By chycho.

source

In 2007 I came across a chilling bit of news from the UK that sent shivers down my spine.

The news was about Samina Malik, a 23-year-old cashier and poet, who was “arrested and jailed for her violent prose and visiting terror web sites.” Malik’s defenders argued that she was charged with a thought crime, while prosecutors emphasized that:

“Samina Malik was not prosecuted for writing poetry. Ms. Malik was convicted of collecting information, without reasonable excuse, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.”

In short, Malik was either prosecuted for her words, or for doing research on subjects that the UK government has deemed to be inappropriate. So inappropriate, that they found it to be feasible to press charges based on newly enacted draconian laws.

If you recall, in 2003, Pete Townshend, world renowned guitarist from the English rock band The Who, was cautioned by the police “after acknowledging a credit card access in 1999 to the Landslide website alleged to advertise child pornography.”

“He stated in the press and on his website that he had been engaged in research for A Different Bomb (a now-abandoned book based on an anti-child pornography essay published on his website in January 2002) and his autobiography, and as part of a campaign against child pornography. The police searched his house and confiscated fourteen computers and other materials, and after a four-month forensic investigation confirmed that they had found no evidence of child abuse images. Consequently, the police offered a caution rather than pressing charges.”

So in 2003 one of the world’s best-known musicians gets cautioned for doing research, and in 2007 a part time cashier who likes to write violent poetry is jailed for the same thing. Wasn’t seeking knowledge the original sin? These judgements in the above two cases have biblical implications, and should have raised alarm bells across the UK.

Without having access to a medium how can an artist explore, perfect, and create art from that medium? Journalism may have turned into propaganda through embedded correspondents, but the exploration of the self, humanity, should not be about limiting artistic expression. When artists are at risk of incarceration for their art, then fascism governs the State, as was implied by Martin Niemöller’s poem 'First they came...'

First they came for the Communists,
and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.

Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew.

Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Catholics,
and I didn’t speak up, because I was a Protestant.

Then they came for me,
and by that time there was no one left to speak up.

by Rev. Martin Niemoller, 1945

Take this blog for example, or any other one for that matter. Most of us who maintain these types of sites have chosen to share as much information as we can for as long as we have uncensored, unfiltered, access to the Internet. We do a tremendous amount of research online. Many sites we encounter are ordinary, some exceptional, and some down right frightening. Which sites will our governments consider to be “collecting information, without reasonable excuse, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”?

Will visiting gun advocacy sites be considered to be terrorism? Or joining survivalist forums? How about visiting sites that teach you how to write powerful poetry? And what exactly is a reasonable excuse? Is writing articles just for the sake of sharing information without monetary gain or corporate recognition a reasonable excuse to visit a website? Are we living in the Dark Ages? Is this the type of system that those who live in the UK wish to be governed by?

Being apathetic and not preventing the government from victimizing a person for doing research in 2003 has lead to the arrest, prosecution and incarceration of a poet. My guess is Frank Zappa is rolling in his grave right about now, and if you want to know why then watch the following CNN Crossfire segment from 1986 where he discusses rock lyrics, censorship, and the value of words.

Based on the present laws in the UK, almost anyone could be charged and incarcerated with what Samina Malik was charged with. The simple fact is that if we allow our governments to wage war on words and limit our access to information then we are no longer free.

Keep in mind that in the United States the same laws apply thanks to the passing of the thought crime Bills, HR 1955 and the SAFE Act. The president obtaining dictatorial powers with National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directives NSPD 51 and HSPD 20 does not bode well either.

But since we have already discussed “America’s march towards fascism” in a previous article in 2008, let’s stay on topic with the UK.

If you require further proof, beyond incarcerating an artist for her art, below you will find additional news and information regarding UK’s descent into fascism:

1. How our liberties have been destroyed - “Since Labour was elected 12 years ago, a massive and frightening array of powers have been introduced which curtail Britain's long-fought-for commitment to the freedom of the individual. There are 56 such freedom-destroying powers, according to the Convention on Modern Liberty.

   “They range from the shameful decision to ban inconvenient but peaceful protests in the vicinity of Parliament to the storage by the police of DNA samples taken from entirely innocent people.”

