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March 29, 2005
Surveillance is not the point!
Dan McDougall has an article in the Scotsman about a retired judge backing the use of intercept evidence in court “despite claims by human rights groups that such methods contravene civil liberties”. Readers are asked to vote on “should we give up civil liberties for increased security”.
This seems muddle-headed.
Surely it is the security services who don’t want intercept evidence used in court. They want terrorist suspects to be detained without trial.
Bodies like Liberty, the defenders of civil liberties, are against detention without trial and believe that intercept evidence should be used in court. Liberty have said “Allowing intercepted telephone calls to be used in evidence will facilitate criminal trials of terror suspects.” This is also my position. Surveillance is not the problem.
This makes nonsense of the Scotsman poll.
news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=330722005
www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/issues/defend-fair-trial-rights.shtml
Posted by Simon Holledge at March 29, 2005 11:21 AM
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Comments
If I am reading you right,
you are saying that what people say on telephones or the internet or in the pub count as court admissable evidence?
A scary thought, people, myself included, say a lot of nonsense much of the time, if it *all* becomes admissible, is that no totalitariantasic?
Posted by: Ceartas at March 31, 2005 12:31 AM
Welcome and thanks for the comment.
At the moment we don't know what methods of surveillance are being used, but the security services are certainly using them.
So you have a choice. Would you like the police to come and place you under a control order detaining you indefinitely, without telling you what you have done - or - would you prefer to go to court and defend yourself, knowing what you have been accused of saying in the pub (or emailing or writing on your blog), so that you have a chance of proving that you are innocent?
I would prefer the latter, which is what my entry was all about.
Posted by: Simon Holledge at March 31, 2005 02:01 AM