Six arrested as Blair chairs first terrorism committee
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
London, April 24, IRNA
UK-Terrorism Arrests
Six men were reported to have been arrested by anti-terror police Tuesday ahead of Prime Minister Tony Blair chairing the first meeting of a new ministerial committee on security and terrorism.
Scotland Yard said the arrests were not linked to any on-going inquiry but were in connection with inciting others to commit acts of terrorism overseas and terrorist fund raising.
The Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Command and local police were said to have raided five addresses in London and one in Luton, some 50 kms north of the capital.
The latest arrests also come the day after the opening of a trial in London of three British-based men, charged with using the internet to spread extremist propaganda.
Younes Tsouli, Waseem Mughal and Tariq al-Daour used radical websites for at least a year to try to encourage people to follow the ideology of Osama bin Laden, Woolwich crown court was told on Monday.
The new committee chaired by Blair are part of reforms to streamline Britain's approach to terrorism threats that include plans for the Home Office to concentrate on security and policing and a new Justice Ministry to focus on prisons and criminal justice.
Those attending the meeting, which is expected to be held monthly, include Home Secretary John Reid and Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett as well as intelligence agency representatives, police and other relevant government bodies.
But the plan has been criticized by the opposition Conservative Party, arguing that the new approach was the wrong answer to how best to tackle possible security threats to the UK.
"We need a single minister in the cabinet, in the Home Office, working with the home secretary to concentrate on terrorism day in, day out. That is the only solution," shadow Home Secretary David Davis was quoted saying by the BBC.
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