In Fact...

ISLAND OF THE BANNED

Maria Margaronis writes from London: The last time the British government suspended habeas corpus was in 1971 in Northern Ireland, where hundreds of republicans were imprisoned without trial. The policy was abandoned four years later after it turned out to be a valuable recruitment tool for the IRA. New Labour's Prevention of Terrorism Act, adopted on March 11, allows the government to issue "control orders" against British and foreign citizens, restricting their contacts and movements or imposing house arrest, as long as the orders are rubber-stamped by a judge. Fiercely resisted by the House of Lords, both opposition parties and many Labour MPs, the bill was forced through hours before the deadline for releasing foreign terror suspects, some held without trial since 2001. The act now renders them banned persons, so that the public cannot know how they've been treated--or how harmless some of them may be. Apart from violating fundamental liberties, the act will increase fear and resentment among British Muslims, who have been told by a government minister that they must now accept more searches on the street. And it will further institutionalize torture: The Home Secretary acknowledged that the government uses "evidence" about terrorism suspects obtained by torture offshore. The intelligence services--whose assessment of the terrorist threat Blair darkly exaggerates--have taken care to distance themselves from the act. But if there is an attack, Blair will be able to say that he took drastic action--even if it was exactly the wrong kind.

(UN)FAIR HARVARD?

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