Tag: London

British court issued Gaza arrest warrant for former Israeli minister Tzipi Livni
Warrant issued over war crimes accusations was withdrawn when it emerged former minister had cancelled plan to visit
- Ian Black and Ian Cobain
- Monday 14 December 2009
A British court issued an arrest warrant for Israel‘s former foreign minister over war crimes allegedly committed in Gaza this year – only to withdraw it when it was discovered that she was not in the UK, it emerged today.

Tzipi Livni, a member of the war cabinet during Operation Cast Lead, had been due to address a meeting in London on Sunday but cancelled her attendance in advance. The Guardian has established that Westminster magistrates’ court issued the warrant at the request of lawyers acting for some of the Palestinian victims of the fighting but it was later dropped.

The warrant marks the first time an Israeli minister or former minister has faced arrest in the UK and is evidence of a growing effort to pursue war crimes allegations under “universal jurisidiction”. Israel rejects these efforts as politically motivated, saying it acted in self-defence against Hamas rocket attacks from Gaza.

Livni, head of the opposition Kadima party, played a key role in decisions made before and during the three-week offensive. Palestinians claim 1,400 were killed, mostly civilians; Israel counted 1,166 dead, the majority of them combatants.

No one involved in the Westminster episode was prepared to confirm, on the record, what had transpired in a chaotic series of highly sensitive legal moves. But a pro-Palestinian group welcomed news of the abortive move as “long overdue”.

The Foreign Office, clearly deeply embarrassed by the episode, said in a statement: “The UK is determined to do all it can to promote peace in theMiddle East and to be a strategic partner of Israel. To do this, Israel’s leaders need to be able to come to the UK for talks with the British government. We are looking urgently at the implications of this case.”

Livni’s office said she had decided in advance not to come to the UK but lawyers seemed unaware of that when they approached the court last week. The judge refused to issue the warrant until it was clear Livni was in fact in the country, as he was erroneously informed on Sunday.

The former minister had been scheduled to speak at a Jewish National Fund conference. “Scheduled meetings with government figures in London could not take place close to the conference and would have necessitated a longer-than-planned absence from Israel,” her office told the Ynet website.

It is the second time in less than three months that lawyers have gone to Westminster magistrates court asking for a warrant for the arrest of an Israeli politician. In September the court was asked to issue one for the arrest of Ehud Barak, Israel’s defence minister, under the 1988 Criminal Justice Act, which gives courts in England and Wales universal jurisdiction in war crimes cases.

Barak, who was attending a meeting at the Labour party conference in Brighton, escaped arrest after the Foreign Office told the court that he was a serving minister who would be meeting his British counterparts. The court ruled he enjoyed immunity under the State Immunity Act 1978.

According to Israeli sources, ministers who wish to visit the UK in a personal capacity have begun asking the Israeli embassy in London to arrange meetings with British officials. These offer legal protection against arrest.

Livni, crucially, cannot enjoy any such immunity as she is an ex-minister. Ehud Olmert, the former prime minister, is in the same position.

Because of the potential damage to UK-Israeli relations – and because of legal pitfalls facing those who disclosed information about the application – few people with any detailed knowledge of it were prepared to comment today.

The Ministry of Justice, Scotland Yard and clerks at the magistrates court refused to discuss the matter. A statement issued by HM Court Service implied that there had been no application for an arrest warrant, stating “there is no record of any such hearing”. A spokeswoman maintained that this was not a misleading statement.

Samuel Hayek, chairman of the Jewish National Fund UK, the charity whose conference Livni had been due to attend, said: “I am not at liberty to confirm her precise reasons for not attending.” He added: “In any event, it is regrettable that the British government is unable to conduct free dialogue with Israel’s most senior statesmen and politicians.”

Tayab Ali, the solicitor who tried to obtain a warrant for the arrest of Barak on behalf of 16 Palestinians, said his firm was “ready, willing and able to act for clients to seek the arrest of anyone suspected of war crimes” who travelled to the UK.

Livni’s office described her as “proud of all her decisions regarding Operation Cast Lead”. It added: “The operation achieved its objectives to protect the citizens of Israel and restore Israel’s deterrence capability.”

The Guardian
December 15, 2009
High court makes “historic” terrorism evidence ruling

By Michael Holden

Tue Dec 1, 2009

LONDON (Reuters) – London’s High Court ruled against the British government on Tuesday over the use of secret evidence to deny terrorism suspects bail in what campaigners called an “historic” judgement.

The government expressed disappointment at the “unhelpful” verdict, handed down over the case brought by two men suspected of terrorism-related activities, saying it would make it harder to keep the country safe.

