I'm typing this in the BBC newsroom, where the front page of The Times has just come in. Headline: CIVIL LIBERTIES CHIEF WAS TARGET IN POLICE SEARCH. It turns out that the Police used the key words "Shami" and "Chakrabarti" to search Damian Green's emails, even though she was nothing to do with the Police inquiry.
Shami says she was never approached by Police as part of the inquiry and was alarmed to know that her name had been used as a key part of the search. "I think this raises very serious questions about just how politicised, even McCarthyite, this operation was."
I suspect this has the potential to become a very big story tomorrow. Perhaps Jacqui Smith will assure us it was all to do with national security...
UPDATE: The front page article is HERE and the Thomson/Sylvester interview with Damian Green is HERE.
54 comments:
Iain
If you are looking at the Times in the BBC at the moment.
Have a look at this emerging scandal as well.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/8005377.stm
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article6115915.ece
Will they ever learn?
Oh. Dear. Trawling for evidence against the head of Liberty. I wonder how Shami's distant predecessor Harriet Harman feels about this.
Ta ta Jacqui.
Oh. Dear. Trawling for evidence against the head of Liberty. I wonder how Shami's distant predecessor Harriet Harman feels about this.
Ta ta Jacqui.
I don't understand this? So what? Please expand. Words of one syllable please.
Just when you think the police can't be anymore stupid than they have been ... you get this.
Did they search with 'Iain' & 'Dale'?
;-)
If this is true, Jacqui Smith will have to go.
There is no conceivable way whatsoever this could be linked to an investigation into the Damian Green leaks, and it is straightforward trawling by a political police force.
I bet they've trawled for David Davis as well.
The dying days of this corrupt and vicious regime are going to get nastier and nastier and we must be prepared to fight back - as Damien Green has done, as Guido Fawkes has done. Truth is the weapon that will destroy this spectre.
Just watched you on News 24. The Chakrabarti news is appalling, shocking, disgusting.
(Three words which might also be used of the tie you wore tonight.)
> Andy Burnham, the Culture Secretary, said that she had “late-night, hand-wringing, heart-melting phone calls” with David Davis, the former Shadow Home Secretary who resigned over the 42-day detention row
Really? And how would he know the contents of private phone calls?
Are Labour bugging the phones of political enemies and dissidents?
Or is it just another Labour smear?
Has there EVER been a government so corrupt and shameless in this country?
It's utterly sickening the lengths that this lot will go to - Jacqboots should resign (ignoring the point that she should already have done this)
Can we expect ms Smith to resign on Monday when she is due in the House?
Somehow I doubt it. This latest Damian Green business is a shambles. The DPP statement was very precise. No national secuity interest. ms Smith it appears may have abused her position.
The G20 Police issue is also very serious - again... The Home Secretary has a responsibility here - or perhaps she should pass it all over to Boris to look after?
I am no Tory - but this Home Secretary must be one of the worst performers in living memory. Just not up to the job. IOt is, I would imagine, a difficult job and one that neerds a serious person to deal with it sensibly.
I suppose that I am still entitled to an opinion on this matter.
I'd better go and Google my pseudonym and check that I'm not implicated in a a matter of national security....
Smith. Gone.
No waiting for the reshuffle in June after this last straw.
With every new story my heart sinks. I just cannot believe how far and how fast the agents of 'security' in this country have fallen. Truly depressing. We need regime change, urgently, more than ever before.
Jacqui Smith and the police are going to regret typing Shami Chakrabarti name! Now there's a lady I wouldn't want to cross.
I'd be shocked if Smith does go. Or the officer in charge of the... oh, hang on!
Anyone who says this wasn't political is an idiot.
Time to get rid of this corrupt, sinister government.
I can't believe there was a specific order to search for her name as part of this investigation. The only reasonable conclusion is that the officer who did the search has another, broader brief to keep a watch out to smear her. That, of course, is more worrying because it means the police have been told by somebody in the Labour Party to try to find evidence against her. Now Jacki may have neglected her husband but I just don't believe that she has it in her to ask the police to d this. I think the most reasonable view us that Gordon Brown ordered this to be done. He would not have given the order to the police but I do thnk that he did approve her to be smeared.
I think most reasonable people will reach this conclusion.
Why do some people think they shouldn't be investigated by the Police? If I'm arrested, questioned and not charged is David going to complain for me.
The arrogance of the elite is astounding.
Its disgusting that the police allow themselves to be used by the government in such a manner.
Never mind Ms Smith going the whole lot of them need to go 12 years of labour failure is enough they have been in power to long.
