Daily Mail : Police given extra seven days to question terror plot suspects

Police given extra seven days to question terror plot suspects

By Daily Mail Reporter | April 16, 2009

Police were today given more time to question 11 men held for an alleged terror plot.

A total of 12 men were arrested on April 8 after officers raided 14 addresses in Greater Manchester, Liverpool and Lancashire.

An 18-year-old man was released without charge last week into the custody of the UK Borders Agency, which regulates immigration and can investigate the status of those entering the country.

The North West Counter Terrorism Unit has been given a further seven days to question seven of the men, aged between 22 and 37, and two further days to question the other four arrested men, aged 23, 41 and two aged 26.

They are being held in various locations across the country.

A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police, who are leading the operation, said the extensions were granted at magistrates' courts.
police

Police officers patrol the area around a house in Liverpool following arrests and raids in Liverpool, Manchester and Clitheroep

The spokesman said: 'Officers continue to thank the local communities affected by this operation for their co-operation and support.'

Six addresses are still being searched by police across Merseyside and Greater Manchester including one in Galsworthy Avenue, Cheetham Hill, Manchester, and two in Cedar Grove, Liverpool, the spokesman added.

BBC : More time for anti-terror police

More time for anti-terror police

April 17, 2009

Police have been granted extra time to question four men arrested as part of a counter-terrorism operation in north-west England last week.

The four, aged 23, 26, 26 and 41, can now be questioned for five more days.

They are among 12 men arrested during the raids in Manchester, Merseyside and Lancashire on 8 April.

On Wednesday officers were also given a further seven days to question seven other men. An 18-year-old has been handed over to the UK Border Agency.

The raid searched 14 properties across the north-west of England in connection with an alleged planned bomb attack.

Secret document

Police found pictures of popular Manchester shopping centres and a nightclub during searches, the BBC learned.

Eleven of the men arrested are Pakistani, ten of whom were in the UK on student visas.

The raid was brought forward after the UK's most senior counter-terrorism police officer - who has since resigned - sparked a security alert by revealing a secret document to photographers when he arrived for a briefing at No 10 Downing Street.

The revelations regarding the nationality of the suspects have stoked concerns that the authorities have lost the ability to control the UK's border security.

Home Office figures for between April 2004 and April 2008 - the last year for which figures are available - show that about 42,000 Pakistani nationals entered the UK on student visas.

Ministers have rejected claims that border controls are too lax.

The First Post : London police tell Austrian tourists to delete photos

London police tell Austrian tourists to delete photos

An Austrian photographer interested in public transport is told by Metropolitan police to delete pictures of buses, trains and stations

By Danielle Dsane | April 17, 2009

I've never had these experiences anywhere, never in the world, not even in Communist countries." This was what Klaus Matzka, a 69-year-old Austrian tourist, had to say of his experiences with the police on a recent visit to London. Matzka had come to England with his teenage son, but came to grief on an excursion to Walthamstow.

The north-eastern suburb is not an obvious place for a tourist, but he had his justification: "We typically crisscross cities from the end of railway terminals, we like to go to places not visited by other tourists. You get to know a city by going to places like this, not central squares. Buckingham Palace is also necessary, but you need to go elsewhere to get to know the city," Matzka told the Guardian.

But while in Walthamstow, Matzka, a retired cameraman who has an interest in modern architecture, was forced by two policemen to delete every photo with anything to do with transport. This included pictures of Vauxhall underground station, and of London's trademark red buses.

The two policemen also took down the details of the hotel where he and his son were staying, and their passport numbers. Now back in Vienna, Matzka said that this "nasty incident" had "killed interest in any further trips to the city".

"Google Street View is allowed to show any details of our cities on the world wide web. But a father and his son are not allowed to take pictures of famous London landmarks," he complained.

This is not the only recent incident in which the police have used their powers to act against people taking photographs in public spaces.

When Bob Quick paraded his top-secret document in front of Downing Street paparazzi, the police made twelve hurried arrests, 10 of whom were Pakistanis who'd come to England on student visas, over an alleged al-Qaeda terrorist plot.

The police, who have yet to release any evidence of bomb factories, pointed to photos the suspects had been taking of "crowded places" such as the Birdcage, a Manchester nightclub, and the Trafford Shopping Centre, as reasons for acting quickly to detain the men.