Events | 2010.02.28
Letters: Control of secret evidence
Letters
Today, the House of Commons will debate whether the control order system will be renewed from another year. We wish to express serious concerns about its renewal. Control orders constitute permanent punishment without trial, whereby the innocent can be placed under house arrest on the basis of suspicion and secret intelligence. Control orders also fail to protect the public from individuals who may be genuinely dangerous. Those who may wish to do us harm may easily remove their electronic tags and abscond.
The regime has a severe impact on the mental health and family life of those targeted. And in June 2009, the House of Lords ruled that the government has violated article 6 of the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to a fair trial, as "controlees" don\'t even receive the gist of the allegations against them. Following the ruling, some control orders were lifted because the government chose not to disclose evidence. However, in most cases, the government has circumvented the secret evidence issue by imposing new "light touch" control orders without curfews, tags or visiting restrictions, arguing that the requirement to provide disclosure does not apply to these.
That UK citizens and residents can be subjected indefinitely to such extraordinary measures, with no effective means of challenge, contravening the common-law guarantees of fairness, as well as article 6, has damaged the reputation of the country. Public trust in the security services and the government is eroded, and communities whose co-operation is vital in the fight against terrorism are intimidated and alienated. We urge MPS not to renew this legislation.
Mike Mansfield QC Criminal Defence Barrister Tooks Chambers
Craig Murray, writer, broadcaster, human rights activist, former British Ambassador
Sir Geoffrey Bindman, solicitor
Lord Rea
John McDonnell MP
Victoria Brittain, writer and journalist
Dafydd Iwan, LL.D., President of Plaid Cymru, Party of Wales
Bruce Kent, Vice-President Pax Christi
Louise Christian, human rights lawyer
Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP
Caroline Lucas MEP
Jean Lambert MEP
Frances Webber , human rights lawyer
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relation (IRR)
Carla Ferstman , Director, Redress
Ben Hayes, Statewatch
Peter Tatchell, human rights campaigner
Prof. Chris Frost, Head of Journalism, Liverpool John Moores University
Hilary Wainright , Co-editor, Red Pepper
Cori Crider , Legal Director, Reprieve
Paddy Hillyard, Emeritus Professor, QUB
Bob Jeffrey, University of Salford
Amrit Wilson, writer
Dr Richard Wild, University of Greenwich
Dr. Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed , Executive Director, Institute of Public Policy Research.
Andy Worthington, journalist and author of "The Guantanamo Files"
Lord Gifford QC , barrister and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Liz Davies, barrister and Chair Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Anna Morris , barrister and Vice0Chair Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Professor Bill Bowring barrister and International Secretary Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Dr Victoria Sentas, School of Law, King\'s College London
Margaret Owen , Director WPD, International Human Rights Lawyer
Phil Shiner , Public Interest Lawyers
Sam Jacobs , Public Interest Lawyers
Daniel Carey , Public Interest Lawyers
Tessa Gregory , Public Interest Lawyers
Moazzam Begg , Director, Cageprisoners
Massoud Shadjareh , Chair, Islamic Human Rights Commission
Aamer Anwar , Human Rights Lawyer.
Nick Hildyard, Sarah Sexton, Larry Lohmann, The Corner House
Desmond Fernandes , policy analyst and author
Dinah Livingstone , writer, translator, editor
Tim Gopsill, journalist, Editor of "Free Press"
Paul Donovan , journalist
Estelle du Boulay, The Newham Monitoring Project
Suresh Grover , Director of The Monitoring Group
George Binette, UNISON Camden
Matt Foot , solicitor
Hugo Charlton , barrister
Dr Kalpana Wilson, London School of Economics
Jonathan Bloch, Lib Dem Councillor and author
Michael Seifert, solicitor and Vice-President of the Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Kat Craig solicitor and Vice-Chair Haldane Society of Socialist Lawyers
Dr Alana Lentin , Senior Lecturer, Sociology, University of Sussex
Dr Christina Pantazis, University of Bristol
Professor Steve Tombs, Liverpool John Moore University
Claire Hamilton, Dublin Institute of Technology, Dublin.
Professor Phil Scraton, School of Law, Queen\'s University, Belfast
Dr Theodore Gabriel, University of Gloucestershire, Cheltenham
Dr Jan Gordon, University of Lincoln, Exeter
Dr Tina Patel, University of Salford
Professor Penny Green, Kings College, London
John Moore, University of West of England, Bristol
Professor Joe Sim, Liverpool John Moore University
Dr David Whyte, University of Liverpool
Dr Stephanie Petrie , University of Liverpool
Dr Dianne Frost, University of Liverpool
Martin Ralph , (UCU Committee), University of Liverpool
Dr Anandi Ramamurthy, University of Central Lancashire
Professor Jawed Siddiqui, Sheffield Hallam University, Sheffield
Dr Silvia Posocco, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Muzammil Quraishi , University of Salford
Dr Adi Kuntsman, University of Manchester
Professor Lynne Segal, Birkbeck College, University of London
Dr Joanne Milner, University of Salford
Dr Yasmeen Narayan, Birkbeck College, University of London
Professor Scott Poynting, Manchester Metropolitan University
Dr Liam McCann, University of Lincoln
Sophie Khan solicitor
Simon Behrman
Owen Greenhall
Martha Jean Baker
Russell Fraser
Ripon Ray
Stephen Marsh barrister
Declan Owens
Rheian Davies, solicitor
Richard Harvey barrister
Deborah Smith, solicitor
Alastair Lyons, solicitor, Birnberg Peirce
Hossain Zahir , barrister
Chantal Refahi , barrister
Anna Mazzola, solicitor
Zareena Mustafa, solicitor
• The court of appeal\'s decision to publish the original para 168 on the torture of Binyam Mohamed has highlighted a fundamental problem with the relationship between the intelligence and security agencies and the intelligence and security committee, the body of parliamentarians which is supposed to exercise oversight of them. As a civil servant I have given evidence to the ISC; after retirement I acted as the ISC\'s investigator for over five years and co-authored a book, The Open Side of Secrecy , which reviews the committee\'s performance over its first decade.
What many do not realise is that the ISC has no power to reach into the agencies and extract information. It receives carefully written submissions and takes oral evidence from ministers and senior agency staff. As the committee\'s investigator, I had much greater access to junior staff, but no greater powers to obtain information than the committee itself.
Nevertheless, on a number of occasions, I was able to uncover problems that the committee knew nothing about. However, since my contract was terminated in 2004, the committee has had no dedicated investigative capability – this despite the recommendation in the 2008 governance of Britain white paper that the post should be revived.
In its 2007-08 report, the ISC welcomed this advice. But I have been unable to find any evidence that the ISC has strengthened its investigative powers. Yet if it does not, two fundamental problems will remain.
The first is that the ISC depends entirely on the truthfulness and good faith of those who testify to it. Agency heads are allowed to withhold certain information; if they were to withhold information they should have revealed, the ISC might never know. I do not believe that happens, but the second and more likely problem is that the senior staff who appear before the committee may not know what is going on at lower levels. If an agency member had overstepped the mark, would they admit the fact? The court of appeal certainly seems to suspect this happened in the Binyam Mohamed case.
What we need is a beefed-up intelligence and security committee, with a tough and senior chairman, experienced and sceptical members, an effective investigative capability and the resources it needs to do the job properly. I see no signs that any of this will come about, but until it does, the credibility of the ISC will continue to wane.
And that will do the UK intelligence community, of which I was proud to be a member, no favours.
John NL Morrison
Canterbury, Kent
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/mar/01/control-of-secret-evidence
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