Terrorism is not an excuse for the loss of our liberties

Terrorism is not an excuse for the loss of our liberties

By Dark Politricks

The war on terror has been used by the UK government as a battering ram to the rights of the citizens of this country. New laws have been passed including 2 new terrorism acts (2000 and 2006) which have restricted free speech, the rights of demonstrators to protest and have given the police new powers of stop and search and lets not forget the 28 days detention and control orders.

Now you may say "well you have nothing to fear unless you have something to hide" which is a bend over attitude that leads to fascism. I am not a terrorist but nor are most people who have been affected by this new age of fighting terrorism.

Its the thin edge of the wedge which has taken advantage of peoples justifiable fears about terrorist attacks to introduce laws that if only applied to real terrorists would be fine however who can forget the 82 year old Walter Wolfgang who was dragged out of the Labour conference for heckling Jack Straw under the terrorism act in 2005. Or what about Gordon Brown invoking the terrorism act to freeze Iceland's bank accounts during 2008?

Just these two acts alone prove how our government intends to use these new powers for reasons other than fighting terrorism.

Once the public has been forced into a mindset that demands protection from unseen shadowy terrorists and that they must be dealt with severely it then allows the government to widen the scope of what actually constitutes terrorism.

One day you are a protester exercising your legal right of protest the next you are a terrorist trying to overthrow the state with subversive acts. Take a look over the pond to see how the US government is trying to class gun owners, ex servicemen and Ron Paul supporters as domestic terrorists.

It seems that the US constitution is slowly being eroded bit by bit. I never used to understand the Americans fascination with their right to bear guns however the more I have read up about Thomas Jefferson and the other founding fathers and their desire to protect the people against the tyranny of government it makes perfect sense. I especially love the following two quotes that Jefferson made:

"No man shall ever be debarred the use of arms. The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

"And what country can preserve its liberties, if its rulers are not .warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.... The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."

I have come to have a renewed respect for the founding fathers of America and the contemporary patriots who want the US government to return to the constitution. The world would be a quieter and probably safer place if it did.

Even though Jefferson and Washington kicked their British rulers out during the war of Independence us Brits must never forget that the father of the revolution was Thomas Paine an Englishman whose books the Age of Reasonand the Rights of Man had enormous influence on the Age of Enlightenment and the revolutions of France and America.

Two new republics were born that decreed that man had inalienable rights that could not be taken away by government. Therefore when people see their government treating their constitution as "just a piece of paper"as George Bush famously called it and trampling over their rights including the right to bear arms as if their inalienable rights were just an outdated idea that had no place in this century then I can see why they get so upset over the 2nd amendment.

Here in the UK its too late as we are currently a disarmed nation since the massacres of Dunblane and Hungerford took our guns away but then unlike the Americans we never had an inalienable right to bare arms anyway.

In fact although the UK passed the first ever bill of rights in 1689 it was never thought necessary for us to have a written constitution like the French and Americans.

I personally think it would be in our own best interests to draw up our own document as soon as possible. Yes we have the Human Rights act of 1998 which the right wing media decries and complains about almost every other day as something that has been imposed on us from Europe. However ridiculous the examples the Daily Mail and Express use to denigrate this act seem we should never feel that getting rid of that act would be in our best interest.

Civil rights have been hard fought and won through years of battle between state and its populace and any document that tries to enshrine our rights for future prosperity should be cherished and held in high esteem. We should also remember that it was British lawyers that drew up the Europen Convention on human rights in 1950, that the act is based on, after the horrors of the second world war. So we should view this act as yet another example of us Brits bringing civil rights to the world rather than Europe imposing some alien concept on us.

From the Magna Carta in 1215, through to John Lockes and Thomas Hobbes social contract between man and the state through to the first Bill of Rights and then the Human Rights act we Brits have been at the forefront of civil rights and we should not let the fear of terrorism allow any of these hard won rights to be taken away as once gone they will probably not come back unless a Liberal Democrat government gets in power which seems most unlikely.

We are slowly walking down the path to a place that I don't want to call home. When George Orwells 1984 starts to become a commentary on modern times then we must all stop and ask ourselves what the hell is going on.

By Dark Politricks

The New UK Government Plans To Make Us All Terrorists

The New UK Government Plans To Make Us All Terrorists

By Dark Politricks

This is a recent video from Russell Brand about the new UK Tory governments plans for a new anti terror bill that will crack down on free speech and other civil liberties.

