back to article No charges for terror arrest Tory

The Crown Prosecution Service has decided that Damian Green, the MP arrested by anti-terror police, should not be prosecuted and nor should the civil servant suspected of leaking Home Office information. Coupled with a critical report from the Home Affairs Committee, the decision adds to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Never mind

    Come the next election the Tories will be able to give the "senior civil servants" a hard time in return.

  2. BD

    DNA?

    Will Damian Green's DNA now be deleted from the database?

  3. David Hicks
    Thumb Down

    the decision adds to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's embarrassment

    Yeah.

    She's already shown that she doesn't care and she won't either resign or take the blame for anything.

    On a similar topic, anyone catch this Brown quote (on the slur thing) earlier -

    "I take full responsibility for what happened. That's why the person who was responsible went immediately."

    That'd be just the sort of responsibility Jaqui and Gordo know all about, the type where you claim to take it and then fire someone else. Doublespeak at its finest.

  4. IanPotter
    Alert

    Obvious question

    So if they are not being charged but were arrested does that mean their DNA details are now on the database or did they get preferential treatment? And does their record say "Arrested on suspicion of terrorist offences"?

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Wasting police time?

    Sounds to me like they lied to the police to get them to investigate something not worth investigating, which is a crime in this country.

  6. John Imrie
    Unhappy

    Job description

    The Committee found senior civil servants played up an imaginary threat to national security posed by the leaks in order to encourage the police to take action.

    Is that a real civil servant or a political advisor, and is there any difference these days.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Senior Civil Servants

    We seem to be hearing a lot about SCS recently and how they don't seem to be impartial any more. Will any of these SCS who basically lied to get a Conservative MP's offices raided and the MP himself arrested be dismissed immediately for doing things that they should not have been doing? Would Sir Gus like to talk to them and then they can resign or was Gordon's "Whiter than White Government, we're not all corrupt politicos" stand at the weekend just another bit of flash in the pan spin?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Quite Right...

    This is what happens when a failed government tries to meddle & mislead the police to cover their own malfeasance.

  9. James Pickett

    Quid pro quo

    So, Is Mr Green going to sue the Met for harassment, wrongful arrest, etc? I do hope so!

  10. Tawakalna
    Black Helicopters

    no! really?

    "senior civil servants played up an imaginary threat to national security posed by the leaks in order to encourage the police to take action."

    well fancy that, who'd have heard the like? next you'll be telling us that we get lied to about the justification of going to war against small poor Muslim countries that have lots of oil.

  11. dervheid
    Alert

    High embarrassment threshold?

    To be embarrassed about something is indicative that you care about what other people (at least in your immediate peer group) think about you, and/or what you've done.

    Since it is abundantly clear that Jacqui Smith considers herself to be far superior to the rest of us, then clearly she is incapable of being even slightly embarrassed.

    Let's just hope that her constituents have been suitably embarrassed by her antics, and give her the message come the next election. I suspect she won't, unfortunately, get the message before then.

    But just in case;

    Jacqui.

    Please do the nation a favour, and resign.

    You are, without doubt, the worst Home Secretary in living memory.

    (And yes, I am including Blunkett in that!)

  12. EnricoSuarve
    Flame

    Yey CPS, Yey Judges, Yey justice

    'Course it'll be a short lived victory as Jacqui and her stasi will probably just infiltrate them next

    If I worked for the home office and I found major problems which my bosses refused to correct or were complicit in I cannot think of a better person to alert than an elected member of parliament, surely that should be the BEST escalation possible...

    Jacqui is bound to call it "leaking" and lie a bit to get you arrested but what else is new? I'm just suprised they didn't say the pair of them were wearing bulky jackets, vaulting turnstiles, throwing bricks or at least members of Al-Quaeda (must have been an off-day)

    Seriously how many times does a home secretary have to be caught lying, cheating and abusing power before we get to throw her in her own cell?

  13. Gordon Pryra

    What about their DNA?

