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