Perhaps the conservatives can breath new life in to a country in dire need of revival and a bit of honest politics.
@ Average Joe.
In this instance, what exactly is it that the "elite" should be investigated for?
The very fact that the police were checking for references to Shami must set off alarm bells for every right thinking person in the country.
New Labour? This is Old Style Stalinism… it really is time for a change.
After a tough day fund raising my anger at the Mr Tomlinson news and everything else, I have looked at where we are and I hurt to think where we are going. Hence my horrific blog. Sorry but we are not so far away. Laugh if you must.
Typing blog posts over at the BBC newsroom eh, Iain? Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, I suppose. ;-)
What is the chance of Jacqui Smith going after this? Virtually none whatsoever, sadly. The woman's completely shameless.
The Police Officers were told to investigate something, I assume the ones checking these files weren't the ones who made the decision to proceed?
Mike what makes anyone so special that they should be excluded from being referenced in a Police investigation?
The Grim Reaper I wouldn't say she is shameless so much as useless she has little or no idea what's going on in her department and she seems to have little idea what her husband gets upto. Perhaps she should consider the idea a lady said on newsnight and get a job in tesco.
Bye Bye Jacqui x
As odious and corrupt and bullying as I think this government is....... I would expect the police to search in this way to see what cropped up.
That's normal investigation isn't it?
Shami Chakrabarti is a government stooge.
The cabinet office "sexes up" the level of leaks. Lie in other words to you and me. Then all sort of strange things happen on the investigation, like warrants for homes but not for Parliament. The Speaker back pedaling so fast that it almost looks like action.
Now the claim that it was a phishing expedition, well it's felt like a phishing expedition from the start. The key players who's names come to the front are: Jackie Spliff, David Normington, Speaker Martin, Bob Quick.
So instead of running this, Aljabeeba has fallen for a Maximillion McClifford sob story on all so innocent Nicola Fisher, the woman who got a (albeit wrong and diagraceful) slapping from the copper. Did any taxpayers's money go toward this "scoop?"
Oh dear me.
What are they thinking of?!
Andy Burnham had to apologise for that little remark IIRC. Does this feel like another McBride moment :)
Shami is ferocious - not a lady I would want to be on the wrong end of in a million years.
Will Jackboot go - nope, she didn't know about it. Again. Repeat ad nauseum.
A couple of further thoughts on this following my earlier comment that reasonable people would draw the conclusion that only Gordon Brown coykd have ordered a watching brief to smear her.
First, the officer who did the search was part of the anti-terror squad. So it's reasonable to believe the anti-terror squad is being used by Gordon Brown to pursue his political ends. Now I can't believe many people don't think that Jacki has been promoted above her level - not wishing to be rude but she is appears to be a weak person who can be bulliedby Gordon into doing his bidding. When Mandelson said she was the right person for the job he meant that she wouldn't complain if she was told to spy on opposition members.
I think this is now time for reasonable,level-headed people to start calling for gordon brown to either resign or face a vote of no confidence.
Labour MP resigns. Can no longer stomach way party operates.
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/39Sickened39-MP-quits-Labour.5182941.jp
@ Average Joe
What would you think, if you found out that the police had used your name to search through Damien Green's computer?
You have nothing to do with him, so why should the police drag you into their search for information - you are totally unrelated to the investigation at hand?
If I was Shami, I would be sending out a blizzard of FOI requests, to narrow down the source of the order. Anyone that believes that Jackboots is not evil enough to order the search has forgotten who ordered the whole Damien Green fiasco, in the first place.
A rigged Labour ballot? Never! Gordon assures us they are squeaky clean
BBC breaking news: Veteran Labour Party member Alice Mahon has quit the party.
This is very significant, she was a Labour MP for years, Labour to her fingertips. This is very damaging to Labour.
So Ministers and Officials sex up the leaks to force police to investigate. Then the police botch the investigation, don't properly consider the true nature of the leaks, forget to get a warrant and breach Parliamentary privilidge. Once in, they then allegedly trawl emails for intelligence on prominent public figures who may challenge the Government but are behaving perfectly lawfully.
This now has all the characteristics of a police state with a security apparatus out of control. It is not only democratically unaccountable but at key levels senior and junior officers seem democratically unaware.
Not only is the practical incompetence stunning - and this from the force we rely on for counter-terrorism work - but the sad fact is that the Shami Chakrabari enquiry was totally pointless on every level. From this month the police and security servcies have access to all her and my and your emails which are requiered to be kept for 3 years so they can trawl them at will and check what websites we have been looking at. Of course they need a warrant to do so but as we have seen in this case a few snippets of sexed-up nonsense and they are in
This has all now gone beyond the tipping point and isn't fixable by simply tinkering with existing laws and systems. Labour has hollowed out the police service ethically and institutionally. We need a major change in policy.
