“Everyone now condemns past governments for allowing London to become ‘Londonistan’, a centre for Islamist exiles”, Nick Cohen tells us. Do they, now? And would those “Islamist exiles” include people like Rashid al-Ghannoushi, perhaps? Presumably so, because as far as Cohen is concerned there is no principled difference between democratic Islamists and Al-Qaeda supporters.
Cohen continues: “A foreigner who MI5 says is a threat to national security has no right to refugee status.” Such touching faith in the reliability of Britain’s security services. And none of your liberal whingeing about people being entitled to a fair hearing, or having a right to question the evidence MI5 might claim to have against them.
No, Nick’s quite clear about it. There is no realistic alternative – the suspects will simply have to be deported back to their countries of origin. And if those countries are headed by dictatorial regimes that habitually use torture against oppositionists … well, that’s just tough.
See also Lenin’s Tomb, 5 November 2006