I have to agree with Freyr 200%. There's already enough laws in every country to over-address the potential terrorist threats. Anything more is just a means for those that want to dictate how people live and think to get their way. I mean, here in the USA, the lawmakers have been passing laws that are to "protect" against terrorists, but some how, they also added burning copyrighted MP3s as an act of terrorism (and other similar activities connected to illegal copies of DVDs, etc)... How a would be "pirate" of DVDs and CDs is a terrorist baffles me.
Exactly, it seems that we've gotten to the point where the goverment can pass any law they like, regarless on how it infringes on our civil rights and liberties (which it all too often does) as long as its done under the guise of "preventing terrorism". If we allow laws like the one mentioned at the start of this thread to pass unchallenged, then we really are on a slippery slope.
I once read a book that contained a speech by Adlai Stevenson. The year was 1952. He said, “The tragedy of our day is the climate of fear in which we live and fear breeds repression. Too often, sinister threats to the Bill of Rights, to freedom of the mind are concealed under the patriotic cloak of anti-Communism.†Today, it’s the cloak of anti-terrorism.
On the TV program Boston Legal, the character Alan Shore (played by James Spader), in defense of a woman who refused to pay her taxes in protest, made a speech about what the government (particlularly the US government) has been allowed to get away with, all under the cloak of anti-terrorism.
"When the weapons of mass destruction thing turned out to be not true, I expected the American people to rise up. Ha! They didn’t.
Then, when the Abu Ghraib torture thing surfaced and it was revealed that our government participated in rendition, a practice where we kidnap people and turn them over to regimes who specialize in torture, I was sure then the American people would be heard from. We stood mute.
Then came the news that we jailed thousands of so-called terrorists suspects, locked them up without the right to a trial or even the right to confront their accusers. Certainly, we would never stand for that. We did.
And now, it’s been discovered the executive branch has been conducting massive, illegal, domestic surveillance on its own citizens. You and me. And I at least consoled myself that finally, finally the American people will have had enough. Evidentially, we haven’t.
In fact, if the people of this country have spoken, the message is we’re okay with it all. Torture, warrantless search and seizure, illegal wiretappings, prison without a fair trial - or any trial, war on false pretenses. We, as a citizenry, are apparently not offended.
There are no demonstrations on college campuses. In fact, there’s no clear indication that young people seem to notice.
Well, Melissa Hughes noticed. Now, you might think, instead of withholding her taxes, she could have protested the old fashioned way. Made a placard and demonstrated at a Presidential or Vice-Presidential appearance, but we’ve lost the right to that as well. The Secret Service can now declare free speech zones to contain, control and, in effect, criminalize protest.
Stop for a second and try to fathom that.
At a presidential rally, parade or appearance, if you have on a supportive t-shirt, you can be there. If you are wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed.
This, in the United States of America. This in the United States of America!"
Thats exactly the point I'd like to make in this thread, the governments of the world have essentially been given a free pass by the public to pass any law they like as long as the words "anti-terrorism" are uttered a few times. Why? mainly because of the fear we as a society have when it comes to terrorism, regardless of facts and figures such as the ones that Freyr pointed out, our fear seems to have gotten the best of us, the government is then using that fear to get what it wants, and there's a word for that.....