Washington is examining British counter-terrorism laws to see whether the US should import any UK police and intelligence service methods, according to Michael Chertoff, the US homeland security secretary. In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Chertoff said the US review of British tactics would identify any UK system advantages in dealing with terror threats, and examine whether they would be permissible under US law.
“The experience we had observing and working with the British certainly has underlined some possible advantages of some of the approaches taken in Britain,” said Mr Chertoff.
“The British system in some respects is very nimble in terms of the ability to conduct certain kinds of .41;.41;.41;surveillance on very short notice. You have the ability in Britain to hold people for a brief period of time under court supervision before you charge them .41;.41;.41;In this case, that allowed the British government to do something that we might not have been able to do.”
Under UK law, a judge can authorise the police to hold suspected terrorists for up to 28 days while they continue their investigation.
Paul Wilkinson, an expert on terrorism at St Andrews University, says this gives the British authorities an advantage, particularly for investigating plots with an international dimension.
In the US, federal authorities generally have to charge suspects with a crime within 48 hours, although critics say the Central Intelligence Agency is holding suspected al-Qaeda members at secret prisons worldwide.
Any attempt to adopt British intelligence methods is also likely to invite more criticism from civil liberties advocates, who are already critical of the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping programme.
Some US intelligence officials have suggested that MI5 – the British domestic intelligence service – wanted to track the suspected terrorists for a longer period of time, but were forced, under pressure from the US, to close down the operation.
Mr Chertoff denied those claims, saying UK and US intelligence agencies were “on the same page”.
He declined to provide fresh details about the foiled plot to explode airlines over the Atlantic, saying he wanted to avoid prejudicing any possible trial in the UK.
US officials have also been cautious about leaking information after British officials last year complained about their leaking details of the investigation into the London bombings.
Asked whether the leaks last year had damaged the trust between US and UK authorities, Mr Chertoff said: “I wouldn’t say it was damaged. But I would say it’s unhelpful and if a pattern of that were to develop it would become a problem. That is why it was very important in this case that we were able to preserve and continue to respect security needs in terms of confidence.”
While some critics have suggested the US should form an independent domestic intelligence service, along the lines of MI5, which has no prosecutorial powers, Mr Chertoff said it was not necessary. “The FBI has done a superb job engineering itself to deal with the current threat,” he said.
Poster Comment:
See, it's the bastard Anglos pushing this shit...our head Jew is just studying their "nimbleness".
Committee on the Present Danger
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