UK Home to Hundreds of Terrorists - Blair

[adi 101]

Britain is threatened by "several hundred'' people within its borders who are planning terrorist attacks, the Prime Minister has warned.

Defending the controversial new measures in the Prevention of Terrorism Bill - due to complete its remaining Commons stages tonight - Tony Blair said the security services and police were adamant that they need increased powers to combat the threat.

"We are being advised by the police and the security services, there is no distinction between the two of them. They are absolutely on the same line," Mr Blair told BBC Radio 4's Woman's Hour.

What they say is you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people - there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts - you have got to give us power in between just surveying them and being able, being sure enough of the proof, to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt.

"And these will be restrictions on their liberty that we will use only in the most limited circumstances.

"But we genuinely believe that they are necessary in order to protect the country.''

Home Secretary Charles Clarke has come under intense pressure to give ground on the Bill.

The Tories and the Liberal Democrats have warned that the legislation will be wrecked when it goes to the House of Lords unless the Government is prepared to offer major concessions.

Critics across the political spectrum have denounced the proposed powers for the Home Secretary to issue control orders placing terrorist suspects under house arrest as an attack on fundamental civil liberties.

Mr Clarke is setting out the reasoning behind the legislation in an explanatory document to be sent to all MPs and peers ahead of today's debate.

Ministers are confident that the Prevention of Terrorism Bill will complete its remaining Commons stages tonight - despite expectations of a significant Labour rebellion.

However, it could face a far rougher ride when it goes to the Lords, where the Government has no majority.

Liberal Democrat spokesman Mark Oaten said he detected signs of movement on the key question of judicial involvement in the issuing of control orders under the legislation.

But Home Office minister Caroline Flint signalled that the Government remained wedded to the principle that they should actually be issued by the Home Secretary rather than a judge.

The Government was forced to bring in the new Bill after the House of Lords ruled last year that its detention without trial of foreign suspects under existing anti-terrorism laws was illegal.

Ministers have warned that unless the new legislation is passed, they will be forced to release the suspects currently held in Belmarsh and Woodhill prisons without any restriction whatsoever.

[Geordie Ahmed]

This new legislation is to be frank *****!

Giving the Home Secretary the powers to place people on house arrest is a joke! its a decision that should be made by a judge!

[Geordie Ahmed]

From bbc.co.uk
The government is to make a key change to its plans to detain terror suspects under house arrest without trial.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke says he will amend the bill when it reaches the Lords so that he would have to apply to a judge before making a control order.

The new stance emerged in a letter to his Tory shadow David Davis, and prompted MPs to call for a chance to debate the planned amendment.

Downing Street denied the planned change was a concession.

This was because the home secretary would seek to grant police new powers to arrest and detain a suspect while a judge decided the issue, it said.

But up until Monday, the government had resisted pressure for judges to be responsible for making the orders.

Earlier, Mr Clarke had written to MPs explaining why he and not a judge should be responsible for granting a "control order".

As the debate on the Prevention of Terrorism Bill began, he said he had changed his mind but that he would not be tabling an amendment until the bill reached the Lords.

"I have come to the view that there is great merit in seeking as wide a consensus as is possible across Parliament.

"That is why I've come to the conclusion that I should move in this area."

The Lords amendment would better reflect "the strength of opinion that exists on all sides of the house

Under Mr Clarke's proposed amendment, the home secretary would have to apply to a High Court judge for a control order - but only where this sought to impose house arrest.

The judge would then have to decide within 48 hours whether there was a case to make an order.

The move provoked condemnation from senior MPs on all sides and there were repeated calls for a full debate on the government's new plans.

Shadow attorney general Dominic Grieve said the committee stage of the bill had been "completely corrupted".

Instead of MPs being able to debate the amendments tabled, the house had been "hijacked" by the home secretary's change of heart.

At worst the plans would set up a "system of executive detention" and at best a secretive, "parallel system of justice", he said.

Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Mark Oaten said the home secretary's letter made a "nonsense" of the Commons proceedings.

He also urged Mr Clarke to allow any individuals accused of plotting terrorist activities to "see the evidence against them".

Mr Clarke wants house arrest and other powers to replace indefinite jail for foreign terror suspects which the law lords say breaches human rights.

[Abdul Qadir 236]

THIS FROM THE GOVERNMENT WHO GAVE ACTIVE TERRORISTS FULL USE OF COMMONS FACILITIES AND FULL EXPENSES AND WHO PLACED TERRORISTS INTO THE HEART OF GOVERNMENT IN NORTHERN IRELAND! sorry that was in capitals, i feel so strongly about it. Tony Bliar is a truly evil man as far as the people of Northern Ireland are concerned.

[entralinks]

The world is falling apart, no doubt. |-Q