2. Student researching al-Qaida tactics held for six days - “A masters student researching terrorist tactics who was arrested and detained for six days after his university informed police about al-Qaida-related material he downloaded has spoken of the ‘psychological torture’ he endured in custody. Despite his Nottingham University supervisors insisting the materials were directly relevant to his research, Rizwaan Sabir, 22, was held for nearly a week under the Terrorism Act, accused of downloading the materials for illegal use. The student had obtained a copy of the al-Qaida training manual from a US government website for his research into terrorist tactics.

   “The case highlights what lecturers are claiming is a direct assault on academic freedom led by the government which, in its attempt to establish a ‘prevent agenda’ against terrorist activity, is putting pressure on academics to become police informers.”

3. Photographers protest over new anti-terror law - “Around 150 photographers have held a mass photo shoot outside Scotland Yard in protest at a new anti-terror law.
   Photojournalists say Section 76 of the Counter Terrorism Act, which became law, could see them arrested for doing their job. Section 76 creates a new offence of eliciting, publishing or communicating information about the Armed Forces, intelligence services or police which may be used by terrorists.

   “The Home Office says the new offence is intended to help protect those in the frontline of counter-terrorism operations from terrorist attack. But photographers, professional and amateur, say it means they can be stopped and searched by police at any opportunity. Outside Scotland Yard they took pictures of each other as well as the building and police officers outside. Peter Murray, vice President of the National Union of Journalists, described the law as ‘bizarre’. He said: ‘This is a very odd piece of legislation which will make it an offence to take a picture of a police officer or a police station. Even if the officer happens to be in the background, the photographer may end up on the wrong side of the law.’”

4. Gun T-shirt 'was a security risk' - “A man wearing a T-shirt depicting a cartoon character holding a gun was stopped from boarding a flight by the security at Heathrow's Terminal 5. Brad Jayakody, from Bayswater, central London, said he was ‘stumped’ at the objection to his Transformers T-shirt.”

5. Man sought by UK authorities over alleged sending of DVD - “A MAN sought by the UK authorities for allegedly attempting to pervert the course of justice by sending a controversial DVD to a judge and jury foreman during a trial relating to bomb attacks in London in July 2005 has appeared before the High Court after being arrested in Co Meath. Sheffield-born Anthony John Hill (60) was arrested by gardaí at his home in Carrick Street, Kells, early yesterday morning on foot of a European Arrest Warrant, Mr Justice John MacMenamin was told.

   “Mr Hill’s extradition is being sought in relation to his alleged actions during the trial of several people on conspiracy charges related to the attacks on July 7th, 2005, that took place on the London underground and a London bus. It is alleged that, in May and June 2008, Mr Hill sent several copies of a DVD entitled 7/7 Ripple Effect to the judge and the foreman of a jury at the trial at Kingston Crown Court of people allegedly involved in assisting the 2005 bombings. 7/7 Ripple Effect is a film, available on the internet, which claims people accused of involvement in the bombings are innocent and that the bombings were an “inside job”, perhaps involving state intelligence agencies in either Britain or Israel.”

   7/7 Ripple Effect (56:56)

6. FBI wants instant access to British identity data - “Senior British police officials are talking to the FBI about an international database to hunt for major criminals and terrorists. The US-initiated programme, ‘Server in the Sky’, would take cooperation between the police forces way beyond the current faxing of fingerprints across the Atlantic. Allies in the ‘war against terror’ - the US, UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand - have formed a working group, the International Information Consortium, to plan their strategy.

   “Biometric measurements, irises or palm prints as well as fingerprints, and other personal information are likely to be exchanged across the network. One section will feature the world's most wanted suspects. The database could hold details of millions of criminals and suspects. The FBI is keen for the police forces of American allies to sign up to improve international security. The Home Office yesterday confirmed it was aware of Server in the Sky, as did the Metropolitan police.

   “The plan will make groups anxious to safeguard personal privacy question how much access to UK databases is granted to foreign law enforcement agencies. There will also be concern over security, particularly after embarrassing data losses within the UK, and accuracy: in one case, an arrest for a terror offence by US investigators used what turned out to be misidentified fingerprint matches.”

7. Ministers 'using fear of terror' - “A former head of MI5 has accused the government of exploiting the fear of terrorism and trying to bring in laws that restrict civil liberties. In an interview in a Spanish newspaper, published in the Daily Telegraph, Dame Stella Rimington, 73, also accuses the US of ‘tortures’. The Home Office said it was vital to strike a right balance between privacy, protection and sharing personal data. It said any policies which impact on privacy must be ‘proportionate’.

