top
International
International
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Meanwhile, Back in Britain... The Global War on Civil Liberties

by CounterPunch (reposted)
Two pieces of legislation currently wending their way through Britain's Parliament illustrate how the war on terror is being used to dismantle the very freedoms it's supposed to secure. Both criminalise the expression of ideas and neither is likely to deal effectively with the problem it purports to address. They are opportunistic gambits, characteristic of a government whose moralistic bombast is in inverse proportion to the morality of its behaviour.

In the wake of the July 7th London bombings, the Labour government introduced yet another anti-terror bill (its third in five years). So extreme were its provisions that even normally supine backbench Labour MPs rebelled. A proposal to allow police to detain terrorist suspects without charge for up to 90 days was defeated though the compromise measure allowing 28 days detention still represented a doubling of the existing limit.

Even in its amended form, the bill contains an insidious clause creating a new offence of "encouragement of terrorism which will outlaw any statement that "glorifies terrorism. Speeches, books, films, DVDs, CDs, websites, "images as well as words, will all be subject to the new ban, which will apply to the "glorification of either specific terrorrist acts or "acts of terrorism in general, "whether in the past, in the future or generally, and whether or not the "glorification was intentional or inadvertent. Those who publish or disseminate offensive statements are as liable as those who make them.

Read More
http://counterpunch.org/marqusee12192005.html
Add Your Comments
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$140.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network