http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/11/21/blunkett_internet_ban/
John Lettice
"UK Home Secretary David Blunkett today promised to widen the 'terror suspect' net further to impose Internet and banking banning orders on people suspected of 'acts preparatory to terrorism'. Legislation to support this will come in addition to the raft of measures he will announce in the Queen's Speech this coming week, and is not likely to be unveiled prior to the general election expected next year.
In a TV interview with Jonathan Dimbleby, Blunkett said he envisages the proposed new laws as being modeled on Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) which are currently used in the UK to impose restrictions on individuals deemed guilty of a wide (and clearly widening) range of anti-social activities. ASBOs are imposed under civil law, but breaching an ASBO is a criminal offence, and as Dimbleby pointed out, 20 per cent of these orders lead to criminal penalties.
With the sustained reasoning for which he is so justly famous, Blunkett noted the importance of proof in the British legal system, then observed that fixed penalty notices and ASBOs were particularly useful because 'police been able to impose penalties without having to go through a prolonged legal system.'
His mooted 'Anti-Internet Behaviour Orders' would be more of the same. At the moment Blunkett has powers to detain suspected foreign nationals without trial for as long as he pleases, under the provisions of the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act (example of one recently freed here) and is under no obligation to produce evidence against them. Just as ASBOs provide a handy mechanism for generating evidence of criminal activity (breach of the ASBO) the new legislation would provide a route for criminalising terror suspects and terror 'supporters' against whom the security servi"
