Iain Macwhirter
ISN’T IT reassuring that the finest minds of their generation are serving in Gordon’s government. Take home secretary Jacqui Smith and her brilliant solution to the problem of compulsory identity cards: making them voluntary! This oxymoronic U-turn sets a new benchmark in government dithering.
The whole point about identity cards - or so Tony Blair […]
Government and the Speaker of the House of Commons collude to try to abuse the 17th Century Bill of Rights to suppress the FOIA disclosure of OGC Gateway Reviews of the ID Cards Programme
Spy Blog
The Bill of Rights 1689 a historical piece of the English Constitution, which was intended to preserve the rights and freedoms […]
Nick Julian
At the heart of President Bush’s plea to give telecommunications companies legal immunity is the contention that these companies were merely being patriotic corporate citizens when they facilitated the warrantless wiretapping of Americans.
FBI Director Robert Mueller undercut that argument Wednesday, telling Congress that the ‘good faith’ argument should have nothing to do with whether […]
Sir Ian Blair says scheme would have obvious benefits for crimefighting
Computing
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair has called for the UK’s controversial DNA database to be extended across Europe to help bridge the intelligence gap caused by the removal of many of the EU’s internal borders.
He made the proposal at the first pan-European Serious Organised […]
By Christine Sexton
THE DNA profiles of more than 30,000 Essex children are being kept on a police database.
Figures released in response to a Freedom of Information request also reveal that 12,345 of those young people are under 15.
The news comes after it was reported how the profile of a 13-year-old boy from Benfleet boy was […]
Nicol Stephen told the Scottish Liberal Democrat conference at the weekend that they must hold hard to the defining liberal issue of civil liberties.
Labour threatened to erode these through detention without trial, DNA databases, ID cards, biometrics, CCTV and stop-and-search powers, he told delegates in Aviemore.He said: “Our approach is founded on a fundamental principle […]
BY SHAUN JEPSON
A Former Derbyshire Deputy Chief Constable, who established the national DNA police database, believes genetic samples should be taken from everyone at birth.
Don Dovaston, pictured, also said that immigrants should have their DNA recorded.
He believes the benefits of a universal database far outweigh any human rights issues. Mr Dovaston said not only did […]
The Telegraph
A council has decided not to install CCTV cameras in a crime-ridden area on the grounds they would “contravene the Human Rights Act”.
John Steele: Keeping an eye on CCTV
Over the past year, anti-social behaviour has soared in the South Hams area of south Devon. But the local authority claims that the cameras would breach […]
By Studs Terkel, Quentin Young, Barbara Flynn Currie and James Montgomery
More than six years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration remains committed to using the specter of those attacks (and other possible new attacks) as justification for reckless, unlawful and unconstitutional behavior. This pattern can be seen most clearly in […]
David Gutierrez
The Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is moving forward to institute a rule that would require all passengers to go through a government review process before boarding any airplane that takes off or lands anywhere with in the United States.
The U.S. government already requires international passengers to participate in the Advanced […]
Liberal Democrat MP Sarah Tether has secured a House of Commons debate on the impact of the proposed National DNA Database, which takes place today. It has been welcomed by human rights, mental health and church groups.
The campaigning organisation Black Mental Health UK (BMH UK) says that it is especially concerned about the likely discriminatory […]
Ian GrantPeople will have to give explicit permission for the government to access their personal details held on various databases before they can get a national identity card, ID card minister Meg Hillier told MPs this week.
Hillier was giving evidence to the House of Commons’ Home Affairs select committee on the security arrangements for the […]
CCTV and DNA advances add to bills but minister calls rises unacceptable
Jill Sherman, Whitehall Editor, and Murad Ahmed
Soaring costs of surveillance technology to combat crime and terrorism has contributed to the eleventh consecutive round of inflation-breaking council tax rises.
A Times/Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy survey of more than 250 authorities shows that the […]