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We may ditch human rights rules to beat terror, says Reid
Last updated at 10:36am on 25.05.07Human rights law may need to be set aside if terror suspects are to be monitored properly, John Reid said yesterday.
The Home Secretary made the claim during angry Commons exchanges over the three suspects on the run from government control orders.
He acknowledged that the control orders were 'far from the best option'. And he claimed that human rights law which prevents terror suspects being placed under house arrest could be set aside in the wake of the fiasco.
Downing Street indicated that tougher restrictions could include '24-hour surveillance', such as virtual house arrest.
Mr Reid would be allowed to set aside Britain's obligations only by officially declaring an 'emergency threatening the life of the nation'.
He suggested yesterday the terror threat was already grave enough. He told MPs it is 'at the level of a national emergency'.
Tony Blair also admitted control orders were not a strong method for protecting the public - but insisted they were the best option available under existing legislation.
'If we are going to tackle this terror threat with the seriousness it needs, we need the tough measures necessary to protect this country fully. Control orders are very much a second best option,' he said yesterday.
An Al Qaeda supergrass accused one of the three terror suspects of wanting to bomb a nightclub, it emerged yesterday.
Details of the allegation against Algerian-born Lamine Adam came as police revealed the 26-year-old, his younger brother Ibrahim, 20, and their friend Cerie Bullivant, 24, may have slipped abroad.
But Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Ian Blair admitted he could not rule out that they posed a threat within Britain.
Police have issued new pictures of the men and an urgent appeal for help in catching them.
Supergrass Mohammed Junaid Babar - who worked as a planner and go-between for Osama Bin Laden's terror network - named Lamine during the Old Bailey trial that ended last month in the conviction of his brother Anthony Garcia for a fertiliser bomb plot.
Babar said Omar Khyam, who was the leader of the fertiliser bombers, had given a 'watered down' formula for explosives to a British Muslim known as 'Uniboy'.
'Uniboy said he wanted the formula because he wanted to do an operation himself in the UK,' Babar said.
'He didn't know how to make a bomb...he said he wanted to do something with someone else as far as making a bomb and hitting a nightclub.'
Asked who the other person was, Babar said it was Garcia's older brother Lamine, who he had met in 2002 and 2004. Babar's testimony was not considered strong enough for prosecution. But it was one of several occasions where Lamine was mentioned in the ten-month terror trial.
It was in February last year that Lamine and Ibrahim, both from Ilford, East London, were made subject of the control orders.
Bullivant, from Dagenham, Essex, was placed under one last July. The grounds for all three men was that there was 'solid intelligence' they planned to attack and kill British soldiers serving abroad.
The Adams were supposed to contact a monitoring company using a voice recognition telephone each night and report to a police station each morning. They failed to do so on Monday and the alarm was raised. Bullivant should have reported to police each night and failed to do so on Tuesday.
All three had given up their British passports to the authorities as part of the control orders.
Police believe they may have planned their escape with 'help from sympathisers' and are suspected of having escaped to France or Holland on bogus papers.
Reader views (23)
No point in paying heed to anything Dr Reid says - he is on his way out. The plain fact is that if the government wanted to avoid this ineffective control system and deport dangerous people, it would have made the appropriate derogation from the Human Rights Convention earlier - it could even have done it when it incorporated the convention into British law. Typical that it blames everyone else.
- James Elliott, Eastbourne UK
You think? Wow, are we finally getting through? Human rights laws are a joke and there is no need for our hands to be tied with these absurd EU polices. They might be needed in war torn nations, but not Britain.
- Brandon Thomas, London
If that happens i'm out of this country, I need the human rights laws to protect me from corrupt governments, not from imaginary terrorists.
- Dave B, United Kingdom
Why are people blaming judges? Judges uphold and apply legislation created by Parliament. Whilst our common law system means that precedents are often followed, the whole system is more complicated than just allowing the blame to lie with the judiciary. Please understand how UK legal system works before blaming an individual group.
- Chappers, Highbury, UK
We cannot get rid of the human rights law. Our masters in the EU would not let us.
- Grim Reaper, London
Talk about intelligence lead operations, this lot wouldn’t know intelligence if it slapped them in the face. The chances of them revoking the Human rights law is about zero. Reid has no intention of doing anything except try to take the heat away from him and this inept government, who have lied about almost everything to do with security.
- Steve, London, England
Why are some of you blaming the government for this? The government wants to deport them, or at the very least lock them up. But as usual it's liberals and judges that are stopping this.
As a few strong-minded have said... blame the judges if anyone! They are totally out of touch.
- John K, London
I absolutely agree with 'Tomtom', it is time the judges are accountable for the risk they inflict on all of us. The may argue they have to follow the letter of the law.
Venting our frustration on websites like this is not enough. Get writing to your MPs. Until they see their jobs under threat they will not do anything about it.
- Beatriz, London
Well said, Harry. With all the miscarriages of justice recent governments have had, maybe these men thought they would rather take their chances on the run, rather than pay for the "crime" of being related to a convict? If there had been any evidence of a crime, they would have been behind bars. Let's stop these trials by the media.
- Umm Uthman, London, UK
What about the state terrorist in number 10 Downing Street? There doesn't seem to be very many people worried about the freedom of a man who spent several years denying medicine to the civilians of Iraq through UN sanctions. Or is it that our lives are worth more?
- Harry Faversham, London
Control orders for a suspected terrorist, who gave that stupid order? ELectronic tagging should have been ordered.
- Brandon Thomas, London
Beg to differ with you Dave! You're insulting 'muppets' - they had limited intelligence.
- Sanjay, Hounslow, UK
When you get blown up, your survivors will be comforted by the fact that these terrorists were at the "lower end" of the terror scale. How reassuring this is.
- R M, London, UK
Why do we lock up pensioners who refuse to pay their Council Tax bills and drivers who don't pay speeding fines but we let suspected terrorists back into the community after making them promise to report to a police station every so often. What the hell do these notional clowns called the Government think they are doing?
- Dan, Manchester
What a farce... this government should be on trial for their lack of protection over its people.
- Sarah, London
Why not make judges personally responsible for these men if we cannot jail them and cannot deport them?
- Tomtom, Leeds UK
Surely it is time to dump this totally insane Human Rights Act, which seems to blight every common sense judicial decision, and ties the government's hands? The Security of the indigenous population far outweighs any 'rights' of terrorists, murderers and all the other world's troublemakes who seem to see the UK as a soft touch!
- Gary Parker, Amersham
What a bunch of muppets we have for a government!
New Labour No Future!
- Dave English, Surrey
Had long hair, but may have cut it short, eh? A master of disguise - what chance have the security services got now?
- Andy, London, UK
No wonder Blair is having to be provided with an armour plated bomb proof vehicle - such is his faith in the security services and the Governments ability to protect everyone.
- Robert, Kirk Ella, East Yorks
How naive can you get?
- C, Cuffley, UK
Monitoring company? Whatever happened to the security services? Or perhaps they have been sold off too.
- Tony, Montpellier, France
Please tell me I'm dreaming this.
- R M, London, UK
