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Date: Sat, 02 Feb 2008 20:35:50 -0500
To: TSCM-L2006_at_googlegroups.com
From: "James M. Atkinson" <jm..._at_tscm.com>
Subject: =?iso-8859-1?Q?SCOTLAND_YARD=92S_antiterrorist_squad_?=
secretly
bugged a high-profile Labour Muslim MP during private meetings with
one of his constituents.
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http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article3295393.ece
The Sunday TimesFebruary 3, 2008
Police bugged Muslim MP Sadiq Khan
Insight: Michael Gillard and Jonathan Calvert
SCOTLAND YARDS antiterrorist squad secretly
bugged a high-profile Labour Muslim MP during
private meetings with one of his constituents.
Sadiq Khan, now a government whip, was recorded
by an electronic listening device hidden in a
table during visits to the constituent in prison.
The bugging of MPs is a breach of a government
edict that has barred law agencies from
eavesdropping on politicians since the bugging
scandal of Harold Wilsons government. There was
no suspicion of criminal conduct by Khan to justify the operation.
A document seen by The Sunday Times shows there
was internal concern about the propriety of
bugging an MP, who was also a lawyer, but the
operation nevertheless went ahead.
The disclosure will put further pressure on Sir
Ian Blair, the Metropolitan police commissioner,
who will be asked to explain why his officers
apparently breached government rules and if he authorised it.
Khan discussed sensitive personal and legal
matters during the recorded meeting. The MP was
said to be outraged yesterday. From what you
have told me, this is an infringement of a
citizens right to have a private meeting with his MP, he said.
Last night Jack Straw, the justice secretary,
said that he had ordered an immediate inquiry and
added that it would be unacceptable for such a
bugging operation to take place.
Andrew Mackinlay, a Labour colleague, said: The
bugging of Sadiq Khan is very dangerous indeed.
It is totally unacceptable that MPs
conversations with constituents are bugged by the
security services or the police.
It is an affront to democracy and has all the
hallmarks of a totalitarian regime. No one is
suggesting that MPs should be above the law, but
when behaving as MPs and dealing with peoples
liberty that must be sacrosanct as it is with
lawyers. Khan, 37, is a rising star in the
Labour party and is seen as a key figure in
Gordon Browns drive to win the hearts and minds
of Britains Muslims. He is a former chairman of
Liberty, the human rights group, and used to be a
legal adviser to the Muslim Council of Britain.
As a lawyer he was a thorn in the side of the
Metropolitan police, taking a series of
controversial malpractice cases against them.
The bugging operation recorded conversations with
his constituent, Babar Ahmad, who is facing
deportation to the United States under new
extradition laws. Khan has been a friend of Ahmad
since childhood and has been a prominent
campaigner against his extradition. He met the
home secretary to discuss the case and handed
over a petition of 18,000 signatures calling for Ahmads release.
The US government has accused Ahmad of running a
website that raised funds for Taliban and Chechen
terrorists in the late 1990s. He faces no charges
in Britain but is wanted in the United States
because his website was registered there.
Khan made two visits to Ahmad in 2005 and 2006
while he was on remand at Woodhill prison in
Milton Keynes. Both meetings were secretly
recorded. Ahmads family say he arranged the
meetings because he was no longer free to go
Khans constituency office in Tooting, south London, and wanted to see his MP.
Knowing that Khan was coming, the antiterrorist
squad requested the bugging. Senior officers had
already granted authorisation to bug Ahmads
guests before Khan first visited. The officers
had previously recorded family members who were
leading the campaign to free him.
The meetings took place in the main visitors
hall where each inmate is allocated an identical
wooden table. Underneath the tables is a solid
wood partition that separates prisoners from their visitors.
However, The Sunday Times has learnt that at
least six of the tables have had their panels
hollowed out to hide bugging equipment. They are
known as talking tables. Inside each panel is a
microphone, a battery, an antenna and a transmitter.
Such is the secrecy surrounding these tables that
even the prison officers are said to be unaware
of them. They are operated and maintained by
specialist detectives permanently based at the prison.
The second meeting between Khan and Ahmad took
place on the Saturday morning of June 24, 2006,
during a crucial period for his campaign and
legal case. Khan bought cups of tea and chocolate
bars and joined Ahmad who had already been seated
at one of the talking tables.
Every word was transmitted to a receiver in the
domed ceiling above them and then routed to a
nearby office. The digital recording was picked
up by an antiterrorist branch officer the next Monday morning.
During the conversation the two men discussed the
latest developments in the campaign against
extradition. Khan updated Ahmad on a meeting in
the House of Commons against the 2003 Extradition Act.
The Commons gathering had drawn support from
politicians of all parties who had objected to
changes in the law that allowed the United States
to extradite suspects without first testing the case in a British court.
The antiterrorist officers would have heard Khan
and Ahmad discussing tactics for his appeal,
which was due to start shortly. The two men also
talked about the civil case he was taking against
the police, alleging that he was physically
assaulted by officers when he was first arrested
in December 2003 and released without charge.
Khan noticed nothing untoward. About a month
later, Ahmad claims that he was approached by MI5
officers who offered him his freedom if he agreed
to become their informant. He declined.
Meanwhile, Khan was promoted to assistant
government whip in the Ministry of Justice, which is responsible for prisons.
The Sunday Times told him about the bugging
operation last week. A friend said the disclosure
might further undermine the governments attempt
to reengage the Muslim community. He said: If
he was not a Muslim MP would they be doing this?
If it had been some ordinary white middle-class
MP, would they have been bugged? He added that
this was a violation of an MPs relationship with
his constituent: If you have not got the
confidence to see your MP and know it is
privileged, then that raises serious questions. It is f****** outrageous.
The bugging is a probable breach of the Wilson
doctrine that has protected politicians from
eavesdropping by the security services for more
than 40 years. It was introduced by Harold
Wilson, then prime minister, and was reaffirmed
in the Commons by Tony Blair as recently as March 2006.
Yesterday a senior Scotland Yard officer said
Khans work as a defence lawyer had generated
ill feeling in the Metropolitan police and
questioned whether the force had legitimate
grounds for the bugging. The officer said: To do
this you have to suspect the MP of being involved in some sort of conspiracy.
He added that the operation may have breached
Ahmads legal privilege: The officers in charge
would have known that because Khan is an MP and a
lawyer there was a grave danger that the legal
professional privilege would be breached.
Ahmad remains in jail having lost his appeals in
Britain and is awaiting a ruling by the European
Court of Human Rights. He has also lodged a civil
claim against Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan
police commissioner. Ahmads wife Maryam has
called for the home secretary to investigate the police bugging operation.
Last week an official report suggested that
authorities, including local councils, were
launching bugging operations against 1,000 people a day.
The Metropolitan police declined to comment
yesterday. Insight: Michael Gillard and Jonathan Calvert
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