Who guards the guards?

Who guards the guards?

Introduction

The Sunday Times is part of the Dead Tree Press, within the Mainstream Media (MSM), owned by Rupert Murdoch, but maintains independent editorial control. Many bloggers are disillusioned by the MSM. I have no time for Rupert Murdoch, however, I do have a lot of time for the Insight team which yesterday brought us the story "Police bugged Muslim MP ". Many years ago, when I was in prison, I was asked by a journalist friend, who worked on the Paul Foot column in the Daily Mirror, whether I was prepared to help the Insight team cover a story on the Mafia. Before I agreed, I asked to see stories that the journalist had covered previously. I was impressed enough to take a gamble if they protected their source and impressed with the finished article.
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I am long enough in the tooth to remember the "bugging scandal of Harold Wilson’s government". I am not concerned by the government edict which was intended to protect MPs from being bugged, nor that it has been breached in this case. However, I am concerned by the apparent illegality of this bugging operation carried out by the police/security services. We ended up going to war in Iraq because our then Prime Minister, Tony Blair, took the decision to serve our American masters in their quest for oil. In my view, this bugging operation has all the hallmarks of our once again doing the bidding of our American masters. I have already expressed a view, here, whom I believe to be legally responsible for breaking prison law. However, I believe that this has wider implications than the relatively narrow field of prison law. It affects or could potentially effect us all.

I am not in possession of all the necessary information in this case. But, it would appear that parts of our penal estate has been handed over to the control of the CIA. In effect, there are pockets of Guantanamo Bays within several of our penal establishments. In the 1970s, the government operated Control Units within British prisons. The scandal reached the MSM, Williams v Home Office reached the courts (Mickey Williams was represented by Harriet Harman), the Control Units closed, Harriet Harman was prosecuted and convicted, but then went on to win Harman v UK before the ECtHR. Special Units replaced the Control Units (I was in both the Hull Prison and Lincoln Prison Special Units), and Special Secure Units replaced the Special Units. Within Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes, is a Special Secure Unit. I wonder if Babar Ahmad, who was being visited by Sadiq Khan MP, at the time he was bugged, was located within the Special Secure Unit, and whether he was allocated Category 'A' status? It has a bearing on how Babar Ahmad would be treated by the authorities, but has no bearing on whether the law should have been broken in relation to Sadiq Khan MP. Unless, that is, he was deemed to pose a risk to the public under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. We have a right to know if Sadiq Khan MP is the subject of an ongoing investigation. According to the Insight team "There was no suspicion of criminal conduct by Khan to justify the operation". But, this does not mean that he wasn't the subject of an ongoing investigation in the war against terror.

In the same way that prisoners human right to the vote is not a popular cause with the general public, at least according to the ECtHR and the government, the recent scandal of Derek Conway MP has led to the general public holding such low opinions of MPs that in a recent BBC poll over 75% believed that MPs should not be exempt from being bugged. But, whether MPs can be trusted is not really the issue here. It is whether the law has been broken, and who has decided that they are above the law in England. We cannot have the situation whereby Dark Forces believe that they are above the law whereas the rest of us are beneath the law. If the so-called upholders of the law break the said law that they are meant to uphold, then they are nothing short of being criminals themselves. There needs to be a dividing line, and in this case it has been crossed.