Shami Chakrabarti Targeted in Damian Green Email Search

Friday, April 17, 2009

Shami Chakrabarti Targeted in Damian Green Email Search

Iain Dale 10:42 PM

I'm typing this in the BBC newsroom, where the front page of The Times has just come in. Headline: CIVIL LIBERTIES CHIEF WAS TARGET IN POLICE SEARCH. It turns out that the Police used the key words "Shami" and "Chakrabarti" to search Damian Green's emails, even though she was nothing to do with the Police inquiry.

Shami says she was never approached by Police as part of the inquiry and was alarmed to know that her name had been used as a key part of the search. "I think this raises very serious questions about just how politicised, even McCarthyite, this operation was."

I suspect this has the potential to become a very big story tomorrow. Perhaps Jacqui Smith will assure us it was all to do with national security...

UPDATE: The front page article is HERE and the Thomson/Sylvester interview with Damian Green is HERE.