Rain of Terror: Storm Warnings of More Tyranny to Come
Monday, 19 November 2007
by Chris Floyd
For years now, Britain has been the canary in the mineshaft — or perhaps a patient etherized upon a table — when it comes to the daylight robbery of ancient liberties by a "Terror War" state. In many cases, the "New Labour" regime has been far in advance of the Bushists in the practice of this dark art. Not so much the backroom stuff, of course; as we've noted here often, Bush and his minions have long claimed — and exercised — the power to snatch people without warrant or charge and stuff them into hidey holes and torture them (or even kill them outright). But in terms of an upfront lockdown of ordinary citizens, and the introduction of Soviet-level draconia in daily life, the Brits have been leading the way, setting examples that the American militarists have eagerly aped. What has been especially instructive is the way that the British public has meekly accepted these vast encroachments, in the face of a threat that is immeasurably less dire and destructive than the Christian terrorism that the nation endured for years on end from the violent sectarians of Northern Ireland.
So the goings-on in Great Britain are not just mildly curious facts about a quaint little island across the sea: they are storm warnings of yet another tyrannical gale that will soon be sweeping over the United States. Last week, Prime Minister Gordon Brown unleashed a cannonade of "security" proposals designed to transform Blake's "green and pleasant land" into a bristling "Fortress Britain." Strangely enough — or rather, not so strangely to anyone remotely acquainted with the modus operandi of Terror War states — the measures seem to be aimed more at the British people than any would-be enemies lurking outside the gates.
Consider Brown's plan to cordon the island with an "e-border," described here by Simon Jenkins, writing in the conservative Sunday Times:
All comers and goers are to be electronically recorded and asked to supply addresses, phone numbers and computer details, up to 53 items of personal information. Officials are to be given powers to revoke visitor visas at immigration desks without appeal. It will make America’s draconian immigration control seem like open house.
In the Observer, Henry Porter — one of Britain's loudest, and loneliest, voices for liberty — gives us more about the information Britons will be required to divulge in order to leave or re-enter their own country:
We now accept with apparent equanimity that the state has the right to demand to know, among other things, how your ticket has been paid for, the billing address of any card used, your travel itinerary and route, your email address, details of whether your travel arrangements are flexible, the history of changes to your travel plans plus any biographical information the state deems to be of interest or anything the ticket agent considers to be of interest...
Combined with the ID card information, which comes on stream in a few years' time, the new travel data means there will be very little the state won't be able to find out about you. The information will be sifted for patterns of travel and expenditure. Conclusions will be drawn from missed planes, visits extended, illness and all the accidents of life, and because this is a government database, there will be huge numbers of mistakes that will lead to suspicion and action being taken against innocent people.
Those failing to provide satisfactory answers will not be allowed to travel and then it will come to us with a leaden regret that we have in practice entered the era of the exit visa, a time when we must ask permission from a security bureaucrat who insists on further and better particulars in the biographical section of the form. Ten, 15 or more years on, we will be resigned to the idea that the state decides whether we travel or not.
more...
http://www.atlanticfreepress.com/content/view/2877/81/
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