quote:
Blair's secret stalker squadFears that doctors could be used to lock up terror suspects without trailThe Government has established a shadowy new national anti-terrorist unit to protect VIPs, with the power to detain suspects indefinitely using mental health laws.
The revelation is set to reignite the row over the Government's use of draconian measures to deal with terror suspects amid accusations they are abusing human rights.
Ok, dus onder de noemer "anti-terrorisme" is een nieuwe eenheid opgericht die zich bezig gaat houden met het beschermen van de elite. Klinkt als Animal Farm revisited.
quote:
The Fixated Threat Assessment Centre (FTAC) was quietly set up last year to identify individuals who pose a direct threat to VIPs including the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and the Royal Family.
It was given sweeping powers to check more than 10,000 suspects' files to identify mentally unstable potential killers and stalkers with a fixation against public figures.
Nog beter, zonder dat het bekend is gemaakt bestaat het al en is het ook al operationeel gegaan met het in kaart brengen en doorlichten van 10.000 potentiele bedreigingen voor VIP's.
quote:
The team's psychiatrists and psychologists then have the power to order treatment - including forcibly detaining suspects in secure psychiatric units.
Using these powers, the unit can legally detain people for an indefinite period without trial, criminal charges or even evidence of a crime being committed and with very limited rights of appeal.
Hebben we het hier over Groot-Brittanie of de voormalige Sovjet Unie?
Mensen die een "gevaar" zijn voor gek kunnen verklaren en stilletjes voor onbepaalde tijd opsluiten, zonder aanklacht of recht op proces?
quote:
Until now it has been the exclusive decision of doctors and mental health professionals to determine if someone should be forcibly detained.
But the new unit uses the police to identify suspects - increasing fears the line is being blurred between criminal investigation and doctors' clinical decisions.
Tsssk. Altijd weer lui die gevaar zien in een of andere geheime eenheid die mensen op basis van 'geestelijke gezondheid' kan laten verdwijnen.
quote:
Policy director Gareth Crossman said: "There is a grave danger of this being used to deal with people where there is insufficient evidence for a criminal prosecution.
"This blurs the line between medical decisions and police actions. If you are going to allow doctors to take people's liberty away, they have to be independent. That credibility is undermined when the doctors are part of the same team as the police.
"This raises serious concerns. First that you have a unit that allows police investigation to lead directly to people being sectioned without any kind of criminal proceedings.
"Secondly, it is being done under the umbrella of anti-terrorism at a time when the Government is looking at ways to detain terrorists without putting them on trial."
Yep.
quote:
Last night a Home Office spokeswoman said there was "nothing sinister" about the unit or its role in counter-terrorism
O gelukkig maar.
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Zo zijn Blair's opmerkingen van afgelopen weekend ook beter te plaatsen.
quote:
Civil liberties priority wrong - PMTony Blair has hit out at
the "dangerous misjudgment" of putting civil liberties before fighting terror.
He spoke out as it emerged tough new "stop and question" powers may be given to the police as part of a new anti-terror package.
He insisted the disappearance of three suspects under control orders was not the fault of the Home Office but society's "misguided and wrong" priorities.
Writing in the Sunday Times, he said: "The fault is not with our services or, in this instance, with the Home Office.
"We have chosen as a society to put the civil liberties of the suspect, even if a foreign national, first.
"I happen to believe this is misguided and wrong."He went on: "Over the past five or six years we have decided as a country that except in the most limited of ways, the threat to our public safety does not justify changing radically the legal basis on which we confront this extremism.
"Their right to traditional civil liberties comes first. I believe this is a dangerous misjudgment."
Het plaatsen van burger- of mensenrechten boven veiligheid is verkeerd.
Met andere woorden, vrijheden inleveren en de macht van de overheid vergroten ten behoeve van veiligheid.
Wat Blair voorstelt, en op weg is te realiseren, is afschaffing van habeas corpus. Kort gezegd het recht op een aanklacht (en beperkt voorarrest), verdediging en een openbaar proces.
In de VS is dit vorig jaar doorgevoerd met de Military Commission’s Act 2006.
Keith Olbermann heeft daar een goed stuk op TV over gebracht.
The death of habeas corpus - Countdown with Keith Olbermann (YouTube)
en het vervolg
Keith Olbermann Habeas Corpus Is Dead
Hoe lang zou het bij ons nog intact blijven?
Is na de VS en Groot Brittanie Europa aan de beurt?
En de grote vraag: Waarom?
"They who would give up an essential liberty for temporary security, deserve neither liberty or security" - Benjamin Franklin
[ Bericht 0% gewijzigd door NorthernStar op 29-05-2007 07:45:58 ]