It seems that with every new government we get a new "anti terrorism" law passed, Tony Blair passed at least 2 that I can remember. They were mostly used for memorable things such as:

• Freezing all Icelandic money in UK banks after the Iceland Banking crisis - something which the Icelandic people have never forgiven us for. From my recent trip to Iceland I would not be surprised to see a statue of Gordon Brown put up in Reykjavik just so that people could throw tomatoes at it.
• Throwing out and then arresting OAP protestors from Labour conferences who dared shout out "liar" as the warmongers on stage defended their illegal war on Iraq.
• Allowing M16 / MI5 Agents to pass questions to CIA torturers at "black site" prisons and Gitmo, who then proceeded to abuse, humiliate and injure the prisoners many of which were innocent. The ones that are not, including leaders of the now destabilised mess of a country we "liberated" called Libya, are even now trying to sue the government for their complicity in torture e.g Abdul Hakim Belhaj. This included one incident in which one British jihadi’s fingernails were ripped out after MI6 suggested that a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency detain him, and MI5 and Greater Manchester police drew up questions to be put to him.
• Cracking down on tourists and other photographers within London taking photos of buildings as they could be "planning terrorist" attacks.

We should always be careful when "new" terrorism laws are proposed. Especially as with the current one it is to be "fast tracked" through government.

This means no proper debate over the merits of the bill and no proper time to propose amendments and changes to the bill.

Hopefully enough libertarian/liberal-minded Labour, Lib Dem, SNP and hopefully Tory back benchers will stand up against this act of tyranny.

As I said in my last piece, the UK Tory Government, freed of the shackles of coalition with liberals, are planning on repealing the Human Rights Act. A piece of legislation brought in by Tony Blair in the 90's but created from the European Convention on Human Rights which was drawn up by the Tory post war government to show to the world how civilised we should all be in future.

It is sad that a future Tory government is now going to remove this legislation due to a minority of cases where they have not been able to deport criminal immigrants due to their "right to a family life".

It seems that the Tories wish that if you are born in this country and your parents are not, that if they commit a crime they can now be ripped away from you leaving you with the choice to follow them to whatever horrible war-torn country they escaped from (Libya, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan...).

The question is what level of criminality requires this response. I can understand the Government wishing to get rid of terrorists, murderers and rapists but what about non-payment of Council Tax, a crime punishable by prison, which many British born OAPs have found themselves facing? What crimes would exact this level of response, does a list even exist?

It seems we English are sticklers for the rule of law even when we don't agree with small parts of it.

Instead of just ignoring section 8 of the Human Rights Act like France does whenever it wants to do something the EU prohibits we decide to throw the whole law away.

Instead of just declaring that the house of Commons is the supreme will of the people, and that if it votes to decide to remove someone from these shores because of a REAL terrorist crime then so be it, family or not. The problem comes with all the guff these bills include that label you and me "domestic terrorists" for speaking out against the Government, war, its foreign policy, support of Israel, or other civil rights that are being chipped away bit by bit never to return.

I have no problem if a REAL terrorist who is not a British citizen is deported at the end of his or her sentence. The problem is that the Government is proposing to throw the whole Human Rights Act away to achieve this instead of coming up with another solution.

If the House of Commons IS supposed to be the supreme will of the people because we have voted for it - try to forget the UKIP member who got 0 votes despite voting for himself for a moment, we don't have voter fraud in Western Democracies, it's just nasty evil countries like Russia that do things like that. Then a vote in the house should be enough to override any appeal on Human Rights grounds due to section 8. This is as long as the case has been proved beyond doubt, the convict has had his chance at appeal, and the criminal does in fact pose a threat to the country.

I am perfectly happy to see a UK Bill of Rights on TOP of, not INSTEAD of, the Human Rights Act, to achieve such aims if needed. I just don't want to see families ripped apart over nonsensical crimes or crimes that shouldn't even exist e.g drugs, protest, freedom of speech that goes against popular view etc.

David Cameron has gone on record to say that the belief that if you as a citizen "just followed the law you would be left alone", is now going to be turned on its head.

That in itself is worrying Hilter-esque language that could be taken to mean anything.

Wasn't an Englishman's home his castle?

Were we not the creators of law as it exists in many countries through the Magna Carta, Due Process, the idea that we are all innocent until proven guilty.

What about the social contract between citizen and state that meant we plebs had our rights and the government protected them and the country as long as we paid our taxes?

As Russell Brand says in the piece below, a similar piece of legislation which the Tories are basing their own law on, was recently brought into Canada and the people were appalled by it.