The Conservatives should announce:-
1 they will close the 3 years database
2 they will make the police including the Met properly accountable. This should start with a major enquiry by MPA into what happened in the Green case and should extend into the culture of the Met and Special Branch not just their actions .
3 they will strip the Met of its CT role and create a new national police service to roll up CT, major organized crime, border policing and the SOCA functions into one coherent organization that can work closely with the security services and local forces and recruit / attract the best Detectives
4 the radical reform of the Home Office (its 3rd in 5 years mind you) to move out many of the ethereal Oxbridge policy thinkers and bring in some operational managers who have political nous, a grip on the problems of delivery and an understanding of the real world.
God what a complete mess this shower have created
On a police-related note, why is it only the police officer who struck Ian Tomlinson that is being investigated? Is it not a worry that half a dozen or more police officers who saw that happen thought it was entirely acceptable? Why is this not being discussed by bloggers or media or politicians?
Grenville said...
I don't understand this? So what? Please expand.
Words of one syllable please.You are a prat. O.K?
The excellent Shami Chakrabati should send a Subject Access Request to the Metropolitan Police under the Data Protection Act. This looks like a trawl for their intelligence database or something similar.
I may not agree with everything Shami may have to say but gosh do I respect her honesty.She does not surround herself with people like Whelan,McBride and Draper like the hapless and unelected Brown and certainly doesn't claim from the taxpayer for exotic material on behalf of her £40,000 per annum(taxpayer paid)husband in their second home.Shami we all support you.
Civil liberties Chief eh? Somehow that sounds rather grandiose, as though someone at the Times has a similarly inflated view of Shami's importance (similarly inflated to Shami's own sense of self). Can't help but think that front page is going to end up framed in the Chakrabati downstairs loo.
Clearly this is a strange scenario to say the least, but it would be interesting to know what other names/terms were searched on.
Shami doesn't seem like the sort of person the government would bother the government - she makes a lot of noise about foreign prisoners on the BBC and that's about it. But then any disagreement is a cardinal sin according to Gordon isn't it?
"fashionista said...
Just watched you on News 24. The Chakrabarti news is appalling, shocking, disgusting.
(Three words which might also be used of the tie you wore tonight.)Couldn't disagree more.
Iain looked very dashing.
titus-aduxas said...
What would you think, if you found out that the police had used your name to search through Damien Green's computer?I would think they were investigating him and my name appeared somewhere.
I've been subjected to a Police investigation when they found my phone details on the records of three people I knew very well who turned up to be up to no good.
Someone has to still explain why she should be exempt from even looked into if her name turns up during the investigation?
If I was investigated just because I appeared on all three peoples phone bill why shouldn't she be - why are MPs and people in their orbits so special as to be exempt?
“Anonymous said...Shami Chakrabarti is a government stooge.”
What a completely moronic thing to say.
And Iain, this anonymous posting thing is a bad idea.
@ Average Joe
I cannot believe you're being serious!
You state:
"I've been subjected to a Police investigation when they found my phone details on the records of three people I knew very well who turned up to be up to no good."
How exactly were you "investigated"?
Did the police grab you off the street or from your home and arrest you, take you to a station for questioning?
Or were you just asked a few questions with regard to how you happened to know the three people in question?
"Someone has to still explain why she should be exempt from even looked into if her name turns up during the investigation?"
Do we know that her named turned up during the "investigation"?
If so, who was the original source of that information to the police?
" If I was investigated just because I appeared on all three peoples phone bill why shouldn't she be - why are MPs and people in their orbits so special as to be exempt?"
The bottom line here is, what exactly did Damian Green do that called for the Gestapo style tactics used by the police?
Joe, if you cannot comprehend that all this was politically motivated then you are engaging less than your average intellect.
If Satan came down to earth Sham Chuckyourbalti would be first in line to defend his civil liberties.Enough of this wretched woman!
If it had been a genuine criminal or national security investigation, then the investigators would have forensically copied disk images of the seized computers, and done any of their searches and analyses on the copies, not on the originals.
This routine, standard procedure, preserves the chain of evidence leading up to any possible prosecutions, and does not tip off the potential criminals about what the investigators do, or do not know about any accomplices or co-conspirators. Such "tipping off" can be a criminal offence punishable with up to 5 years in prison.