    Neither will now face prosecution relating to these charges, but I hope their DNA will stay on the database

  14. John Browne

    wasting police time....

    Is wasting police time not an offence. Is filing a false complaint not an offence?

    Is jumping up and down pointing at people and yelling terrorist not an offence?

    Where are the prosecutions in the home office?

    Are they all busy expensing porn on poor Jacquis?

  15. Luther Blissett

    Which void is she filling?

    Where is Smith? Is she plugging a bath somewhere? Still no sign of her. Is she lost - or just missing in inaction? Has anyone happened to have found a Smith they don't know what to do with, but are reluctant to report to the police?

    At this rate Luther will have to offer a reward.

  16. Ian

    Police = Lazy?

    Don't take my subject the wrong way, I think this is the right outcome. I'm just surprised the police didn't take it further because I thought they were fully in Labour's back pocket.

    But now I realise perhaps I'm wrong, that in fact, the police didn't act on the likes of Phorm or the Lord's accepting money to change laws scandal not because they are in the pockets of politicians, but because they're simply lazy and can't actually be bothered to pursue anything anymore.

    Certainly in the Phorm and Lord's scandal it was clear cut, the police could've easily pursued it and obtained convictions and I assumed because they didn't it was because the political masters like Jacqui Smith had told them not too (even though the police claim to be independent) but now as in this case, where if it was their political overseers decision they would've pursued it I wonder if that's not the case at all and again, as I say, the police just can't be bothered to get involved with anything whether it's a clear cut case as in the Lord's scandal or not as in this case.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What for the lies

    Prediction,

    Jacqui Smith or her minions will claim that there are 'other' documents, that 'may' have been leaked, and that these documents 'do' fit the criteria of national secrets known to government not the wider labour party, and that somehow the DPP was not aware of these for 'security' reasons.

    When challenged as to how these documents can be both leaked and yet somehow still secret, she will mention something about terrorists.

    So the key predictions are:

    1. Says DPP is wrong

    2. Suggestion of *other* documents that ARE national secrets.

    3. Mention of terrorists

    Lets see how I score. However if Damien Green was a foreigner, she'd have deported him by now to hide her shame.

  18. Matt Siddall
    Stop

    $title

    So Damian Green and Christopher Galley will not face prosecution because "...the information leaked was not secret information or information affecting national security: It did not relate to military, policing or intelligence matters. It did not expose anyone to a risk of injury or death. Nor, in many respects, was it highly confidential."

    This fact was known to the people who requested that the police look into the matter - so where are the charges of wasting police time?

  19. Robert Harrison
    Boffin

    DNA

    Did they take Mr. Green's DNA sample as part of the arrest? And, more importantly, will they.. er... be giving it back to him by deleting it off the database?

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    At least the CPS have some backbone

    So the CPS have decided to stand up to the government? Thank the gods that they've got more backbone than the met.

    The Government really like the concept of whistleblowing, as long as it comes nowhere near them. Look at their responses to the recent "scandal" of the smear emails. According to several ministers the villains of the piece were not the authors of the emails, but those who leaked them. Presumably leaking these emails was a threat to national security.

    OTOH if UK.gov want to get their hands on your emails that's a different matter altogether.

  21. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Anyone else surprised?

    Because it pretty much sums up the UK Gov't as far as I'm concerned. Hype it up as terror/national security and do whatever you want...

  22. Belvedere Mulholland

    Wasting police time, again?

    These top Civil Service wonks who over-egged their wafer-thin case to set the Filth on this Government's political opponents should be nicked for wasting police time.

    Or are we so inured to Rampant Dossier Sexing these days that our public servants can get away with living in their fantasy land at our expense and recklessly rack-up the bill on top?

    (Bill, geddit?)

    I am quite literally frothing. Quite literally.

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    so.

