Terrorism

David Lowe was a police officer for 27 years, and had numerous uniform and CID roles before retiring as a Detective Sergeant. During his police career, Lowe studied for a BA in Criminal Justice, an LLB, an MPhil that addressed the role of the police in a multi-agency approach to crime control and a PhD exploring the role of the UK’s Special Branch in counter-terrorism investigations. Following his retirement from the police, David entered academia, and was a principal lecturer at Liverpool John Moores University’s Law School until 2017. His research has resulted in many publications, including books, book chapters, articles in peer-reviewed journals and online journals. After leaving Liverpool John Moores, David set up his own terrorism and security consultancy business providing an expert witness service and advice on law and policy in the areas of terrorism and security, criminal law and policing. In addition to this, David continues to write in his research areas. David has provided commentary on these areas for the BBC, Sky News, ITN News, Al Jazeera, Al Arabyia, France 24, DW Germany, TRT, RT, ABC, CNN and CNBC. He is also a frequent contributor to radio and print media, including the BBC, LBC, TalkRADIO, Sputnik Radio and Newstalk ZB, Guardian, Daily Mirror, Daily Express, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Times and New York Times, Slovakia’s Pravda, Spain’s La Razon and Austria’s Die Presse.

Introduction

1 The terrorist threat facing the states covered in this study

2 The legal definition of terrorism

3 Government policies and statutory preventative measures

4 Surveillance of electronic communications

5 International terrorism intelligence exchange, Snowden revelations, the courts and data protection

6 Handling informants in terrorist investigations

7 Funding terrorism and asset-freezing

8 Prevent strategies