Brits Get Their Own Gestapo

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INTERNMENT WITHOUT TRIAL: BRITS GET THEIR OWN HOMELAND GESTAPO

'TERROR' SUSPECTS TO BE TREATED LIKE THE IRISH

The Independent - Nov 11, 2001

Terror suspects to be interned

By Colin Brown and Jo Dillon

The Home Secretary David Blunkett will this week declare a state of
"public emergency" in Britain to introduce internment without trial
for suspected terrorists in this country.

The Home Secretary will provoke a storm of protest from senior Labour
MPs, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats by announcing that Britain
is derogating article five from the European Court of Human Rights to
allow the detentions to take place. To do so, he will have to declare
that Britain is under a heightened state of the threat of terrorism.

However, MI5 has secretly warned MPs that the tough new
anti-terrorist measures to be unveiled by Mr Blunkett on Tuesday do
not go far enough. Officers from MI5 met the Home Affairs Select
Committee and told MPs they needed a new law concerning conspiracy to
commit a terrorist offence, so as to plug loopholes that allow
suspected terrorists to go free.

Their demands for tougher measures will set alarm bells ringing at
Westminster, where MPs are preparing to attack some of the
anti-terrorism proposals for going too far.

The Home Affairs Select Committee, which is rushing out a report on
the new terrorism Bill, is expected to register its concern. Its
Labour chairman, Chris Mullin, has told friends he has misgivings
about indefinite detention without trial.

The Tory shadow Home Secretary, Oliver Letwin, will warn it is not in
the national interest to detain suspected terrorists in British
prisons.

A Tory spokesman said: "We don't think interning terrorist suspects
in this country is a very good idea. If we end up with prisons full
of suspected terrorists we are making ourselves a prime target. There
would be a risk, either from direct attempts being made to free
terrorists from these prisons, or attempts to take British subjects
hostage and try to trade them."

Both the Liberal Democrats and the Tories are concerned at the speed
at which the Bill is expected to go through Parliament and are
calling for the legislation to be time-limited so that it would have
to be renewed every year.

The Liberal Democrats are worried that some of the provisions may
exclude some people from the asylum process altogether. The Tories
are unconvinced of the need to make incitement to religious hatred a
crime.

The committee meeting with MI5 officers was so secret that one member
who missed it did not know it had happened.

MI5 officers gave two examples of suspected terrorists who had been
stopped but not arrested as they had not broken the law. One man had
£180,000 in cash at an airport, stuffed into his children's clothes.
Another was carrying arsenic. "They said the man with the arsenic
might have been planning to poison the water supply but had committed
no offence so he was allowed to go," said one committee member.

The Home Office confirmed there was no law that could have led to
detention in either case, although the Proceeds of Crime Bill allows
the seizure of large sums involving crime. The sale of arsenic is
tightly controlled but its possession is not an offence.

                         *

The Independent - 11 November 2001

http://www.independent.co.uk

New police powers

Muslim leaders warn of riots over anti-terror law

By Severin Carrell

Muslim leaders have warned David Blunkett that his crackdown on
terrorism and religious hatred could spark off fresh race riots.
Members of the Muslim community in Britain fear police will target
them unfairly.

In a 100-page submission to the Home Secretary, leaked to the
Independent on Sunday, nine of Britain's most senior Muslim leaders
warned they have "grave reservations" about his proposed powers for
the police and courts.

The Muslim leaders fear plans to give police and Customs officers the
right to demand that Muslim women remove their hijab face and head
coverings may provoke serious disturbances, as they breach a
significant article of faith for some Muslims.

They compared these powers to the abuse of "stop and search" by
police in the 1980s, which sparked off riots in Brixton and Toxteth,
Liverpool. "We object in the strongest terms to the introduction of
these powers," they said.

Racial tensions, which have been exacerbated by high levels of
poverty and unemployment in Pakistani and Bangladeshi areas, are
still running high in the northern towns such as Bradford, Oldham and
Burnley, hit by rioting earlier this year.

In Bradford last week, an Anglican vicar was stoned by masked Asian
youths after he stopped them setting fire to his church. Muslim
leaders will speak at the church's Remembrance Day service this
morning in a bid to distance the city's Pakistani community from the
attacks.

The criticisms from Britain's most influential Muslim organisations
are a severe blow to Tony Blair's attempts to build a cross-community
consensus on the US-UK attacks on Afghanistan. Earlier this month,
three Muslim Labour peers and a Muslim Labour MP urged Mr Blair to
suspend the bombing to allow aid to reach refugees.

Two of the nine signatories are bodies which hosted the Prime
Minister's bridge-building speech to Muslims last month - the
Al-Khoei Foundation and the Forum Against Islamophobia & Racism.

The document has also been signed by: Dr Zaki Badawi of the Muslim
College, Yousuf Bhailok of the Muslim Council of Britain, Dr
Ghayasuddin Siddiqui of the Muslim Parliament, Yusuf Islam of the
Association of Muslim Schools, the Union of Muslim Organisations, the
Centre for Muslim Policy Research and the Muslim Women's Helpline.

Mr Blunkett, who will unveil his new anti-terror Bill on Tuesday, was
given the document two days ago. A shortened version was also given
to the Home Affairs Select Committee.

Mr Blunkett's officials insist powers to order the removal of
headwear would be used only in specific investigations into terrorist
activity, not during general policing. "It's very important that
people recognise if there's a specific threat, we need to react to
it," said one source. "Muslims were killed at the World Trade Centre
as well."

The Muslim leaders said their criticisms sprang from a "substantial
risk" that these powers will be used mainly against ordinary Muslims
because of the activities of a small number of Islamic
fundamentalists and terror cells.

They warn Mr Blunkett their support for measures to outlaw
religiously motivated crime and religious hatred will be conditional
on ministers introducing "careful supervision" and controls of the
police, Crown Prosecution Service and courts to ensure these powers
are fairly and equally enforced.

They also accuse the Government of not going far enough to stop
anti-religious discrimination in housing, the health system and
public services. New regulations on religious discrimination in
employment are expected to be very restricted, despite evidence of
discrimination.

"The increase in anti-Muslim prejudice in the post-11 September
period has created a substantial risk that discrimination will taint
the exercise of any additional criminal powers that specifically
target a religious group," they argue.

Khalid Mahmood, the Muslim MP for Birmingham Perry Bar, downplayed
these fears. On the claims about head coverings, he said the police
had the right to check people's identities but would use their powers
sensitively.

Outlawing religious hatred was needed to stamp out blatant attempts
by the British National Party to promote Islamophobia. Muslims were
the only mainstream religious group not to be legally protected, he
added. "This is something we've fought for since the late 1980s," he
said.

* A march in Blackburn by supporters of the Taliban passed off
peacefully yesterday. Only about 35 people supported the Al
Muhajiroun rally, which took place in the constituency of Jack Straw,
the Foreign Secretary.
 
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