Big Brother is definitely here

Wow. I'm suprised England is going to allow that.

"The EU is close to finalising an agreement with the US that would allow the FBI to see the internet browsing habits and credit card histories of UK citizens."

I know it the EU but I am suprised that England is letting the EU do this. Since they are an EU member I would think they should have a say rather than letting the EU dictate this policy to them. Also why is it only the UK and no one else?

http://www.guardian....

This is the full article, all about other aspects of big bro in your daily life.. All of this is kinda spooky indeed. All those who say I have noting to hide ect well you miss the point. This type of action says you are guilty until proven innocent and not the other way around..

This surveillance onslaught is draconian and creepy

The cameras, they are multiplying - and now they even have ears. But the state hasn't stopped to run the plan past us

Closed-circuit TV cameras are the crime-fighting tool so fiendishly sophisticated that they can be foiled by the wearing of a hood. Yet having stuck 4.2 million of the things around this country, with nary a consultation on the matter - nor any significant impact on crime statistics - efforts to pimp them to 2.0 status continue

This week it emerged that scientists at Portsmouth University are developing "listening" cameras. Artificial intelligence software will be able to recognise sounds such as breaking glass, so that, when such a noise is detected, they can rotate in its direction and capture the act of vandalism/terrorism/God that resulted in a milk bottle falling off your doorstep. I paraphrase slightly, but given that the most recent Home Office report on the matter found that better street lighting is seven times more effective at cutting crime than CCTV, the truly suspicious behaviour is our deepening obsession with surveillance.

The past few years have thrown up dozens of instances which made one wince to be a citizen of this septic isle, but a personal low came with the discovery that 500,000 bins had been fitted with electronic tracking devices. Transponders in bins ... Could any morning news item be more designed to force one back against the pillows, too embarrassed about one's country to start the day? Yes, as it turned out. A couple of months ago it was discovered that Poole borough council, in Dorset, had used the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act - designed to track serious criminals and terrorists - to determine whether a school applicant and her parents lived where they said they did. They did, and were appalled to discover they had been spied on for three weeks, the subject of surveillance notes such as "female and three children enter target vehicle and drive off". Target vehicle, if you please! The thought of some deep-cover council drone jotting this stuff down as though it were an elite Delta Force operation is not as funny as it is horrifying.

Just who are these people, these swelling legions of unelected, ill-qualified monitors who wield such extraordinary power in our surveillance society? Clarification in one case came last year, when the civilian in charge of a Worcester police station's surveillance team was suspended after detectives found, among one day's footage, a 20-minute sequence of close-ups of a woman's cleavage and backside as she walked oblivious through the streets. Whether the woman ever discovered she was the star of a kind of pervert Truman Show is not recorded. But the offending monitor escaped with a warning and was - unbelievably - back in post within weeks.

In some city centres, such as Middlesbrough, speakers have been put on the cameras, so that those monitoring can interact with potential miscreants. Let's hope these remote bossy boots imagine they're involved in some high-level negotiation, in which they talk down a teenager from his decision to drop a hamburger wrapper on the pavement.

The former home secretary John Reid, on whose draconian watch the Middlesbrough scheme was approved, even suggested at its launch that schoolchildren should enter a competition to become the voice of the cameras - once again laying bare the government's desire to co-opt its citizens into the surveillance process at all levels. We are, of course, coming up to the time of year when we are ordered to shop our neighbours for acts of hosepipe, while the Shoreditch Trust recently trialled a scheme encouraging residents to watch live CCTV feeds on a special local channel, the better to assist in policing.

For all this creepy "outreach", though, the only hands-down beneficiaries of our CCTV obsession (apart from the revenue gatherers) have been broadcasters. For no good reason, all manner of TV networks have been furnished with hours of footage to pad out their witless police chase documentaries, or offensively cheap "street crime UK" shows. Britain's CCTV network: proudly supporting the Bravo channel.

