'Police state is looming'

LONDON -- A former intelligence chief in Britain is warning that a police state is looming because of measures taken out of fear of terrorism, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The comments come from Dame Stella Rimington, the former head of MI5, who weighed into the recent dispute over a court proceeding involving an inmate at the Guantanamo Bay terror detention facility.

"The fear of terrorism is being exploited by the government to erode civil liberties and risk creating a police state," she said.

She has accused the government of "playing straight into the hands of terrorists."

Dame Stella, 73, became the first woman director of MI5 in 1992. In 1998 she stepped down and has become a fierce critic of some of the government's counter-terrorism and security measures.

"Since I have retired, I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people's privacy," she said.

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"It would be better that the government recognized there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state," she said.

She added: "The U.S. has gone too far with Guantanamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification."

She said the British secret services were "no angels," but insisted they did not kill people.

But she also said the government's plans for ID cards were "absolutely useless" and would not make the public any safer.