Greenpeace and Peta included on UK counter terror list

Reports claim that Greenpeace, Peta and Extinction Rebellion have been included on a counter-terrorism police document distributed to medical staff and teachers as part of anti-extremism briefing.

The Guardian newspaper has learnt that the guide, produced by Counter Terrorism Policing, also includes ocean pollution campaigners Sea Shepherd, and Stop the Badger Cull alongside a number of extremist rightwing groups including Combat 18 and the National Front, as well as National Action, which has been banned for terrorist violence. The guide is used across England as part of training for Prevent, the anti-radicalisation scheme designed to catch those at risk of committing terrorist violence.

Police insist the guide is not meant to portray all the groups that it features as extremist and thus needing to be reported to them, but non-violent groups featured in the document are understandably furious at their inclusion.

John Sauven, the executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: “Tarring environmental campaigners and terrorist organisations with the same brush is not going to help fight terrorism. It will only harm the reputation of hard-working police officers … How can we possibly teach children about the devastation caused by the climate emergency while at the same implying that those trying to stop it are extremists?”

Police recently claimed that documents uncovered by the Guardian that listed the environmental protest group Extinction Rebellion alongside far-right extremists and jihadists were a local error.