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September 15, 2004
Bugs
So Sinn Fein are bringing Tony Blair a present when they meet at Leeds Castle in Kent this week. Gerry Adams' comment that While republicans always work on the presumption that these devices exist, the use of this very sophisticated bug is a very serious act of bad faith by the British government. may been seen as paranoid, but check out this quote from Andrew MacKinlay during a debate on 3rd July 2003: I have been listening carefully to my right hon. Friend's invitation to colleagues to make representations to the Committee, which I welcome. However, I am bewildered by paragraph 90, in which she says that her Committee has not looked into the question of the abuse of the Wilson doctrine. She merely says that the Prime Minister has not told the Committee of any change in the application of the Wilson doctrine, so it just lies there. Bearing in mind press reports and concern and reaction in the House about the bugging of MPs' telephones, why has her Committee not looked into that with vigour?. It would seem that as far as this Government is concerned, the Wilson Doctrine only applies when it suits, and given its flexible definition of terrorist, justification could probably be found for bugging almost anyone.Then consider this comment made earlier in the debate by Michael Ancram: The greatest service that the ISC can perform is to bring it home to the Government that first and foremost the British intelligence services work on behalf of the British people, and they cannot and must never be a malleable tool of government. We respect our intelligence services, and I hope that the Government will do the same. In the light of Hutton and Butler, it is blatantly obvious that Ancram's hope is misplaced and that, regardless of precedent, the Government does use intelligence for political ends.
You can call me paranoid if you like, but I would not be too surprised at the extent of bugging, monitoring, etc conducted by the intelligence services on behalf of this Government. A suspicion that was reinforced by the appointment of John Scarlett to head MI6. Hell, it wouldn't surprise me if some blogs were being monitored, The UK Today maybe, Bloggerheads more likely. But don't expect any of us to shut up; democracy is too important.
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Posted by Clive on September 15, 2004 10:14 AM in the category Old Stuff