Charles Clarke appears before an Eminent Jurists Panel, spruced up and professional, to defend the undermining of due process and roll his eyes backward, because they just do not get it. Terrorists, they kill people, we need security. Clarke today rejected those arguments in his testimony,
suggesting the panel may have failed to grasp the gravity of the
terror threat. ``I don't think you understand,'' Clarke said. ``Do we just
somehow pretend it's not there?''
`I defend it categorically,'' Clarke told the Eminent
Jurists Panel at a hearing in central London. The orders give
``some capacity for the state against people we don't feel able to
pursue through the courts in a normal prosecution.''
Matters were made worse by Clarke's admission late Tuesday that he did not know where most of the offenders, who include three murderers and nine rapists, were.
Among the offenders, five had been convicted of committing sex offences on children, seven had served time for other sex offences, 57 for violent offences and two for manslaughter.
There were also 41 burglars and 20 drug importers among those released back into the community without considering their removal from Britain.
Our Home Secretary has taken personal responsibility for this slight hiccup.
Clarke, who has accepted personal responsibility for the 'shocking and
systematic failure' of his ministry and the immigration agencies in
dealing with the cases, said Tuesday evening: 'I certainly don't think
I have a duty to the public to go - I have a duty to sort this out.'
All the foreign prisoners released will be served with a 'super-ASBO' trademarked TB, and supervised by the Probation Service.