Rod Thornton
 Rod Thornton     (whistleblower, academic, author) | |
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| Interests | • Russia • “terrorism” • counter-insurgency • modern warfare |
A university lecturer who fired after he published a paper about his university's mistreatment of a Muslim students under the "war on terror" pretext. | |
Rod Thornton is a former lecturer at Nottingham University, in the UK.
Contents
Background
He was in the British Army for nine years and has lived and worked in both the former Yugoslavia and Russia. He has provided expert evidence to the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, and has been contracted to produce work for the Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense. He is the author of Asymmetric Warfare: Threat and Response in the 21st Century (Polity Press, 2006) and co-edited the book, Dimensions of Counter-Insurgency (Routledge, 2008). He has had articles published in a range of journals, including Small Wars and Insurgencies, Journal of Strategic Studies, Journal of Slavic Military Studies, Defence Studies and International Peacekeeping. He has also co-edited a special edition of Contemporary Security Policy. [1]
Controversy over Terrorism Act Arrests at Nottingham University in May 2008
In May 2008 the "Nottingham Two" (Hicham Yezza, an Algerian doctoral student and Rizwaan Sabir, an undergraduate) were arrested under provisions of the Terrorism Act for possession of 'terrorist material', specifically an al Qaeda training manual and two other publications, all of which were available from the University library. Both came close to being deported before the authorities admitted the ridiculousness of the proposed charges.[2]. The persistence of the police and Home Office efforts, first to incriminate and then to deport both men lasted for many months and had a devastating effect on them [3]. The story is an object lesson in the absurdity of the legislation and the misplaced zeal of those attempting to apply it in utterly ridiculous circumstances.
In May 2011 Rod Thornton published a detailed analysis of the the events of the affair [4] and was promptly suspended by Nottingham University Authorities for his pains.
See Also
- Kevin Galalae - Another whistleblower in academia, who exposed the UK government's the Surveillance and censorship program (part of the "War on Terror")
References
- ↑ Rod Thorton biographical information - University of Nottingham web site May 2011
- ↑ 'This is not the way I should have been treated in a country I love', The Guardian, 31 May 2008
- ↑ Britain's terror laws have left me and my family shattered The Guardian, 18 August 2008
- ↑ Radicalisation at universities or radicalisation by universities?: How a student‟s use of a library book became a “major Islamist plot”
