Civil liberties are seriously endangered by the so-called fight against terrorism...
The Sword of Damocles Threatening Civil Liberties
Monday 16 April 2007
Over the last few years, in the absence of significant threat there has been a growing political will to create a European army and to strengthen our stance against terrorism and transnational crime all the while decreasing our civil liberties. The origin of this trend is to be found across the Atlantic in the war on terror declared by President Bush after the 09/11 attacks. However, analysts now believe that the war on terror was a mistake from the beginning as it didnt fulfil its main declared objective: to ensure security. So why is Europe following the same path as the US?
The lie resides in the climate of fear maintained by governments and various organisations following a separate agenda. Recalling British Home Secretary John Reids words last year: We have to accept that the rights of the individual as we enjoy must and will be balanced with the collective right of security and the protection of life and limb that our citizens demand. Europols last report (April 2007) explicitly states that the EU as a political institution is increasingly being identified as a symbol and has already become threatened and targeted by terrorists. The new legislation on the creation of a fingerprint database, the exchange of personal data and the illegal transportation of presumed terrorists operated by the CIA in cooperation with some member states are clear signs of an outrageous decrease in civil liberties.
What could justify such a stance? Certainly not the number of deaths from terrorist attacks in relation to deaths caused by other factors. From 2001 to 2006, 304 persons have died in terrorist attacks in Western Europe. By comparison, between 2001 and 2004 Eurostat has reported 159,746 deaths by forms of transportation, 174,683 deaths by suicide (not suicide attacks) and 133,103 deaths by accidental falls. Instead of tackling real but politically acceptable causes of premature death, governments are investing an increasing amount of money in counter-terrorism technologies and armament. As a result, measures that are seriously harming civil liberties are taken very lightly. The UK is thus expected to spend 2 billion in 2007-2008, even though the thousands of CCTV cameras installed in London have proven to be inefficient in preventing the July 2005 bombings. The whole premise is based on the idea that technology, military surveillance and border control can prevent an unknown individual from committing a suicide attack in a public place, and yet nothing is done to work on the causes of terrorism
On Thursday 12th April, Warsaw and Prague received German backing for the creation of the anti-missile shield. Germanys defence minister Franz Josef Jung declared that the scheme could play an important protecting role for Europe as a whole. Jung has been quoted in press reports stating that, The threats have changed. We are facing threats related to international terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, proliferation and crisis and conflict situations. We have to react to that,. He is right, the threat is rising, and the world is probably less safe today than in the early nineties. However what Jung doesnt say is that the threat is also caused by the non-respect of the deterrence principle by both the US and the EU. Russia has already warned that the missile shield could re-launch the armament race and thus give birth to a new cold war.
Governments should probably learn the theory of self-fulfilling prophecy. By endlessly pretending that the West is subject to a permanent threat from Islamic states or terrorist organisations, governments are building the perfect conditions for what Samuel Huntington named The Clash of Civilisations".
Sources: EUobserver, Europol, Eurostat