Spy boss damns government's culture of fear
Cheers Stella!
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Dame Stella Rimington, the ex-boss of MI5, said the UK government risks creating a police state with its relentless attacks on people's privacy and creation of a culture of fear.
She told Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia: “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 was even more critical of US use of torture and the Guantanamo prison camp which helps justify the work of extremists.
Dame Stella has previously spoken out against government plans for ID cards which she said would be of no benefit in the fight against terrorism.
Of course "M" is not alone - yesterday the International Commission of Jurists released results of a three year investigation into the impact of anti-terror laws.
It said: "Many governments, ignoring the lessons of history, have allowed themselves to be rushed into hasty responses to terrorism that have undermined cherished values and violated human rights. The result is a serious threat to the integrity of the international human rights legal framework.”
Mary Robinson, former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, said: “Seven years after 9/11 it is time to take stock and to repeal abusive laws and policies enacted in recent years... It is now absolutely essential that all states restore their commitment to human rights and that the United Nations takes on a leadership role in this process." ®
COMMENTS
shitty spelling
Correction accepted.
The BBC can't seem to agree on the spelling themselves though, both variations being used in different stories.
Convenient that, don't you think?
Still on BBC News but only just
@ Dervheid
It helps if you spell "Rimington" correctly; first result that comes up, although I agree that it's odd that it disappeared from the front page - and was replaced by a story about the trial of 8 terrorists that were planning to blow up planes.
The next stage will be to say that as she left in 1996 that she has no appreciation of the current threat.
@anonymous
"So we're ruining nurses future careers because they got drunk one Friday night and that goes on their extended background check making them unemployable....."
This is indeed disturbing; as a 20 something police officer in the 80's I had many happy memories of parties and nights out with nurses (similar shifts and shared experience that the world is totally crap), and i came to respect them for the hard drinking, party mad nymphomaniacs they were at that time.
This bloody government is out to wreck all our most treasured institutions!
IT infrastructure monitoring strategies
Agentless Backup is Not a Myth
Steps to Take Before Choosing a Business Continuity Partner
Enabling efficient data center monitoring
Requirements Checklist for Choosing a Cloud Backup and Recovery Service Provider