    .. conservative mp/employee leaks documents , its seen as ok, the government are at fault for reporting it.

    labour mp/emloyee leaks document, has to resign, its not ok and the government are at fault for not doing anything about it.

    good to see the double standards still going :D

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Black Helicopters

    Sure *he* won't be prosecuted - nice diversion

    The real meat is that there was misleading and possibly defaming information given to the police, there was a breach of parliamentary privilege and a whole raft of other offenses that were on the OTHER side of this affair.

    The grand gesture of not finding cause for persecution is seeking to camouflage the flagrant breach of rules and trust and the brutal abuse of powers for political gain. I most certainly hope Damien Green will go on the war path properly and gets a public enquiry started where the facts of this affair will be made indeed PUBLIC.

    Not that it would push rhinoceros-hide Jacqui Smith to resign (AFAIK it's a banned word under New Labour) but it add yet another fact to the enormous mass of evidence that the law to New Labour is merely a device to inconvenience other people and the electorate with.

    Anyone voting New Labour under any new elections must be put in an environment so cold that the shrinking skull area forces the two remaining braincells to actually get in contact.

    As a matter of fact, that will be the case automatically next winter for most pensioners, so expect summer elections.

  25. Martin Silver badge
    Coat

    @Wasting police time, again?

    Now if he had been looking at a CCTV camera in a funny way or putting out rubbish that would have been understandable.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Future bosses?

    It is remarkable that the policemen concerned don't seem to have considered that the MP they arrested or his some of his close colleagues could be future bosses. Maybe they are all retiring from the force in 2010 when Gordon's tenancy at number 10 is up for grabs and Jacqui has to pay for her own Internet and porn.

  27. Stewart Haywood

    Wasting Police Time

    "The Committee found senior civil servants played up an imaginary threat to national security posed by the leaks in order to encourage the police to take action. " So they lied and in so doing wasted police time. When can we expect arrests? Oh! sorry, SENIOR civil servants, that would make breaking the law OK then.

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who said a "title" was required

    There are a few people that know the truth about this.. As an insider I think I can comment

    I won't even go into how I know, but things are looking really bad for a few MP's & Shadow MP's

    Watch the news, a political party is about to hit the news BIG time

    There will be massive repercussions.. by the weekend

    Oops, maybe I said too much right now

    I'll shut up now, just in case they are watching!

    I've already got my coat and am flying to SA tonight

  29. amanfromMars Silver badge

    Rooms in the Tower.... for the Highly Deserving and Conniving

    "I won't even go into how I know, but things are looking really bad for a few MP's & Shadow MP's" ..... By Anonymous Coward Posted Thursday 16th April 2009 17:33 GMT

    AC, It is in the national interest that it should be catastrophically bad for more than just a few, given the apparent exalted levels of dis-service and even treachery some have been and others are probably still involved in.

    It is an interesting episode for Mr Yates the new Met. head of counter terrorism to inherit, although he has a history of always falling badly and letting the home side down at the final hurdle with the CPS, who take his ball away. Shame that he wouldn't have another one to make a set which are actually something other than just useless ornaments. Although with the Law so often being such an Ass in Sensitive Future Matters , will it also discover and root out its own Self Serving Pariahs and Delinquent Advisors.

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    @so. (AC @15:12)

    Government covers up important information and lies about it ("Immigrant problem? What immigrant problem?").

    Opposition MP reveals the lies and cover up (and please note that the Opposition is actually part of the government of this country, it is supposed to make sure that the party in power is kept honest).

    If you are referring to the emails between Derek Draper and one of Gordon Brown's most senior advisors in your comment re Labour MP/employee, I suggest you might need to rethink. If you cannot see a problem when a senior aide suggests deliberately telling lies in order to harm other people - especially if those people are on the opposite "team" - then I do not believe you should be commenting on right and wrong.

    Of course, if you really believe that there is nothing wrong with what Damian McBride wanted to do then I'm wasting my time with this.

    But don't forget how the young Mr Gordon Brown first got himself in the public eye - leaks from government offices or something, wasn't it? So yes, New Labour is keeping up with Old Labour's double standards. Well spotted.

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