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September 11 and the UK Response

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2008

Colin Warbrick ,
Dominic McGoldrick ,
Elena Katselli  and
Sangeeta Shah
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Extract

On 11 September 2001, four aircraft on internal flights within the United States were seized by passengers who crashed two of them into the World Trade Centre in New York and another into the Pentagon, Washington DC, the other falling into open land in Pennsylvania. The men who seized the planes were all non-US nationals. The total loss of life was over 3,000, including a number of UK citizens. The economic consequences were hardly calculable. Responsibility for the attacks was attributed to the Al Qaeda movement, a group regarded by the United States as being responsible for previous attacks against US targets, including the bombing of American embassies in East Africa in 1998 and on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000. Although Al Qaeda was thought to have members in many states, the principal base for its operations was in Afghanistan.1

Type
Current Developments Public International Law
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , January 2003 , pp. 245 - 255
Copyright
Copyright © British Institute of International and Comparative Law 2003

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References

1 This note provides a guide to the sources of the reactions of the United Kingdom to the events of 11 September.

2 See press release GA/9903, including the adoption of Resolution A/56/1 on the Condemnation of Terrorist Attacks in the USA.

3 See the latter half of this note for the actions taken by the UK in response to this resolution.

4 Statement by the North Atlantic Council in Response to the Terrorist Attacks (12 September 2001)—can be found at: <http://www.nato.int/docu/pr/2001/p01.124e.htm>. See also Bennett, , ‘Aiding America’, NATO Review, Winter 2001/2, 6–7.Google Scholar

5 The UK government's statement on the evidence of responsibility for the terrorist atrocities in the United States can be found at: lt;http://www.pm.gov.uk/news.asp?Newsid=2686>.

6 See Statement by NATO Secretary General, Lord Robertson (2 Oct 2001)—which can be found at: <http://www.nato.int/docu/speech/2001/s011002a.htm>.

7 For a description of the activities of the Coalition, see ‘Campaign against Terrorism: A Coalition Update’, Coalition Information Centre, available at <http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/Kfile/cicupdate,O.pdf>.

8 To be found at: <http://www.pm.gov.uk/files/pdf/culpabilitydocuments.pdf>.

9 See the letter from John Negroponte to the UNSC President on 7 Oct 2001, to be found at <http://www3.itu.int/MISSIONS/US/DailyBulletin/Tuesday.html>.

10 Including the participation of the Northern Alliance who had been fighting with the Taliban regime during the 1990s.

11 Paragraph j, Response of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to the Foreign Affairs Committee Report on the Foreign Policy Aspects of the War on Terrorism, Aug 2002.

12 S/2001/1154.

13 See Security Council Resolution 1386(2001)

14 See Washington Post, 12 Mar 2002. Also, see paras 115–16 of the Foreign Affairs Committee Seventh Report on the Foreign Policy Aspects of the War on Terrorism, June 2002.

15 Paragraph o, Response of Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs to the Foreign Affairs Committee Report on the Foreign Policy Aspects of the War on Terrorism, Aug 2002, n 11 above.

16 Signed 4 Jan 2002, to be found at <http://www.operations.mod.uk/isafmta.doc.>.

17 The Statute of the International Criminal Court came into force on 1 July 2002.

18 The International Fight against Terrorism, available at: <http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1007029394239&a=Karticle&aid=1013618391514>.

19 Statement made by the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in response to the terrorist attacks in the United States—11 Sept 2001, to be found at <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page3423.asp>.

20 Hansard, House of Commons, 14 Sept 2001, cols 604–7.

21 To be found at <http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page456.asp>.

22 Prime Minister's statement on military action in Afghanistan. 7 Oct 2001, to be found at <http://www.pm.gov.uk/output/page3577.asp>.

23 HC Hansard, vol 372, col 690, 4 Oct 2001.

24 UN Doc.S/2001/947. See also Seventh Report of the Foreign Affairs Committee—Foreign Policy Aspects of the War Against Terrorism, para 63, nil above.

