Counter-Terrorism Portal

Welcome to the Counter-Terrorism Portal on Powerbase

SEE POWERBASE'S A-Z LIST OF COUNTER-TERRORISM ARTICLES Since the attacks of 9/11 and 7/7, the British government has established and put in place a series of policies and strategies aimed at countering the threat of Islamic inspired terrorism. Whilst most policies have been introduced for this purpose alone, some have also been implemented under the guise of countering terrorism and have undermined and eroded civil liberties such as the right to protest and the right to privacy. This portal therefore aims to provide academics, analysts, practitioners, students and all other interested parties with alternative, up-to-date and rigorous information on British counter-terrorism policies, strategies and practices. Special focus is given not only to the work done by governmental organisations and departments, but also by academics, think tanks, voluntary organisations, Islamic organisations and Islamic charities on issues surrounding counter-terrorism, especially the Prevent strand of Contest 2. The Counter-Terrorism Portal is closely related to Powerbase's portals on the Israel Lobby, Neoconservatives, Northern Ireland, Propaganda, Spooks and Terror Expertise. Powerbase has a policy of strict referencing and is overseen by an Managing editor and an Editor. Counter-Terrorism Portal editors: Rizwaan Sabir and David Miller. This article is part of the Counter-Terrorism Portal project of Spinwatch. Priority pages on Counter-Terrorism Anti-Terror Poster Campaign Groups in receipt of PREVENT Funding CONTEST Counter-Terrorism Timeline Minaj-ul-Quran PREVENT PREVENT Funding List of Major Counter-Terrorism Operations and Incidents Operation Rich Picture Quilliam Foundation Research, Information and Communications Unit Scottish Preventing Violent Extremism Unit Terrorism Act 2000 Terrorism Act 2006 UK Counter-Terrorism: An Overview The UK has a long history of dealing with domestic terrorism, most notably due to its experience of the Troubles in Northern Ireland. The threat to British national security during the Troubles was posed by Republican paramilitary organisations, most notably by the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and its affiliates. In the 1970s, when the Troubles spilled onto the British mainland, the UK enacted a series of counterterrorism measures, such as Internment, the Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act (1973-96) and the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act (1974-2000). After various attempts at bringing peace had failed, the the Good Friday Agreement was finally signed in April 1998 and ended the Troubles. The current threat from Irish paramilitary organisations is limited to a small number of Republican splinter groups, such as the Real Irish Republican Army (RIRA). When the Prevention of Terrorism Act expired in 2000, according to Clive Walker – “its replacement became an acute issue”. As a consequence, it was replaced by a permanent act – TheTerrorism Act 2000, which became the “bedrock” of the anti-terror legislation for the UK. In direct response to the events of 9/11, a series of other legislations were also enacted by the UK government, such as the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001, the Criminal Justice Act 2003, the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 , the Terrorism Act 2006 and the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008. The objective behind the enactments of these legislations was to ensure that the UK was protected from events, such as 9/11 unfolding on its territory. In 2003, the government initiated a four pronged counter-terrorism strategy known as Contest (2003-09). It’s ultimate objective was to "reduce the risk from international terrorism, so that people could go about their daily lives freely and with confidence." After the attacks of 7 July, 2005 however, the government felt that it had to do more to prevent people from turning towards terrorism and therefore, in 2009, replaced Contest with Contest 2, which was similar to Contest, but more focused on Preventing Violent Extremism. At present, there are numerous community led projects and organisational initiatives focusing on Prevent. UK Gov't Counter-Terrorism Organisations Security Service (MI5) | Secret Intelligence Service (SIS or MI6) | GCHQ | Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre | RICU | Scottish Preventing Violent Extremism Unit |Muslim Contact Unit | Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command | Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism Think Tanks involved in Counter-Terrorism Centre for Social Cohesion | Centre for Defence and International Security | CSTPV | Chatham House | European Council on Foreign Relations | Institute for Public Policy Research | Institute for Strategic Dialogue | Institute of Race Relations | Oxford Research Group | Policy Exchange | RAND (Europe) | Royal United Services Institute | The Social Affairs Unit | Muslim/Islamic Organisations involved in Counter-Terrorism Al Manaar | Amal Trust | An Nisa Society | Association of Muslim Lawyers | Forum Against Islamaphobia & Racism | Islamic Human Rights Commission | MPACUK | Muslim Association of Britain | Active Change Foundation | Counter-Terrorism Legislation Terrorism Act 2000 | Anti-Terrorism Crime & Security Act 2001 | The Criminal Justice Act 2003 | The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 | Terrorism Act 2006 | Counter-Terrorism Act 2008| Categories All pages associated with the Counter-Terrorism Portal are listed here. There are also a number of distinct sub-categories listed below. You can click on any of these links to display an A-Z list of all pages in that category. Counter-Terrorism: Government organisations Counter-Terrorism: Parliamentary organisations Counter-Terrorism: Voluntary organisations Counter-Terrorism: Civil servants Counter-Terrorism: Politicans Counter-Terrorism: Voluntary sector people Counter-Terrorism: Policing organisations Counter-Terrorism: Intelligence Organisations Counter-Terrorism: Intelligence personnel Counter-Terrorism: Police personnel Counter-Terrorism: Media organisations Counter-Terrorism: Journalists Terrorism government advisory bodies Terrorism Journal Recommended Reading Steve Hewitt (2007) The British War on Terror: Terrorism and Counterterrorism on the Home Front since 9-11 [Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd] Liz Fekete (2009) A Suitable Enemy: Racism, Migration and Islamaphobia in Europe [Pluto Press] References and Resources Getting Started Looking for somewhere to start? To learn how you can edit any article right now, visit Powerbase:About, Welcome, newcomers, our Help page, Frequently Asked Questions, A quick guide to editing or experiment in the sandbox. Or contribute a new article: go to Quick Guide to Getting Started. Research and Writing Tips How to research front groups | Resources for studying propaganda | Research using the web Can you help? Powerbase can be made more effective if more people join the project. If you have research or writing skills or just spare time, you can help. If you are unsure where to start, you could expand some of the recently created but currently very brief articles. (If you look at the recent changes page you will see some noted as being 'stubs' - articles that may just be a line or two and needing to be fleshed out). So if you would like to add to some of those you would be most welcome. There is an automatically updated page which includes the pages which have been signalled by Powerbase users as most wanted. In addition there is a page which includes a list of Things you can do to help. Or if you would like some other suggestions closer to your interests you could drop Powerbase editor, David Miller an email. His address is editor AT powerbase.info Start Here View The Latest Articles View Articles By Category View The Most Popular Articles Create An Account Or Log In Change Your Preferences Write a new Article Powerbase history Powerbase is a collaborative venture initiated by Spinwatch in collaboration with Lobbywatch, GM Watch Red Star Research and Corporate Watch, but put into effect by a wide variety of volunteers and independent researchers. Contributors are now working on 19,413 articles. Disclaimer: Powerbase is an encyclopedia of people, issues and groups shaping the public agenda. It is a project of the Spinwatch—email editor AT powerbase.info . Antispam note: To avoid attracting spam email robots, email addresses on Powerbase are written with AT in place of the usual symbol, and we have removed "mail to" links. Replace AT with the correct symbol to get a valid address. We regret the inconvenience this entails. Campaign for more effective antispam regulations. Read the full disclaimer