Human Rights and Terrorists

Days of Parliamentary time has been taken up, agonising over whether the detention time, after arrest, should be raised from 28 to 42 days.

Compared with the issue of intercepts, that is a side show.

The Security Services and Prosecution authorities, are very keen to use intercepts and without their use Hussain, Ali and Sarwar, might have escaped their September 2009, conviction for a conspiracy to blow up 7 airliners over the Atlantic using home-made liquid bombs.

Their conviction, however, may well be set aside because the Prosecution broke the law in obtaining the intercepts. Trying to get round the UK law they obtained an Order in California against Yahoo!, but this breaks the UK law because it implies that interception has taken place. Without it how would the Prosecutors have known that incriminating emails exist in the first place?

Also Human Rights.

The UK drive to prevent terrorism is being hindered by Human Rights law. About half applications, relating to intercepts, fail for that reason.

We all have a chuckle about transsexual prisoners demanding to be searching by female officers, and whether a market holder can sell bananas in pounds, and we lampoon Brussels bureaucrats, but this is far more serious.

Do you think that human rights laws should impact on the drive to prevent terrorism and convict terrorists? Or do you think that the Authorities have quite sufficient powers already, and to go further would impinge on individuals’ human rights?

Vote below.