Home Office Minister Hazel Blears ID Card spin on the Saajid Badat "failed shoebomber" case
The BBC reports Home Office Minister Hazel Blears's vapid comments on ID cards, with respect to the "failed shoe bomber" Saajid Badat case.
Yet again, the BBC seems to be falling for the New Labour spin and bias, in its reporting of any "terrorism" and "identity" stories, and yet again, they have not bothered to link to the cross party NO2ID Campaign website.
Last Updated: Friday, 22 April, 2005, 17:55 GMT 18:55 UKBadat case prompts terror debate
The jailing of a man who planned to blow up a passenger plane with explosives hidden in his shoe has reignited the debate over terrorism.
Home Office minister Hazel Blears said false identity was present in a third of terrorist cases and claimed ID cards would aid the battle against terrorism"
Note the weasel words which somehow imply that "ID cards" are a solution to "false identities used by terrorists".
Is she claiming that false United Kingdom identities are used in "a third of terrorist cases" ?
New Labour Ministers keep on and on with this unsubstantiated claim, which was first raised by David Blunkett, and parrotted by Des Browne in evidence before the Home Affairs Committee, and which has been repeated over and over again, by these politicians and the uncritical, unquestioning media and journalists.
"Ms Blears said the police and intelligence services could not fight terrorism alone.It was necessary to look at what motivated people into becoming terrorists and to have a foreign policy which addressed some of the international issues which encouraged extremist activity.
She appeared to acknowledge that ID cards would not have prevented Badat from attempting to blow up a plane but said they could help fight "domestic" terrorism too.
"We think that having an ID card scheme can help us to reduce the vulnerability of this country to the kind of incidents that have happened."
The cards would give officials a better idea of who was in Britain and what their background was, she added."
Both Richard Reid and Saajid Badat are British citizens, and would therefore have been entitled to perfectly legitimate UK ID Cards.
Badat was completely unknown to the UK authorities before the incompetent Richard Reid failed to blow himself up, after which a phone calling card linked him with the Al-Queda organiser Nizar Trabelsi in Belgium, who then led to Badat.
Why Badat kept the explosive shoe under his bed at home for two years is a mystery, and is hardly the act of a terrorist mastermind.
How exactly would the wretched National Identity Register ID card plan "reduce the vulnerability of this country to the kind of incidents that have happened" ??