From The Telegraph
A college pupil has been banned from taking AS-level courses in chemistry and biology after a judge ruled he may use the knowledge for terrorist purposes.
Mr Justice Silber, sitting at London's High Court, ruled the Iraqi national, known as AE for legal reasons, had taken part in terrorist activities and knowledge from such courses could be used to make explosives.
The judge dismissed AE's appeal against Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's decision last September refusing to permit him to undertake the AS-level courses in the 2008-9 academic year at a regional college. He had acted on the basis that the Home Secretary had reasonable grounds to believe AE had received terrorist training and had taken part in terrorist activities.
Mr Justice Silber said: "The use by a terrorist of the practical experience learnt on those courses to produce explosives or pathogens could lead to a substantial loss of lives. It requires relatively small amounts of either to cause loss of life and damage to property. It will be recollected that the bombs which caused so much loss of life on 7 July 2005 were created by individuals in their own homes. There is no suggestion that AE was involved with those events but they show how much damage can be caused by such bombs by people who have the expertise and confidence to produce dangerous items."
AE is a well-known figure in the Iraqi Kurdish community and since arriving in the UK, there were reasonable grounds for believing that he was involved in providing support for the Jihadist insurgency in Iraq and in radicalising individuals in the UK.
The judge's ruling follows an internet audio statement in 2006 from Abu Ayyub al-Masri . . the leader of al-Qa'eda in Iraq - which called on specialists with chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear weapons. . . the Mujahidin in Iraq was in "dire need" of chemists and physicists, as well as electronics experts and nuclear scientists to join the jihad (the holy war) against the West.