Why Didn’t They Ask Evans: Cranking Up The Terror Threat
THIS is Britain’s top spook, spy-master and the head of MI5, Jonathan Evans the Keeper of the Nation’s Secrets.
He is careful about friends and probably keeps enemies very close to watch them…but he will not talk to a joint committee of MPs and peers from the House of Commons and the House of Lords about national security. Why Didn’t They Ask Evans, asked the thriller writer? Well, it’s because he didn’t want to answer the questions.
They had an opinion about that and slammed him for his failure to appear before Parliament’s committee on human rights saying in a report:
“It is unacceptable that the Director General of the Security Service refuses to appear before it to give public evidence – despite giving public lectures and media interviews – that would allow the Committee to make judgements about the necessity and proportionality of counter-terrorism measures.”
Today’s Independent says the report also says:
“The government’s assessment of the threat of terrorism in the UK is overstated and has undermined the case for imposing tough new anti-terror laws, an influential committee of MPs and peers has warned.”
Not credible
Ministers say Britain still faces a “public emergency” eight years after the 11 September attacks on America and has used it to justify a swathe of controversial legislation, including holding terror suspects without trial.
Members of the joint committee said such a high level of threat was not credible because it had been continuously maintained for such a long period of time.
The committee’s report calls for a review of all terror legislation passed since 11 September and asked whether it was realistic to say the state of emergency which existed at the time still remained now.
Without being too alarmist, it may be worth pointing out Mr Evans almost certainly had the committee report on his desk more than a couple of days before Andrew Dismore MP, above, chair of the committee.
Mr Dinsmore was caught up in the MPs expenses scandals over travel allowances . There is no clue on what Jonathan Evans’ expense account may be – it’s probably covered under The Official Secrets Act 1911-1989.
Posted: 26th, March 2010 | In: Reviews Comments (3) | TrackBack | Permalink
