Alex Carlile
Alexander Charles Carlile was born on 12 February 1948. A Liberal Democrat politician and High Court judge, he became Baron Carlile of Berriew in 1999. In 2001 he was appointed the government's independent reviewer of terrorism legislation.[1]
Links to CSTPV
Carlile has links to the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence - a research centre with close links with corporate security and arms companies - and its main figure, the terrorologist Paul Wilkinson. Wilkinson pushed for repressive anti-terror legislation for years, and was involved in the legislative process which led to the Terrorism Act 2000. [2]
In November 2005 Lord Carlile told the House of Lords he considered Paul Wilkinson “the greatest non-lawyer expert in this country… on terrorist organisations around the world.” He also commented offhand that he had “sat in Professor Paul Wilkinson's interesting attic office in the University of St Andrew's Centre for the Study of Terrorism.” [3]
Carlile also attended CSTPV's International Terrorism and Intelligence conference in 2005 and 2006. [4]
Criticism
In February 2010 Carlile endorsed the use of control orders for terror suspects, a practice condemned by human rights groups. [5] This led the chair of the joint committee on human rights Andrew Dismore to question whether Carlile had lost credibility, saying: 'I think there is a risk of the perceptions of [Carlile's] independence being undermined'. Another member of the committee asked whether an official in such a post would 'go native' over time. [6]
Role as a counter-terror tsar?
In June 2011 the counter-extremism think tank Quilliam Foundation argued that the government's revised Prevent counter-terrorism strategy required an "overseer in Downing Street" and that Carlisle, "given his experience and background, appears to be the best man for the job". [7] Former MP Paul Goodman and editor of ConservativeHome simultaneously made the same recommendation. [8]
Notes
- ↑ Report on the operation in 2005 of the Terrorism Act 2000
- ↑ see section 'The Lloyd Inquiry and the Terrorism Act 2000' under Paul Wilkinson
- ↑ Hansard HL Volume 675 Column 1436 (21 November 2005)
- ↑ see International Terrorism and Intelligence 2005 (PDF) and International Terrorism and Intelligence 2006 (PDF)
- ↑ Maev Kennedy, 'Lord Carlile finds 'no alternative' to control orders for terrorism suspects', guardian.co.uk, 1 February 2010
- ↑ Paul Lewis, 'Lord Carlile's 'credibility' as terror watchdog questioned by MP', guardian.co.uk, 3 February 2010
- ↑ [http://www.quilliamfoundation.org/component/content/article/61-press-releases/802-quilliams-response-to-uk-governments-new-prevent-policy-.html Quilliam's response to UK government's new 'Prevent' policy ], 7 June 2011, accessed 8 June 2010
- ↑ Paul Goodman, The new Prevent policy won't succeed without an enforcer. I nominate Lord Carlile, June 07, 2011, accessed 08 June 2011.
