LONDON — British Prime Minister Tony Blair proposed several new anti-terror measures on Friday in the wake of July's terror attacks on London's mass transit system. Here are the main points of the new proposals:
— Expanded grounds for deporting foreigners, including fostering hatred, advocating violence to further a person's beliefs or justifying such violence.
— Creating a new crime of condoning or glorifying terrorism.
— Refusing asylum to anyone with terrorism links.
— Expanding the government's powers to strip citizenship from naturalized citizens if they participate in extremism.
— Consider expanding police powers to hold terrorist suspects for three months without charge. The current time limit is 14 days.
— Banning the extremist Islamic group Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Blair's plans to get tougher on terrorists also target extremist Web sites and bookshops.
I wonder what John Ashcroft's critics think about Blair's proposals to deal with the terrorist threat.
If they are consistent, they should consider Blair to be an enemy of the people, eroding their civil liberties and destroying their free society. They should demonize him the way they did Ashcroft.
After all, Blair is proposing some very broad measures and calling for a dramatic expansion of the government's powers.
Is this scary? No.
Is it an appropriate, responsible reaction? Yes.
Blair said, "The rules of the game are changing" since last month's mass transit bombings.
"We are angry. We are angry about extremism and about what they are doing to our country, angry about their abuse of our good nature. We welcome people here who share our values and our way of life. But don't meddle in extremism because if you meddle in it ... you are going back out again."
In order to defeat the terrorists, the government needs the power to root them out.
This is war, and Blair knows it.
Meanwhile, in New York City, the the New York Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit to halt the practice of searches of mass transit riders.
Unlike Blair, the NYCLU is more concerned about sparing people from being searched than protecting the right of mass transit passengers to travel safely, meaning not to be blown up.
Blair has it right.
3 comments:
Great post! I love Tony Blair and his ability to weather and break lances with a hostile press.
Groups like the NYCLU and ACLU will get us killed.
Blair said, "The rules of the game are changing"
And who changed the rules? Not America, that's for sure! And not England, either.
Finally, someone is not scared to upset the PC crowd. I have tried to write blogs talking about this many times. The PC, hippie, feel good crowd is putting us in danger...
We need to protect ourselves, these people do not care if they hurt our feelings...what is more important, making someone open their bag in a train station, or having hundreds of people blown up?
The answer isn't so easy for some..
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