This entry was posted on
Monday, December 20th, 2004 at
8:56 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.
Please excuse the shameless link-dump….
Independent – Severely disabled, mentally ill: the truth about Broadmoor ‘terrorist’ emerges: He is known to the outside world only as “P”. Nearly two years ago, he was arrested without charge and imprisoned as an alleged foreign terrorist – an al-Qa’ida sympathiser who threatens Britain’s national security. But P is now in a mental ward in Broadmoor secure hospital, one of four men arrested as suspect terrorists since September 11 who have suffered a severe mental collapse. And he is an alleged terrorist who has no arms.
Guardian – Is a pair of boots all that stands between 11 untried detainees and their liberty?: It all hung on the boots, or more precisely when a boot is simply a boot and when it might be construed as a terrorist weapon. This weekend, with the government still reeling from a judgment by judges in the House of Lords that a key plank of its terrorist legislation is unlawful, The Observer can reveal full details of the allegations, which critics say ‘are flimsy’ at best, against the 11 Arabs who have been held for three years in Britain’s highest security prisons, Belmarsh in south-east London and Woodhill near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire. Guardian – QC for detainees quits over terror law: A leading QC plans to resign from the panel of barristers representing terrorist suspects held without trial today, saying last night he expected others to follow suit in protest against a law he called “an odious blot on our legal landscape”. “I would be surprised if I was the only one,” said Ian Macdonald QC, one of the special advocates given security clearance to represent detainees before the special immigration appeals commission (SIAC).Independent – More lawyers threaten to quit over Belmarsh: The constitutional crisis provoked by the Government’s refusal to withdraw anti-terror laws is expected to deepen this week with the resignation of more lawyers appointed by ministers to represent foreign terror suspects at secret hearings. Five barristers are considering following the lead of Ian Macdonald QC, who declared yesterday his intention to step down from the 19-strong panel of special advocates in protest at the Government’s failure to recognise the House of Lords’ ruling that indefinite detention without trial is unlawful.Guardian – Labour must act on Lords verdict : The law lords declared this unlawful. ‘Indefinite imprisonment… on grounds not disclosed is the stuff of nightmares,’ said Lord Scott. Lord Hoffmann’s excoriating analysis was: ‘The real threat to the life of the nation… comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these.’ Lord Bingham believed the act, in effect, discriminatory. In short, Mr Blunkett had overturned core principles of human rights. The government is now required to bring the prisoners to trial, which it says it does not want to do because of the sensitivity of the evidence, or release them.Maggie Thatcher’s Underpants – Try or Release Belmarsh Inmates: The government claims its about security yet we are not at war and there is no imminent threat – certainly no more so than when the IRA were blowing up buildings in London. Internment and the violation of personal freedoms is only justified under the most extreme circumstances and life in Britain today is far from that.Peter Gasston – Grand Hypocrisy: Eight out of nine of the most senior law lords in Britain say the law is illegal – the boneheaded Blair government says it is not. They say the law is there to protect Britain – but isn’t our very own Guantanamo Bay a grand hypocrisy and an incitement to attack?LNR – Law Lords damn New Labour’s appalling terror laws: It’s all so terribly odd. Here we are, ruled by the Labour government that we craved as respite from the Tories, only to find that it has morphed into an anti-democratic, insensitive, bulldozing, preening, Republican-lite oligarchy of shits.
