Ministers 'using fear of terror'

"BBC NEWS | UK | Ministers 'using fear of terror'
A former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism to restrict civil liberties. Dame Stella Rimington, 73, said people in Britain felt as if they were living 'under a police state' because of the fear being spread by ministers. 'It would be better that the government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism - that we live in fear and under a police state,' she said."

She has been critical of Government policy before; this is quite outspoken - but she's right on the money.

BBC NEWS | UK | Ministers 'using fear of terror'

Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'

"BBC NEWS | World | Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'
The UK and the US have 'actively undermined' international law in the way they fight terrorism, a report by judges and lawyers has said. The independent International Commission of Jurists carried out a three-year global study. It concluded that many measures introduced to fight terrorism were illegal and counter-productive."

Anyone with half a brain (and that obviously discounts the Bush administration) could see that abducting and torturing people, and even using foreign interrogation centres to get around your own laws, isn't exactly taking the moral high ground.

"Mr Chaskelson, chairman of the panel, said: 'In the course of this inquiry, we have been shocked by the extent of the damage done over the past seven years by excessive or abusive counter-terrorism measures in a wide range of countries around the world. Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights. The result is a serious threat to the integrity of the international human rights legal framework.'"

It is a shame that the panel doesn't go a step further specifically name Bush.

BBC NEWS | World | Anti-terror tactics 'weaken law'