UK Spy Chief: We Risk a Police State

[Hissyspit]

Source: Telegraph UK

Spy chief: We risk a police state

Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, has warned that the fear of terrorism is being exploited by the Government to erode civil liberties and risks creating a police state.

By Tom Whitehead, Home Affairs Editor
Last Updated: 10:42PM GMT 16 Feb 2009

Dame Stella accused ministers of interfering with people’s privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists. “Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people’s privacy,” Dame Stella said in an interview with a Spanish newspaper.

“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.

Dame Stella, 73, added: “The US has gone too far with Guantánamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification.” She said the British secret services were “no angels” but insisted they did not kill people. Dame Stella became the first woman director general of MI5 in 1992 and was head of the security agency until 1996. Since stepping down she has been a fierce critic of some of the Government’s counter-terrorism and security measures, especially those affecting civil liberties.

In 2005, she said the Government’s plans for ID cards were “absolutely useless” and would not make the public any safer. Last year she criticised attempts to extend the period of detention without charge for terrorism suspects to 42 days as excessive, shortly before the plan was rejected by Parliament. Her latest remarks were made as the Home Office prepares to publish plans for a significant expansion of state surveillance, with powers for the police and security services to monitor every email, as well as telephone and internet activity.

Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/politics/lawandorder/4643415/Spy-chief-We-risk-a-police-state.html

[buckrogers1965]

1. Now that a former head of MI5

is admitting that it is all a scam in order to rush everyone into a police state. Can we stop now? Let's start rolling back all these asinine laws.

[Somawas]

2. I am so glad that somebody decided to come clean about it.

[Hubert Flottz]

3. Some of us "Tinfoil Hatters" and "Conspiracy Theorists/Nuts"

have been warning on the "Internets" about America being turned into a police state since the "Patriot Act" passed, without even being read by most of the suckers who OKed it. REPEAL the "Patriot Act" ASAP!

[Captain Hilts]

7. Obama voted to retain FISA as is. nt

[No Elephants]

4. Would I be disrespectful to the Dame if I said, "Duh?"

[hobbit709]

5. Risks????

[Captain Hilts]

6. I have to admit to being stunned how I was 'on camera' EVERYWHERE in my trip to London & Portsmouth-

last summer.

[Peacetrain]

8. The Book 1984 was set in Britian.. aka Oceania..

Something to think about..

[Festivito]

9. No! We need more freedom from crime, terror and drugs.

We should have camera everywhere because that will eliminate crime in the streets.

We should monitor all internet communications because that will stop pedophiles.

We should search all air, train and bus transports to insure that terrorists are caught.

We should stop and search all vehicles at every intersection because that will stop all drug trafficking.

We should have cameras throughout our homes so we can be safe from home invasions, especially our bedrooms lest our most vulnerable be raped or kidnapped.

We should carry our own personal recording devices and connect them to the police in case we are accosted on the streets. That'll show 'em.

Strip search everyone walking out of their house and see how many illegal guns will be carried around any given town.

In fact we should have random in-house strip searches and body cavity searches for safety sake.

Only the diligently hard on crime can be free.

[DCKit]

11. I know you're being highly sarcastic, but....

The DC PoPo just came out and admitted that our extensive surveillance network has, as yet, failed to solve a single crime - though it did "help" in a number of investigations.

These systems aren't being installed to capture or stop criminals, they're out there to control U.S. - the law-abiding majority.

Just thought someone should put it out there.

[Festivito]

13. It reflects a belief that We the People cannot rule ourselves.

That we will not be responsible enough to retain freedom, as though their most draconian methods would ever really be any better.

[emad]

10. Ex-MI5 chief: Ministers scare public to pass terrorism laws

She's uped the ante:

A FORMER MI5 chief today accused the Government of exploiting fears of terrorism to pass draconian laws as fresh allegations emerged of Britain's complicity in torture.

Dame Stella Rimington declared that ministers were playing into the hands of terrorists by curbing civil liberties. In an interview with a Spanish newspaper published today, Dame Stella said that the Government was "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".

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23644654-details/Ex-MI5+chief%3A+Ministers+scare+public+to+pass+terrorism+laws/article.do


I reckon she's pretty damned scary herself...

[LeftishBrit]

14. Good for her; someone needed to say it.

Here as in the USA, the War on Terra is being used too much as an excuse to restrict civil liberties.

[Albus]

12. "Risk"? We've already got a police state. Telling that she made these comments in a Spanish paper