Re:State sanctioned secrecy: NSA's criminality shield
by chmod775 on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @09:54AM
(#24697659)
> https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cbp-...
That's effectively ending the rule of law in the United Kingdom. There's not even any pretense anymore.
It's interesting but - given recent events - not surprising, that the country which invented the term "rule of law" would now turn their back on it.
Re:State sanctioned secrecy: NSA's criminality shield
by pjc50 on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @11:21AM
(#24698625)
The ability of "rule of law" to constrain the arbitrary actions of state security has always been a problem, in every country, and is fatally compromised in the UK by colonialism (use of military as police in Northern Ireland, and before that various crimes of Empire that we're not supposed to know about) and racism (fundamentally a large section of the public wants it to be possible to arbitrarily deport immigrants without due process of law, and is prepared to burn down as much rule of law as necessary to achieve that)
Re:State sanctioned secrecy: NSA's criminality shield
by thinkingemote on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @07:31AM
(#24696625)
It also allows civilian police informers (e.g. actual criminals) to kill on their orders too.
Re:State sanctioned secrecy: NSA's criminality shield
by pjc50 on Tuesday October 06, 2020 @11:25AM
(#24698680)
This was, in effect, always the case in Northern Ireland. The overlap between the UVF, the RUC, Special Branch, and the armed forces. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miami_Showband_killings and Pat Finucane, for example.
At the end of the war in the late 90s the Blair government issued effectively blanket pardons for a lot of crime from both sides.
Explicitly authorising law enforcement and spy agencies to break the law, and limiting redress against them. It appears to be their response to various ongoing accusations of illegality, such as the "Soldier F" case from 1972 that (incredibly) is still unresolved.