 In October 2008, the UK PM Gordon Brown used provisions in part 2 of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 to freeze Landsbanki holdings in the United Kingdom. Iceland's prime minister Geir Haarde protested against what he described as "a terrorist law being applied against us", calling it "a completely unfriendly act". Angered by the British decision, Iceland decided to submit a formal complaint to NATO about their move, and it also provoked more than 80,000 Icelandics (equal to 25 % of its entire population) to sign an online petition set up under the heading "Icelanders are not terrorists". The relationship got even tenser when UK replied a month later by cancelling its scheduled patrol of the Icelandic airspace in December 2008. Iceland has no standing army of its own, and relies on a long-term standing agreement with NATO where a group of member states have committed in turns to defend the Icelandic airspace, and the UK Royal Air Force had now cancelled this after mutual agreement with NATO (presumably with another member state having accepted to overtake the liability).
