BRITAIN: The British government is again considering whether to assume the power to intern terror suspects in the wake of the alleged plot to target UK flights to the United States with liquid bombs.
Meanwhile, "spot teams" of elite security officers are reportedly being trained by US experts to monitor passenger behaviour at British airports, amid fresh controversy over possible moves toward an official policy of "passenger profiling".
Scotland Yard was variously described in press reports yesterday as "buoyant" and "hugely optimistic" that terrorist charges will be pressed against the majority of the 23 suspects still being questioned in connection with the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners. The BBC has also reported the discovery of "martyrdom" video files on laptop computers seized in police raids across England and of bomb-making equipment in the ongoing search of a woodland "hide" in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, near the homes of a number of those arrested.
However, the possibility of a significant number of releases will alarm ministers who are again forced to review Britain's anti-terrorist laws, with renewed debate on the admissibility of wire-tap evidence in courts and opinion poll evidence suggesting strong public backing for a fresh security clampdown.
YouGov's poll for the Spectator magazine showed three-to-one support for British prime minister Tony Blair's original plan to permit police to hold terror suspects without charge for up to 90 days. Yesterday's Independent on Sunday reported home secretary John Reid seeking detention powers while considering a tougher version of existing control orders to allow suspects to be placed under house arrest.
Such moves would spell a major new confrontation between the government and civil liberties campaigners, as well as presenting a painful dilemma for David Cameron's Conservative Party. The Conservatives helped defeat the original 90-day proposal, after the courts had ruled against the government's internment of foreign nationals suspected of terrorist involvement on the grounds that the policy was discriminatory.
In June, meanwhile, the High Court ruled that control orders effectively confining six terror suspects were incompatible with their right to liberty under the European Convention on Human Rights. However, Mr Reid has reportedly instructed officials to draft new measures that would permit him to bypass human rights legislation and so thwart the judiciary and the House of Lords.
Meanwhile, the Police Federation has accused one of Britain's most senior Muslim officers of displaying "blissful ignorance" after suggesting that passenger profiling would create a new offence of "travelling whilst being Asian". The federation said the comments last week by Metropolitan Police Chief Supt Ali Dizaei were likely only to inflame moderate opinion and play into the hands of terrorists.
Police Federation spokesman Alan Gordon said profiling had been used to stop football hooligans travelling to Germany for this year's World Cup, while Israeli airline El Al had used profiling for years.
The issue reignited as Muslim leaders and the Tories voiced alarm about an incident last Wednesday in which two men, said to be of Asian or Middle Eastern appearance, were forced off a Manchester-bound flight from Malaga after some passengers expressed alarm about what they considered suspicious behaviour. The men were questioned for several hours before being allowed to fly home.