU policies that revolve around these concepts, this special place merits extensive attention. This is particularly important for the analysis of the development of a distinct foreign policy/external action of the EU, in the framework of which the concepts of liberty and security acquire a significant role.

• More money invested to tackle radicalisation

  1 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  New guidance to help and support local authorities, schools, community groups and the police in tackling violent extremism and prevent radicalisation in communities was launched on Tuesday by the government. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, Communities Secretary Hazel Blears and Children, Schools and Families Secretary Ed Balls rolled out their counter terrorism strategy which hopes to prevent people getting involved with violent extremism.

• Terror law to allow 42-day detention opposed by MPs

  1 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  The government is unveiling a major new package of a counter-terrorism laws, a plan that gives the right to detain terrorist suspects for upto 42 days without charge. Prime Minister Gordon Brown is understood to have outlined concessions and appealed to MPs not to inflict further damage on the Government after a series of election disasters and policy U-turns. Under long-awaited changes to the Counter-Terrorism Bill, Home Secretary Miss Smith revealed the power to detain suspects without charge would only be used in the face of a «grave, exceptional terrorist threat» to Britain.

• UK terror suspect says bomb plans were stunt

  1 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  A man has denied leading a plot to cause mass murder by blowing planes out of the sky with the excuse that he had meant instead to explode small devices inside the Houses of Parliament as part of a publicity stunt. Abdulla Ahmed Ali, 27, said that suicide videos which the prosecution claims prove a plot to bomb seven planes flying to North America were in fact made as part of a «propaganda» documentary planned for release after the small explosions in Westminster.

• London bombs home-made from pharmacy ingredients

  1 July 2008, by The Muslim Weekly
  Explosives found by detectives investigating the London bombings were home-made using ingredients that can be found in high street chemists. The highly volatile explosive - acetone peroxide - has been discovered in a house in Leeds thought to have been used as a bomb-making factory. The discovery has raised fears of other British fanatics making their own explosives and following the example of the London suicide bombers.

• Borders Observatory

  1 July 2008, by Migreurop
  The project of creating a « European Borders Observatory » aims at fostering non-governmental information on the situation of migrants at the borders, at denouncing violations of rights committed there, at promoting those rights, and thus improving the consideration for fundamental rights in the immigration policies of both transit and host countries.

• Islamic fanatics are openly using the internet to recruit children in Britain, says Civitas

  1 July 2008, by Mail on Sunday
  Islamic extremists in Britain are openly trying to recruit children via the internet, a report warns.

• Report: Berlin fears German being groomed as suicide bomber

  1 July 2008, by Earth Times
  Police fear that a convert, Eric B, 20, is being groomed by Jihadists to become the first German suicide bomber, according to the news magazine Der Spiegel on Saturday. German police had lost track of B several weeks ago in the wilds in or near Afghanistan, where he was in training with Islamic Jihad Union (IJU), an Uzbek-origin terrorist group regarded as just as threatening as Arab-based al-Qaeda.

• Denmark: Three Muslims attacked after embassy bombing in Pakistan

  30 June 2008, by 24 Timer
  Former spokesperson of the Islamic Faith Society (ISF) Kasem Said Ahmed was attacked on his way to work, shortly after the attack on the Danish embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan was announced in the Danish media. The attack occurred in Copenhagen, and Ahmed said he was punched in the face after being asked if he was an imam.

• Islamist Angst: How Germany Is Dismantling Civil Rights amid Terror Fears

  30 June 2008, by Spiegel Online
  Germany has so far been spared a bloody Islamist terror attack. But it only took two planned attacks in Germany to persuade a majority of the population to support a massive dismantling of civil rights.

• Spain arrests two on militant recruitment suspicion

  30 June 2008, by News Agencies
  Police in Barcelona arrested two people on Tuesday on suspicion of recruiting Muslims to fight for militant groups, news agency EFE reported. The report said they were not connected to 11 other Islamist militants who a Spanish court charged on Thursday with offences related to suicide bomb plots in the Spanish city and Germany.

• Norway: Bhatti acquitted of terrorism, convicted on other charges

  30 June 2008, by Aftenposten
  Norway’s first terrorism trial ended with the acquittal of Arfan Bhatti, who was charged with firing shots at a synagogue in Oslo, and planning attacks on embassies. His alleged accomplices were also acquitted, but Bhatti was convicted for other shootings and attempted murder. Instead of terrorism, Bhatti was essentially convicted of vandalism instead - though some viewed his verbal threats, thoughts, and ideas conveyed by cellphone as frightening.

• The Institutional Architecture of CFSP after the Lisbon Treaty: Constitutional breakthrough or challenges ahead?

  30 June 2008, by Bopp Franziska, Wessels Wolfgang
  This paper analyses the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the institutional architecture of CFSP and the overall external action of the Union. The Lisbon Treaty has introduced some remarkable changes which might substantially influence the (inter-)institutional balance in this policy field. The authors offer two different possible readings of the CFSP provisions of the Lisbon Treaty: they could be interpreted as a major step forward in the direction of a strengthened, more coherent and more effective international actor with more supranational elements; but they may also be seen as demonstrating an ever-refined mode of ‘rationalised intergovernmentalism’.

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