   “Dame Stella, who stood down as the director general of the security service in 1996, has previously been critical of the government's policies, including its attempts to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days and the controversial plan to introduce ID cards…

   “Human rights campaign group Liberty pointed to a number of other recent developments it said represented ‘a creeping encroachment on our fundamental rights’:

   * Government plans for a giant database to record the times, dates and recipients of all emails and text messages sent and phone calls made in the UK

   * The growth of Britain's DNA database - it is now the world's largest, per head of population, with samples from some 4m people

   * The use by councils of laws designed to track criminals and terrorists to spy on ordinary citizens. In one case a family was watched to see if they were really living in a school catchment area

   * The spread of CCTV cameras. Britain now reportedly has some 4m, the highest density in western Europe

   * Proposals for ‘secret inquests,’ excluding relatives, juries and the media, which the government says would prevent intelligence details leaking out

8. UK Protests Gun Ban - Banning Guns Only Disarms Law Abiding Citizens - “People are finally waking up in the UK and standing up to the outrageous encroachments made by their government and the EU on their liberties and freedoms. Brought to you by The Kick Them All Out Project and Fire Congress Campaign, the only campaign out there that gives us a powerful way to make sweeping changes in our government sooner rather than later”

9. Town Halls should map race and religion to identify 'tension hotspots', says Hazel Blears - “More than 10 million people are to have their everyday disputes, their politics and their business lives checked by new ‘tension monitoring’ committees. The committees are to be set up to try to cut the risk of riots or disturbances in the aftermath of terrorist outrages or outbreaks of local racial trouble. They will ask for and file reports on named troublemakers whose political activities are considered to be raising community tensions. Reports on the behaviour and attitudes of local residents will be collected by community workers, neighbourhood wardens, local councillors and provided by voluntary organisations, according to a paper published by Communities Secretary Hazel Blears today…

   “The monitoring committees will ask for information on those identified as troublemakers with includes ‘age, gender, ethnicity and faith’ of those being reported on. The call for monitoring of everyday life in the cause of ‘community cohesion contingency planning’ was made by Mrs Blears in a paper aiming to help identify ‘tension hotspots’ and improve cohesion - the Government's buzzword for reducing racial and religious strife…

   “Concerns have deepened in recent weeks after the Daily Mail revealed that Poole council in Dorset had spied on a family's life for three weeks because it wrongly suspected the parents of abusing rules on school catchment areas. There are also worries over the spread of new council quasi-police forces, like the bin police that recently gave a criminal record to a bus driver in Cumbria who left the lid of his family wheelie bin open by four inches.”

10. We are all extremists now - “The government is criminalising legitimate dissent under the guise of fighting 'extremism', a word for which it has no definition.

    “For most of the past century, Britain's secret state bugged, blacklisted and spied on leftists, trade unionists and peace campaigners, as well as Irish republicans and anyone else regarded as a "subversive" threat to the established order. That was all supposed to have been brought to a halt in the wake of the end of the cold war in the early 1990s. MI5 now boasts it has ended its counter-subversion work altogether, having other jihadist fish to fry (it will have soon doubled its staffing and budget on the back of the 9/11 backlash).

    “Whether those claims should be taken at face value must be open to question. But it now turns out that other arms of the secret state have in any case been stepping up to the plate to fill the gap in the market. The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) insists that its confidential intelligence unit – reported last week to be now coordinating surveillance and infiltration of ‘domestic extremists’, including anti-war protesters and strikers – is not in fact a new organisation, but has been part of its public order intelligence operations since 1999, liaising with MI5 and its 44 forces' special branch outfits across the country.”

11. Passports will be needed to buy mobile phones - “Everyone who buys a mobile telephone will be forced to register their identity on a national database under government plans to extend massively the powers of state surveillance. Phone buyers would have to present a passport or other official form of identification at the point of purchase. Privacy campaigners fear it marks the latest government move to create a surveillance society.

    “A compulsory national register for the owners of all 72m mobile phones in Britain would be part of a much bigger database to combat terrorism and crime. Whitehall officials have raised the idea of a register containing the names and addresses of everyone who buys a phone in recent talks with Vodafone and other telephone companies, insiders say.”

12. BB Totalitarian Trend Towards State Control - Guy Herbert (32:35) - “Guy Herbert General Secretary, NO2ID Campaign, The totalitarian trend towards total state control and surveillance. Britain on the Brink Conference held in Winchester England 22 September 2007.”
    