The worst thing is the blithe insistence that this is all necessary and normal. We are watched more closely, by more cameras, with each passing day. But so faultlessly designed is our society that we have never come close to having a say on it.

There's a great bit in Woody Allen's movie Deconstructing Harry when Robin Williams's character goes out of focus, appearing as a sort of fuzzy version of himself, which sounds increasingly like the sort of sickness that should be courted by any attractive woman keen to walk through Worcester. That said, she could always don a hood. Yet there does seem a vaguely depressing irony in governments insisting that constant surveillance is essential to prevent our being overrun by repressive regimes who'd make us all cover our heads and the like. It's these initiatives that drive even the most pliant members of society to dream of taking just that precaution themselves, if only for a bit of privacy.

I agree its very scary and in my opinion an infringement on civil liberties..

However, in relation to my article, I would agree with MP..

best way is to boycott the USA all together... Trouble is its easier said than done...

Aye Brit, haven't been to the US in over 24 years, my boycott has been in place for quite some time!

So lets do some protests Brit.. you can put your underwear on your head and I'll cover my face.... that should raise some eyebrows.

No your really right! We need to stand up for ourselves even if we stand alone. One person can make a difference!

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

They are the worlds police after all ............

.

NIL ILLEGITIMI CARBORUNDUM

Paul, is it really "everybody" else?

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

good point alexa! is it everybody else?

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

quite frankly, i am a little paranoid too...after 9/11, Riyadh, Al Khobar, Jeddah, London, Madrid......

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

Besides being a paranoid person aren't you just a bit curious as to whether these were all set up by the us in the first place?

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

As the saying goes.. "to be forewarned is to be forearmed...

We should be a little paranoid, but our governments and their agencies are going to far and we are losing our civil liberties..

As an example; The UK, passed a law allowing councils to "tap" people's phones if they were suspected of illegal acts.. This was mainly in response to terrorist threats..

It seems , many councils have been using phone tappeing to spy on householders to get information relating to house extensions, council tax, benefit claims etc..

this is to me an abuse of the system..

Part of world policing...

Every lady hopes that her daughter will marry a better man than she did. And is convinced that her son will never find a wife as good as his father did!!!

How do you know those fanatic, brutal and have no sense for others does not also describe the USA goverment?

At the end of the day, they are out for themselves. this is in all the political uni textbooks if one dares to read. The very core of American politics is state domination of other territories.

how do we know that these attacks were not created by the USA in order to dominate the world through all these terrorism so called protection schemes?

The threat to yourself and person is far less by a few fanatical muslims then the US. In fact, the more control the US has the more freedom fighters we are going to see. Some who get the mark wrong and see bombing as a good thing. And the more control america has the more capability they will have to create false evidence (like the war in Iraq) to persecute those individual freedom fighters (harmless muslim and non muslim) who do not agree with world domination by the state.

Their is no democracy in this type of political system and alot of people will no longer have the right to protest for their rights and expect to be heard. And although I personally believe democracy is a red herring, even the idea will become non existant if we allow the goverment to monopolize our lives and control every move we make.

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

Its the old question about "who watches the watcher".

Terrorism has to be addressed and on a global scale. however, the gathering and use of information/data has to be controlled to safe guard civil rights and liberties..

The following is real can be taken as funny, but shows the dangers...

Swedish authorities arrested a man for libel for falsely sending the FBI an email, ratting out his son-in-law by saying he had Al Qaeda ties.

The 40 year-old son-in-law was in the midst of divorcing the man's daughter, and his wife wanted him stay home and help with their child instead of traveling to the U.S., Agence France-Presse reports.

When the husband refused to stay home, his father-in-law wrote an email to the FBI saying the son-in-law had links to al-Qaeda in Sweden and that he was travelling to the US to meet his contacts.

He provided information on the flight number and date of arrival in the US.

The son-in-law was arrested upon landing in Florida. He was placed in handcuffs, interrogated and placed in a cell for 11 hours before being put on a flight back to Europe...

Right...and 9/11 and all that was just fantasy, a bad dream, best to be forgotten.

