INTERNATIONAL POLITICS-EUROPE:

THE NEOCONOPTICON:
There's an interesting new report being published by the folks over at Statewatch, an European outfit dedicated to keeping a close eye on those who keep a close eye on the rest of us. The Neoconopticon details how much of the total surveillance state is already in place and how much more is yet to come. The title comes from Jeremy Bentham's 'Panopticon', a design for a "perfect prison" where there is total surveillance and control of all the inmates. It should be noted that Bentham was a liberal reformer. Like so much so-called "reform" the idea of total surveillance began as an idea beloved by the left for its sheer stupidity and later taken over by the right for its sheer viciousness. Far too much of statist politics lives out its life in a similar way. Here's the announcement from Statewatch.
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Neoconopticon - the EU Security-Industrial Complex‏:
Major new report by Statewatch and the Transnational Institute:
NeoConOpticon - The EU Security-Industrial Complex by Ben Hayes (pdf):
"Despite the often benign intent behind collaborative European ‘research’ into integrated land, air, maritime, space and cyber-surveillance systems, the EU’s security and R&D policy is coalescing around a high-tech blueprint for a new kind of security. It envisages a future world of red zones and green zones; external borders controlled by military force and internally by a sprawling network of physical and virtual security checkpoints; public spaces, micro-states and ‘mega events’ policed by high-tech surveillance systems and rapid reaction forces;‘peacekeeping’ and ‘crisis management’ missions that make no operational distinction between the suburbs of Basra or the Banlieue; and the increasing integration of defence and national security functions at home and abroad.





It is not just a case of “sleepwalking into” or “waking up to” a “surveillance society”, as the UK’s Information Commissioner famously warned, it feels more like turning a blind eye to the start of a new kind of arms race, one in which all the weapons are pointing inwards. Welcome to the NeoConOpticon."
Press release: Defence industry dominates EU’s security research programme (pdf
Contacts for further information:
Ben Hayes +44 (0) 20 8802 1882 (ben@statewatch.org ) or
Nina Brenjo +31 (0) 63 484 2129 (nina.brenjo@tni.org )

PERSONAL LIBERTY-GREAT BRITAIN:

FIGHT AGAINST THE SURVEILLANCE STATE:

This item is particularly for our readers in the United Kingdom, but, in the end, it is for us all. Great Britain has already gone further along the way towards a "total surveillance state" than any other western country, and, in many ways, the ability of the state to gather information on individuals in GB has gone beyond the practices of most communist states during the worst of their Stalinist regimes. It certainly exceeds the practices of such present communist dictatorships as Cuba and China. This spreading dictatorship, in the land that gave us such things as habeus corpus, jury trial and common law is particularly odious. If it is not defeated there then there is less hope for the rest of us who come from less liberal cultures(such as here in Canada). The following is an appeal to join a Facebook group against these laws,to write a British MP and there is also a link to a general website for this matter of personal liberty.

LLLLLLLLLLLL

If you care about fundamental rights and freedoms, privacy and confidentiality, the time to act is NOW.:

*** UPDATE 3rd July 2009 ***

Back in March 2009, Stop Clause 152! and other groups were successsful in getting the UK government to withdraw the unfettered data-sharing powers in Clause 152 of the Coroners and Justice Bill. At the time, we said it would try again.

Now it is.

On Wednesday 8th July 2009, the House of Commons will vote on a group of three ID-related Statutory Instruments including one called 'The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Provision of Information without Consent) Regulations 2009'.

This piece of secondary legislation would give powers to the Identity and Passport Service - the bit of the Home Office responsible for 'identity management' across government - to pass on information it holds on you *without your knowledge or consent*. (The ID scheme - and, most importantly, the linked databases on which it's based - is, contrary to some recent media reports, still very much alive.)

This information would include not only official document numbers, your name, addresses and signature (more than enough to facilitate massive identity fraud) but your fingerprints and even - to the police, intelligence services, taxman, and *anyone else they authorise* - details of every time you had had your ID checked, e.g to register with a GP, open a bank account, travel abroad.

Records of what information has been given to whom and why may be destroyed after 12 months or less.

This is precisely the sort of data trafficking we successfully opposed before, but we have very little time and need you to contact your MP straight away - http://www.WriteToThem.com makes it very easy - to tell him or her that you deeply object to having your personal information shared without your knowledge or consent, and ask him or her to vote against 'The Identity Cards Act 2006 (Provision of Information without Consent) Regulations 2009' and the other two ID-related Statutory Instruments on Wednesday 8th July.

Please write to your MP now AND TELL OTHERS - link to this group, e-mail your friends, but don't delay.
Contact Info
Email:

national.coordinator@no2id.net
Website:
http://www.no2id.net/