A PAKISTANI judge yesterday ruled that there was no evidence to try Rashid Rauf on terrorist charges, or that he was a member of a terrorist organisation.
Rauf had been termed a ‘key suspect’ and the ‘ring leader’ of a plot to explode a number of British airliners during flight to the US causing thousands of deaths.
The judge moved the case of Rauf, a Briton, from an anti-terrorism court to a regular court, where he faces lesser charges.
The Pakistani court ruling is a major blow to Labour’s ‘war on terror’.
It was information from the Pakistani security services that Rauf was the ‘ring leader’ of a number of Britons in a plot to blow up airliners in mid-air that led to a virtual state of emergency being declared in Britain last August.
The current ‘man of iron’, Home Secretary John Reid, came to the fore during that ‘crisis’ and took over the reins of power from Prime Minister Blair, by- passing Deputy PM John Prescott.
Blair went on his holidays the day before the crisis broke and decided to stay on his holidays and not return (perhaps he knew what was really going on), while Reid kept the country in a state of fear.
As a result of information, that was allegedly tortured out of Rauf, a large number of homes were raided by armed police, while Heathrow was brought to a standstill with passengers unable to get their luggage or even a bottle of water on board a plane.
All liquids were banned, in case they were mixed in flight and used to blow a hole through the fusilage of the passenger airliner.
This state of panic lasted for months, and has only recently been terminated, costing both the travelling public and the airlines a very large amount of time and money, and the innocent people accused of terrorism, their freedom.
Not a shred of evidence was extracted from the British citizens who were held for questioning and then held on remand.
Some were released and others are still being held, charged with offences related to the preparation of a terrorist attack. These offences seem to have amounted to looking at videos which were legally obtained and the viewing of which, in itself, was not illegal.
Some of those currently charged and being held on remand could now go to trial, be found guilty of some catch-all offence, of being involved in the preparation of a terrorist act, without any concrete proof that such an act was being prepared, and go to jail for a long time, while the alleged ring leader of the operation, Rauf, has had the case against him dismissed because of a complete lack of evidence.
It is now obvious that the men and women, who were arrested and are still held following the US prompted alert and raids, do not have a case to answer and must be immediately freed.
Meanwhile, the Blair government and his Home Secretary Reid continue to agitate for the introduction of a 90 day period during which the police can interrogate a terrorist suspect without charging him or her, despite the fact that it has been defeated in parliament.
Reid, the day before yesterday, did his best to maintain the state of siege mentality by telling the public that it was likely that there will be an attempt at a terrorist attack this Christmas.
He is also agitating for a special ministry to be set up – a ministry for national security and counter-terrorism, on current form a ministry for frame-ups.
In fact, the best way to deal with any threat of terrorism is to put an end to the terrorism of the imperialist powers that we see in daily operation in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.
The way to achieve this is through the bringing down of the Blair-Brown government and the bringing in of a workers’ government that will withdraw all troops from Afghanistan and Iraq and recognise the Hamas government as the government of Palestine.
This is the way to achieve a terror free world.
