UK: BLAIR MIGHT LIFT MP WIRETAP BAN

BBC:

The Cabinet is considering allowing the tapping of MPs' telephones, Defence Secretary John Reid has acknowledged. The covert surveillance has been banned for 40 years under a convention known as the Wilson Doctrine [named for PM Harold Wilson who initiated the executive order]. [The]... proposal to lift the ban was suggested by the Interception of Communications Commissioner... Tony Blair is preparing to announce the scrapping of the ban as part of an expansion of MI5 [the British CIA/FBI] powers after the July 2005 London bombings. New powers to monitor e-mail and other communications were brought in in 2000 as part of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act.

There is a good reason to be able to intercept MP's communications: They might be leaking stuff to the press which can compromise national security. Even in the USA Congressmen have been known to leak, occassionally. This move by Blair is, no doubt, bound to piss off the British Left - who, like our own Left, care more about how their own government REACTS to the very real threat of jihadoterror, than they do the very real threat of jihadoterror. Screw 'em; our security is more important than appeasing the Left (especially since the Left would rather we appease the enemy than fight them).