MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

UK government exploiting terrorism says former MI5 chief

Former MI5 chief Dame Stella Rimington

Britain's former head of intelligence, MI5 head Dame Stella Rimington has claimed the Government had exploited people's fear of terrorism to restrict civil liberties. In an outspoken interview she said ministers risked handing a victory to terrorists by making people “live in fear and under a police state”.

Dame Stella, who stood down as the UK's Security Service's Director General in 1996, also accused the US of going too far, claiming the Guantanamo Bay camp and allegations of torture had been a recruiting sergeant for extremists. Her comments came as a report by a panel of leading judges and lawyers said measures to tackle terrorism have undermined international human rights laws. In an interview with the Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia, Dame Stella said: "Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the UK Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people's privacy." In the interview, published in the Daily Telegraph, she continued: "It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state." Dame Stella, 73, has been a harsh critic of the British Government's policies, including attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial ID cards plan. She added: "The US has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect - there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification." A study published by the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ) found "many states have fallen into a trap set by terrorists" by introducing measures which undermine the values they seek to protect. The Panel warned that exceptional "temporary" counter-terrorism measures are becoming permanent features of law and practice. The report condemned the use of "notorious" counter-terrorism tactics such as torture, disappearances, arbitrary and secret detention.