US surveillance compared to UK surveillance (Brown, terrorist, government, state)

[Cheasare]

Link to article from The Guardian Guardian Unlimited | Comment is free | Beware of Mr Brown. He's after your rights

A few highlights from the article:

"...He [Gordon Brown, inserted by poster] has asked for 56 days' detention without charge and has placed ID cards, now referred to as 'ID security' - cleverly linking the cards to ideas of personal protection - at the heart of the counter-terrorist strategy. Neither measure is proven to add to our capacity to fight terror, yet both represent the gravest possible menace to the store of freedom in this country. In the name of security, the state increases its power over the individual and will be soon be in a position to apply it in areas of our life that have nothing to do with the fight against al-Qaeda. That is why a Labour government again attempts to entrench ID cards in the armoury of terror measures, even though they clearly did not stop Madrid and would not have stopped the 7/7 bombers."

"...We should not be finessed by the charm of Gordon Brown's seriousness to accept short-term measures that damage our liberty in the long term. And if we want to know his true attitudes to liberty and rights, we have only to watch his behaviour in other areas of the law. Besides the question of demonstrations in and around Parliament Square, we have not heard him address a word on the rights that Tony Blair took away from us so high-handedly - nothing on the freedom to protest, public order laws, mass interception of private correspondence, the use of terror laws to pursue ordinary criminal matters or the unscrutinised surveillance of British motorways and town centres. The hard fact is that Gordon Brown may be a much more organised and more intelligent foe than any of us in Liberty Corner realised. "

The similarities are glaring and despite the coolness of Gordon Brown when speaking with GWB yesterday, they appear to share a similar position with regard to intelligence gathering. Read some of the comments from UK citizens following the article and you will notice shared sentiments. Two things to consider: 1) Trust in the government to use gathered information appropriately 2) Long term consequences of this new position

C.