The police can be trusted ...

[Owen Lewis]

----- Original Message -----
From: "David Swarbrick" <david@swarb.freeuk.com>
To: <ukcrypto@maillist.ox.ac.uk>
Sent: 04 July 2000 07:30
Subject: Re: The police can be trusted ...


> In message <200007031105.MAA21208@rossini.ednet.co.uk>, David Hansen
> <davidh@spidacom.co.uk> writes
> >On 3 Jul 00, at 9:21, Pete Mitchell wrote:
> >
> >> Part of the HO's defence of RIP seems to be that the police can be
> >> trusted never to misuse their powers for political reasons.
> >
> >Yes. The following exchange took place on this list a month or two
> >ago:
> >
> >Home Office: "From listening to the comments on this list one gets
> >the impression that the police and civil service act as agents of
> >nasty regimes."
> >
> >List member: "Isn't that just what happened recently when the
> >Chinese visited?"
> >
> >Home Office: Silence.
>
> Wasn't it the FO at fault?

The narrow point may have some weight, if one's scales are delicate enough.
However, weigh it against (say) Tienamen Square - or even Sharpeville - and
I seriously doubt you will find a set of scales capable of weighing both.

> >The Home Office also had no answer when their claim that the
> >authorities know how to keep information secret was countered by
> >the fact that witnesses to the Stephen Lawrence murder would not
> >agree. Again the Home Office silence was deafening but revealing.
>
> An atrocious leak

Quite so. My experience is that whilst understanding well enough that
confidentiality is a prerequiste of their profession,  most lawyers have a
very poor understanding of security, be it for their own affairs or the
affairs of those they deal with. That said, the *responsible* official
(almost certainly a lawyer) should have been both severly reprimanded and
sacked from his job.

Nevertheless, the confidentiality or lack of it afforded that enquiry's
witness list (normally a document of public record?) has nowt to do with
efficacy in the handling of classified or even privacy marked material.
Apples & oranges, gentlemen, methinks.

Owen Lewis