Jenni Russell: The all-seeing state is about to end privacy as we know it | Comment is free | The Guardian

You might suppose that the economic tornado hitting Britain would cause the government to focus its energy and resources very tightly on the political projects that are of undoubted value. This is not, after all, the moment to be wasting either political or financial capital. But you would be wrong. Faced with a crisis that it patently can't control, the government is instead seeking to exert power where it still can: over us.

The state's latest plan to watch us makes every other imminent intrusion seem limited. Next month's Queen's speech will contain a brief reference to an innocuous-sounding communications data bill. But what this means is the development of a centralised database that will track, in real time, every call we make, every website we visit, and every text and email we send. That information will then be stored and analysed - perhaps for decades. It will mean the end of privacy as we know it.

Also:

ABC News: Exclusive: Inside Account of U.S. Eavesdropping on Americans

Despite pledges by President George W. Bush and American intelligence officials to the contrary, hundreds of US citizens overseas have been eavesdropped on as they called friends and family back home, according to two former military intercept operators who worked at the giant National Security Agency (NSA) center in Fort Gordon, Georgia.

'Terrorist' is literally the new black - it's being used as a convenient excuse to dole out the kind of authoritarian abuse that the sus laws were notorious for.

And if the Treasury can confiscate foreign assets, it can just as easily confiscate personal assets in a time of 'national emergency.'

The recent use of "anti-terror" legislation to freeze Icelandic bank assets in the UK highlights is clear evidence that such laws apply far beyond "terrorism."

Further, the repeated use of those same terror laws to suppress legitimate democratic expression (going back at the very least to October 2003) gives little hope that such overreach will be limited to times of immediate and serious crisis. Even former heads of counter-terrorist units have voiced their concern over the scope and vagueness of some of the terror laws that have been passed throughout the European Union, which should certainly give pause for thought.

As the collapse of the East bloc has shown, a society cannot remain competitive in the globalised world if its citizens must constantly look over their shoulder in fear of the secret police. Thus, thorough revision and re-evaluation of the terror laws that have been passed since Fall 2001 should thus be of the highest priority for all who value a free, open and democratic society.

With the highest regard,
[signed, etc.]

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Is the second-to-last sentence too full of bullshit? I tried to put in some of the usual Globollocks lingo that doesn't mean a whole lot but seems to go down well with editors of LTE pages, but I fear that I may have overdone it.

- Jake

Ceterum censeo Chicago esse delendam

Procedure for making freezing orders

(1) A power to make a freezing order is exercisable by statutory instrument.

(2) A freezing order--

(a) must be laid before Parliament after being made;

(b) ceases to have effect at the end of the relevant period unless before the end of that period the order is approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament (but without that affecting anything done under the order or the power to make a new order).

(3) The relevant period is a period of 28 days starting with the day on which the order is made.

(4) In calculating the relevant period no account is to be taken of any time during which Parliament is dissolved or prorogued or during which both Houses are adjourned for more than 4 days.

(5) If the Treasury propose to make a freezing order in the belief that the condition in section 4(2)(b) is satisfied, they must not make the order unless they consult the Secretary of State.

(My emphasis)

*Traitor*, n.
A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.

you are the media you consume.