by Sarah Meyer

Research does not include either marine surveillance, medically-related surveillance and only little of the expensive drone surveillance in the US wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

1. INTRODUCTION

HENRY PORTER, much respected columnist for the Observer, was the main inspiration for this research on surveillance. Porter has had an impressive career, which includes being the London editor of Vanity Fair.

Porter has recently published his superb novel, The Dying Light , which has ten 5* reviews on Amazon.co.uk. The book is also No. 1 on the 'spy stories' best seller list. This book is cheaper to buy on amazon.co.uk than on the US amazon website.

Porter writes: “Spy fiction used to explore the murky no man's land between rival superpowers, but now the threat to freedom lurks far closer to home..”

In the name of “National Security”, one of the biggest lies is “making you safer .” This absurd promise applies to surveillance as well as to the reason for prisons, torture, rendition (kidnapping),, etc. But “Making you safer” is really about making money for corporations.

An article in The American Chronicle says: ”The governments of the major countries have put stimulus packages in place to aid industry in an effort to maintain employment, encourage apprenticeships and training and support the ongoing research and development that is necessary for growth.”

Surveillance is especially important in making fortunes for the US military-industrial complex on the backs of taxpayers.

Surveillance supports governmental ‘fear-mongering.’ Fear mongering, governments hope, will stop protests.

The UK surveillance system mirrors the present US Martial Law buildup, now with the excuse of H1N1 swine flu.

“The failure to be free is always the result of inner cowardice and passivity, of lack of determination in the assertion of your will in accordance with the voice of conscience.” Sculpting in Time , Andrei Tarkovsky 1986, (p. 237)

2. OBAMA’S AFPAK WARS

“Many theorists see Sicily’s history of banditry interwoven with that of the Mafia as a kind of continuing resistance to foreign occupations – six in all – which never permitted the creation of a stable state. … Since the state offered no protection, it fell to the individual to do what he could to defend himself, and his best recourse was to join forces with other victims of oppression in the organisation of underground action. Thus, according to the theory, the Mafia was born.” Norman Lewes, The Happy Ant Heap

Afghanistan Testing Afghanistan Assumptions 28.09.09. John Kerry, wsj. Some have argued that counterterrorism commandos and sophisticated surveillance might be effective at targeting al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan. 

“Afghans value their privacy and many are suspicious of British and American motives.’

UK-style surveillance state spreads to Afghanistan 01.10.09. wired. The relative helplessness of soldiers in Afghanistan could soon end. In the next few months, a surprisingly unwarlike piece of kit inspired by the CCTV cameras that have proliferated in British cities and beyond, might tip the odds in favour of successful coalition counter-strikes, while reducing further the risk to civilians. That, in turn, could help turn the tide against the Taliban in embattled provinces such as Wardak. / Cameras, infrared sensors and miniature radars, mounted in clusters to 30-metre towers or dangled from a 15-metre-long aerostat blimp, are giving more and more coalition troops such a precise view of Taliban shooters that coalition artillery and mortar crews will be cleared to fire back more often, confident that they won't hit civilians. / … Officially called the "Base Expeditionary Targeting and Surveillance Sensors-Combined," but usually referred to as the "Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment" (RAID), the elevated sensor system is central to the strategy of the British, American, Canadian and Dutch forces in Afghanistan. / Surveillance technology just might help win the Afghanistan war for the coalition, but it would be a victory at a high price. Just as the spread of security cameras in the UK has alarmed civil rights advocates and the many everyday citizens caught in their unblinking gaze, the expanding Afghan surveillance state buys security at the price of the very freedoms the coalition is trying to bring to Afghanistan.

Battle of Wanat - Inside the Ambush 05.10.09. CBS. They also fired [ illegal ] white phospherous artillery at what they believed was a Taliban campfire. The rounds which were never intended to be used against personnel. They were supposed to be protecting the population but according to the report the people "whose homes were being leveled and . . . Neighborhoods . . . turned into battlefields .. / Saw no . . . Improvement in their lives and no real evidence of security." Despite signs of an impending attack, unmanned surveillance drones which had been watching over the platoon were diverted to a higher priority mission. . . . For more on Wanat, see here. Attack of the Drones 21.10.09. Priya Satia, The Nation. "Attack of the Drones," a homage to the lesser of the Star Wars trilogies, is the headline of choice in reports on the One Good Thing to come out of the "war on terror": very cool gadgets. With the media stoking laddish pleasure in "weapons porn" (Newsweek's phrase), we might be forgiven for forgetting that this "greatest, weirdest, coolest hardware in the American arsenal" has neither brought the war to a swifter end nor enabled the capture of archenemy Osama bin Laden. / Indeed, behind the glittering mirage of news about the technological wizardry of drones and the giddy success of manufacturers from California to Karachi lies a chilling void of information about their use.