The court ruled that a person could not be denied bail solely on the basis of secret evidence.

The judges concluded such applications should be treated the same as “control order” cases, where terrorism suspects must be given an “irreducible minimum” of information about the case against them, the Press Association reported.

The decision is another judicial defeat for ministers over security measures, beefed up after the September 11 attacks amid much criticism from human rights campaigners.

“I am surprised and disappointed that the court has made this ruling. My sole objective is protecting the public and this judgement will make that job harder,” said Home Secretary Alan Johnson.

He said the two suspects, a Pakistani student known as XC and an Algerian referred to as U who face deportation on the grounds they pose a risk to national security, would remain in custody while he sought permission to appeal the verdict.

XC was one of 12 men arrested amid great publicity by counter-terrorism police in April this year but later released without charge as there was insufficient evidence. The men were then told they would be deported instead.

“We will do everything possible to keep this country safe and are taking steps accordingly in the light of this unhelpful judgement,” he said.

Tuesday’s verdict follows a judgement by Britain’s highest court in June that the government had to disclose secret evidence from its spies which it used against suspects to justify stringent home curfews known as control orders.

The orders, introduced just before the 2005 London bombings that killed 52 people, allow terrorism suspects not charged with any crime to be kept under curfew for up to 16 hours a day, with tight restrictions on who they can communicate with or meet.

Human rights and justice organisations argued they violated fundamental rights, with suspects placed under tight surveillance without knowing what they have done wrong, and Johnson said in September the system would now be reviewed.

“Thanks to this historic judgement, the shadowy secret court system that has mushroomed under the War on Terror will now be exposed to the light of day,” said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the campaign group Liberty.

“The hard lesson of recent years is that diluting Britain’s core values and abandoning justice makes us both less safe and free.”

Reuters

December 1, 2009
Father’s doubts over Jackson death

Michael Jackson’s father said he had a “lot of concerns” over the events that led up to his son’s death, as details began to emerge of the post-mortem examination.

Jackson’s body weighed just 8st 1oz – and his stomach only contained partially-dissolved pills when he died, it was reported.

The findings, reported in The Sun, state the singer had four injection marks near his heart, apparently from attempts to pump adrenaline into the organ in a bid to restart it.

Speaking on the Black Entertainment Television Awards’ red carpet in Los Angeles, Joe Jackson said he couldn’t go into detail about what his concerns were.

But he added the singer’s children were the family’s “first priority” and that he and Michael’s mother, Katherine, have “authority for our son and his children”.

Asked about funeral arrangements, Mr Jackson said: “We haven’t got to that yet, we are working on that.”

In an unexpected move, Janet Jackson chose the Black Entertainment Television Awards ceremony to make her first public appearance since the death of her brother.

Taking to the stage, the tearful singer said: “On behalf of my family and myself, thank you for all your love.

“To you Michael is an icon. To us, Michael is family and he will forever live in all of our hearts.”

Earlier, Joe Jackson had said he did not believe stress over the intense series of London concerts the King of Pop planned for his comeback had led to his death. He also said he believed his son would be larger in death than he was in life.

Press Association

June 29, 2009
Protesters break up BNP news conference

By Adrian Croft

LONDON (Reuters) – Scores of protesters throwing eggs and shouting “Nazi scum, off our streets” broke up a news conference on Tuesday by the British National Party which has just won its first seats in the European Parliament.

BNP leader Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons, who both won European Parliament seats in the north of England in last week’s vote, had just started giving an open-air news conference outside parliament when they were charged by protesters.

They threw eggs which broke on Griffin’s shoulder and at least one protester hit him with the stick of a placard, a Reuters photographer on the scene said.

Chased by the protesters, Griffin and Brons fled in waiting cars. Demonstrators struck the cars with placards, which bore the slogan “Stop the Fascist BNP,” as they accelerated away.

A police spokeswoman said two people had been taken to hospital after the protest, but she had no more information about them or their injuries.

Police were looking into an allegation of assault on a woman at the protest and investigating reports of a road collision linked to the demonstration, she said. No one had been arrested.

Police guarding parliament did not intervene in the protest.

The BNP, which campaigns for a halt to immigration, voluntary repatriation of immigrants and British withdrawal from the European Union, has won local council seats but is not represented in the British parliament.

It is shunned by mainstream parties which regard its policies as racist. But it has gathered support in urban areas among a working class hurt by the worst recession in decades and competing for jobs and services with immigrants.

It won more than 940,000 votes in last week’s European elections, enough to give it its first two deputies under a proportional representation system.

Griffin said the protesters were a “mob for hire” that included supporters of the Labour Party.

