“Civil Rights,” British Style

There has been much outrage over the absconding of three British terrorism suspects who were under “control orders.” They are the latest of a number of terror suspects who, being left at large under the theoretical control of such orders, have simply disappeared. The Conservative Party’s shadow attorney general charged that the disappearance of the three terror suspects was “entirely of the government’s own making” and evidenced a failure “to adequately police the country’s borders.”
In today’s London Times, Tony Blair lends context to the controversy:

After September 11, 2001, in common with many other nations, we passed new antiterror laws. In the aftermath of such an outrage it was relatively easy to do. We gave ourselves the ability, in exceptional circumstances, to detain foreign nationals who we believed were plotting terrorism but against whom there was insufficient evidence to prosecute. It was an important power. They were, of course, free to leave Britain. But we wouldn

Notice: All comments are subject to moderation. Our comments are intended to be a forum for civil discourse bearing on the subject under discussion. Commenters who stray beyond the bounds of civility or employ what we deem gratuitous vulgarity in a comment — including, but not limited to, “s***,” “f***,” “a*******,” or one of their many variants — will be banned without further notice in the sole discretion of the site moderator.

Responses