The London Blasts: Media Review

DAY 71: 16 September 2005

Charles Clarke's Doubts

New Detainees

Young Muslims And Extremism Report - New Report Leaked

Ricin Update

Timothy Garton Ash Reconsidered

CHARLES CLARKE'S DOUBTS

Technology has been the Government's downfall quite often, as in the case of the 'dodgy dossier'. Today, the Telegraph has the latest faux pas on its front page: 'Clarke bungle reveals his doubts over terror law':

'the hopes of Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, of winning cross-party support for the Terrorism Bill suffered a blow when he inadvertently revealed that he had doubts about the measures himself. A letter sent by computer to his opposition counterparts showed amendments and deletions.'

'The leak disclosed that he had dropped some proposals and toughened others which had appeared in a draft prepared only hours before.'

'In the first version, finished on Wednesday night, he appeared unsure about giving police the power to detain suspects for three months.'

' "I think the case for some extension is clear, though I believe there is room for debate as to whether we should go as far as three months and I am still in discussion with the police on this point," he said.'

'By the time the final version was sent yesterday morning, he had toughened his position and shifted the onus to David Davis, for the Tories, and Mark Oaten, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman.'

'In a new passage, Mr Clarke told them: "It may be that you are convinced by the case for some extension but feel that three months is too great an extension. I would be interested in your views on this particular point." '

'The suggestion that he had misgivings about the most contentious measure in the Bill only hours before it was published will be seized on by MPs and civil liberties groups as a sign that he will have to accept concessions before it is passed into law.'

(The Times put the story on page 6, perhaps after catching wind of the Telegraph's front page: 'Clarke blunder reveals doubt over three-month detention'.)

NEW DETAINEES

More men have been detained, some of them acquitted during the 'ricin' trial. Stories in the Guardian and the Telegraph. We retrospectively inserted something about this into the 14 September Media Review.

More to say about the new laws being announced. We'll discuss this on Sunday.

YOUNG MUSLIMS AND EXTREMISM - NEW REPORT LEAKED

The Independent has another part of the Young Muslims and Extremism report puzzle: 'Conflict motivates extremists, says report'.

This new report is entitled, 'Working Together to Prevent Extremism: Tackling Extremism and Radicalisation', and says:

'British foreign policy in the world cannot be left unconsidered as a factor in the motivations of extremists.'

Except by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary who say British foreign policy is not a 'motivation', but an 'excuse'.

RICIN UPDATE

The Independent has also finally picked up on the fact that the 'ricin' plot didn't have any ricin in it: 'Laboratory did not reveal absence of ricin in plot cited by Blair'. We wrote about this in April in Briefing 79.

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH RECONSIDERED

Yesterday we commented on some thoughts by historian Timothy Garton Ash, in his piece 'What we call Islam is a mirror in which we see ourselves'. We wrote, for example:

'The two "problems" have to be distinguished and disentangled. Garton Ash is, unfortunately, not up to the job.'

'Interesting Feature No. 4. The occupation of Iraq is not included here, where it belongs, but is instead mentioned in the next section about the cultural roots of terrorism. It is mentioned there only to be dismissed: pulling out of Iraq will still leave the problem of identity-clash terrorists.'

This kind of critique can be read as addressing the individual failings of particular commentators, the analytical errors in a particular opinion piece (or news report).

Another approach would be start with the observation that Garton Ash's kind of analysis is ubiquitous. It is typical of the mainstream commentary on Islam, on the roots of terror, on the causes of the 7/7 and other atrocities. Not in its exact wording or analysis (Garton Ash is on the liberal end of the spectrum, for a start), but in its assumptions, and its self-censorship.

His piece should therefore be taken as an example of a wider phenomenon, which is the subservience of academia (Garton Ash is an Oxford University modern historian) and the mass media to the State and to those who hold power.

Garton Ash's failure to 'distinguish and disentangle' the two problems of al-Qaeda terrorism and authoritarian rule in much of the Middle East is not simply an error, it is a propaganda device, an elision which is designed to confuse in a way helpful to the State.

Garton Ash's carefully drawn up list of Western crimes (which all dated back at least fifty years), and his move of the Iraq war from the 'Western crimes' section to the 'identity clash' section, are similarly not intellectual failures, but ideological devices.

They are not errors, but moves designed (either consciously or, more probably, unconsciously, to secure certain political objectives. They are not the only ones in his piece, but the only ones we had time to pick out.

Garton Ash is indeed 'a servant of power', as we wrote yesterday. But he's not alone in this. He is merely the example of the day.

(This is the first in a series of Media Review Reviews.)

(Seriously.)

JNV welcomes feedback.