“This is a mob of students, lecturers, probably a few civil service parasites … and hardcore activists and supporters primarily of the Labour Party,” he told the BBC.

An official of Unite Against Fascism, set up in response to what it sees as the rising threat from the extreme right in Britain and which organised the protest, was unrepentant.

“I say to all those people that voted for them: They voted for the wrong thing. They voted for civil war, destruction and conflict in communities and surely that is a terrible thing to happen,” Weyman Bennett, the group’s national secretary, told reporters.

The BNP was helped in last week’s election by a low turnout and protest voting after the major parties were tarred by a scandal over politicians’ perks.

(Additional reporting by Stephen Hird; writing by Keith Weir; editing by Richard Balmforth)

Reuters

June 10, 2009
US intelligence rivalry flares over British connection

John Stokes

The CIA station in London is at the center of a bitter fight between different branches of the US intelligence community in Washington DC.

For years, the CIA has had the right to appoint the station chief who runs US intelligence operations in London and liaises with MI6 and GCHQ. Now, the National Security Agency is arguing that they and not the CIA should run intelligence operations in the UK because they have more people on the ground and the work they do has far greater value to both countries.

NSA have found useful allies in both Admiral Denny Blair, the Director of National Intelligence and General Jim Jones, the National Security Adviser who have been very receptive to the argument that intelligence form should follow function and reflect the realities of the 21st century.

Last month, Blair wrote a memo to US intelligence chiefs saying that in future the DNI would appoint Heads of Stations overseas. It was a clear directive from the man who runs all US intelligence and is appointed by the President and Congress to do so. However, Leon Panetta, who heads the CIA and is the former Chief of Staff to President Bill Clinton, wrote his own letter to top CIA officials saying they could disregard Blair’s note.

Panetta is a famous Washington bruiser and is well known for his take no prisoners style but such a confrontation has infuriated Blair who sees it as a direct challenge to his authority and battle has been joined. For once, Panetta may have misjudged the political winds as Congress is pushing hard for real intelligence reform and the CIA has fewer friends and less influence on Capitol Hill these days.

It is no coincidence that those pushing for change in the Obama administration have a military background and that the NSA is run by one of their own, General Keith Alexander. It’s also true that for decades NSA has chafed under CIA’s apparent seniority and the two agencies have been arch rivals for generations. As recently as the Bush administration a major joint operation between CIA and NSA which all involved agreed was vital to the future of US security was stopped after a senior CIA official refused to implement the project which he thought gave unnecessary influence to NSA.

The information revolution has placed further strains on the relationship. Twenty years ago, there was a clearer division of labour with NSA intercepting data on the move (email, faxes, phone calls) while the CIA targeted data at rest (documents, burglaring buildings). But recently the CIA has made a major push into the data gathering business arguing that the ones and zeros of the computer age are data and thus are fair game whether at rest or on the move.

There are thousands of Americans based in Britain who work for NSA and work closely with GCHQ. By comparison, the CIA station, based in the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square, is important but a mere shadow of the NSA’s presence. Reality on the ground suggests that NSA will win this fight.

Spectator

10th June 2009

June 10, 2009
Servants, Not Masters

Nick Hardwick, chairman of the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), will appear before the Home Affairs Select Committee as the fallout surrounding allegations into the use of force at the protests grows increasingly acrimonious.

Mr Hardwick said he had “serious concerns” about front-line supervision of officers at this month’s demonstrations in the City of London and said police needed to remember that they were “servants, not masters” of the people.

Mr Hardwick’s comments came as former Metropolitan Police Commander John O’Connor, warned that current Met chief, Sir Paul Stephenson, risks losing the support of rank and file officers if the investigation into allegations of abuse became a “witch hunt.”

So far almost 90 complaints have been made about the use of force at the G20 protests.

The IPCC launched its third investigation into police tactics on Saturday after a 23-year-old London man claimed he was assaulted by a Met Police officer.

The commission is already investigating events leading up to the death of newspaper seller Ian Tomlinson on April 1, and an allegation of an assault on Nicola Fisher at a vigil for Mr Tomlinson on April 2.

Keith Vaz, the Labour chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee, said MPs would examine the controversial “kettling” tactic used to contain demonstrators.

An IPCC spokesman said more than 185 complaints had been received relating to G20 of which almost 90 were from alleged victims of – or witnesses to – excessive police force.

Other footage of a riot officer apparently hitting a protester with a riot shield has also been published and is being examined by Scotland Yard.

The Met Police said it was also looking at video footage posted on Saturday on YouTube by the Climate Camp group which shows another man apparently being punched in the face by a police officer.

ITN

April 19, 2009