It meant that:

• Innocent words can be interpreted as terrorism - make of that what you will.
• Speaking "recklessly" which could lead to a terrorist act being committed is a crime. So speaking out about the increasing authoritarian nature of our world on this blog could lead to a mentally disturbed reader to go and fly a plane into a skyscraper and I would spend 5 years in jail - fair?
• Protesting could lead to government surveillance. So any kind of protest by Unions, Students, Occupy, or anybody against the increasing Police State be warned.
• Meddling with ANY CORPORATE INTERESTS could be interpreted as terrorism under the new UK act. So protests that prevent Vodafone from opening their doors (UKUncut beware!) or the use of Bitcoin or other electronic currencies that stopped the banks from monitoring your money could now be considered a crime.

Watch the video to see more and spread it.



Our rights are being eroded and we could all soon be considered terrorists for speaking our minds, protesting corruption and the corporate take over of our life.

Is that really terrorism or just the rights we should expect to enjoy as a member of a supposedly free country?



View the original article at Dark Politricks.

© 2015 By Dark Politricks

How privacy is becoming an antiquated concept

How privacy is becoming an antiquated concept

By Dark Politricks

It is amazing how much indoctrination we are submitted to throughout our lives and how little most people realise that they are being indoctrinated to accept a power system that subjugates and constricts our lives. It is through this indoctrination that our concept of privacy is slowly being eroded.

Indoctrination comes in many forms and has many purposes but the current major form of indoctrination is to condition the new generation of society that privacy is an ancient old fashioned concept.

Some of us old enough to remember the times before 9.11, and before that the growth of the Internet.

Both of these major events have affected the way democratic societies in the west have treated privacy and reduced limits on government and corporate snooping.

Here are just a few of the ways we are being conditioned to accept government spying and corporate control over our lives as nothing more than natural behaviour there to "protect us" from the all powerful evil terrorists that live under every rock and bush just waiting to pounce. 

1. Schools

Our schools are nothing more than factories for producing uneducated youth ready for the corporate jungle that will eat them up for low wages and little benefits. Instead of actual education in which they would learn useful information such as morality and where it comes from, philosophy, debating techniques, logic and reasoning. 

They are instead taught a minimum amount of knowledge to become good and obeying citizens ready for the low wage jobs that our service economy is now built upon.

Instead of the junk they are forced to fill their brains with they should be learning useful life enhancing tools such as history that teaches events from multiple points of view so as not to re-enforce any one sided indoctrination they may be getting from home by parents who have been through the same factory system of education themselves.

2. Computer Games

The most popular past time for school boys and girls today is the use of computer games. Whereas once kids played outside, kicking balls against walls, riding bikes in the woods and making their own entertainment they are instead indoctrinated into becoming soldiers of the future by playing war based games like Call of Duty and other games that involve killing "the enemy" en mass. 

We can see the output of this indoctrination with the use of PlayStation controllers used by drone controllers who sit in Las Vegas and kill dozens of people halfway across the world as if it were nothing but a game. These games are designed to de-sensitise boys at a young age and make it seem normal to kill people without thought or reason.

3. TV and Film

Television is the cancer of the brain that rots the unthinking from the inside. Whenever the rhetoric about war with Iran heats up there always seems to be films or TV programmes that are brought out at the same time to subtly influence the viewer into hating the enemy before any war starts.

From shows like NCIS, Person of Interest and 24 hours to films like The 300 and most recently the film Argo. They all influence the unwitting viewer into supporting domestic spying "for our own good" as well as US foreign policy. This might be about stirring up hatred for Iranians, justifying torture or supporting Israel and dismissing any freedom fighters as mere terrorists.

Whether this is just co-incidence or due to the strong links between the TV industry and pro-Israeli (and through them pro-war, neo-con) lobbyists, they all seem to be linked to current events. To the many dumb vessels that view these shows the underlying messages are taken in but not noticed consciously, to others who are aware of what is actually going on in the world they are signals of what is to come.

4. The Internet and Smart Phones

Whilst the Internet has undoubtedly been a force for good and allowed communication and the spread of information across the world it is now entering a stage where governments world wide are trying to limit these good aspects and instead use it as a tool to spy constantly on the public.

Whether it be CCTV cameras linked up to huge central databases through systems like TRAPWIRE or the ability for hackers (government or corporate) to remotely activate the microphone and webcam on your PC to listen and watch you, your laptop can be used as the ultimate spying tool for those who need it.

Not only has your PC and Phone become tracking devices that can pinpoint your location through inbuilt GPS devices or even just triangulation of phone masts as your phone constantly pings them to find the nearest and strongest signal. They are a means for the authorities to log and record your whereabouts and then store that information for a long period.

