PJC Journal – Original

The World Trade
Centre was still smoking when US lawmakers hastily passed the PATRIOT Act, and in
the UK, it wasn't much longer before Parliament enacted the
comparable Anti-Terrorism, Crime, and Security Act). Objections to the PATRIOT
Act are legion, and they have been well documented.  

Less well
documented – until now – is how the PATRIOT Act and the mindset accompanying it
have played themselves out in the lives of real people. A book review in the Register
highlights a book by author Maureen Webb and her book Illusions of Security:
Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World

A visitor to the US can now expect to be fingerprinted (all
ten digits), registered, and monitored. More than 80,000 people were registered
in the first year of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System
(NSEERS), which requires registrants to report changes of address, employment
and other details.  

At the same time
the US government ethnically profiled and rounded up Arab
and South Asian men, often for trivial reasons. More than 13,000 people were
detained and put into deportation hearings in NSEERS' first year. In one case
Webb notes, a man was arrested after casually saying he'd like to learn to fly
one day.

These tales are
the tip of the iceberg. Many countries, including the UK, are shifting to biometric passports (if
not ID cards) and putting in the infrastructure for a global surveillance
system. The much-maligned Total Information Awareness programme
that proposed to mine commercial and government databases never really went
away, instead its spirit lives on in programmes such as the National
Intelligence Program and Secure Flight. In the UK the National Identification Register and the NHS Spine, and in Europe the eID programme and projects such as IDABC are aligned
to the TIA programme. 

The key to
understanding all this a major shift in thinking to “pre-emption of
risk”. Instead of waiting for a crime to be committed and suspects to be
investigated, prosecuted, and convicted, the US government adopted the idea of pre-empting
and disrupting terrorism. Such a profound policy shift justifies any amount of
surveillance or guilt by association. And it isn't just the US.

Governments share
suspects, intelligence operation, and policing, and are willing to jettison
democracy in return. 

The pre-emptive
model means our liberty and lives can be removed at any time on the most
uncertain evidence, denied any right to face our accusers, and presumed guilty.
Is that greater security?
 

(source)

Related Reading:

Soviet Main Street

Old Yishuv: Musta'Arabi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem, Main Page, Safed, Tiberias,Jaffa, Deluge Myth

Front Page (Sterling Main Street)

Driving Change: How the Best Companies are Preparing for the 21st Century

Indian Literature: Sanskrit literature, Main Page, Mahabharata, Classical language, Sangam literature, P?li Canon, Vedas, Indian epic poetry, Assamese ... Bengali literature, Bhojpuri language

The World Trade
Centre was still smoking when US lawmakers hastily passed the PATRIOT Act, and in
the UK, it wasn't much longer before Parliament enacted the
comparable Anti-Terrorism, Crime, and Security Act). Objections to the PATRIOT
Act are legion, and they have been well documented.  

Less well
documented – until now – is how the PATRIOT Act and the mindset accompanying it
have played themselves out in the lives of real people. A book review in the Register
highlights a book by author Maureen Webb and her book Illusions of Security:
Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World

A visitor to the US can now expect to be fingerprinted (all
ten digits), registered, and monitored. More than 80,000 people were registered
in the first year of the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System
(NSEERS), which requires registrants to report changes of address, employment
and other details.  

At the same time
the US government ethnically profiled and rounded up Arab
and South Asian men, often for trivial reasons. More than 13,000 people were
detained and put into deportation hearings in NSEERS' first year. In one case
Webb notes, a man was arrested after casually saying he'd like to learn to fly
one day.

These tales are
the tip of the iceberg. Many countries, including the UK, are shifting to biometric passports (if
not ID cards) and putting in the infrastructure for a global surveillance
system. The much-maligned Total Information Awareness programme
that proposed to mine commercial and government databases never really went
away, instead its spirit lives on in programmes such as the National
Intelligence Program and Secure Flight. In the UK the National Identification Register and the NHS Spine, and in Europe the eID programme and projects such as IDABC are aligned
to the TIA programme. 

The key to
understanding all this a major shift in thinking to “pre-emption of
risk”. Instead of waiting for a crime to be committed and suspects to be
investigated, prosecuted, and convicted, the US government adopted the idea of pre-empting
and disrupting terrorism. Such a profound policy shift justifies any amount of
surveillance or guilt by association. And it isn't just the US.

Governments share
suspects, intelligence operation, and policing, and are willing to jettison
democracy in return. 

The pre-emptive
model means our liberty and lives can be removed at any time on the most
uncertain evidence, denied any right to face our accusers, and presumed guilty.
Is that greater security?
 

