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February 16, 2006
Blair scores two points in push for tougher anti-terror laws
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain won two parliamentary victories this week: the passage of two separate pieces of legislation. One law criminalizes "glorification" of terrorism. Another makes national ID cards mandatory.
Blair says these measures will make Britain safer and help fight terrorism. As the New York Times reports, the new measures have made civil rights activists and some legislators very nervous. They are concerned Britain is becoming a police state. Here is an excerpt on criminalizing "glorification" of terrorism.
Legislators voted 315 to 277 in a ballot that pitted Mr. Blair's Labor Party against the Conservative and Liberal Democratic opposition. Seventeen Labor dissidents voted against the measure.Mr. Blair's critics said the vote, one of three crucial parliamentary tests in as many days, was as much a display of political maneuvering as a strengthening of British laws, which already include prohibitions like those used last week to prosecute Abu Hamza al-Masri, a firebrand Muslim cleric. He was sentenced to seven years in prison for soliciting to murder and promoting racial hatred.
Speaking after the vote, Mr. Blair said the new law "will allow us to deal with those people and say: Look, we have free speech in this country, but don't abuse it."
And an excerpt from the national ID cards story:
In the vote on Monday, the Commons rejected an amendment from the House of Lords that would have made optional, instead of mandatory, a plan to require Britons to be given national identity cards when they apply for passports. But in a compromise worked out among the legislators, Parliament will have to pass another law to make the new rules binding.The government argues that the biometric information in both the new passports and the ID's, like fingerprints and iris scans, will help the police fight terrorism, organized crime and identity fraud.
Posted by Faith Okpotor at February 16, 2006 04:57 PM
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