Police use terror laws on Heathrow climate protesters

[Dogsmilk]

Police to use terror laws on Heathrow climate protesters


Government has encouraged use of stop and search and detention without charge

John Vidal and Helen Pidd
Saturday August 11, 2007
The Guardian




Armed police will use anti-terrorism powers to "deal robustly" with climate change protesters at Heathrow next week, as confrontations threaten to bring major delays to the already overstretched airport.
Up to 1,800 extra officers will be drafted in to prevent an estimated 1,500 people disrupting the airport over the period of the camp for climate change, which is due to begin on Tuesday. The police have been told to use stop and search powers against the protesters, who have pledged to take direct action on August 18 and 19 but not to endanger life.

The Metropolitan police chief, Sir Ian Blair, has said he fears a minority of protesters intent on breaking the law could cause massive disruption as Heathrow prepares for its busiest week of the year. Yesterday Met commander Jo Kaye, in charge of the specialist firearms unit, said some people would "want to get their message across using criminal means".
Scotland Yard's plans for handling the protests are revealed in a document seen by the Guardian, which was produced by Met commander Peter Broadhurst during a legal hearing at the high court which imposed restrictions on a number of named campaigners.

"Should individuals or small groups seek to take action outside of lawful protest they will be dealt with robustly using terrorism powers. This is because the presence of large numbers of protesters at or near the airport will reduce our ability to proactively counter the terrorist act [threat]," the document says.

The police report makes it clear that the government has encouraged police forces to make greater use of terrorism powers "especially the use of stop and search powers under s44 Terrorism Act 2000".

The law gives police powers to:

· Stop and search people and vehicles for anything that could be used in connection with terrorism

· Search people even if they do not have evidence to suspect them

· Hold people for up to a month without charge

· Search homes and remove protesters' outer clothes, such as hats, shoes and coats.

Last night the protesters said they would not be intimidated. "We are trying to prevent climate change by stopping the expansion of the airport. There is no intention to endanger life. Our quarrel is not with passengers but with BAA and the government," said a spokesman.

The civil rights group Liberty said it was alarmed at the police use of the anti-terrorism powers to deter peaceful protest. "Stop and search powers created to address the threat of terrorism should not be used routinely against peaceful demonstrators," said James Welch, Liberty's legal director.

The police tactics have echoes of the 2003 anti-war demo at RAF Fairford where law lords eventually ruled police had acted unlawfully in detaining two coachloads of protesters, who were stopped and searched and then turned back even though they were on their way to an authorised demonstration. Police used section 44 of the act 995 times at the Fairford peace camp, even though there was no suggestion of terrorist overtones.

The Guardian has established that at least two climate change campaigners have been arrested recently at Heathrow by officers using terrorism powers. Cristina Fraser, a student, was stopped when cycling near the airport with a friend and then charged under section 58 of the Terrorism Act. This makes it an offence to make a record of something that could be used in an act of terrorism.

"I was arrested and held in a police cell for 30 hours. I was terrified. No one knew where I was. They knew I was not a terrorist," she said.

Ms Fraser, a first-year London university anthropology student, has been on aviation demonstrations with the Plane Stupid campaign group, but claims she was carrying nothing at all. The police later recharged her with conspiring to cause a public nuisance.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,2146692,00.html

[Mark Gobell]

We are Al Qaeda on our demonstrations
We are Al Qaeda when we choose to protest. . .

[TonyGosling]

A friend of mine is one of the main people on the ground at this camp. I explained to him the other day that if the campaigners go for the holidaymakers they will lose anyway - got no reply but it's a crucuial side to the campaign.
The real culprits are business travellers who make up at least 80% of plane tickets and not holidaymakers.
Whatever though this is a test for the government's terrorism bs credibility - and exposes the real agend as clear as a bell. Again.

However much I personally think the climate camp is a distraction from Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib which is the real issue in the world today this use of the terrorism legislation makes it everybody's priority.

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/media/2007/08//378070.mp4

[Easy Rider]

THIS IS A DELIBERATE SETUP TO BRING ATTENTION TO THE BOGUS
CARBON DIOXIDE = GLOBAL WARMING


An extract from the climate protesters website

The science is clear: global emissions of carbon dioxide must go into rapid decline within the next decade. If they don't, humanity faces a bleak future.

To achieve this in a way that respects global justice means 90% cuts in developed countries like the UK. How will we cut emissions and end inequality? How will we achieve this in the face of an economic system intent on expanding at any cost, with corporations stealing the language of change to disguise business as usual? Ordinary people will have to join together to create real solutions and take direct action against the root causes of the problem.