13. Revealed: The end of civil liberties - “The first extensive audit of the loss of civil liberties in the UK has been published, documenting a catalogue of restrictions of fundamental British freedoms. Among the 60 new powers contained in over 25 acts of parliament published by the Convention on Modern Liberty, are laws allowing 28-day detention without charge and restrictions on protest.

    “Other changes include email, telephone and letter interception, electronic tagging, house arrest, private coroners' inquests and restrictions on photography. Former shadow home secretary David Davis said the report revealed how British freedom had been chipped away bit by bit.”

14. Paranoid Britain Tops US To Become #1 Police State - “Britain and the U.S. use similar tactics fighting 'terrorism,' but Britain has taken the delusions to a new level: it now appears that the British have surpassed U.S. in becoming a police state.

    “Like the U.S. version of George Orwell's book ‘1984,’ Britain's descent into a full-fledged police state has been building for a long time. We've reported on Britain's super database, remote PC searching and the warnings issued over the egregious surveillance techniques, but there are still other facts to be examined.”

15. Warning over 'surveillance state' - “Electronic surveillance and collection of personal data are "pervasive" in British society and threaten to undermine democracy, peers have warned. CCTV cameras and the DNA database were two examples of threats to privacy, the Lords constitution committee said.

    “It called for compensation for people subject to illegal surveillance. The government said CCTV and DNA were ‘essential’ to fight crime but campaign group Liberty said abuses of power mean ‘even the innocent have a lot to fear.’”

16. The House of Lords report: a devastating analysis - “The peers' view of the UK's surveillance society is a vindication for those fighting for civil liberties, and a warning for the future.

    “The House of Lords report on Britain's surveillance society is a devastating analysis of the systems that have been installed by the authoritarian Labour government and the controlling forces emerging in local government. There is no question now that Britain's free society is under threat, and it is time for the public and opposition parties to declare an end to this regime of intrusion.

    “Until today it has been the work of activists, journalists and a handful of academics like Clive Norris of Sheffield University to warn of the dangers to our freedom and privacy posed by the database state. Now it is official. There could be no more authoritative judgment than this measured report, Surveillance Citizens and the State, produced by the Lord's constitution committee. The report says that mass surveillance ‘risks undermining the fundamental relationship between the state and citizens, which is the cornerstone of democracy and good governance’”

17. UK Police Harrass Youths - “The police surveillance team had spotted their target: a 12-year-old boy with freckles and ginger hair. He was known to police for nuisance behaviour. They watched as he walked along a path with friends in the distance, before disappearing down a side street. When the four boys emerged from the estate’s maze of alleyways, the patrol car was waiting. ‘Is this that operation, sir?’ said one boy. ‘I don’t want to be on camera.’ He already was.

    “Operation Leopard is the latest weapon in the fight against antisocial behaviour to receive government backing. Pioneered by officers in Essex policing difficult estates, it deploys forward intelligence teams (FITs) - units trained to gather evidence at foxhunts, protests and football matches - in areas suffering from crime.”

18. UK 2017: under surveillance - “It is a chilling, dystopian account of what Britain will look like 10 years from now: a world in which Fortress Britain uses fleets of tiny spy-planes to watch its citizens, of Minority Report-style pre-emptive justice, of an underclass trapped in sink-estate ghettos under constant state surveillance, of worker drones forced to take on the lifestyle and values of the mega-corporation they work for, and of the super-rich hiding out in gated communities constantly monitored by cameras and private security guards.

    “This Orwellian vision of the future was compiled on the orders of the UK's information commissioner - the independent watchdog meant to guard against government and private companies invading the privacy of British citizens and exploiting the masses of information currently held on each and every one of us - by the Surveillance Studies Network, a group of academics.

    “On Friday, this study, entitled A Report on the Surveillance Society, was picked over by a select group of government mandarins, politicians, police officers and academics in Edinburgh. It is unequivocal in its findings, with its first sentence reading simply: ‘We live in a surveillance society.’ The information commissioner, Richard Thomas, endorses the report. He says: ‘Today, I fear that we are, in fact, waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us.’”

19. Internet black boxes to record every email and website visit - “Under Government plans to monitor internet traffic, raw data would be collected and stored by the black boxes before being transferred to a giant central database.

