The wrong response
Despite the fact that current laws were apparently enough to see Britain through decades of IRA bombings, the British police have decided to seize the opportunity provided by the tragic July attacks in London push for more powers:
Police last night told Tony Blair that they need sweeping new powers to counter the terrorist threat, including the right to detain a suspect for up to three months without charge instead of the current 14 days.
Senior officers also want powers to attack and close down websites, and a new criminal offence of using the internet to prepare acts of terrorism, to “suppress inappropriate internet usage”.
They also want to make it a criminal offence for suspects to refuse to cooperate in giving the police full access to computer files by refusing to disclose their encryption keys.
The police would also like to see much clearer information given to the public about the threat level, the creation of a specialist border security agency and further discussions about the use of phonetap evidence in terrorist cases
Three months detention without charge? Restrictions on Internet usage? Apparently the British police have learned the wrong lessons from America’s Patriot Act.
[via IP]
