Terrorism
As I embark on my masters I thought I should look at a few people's view on 'tackling terrorism'. Right now I think that the concept itself is nonsensical, but I will keep an open mind as I do my research.
Here is Liberty's view:
Governments have a duty to take steps to protect citizens from terrorism, but this does not justify side-stepping democratic values. Since the Prevention of Terrorism Acts of the 1970s terrorism laws have done little to ensure that we are safe from terrorist attack, but much to infringe the human rights and civil liberties of those living in the UK. - After 9/11 the Government introduced indefinite detention without charge of foreign nationals. This was replaced by the control order regime which allows government ministers to impose sweeping restrictions on individual freedoms on the basis of secret intelligence and suspicion. - Pre-charge detention has been increased from 14 days to 28 days, with further extensions threatened. - Broad new speech offences impact on free speech rights and non-violent groups have been outlawed. - Our right to protest has been seriously curtailed, including by the misuse of police powers. Terrorism can and must be fought without sacrificing our human rights. Repression and injustice, and the criminalisation of non-violent speech and protest make us less safe, not more. They act as a recruiting sergeant to extremism and marginalise those whose engagement is vital to the effective fight against terrorism. They undermine the values that separate us from the terrorist, the very values we should be fighting to protect.
posted by Scribbler @ 06:04
4 comments
4 Comments:
This life I'll be mostly agreeing with them, then.
When faced with the stark reality of terrorism at home, I think most people woul gladly give up some of their liberties in exchange for greater safety - depends which ones. Personally, the problem comes when they take them without asking and when we don't see any benefit to the change.
I'm not sure if we are faced with terrorism. I think the real threat is counter terrorism. It creates an atmosphere that people feel threatened by and react against. I think it was Che Guevara who said that if there is nothing to rebel against there will be no rebels. What we are doing is creating a situation that people feel they need to stand up against.
What she said. Take away civil liberties, invade countries, imprison their people with no trials, and then claim that people who oppose the west are terrorists and it's because of them we need to take away more civil liberties. Vicious circle.
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