Sadiq Khan, the Muslim Labour MP, dominates the BBC news agenda this morning. Press reports suggest that Khan’s conversation with his constituent (and long time friend) Babar Ahmad, were recorded twice in Milton Keynes’s Woodhill Prison. The US is seeking to extradite Ahmad on suspicion of raising funds for the Taliban. The BBC fans a palpable sense of outrage that a Member of Parliament could have his conversations bugged. Personally, I would be outraged if Khan’s conversations with an alleged Taliban fund-raiser were not bugged! Surely the safety of our fellow citizens is the primary concern here, not the tender sensitivites of Khan or any other MP?
The BBC then turns to… another Muslim MP for a reaction and bang on cue Khalid Mahmood, MP for Birmingham Perry Barr, declares that this bugging sends out a difficult message, not just for Muslim people but for British people. (I don’t think so, the only “difficulties” remain with those who deny that a section of Muslims in Britain constitute a real and present danger to their fellow citizens) In Beeb world, the decision by anti-terrorist officers to bug Khan or indeed any other MP who seeks the release of this alleged terror-enabler Ahmad is always going to be wrong. Notice how they choose to only seek comment from a person that they know will fail to endorse the decision by our anti-terrorist police. Where’s the balance?
Islam is always going to be the offended party through the Beeb prism – as this previous report on Khan’s activities demonstrates. One year on from 7/7 Khan was declaring how “disappointed” many Muslims (ie he and his pals) were at the failure of government to engage “more constructively” with them. At the time, one year from that savage Jihad attack on our capital city, I was disappointed that more of those behind the plot had not been arrested. But hey, victimhood is not always reserved for victims, sometimes aggressors can have it bestowed upon them by a craven and gutless media which fails to understand the dangers that face our country from Islam and instead shills for the ROP.
Well said. Clearly the authorities would not be bugging this conversation without good reason.
There are a number of high profile Muslims (I won’t name them) that continually appear on TV defending extremists, I hope our security forces are bugging them as well.
Why is it that the BBC thinks it’s OK film the BNP undercover (who as it turned out were doing nothing wrong) but wrong for an MP to be bugged when talking ot a piece of human filth?
The BBC was outraged when the Undercover mosque programme went out, yet that was shown to be accurate.
The BBC is just full of arseholes.
Frankly, I wouldn’t give a shilling for the lot of ’em.
Bug them all if it’s a national security issue.
Imagine the furore if more bombs go off and MI5 says “oh we suspected there was something going on but didn’t want to upset community relations so we didn’t plant any bugs.”
They didn’t mind bugging Arthur Scargill etc during the miners strike.
They also tell us that “you have nothing to fear if you have done nothing wrong” – right?
“Clearly the authorities would not be bugging this conversation without good reason.”
Not so sure about that.
’bout time the BBC was bugged; after all so many of them are buggers.
WCH: Why do you say that? Why would the security forces waste their time if they didn’t think something was up?
After all it wouldn’t be the first time that information have been allowed in or out via “conversations” between prisoners and their legal representation would it?
Oh and didn’t the lot that recently got convicted of wanting to behead a soldier get bugged?
Were we not told by some extremist Muslim bint that it was a fuss over nothing?
Just wanted to say David, that you have really energised this blog. You’re doing a great job, keep it up.
And Shami Chakrabarti, the director of Liberty, said:
“And what on earth was the justification for this kind of listening operation?”
So either she is totally stupid or actively wanting to assist people who are potential or actual enemies of this country. A known Islamic militant mets with a fellow Muslim in a cell where they can share a conversation whereby the visitor could allegedly carry info outside to others.
It is not about them being Muslim as I’m sure this sort of thing happens all the time. Witness the number of solicitors and lawyers who have been jailed recently for doing exactly this or even carrying in drugs. We had similar problems in NI with Catholic/Protestant priests who KNEW who had done what and never let on, thus carrying the blood of innocents on their cassocks for decades. (Another reason I left the church)
The justification is a reasonable suspicion given previous incidents involving MPs such as Ken Livingston and his IRA chums where some MPs think themselves above the law. The Wilson Doctrine saying no MP should be bugged was a classic case of Labour wanting to ensure their little communist fifth column such as Clark Reid Straw etc weren’t caught doing something they shouldn’t!
