Countering Terrorism in Britain and France, by Frank Foley – review

Have you ever wondered why we’re stuck with the radical cleric Abu Qatada? It’s a question the last four Home Secretaries will have asked as they battled, and failed, to deport him. Now Theresa May is learning just how stubborn the old curmudgeon can be. Indeed, the whole issue of deporting terror suspects is a difficult one. In the nine years that followed the 9/11 attacks, France deported 129 individuals considered to be threats to national security, while we removed just nine.

The intransigence of British judges is not new. Long before the ‘War on Terror’ brought matters of international security to public attention, the French had been pursuing Rachid Ramda, an Algerian wanted for masterminding the 1995 Paris Metro bombings, through British courts. Judges frustrated deportation attempts for more than a decade, causing considerable diplomatic tension between Paris and London. By contrast when Hussain Osman fled to Italy shortly after the failed attempt to replicate the 7/7 terrorist attacks in 2005, he was returned to London for trial within a matter of days.