The latest terrorism news is a timely reminder as to why it’s foolish to think that the answer to fighting terrorism is simply to give the authorities a blank slate to do whatever they want when it comes to locking up people, bugging them, and so on:

Six years of fighting for justice left Lotfi Raissi an emotional and physical wreck and his marriage close to ruin. But yesterday, the Algerian pilot falsely accused of training the September 11 terrorists heard, finally, that he was “completely exonerated” of any part in the attacks on the twin towers…

Three of Britain’s most senior judges condemned the Metropolitan Police and the Crown Prosecution Service for abusing the court process, presenting false allegations and not disclosing evidence. (The Times)

That second paragraph of this quote is the key. To be fair – from what I’ve seen of the case, it may well be that the mistakes were made in good faith, by people working hard under great pressure, rather than anything worse – but abusing processes, false allegations and failing to disclose evidence are all serious mistakes – and the more power people making those mistakes have, the worse the impact is.

Power needs to exercised with caution, control and moderation – something that, as I wrote about before, seems to be lacking far too often.