University of Nottingham Press Statement:

A University of Nottingham spokesperson said: “The University’s policy is not to comment on the situation of individual members of staff. Internal processes are ongoing, and are being carried out according to the University’s statutes. At all times since the incident took place, in May 2008, the University has acted in an ethical, transparent and fair manner, motivated by its responsibility to students and staff and its public duty to the wider community. “Academic freedom is a cornerstone of this University, but it is not the freedom to defame your co-workers and attempt to destroy their reputations as honest, fair and reasonable individuals. The article produced by Dr Thornton is highly defamatory of a number of his colleagues. The University rejects utterly the baseless accusations Dr Thornton makes about members of staff. “It is important to remember that the original incident, more than three years ago, was triggered by the discovery of an Al Qaeda Training Manual on the computer of an individual who was neither an academic member of staff, nor a student, and in a School where one would not expect to find such material being used for research purposes. The individual concerned was an administrative member of staff with no academic reason to possess such a document. The University became concerned and decided, after a risk assessment, that those concerns should be conveyed to the police as the appropriate body to investigate.” -ends

At this point it is worth noting that is relevant to this press release is this paragraph from Dr. Thornton’s report (p27-8):

[The Vice Chancellor] Sir Colin  had also not even been entirely truthful to [Minister] Mr Rammell. In his letter to him he refers to the original finding of “an electronic copy of an Al Qaeda Training Manual”. The first problem with such a statement is in the use of the article. It was not “an” Al Qaeda training manual, it was “The” Al Qaeda Training Manual. There is a world of difference between the two. The former implies a manual used to train Al Qaeda operatives, while the latter refers to a freely available library book. Thus the minister was being given a false impression.

The Unileaks documents corroborating  Dr Rod Thornton’s report have been released in the hope that the university management desist from making and repeating what they know to be problematic claims, and that they would start considering the possibility that serious mistakes might have been made in their handling of this tragic affair. Of course both we & Unileaks have revealed documents which touch on so much more than the University’s statement and we can offer exclusive access to our next phase of digests and documents. Each of which illustrate precisely why SWAN (Support the Whistleblower at Nottingham) is calling for a public enquiry into allegations of malpractice by university management, as detailed in Dr. Thornton’s paper.

Dr Rod Thornton, a former soldier turned academic who has produced whistle-blowing research that exposes [1] the University of Nottingham’s actions that led to the arrest of two innocent men as suspected terrorists [2] has been suspended this afternoon (2pm), with immediate effect, by the university. Five days ealier, he penned an article – ‘How a student’s use of a library book became a “major Islamist plot”’ [3] – exposing how senior management at the University of Nottingham reported the men and undertook a subsequent campaign to discredit them. His article was removed from the British International Studies Association (BISA) website due to pressure by staff at Nottingham University, ahead of its general release to the public and media today.

This research exposes how the university reported the two men to police for being in possession of three publicly available documents, all of which were available from the university’s own library and, various academic and governmental websites [4]. Dr Thornton also shows how, in the aftermath of the men’s release, the university’s management conducted a behind-the-scenes campaign of disinformation and spin against the arrestees and their university supporters, disregarding university statutes and governmental guidance. All of this in an effort to shift blame and silence those who challenged the university’s account – i.e. that the research material was illegal and the arrests were justified.

What’s more, Dr. Thornton’s article uncovers how Nottingham University’s misinformation has seeped into policy circles. The arrest of the ‘Nottingham Two’ is now advertised as a ‘major Islamist plot’ by the Home Office [5. Similarly, another government department calls the library books in question ‘extremist material’ [6]. His revelations arrive immediately after a cross-party parliamentary group published a report criticising universities for being hotbeds of radicalisation. Dr. Thornton’s account, however, exposes how a university’s unaccountable actions aggravate this problem.

The letter, written by Vice-Chancellor David Greenaway, was hand-delivered to Dr Thornton and ordered him to vacate his office and the university grounds within ten minutes. The Vice-Chancellor said: “the decision has been taken to suspend you until further notice … [because of a] … breakdown in working relationships with your colleagues caused by your recent article prepared for the British International Studies Association Conference” (BISA). Dr Thornton, a former counter-insurgency advisor to the UK and US militaries said: “I am very saddened by the university’s behaviour”.

Rizwaan Sabir, one of the men originally arrested, said: “Yet again, we have more evidence of censorship and silencing of dissent at Nottingham University. I call on the government to launch a full public inquiry into Nottingham University before more people’s lives are ruined”. Students at the university wishing to remain anonymous stated: “We are extremely concerned by Dr. Thornton’s suspension. We call for the immediate reinstatement of Dr Thornton and a full investigation into the claims his research is making”.

Contact for comment or interview

Telephone: +44(0)7835871096

Email: nottinghamwhistleblower@gmail.com
NOTE TO EDITORS

[1] The title of Dr Thornton’s article was “Radicalisation at universities or radicalisation by universities?: How a student’s use of a library book became a “major Islamist plot”. It was presented at the British International Studies Association (BISA) conference in Manchester on 28 April 2011. The article was removed from the BISA website on 30 April after threats of litigation were made by staff within the University of Nottingham.

[2] The two arrested men were Masters student, Rizwaan Sabir, and staff member, Hicham Yezza. Both were held for a total of six days in May 2008 under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and released without charge. The three documents that caused their arrests are as follows:

1. P. Gordon, “The end of Bush‟s revolution”, Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85, No. 4 (2006), pp. 75-86 (Foreign Affairs is a US based, world-renowned, political journal).
2. Q. Witorowicz and J. Katner, “Killing in the name of Islam: al Qaeda‟s justification for September 11‟, Middle East Policy Council Journal, 2003, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp. 76-92
3. “Al-Qaeda Training Manual”, US Government Exhibit 1677-T (declassified), Federation of American Scientists (http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/aqmanual.pdf). This document is also available in book format from Amazon and from the University of Nottingham’s library, albeit, the document is not being actively advertised on the library catalogue (see footnote 18 of Dr. Thornton’s article). The document is also available from a number of academic and non-academic websites, including the US Department of Justice website (http://www.justice.gov/ag/manualpart1_1.pdf), albeit, now in a reduced form. Rohan Gunaratna, one of the world’s foremost experts on the study of al-Qaeda and global terrorism wrote to Rizwaan Sabir and said that the al-Qaeda Training Manual was “required reading” for anyone studying al-Qaeda.

[3] Exec. Summary here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/54454049/EXECUTIVE-SUMMARY-Radicalisation-by-Universities-or-Radicalisation-at-Universities-by-Rod-Thornton

Full article here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54150076/Radicalisation-at-Universities-or-Radicalisation-by-Universities-How-a-Students-Use-of-a-Library-Book-Became-a-Major-Islamist-Plot

[4] For an account of how the document came to the attention of the Registrar and the arrests, please see: http://www.scribd.com/doc/54451596/Background-to-arrests-of-the-Nottingham-Two-in-Operation-Minerva-at-the-University-of-Nottingham-on-14-May-2008

[5] The document which refers to the arrest of the ‘Nottingham Two’ as a ‘major Islamist plot’ was disseminated by the Home Office in April 2010 via a Freedom of Information request that asked for information on terror plots in the UK from 2006-2008. The report was authored by the Heritage Foundation in Oct 2009 http://s3.amazonaws.com/thf_media/2009/pdf/bg2329.pdf

[6] Undated document released under the Freedom of Information Act from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) entitled :‘Lines to take [to the media] on recent Nottingham arrests’. See footnote 90 and 313 of Dr. Thornton’s article.