Sun, 22 Oct 2006
The investigation is close to conclusion, but the IPCC will have to accept the final report before I can get a copy of it.
More...
I just realised that the anniversary of going public, in the Guardian, passed just a month ago.
More...
Other updates: new Independent article by Henry Porter on the limits of liberty and the Terrorism (United Nations Measures) Order 2006.
More...
Mon, 09 Oct 2006
From
The Times:
[...] Mr Raissi, 32, an Algerian pilot, was the first person to be arrested in connection with 9/11 when armed police raided his West London home at 3am on September 21, 2001. He was held for five months in Belmarsh high-security prison before a judge declared that there was no evidence that he was involved in terrorism.
[...] The alleged terrorist link was one of a number of false allegations made against Mr Raissi. Prosecutors claimed in court that he was the “lead instructor” for the main hijackers who crashed aircraft into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. The FBI was said to have video material showing him in the company of Hani Hanjour, one of the hijack pilots.
However, all the evidence was shown to be unsubstantiated and, in February 2002, District Judge Timothy Workman ordered Mr Raissi's release.
[...] Mr Raissi said: “My life has been ruined. I lost my freedom, my reputation and my career. The courts have said I am innocent – why does the Home Secretary not accept this?” Jules Carey, Mr Raissi's solicitor, said the Home Secretary's decision (to refuse compensation) was “morally wrong. We hope to establish that his decision is also legally wrong.”
I updated this
article with a link to this news story. It is very slowly sinking in that I should consider myself extremely lucky not to have been either shot or locked up. I still find it difficult to accept that this is what one can expect in any 'Western democracy', even more so in a country often called the the mother of all democracies. How many more such cases before Justice is restored?
Sun, 08 Oct 2006
Spy Blog spotted the Times
article about Raouf Abdullah Mohammed. He's been acquitted by a jury with four non-guilty verdicts only to be sentenced to a control order at the request of the Home Office (who initially tried to deport him).
This Government not content with passing so many Home Office bills curtailing our civil liberties, is now entirely bypassing the legal system by ignoring the verdict returned by a jury.
Who would have thought this possible in England?
Update:In a
comment on Spy Blog, sam_m mentions that this is not the first time the UK Government sentences persons acquitted by the legal system.
For instance:
In 1993, John Matthews was arrested and detained for 10 weeks by the Police in connection with an IRA bombing. When the case came before a Magistrate's Court the prosecution offered no evidence and he was told by the Magistrate that he left the Court without a stain on his character.
As he literally left the Court, on the steps, he was served with an "Exclusion Order" and immediately removed to N.Ireland.
More...
Sat, 07 Oct 2006
I've been fixing links that went dead on gizmonaut.net. I had several links to the Information Commissioner's Office and most of them went dead, including the direct links to entries in the Register of data controllers. I searched for the entries and instead of giving direct links I included the registration number (which should last for longer).
One entry I cannot find is the one for the Metropolitan Police. It seems to have disappeared from the register. At least I can't find it using all the names (including Metropolis and MPS) or addresses I can think of. If you do find its entry please let me know. At least the MPS has some information on Data Protection on its website.
That is no more the case for the MPS Directorate of Professional Standards. There doesn't seem to be any information at all anymore on it available on the Metropolitan Police's website. The page linked from all over the web doesn't exist anymore. Some review information of Professional Standards is available on the MPA's website and some of the DPS staff are currently
investigating my arrest) so this Directorate still seems to exist.
Mon, 02 Oct 2006
British architect Seth Stein
recounts how he was assaulted on a flight from New York for having a tan:
‘[...] he felt compelled to speak out to protect other innocent travellers from a similar experience.
"This man could have garrotted me and what was awful was that one or two of the passengers went up afterwards to thank him," said Mr Stein. He has since been told by airline staff he was targeted because he was using an iPod, had used the toilet when he got on the plane and that his tan made him appear "Arab". [...]’
More on profiling...