Israel drones to be used by Germany in Afghanistan 28.10.09. AP. Israel Aerospace Industries said Wednesday it would supply unmanned spy planes to Germany that will see action in Afghanistan early next year. / .. It would not reveal how many drones were sold or for how much but said it was a multimillion dollar deal. Nimrod crash review: MoD put budget targets ahead of safety (29.10.09. Telegraph)

Obama signs bills for record Pentagon, Homeland Security spending 30.10.09. WSWS. US President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing the largest ever military budget, a gargantuan $680 billion for the Pentagon, including $130 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. On Thursday, he signed a spending bill funneling another $44 billion into the Department of Homeland Security, to strengthen the apparatus of state repression within the United States. / The back-to-back bill signings are a clear demonstration that Obama is extending and intensifying the program of militarism and attacks on democratic rights for which the Bush administration was deservedly hated, in the United States and worldwide.

NATO forces turn to warlords 31.10.09. Gareth Porter, Asia Times. … United States and other NATO military contingents operating in the provinces of Afghanistan's predominantly Pashtun south and east have been hiring private militias controlled by Afghan warlords, according to these sources, to provide security for their forward operating bases, other bases and to guard convoys./ General Stanley McChrystal, the US's chief in Afghanistan, has acknowledged that US and NATO ties with warlords have been a cause of popular Afghan alienation from foreign military forces. But the policy is not likely to be reversed anytime soon, because US and NATO officials still have no alternative to the security services the warlords provide.

& PAKISTAN

Attack of the Obama drones: covering up the grisly facts 21.10.09. Stop the War. Drone surveillance is fast becoming the excuse for an extended American presence over Iraq and Afghanistan. But the US military's certainty of the drones' effectiveness is difficult to take on trust, when it neither counts nor identifies those killed. Related: ‘US Drone Attacks May Break International Law’ (28.10.09. AFP / ICH) US drone strikes against suspected terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan could be breaking international laws against summary executions, the UN’s top investigator of such crimes said Tuesday. / ‘"You have the really problematic bottom line that the CIA is running a program that is killing significant numbers of people and there is absolutely no accountability in terms of the relevant international laws,' Alston said.

U.S. Military Providing Surveillance Video 23.10.09. post chronicle. The South Waziristan campaign , which began a week ago, is designed to root out the Taliban, al-Qaida and other terror groups [protestors] suspected of using the tribal region as a sanctuary to launch attacks including across the border in Afghanistan against U.S. and NATO forces. / The Times report said the help [sic] strengthens Pakistan's intelligence gathering and points to how the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama wants to deal with the insurgency in Pakistan [3rd US war] as part of its overall Afghan war strategy [2nd US war] / .. The current use of military drones for intelligence gathering is different from the Predator attacks carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the Times said.

U.S. Speeds Aid to Pakistan to Fight Taliban 28.10.09 E. Schmitt, NY Times. Even as the Pakistani government plays down the American role in its military operations in Taliban-controlled areas along the border with Afghanistan, the United States has quietly rushed hundreds of millions of dollars in arms, equipment and sophisticated sensors to Pakistani forces in recent months, said senior American and Pakistani officials. / … President Obama personally intervened at the request of Pakistan’s top army general to speed the delivery of 10 Mi-17 troop transport helicopters. Senior Pentagon officials have also hurried spare parts for Cobra helicopter gunships, night vision goggles, body armor and eavesdropping equipment to the fight. / American military surveillance drones are feeding video images and target information to Pakistani ground commanders, and the Pentagon has quietly provided the Pakistani Air Force with high-resolution, infrared sensors for F-16 warplanes, which Pakistan is using to guide bomb attacks on militants’ strongholds in South Waziristan

Clinton meets with Pakistani students in lively Q & A, but questions on drones are off limits (29.10.09. AP)

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Sarah Meyer is a researcher living in the UK. She is on the BRussels Tribunal Advisory Committee.

The url to 'SURVEILLANCE SOCIETIES', in its entirety is: http://indexresearch.blogspot.com/2009/10/surveillance-societies.html The shorter url is: http://tinyurl.com/yblntxf