I mentioned this tagged onto the end of the ‘Afghanamo’ post but ‘Emerson v’ in the comments says that when he posted a comment on the BBC site asking who was paying for the legal assistance to some Afghan detainees the comment was deleted so I thought I would highlight it.
Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond said in an interview on the Today programme this morning that Britain was funding the legal defence for Taliban detainees through legal aid.
The BBC have ignored that…the only comment is a mocking one at the end of one report:
‘The defence secretary was keen to point out the Afghans’ case was being brought “at the expense, of course, of the British taxpayer, because Mr Shiner’s actions are funded by the legal aid system.’
You might have thought that it would have been of some interest especially on the day that Barristers have written to the government complaining that cuts in Legal Aid will “seriously undermine the rule of law” and the ongoing debate about how much money should be sent overseas in development aid whilst massive cuts are made at home.
Mr Shiner has plenty of form here. In fact, I understand that he allegedly makes a living out of these cases (a very handsome I don’t doubt) and someone should investigate his activities.
If memory serves, Mr Shiner is the man who flew to Iraq (when nobody asked to him to) to look for cases to bring against the British Army and for which he then rakes off the legal aid bill.
Unbelievable and here he is at it again!
Don’t hold your breath in regard to a Beeb investigation. Now if he were a member of the EDL, it would be a different story.
That’s because the EDL are extreme extremists, while Mr Shiner is a disinterested seeker after truth who is merely forced by circumstance to accumulate huge bundles of cash from his work.
That’s why EDL supporters who report (correctly) that the police are refusing to properly investigate Islamic grooming are accused of ‘exploiting’ the situation, but you will never, ever see anyone on the BBC report on how many of this guy’s claims of abuse ever actually hold up in court, let alone ask if they might be just a little inflammatory.
cant wort this one out,they have just cut £200 million from legal aid fund in england to help the likes of us out, but they can afford to pay lawyers and barristers in this country to defend taliban suspects 3000 miles away,maybe i am thick,but this baffles me.
Stuart: ‘They’ hate you, but ‘they’ love the Taliban because, well basically they’re NOT ‘you’.
“The man who loves to sue Britain… on legal aid, of course.
“The Guantanamo comparison was made by crusading lawyer Phil Shiner.
“He is long-time scourge of alleged wrongdoing by armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.”
By DAVID WILLIAMS and STEVE DOUGHTY
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2333026/The-man-loves-sue-Britain–legal-aid-course.html
Isn’t “crusading” is the wrong word to describe Phil Shiner, given his sympathy for jihadists ?
‘Daily Mail’ Comment:-
“Real Afghan scandal”-
“With its customary relish for an anti-British story, the BBC seized yesterday on the plight of 85 Afghans being held by our forces at an Army camp near Kabul.
“This was Britain’s secret Guantanamo Bay, we were invited to believe – a national disgrace that could amount to unlawful detention.
“Except that the truth doesn’t quite fit the Leftist theory.
“In fact, there is nothing secret about the detention of Taliban murder suspects at Camp Bastion. And far from being unlawfully held, they are there because the High Court has decreed that handing them over to the Afghan authorities would violate their human rights.
“Indeed, one of the British lawyers who pressed for that judgment is the same Phil Shiner who now whines to the BBC that his murderous clients are being denied their human right to a trial.
“Yet no sooner does the Defence Secretary say he’ll hand the detainees over to the Afghan legal system, with proper safeguards for their rights, than the lawyers say they’ll fight to stop him.
“Meanwhile on planet Earth, British taxpayers may think the real scandal is that their money is filling Mr Shiner’s pockets with legal aid for our troops’ would-be killers.
But don’t expect the BBC to get agitated about that.”
(Scroll down here):-
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2333032/Plastic-bags-hot-air-rank-hypocrisy.html
“With its customary relish for an anti-British story, the BBC seized yesterday on” …. 😀
not as much zeal as they use, on an anti english story though