Tuesday, July 08, 2008
Former head of MI5 says 42-day detention plan is 'unworkable'
And thus implies Gordon Brown is acting for AlQaeda and the Taliban
Plans to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days are neither practical or principled, the former head of MI5 warned yesterday. Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, who stood down as the director general of Britain's domestic intelligence agency last year, took the highly unusual step of using her maiden speech in the House of Lords to denounce the plans. It was the first time she had spoken on the subject. "I don't see on a practical basis, as well as a principled one, that these proposals are in any way workable," she told peers. "Terrorists want to provoke the state into putting in place such measures. We risk doing their job for them," she said.
Of course some other peers do not take this view. Falconer and Goldsmith, amongst others. But in the famous words of Christine Keeler "They (the troughies) would say that, wouldn't they ?"
IMO: An interesting and difficult matter of principle and ethics. For practical purposes, Eliza Manningham-Buller may be right. But there are still those who can remember public fundraising campaigns for the Taliban in the USA. e.g. you could get a coupon for donations to the Taliban in the back of "Soldier of Fortune" as I recall it roughly but do not have the memorabilia to check my precise accuracy. This was because the Taliban were then trying to get the Communists from Afganistan, and that was thought to be something the American public strongly favoured. Now of course in some circumstances that could pull you Gitmo. To some extent this is where the newish topic of experimental philosophy (Knobe etc.) could in the long term hold its own. But politically, my guts still tell me Labor is better than Tory at this moment in time. There are a lot of bad apples in all political parties whatever the views of Eliza Manningham-Buller are.
And thus implies Gordon Brown is acting for AlQaeda and the Taliban
Plans to hold terror suspects for up to 42 days are neither practical or principled, the former head of MI5 warned yesterday. Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller, who stood down as the director general of Britain's domestic intelligence agency last year, took the highly unusual step of using her maiden speech in the House of Lords to denounce the plans. It was the first time she had spoken on the subject. "I don't see on a practical basis, as well as a principled one, that these proposals are in any way workable," she told peers. "Terrorists want to provoke the state into putting in place such measures. We risk doing their job for them," she said.
Of course some other peers do not take this view. Falconer and Goldsmith, amongst others. But in the famous words of Christine Keeler "They (the troughies) would say that, wouldn't they ?"
IMO: An interesting and difficult matter of principle and ethics. For practical purposes, Eliza Manningham-Buller may be right. But there are still those who can remember public fundraising campaigns for the Taliban in the USA. e.g. you could get a coupon for donations to the Taliban in the back of "Soldier of Fortune" as I recall it roughly but do not have the memorabilia to check my precise accuracy. This was because the Taliban were then trying to get the Communists from Afganistan, and that was thought to be something the American public strongly favoured. Now of course in some circumstances that could pull you Gitmo. To some extent this is where the newish topic of experimental philosophy (Knobe etc.) could in the long term hold its own. But politically, my guts still tell me Labor is better than Tory at this moment in time. There are a lot of bad apples in all political parties whatever the views of Eliza Manningham-Buller are.
# posted by uv : 5:44 PM
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