What's happening accross the pond? The Euros have a patriot act?

[JPicasso]

From Numbers Watch

We haf wayz to make you talk.

* Under British law, a law enforcement officer or the public prosecutor must place evidence before a court within 24 hours of a citizen's arrest, detailing the charges being brought against him or her. Under EU law, the police and prosecution have become one entity, and all proceedings may be conducted in secret. These measures have already been endorsed by British politicians.

* Under ECJ law, past offences committed by the accused will be raked up against him and used to justify why he committed the crime for which he is accused. Under British law, this information is only made available to the court after the verdict, in order to secure a fair trial.

* Under Article 8 of the Treaty of Amsterdam, members of the new federal 'Europol' are "immune from legal process of any kind for acts performed... in the exercise of their official functions." Thus, no Europol officer can be charged or brought to trial for false imprisonment, violence against a suspect, the destruction or seizure of private property , or harassment of any individual.

* Europol has been given powers to operate anywhere within the Eurozone, including Britain, with complete impunity. They have the power of summary arrest and extradition, in spite of existing British laws, which specifically prohibit such action. Under the power of international treaty, British law is superseded.

* Ironically, or perhaps not so, Europol's main base of operations is quartered in the old Gestapo headquarters building in The Hague. Eventually Europol will have thousands of armed officers able to operate throughout the Eurozone with complete impunity.

* Europol has been amassing records on hundreds of thousands of European citizens. None of this information is ever made public. Europol has the power, under EU law, to instruct British police authorities to investigate anyone in Britain the EU deems a danger to law and order.


I thought George Bush holding otherwise innocent (read: not proven guilty) American Citizens as "enemy combatants" was bad. (it is!)

[MartinSmith]

The quote originally comes from a (IMO hardly unbiased) book by Phillip Day called 10 minutes to midnight

This is (self?) published by a niche publishing house called Credence...

http://credence.org/

He also seems to have some interesting conspiracy theories on cancer

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...894274-3659830

and I personally would be extremely sceptical about anything he says.

[JPicasso]

Wow.

Thanks for pointing that out. Always consider the source.

Okay. so this guy falls into a category I would call "nut".

However, is there any truth to what he's saying?
Will European police supercede a country's own police forces and laws for
extradition and even violation of EU rules that a country may not recognize..
or is that not even an option?

[MartinSmith]

To be honest, I don't know enough to offer any rebuttal or support of any of the points he raises...

The level of debate in the UK is pretty poor on this issue with most of the Murdoch press vehemently against anything European and opinion taking the place of information.

I am pretty sure though that the EU human rights legislation would preclude a lot of what he is claiming. I'll do a bit of research!

[demotivater]

I can't see countries agreeing to that, what if the Europol decided to arrest the PM of England? According to the quotes above, they could, then do pretty much whatever they want. But, if it is true:
Note to self:
Don't **** around with the Europol!!

[MartinSmith]

The "Is Europol a European FBI?" FAQ on the Europol site seems fairly unambiguous...

http://www.europol.eu.int/index.asp?page=faq&language=

[JPicasso]

Thanks for that!

[Wally Pipp]

where the hell did this man get his data from ?

No member state would ever vote for such a legislation and with several of them holding a veto it would never ever pass in the first place