I am very uneasy at the idea that MPs are getting bugged by the executive. If they have such scant regard for the privacy of their own colleagues what about the rest of us?
Doesnt justify the repugnant lovein that the BBC has with the ‘religion of peace’.
And what on earth was the justification for this kind of listening operation?
Well, if it’s not because – and you may have noticed, what with you and your little ‘human rights’ group defending them at every opportunity – we have, like most modern liberal democracies, an Islamic Terrorism problem, then maybe it’s because they enjoy having someone – who looks suspiciously like a small Indian boy – piss and moan all of the time.
Anyway, I think we’ve stubled upon the next BBC motto: Shilling for Islam – it’s what we do.
ask:
Just wanted to say David, that you have really energised this blog. You’re doing a great job, keep it up.
Jask | 03.02.08 – 3:31 pm | #
Hear! Hear!
I’ve no particular objection to the bugging of anyone meeting a suspected terrorist sympathiser/fund-raiser, but I have serious doubts about the competence of our security services if they have indeed been caught out.
Ever since the reforms of both MI5 and SIS in the 1990s, we’ve yet to see any evidence that they are anything more than a sprawling bureacracy (not unlike the BBC itself).
I’m sure that they they have lots of well meaning equal opportunities policies and the obligatory “whistle-blower’s charter”, but it’s a serious deficiency in an intelligence organisation if they can’t even manage to conceal a microphone in an interview room.
It all reminds me of some criticism of the CIA after 9/11. To get on in the CIA, you needed to be able to move smoothly up through the corporate HQ at Langley, so the lads with any operational experience tended to get overlooked for promotion. It got to the point that the CIA could no longer recruit decent field officers because the career structure was so biased against them and, while the management were counting paperclips and sending each other memos about their corporate logo, Bin Laden managed to implement a compex attack plan against the heart of the USA.
I’m getting a bit concerned that our lot are going the same way.
The BBC’s HYS seems not to reflect the BBC’s outrage
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=4214&edition=1&ttl=20080203163913
Most recommended:
“MP’s should have the same conditions in life as the people who elect them and be exempted from nothing.”
Recommended by 187 people
In fact the whole of the most recommended echoes this view.
The choice of first quote on the front of the HYS page really shows the bias at the BBC. A total of 41 pages of comments and which does the BBC choose for the first highlighted comment?
“It is wrong to bug an MP when they are talking to a constituent, especially when that constituent is in jail.
Matt D, Newton Aycliffe ”
Recommended by 0 people and the last comment on page 41!
Could anyone give me a reason, apart from unashamed bias, why they choose this quote to highlight?
Jask/Lurker in a Burqua,
Thanks for the kind wishes!
DaveT: Shami Chakrabarti
“…So either she is totally stupid…”
er, you don’t need to say any more. She is stupid.
She is loved by the BBC though. An organisation that has aobut 10,000 folowers gets a disproportionate amount of time from our media.
Perhaps her sister working for the BBC is an advantage?
Since MPs are in a position to do more damage than the general public,they should be subject to more surveillance.
MPs should also have to keep a log of anyone they meet who has a criminal record.
To be really safe,best to fire the lot.
In what capacity was Mr Khan interviewing Babar Ahmad?
As a friend?
As a consituency MP?
As a lawyer?
AFAIK only the latter is privileged
Interesting how the BBC is spinning this – ‘MP bugged’. No he wasn’t, Mr Ahmad was bugged.
It is interesting that Gordon Brown was informed that the MP was “being bugged”.Actually it was the table in the interview room which had microphones.Essentially it could have been for any of the inmates.
Of the tyranny,their ‘uman rights is bein’ violated!
Anyway, Sharia courts are well established in the UK, as a Channel 4
programme describes tonight in a few minutes, 7:15 pm (GMT): ‘Divorce Sharia Style’. (I can’t remember voting them in.)
Yet again a representative of that Communist organisation, Liberty, is allowed to spew forth virulent propaganda on the BBC with no attempt to question her extreme views. Liberty was originally the The National Council for Civil Liberties. Georege Orwell in the 1940s comments about it being under Communist control. When, before Thatcher’s much needed union reforms, people were denied their jobs for not joing Socialist or Communist trade unions the NCCL flatly refused to help them, showing that it was still a Communist organisation, Nothing since then suggests that it has changed.