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

Alexa - Freedom Fighters are here also ;(

My sister lives in Poole, Dorset, (it's our home too). Recently a letter was sent by the council threatening her with prison if she failed to immediately bring in her wheelie bin after the refuse collectors (bin men) had been. They come at 11am on a Tuesday, she is being penalised for being one of the few people in the area who actually works. She has to come home at lunchtime now in case they come and take photos. I also believe that their new found confidence to bully innocent people about refuse (rubbish) comes from a new found power. I would happily submit my privacy to a government capable of running the country. Let me know if we get one...

Well, ther's something called too much information. Like You build up a huge haystack n then u look for a pin....

Terror groups world wide are getting much smarter in communications and finance. They depend on simplistic solutions like a messenger on a bike rather than satellites or phones. Was reading something abt coded messages thru internet sites teh other day...

Travel histories n such will not show whether it was the same person hu travelled in diff names...

But corporates might hav beter use for the info, i feel.

Somebody told me, "You are what you eat".Now I know why I'm nuts!!

winn - any freedom fighters in Goa :( I will but them that drink for more freedom ;)

the idea is to gather as much data as possible, so matter how disparate and then use "intelligent analytical systems" to produce patterns or predict actions.

This is feasible. However, as with anything, it is not 100% accurate.

this was my whole point... Jobsworths get power and it goes to their heads.

Life is not as simple as it used to be... Now communications are easier, travel is easier and the internet has brought people together.

"Data Mining" is now a maturing science.

Ofcourse another reason is that security is big business and billions of dolars are at stake.

PH, because, with 9/11 eg. it turned out, that those people were educated in the tasks ahead quite some time before they happened.
Are you saying Al Qaeda does not exist? That they are stumbeling fools? Not to be taken serious? Why don't you tell that to the people who were so badly affected by their actions? I am sure you can find some people in London who have lost family and friends due to the actions of those people.
And IF the government is lying....the dead, IMHO speak for themselves.
The people who are not agreeing with the governments actions should than see to it themselves that those inflicting those horrors on others are brought to justice...maybe a good idea...would save the taxpayer a lot of money...but that is not going to happen...is it?

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

Alexa it has been well recognized that Al Qaeda does not exist. Even the US goverment has made a statement that this name was created initially by the US!

Yes Osama exists.. yes he influenced a few fools.. Yes they trained in some tactics.. through connections but they were not as organized as you think. I didn't want to say.. although I typed it many times but I happen to know nawaf al ghamdi who was in one of the attacks. He was not religious.. in fact he failed his studies from partying too much and knowing his personality probably thought it would be a fun ride. He was known to do stupid things like that and make rash decisions. I talked to his father one time and he was pretty upset with Nawaf about failing his studies and having girlfriends.

So yes I am trying to say that America has completely exaggerated the whole situation. And Al Qaeda does not exist.

Hence one of the reasons I do not believe a word that comes out of the medias mouth. Having experienced them writing articles about me and my family for decades and also knowing quite a few people who have been connected with Al Qaeda and sent to guat. bay.

One guy in particular had an anti western website in which he advocated rebellion against the west. In fact, I know of this guy so well that I would stake my life on the fact that he never even heard of Al Qaeda and never ever took part in the planning or actions of any terrorist act.

I have known guys who have been afghanistan to fight against russia. And not one of them have heard of Al Qaeda..

It just doesn't bloody exist! And Osama is not the ring leader of some sophisticated organization as he can barely look after himself at the moment. If he is still really alive.

So hell no I don't believe a word that comes out of the media concerning terrorism.

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

I agree that the "terrorism" threat is being played tio the full by governments to gain more control over individuals...However, the threat is real..

I was in a compound that was hit by terrorists in Saudi Arabia. Luckily, we managed to hide in the laundry room whilst the gunfight went on. My house was damaged, my son suffered minor injuries, my car destroyed and a dear 'muslim' friend was killed along with his wife and two children aged 3 years and 4 months. When i ventured out, I found my neighbour's three year old daughter in shock.