This year the Camp for Climate Action will be at Heathrow, the world's busiest airport and a bigger source of CO2 emissions than most countries. It's sheer lunacy in this time of ecological crisis, but the aviation industry are pushing to almost double the airport's capacity by increasing flights and building a third runway. The battle to stop them will be one of the most important environmental battles in Western Europe.


THIS IS PURE PROPAGANDA.....CARBON DIOXIDE IS NOT THE CAUSE OF GLOBAL WARMING

WATCH THE GREAT GLOBAL WARMING SWINDLE BELOW

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-3028847519933351566&q=THE+G REAT+GLOBAL+WARMING+SWINDLE&total=214&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search& plindex=0

[TonyGosling]

Okay, a business flying airport, where I used to work. But these people are wasting their time on trivia.
Way back in the heady days of the Newbury Bypass protest we knew we wer hitting at the heart of the roadbuilding and land development machine and preserving the environment. These people are dorks. They should be peacefully disrupting fuel getting into Heathrow or similar actions which hit the evil oil industry not pleasure flyers and the odd Bizjet.
Are they being led by dunderbrains or disinformationists?

Police arrest 11 over Biggin Hill Airport climate change protest UPDATE
http://www.hemscott.com/news/latest-news/item.do?newsId=48500918484334

LONDON - Police today arrested 11 people who staged a climate change protest at Biggin Hill Airport in Kent.

Fifteen protestors chained themselves to the airport gates just after dawn in an attempt to disrupt the business flights into and out of the airport, said an airport spokesperson.

Eleven of the 15 were detained under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act after they has attempted to block the main airport access road.

Biggin Hill Airport, which is operated as an executive business jet hub, told Thomson Financial News that although passengers had used a different access road during the incident, there had been no disruption to flights. 'Biggin Hill, being an international airport, obviously has contingency plans for such events and made alternative arrangements for the arrival and departure of passengers and aircrew. At no time were any of the flights operating out of Biggin Hill disrupted or delayed,' said airport director, Peter Lonergan in a statement.

Meanwhile, about 20 protesters at Farnborough airport in Hampshire blockaded the gate for around two-and-a-half hours

The protests come in the middle of a week-long climate camp outside Heathrow, the world's busiest international airport, whose organisers have promised to take 'direct action' against expansion plans.


HERE are some real Green campaigners
Green activists assail India's forest mining push
http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-29002120070816

[Mark Gobell]

I read, but haven't verified that the CC Camp at Heathrow is on land owned by Imperial College.

What are we to understand from this ?

[Rowan Berkeley]

Activists Target Carmel Agrexco in Conjuction with Climate Camp

PRESS RELEASE
State of Emergency - direct action against war, from the root to the fruit
18 August 2007

For immediate release

This afternoon a group of protesters from anarchist group State Of Emergency have blockaded the main UK warehouse of Israeli company Carmel Agrexco in Hayes, Middlesex. Their action coincides with the nearby Camp for Climate Action and is part of the growing movement to boycott Israeli apartheid, which aims to end Israel's breach of International law and abuse of human rights in the occupied territories of Palestine.

The action has been taken to coincide with the Camp for Climate Action because all of Carmel Agrexco's produce is air-freighted into Heathrow and also to highlight the consequences of the resource wars which are inevitable as the climate changes.

According to the UK government's own figures air freighting of food is the fastest growing mode of food transport, having increased by over 220% since 1992, and although it only accounts for 1% of food miles overall it produces 13% of the CO2 emissions from food transport.

The Israeli water authority, Macarot, drills wells to irrigate Carmel's crops close to existing Palestinian wells but at a greater depth to dry up the Palestinian wells. The Israeli wells are fortified and guarded by the Israeli army, and many Palestinians are in Israeli prisons for the 'crime' of trying to obtain fresh water from wells in the settlements.

Israel has complete control over water resources in the West Bank and uses 82 percent of the underground water. The Palestinian daily consumption of water is 35 to 50 litres per capita, while the daily consumption of the Jewish settlers is 280 to 350 litres per capita.

Much of Carmel Agrexco's fruit, vegetables, flowers, herbs and other produce is grown and packed on illegal Israeli settlements. Carmel Agrexco is thus complicit in war crimes under the International Criminal Court Act 2001 (ICC Act).

Carmel Agrexco is Israel's largest importer of agricultural produce into the European Union and is 50% Israeli state owned. The warehouse is in Swallowfield Way, Hayes, Middlesex, and is their main depot in the UK.

