[Infowarrior] - Fmr Mi5 head: UK gov exploiting terror fears

[Richard Forno]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/feb/17/government-exploiting-terrorism-fear

Government accused of exploiting terrorism fear

     * Press Association
     * guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 17 February 2009 06.08 GMT

The former head of MI5 Dame Stella Rimington has accused the  
government of exploiting people's fear of terrorism to restrict civil  
liberties.

In an outspoken interview she said ministers risked handing a victory  
to terrorists by making people "live in fear and under a police state".

Rimington, who stood down as the security service's director general  
in 1996, also accused the US of going too far, claiming the Guantànamo  
Bay camp and allegations of torture had been a recruiting sergeant for  
extremists.

Her comments came as a report by a panel of leading judges and lawyers  
warned measures to tackle terrorism had undermined international human  
rights laws.

In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Rimington  
said: "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."

In the interview, published in the Daily Telegraph, she continued: "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."

Rimington, 73, has been a harsh critic of the government's policies,  
including attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects  
to 42 days and the controversial ID cards plan.

She added: "The US has gone too far with Guantànamo 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."

A study published yesterday by the International Commission of Jurists  
(ICJ) found "many states have fallen into a trap set by terrorists" by  
introducing measures which undermined the values they sought to protect.

The panel warned that exceptional "temporary" counter-terrorism  
measures were becoming permanent features of law and practice.

The report condemned the use of "notorious" counter-terrorism tactics  
such as torture, disappearances, arbitrary and secret detention.

The president of the ICJ, former Irish president Mary Robinson, said:  
"Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and to repeal abusive  
laws and policies enacted in recent years."

"Human rights and international humanitarian law provide a strong and  
flexible framework to address terrorist threats."

The report was seized upon by the Conservatives, who claimed the  
government's attempts to extend the detention time limit to 42 days  
was the kind of measure condemned by the report.

The Shadow security minister, Baroness Neville-Jones, said: "The  
Conservative party is committed to ensuring that security measures are  
proportionate and adhere to the rule of law."

The Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, Ed Davey, said: "This  
is damning testament to just how much liberty has been ineffectually  
sacrificed in the 'war on terror'."