It's a truly terrifying paradox. In the name of freedom, Britain is becoming a police state

UK Daily Mail | Feb. 5, 2008

By TOM BOWER

Successfully bugging Islamic terrorists ranks among the key weapons to defeat those secretly campaigning to destroy Britain's liberal civilisation.

Ever since suicide bombers caused 52 deaths on the London Underground in 2005, we have reluctantly accepted further encroachments on our liberties as a necessary evil.

Last week's prosecutions in Birmingham against extremists plotting to behead a Muslim soldier, as part of a campaign to wreck Britain's racial harmony, were possible only because listening devices had been planted inside the terrorists' homes.

The intelligence officers who masterminded that delicate operation deserve high praise.

But accolades turn rapidly to admonition when the line between intrusion to defend our civilisation and intolerable denial of our liberties is crossed.

That is why the news that MI5, the domestic intelligence service, and Scotland Yard had apparently mounted an eavesdropping operation against Sadiq Khan, a Muslim MP and government whip, is so alarming.

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