"We Risk A Police State"
Tom Whitehead writes in the Telegraph/UK that the former head of MI5, Dame Stella Rimington, has warned that government -- and not just their government -- is exploiting the fear of terrorism to erode civil liberties and risks creating a police state:
Dame Stella accused ministers of interfering with people's privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists."Since I have retired I feel more at liberty to be against certain decisions of the Government, especially the attempt to pass laws which interfere with people's privacy," Dame Stella said in an interview with a Spanish newspaper.
"It would be better that the Government recognised that there are risks, rather than frightening people in order to be able to pass laws which restrict civil liberties, precisely one of the objects of terrorism: that we live in fear and under a police state," she said.
Dame Stella, 73, added: "The US has gone too far with Guantánamo and the tortures. MI5 does not do that. Furthermore it has achieved the opposite effect: there are more and more suicide terrorists finding a greater justification." She said the British secret services were "no angels" but insisted they did not kill people.
Dame Stella became the first woman director general of MI5 in 1992 and was head of the security agency until 1996. Since stepping down she has been a fierce critic of some of the Government's counter-terrorism and security measures, especially those affecting civil liberties.
I agree with this, but I'm also thinking, "Duuuuh, Captain Obvious."
We have known this for a long time in the U.S. The U.S. government has used fear to erode the civil rights of the American people.
FDR did it in WWII to commit a particularly egregious offense against the rights of the American people with Japanese internment camps. (We don't call them "concentration camps" when the U.S. does it, you know.)
Dame Stella accused ministers of interfering with people's privacy and playing straight into the hands of terrorists.
In the U.S., I don't believe it's the government playing into the hands of the terrorists. I think it's the people playing into the hands of the U.S. government.
The government doesn't like having restrictions placed upon it, and they've known for a long time that a scared people is a submissive people. "Oooh, protect us from the blacks, protect us from the commies, protect us from the gays, protect us from the terrorists. We'll be happy to give up our civil rights, please. Snivel, oh, snivel. Cower, I say, cower."
Yes. God forbid you should actually speak out while you're on the payroll, instead of being the compliant lackey that you are, and participating in the process that you now claim to despise. That would obviously require more courage than you possess.
Patrick at July 13, 2013 7:02 AM
Perhaps the reason we referred to our camps and theirs by different names, is because, to my knowledge, there is no evidence of us ever frogmarching our detainees into gas chambers or using them for gruesome "medical" experimentation. Although our actions in time of war have at times been egregious and regrettable, it's useful to keep some perspective.
Otherwise, Patrick, I agree with you 100% about all the rest.
cpabroker at July 13, 2013 7:34 PM
So you have a problem with the government checking your e-mail and following you on your phone, but no problem with them checking on your medical records (Obamacare) or financial records?
Jim P. at July 14, 2013 12:28 AM
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