As it's an almost overlooked anniversary of 9/11 I thought it appropriate to publish this article. Amazon have a book called Guerrilla's Arsenal by David Harber listed as available on many of their websites. It includes "Advanced Techniques for Making Explosives and Time-delay Bombs". One review on Amazon UK says [Sic] "Most, if not all of the techniques used in this book are far from amateur status and could easily kill any of its more daring readers." You can see more about this book at this link.
There are many other bomb making books like it available on Amazon and similar guidance is openly available on Facebook or YouTube.
Given all the publicity about Amazon's, Facebook's and YouTube's tax affairs one might have thought that their management might have learned a lesson or two about stooping too low to fill their pockets. They will no doubt argue that they are acting in the interests of freedom of speech or that in Amazon's case they try and report purchasers of any of the many bomb making books they have on sale to the authorities.
My limited understanding of anti-terrorism legislation in the UK is that Amazon UK et al might well be in breach of it. An article in the (London) Times on 25th May 2017 supports my layman's opinion (Facebook and YouTube publish DIY terror guides on how to make bombs) and states "Material that shows how to make a bomb is likely to breach British terrorism legislation. As Facebook allowed such content to remain online it could be at risk of committing a criminal offence, lawyers said." So why aren't they prosecuted? Why did Amazon remove many such books from their websites in countries (eg Australia) with more robust anti-terrorism laws?
The book and others like it have or had "sponsored links" provided by and I quote Learn How To Make Explosive - Find Answers to Any Question Get Expert Step by Step Instruction! "Sponsored by" presumably means Amazon UK are receiving advertising income by promoting this book. Obviously, they receive a large chunk of any sales of the actual book too.
Amazon's management show just how low they will stoop to fill their pockets and even Donald Trump has (somewhat hypocritically) criticized their "tax compliance". Nevertheless, they are still trying to sell terrorist trash like this in the UK after dozens of youngsters were maimed or killed in Manchester earlier this year as the foregoing iconic picture reminds us. Is that because of free speech? How much more repulsive can Amazon get?
Maybe they will remove the book from their web pages for a day or so or remove my comment on their book, but they can't remove this comment. I haven't gone out of my way to look for more examples but there are many other books for sale on Amazon UK and their other websites that may allegedly breach English or other countries' anti-terrorism laws. Surely there is enough guidance all over Facebook and YouTube for those who want to kill and maim youngsters? Yes, don't forget, we're approaching the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in a few years from now and what have we learned?
Bill Fairclough, Faire Sans Dire
This article was first published on 11 September 2017.