Paddick: first to crack ? Blairs' terror laws

"...a senior police officer has denied criticising government anti-terror plans, after Downing Street moved to distance itself from comments he reportedly made at an awards ceremony.



Metropolitan Police Deputy Assistant Commissioner Brian Paddick was quoted by the London Evening Standard as saying: "We have to be aware of unintended consequences of legislation in terms of whether it affects people's willingness to come forward."

In a statement, Mr Paddick said he had not made "any statement nor did I offer any opinion about the proposed anti-terrorism legislation"

Paddick went on to say that well actually it was a good thing and 90 days is necessary in 'complex cases'. ^BBC

Meanwhile "Home Secretary Charles Clarke faces increasing pressure to reveal the Attorney General's advice on the government's anti-terror bill. Clarke apologised to the Commons on Thursday for telling MPs Lord Goldsmith had approved holding suspects for up to 90 days without charge. ^BBC

Also on this there is Blair and Clarke split on 90 day plan and politically timely terror arrests , complete with Murdoch-perfect 'evidence':

"He was also accused of having two pieces of paper in his bedroom - one with the words in Arabic "Welcome to Jihad" and the other "Hospital = attack"."

Make of it what you will, to me this reeks of desperation, opportunism and possible fabrication due to the terror bill in trouble and perhaps also because of Tony Blair staking his heavily weakened authority on it. We've already seen crackpot Ian Blair ("The sky is dark") and Downing Street Memo Dearlove ("Nukes and genetic terror") pull stunts. Be sure to keep a very close eye on these arrests and see how this story actually unfolds.

terror laws terror Paddick police Goldsmith