Is Treason No Longer a Crime?

Nothing can be done in this country about the thousands of secret documents stolen by Snowden, that is America's problem, but something could be done about the Guardian which has chosen to leak the contents of  many of those documents to a wider audience. As reported in the Telegraph:

Sir David Omand, who was once Britain’s homeland security adviser to No 10, said Snowden’s actions eclipsed the exploits of the Cambridge spy ring, whose five members leaked information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and Cold War.

He also says that:

“The assumption the experts are working on is that all that information, or almost all of it, will now be in the hands of Moscow and Beijing. It’s the most catastrophic loss to British intelligence ever, much worse than Burgess and MacLean in the Fifties,”

Russia and China will keep any information strictly to themselves, certainly they won't be confiding it to terrorist organisations such as Al Quaeda, as both have problems with Islamic terrorists. However the Guardian chose to publish important items of this information to the world, and in spite of a speech yesterday by Andrew Parker, the Head of MI5 warning that the information published so far has done considerable harm in out fight against terrorists and put individuals' lives at risk,  have announced that they are intending to publish further extracts.

Yesterday in Parliament, a back bencher asked the Home Secretary about the legality of the Guardian's actions and even Nick Clegg condemned what they have done, somewhat to my surprise.

Looking at what has been considered as treason in the not too distant past, there is no doubt in my mind that there is a strong case for prosecuting the Guardian's editor and perhaps its publishers, but regrettably it seems that our establishment has gone soft on such matters.

For those who claim that GCHQ's actions in spying on us are all wrong, I would simply claim that my own human rights were being infringed if the government of this country doesn't take all possible steps to protect me from terrorists. If looking at my e-mail helps them in this process, they are welcome to do so; if mine is typical they would get bored to tears!

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Definition:
Guardian - One who looks after, protects, or defends something.
It would seem that the newspaper of this name prefers to protect its circulation rather than the population of this country!

Police Leaks and the Guardian

The Daily Telegraph reports today that

"The phone hacking scandal took yet another twist yesterday when a Scotland Yard detective was arrested on suspicion of leaking confidential information about the inquiry to The Guardian.

It is thought that the arrest follows a series of online articles in The Guardian which disclosed the identities of people who were about to be or had just been arrested. The identity of the 51-year old detective constable has not been disclosed. He was arrested on Thursday by the anti-corruption unit of Scotland Yard and bailed to return next month."

The Guardian is, of course, the paper which has taken the high moral ground over phone hacking, but it seems that its integrity does not extend to the receipt of confidential information from the police, which could, by its very nature, impede the police investigations.

Presumably, the Guardian will be added the on-going investigation into the alleged bribery of police by News International, as only an idiot will believe the policeman did it for altruistic reasons.