sorry, but ...

[Caspar Bowden (travelling)]

On 07/29/2012 03:42 PM, Peter Fairbrother wrote:
>
> What's S.16(3) for then? Afaics it does slightly more than an 
> overlapping warrant did.

My best surmise is that overlapping warrants were invented circa 1986 to 
cope with what later became known as "reverse targeting", whereas 
s.16(3) effectively invented a 3rd type of warrant for domestic 
mass-surveillance (data-mining for arbitrary "factors")

> That was mostly a rhetorical question ;^) ... I have never thought 
> that Lord Bassam ever actually understood the complexities of RIPA.

No, but it was noticeable from the Opposition Advisers' Box that 
whenever amendments came up involving West Country activities rather 
than the Home Office stuff, there would be a changing of the guard, and 
a different bunch of officials would traipse into the govt. Advisers' 
Box. Bassam may not have had much clue, but Ministers don't draft such 
letters themselves.

Caspar