*I get it that Britain is a society obsessed with secrecy – "perfidious Albion," and all that – but this isn't adding up. The same administration is (a) creating a sex-smear leak machine disguised as a partisan blog and then (b) collaring opposition figures for talking too much to the standard press. That's kind of having one's cake and vomiting it, too, isn't it?
*I mean, what's to prevent leaky Tories from starting a partisan Wikileaks blog and just leaking anything they want? After all, they've just been handed a golden example.
*Also, the only thing worse than arresting some opposition figure is having him get away with it on the pretext that your arrest is pure hokum. Scold him, censure him, sure, but ARREST him? It makes it look like you're losing your mind.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/apr/16/damian-green-police
"Damian Green, the Conservative immigration spokesman, will not be charged in relation to his involvement in the leaking of information from the Home Office, it was announced today.
"The announcement from the Crown Prosecution Service ends an ordeal that began more than four months ago when Green was arrested and held for nine hours on suspicion of collaborating with Christopher Galley, a junior Home Office civil servant, in leaking information to the Tories.
"Galley will not face any charges either, the CPS announced.
"In a short statement outside parliament today, Green described the affair as "the first arrest of an opposition politician for doing his job since Britain became a democracy". (((That can't be a pleasant thing for Labour supporters to hear.)))
He put the blame directly at the door of the government in a clear signal that the Tories intend to use the affair for political advantage.
"I cannot think of a better symbol of an out-of-touch authoritarian failing government that has been in power for too long," he said.
Today's decision is embarrassing for Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, whose department decided to call in the police after an internal inquiry failed to find the source of more than 20 leaks. (((Did they look in their local computers for evidence of Chinese "GhostNet" installations? Hey, that would have been a pretty good leak-hunting idea in India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany, Pakistan, Laos, Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan. Not that being publicly paranoid about Tory politicians isn't a great idea, but I'm just sayin'.)))
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GhostNet
But today Smith defended the decision to ask the police to investigate leaks from her department. It would have been "irresponsible to take no action", she said.
Speaking in Glasgow, where the cabinet is meeting today, Smith said: "In the Home Office we deal with some of the most sensitive information in government that relates to terrorism, it relates to serious organised crime. It's our responsibility to make sure that information is kept safe."
(((I know that sounds very dignified, but, uhm:)))
http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/02/britains-data-cherno.html
In a statement, Keir Starmer, the head of the CPS and director of public prosecutions, said that although there was evidence that the leaks "damaged the proper functioning of the Home Office", there was no evidence that national security was put at risk.
"I have concluded that the information leaked was not secret information or information affecting national security. It did not relate to military, police or intelligence matters. It did not expose anyone to rise of injury or death. Nor, in many respects, was it highly confidential.
"Much of it was known to others outside the civil service, for example the security industry or the Labour party or parliament. Moreover, some of the information leaked undoubtedly touched on matters of legitimate public interest that were reported in the press." (...)