    The vision was outlined at a meeting between officials from the Home Office and Internet Service Providers earlier this week. It is further evidence of the Government's desire to have the capability to vet every telephone call, email and internet visit made in the UK, which has already provoked an outcry.”

20. Britain will make foreigners carry RFID identity cards and will put us in a huge, Orwellian database: the rest of Britain will be next - “Earlier this year, I married my British fiancee and switched my visa status from ‘Highly Skilled Migrant’ to ‘Spouse.’ This wasn't optional: Jacqui Smith, the British Home Secretary, had unilaterally (and on 24 hours' notice) changed the rules for Highly Skilled Migrants to require a university degree, sending hundreds of long-term, productive residents of the UK away (my immigration lawyers had a client who employed over 100 Britons, had fathered two British children, and was nonetheless forced to leave the country, leaving the 100 jobless). Smith took this decision over howls of protests from the House of Lords and Parliament, who repeatedly sued her to change the rule back, winning victory after victory, but Smith kept on appealing (at tax-payer expense) until the High Court finally ordered her to relent (too late for me, alas).

    “Now, it seems, I will become one of the first people in Britain to be forced to carry a mandatory biometric RFID card in a pilot programme being deployed first to foreign students and we spousal visa holders (government is looking to curtail spousal visas altogether, capping all visas at 20,000 per year, including spousal visas, denying Britons the right to bring their spouses into the country once the quota has been filled). The card will be eventually linked to all of the national databases -- credit, health, driving, spending. These are the same databases that the government has been repeatedly losing and haemmorhaging by the tens of million (literally).

    “My family fled the Soviet Union after the war. They were displaced people (my father was born in a refugee camp in Azerbaijan) who destroyed their papers to protect themselves from the draconian authorities who sought to limit their travel and migration. I used to think it was ironic that my family had gone from Europe to Canada and back to Europe again in a generation, but now I don't know how long the Doctorows will be staying in Europe -- or at least in the UK. The green and pleasant land has suspended habeas corpus, instituted street searches without particularlized suspicion, encourages its citizens to spy and snitch on each other, and now has issued mandatory universal papers that will track we dirty immigrants as we move around our adopted ‘home,’ as part of a xenophobic campaign to arouse fear and resentment against migrants.”

21. Local councils accused of spying on residents' sex lives - “The Conservatives say local government officials are monitoring couples' sleeping arrangements for council tax purposes. They have released documents they say shows that councils are invading households' privacy to check on claims for council tax discounts. More than 7.5 million people claim a 25 per cent discount on their council tax bill because they live alone. Councils are responsible for verifying that people who claim to live alone really do so.

    “A ‘surveillance dossier’ used by Rotherham Council and released under freedom of information laws has shown how claims are checked. The document suggests officials undertake ‘surveillance’ of cars registered to addresses ‘to substantiate the allegation of living together’. It also suggests surveillance ‘to establish if customer's partner is living at the property’ and to establish if couples are living ‘as husband and wife.’ Another local council, Thurrock in Essex, requires those applying for the single person exemption to sign a declaration agreeing that they will allow council officials to enter their home as part of an inspection.”

22. A quarter of adults to face 'anti-paedophile' tests - “The launch of a new Government agency will see 11.3million people vetted for any criminal past before they are approved to have contact with children aged under 16. But the increase in child protection measures is so great it is ‘poisoning’ relationships between the generations, according to respected sociologist Professor Frank Furedi. In a report for think tank Civitas, he said the use of criminal records bureau checks to ensure the safety of children and vulnerable adults has created an atmosphere of suspicion. As a result ordinary parents - many of whom are volunteers at sports and social clubs - now find themselves regarded ‘potential child abusers’. The checks were introduced to tighten procedures to protect children after school caretaker Ian Huntley murdered 10 year olds Jessica Chapman and Holly Wells in Soham in 2002. However, there are growing fears that the measures have now gone too far…

    “In one example, a woman could not kiss her daughter goodbye on a school trip because she had not been vetted. In another, a mother was surprised to be told by another parent that she and her husband were ‘CRB checked’ when their children played together. In a third example, a father was given ‘filthy looks’ by a group of mothers when he took his child swimming on his own in ‘a scene from a Western when the room goes silent and tumbleweed blows across the foreground’.”

Source: http://www.chycho.com/?q=UK_fascism_chycho2009