BTW if police interviews with suspects have to be recorded than surely all interviews should also be recorded. If the suspect is innocent then he has nothing to fear from the recording of interviews. Such recording might also prevent the suspect and the defense lawyers arranging the intimidation of witnesses and the falsification of defense evidence.
Worst post ever.
This blog has become pretty racist recently. I thought it was supposed to be about BBC bias, not about Islam-bashing. Is David Vance a member of the BNP by any chance?
BTW for those who didn’t know, David Vance is a long-time bible-basher and professes to be a “born again” Christian, which no doubt explains his irrational hatred of Islam:
http://atangledweb.typepad.com/weblog/2005/12/dv_on_the_spot.html
hopefully the recording caught Babar’s extreme views which will assist HM Government to deport him.
its not even illegal to bug MPs, its just a convention, a gentlemans agreement if you wish
Hi x how u doing?
taking a look round the world, i cant blame anyone for hating the religeon of peace, they seem to kill a lot of people for a such peace loving bunch.
This blog has become pretty racist recently.
Islam isn’t a race (it’s a vile political philosophy disguised as a religion) dingbat. I believe the proper – though meaningless term – is Islamophobia. Or is it Anti-Islamic Activity®. I can’t keep up.
Islam is a religion not a race.
x:
Meanwhile the British have withdrawn from Basra following their comprehensive defeat…
x | 02.02.08 – 6:29 pm | #
No BBC in that then?
Modern liberal democracies created this in the first place. Modern liberal democracies are run by people who wouldn’t hesitate to create an authoritarian police state (such as bugging MPs), yet would rather eat their own sh*t then advocate immigration restriction.
Immigration restriction has got to be the most liberal and kindest solution to the expansion of Islam with its attendant Jihadist violence. Not a single drop of blood has to be shed, not a single spurious “anti-terror” thought crime law has to be written. But it wont happen. It’s discriminatory. It requires deciding what is good or bad i.e., people who belong to religion that tells them to convert by the sword are not welcome. Until then peoples thoughts will have to be policed.
I challenge all comers, WHY THE HELL IS IT WRONG?
To elaborate:
“Modern liberal democracies are run by people who wouldn’t hesitate to create an authoritarian police state (such as bugging MPs)”
Modern Liberal Democracies are concerned with protecting peoples rights. Such as freedom of religion. This requires an authoritarian state to:
A. Prevent people from formulating and ideas and actions that could lead to criticism of Islam, which could lead to anti-immigration sentiment: a breach of freedom of religion.
B. Fight the illiberal aspects of Islam whilst expecting the adherants of Islam to behave in a liberal non-Islamic way.
The conflict is insoluble. This is what ‘uman rights lead to.
I dislike all religion. However, I haven’t seen any Christians, Jews, Hindu’s or Seikhs that fly planes into buildings or blow up tube trains.
Yes I utterly hate Islam and even more I hate white western camp liberals in the media that continue to make excuses for this evil. In particular the BBC.
Do take a look at the profile for Mr Khan provided by the BBC site. It makes very interesting reading. Ex chair of the MCB’s Legal Affairs Committee, hardly had time to set his feet in parliament as MP for Tooting before being appointed as PPS to Jack Straw. And then promotion into the Whips Office. Clearly a man with friends. Wonder if he has any connection to the Muslim Brotherhood ?
x: “This blog has become pretty racist recently. I thought it was supposed to be about BBC bias, not about Islam-bashing. Is David Vance a member of the BNP by any chance?… David Vance is a long-time bible-basher and professes to be a “born again” Christian, which no doubt explains his irrational hatred of Islam.”
Interesting to accuse the Islam bashers of racism and then try to discredit a poster simply on the basis of his faith.
Irrespective if the politician is Catholic or Muslim the bugging of his coversation is something I find myself in total disagreement with.
To bug your own MP’s seems to me to be some form of orwellian storyline come true.
Normally I find myself having issues with how the BBC presents the news, yet this time I feel that the reporting was fair in fact the Sunday Times was a lot more damming of the ‘secret services’ behaviour than the Beeb.
