As a Centre for Policy Studies book by the influential Conservative MP Andrew Tyrie and QC Anthony Peto explains, national security can be used to apply secrecy to cases that have nothing to do with torture and do not, in reality, jeopardise national security.
This is despite the fact that NSLs have been subject to countless scathing reports from civil-liberties groups showing they are widely abused, used in any number of cases that have nothing to do with national security, and have never been the basis to a terrorism conviction.
It's worse, in that case, than nothing.
Even if, as Vice-president Jusuf Kalla blithely insists, fixes can be found for the three test cases, that will do nothing to reassure investors about the government's respect for the rule of law.
The wiretap, released on Tuesday in a corruption case that had nothing to do with Ms. Quinn, featured the voice of Daniel J. Halloran III, a Queens councilman, boasting that he could extract tens of thousands of dollars from the City Council to be used as a bribe.
"The direct intervention of Sarkozy in a case that has nothing to do with the government, involving the sale of an independent newspaper to a private group, has deeply shocked the newsroom," a senior editor said, asking for anonymity, given the power of Mr. Sarkozy and the uncertain status of the paper.
"It is not the case that nothing is happening, it's just not happening on the record," Mahoney said.
Can it really be the case that nothing the U.S. achieved since then has made her proud?
Apr 28th 2005 Charlemagne: The great unravellingApr 21st 2005Yet it is hard to accept this defeatist case that nothing can be done to produce a better and more easily saleable constitution.
But it is not the case that nothing is being done about it.David Agnew Director of standards Marine Stewardship Council LondonReaching an agreement on Cyprus* SIR – In response to the letter from the Greek-Cypriot high commissioner (March 1st), this week marks the 50th anniversary of the deployment of UN troops in Cyprus.
