The Use Of Secret Courts Confirms The End Of Democracy In BritainBy Graham Vanbergen In the English-speaking world, one of the most notorious secret courts was the Star Chamber as it was used under Charles I in the early 17th century. The abuses of the Star Chamber were one of the rallying points of the opposition that organized around Oliver Cromwell, and ultimately resulted in the execution of the deposed king. The term star chamber became a generalized term for a court that was accountable to no one (except the chief executive) and was used to suppress political dissent or eliminate the enemies of the regime. The inherent lack of objectivity of politically motivated charges has led to substantial reforms in English law. Clearly there is something verydangerous and pernicious about secret courts. During the First and Second World Wars there were a number of spy trials held behind closed doors and the odd one thereafter, but secret trials in Britain is an affront to openness dating back to Magna Cartaand have never been used in civil cases. Then came a Conservative Bill called the Justice and Security Bill and was roundly opposed by everyone, literally everyone. From GlobalResearch The Bill was savaged by the Lords, but returned to the Commons with all the Lords amendments struck out. On the day of the vote on gay marriages it slipped through the vote in the select committee with the vote of one backwoods Ulsterman rushed in at the last minute. (The vote was held at the same time as members were in the lobbies voting on the gay marriage Bill). This law when passed, as it will be, can then be applied to all and any offence, even as lowly as a traffic accident. Accused persons will never be told of what they are charged and of course it is very unlikely they would be found not guilty. That was back in 2013, today we have no idea what cases are being tried in this way. Britains alleged complicity in the kidnap and rendition of suspects sent to Libya for torture is an alarming case in point.One only has to imagine a situation where an innocent personis suing the government for damages for torture and kidnap, in one case including that of a wife and 12-year-old daughter, then losing thecase, without being present or ever knowing the reason why or what was said. Phillip Johnston of The Telegraph wrote an excellent piece entitled Secret trials: Democracies die behind closed doors which is well worththe read. It relays the real life horror of justice being used as a political weapon in modern-day Britain. In another piece by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism entitled How do you prove youre not a national security risk? a man was sacked by the Home Office on national security grounds without ever being told why or for what reason. Overnight, this mans life lay in ruins with his lawyers arguing against the Governments controversial use of secret evidence and closed court hearings. In a recent 150-page study, examining the use of secret evidence in a number ofleading EU countries, state requests for evidence considered in secret on the grounds of national security was found tosignificantly hinder the judiciary system from ensuring fair trials. One has to remember we are discussing members of the European Union here, not North Korea. Commissioned by the European Parliaments Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE), the report says the use of secret evidence undermines human rights and poses a threat to the rule of law in Europe. One shouldnt forget that the Conservatives are aimingto scrap Human Rights laws as well. However, the UKs Ministry of Justice today told the European Parliament it was not the business of MEPs to interfere with national security issues because these are the responsibility of member states alone. The reportlaid out particular criticism for the UK. One of the reports authors saidthat Britain was a worrying example of what can go wrong.France, Spain, Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands and Italy all have secret courts but it appears that not oneof them have gone anywhere near as far as the UK in the systematic use of secret evidence in trials. Many people do not realise the widespreaduse of secret courts in the UK. They are commonlyused in deportation and immigration hearings but alsoemployment tribunals amongst many others. The Investigatory Powers Tribunal,hears complaints about surveillance by public bodies such as MI5, the police or even local governmentin fact, the only Tribunal to whom complaints about the Intelligence Services can be directed andhears evidence in secret. In one such case, Poole Borough Councilwere spying on a family to see if they were lying about which school catchment area they lived in. This is the only time the court has found againstthe authorities and the only reason we know about it. In thesecases the government department or agency asks the judge to present evidence to the court without the defendant even being granted access to any of that information or evidence against them. In a bizarre twist of irony, secret evidence may include material which has been gained via the illegal interception bythe security services of the defendants communications including that of conversations deemed legally privileged with lawyers as in the case ofLibyan Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, who was abducted by MI6 and the CIA and tortured in Libya. Alarmingly, thereport alsodisclosed that there was anextremelack of formal rules on the quality of admissible evidence. This meant that hearsay, evidence from a second- or even third-hand contact could be admitted with no confirmed source attributed as a means of validity. Here we are seeing the emergence of something far more sinister. It should surprise no one that the government response to this report via a Ministry of Justicespokesperson simply said: The EU Treaties are quite clear that matters concerned with national security are the concern of Member States, not the EU. Gaining Royal Assent on 25th April 2013, openDemocracyUK said It is only a matter of time before secret courts are in use in civil cases across the United Kingdom. openDemocracyUKs excellent article headed Secret Courts: 8 nightmare scenarios is also well worth the read because as it has turned out, nothing is now conjecture or speculation, secret courts have expanded and covert evidenceis used for them. In another rather shady piece of legislation, the law now allows police to present transcripts of indistinct audio they have listened to many times in the role of a so-called ad hoc expert and present evidence as fact even though nothing distinguishable can be determined. InJuly last year the then Justice Minister Chris Grayling published an extremely short report about the closed material procedure which was clearly designed to tell us as little as possible about secret courts. We learn from the report that in five cases the Secretary of State showed judges secret, undisclosed evidence. Yet nobody knows what these cases were, and even charities like Liberty have been forced to admit they dont actually know which cases hes referring to. We dont even know if there more cases. As we are now seeing, the government uses national security as a shield to hide behind whenever it has inconvenient information that it wants to keep hidden for whatever reason. The problem is, as said before democracies die behind closed doors. The European Courts have done nothing as thecorrupt heart of Europe will always put big business over citizens rights. TTIP is evidence of this.The most controversial part of the deal is the Investor State Dispute Settlements (ISDS). These provisions essentially allow private corporations to sue national governments in guess what secret courts. You can read more from Graham Vanbergen at his site TruePublica.org.uk Preparing the grounds for the Democracy morphs into perpetual debt war, then finally, tyranny. Its built into it. For more information read: Plato. Its completely in your face weve been tricked all along. Whatever is done, is done in The Peoples NAME. And that is all. They do it because they have our consent they have that because we are a part of the system. We are owned managed registered like farm animals just after birth. Politics = owned by gangs of project managers who control The Peoples hearts minds the rules of The Hustle, or Law as they call it, on behalf of the corporations, who provide reality are owned by the banks who seem to be all owned by things called Zionists they supply the mouldy pigeon crumbs or Economy. These creatures dont like The People. They see us as vermin. Truly. Theyre only nice when theyre gorged on war not for very long. Beyond these owners Im not sure, but I lean toward some kind of Dark Tetrad Psychopathic disease involving something unearthly. We have to stop complying with the system. Its the only way, I do know that. They treat us like they do because we have no respect for ourselves. 