The British home secretary on Monday moved to ban 15 more international "terror organizations" with alleged links to al-Qaeda, including some which are believed to have members living in Britain.
The list mainly covers Pakistani radical Islamist groups but also includes Ansar al-Islam, a radical Sunni Salafi group active in northern Iraq, the largest militant Islamist organization in Somalia and a Moroccan Islamist group.
The ban was proposed last night by the UK's home secretary, Charles Clarke, and could be law by tomorrow, when he will ask both houses of parliament to debate and approve a draft order proscribing these organizations in one day as a matter of urgency. A ban will not only mean that the police and security services can move against those it claims are members of illegal organizations but will also trigger powers to freeze and seize any assets belonging to these groups in Britain.
The ban is being imposed under the UK's Terrorism Act 2000 and does not cover the largest radical extremist organizations in Britain, Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Sheik Omar Bhakri's al-Muhajiroun.
But Clarke last night confirmed that his new terrorism bill, to be published this week, will include powers to extend the definition of organizations that can be banned from those which are "concerned with terrorism" to make it possible to proscribe any organization providing "succor or support" by glorifying terrorism.
Tony Blair has made clear he expects this will lead to an eventual ban on extremist organizations which are not involved in terrorism such as Hizb ut-Tahrir.
The new anti-terror bill will also contain new powers to deal with proscribed organizations which try to evade the ban by changing their name. Proscription will cover all "successor" organizations as well.
The decision to proscribe a further 15 international organizations means that they join the initial list of 25 terrorist organizations, including al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Tamil Tigers which are banned in Britain. An additional 14 Irish groups are also proscribed.
The home secretary said events in London and elsewhere had shown that the threat posed by global terrorism had not gone away.
"The United Kingdom is committed to playing a leading role in the international campaign against terrorism and sending the clear message that we are not prepared to tolerate terrorism here or anywhere in the world.
"Proscription is an important power, and not one to be used lightly. The list of proscribed organizations is kept under constant review and, after careful consideration of all the relevant factors, I am satisfied that these groups should now be added to it."
A Home Office spokesman denied that the decision to announce the ban on the day that parliament returns was connected to Clarke's visit to Washington or Blair's meeting with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, last week.
Seven of the 15 groups named are believed to have some members or supporters in Britain but it is believed the main aim of the ban is to prevent fundraising and to freeze any assets. The list includes:
The Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which seeks to replace the Libyan regime with a hardline Islamist state and has made a failed assassination attempt on President Muammar Qaddafi; Groupe Islamic Combattant Marocain, which started in Afghanistan but emerged in Morocco in the mid-1990s; Ansar al-Islam, formed in 2001 in north-east Iraq, which has been involved in anti-US and Kurdish insurgency attacks; Al Ittihad al-Islamia, which aims to establish a radical Sunni Islamic state in Somalia and to regain the Ogaden region of Ethiopia.
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