(source)

Related Reading:

Stop the War Coalition: Main Page, Osama Bin Laden, John Rees, Communist Party of Britain, Communist Party of Great Britain Provisional Centre, Committee

Soviet Main Street

Old Yishuv: Musta'Arabi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem, Main Page, Safed, Tiberias,Jaffa, Deluge Myth

Front Page (Sterling Main Street)

Indian Literature: Sanskrit literature, Main Page, Mahabharata, Classical language, Sangam literature, P?li Canon, Vedas, Indian epic poetry, Assamese ... Bengali literature, Bhojpuri language

The
Register reports that The Irish Information Commissioner's Office has come
down on the notion of school fingerprinting and taken early action to prevent
the technology being deployed arbitrarily. 

It has told the
first handful of Irish schools known to be establishing biometric systems that
they ought to have a good reason for doing so and has said it will use its
powers to order schools to rip out systems it considers excessive.

In its guidance for schools issued this month, the office said if
it wasn't necessary then the Data Protection Act said it shouldn't be done. 

Elsewhere in the
guidance, head teachers were told they should seek parental consent before
fingerprinting any child below the age of 18, contrary to the position taken by
the Information Commissioner in the UK, who s allowing schools to rely on
children's consent if it thinks they are old enough to understand the
implications themselves.

The Irish
guidance also said schools must give pupils the means to opt out of a school
biometric scheme at any time without fear of discrimination or denying them
access to services. 

Moreover, it
stated that consent must be “obtained fairly”. This might require
Irish schools to give more impartial advice on deciding whether to use
biometrics than that given to parents in some British schools.

British schools
have used standard letters drafted by biometric systems suppliers to tell
parents about their plans to install biometrics. These state why the school
thinks biometrics are desirable and ask parents to raise any concerns they have
about the technology with the head teacher. 

Alisdair Darrock,
managing director of Softlink, a supplier of biometric library systems for
schools, promised nearly two months ago to draft more impartial
advice that schools could send parents. He said yesterday he was still
planning to do it.

Time to outlaw this disgusting practice in UK schools.

To join the Leave them Kids Alone campaign click here.

Related Reading:

Structured Experience Kit-Main Pages

Driving Change: How the Best Companies are Preparing for the 21st Century

Un tour du monde des écoliers, à portée de main

Philby: intelligence service aux mains d'un agent soviétique

Soviet Main Street

The
Register reports that The Irish Information Commissioner's Office has come
down on the notion of school fingerprinting and taken early action to prevent
the technology being deployed arbitrarily. 

It has told the
first handful of Irish schools known to be establishing biometric systems that
they ought to have a good reason for doing so and has said it will use its
powers to order schools to rip out systems it considers excessive.

In its guidance for schools issued this month, the office said if
it wasn't necessary then the Data Protection Act said it shouldn't be done. 

Elsewhere in the
guidance, head teachers were told they should seek parental consent before
fingerprinting any child below the age of 18, contrary to the position taken by
the Information Commissioner in the UK, who s allowing schools to rely on
children's consent if it thinks they are old enough to understand the
implications themselves.

The Irish
guidance also said schools must give pupils the means to opt out of a school
biometric scheme at any time without fear of discrimination or denying them
access to services. 

Moreover, it
stated that consent must be “obtained fairly”. This might require
Irish schools to give more impartial advice on deciding whether to use
biometrics than that given to parents in some British schools.

British schools
have used standard letters drafted by biometric systems suppliers to tell
parents about their plans to install biometrics. These state why the school
thinks biometrics are desirable and ask parents to raise any concerns they have
about the technology with the head teacher. 

Alisdair Darrock,
managing director of Softlink, a supplier of biometric library systems for
schools, promised nearly two months ago to draft more impartial
advice that schools could send parents. He said yesterday he was still
planning to do it.

Time to outlaw this disgusting practice in UK schools.

To join the Leave them Kids Alone campaign click here.

Related Reading:

Front Page (Sterling Main Street)

Old Yishuv: Musta'Arabi Jews, Sephardi Jews, Four Holy Cities, Jerusalem, Main Page, Safed, Tiberias,Jaffa, Deluge Myth

Philby: intelligence service aux mains d'un agent soviétique

Driving Change: How the Best Companies are Preparing for the 21st Century

Indian Literature: Sanskrit literature, Main Page, Mahabharata, Classical language, Sangam literature, P?li Canon, Vedas, Indian epic poetry, Assamese ... Bengali literature, Bhojpuri language