
How the U.K. Prosecuted a Student on Terrorism Charges for Downloading a Book - cremno
https://theintercept.com/2017/10/28/josh-walker-anarchist-cookbook-terrorism-act-uk/
======
yardie
If you don’t read the article and think the Intercept is being hyperbolic as
they normally are. Rest assured the title is exactly what happened. Walker was
charged under terrorism laws not for planning, conspiring, nor performing acts
of terrorism. The prosecutor made the argument that possessing the book was an
act of terrorism. A book he downloaded from the school library. Also equally
available on the Amazon and downloadable from internet since the dawn of the
WWW.

~~~
petercooper
_If you don’t read the article and think the Intercept is being hyperbolic as
they normally are. Rest assured the title is exactly what happened._

.. with the minor addition that he was initially arrested upon returning from
helping a militia in the Middle East.

~~~
tim333
Though an anti ISIL militia backed by the US, other western nations and
Russia.

'The YPG is regarded as the "most effective" force in fighting ISIL in Syria'
according to Wikipedia. I dare say Erdogan hates the YPG which is probably why
the Brits have to be a bit half hearted in their backing. Got to think of the
arms exports after all [https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/22/uk-arms-
sales-...](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/jan/22/uk-arms-sales-turkey-
rights-abuse)

~~~
petercooper
That's what I suspect was the reason for the unusual charge.

The powers that be are under pressure to show they're doing "something" about
people who come back from fighting in the Middle East but since this wasn't
for a terrorist organization, there was no obvious charge. I'd argue it _was_
right for them to search his belongings given the circumstances, but then they
decided to try and pin it all on owning the cookbook as that's all they really
had.

Not that I think this was the _right_ call for them, but I can see how it
might happen, and also why the millions of others who've downloaded the
cookbook out of curiosity have not ended up in court.

------
tim333
Well at least he got off free.

>Walker was accused of violating the Terrorism Act because he possessed
information “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of
terrorism.”

What a dumb law. I guess they could prosecute you for reading Wikipedia on
that basis.

More concise write up here: [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-
bristol-41751193](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-41751193)

The "possessed information" by the way was The Anarchist Cookbook, available
from £24 from Amazon.co.uk [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anarchist-Cookbook-
William-Powell/d...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Anarchist-Cookbook-William-
Powell/dp/1607964813)

~~~
whywhywhywhy
> The Anarchist Cookbook

I remember this being passed around between kids in the computer science lab
on a floppy disk when I was about 13.

~~~
Silhouette
I vaguely remember something similar going on at my school way back when,
though that might have been The Hacker's Handbook. Probably still enough to
freak out the authorities these days, yet remarkably, I'm not aware that any
of my class went on to become evil masterminds with secret underground lairs.

------
phkahler
This stood out for me:

>> It was an issue of “personal responsibility,” he said, and it was the
government’s view that possessing the book was unlawful, because it could be
useful to terrorists.

The prosecution claimed it's about personal responsibility while trying to
enforce a law that seems to deny people are entitled or able to exercise such
a thing.

------
DanBC
> Last summer, Walker traveled from London to Syria, where he joined the
> Kurdish-led YPG militia in its fight against the so-called Islamic State

What a fucking stupid title.

~~~
cpncrunch
How so? The prosecution had nothing to do with syria. That helped his case.

~~~
DanBC
The arrest had everything to do with his travel to Syria.

~~~
marcoperaza
What you're arrested for and what you're prosecuted for are really two totally
separate issues. Arresting someone who fought in Syria is pretty reasonable.
Finding out that they fought for the Western-backed "good guys" is a great
reason to drop the charges, which they did.

Charging him for owning a book is what they did too.

------
mikhailfranco
There is a creeping fascism in the western world.

The so-called 'wars' on drugs and terrorism are used as excuses to remove
personal freedoms. Governments take more powers unto themselves. The state
security apparatus is allowed to spy on everyone. There is a presumption of
guilt and citizens have to justify every trivial activity. The previous
outlandish fictions of 'Thought Crime' and 'Pre-Crime' become facts of life in
the police state.

Cultural Marxism also restricts freedom of speech, based on a combination of
PC attitudes and juvenile hypersensitivity, which cannot tolerate the freedom
to offend. The Enlightenment ideals of free speech and liberal open-minded
rationality, are hounded into a Dark Age of gagged anti-scientific silence by
the social justice Thought Police.

Huge debts have been accumulated by social democracies, which are in a spiral
of decline induced by people voting for big govt, cushy public-sector jobs,
bloated welfare and high taxes. Debts lead to artificially low interest rates
to support banks, and QE to monetize govt debt. The corrupt cronies closest to
the spigot of new money accumulate wealth (Cantillon Effect). Elites and
insiders are bribed with bonuses and asset-price inflation. Voters are bribed
with welfare and public sector jobs, many with anti-meritocratic barriers to
firing and fantasy pension promises.

These 'wars' and debts combine to justify restrictions on economic freedom.
AML and KYC regulations restrict access to financial services and impose de
facto capital controls. The governments are broke and they are looking for any
source of revenue. The War on Cash restricts economic freedoms. Large
denomination notes are withdrawn. There are limits on cash withdrawals, cash
deposits and cash purchases. Money is trapped in govt controlled accounts, so
it can be taxed, bailed-in and seized at will. In the US, civil asset
forfeiture is simply daylight robbery by the state.

Neoconservative war-mongering and the bloated military-industrial-complex
consume vast resources and destabilize every corner of the world. Democracy is
subverted in favor of corrupt autocrats and interventions are justified by
false flag operations. Military hardware finds its way into domestic law
enforcement. Monitoring and surveillance from the battlefield migrates to our
cities and skies.

The fascism has arrived and it is all around us.

~~~
cremno
Cultural Marxism isn't real. It's a Neo-Nazi conspiracy theory popularized by
a right-wing terrorist. If fascism actually has arrived, you played a part in
it. Your views on economic and social policies do too but propertarians like
you don't understand fascism and reduce it to authoritarianism.

~~~
vixen99
Thanks! Countless idiotic commentators who've been led astray. If only you had
spoken up earlier we would have seen the truth. What a relief.

~~~
cremno
Your snark doesn't make my comment less true.

~~~
naturalgradient
His snark also does not make your comment true in the first place.

