What to do with Terrorist

Two articles today about how to deal with different types of terror suspects.

The first, from The Times, deals with the issue of how long police should have to question suspects. Last year MPs voted against plans to allow police 90 days to interview suspects before charging them; instead they compromised on 28 days. According to this report ministers are drawing up plans to allow police to question suspects even after they have been charged if new evidence emerges. Typically, human rights groups are denouncing the plans as paving the way for "oppressive" police questioning.

In another article, Nick Cohen writes, in the Guardian, that foreign terror suspects should be automatically deported so long as promises can be received that torture will not be used. The current state of affairs is a complete mess. The courts have banned indefinite internment, meaning that terror suspects may not be held without trial. The evidence against them may well be invalid because it would come from a country where torture is sometimes used. And deportation is illegal for the same reason. The end result being that dangerous terrorists are free to walk the streets of Britain precisely because they are dangerous, while harmless people can be deported without a problem.