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The protest Games: demonstrators target Olympics - Olympics - Sport The vow came as the first major demonstration on an Olympic site – a protest camp against the construction of a training hall to be used during the Games – moved into its seventh day. Construction of the basketball facility at Leyton Marsh in east London was halted on Wednesday as protesters from Occupy London joined local residents who had set up camp there. Olympic organisers were recently forced to more than double the number of security guards required for the Games from 10,000 to 23,700, pushing the cost of security up from £282m in 2010 to £553m in December 2011. They also announced earlier this month that 7,500 of the extra guards would be military personnel.

Justice and security green paper: silence in court The government's proposals to extend secret hearings – "closed material procedures" – to all manner of civil proceedings would deprive people of their rights to a fair trial, and undermine the principle of open justice. If the proposals set out in the green paper on justice and security become law, the secretary of state would decide if a claim against government should be heard in secret. Ministers whisper sweet reason about judges retaining a say on whether a case should be heard behind closed doors. That is true enough, but misleading.

Rendition of Abdul Hakim Belhaj 8 April 2012Last updated at 22:58 GMT By Peter Taylor BBC News Mr Belhaj was intercepted as he tried to fly from Malaysia to claim asylum in the UK M16's alleged involvement in the 2004 rendition to Libya of Abdel Hakim Belhaj was approved by the government, the BBC can reveal. Mr Belhaj is suing the British government, saying it was complicit in his illegal rendition and subsequent imprisonment and torture under Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's former regime. Libyan dissidents sue MI6 officer over abduction and torture claims Abdel Hakim Belhaj, pictured, and and Sami al-Saadi are suing MI6's Sir Mark Allen for 'complicity in torture' and 'misfeasance in public office'. Photograph: Francois Mori/AP Two prominent Libyan dissidents are suing a former senior MI6 officer in a move which could expose the role of ministers in the men's abduction to Tripoli, where they say they were tortured by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's secret police.

How secret renditions shed light on MI6's licence to kill and torture In fiction, James Bond drew quite judiciously upon his licence to kill, bumping off just 38 adversaries in a dozen Ian Fleming novels. In each case, the individual received his or her just deserts. In real life, MI6 insists its officers do not kill anyone. "Assassination," its former head Sir Richard Dearlove has said, "is no part of the policy of Her Majesty's government" and would be entirely contrary to the agency's ethos. But there can be circumstances in which MI6 officers do have a licence to kill or commit any other crime, enshrined in a curious and little-known law that was intended to protect British spies from being prosecuted or sued in the UK after committing crimes abroad. Section 7 of the 1994 Intelligence Services Act offers protection not only to spies involved in bugging or bribery, but also to any who become embroiled in far more serious matters, such as murder, kidnap or torture – as long as their actions have been authorised in writing by a secretary of state.

MI5 and MI6 Exposed 2 1. 1979 - Powergen, Solihull: The young British Intelligence recruits entering this building, had no idea of the hell that lay before them. No idea that they would be forced to become slaves to a demonic, mind control program; run by MI6 and sanctioned by Royal Arch Freemasonry. No idea that they would be forced to sign the Masonic 'Sat B'hai' contract and swear allegiance to the Monarchy rather than to the UK State. Anti-cuts 'street parties' to rival Queen's diamond jubilee and Olympics Anti-cuts campaigners are planning to stage a series of alternative street parties before the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations and the Olympics to highlight opposition to the government's austerity programme. They are calling on supporters to close roads and occupy public spaces as part of a nationwide anti-cuts campaign this summer. The group says it has no plans to directly disrupt either the jubilee celebrations in June or the Olympics, which begin on 27 July, but wants supporters to stage "street parties with a twist" on its first day of action on 26 May. "We want people to stand up and demand that we keep our public services, our rights and our welfare system and to celebrate a new future that isn't dictated to us by a handful of millionaires but decided by us all – together," said Anna Walker of UK Uncut. The protests will focus on Britain in 1948, the year the National Health Service was founded and the last time the Olympics was held in London.

On Secret Trials « simonmckay On Secret Trials Jeremy Bentham said that secrecy was an instrument of conspiracy and ought never to be the system of regular government. The reason why can be no more eloquently captured than by Toulson LJ in the recent case of R (Guardian Newspapers) v City of Westminster Magistrates Court [2012] EWCA Civ 420: “Open justice. The words express a principle at the heart of our system of justice and vital to the rule of law.

Sins of colonialists lay concealed for decades in secret archive In June 1957, Eric Griffith-Jones, the attorney general of the British administration in Kenya, wrote to the governor, Sir Evelyn Baring, detailing the way the regime of abuse at the colony's detention camps was being subtly altered. From now on, Griffith-Jones wrote, for the abuse to remain legal, Mau Mau suspects must be beaten mainly on their upper body, "vulnerable parts of the body should not be struck, particularly the spleen, liver or kidneys", and it was important that "those who administer violence … should remain collected, balanced and dispassionate". Almost as an after-thought, the attorney general reminded the governor of the need for complete secrecy. "If we are going to sin," he wrote, "we must sin quietly."