Ex-spy chief opposes planned new terror laws

The ex-head of Britain's MI5 domestic spy agency said Tuesday she opposes Prime Minister Gordon Brown's plans for tougher new anti-terrorism laws.

Making her first speech to the House of Lords since being appointed to Britain's upper legislative chamber last month, Baroness Eliza Manningham-Buller said the government's plans were unnecessary.

Manningham-Buller was the head of the domestic security service from 2002-2007 and spent more than 30 years working in British intelligence.

Brown wants to increase the time police can hold terror suspects without charging them from 28 days to 42 days.

He argues that police officers need the extra time because of the complexity of scouring computers, trawling phone records and following up leads across the globe.

Manningham-Buller, a nonpolitically aligned peer, used her first public speech since 2006 to strongly dispute Brown's case.

"I have weighed up the balance between the right to life _ the most important civil liberty _ the fact that there is no such thing as complete security, and the importance of our hard-won civil liberties," the ex-spy chief said. "On a matter of principle, I cannot support 42 days pre-charge detention."

Lawmakers in the House of Commons narrowly approved the plan last month by a nine-vote margin.

Several of Brown's Labour Party members rebelled, leaving him to rely on the votes of nine minority party legislators from Northern Ireland.

Peers in the House of Lords, who are considered more likely to reject Brown's draft laws, will vote later in the year.

If they reject the plan, the British leader must decide whether to deploy rarely used powers to pass it into law without the consent of the upper chamber.

"The Government is putting at risk, in a reactionary way, rights and freedoms that we have defended for centuries," said opposition Conservative peer, Dame Pauline Neville-Jones, an ex-chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

"Terrorists want to provoke the state into putting in place such measures. We risk doing their job for them," she said.

Since the current 28-day limit came into force in 2006, police have held six suspects for the maximum time allowed. Three were released without charge and three were prosecuted.