25 The Convention can be found at <http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/91.htm

26 More information on President Bush's statement on the legal status of the detainees at the Guantanamo Bay, 7 Feb 2002 to be found at: <http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Feb2002/n02072002_200202074.html>. Also see the remarks of Ambassador Pierre-Richard Prosper, Ambassador-at-Large for War Crimes Issues to be found at <http://www.state.gOv/s/wci/rls/rm/2002/8491.htm>.

27 The proposals are legally controversial—see ‘Agora: Military Commissions’ (2002) 96 AJIL 320–8.Google Scholar

28 Edited transcript of an interview given by the Foreign Secretary Jack Straw on the treatment of prisoners held in Cuba to BBC Radio 4, London, 15 Jan 2002 to be found at: <http://www.number-10.gov.uk/output/page4235.asp>.

29 Human Rights Annual Report 2002 issued by the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office, 12–13, to be found at <http://www.fco.gov.uk/Files/kfile/fullreport,3.pdf>.

30 Statement of High Commissioner for Human Rights on the detention of Taliban and Al-Qaeda prisoners at US Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, 16 Jan 2002, to be found at: <http://www.unhchr.ch/huricane/huricane.nsf/newsroom>.

31 See ‘Amnesty International's Memorandum to the US government on the rights of individuals in US custody in Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay of 15/4/2002 at: <http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/recent/AMR510532002>. Also see Amnesty's Report on the UK's response to 11 September released on 5 Sept 2002 at <http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/index/EUR450162002?OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES/UK>. Also, Human Rights Watch's ‘Background paper on Geneva Conventions and Persons held by US forces’ of 29 January 2002 to be found at: <http://hrw.org/backgrounder/usa/pow-bck.htmttP303598>.

32 Neither the US nor Afghanistan is a party to Additional Protocol I.

33 Opinion of Stephen Solley, Professor. Vaughan Lowe and Professor Guy Goodwin-Gill, Press release from Bar Human Rights Committee to be found at <http://www.barhumanrights.org.uk/pdfs/250202CubaOpinion.pdf>.

34 Abbasi (R on application of) v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Office [2002] EWCA Civ 1316.

35 Security Council Res. 1373 (2001) of 28 Sept 2001 to be found at: <http://daccessods.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N01/557/43/PDF/N0155743.pdf?OpenElement>.

36 First report submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 19 Dec 2001 pursuant to para 6 of resolution 1373 (2001) to be found at: <http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/committees/1373/>. Also see Second report submitted by the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland on 25 June 2002 pursuant to paragraph 6 of resolution 1373 (2001) at: <http://daccess-ods.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N02/492/32/PDF/N0249232.pdf?OpenElementx

37 Soering v United Kingdom ECtHRs A/161 (1989).

38 Section 30.

39 A & Others v Home Secretary, Appeal number SC/1–7/2002.

40 Note 18 above, para 28.

41 Amnesty International's report on the UK<http://web.amnesty.org/ai.nsf/Index/EUR4501620027OpenDocument&of=COUNTRIES\UK>.

42 For a general overview of the EU's broad response to terrorism see <http://europa.eu.int/comm/externalrelations/110901/>.

43 See European Commission's proposals of 19 Sept and 25 Sept 2001 for a Council Framework Decision on combating terrorism and on the European arrest warrant respectively at: <http://europa.eu.int/comm/justice_home/unit/terrorism/terrorism_sg_en.pdf>; <http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2001/en_501PC0522.pdf>.

44 Council Framework Decision of 13 June 2002 on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, to be found at: <http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXmumdoc&1g=en&numdoc=32002F0584&model=guichett>.

45 Memo on the European arrest warrant as part of a move towards an area of freedom, security, and justice in the EU, a JUSTICE briefing, Jan 2002 at: <http:///www.justice.org.uk/ourwork/eu/index.html>.

46 [2002] EWCA Civ 1502 (25 Oct 2002).

47 The Queen on the application of Abbasi and another v Secretary of State for Foreign & Commonwealth Affairs and Secretary of State for the Home Department [2002] EWCA Civ 1598 (6 Nov 2002).