MP was bugged twice, report says!

So much for declaring it was a one-off! Mr. Sadiq Khan is an MP in the British House of Commons. He represents ALL the people of his constituency of Tooting, as is the customary situation for MPs within the "Westminster model". He went to visit a constituent in prison, who happened also to be an old school friend. Mr. Khan was bugged by the police.

The BBC has found out that senior police officers who ordered the recording of the conversations did not know who Mr Khan was, but junior officers did. Well, what an extraordinary turn of events. Are these top cops saying all Asians look alike, or that they must be suspect in some way, or that they don't cut the mustard as citizens? It never occured to them to ask who was being bugged. And what of the "junior officers"? Did they think it a wheeze to keep quiet about Mr. Khan? TWICE!!

It is a disgrace. So much for diversity training. They arrest a drunken undergraduate for calling a police horse gay, but have not the wit to find out who our parliamentarians are.

And an ex-police intelligence officer at the prison said he faced "sustained pressure" to bug Mr Khan. So somebody knew who he was at senior level. There used to be a time when the phrase "Heads will roll" was said. Not any more!

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Did British spies bug MP for Americans?

The secretive world of New Labour has taken a twist in the road again. Today we hear that Sadiq Khan, Labour MP for Tooting may have been bugged whilst he visited a constituent who was in prison. The constituent was one Babar Ahmad, who faces no charges in the UK but is awaiting a decision from the European courts to discover if he will be extradited to the US, on suspicion of running websites raising funds for the Taleban. This is the wonderfully weird world we live in post 9/11. Suspicions count for a lot. Thankfully in the UK we are still able to have trial by jury, although it is being whittled away. However, freedoms are being eroded by deals and treaties to which the British people have had no say.

If Babar Ahmad has done nothing to upset the British authorities, that's OK. If he has done something to upset the US jurisdictions, let them prove it satisfactorily in a court in England for extradition. What exactly the European courts are involved in, I do not know. Perhaps someone could enlighten me?

Bugging an MP whilst dealing with constituency matters is a serious matter. Apparently, David Davis, shadow Home Secretary, wrote to 10 Downing Street in December warning of such an allegation. Gordon Brown's secretariat seem to have lost the letter!

Mr. Khan is the MP representing ALL constituents in Tooting, whether they be on the electoral roll or not. That is the British system. It is outrageous to think that Special Branch thought it a feasible excercise to follow him in order to bug his conversations. Mr. Khan is an MP. He is no more a Muslim MP, than Anne Widdecombe is a Catholic MP or Gordon Brown is a Presbyterian MP. If he was suspected for his religious background as being unable to maintain his oath as sworn on entering Parliament, then let the powers that be say so.

Jack Straw says, "It is completely unacceptable for an interview to be conducted by a MP on a constituent matter or in any other issue to be recorded." Quite so. But Straw's history in similar situations is a bit flaky. He seems always to start from the innocent ignorant's standpoint, hoping for others to flush out the detail.

Let him get to the bottom of this ASAP!

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