As for Mr Vances article, I want to point out that the majority of Muslims do not wish us danger, and to say that they do is in his own words ‘gutless’.
Let’s keep this blog devoted to highlighting the biased reporting of the BBC and not that of people who seem to have issues with Muslims in general.
Liberals are wondrous creatures who abhor any kind of war,though they happily countenance late term abortions,euthanasia for the elderly and the removal of medical care from those who do not “look after their bodies”.
They drive cars,have televisions and computers,a veritable cornucopia of electronic gadgets,even work for the Arch Emitter the BBC,but are quite happy to thrust millions into energy poverty with mindnumbingly deranged carbon emission reduction schemes.
Dont bug them – just deport the lot of them.
“To bug your own MP’s seems to me to be some form of orwellian storyline come true.”
Sorry Joe,it’s the other way around,this is the “Biter Bit”.
Whatever.
Do a search on Google for “david vance islam”. Lots of mentions of suicide bombers etc, but no mention here of the 1 million+ the US/UK have killed in Iraq these past few years…
Dagobert
“BTW if police interviews with suspects have to be recorded than surely all interviews should also be recorded. If the suspect is innocent then he has nothing to fear from the recording of interviews. Such recording might also prevent the suspect and the defense lawyers arranging the intimidation of witnesses and the falsification of defense evidence.”
That is one of the reasons for recording police interviews.
Also, all interviews will be recorded using timestamped, digitally encrypted MPEG video that cannot be diddled with, so preventing any false accusations of police brutality.
X said
” Do a search on Google for “david vance islam”. Lots of mentions of suicide bombers etc, but no mention here of the 1 million+ the US/UK have killed in Iraq these past few years…”
Actually X, the US/UK have not killed 1 million people in Iraq at all. I think you’ll find most of the killing has been done by the Shia militias and the Sunni Al-Quieda terrorists, who are deliberately murdering innocent people indiscriminately as often as they can. If you cannot see which side is trying to save peoples’ lives at the moment (the Americans, by increasing the number of their troops on the ground) and the side which are simply trying to murder anyone (Al-Quieda), then you are a fool of the highest order.
the worst thing is, we probably pay for x’s wages via our telly tax.
“but no mention here of the 1 million+ the US/UK have killed in Iraq these past few years…”
Perhaps x would like to comment on the bomb in the pet market and the scum who planted the bombs on two Downs Syndrone women.
Children,parents,mentally disabled and pet animals slaughtered,takes a real man to do that.
The Opinion Business Research estimates the total number of violent Iraqi deaths between 900K and 1,100K, the World Health Organization (WHO) puts it at between 100K and 220K. In any case, this is the total violent deaths, which includes US, British, Iraqi and al Qaeda; civilians, soldiers, contractors, aid workers and so on.
To allege that the Coalition has somehow gone around indiscriminately killing civilians, is downright nutty.
And, though we wish we could go back to the halcyon days where nobody died in wars, one of the Islamic Terrorists’ tactics is, as we all know, to embed themselves with civilians, so inevitably, civilian deaths occur.
And how many of those violent deaths are an indirect result of the US/UK invasion?
The whole point that has been totally missed here is that it wasn’t the MP that was being bugged. It was a terror suspect while being held in jail.
The MP did not have his office, or any other place he does business bugged, yet is trying to distort the story to become the victim.
“X” is beginning to sound nuttier than those people he/she accuses of being nutty!
Plus he/she hasn’t got a clue – obviously he/she only reads what is on the BBC site which is why they get everything they’ve said so far totally wrong!
Go and do some real research!
And how many of those violent deaths are as a result indirect or direct of Iranian interference in Iraqi affairs?
Muppet
“The whole point that has been totally missed here is that it wasn’t the MP that was being bugged. It was a terror suspect while being held in jail.
The MP did not have his office, or any other place he does business bugged, yet is trying to distort the story to become the victim.”
Well said Shug but don’t expect the BBC to point this out!
I note that the “have your say” is still being manipulated to show supportive comments on the front page but go to most recommended and it is a different story!
The top recommended ones are ALL in favour of Khan being listened to whilst talking to a terrorist suspect as well as ALL MPS since they are trying to impose a police state on us with ID Cards etc then they should also be subject to the same laws.
BBC keeping very quiet about the public reaction though which is not following their game plan!