tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post638337378051598149..comments2023-03-30T13:55:57.743+01:00Comments on Random Blowe: Can Free Speech Survive Police On Campus?Kevinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00003057501738525190noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-57943199744952714932010-02-08T15:05:30.143+00:002010-02-08T15:05:30.143+00:00I wonder if there Intelligence Cops at UEL Docklan...I wonder if there Intelligence Cops at UEL Docklands campus?. <br /><br />As the London City Airport runway overlook the University campus and residential halls.....Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-10354317445847087192010-02-05T20:17:16.051+00:002010-02-05T20:17:16.051+00:00Back in the days of national service a fellow I kn...Back in the days of national service a fellow I knew who served in the Intelligence Corps was asked to act as an agent on campus and be supported through college by the security services. He was told they had two agents in each institution who would not be told of the other's identity.<br />It was also the practice for certain academics to keep an eye on overseas students. An American who wrote about this at LSE was deported. That was in the 1930s. Of course the secret services also had talent scouts recruiting graduates, though this is done more openly now. <br />So this business of putting cops on campus is nothing new, but the song and dance may be meant to placate the media (who will come back for more), but it is also a way of intimidating students and reinforcing the message that any ideas which Mad Mel and the Thought Police disapprove of are akin to "terrorism".<br />One correction -Samar Alami, who as you rightly say had entirely secular links (I often met her at meetings of the Joint Committee for Palestine), was not convicted of detonating anything outside the Israeli embassy, indeed, as the authorities had to acknowledge, she was not near the embassy when the bomb was set off. Samar, and her friend Jawad, were accused of "conspiracy to cause explosions". But if the police really believed that, they showed remarkably little interest in finding the fellow-conspirators, let alone following other leads. I understand Samar and Jawad have been quietly released now. No reason for them to ask further qurdtions, indeed they have probably been told not to. But there remain questions over what really happened, and why some suspects got away, only those who keep on about the danger of terrorism seem no more interested than the security services were. Funny, that.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03706356192920588519noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1786438112933136892.post-15068952909730077952010-02-04T21:21:32.812+00:002010-02-04T21:21:32.812+00:00"How on earth can universities hope to remain..."How on earth can universities hope to remain as centres of free speech in an atmosphere as poisoned as this?"<br /><br />Indeed. These proposals are unbelievably draconian and one massive knee jerk reaction. Utterly politically stupid...HarpyMarxhttp://harpymarx.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.com