Simon Jenkins on the MI5 and Queen's Speeches

There can be only two results from this abuse of publicity. One is that the public demotes such scares to wolf-crying and treats them as background noise. The other is that, as all scare stories stereotype communities, the host nation distances itself from whatever group allegedly harbours the threat. The latter in turn retreats and denies the police the intelligence required for public safety. In other words, speeches such as those from the head of MI5 are wholly self-defeating.

...

One question remains. No sensible person has a problem with rounding up suspects for questioning for a limited period. But if Evans and his like claim to "know" 2,000 Britons who are "actively engaged in terrorist-related activities" and pose a "direct threat to national security and public safety", why are these 2,000 still at large? It cannot be for lack of powers, after half a dozen laws enacted to this specific end.

Could it be that headlines about 2,000 terrorists "on the loose as we speak" are more helpful to the government and its agencies than if they were under lock and key in Belmarsh? We should regret the day the secret service stopped being secret and became just another government front organisation.

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[joe90]

Given the anti-democratic powers the British state has now given itself,
exactly what is preventing the British Keystone Kops (aka British security services) from detaining all these dangerous individuals, if they're so dangerous?

After all,
the British Keystone Kops don't actually need any real evidence of any wrong doing by anyone in order to take away the liberty of anyone of us.

Maybe the Keystone Kops are waiting until they all visit a Tube Station together during the rush hour...we just don't know!

Speaking of the Keystone Kops and their levels of 'intelligence', here is our old pal 'curveball' -
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB234/index.htm>THE RECORD ON CURVEBALL
National Security Archive
George Washington University
Washington DC
05 Nov 2007

Declassified Documents and Key Participants Show the Importance of Phony Intelligence in the Origins of the Iraq War

"Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s celebrated and globally televised briefing to the United Nations Security Council on February 5, 2003, relied on CURVEBALL as the main source of intelligence on the biological issue."

But here is John Pilger on the voice-over, from February 2001 and July 2001 -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0wbpKCdkkQ&mode=related&search=>Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice Tell The Truth About Iraq
YouTube

2,000 suicide bombing chiselers - yes, they're probably using mobile chemical laboratories to get about in, or maybe they're in league with ex-BNP actual, real terrorists with real terrorist bombs, rockets and stuff...we just don't know!