Re: evidence of the successes they claim.
"I don't see much evidence of the successes they claim. "
And yet there *is* some well-hidden evidence of particularly strange 'intelligence-related' goings on in the 'judicial system' in the last few years, and evidence of attempts to keep some of it as quiet as possible, in unprecedented ways.
E.g. The arrest in 2013 of two Londoners and their subsequent largely-secret trials, in which the intelligence services threatened to withhold evidence unless certain names were kept secret, in which only state-approved 'accredited journalists' were permitted in court at all, and were anyway excluded from much of the proceedings and prohibited from making notes inside or outside court, and so on [1], seems to break many principles of what was once considered 'British justice'.
The goings on in the trial of Erol Incedal are too weird to meaningfully summarise here, but have to an extent been reported elsewhere, e.g.
http://thejusticegap.com/2017/01/proof-magazine-secret-trial-erol-incedal/ might be a place to start.
ps
anyone remember who was Home Secretary, in charge of all these strange goings-on?
[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/terrorism-in-the-uk/11222799/Erol-Incedal-secret-terror-trial-jury-discharged-and-retrial-ordered.html (11 Nov 2014)
"Britain’s first “secret” terror trial has to be rerun after the jury in the case of alleged terrorist Erol Incedal was discharged.
The 26-year-old law student is accused of plotting to target former Prime Minister Tony Blair or to carry out a Mumbai-style rampaging gun attack on the streets of London.
But the jury was dismissed by Mr Justice Nicol after four days of deliberations and a retrial is due to take place in the New Year.
But the public cannot even be told the reason why the jury was stood down and are still in the dark over what evidence it was considering because more than two thirds of the "extraordinary” trial was heard in secret.
Other parts were only heard in front of ten accredited journalists who cannot report anything due to stringent court orders.
The case has fuelled concerns that it is damaging the centuries-old tradition of open justice.
The move followed a successful application by the Crown Prosecution Service supported by ministerial requests from the Home Secretary and the Foreign Secretary to have the case heard entirely in private on grounds of national security.
The Crown had warned that there would be pressure for the trial not to go ahead if it was heard in public.
The draconian measures were only partly relaxed following a challenge by media groups, including the Daily Telegraph, at the Court of Appeal.
[...]
He was stopped driving a Black Mercedes E class saloon for a traffic offence on September 30 last year and a listening device planted in the car.
A search of the vehicle uncovered a number of "significant items" including a white Versace glasses case with a piece of paper which had an address for a property owned by Tony and Cherie Blair.
[...]"
See also e.g. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31989581 (26 March 2015)
"On 13 October 2013, armed police blew out the tyres of a car near the Tower of London. That much we know for sure about the arrest and prosecution of Erol Incedal for preparing for acts of terrorism.
Since then, he has faced two trials for preparing for acts of terrorism. But what was his alleged plan?
Well, we simply do not know - and the jury at his retrial has decided it did not buy whatever it was being told he was supposed to have done.
This has been the most secret prosecution since World War Two - and it has ended with the only defendant being cleared.
A few journalists were permitted to hear to some of the secret Old Bailey sessions - but they will go to prison if they reveal what they learned.
The rest of us were allowed in to Court Nine for some brief open sessions - but most of the time the doors were locked.
[...]"
All very strange.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
