MPs oppose Brown's terror detention plan

[kbo234]

MPs oppose Brown's terror detention plan

Julia May, London
July 31, 2007


BRITISH Prime Minister Gordon Brown suffered a setback yesterday in his bid to double the period that terror suspects can be held without charge to 56 days, as a cross-party group of MPs dismissed the change as unnecessary.

The Joint Committee on Human Rights said in a report it had seen no case where it was necessary to detain suspects without charge for longer than 28 days. The committee also denounced as "Kafkaesque" Britain's so-called control order system, which curbs the freedom of terror suspects.

Appellants in this process, who have included David Hicks in his appeal for British citizenship, are not able to view the evidence being used against them. Suspects can also be kept under house arrest without being prosecuted.

The report said this system is "not just offensive to the basic principles of adversarial justice … but is very much against basic notions of fair play".

The committee relied heavily on evidence from Australian police to endorse the use of intercepted evidence, such as telephone tapping, in bringing criminal prosecutions.

The report included testimony by Britain's Director of Public Prosecutions, Ken Macdonald, who said: "In Australia, I was told by the head of the NSW Crime Commission that prosecutors who did not rely on intercept evidence were not being 'serious' in this area of work.

"I spoke to the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation, all of the crime commissions, the Commonwealth DPP, the NSW DPP, the Australian Federal Police. Everybody without exception told us that this material is of enormous use. It is cheap, it is effective; it drives up the number of guilty pleas and it leads to successful prosecutions."

Despite the committee's criticism of Mr Brown's desire to extend the pre-charge detention period, it welcomed the "significant change of approach and tone" of his Government's approach to anti-terror policy, describing it as less partisan than former prime minister Tony Blair's policy.

A Home Office spokesman welcomed the report, but defended the need for an extended detention period and the control order system.

"The Prime Minister has announced that the Government will consult on the issue of pre-charge detention as there is a growing weight of opinion that it may be necessary to extend the 28-day limit," he said.

The spokesman said the Government would only seek to change the law regarding intercept evidence if the "sensitive techniques and capabilities" of intelligence organisations would be protected. A separate review is under way.

Mr Brown was due to begin talks in the US with President George Bush. Before arriving in Washington on Sunday, he described the US as Britain's "most important bilateral relationship" and said the world owed a debt to the US "for its leadership in this fight against international terrorism".

But Mr Brown's comments were overshadowed by revelations in the The Sunday Times that his most senior foreign policy adviser was "sounding out" his counterparts in Washington over an early withdrawal of British troops.

The Government denied an announcement would follow, but Mr Brown faces the continuing challenge of maintaining British-US relations while distancing himself from the close relationship between Mr Blair and Mr Bush.

[rodin]

Brown is living and selling a lie. Watch him squirm. He knows, we all know, 911 was demolition and 7/7 an impossible coincidence



http://www.prisonplanet.com/audio/090705exercise_clip_2.mp3