Please tell me that this was not the work of terrorists, especially in a Muslim country.

Habibah...people like you are actually helping this cancer to spread...why? Simple...by denying it...sad though, where people like you could be on the front lines fighting it...you are the ones who know it...but no, you don;t..so the government, as uninformed as it may be, has to do the dirty work.

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

Alexa people like me are actually part of the solution! As terrorism is not part of Islam in any way!

I'm not one to pull wool over other peoples eyes or myself about Islam. I am very straight forward and have well researched my religion.

Whats more I am an american who was at one time young and naive to believe that America always had the worlds best interest in mind. However after my own personal experiences with some of the so called criminals who committed these acts I am no longer convinced.

If their was such a network then as I said.. alot of muslims such as myself would know about it.

And I cannot believe that any smart or intelligent person would believe the propaganda just because someone/or news station tells you it is the truth. If someone told you to jump off a bridge would you listen to them too?

The fact is that no one knows the entire truth! And no one can trust any goverment after they have already been caught in so many lies!

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

Habibah, I know that Islam, the true Islam, has nothing at all to do with this.Never the less, people who commit these acts claim it does.
Habibah, a member of my family was in such an attack,also in Saudi. And my family and I lived in fear for quite some time , due to it. Now Saudi has taken rather vigorous steps to diminish those "deviants" as they are called there.But, it is easy for them, as they a. recognize the threat, and b. have a rather draconian regime which gives them the freedom to do as they please.
Besides, if even Saudi has rid themselves of Osama...how do you think other countries feel about him and his followers?

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

if you want to feel safe & have your people feel safe, well then stop your terrorist acts against others...no? :-)
if you want to invade countries & kill people here & there then it is very fair that you & your people will get a share of the fire-works

For every action there is a reaction

Even a child knows this fact :-)

A friend's teenage son suddenly disppeared to Pakistan five years ago.. They managd to trackhim down to the Afghan border and py a ransom to bring him back...

Thousands of Saudis, Pakitanis and Arabs went to fight initially against the Russians in Afghanistan. Some even went to Chehniya.. Many are now fighting in Iraq..

Why are so many doing this and why doesn't the peacefulmajority take steps to stop this??

First things is first... the war against russia in afghanistan was considered an islamically condoned jihaad. So was the war in chech. And most muslims agree with that.

The only reason the invasion of america against afghanistan was not legistlated by the scholars (although some muslims still warranted it as a jihad due to their own support of the taliban) is because the taliban were deobandites and on plain error according to many scholars. However, for alot of muslims this is still up in the air and many believe that America had no right to invade a country for one individual and kill thousands in the process.

The situation is somewhat different in Iraq as Saddam hussein and the baathist party are considered non muslims by many scholars. Really it should have been a muslim country to sort the two of them out but we are too weak islamically to do so ...

Most of your average day (uneducated about islam) muslims are happy that saddam is gone. Particularly the shias and kurds and it is only very few who supported the iraqi regime who felt it an obligation to call jihaad in Iraq.

For both the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions by america many of the muslims who did not support the regimes simply felt that America had no business in those countries and therefore felt they were doing jihaad by protecting their muslim brothers and sisters who are being killed.

The same mentality exists concerning the crisis in palestine and also terrorist cells who believe that America and its supporters are the biggest murderers of this century. And they feel it is their islamic duty to fight against a non muslim power with a superiority complex that wishes to dictate and influence the way they live.

Where as the palestinians feel it is their islamic duty to fight in any means possible for their land and dignity that Israel and through americas support has been wrongfully taken away.

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

doesn't it make sense that some element of ignorance and being led astray had to happen from both sides for conflicts to have started.

A fight takes two to tango! And the cause was not the actual war. It would be naive to believe that every move America has made is for security measures. Given that their own political policy is to dominate other territories.
Both sides have alot of issues. And even more so both people have been subjected to leaders trying to justify their actions. And hide their faults.

