Uni of Nottingham: Grad students researching terrorism aren't allowed to look at terrorist documents on US anti-terror gov't sites

Mike sez, "The 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."

The student, Rizwaan Sabir, who is studying Islamic terrorism, said he had downloaded a copy of an al-Qaeda training manual for use in his MA dissertation and PhD application and had forwarded it to the administrator, Hicham Yezza, for printing. After six days in detention, neither was charged.

Sir Colin referred to a letter of advice issued to Mr Sabir by the police after his release.

The letter warned Mr Sabir that he risked re-arrest if found with the manual again and added: "The university authorities have now made clear that possession of this material is not required for the purpose of your course of study nor do they consider it legitimate for you to possess it for research purposes."

God, what an embarrassment for the poor bastards who spent years getting a degree at University of Nottingham, forevermore known as "The University of Too Stupid to be Believed."

Link,

Link to Free Hicham site

(Thanks, Mike!)