Home Secretary David Blunkett, Britain's top law enforcement official, announced a drastic expansion of the country's domestic espionage agency on Wednesday and urged a strengthening of anti-terrorism laws including those allowing detention of foreigners without trial.
Blunkett spoke in Parliament after publishing a 51-page document setting out the government's belief that Britain -- a close ally of the US in the invasion of Iraq and the war on terrorism -- faced a "particularly high" threat of terrorist attack "because of the evidence that terrorist cells are active" in this country.
"I am in no doubt that the terrorism threat remains and the need to have the right legislation in place is greater than ever," he told Parliament.
Blunkett said the country's MI5 internal espionage agency would be expanded by 50 percent with the recruitment of 1,000 new agents over the next few years, including desk officers and linguists.
Blunkett also said Britain would spend the equivalent of almost US$6 million in improving intelligence-gathering by the police Special Branch, which is supposed to deal with threats to internal security.
In the future, Blunkett said, Britain would have to ponder how it ran trials of terror suspects to determine whether telephone intercepts by intelligence agencies could be used as evidence. In recent days he has also indicated he believes Britain should consider lowering the burden of proof to ensure convictions of would-be suicide-bombers and to hold some terror trials in secret.
In Parliament, Blunkett offered a staunch defense of powers acquired since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to detain foreign terror suspects indefinitely without trying them.
"I am convinced that the current threat leaves us with no option but to continue to use these powers," he said. But he said it would be a "grave step" to seek legislation empowering authorities to hold British citizens indefinitely without trial or charge.
At present, Britain is holding 14 foreigners under the terrorism regulations, which expire in 2006.
Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg was deported from Israel yesterday, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, the day after the Israeli navy prevented her and a group of fellow pro-Palestinian activists from sailing to Gaza. Thunberg, 22, was put on a flight to France, the ministry said, adding that she would travel on to Sweden from there. Three other people who had been aboard the charity vessel also agreed to immediate repatriation. Eight other crew members are contesting their deportation order, Israeli rights group Adalah, which advised them, said in a statement. They are being held at a detention center ahead of a
A Chinese scientist was arrested while arriving in the US at Detroit airport, the second case in days involving the alleged smuggling of biological material, authorities said on Monday. The scientist is accused of shipping biological material months ago to staff at a laboratory at the University of Michigan. The FBI, in a court filing, described it as material related to certain worms and requires a government permit. “The guidelines for importing biological materials into the US for research purposes are stringent, but clear, and actions like this undermine the legitimate work of other visiting scholars,” said John Nowak, who leads field
NUCLEAR WARNING: Elites are carelessly fomenting fear and tensions between nuclear powers, perhaps because they have access to shelters, Tulsi Gabbard said After a trip to Hiroshima, US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard on Tuesday warned that “warmongers” were pushing the world to the brink of nuclear war. Gabbard did not specify her concerns. Gabbard posted on social media a video of grisly footage from the world’s first nuclear attack and of her staring reflectively at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial. On Aug. 6, 1945, the US obliterated Hiroshima, killing 140,000 people in the explosion and by the end of the year from the uranium bomb’s effects. Three days later, a US plane dropped a plutonium bomb on Nagasaki, leaving abut 74,000 people dead by the
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is to visit Canada next week, his first since relations plummeted after the assassination of a Canadian Sikh separatist in Vancouver, triggering diplomatic expulsions and hitting trade. Analysts hope it is a step toward repairing ties that soured in 2023, after then-Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau pointed the finger at New Delhi’s involvement in murdering Hardeep Singh Nijjar, claims India furiously denied. An invitation extended by new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney to Modi to attend the G7 leaders summit in Canada offers a chance to “reset” relations, former Indian diplomat Harsh Vardhan Shringla said. “This is a
RSS