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Originally Posted by Graham F
What would you think is better then Chris?
To be honest I thought the laws we had were good, as all those held were/are free to leave the country at anytime. I do agree I think these new powers which apply to British Nationals as well are worrying, but what option were they left with? The Security services can only watch so many people at once.
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Well, I think the 'security assurances' the UK has made to the US almost certainly amount to each of the Guantanamo Four having their own personal Spook for the forseeable future. They are going to have to endure re-sealed envelopes and quiet breathing in the background on their phone lines. Even this makes me uncomfortable but at least those men will be free unless and until they are actually proven to have done something wrong.
The detention of foreigners suspected of terrorism actually bothered me slightly less, because they were not UK nationals and I think we as a nation should have the right to remove foreigners from the country by revoking whatever visa they had to be here in the first place, and I think when considering visas it is reasonable to proceed on the grounds of suspicion, as you can't take every visa case to Court. Let's not forget, they had the right to leave jail at any time, by leaving the UK at the same time. Still not something I was comfortable with, but something I was ok about living with for a limited time under extreme circumstances.
This, however, is very different. These powers would have allowed the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six to be detained under house arrest, indefinitely. The police would not even have needed to bother fitting them up for the crimes. We are returning to the bad old days of internment and it is utterly inexcuseable.
The thing that scares me is that pronouncements from Blair and others about our very nation being at stake are sounding increasingly hollow. We are asked to trust Blair and Clarke because they say we should, on the basis of information they say they have seen, but which we are forbidden from seeing and evaluating ourselves for security reasons. How very convenient for them.
I think that all the money we are wasting pursuing illegal legislation, and designing an ID card scheme that will never work, should be spent on improving and expanding MI5. That way, we might actually get the evidence we need to nail some of these people under the laws we already have, and which have served us well for years.