Doing anything else with the original computer or mobile phone etc. amounts to tampering with the evidenceAny competent defence lawyer will argue that such a "search" for "Shami" could just as easily have been an attempt to plant forged incriminating evidence or to destroy or tamper with something that might establish the alibi of the accused.
For the Police or others to have tampered with the evidence in this way is utterly incompetent and illegal.
If that is the way that the computer evidence in terrorist cases is handled by the Met Police Counter-Terrorism Command, then they are likely to allow real terrorists to go scot free in Court, if they ever catch any of them.
I sometimes wonder about the degree to which this govt conflates two different thigns: National Security and the electoral interests of the labour Party. As if maintaining a Labour govt is itself in the national interest ...
Mike Law said...
Joe, if you cannot comprehend that all this was politically motivated then you are engaging less than your average intellect.I was visited by two Police Officers at my home who had acquired my name, home address and profession based on a follow up because I appeared on all three of these peoples phone bills on a regular basis.
I had nothing to do with any crime and there was no evidence that I was - using your logic should I now suspect that I'm being subjected to a political motivated police witch hunt or just normal process?
I assume that when they got my name from my mobile phone number they also checked if emails from me appeared on their computers.
It would be interesting to know if Mr Green has Ms Chakrabarti's number on his mobile phone?
Which given the above example would explain why they check her name. The fact they didn't interview her would also suggest they didn't feel they had to follow up on her.
I'm still waiting to explain why she should be exempt normal Police procedure.
You inability to have a civil debate without resorted to silly insults probably says more about your intelligence than mine to be frank.
What can be done about the danger of rigged postal votes? we have enough examples already and now the case of Ms Gould apparently being parachuted in to a constituency she has no relationship with and who is far too young to be an MP straight from university. Postal votes also in question over the selection of Mrs. Booth. More worrying was the totally unexpected result in Glenrothes due to a huge number of suddenly requested postal votes and the disappearance of the register. This is a total subversion of democracy.
It seems the police were not only going beyond their legitimate investigations but were incompetent as well. They didn’t understand the first thing about computer forensics.
Having seized Mr Green’s computer they should have made a bit by bit copy of the disk and done any investigations on the copy, as doing anything with the computer hard drive would have altered the information on the disk and hence corrupted the evidence, as can be seen that the search results are now on Mr. Green’s computer.
Doing a name search on the head of Liberty? This would never happen under a tory government. They'd have got 5 to tap her phone.
These new pro-civil liberties tories are funny. I'll miss them.
Joe,
First, the comment about your use of your intellect was meant as a bit of tongue-in-cheek humour based on your pseudonym; if it offended, apologies.
However, your logic just doesn't hold up.
Regarding the instance where you were questioned by the police, from what you say, this came about as a result of the police finding a good number of references to you among the others phone bills. You had contact with all three, as a result you may well have been a useful witness (or, in a worse case scenario, a co-conspirator). So I can understand why the police may have questioned you in the way you state they did.
I cannot see how you can come to the conclusion that my previous post infers that, as you were questioned because of the above mentioned link between you and the three others, you were being subjected to a political motivated police witch hunt… where did that come from?
Following your lead re making assumptions, I guess it's safe to assume that the three were involved in (or suspected to be involved in) some sort of criminal activity, hence the police investigation. Can we also assume that none of them were MPs who had handled leaked documents that are embarrassing to a Government Minister?
As we now know, the police were investigating the fact that Damian Green had come into possession of such documents. To the best of my knowledge, it was just Damian Green and Christopher Galley who were arrested regarding this matter (Green was arrested on suspicion of conspiring to commit misconduct in a public office and aiding and abetting, counselling or procuring misconduct in a public office; Galley on suspicion of misconduct in a public office)
From the information that is currently doing the rounds, it seems that the police did a name search on Green's computer for references to Chakrabarti. There is no mention that she was seen as a party to the original charges.
Even if Green did have her number in his mobile, that in itself isn't enough to draw her into their investigation - I have her mobile number on my phone. Drawing a comparison from your case, you state that the three suspects had made numerous calls to you (you don't say if you called them).
So that begs the question, why should she NOT be exempt from normal Police procedure? Although, I would doubt very much if any of this would be comfortably classified as "normal" police procedure.
Jimmy,
The new pro-civil liberties Tories are nowhere as funny as a cuddly socialist government that is systematically doing away with them.
I'm getting fed up with Chakrabarti's smug, self-righteous face. What's she ever done, anyway? Who's ever voted for her?
Also, I don't approve of her parasitic quango.
Yet more publicity to feed Chakrabarti's ever-swelling ego.
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