Britain’s anti-terror legislation should be widened to cover the publication and passing on of official government secrets, the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Blair has suggested.
“The state has to have secrets – that’s how it operates against terrorists,
So, we need to withhold information from public scrutiny or the trrrists win
“It has to have the right to preserve those secrets and we have to have a law that covers a situation when somebody, for all sorts of wonderfully principled reasons, wishes to disclose those secrets…”
When asked if he was calling for new laws, Lord Blair said: “Most of the legislation about state secrets is in the Official Secrets Act and it only concerns an official. I think there is going to have to be a look at what happens when somebody possesses material which is secret without having authority.”
Clear reference to journalists there.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/w...d-blair-8784355.html
Thanks Lord Blair.
Oh and did I mention...
In November 2005, a controversy about detention without charge proposals led to Blair becoming involved in allegations of the police being "politicised", when he and other senior police officers were known to have lobbied MPs to support Government proposals to hold terrorist suspects for 90 days.[18]
2 June 2006 Forest Gate raid saw the arrest of two men at their east London homes in Forest Gate by police acting on what they described as "specific intelligence" that they might be terrorists in possession of a chemical bomb. One of the men was shot during the raid. No explosive devices were found during the raid, nor was there any evidence of terrorist activity. After several sources once again called on Blair to resign.
July 2008 that Blair face an inquiry over a series of IT contracts with the Metropolitan Police worth £3 million won by Impact Plus, a consultancy owned by Andy Miller, who is a long-time friend of Blair.Impact Plus received more than £3 million of police work from Scotland Yard over the six-year period of Ian Blair's rule.
In March 2006, it was revealed that in late 2005 he had secretly taped several telephone conversations, most notably with the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith. Blair received an unprecedented written warning from his bosses
And finally RIP Jean Charles de Menezes
Likes his secrets does Ian Blair