Many of the protesters have visited Palestine and witnessed at first hand the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli military occupation. They have seen land that has been claimed by illegal Israeli settlements, but was stolen from Palestinian families. They have visited villages where the whole community have been issued with demolition orders by the Israeli Army to make way for more illegal settlements.

The action today is part of three years of action against the company. Palestine solidarity protesters have taken part in five blockades of the premises, the first in November 2004.

Before the protest a legal warning letter was sent to Carmel Agrexco stating clearly why they are in breach of the law.

Today's action aims to draw attention to this company's complicity, in murder, theft and damage of occupied land, collective punishment, apartheid and ethnic cleansing, and other breaches of International Law.

Contact info@stateofemergency.org.uk / tel. 07948 173982 for interviews/pictures

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/378741.html?c=on#c179195


Carmel Agrexco update - depot closed for 3 hours!
State of Emergency | 18.08.2007 16:39

Update from "State of Emergency"

The action is now over.

There were 6 arrests in total, two of them legal observers.

4 have been arrested on suspicion of burglary for being inside the premises.

There were over 60 activists present in total and everyone was stopped and searched by the police before they were allowed to leave.

The action meant that the depot was shut and unable to operate for 3 hours.

State of Emergency
e-mail: info@stateofemergency.org.uk
Homepage: http://www.stateofemergency.org.uk

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/378766.html

[Rowan Berkeley]

Occupation of BAA Car Park

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379058.html?c=on#c179324


Press Release - Climate activists blockade Heathrow freight depot
fruity | 20.08.2007 01:24 | Climate Camp 2007 | Climate Chaos | Globalisation | London

19th August 2007, 21:30

At 21:00, eight protesters from the Camp for Climate Action have blockaded British Airways’ World Cargo Depot at Hatton Cross, outside Heathrow Airport.

The protesters blockaded vehicle access by locking themselves together in a ring with ‘arm tubes’.

British Airways handle air freighted foodstuffs, which are a rapidly growing source of greenhouse gas emissions. Air freighting of food to UK grew by 140% between 1992 and 2002. Air freighted food amounts to 14% of total food-related CO2 emissions.

The protesters claim that importing fruit and vegetables from developing countries encourages unsustainable farming practices, uses scarce water resources and keeps farmers locked into a cycle of poverty, competing for ever lower prices.

Anna Kay, one of the blockaders said, “We in the UK need to move to eating locally produced and organic food instead of supporting this energy intensive and environmentally destructive industry”.

The blockade was organised by an independent group of activists who have been taking part in the Camp for Climate Action.
ENDS

Notes to editor:

Arm Tubes are lengths of tube into which two protesters put their arms and lock themselves together.

Blockaders on location can be contacted on 07798 745613.

Camp Press Group can be contacted on 0777 286 1099 or 07858 177178

fruity

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379099.html


Photos from BA World Cargo blockade
photo desk | 20.08.2007 01:16 | Climate Camp 2007 | Climate Chaos | Globalisation | London

Shortly after 8pm, an adhoc affinity group, formed at the Camp for Climate Action, walked up the perimeter road on the east side of Heathrow. Using metal tubes, eight of them formed a ring and locked on by their arms and blockaded the vehicle entrance to the British Airways World Cargo Perishables.

Police took ages to locate the blockade despite the target being publicly known as one of the Climate Camps 'plan B' targets. When their arrived, they arrived in force having reployed from the occupation of the BAA HQ car park. Over 20 vans finally turned up with senior polices including silver command. They also appeared to be having difficulty locating the specialist team responsible for cutting people out of lock ons.

The seven people doing support were threatened with arrest and having knowingly breached the Heathrow Bylaws they decided to leave after a quick discussion with those in the lock on. The supporters are now back at the camp and as we write there is no indication that those in the lock on have yet been cut out and taken to a police station.

BA World Cargo Perishables was targeted highlight the unsustainable and increasing transportation of perishable produce by air including both flowers and food.

photo desk

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379093.html


BAA Tent Blockade - Nightime Pictures
cyber-pix | 20.08.2007 03:54 | Climate Camp 2007 | Climate Chaos | Free Spaces | London

Pics from middle of the night sat / sun at the BAA overnight blockade. Locals supporting the protestors brought food, tea and coffee and a few beers. The atmosphere was upbeat, with live entertainment and a special appearance by the camp white rabbit. Blockaders hope to stay in place throughout the night, although police searches in the surrounding areas seem to be intensifying. Watch this space...

http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2007/08/379119.html