Wednesday, July 30, 2008
Odd behaviour in Nottingham
University of Nottingham: Grad students researching terrorism aren't allowed to look at terrorist documents on US anti-terror gov't sites.
University of Nottingham has decided that its students and staff have 'no "right"' to possess terrorism-related materials for the purposes of research, such as al-Qaeda training manuals freely available for download from US Government websites. You may know that one Nottingham postgrad student and a clerk were held under the Terrorism Act for doing just this earlier this year, before being released without charge (though the clerk now faces deportation)- the uni has now made it clear that it fully supports these actions, and says that the student has no reason to possess such material. He's researching Islamic terrorism. A letter from the Uni.warned the student that he risked re-arrest if found with the manual again
IMO: This seems bizarre behaviour by the Uni. as how can he study terrorism there without the documents. Sounds like usual logrolling perhaps from another group or Uni Department. Maybe he has a legal case for damages against the Uni. who wasted his time.
Uni is now being called "The University of Too Stupid to be Believed." on major blogs like Boeing-Boeing.
IMO: There may be a reason and this should be examined. For example the student may have been drawn into believing the presumably alleged propaganda or it may even be true. For example, on 9-11 a lot of people must have had genuine grievances against the World Trade Centre and that is often forgotten, But any student of economics must be aware of these ethical misgivings and be competent to bear them in mind. The same may not be true of Uni administrators and that is the rub. But Gordon Brown, who didn't lose an eye for no reason, should be competent enough to ensure an investigation into the matter if it is needed, which could be valuable if it gives us further ways to handle such incidents in the future with a view to less loss of life
University of Nottingham: Grad students researching terrorism aren't allowed to look at terrorist documents on US anti-terror gov't sites.
University of Nottingham has decided that its students and staff have 'no "right"' to possess terrorism-related materials for the purposes of research, such as al-Qaeda training manuals freely available for download from US Government websites. You may know that one Nottingham postgrad student and a clerk were held under the Terrorism Act for doing just this earlier this year, before being released without charge (though the clerk now faces deportation)- the uni has now made it clear that it fully supports these actions, and says that the student has no reason to possess such material. He's researching Islamic terrorism. A letter from the Uni.warned the student that he risked re-arrest if found with the manual again
IMO: This seems bizarre behaviour by the Uni. as how can he study terrorism there without the documents. Sounds like usual logrolling perhaps from another group or Uni Department. Maybe he has a legal case for damages against the Uni. who wasted his time.
Uni is now being called "The University of Too Stupid to be Believed." on major blogs like Boeing-Boeing.
IMO: There may be a reason and this should be examined. For example the student may have been drawn into believing the presumably alleged propaganda or it may even be true. For example, on 9-11 a lot of people must have had genuine grievances against the World Trade Centre and that is often forgotten, But any student of economics must be aware of these ethical misgivings and be competent to bear them in mind. The same may not be true of Uni administrators and that is the rub. But Gordon Brown, who didn't lose an eye for no reason, should be competent enough to ensure an investigation into the matter if it is needed, which could be valuable if it gives us further ways to handle such incidents in the future with a view to less loss of life
# posted by uv : 7:10 AM
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