In UK, First "Anarchist's Cookbook" Downloaders' Convictions 418
analysethis writes "In the UK last month the author/compiler of the well-known-in-Internet-circles 'terrorist handbook' pleaded guilty to seven counts of collecting information that could have been used to prepare or commit acts of terrorism, with a maximum jail term of 10 years. Today the first people caught with downloaded copies have been put behind bars — a white-supremacist father and son pairing getting 10 and two years respectively, convicted of three counts of possessing material useful for acts of terror. How many will be emptying their recycle bins after this conviction? As of writing, the book is still freely available on Amazon.com to buy." Note: it seems that there's some overlapping nomenclature at play. Terrance Brown, the man who pleaded guilty to terror charges last month, is said to have been distributing a CD set including among other things extracts from Al-Qaeda manuals. His "cookbook" differs then from William Powell's 1971 book by a similar title, though (confusingly enough) the linked Wikipedia article implies that the father-and-son pair arrested possessed a copy of the Powell book as well; its text may well have been among the materials that Brown distributed.
Oh no am I in trouble. (Score:5, Informative)
Useful to commit acts of terrorism? (Score:5, Informative)
Not the Anarchist's Cookbook. Rife with inaccuracies and dangerous, or so my chemist friends tell me.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
I'm burning all my wife's cookbooks (Score:2, Informative)
Re:"white-supremacist father and son" (Score:1, Informative)
Didn't we already have 'Free Speech Zones' since the Vietnam war? And then wasn't limited use of free speech zones greatly expanded when Bush was pResident? (http://www.aclu.org/FilesPDFs/dissent_report.pdf)
Let's face it, when Republicans are in power, you get a larger dose of both white supremacists AND Free Speech Zones. Just look at Arizona.
Re:Useful to commit acts of terrorism? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Could've been the Anarchist's Cookbook.... (Score:3, Informative)
"a manual for making illegal weapons of indiscriminate destruction."
Not really. It's just information. A manual describing how so-called WMDs work can contain the same information and be titled "WMD Processes, a Handbook for Investigators" or similar. An ordinary military close combat manual or unconventional operations manual or "Field Expedient weapons" manual can have the same info as a pub named "Eco-Necro-Pedo-Copro-Jihadist Tutorial for Total Annihilation!".
Specific example:
Phosgene is produced for industrial use, and is one of the first war gases.
http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/phosgene/basics/facts.asp [cdc.gov]
It can be used to make plastics, or for other things...
http://www.warpoetry.co.uk/owen1.html [warpoetry.co.uk]
Some better instructions (Score:5, Informative)
If you search the web you'll find:
AF Regulation 64-4 - Search and Rescue Survival Training
FM 3-24 - MCWP 3-33.5 - Counterinsurgency
TM 31-210 - Improvised Munitions Handbook
These are non-copyrighted, public domain texts prepared by the USA armed forces. They all teach how to create terror in the enemy ranks. The last one, "Improvised Munitions", teaches how to make explosives from stuff you find anywhere.
No need to go through lengthy procedures to buy "dangerous" chemicals, they are everywhere if you know where to look. And this free manual, courtesy of the US Army, teaches you where to look.
Re:Could've been the Anarchist's Cookbook.... (Score:3, Informative)
I wouldn't hold out too much hope. The previous Conservative government took away plenty of civil liberties. For example a policemen could stop someone who he believed was travelling to a rave, and send them away from the area. Then there was the so called "sus" law, where a policeman could stop and search anyone.
Then of course, talking of thought crimes, there was the banning of the book "Spycatcher", and the ban on the voices of Sein Fein spokesmen being transmitted - leading to the ridiculous overdubbing of interviews by actor's voices.
There are no doubt plenty more. These are just the ones that spring to mind.
Re:Could've been the Anarchist's Cookbook.... (Score:4, Informative)
Exactly: punishing someone for mere possession of information is the creation of thoughtcrime.
The trouble with thoughtcrime is that not only does it not consider intent, which is hard to determine in absolute terms in court anyway, it also does not consider action, which is the objective basis for most court cases. Where do you draw the line, if your society is not going to allow people to explore information?
I personally have no interest in making chemical weapons or nuclear bombs, but I can imagine that a research chemist might overlap the former and an engineer working on a nuclear power plant might overlap the latter. Maybe I'm irrational, but I like the idea that pharma companies can develop new drugs to improve our health, and power firms can provide enough electricity to keep the lights on.
I do have an interest in driving, and was taught many of the same techniques as police drivers by my ex-police driving instructor, to help me avoid accidents and stay safer on the roads. At what point does knowledge of these techniques become "acts preparatory to terrorism" or something like that, given that I am familiar with some of the defensive driving techniques that security officers would use to protect a VIP?
I also have a background in martial arts. I probably know a lot of things that would help me if I were ever to confront a police officer with their usual array of weapons and defensive equipment. I have no reason to do so and never have done so, but if we're allowing thoughtcrime then when does this knowledge change from an academic interest in historical arts or the results of training for perfectly legal contact sports into something sinister and worthy of suspicion or even prosecution?
I would guess that a high proportion of responsible, normally law-abiding adults in the UK could be fitted up with some sort of thoughtcrime without too much effort. As Cardinal Richlieu famously said, "Give me six lines written by the most honest man, and I will find something in them with which to hang him."
Re:Some better instructions (Score:3, Informative)
For your convenience:
AF Regulation 64-4 - Search and Rescue Survival Training [110mb.com]
FM 3-24 - MCWP 3-33.5 - Counterinsurgency [110mb.com]
TM 31-210 - Improvised Munitions Handbook [110mb.com]
Thoughtcrime had nothing on the Serious Crime Bill (Score:3, Informative)
Did you notice Blair's Serious Crime Bill, via which you could be punished eg forced to move hundreds of miles, by merely doing something which would inadvertently aid any potential serious crime, whether or not a crime was committed?
It was amended by Brown to make the punishment proportionate.
Blair actually out-1984'd Orwell.