World-News

Independent [Uk]

08/15/06

Tony Blair's government has created more than 3,000 new criminal offences during its nine-year tenure, one for almost every day it has been in power.The astonishing tally brought accusations last night of a "frenzied approach to law-making" that contrasts with falling detection rates and climbing levels of violent crime.The figures emerged as police chiefs disclosed they were considering asking ministers for a set of new measures to allow them to impose "instant justice" for antisocial behaviour...

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1219484.ece


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

Guardian [UK]

08/15/06

It was not in horror or panic that thousands of ordinary people contacted the BBC or posted points on the Guardian's Comment is Free website in the hours after last week's terror plot. The mood of many seemed to be one of profound caution, even scepticism, over the allegations of a murderous scheme in which 50 people would try to bring down up to 20 planes between Britain and America. Almost a week later, and after a downgrading of the terrorist threat, what do ordinary voters now think of those excitable early briefings by John Reid, the home secretary, and Scotland Yard's dramatically voiced belief that it had foiled 'mass murder on an unimaginable scale?' Are people still sceptical?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/terrorism/story/0,,1851078,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

UK: Guardian [UK]

08/14/06

Police are pressing ministers for radical new powers to dispense instant justice, including the immediate exclusion of 'yobs' from town centres at night, and bans on street gang members associating with each other, the Guardian has learned. Senior officers say the powers would be the 'modern equivalent of a clip round the ear from the local bobby' and would ensure the introduction of neighbourhood policing across England and Wales has 'bite' and meets public expectations. ... But the proposals have alarmed human rights campaigners. Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said: 'This looks like instant police justice and a return to the infamous sus laws. Surely the many officers who are proud of our consent-based policing tradition will resent the idea of being legislator, judge and jury on the cheap?' Alan Gordon, vice-chairman of the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said he was not sure that he was in favour of the police imposing any form of sentence: 'The enforcement of the law and then a form of punishment should be two separate processes'...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/crime/article/0,,1844813,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

It’s amazing really that nobody sees the paradox of Reid calling for the abolition of what’s left of our civil rights in order to preserve them but then there’s nothing logical about the ‘war on terror’, it is itself a contradiction of terms.

http://www.williambowles.info/ini/2006/0806/ini-0445.html


From Information Clearing House

The UK might have to modify its freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their "misuse and abuse" by terrorists, John Reid has said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5257518.stm



British Lose Their Minds

I'm sitting in Europe, scheduled to take British Air back to the states on Friday, and I'm watching British Authorities meltdown in the face of an alleged terrorist plot. Rule of thumb--initial, panicked reports are usually unreliable.

http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/08/british_lose_th.html#more



Fake Terror Obfuscates Lebanon and Iraq Failures

Unable to window dress the obvious failure to eradicate growing resistance in Lebanon, Iraq, and Afghanistan—even with the mighty propaganda power of a complaisant media—the neocon intelligence apparatus has staged yet another terrorist event, or would be terrorist event.

http://kurtnimmo.com/?p=513



Toying With Terror Alerts?

In the Bush era, the timing and quality of "arrests" and "warnings" have a suspicious ring.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1211369,00.html


From Information Clearing House

says Reid
Guardian [UK]

08/10/06

John Reid yesterday accused the government's anti-terror critics of putting national security at risk by their failure to recognise the serious nature of the threat facing Britain. "They just don't get it," he said. The home secretary yesterday gave the thinktank Demos his strongest hint yet that a new round of anti-terror legislation is on the way this autumn by warning that traditional civil liberty arguments were not so much wrong as just made for another age."Sometimes we may have to modify some of our own freedoms in the short term in order to prevent their misuse and abuse by those who oppose our fundamental values and would destroy all of our freedoms in the modern world," he said... [Editor's note: 'Those who give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety end up trading freedom for security'-Franklin-MLS]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/labour/story/0,,1841019,00.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

By Neil Mackay

THE Lebanese government is working behind the scenes to bring Tony Blair before the Scottish courts, charged with war crimes for aiding and abetting the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14393.htm

The extent of the Labour backbench unrest over Tony Blair's handling of the Middle East crisis is laid bare for the first time today in a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1214560.ece


From Information Clearing House

How convenient it would be for Mr Blair if we all acquiesced in this theory of a global, unified terrorist conspiracy. It would mean that no foreign policy adventure, however extreme, could be criticised; no attack on British troops abroad, no botched intervention, could be blamed on the Prime Minister's judgement.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14366.htm