All muslims had a legislated jihad in chechnya and Afghanistan because it was an invasion over land. Any persons right! Some (few) muslims felt protective of their muslims brothers in Afghanistan, Iraq and palestine from American and Israel invasions. Again it is also their right to protect their muslim brothers from such wrongful invasion. And in fact, the only reason the scholars said it was unlawful was 1.) unlawful to do so in protecting the corrupt regimes and 2.) because we did not have enough strength to fight against America or Israel and therefore needed to take a step back and gain more strength.

And personally I would have not hesitated had the scholars called for jihaad due to America and Israel unlawfully invading those countries.

However, jihaad does not include suicide bombings or killing innocent people. I.e. going to europe and blowing a few things up.

That is all due to our (wests) ignorance and being led astray due to our own (the wests) hunger for power and control which have had negative consequences in the Islamic world. We are a victim of the international problems our goverments have created due to our own superiority complexes. (I.E. we think we have the best system in the world and decree that all others should think so too)

Having said all that .. how serious is the terrorist threat truly? (not the media scare it is made to be) And how can we, in the west, show the muslims that we are all not bad and voice our opinions concerning the wrongs of our goverment. (not being racist and islamicphobic would be a start)

Earlier you mentioned that muslims don't have a voice.. I would like to know where is the voice of westerners who are against the terrorist and atrocities supported and enacted by western goverments. Why do you guys not speak up against such things. And try to support muslims and also sympathise with their situation?

At the end of the day, while I do not agree with the ideology of the majority muslims. And definately not the terrorist acts of the minorities. I also do not agree with the unprecedented support of and westerners who also have their head buried in the sand concerning their own goverments.

Maryum : Umm Hasan bint Abdullah Alshabrawishi

With all due respect. I write to the western papers regularly. When there are protests against the war, it is usually the "westerners" who march and make their voices heard.. The majority of Muslims sit at home and complain of government policies and racism, but don't take to the streets or make their voices heard..

You keep talking about scholars . Why not think for yourself. Stand up for what you think is right. Let your voice be heard...Too many muslims are led astray by so called scholars..

Alexa, Please watch this youtube video regarding whether al-Qa'eeda exists or not.

http://www.youtube.c...

The foremost expert in this field is shown in this video. His name is Jason Burke and wrote a very telling book called 'Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam'

Game recognizes game and you're looking kinda unfamiliar right now... -- Riley Freeman

The root causes of the dissatisfaction Muslims feel against Western powers are numerous. I am sure that some are justified.

However, the taking of lives and carrying out acts of terrorism is not only against the essence of islam, but also acts to widen the gap of misunderstanding.

This means you guys ARE electing the evil governments that are having wars & invasions around the world, thus you are actually participating, as civillians, in these wars...so you have to take the consequences!

Mcm, very interesting...could only see part of it though...it constantly stops...:(
Regardless of IF or if NOT al Qaeda exists, attacks have happened in their name...it does to me, not matter under what name those people operate, fact is, they do.

A sense of humour is just common sense dancing, sadly, common sense has left the building and is dancing somewhere else.
Alexa

Alexa I understand where you are coming from... BUT... I think it does matter...

If covert factions who operate within certain 'democracies' are utilizing this NAME in order to fuel the fire in a 'war' on terror... PLEASE... see how much that matters....

Game recognizes game and you're looking kinda unfamiliar right now... -- Riley Freeman

bin Laden... or as I prefer to call him 'Emmanuel Goldstein'... is a tool.

He is the fanatic's head cheerleader... My brain will not let me believe that this man is responsible for anything other than being a cheerleader....

In fact, directly after the Sept 11 attacks he denied responsibilty BUT praised the acts... THEN when he realized this was his wet dream come true... He started saying how they had planned this for such and such a time...

Reichstag..... Marinus van der Lubbe.... Twin Towers/Pentagon.... Usamaah bin Laden.....

Game recognizes game and you're looking kinda unfamiliar right now... -- Riley Freeman