The Anarchist Cookbook still on sale in the UK

A terrorist manual linked to the Boston marathon bombing is being sold in the UK despite calls for it to be banned.

The Anarchist Cookbook, which gives budding terrorists step-by-step guides on how to make bombs, was last week connected with the Boston blasts by security experts and a US politician.

The terrorism tome, banned in Australia, has chapters on how to make home-made explosives and drugs.

UK police officers and judges have already called for it to be banned.

The book was Written in 1969 by 19-year-old William Powell. The teenager researched and wrote it as a means of opposition to the Vietnam War, which he believed he would soon be called up for.

The book inspired a pressure cooker bombing in 1976, when Croat nationalists planted one in New York’s Grand Central Station. It exploded as an attempt was made to defuse it and a policeman was killed.

In 2000, Powell labelled the book “misguided” and called for it to be taken out of publication.

Retired American writer Susan Cohen, whose daughter Theodora died in the Pan Am explosion over Lockerbie, said: “This book crosses the line and is simply gruesome.”

Labour MSP Graeme Pearson said: “It’s unfortunate this book was written and unfortunate it’s widely available.”

The horrific handbook details the use of pressurised detonators, which the FBI believe to be behind last week’s atrocity in the US.

In the UK the terrorism guide for dummies was linked with two planned killing sprees last year alone.

Despite its ties to criminal activities, The Sunday Post was able to buy a copy of the manual just days after a former US congresswoman appeared on British TV linking the book with the Boston bombings.

Jane Harman warned on BBC Newsnight how books like the Anarchist Cookbook could aid terrorists.

Last month, a bullied schoolboy was locked up in a mental health facility for planning to massacre his schoolmates.

The 16-year-old, unable to be named for legal reasons, was arrested by cops after the FBI tipped them off.

Officers found notes detailing his massacre plans, a copy of The Anarchists Cookbook and potentially explosive substances

sulphur powder and potassium nitrate which he had bought using his dad’s eBay account.

In February, three would-be-bombers were sent to jail for plotting to carry out terror attacks deadlier than London’s 7/7 bombings.

The Birmingham-based ringleader, chemistry graduate Irfan Naseer, 31, was found to have a copy of the terrorism tome when he was arrested.

In 2010, white supremacist Ian Davison, 42, was jailed for 10 years after he manufactured enough ricin to kill nine people, keeping the deadly powder in a jar in his kitchen for two years. His son Nicky Davison (below), 19, of County Durham, was sentenced to two years in a young offenders’ institution after being convicted of charges relating to downloading copies of the Anarchist’s Cookbook.

Having the book, saw Davison charged with possessing material useful to commit acts of terror.

During his trial, Judge John Mitford QC and the detective who headed up the case demanded the book be banned. Graeme Pearson MSP said: “Books like this are unfortunately the price we pay for living in a free society.

Having this book could be seen as committing a crime but officers would take into account of what other activities you were engaged in.

“If you just had the book its unlikely you would be getting your door kicked in.”