5. Privacy

Kids today are growing up with no concept of privacy. They post everything about themselves on the Internet on sites like Facebook and then live to regret them as they get older and go for job interviews. Nearly the first thing bosses do nowadays is search for your name online, using sites like www.123people.com to see what indiscretions their new employee might have got up to in earlier life.

Not only does the concept of having no privacy mean that people get used to being spied on constantly by CCTV cameras, satellites, phone companies, advertisers and the government. It also means that once our generation has gone the future children of the world will think nothing of RFID chips embedded everywhere to help them find information whilst logging their whereabouts at the same time or using their mobile phone instead of cash to pay for their shopping.

Anything that might seem helpful for the end-user also can be used for nefarious purposes and governments all over the western world are building huge data centres to hold all your banking transactions, the  locations of your travels, shopping habits and much more for time memorial "just in-case" something happens.

The nothing to hide, nothing to fear argument is often used at this point to justify this intrusive behaviour but do you really want your government looking back at you through your web camera as you read this article?

View the original article "I spy with my little eye" at www.darkpolitricks.com.

Internet giants Facebook, Google and Twitter pretend to stick up for our privacy whilst selling our personal data to advertisers

Internet giants Facebook, Google and Twitter pretend to stick up for our privacy whilst selling our personal data to advertisers

By Dark Politricks

A story in yesterday's Daily Mail tells how the "big 3" Internet giants, Twitter, Google and Facebook are planning to block a bill being introduced in the UK parliament which requires them to store all data for a year so that security agencies, police and councils can request its disclosure at a later date.

The Internet giants were interviewed by a cross party committee of UK MP's and they have all come out apparently fighting the draft Communications Data Bill.

From the article in the Daily Mail.

"They reveal directors from Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Microsoft and Twitter believe the Bill would breach users' privacy and allow repressive regimes to spy on Britons."

"Facebook said it might go to court to resist the new law, while Google and Twitter executives said they could refuse to unlock encrypted data if the Government were to seek the information via third-party providers such as BT."

"Facebook said it might go to court to resist the new law, while Google and Twitter said they could refuse to unlock encrypted data."

"Facebook director Simon Milner accused the Government of using a 'sledgehammer to crack a nut', and claimed the potential for nations with poor human-rights records to obtain data 'should be a real concern'."

Now I'd say that it doesn't even matter if these companies, which are all spying on us for their own marketing purposes anyway, say they are sticking up for privacy. Especially when it has been shown time and time again that companies like Microsoft and Google help the NSA and other US secret service 3 letter acronyms anyway.

We now have the all invasive TRAPWIRE system that is linking up CCTV cameras and spying on US citizens constantly, along with the city sized computer base under UTAH to hold and analyse all the data that is being constantly collected on US citizens which is apparently now all perfectly legal.

There is no doubt in my mind after the EU caved in on banking data transactions that these systems will be linked up in future to the UK who is already the most surveillance country if you go by the number of CCTV cameras that follow us around day and night.

Is it another case of let the "plebs"' think they are pushing big brother back a bit whilst all the time lying to our faces as our personal data is stored by a multitude of electronic databases.

Systems as old as ECHELON which was created by the West to spy on the USSR and Eastern Bloc countries but after the cold war was turned on our own citizens.

To get round laws preventing the trawl method of spying that ECHELON does on their own citizens the countries involved decided to spy on each other and share the data. Australia would spy on the UK and the UK would spy on the USA and the USA on Australia. This way the national laws were bypassed and the data was shared among the countries anyway.

However with more and more spying methods and snooping laws being introduced in western nations there seems little need for these pleasantries and our own countries are freely admitting to spying on us all. For our own safety of course.

You never know when those 20-30 real remaining al-Qaeda members left over from the times of "the base" in the 80's war against the USSR in Afghanistan might pop out under your bed.

Fighters who we helped train and fund and at that time we called them freedom fighters or more accurately the Mujahideen. Our proxy fighters who over time turned into our mortal enemy/de-stabalising friends.

Al-Qaeda terrorists who we obviously have some control over and are used whenever required to overthrow nations we suddenly dislike such as Libya and Syria.

So it might seem like a "win" when these Internet giants say to our government they will refuse to help them spy on us whilst at the same time collecting and keeping the same data for over a year, who knows for how long, by selling adverts, email lists, and details of our friend networks and who knows what else to advertisers to make money.

Obviously there is an easy solution - don't use the Internet.

However it's just too damn addictive isn't it?

So if you don't want to be spied on then you better go and buy a shack in the woods and wrap tin foil round your head but then it isn't going to stop those thousands of satellites spinning round the globe spying on you is it?

We do truly live in a world of hypocrisy and George Orwell would be dismayed how we have just allowed ourselves to walk into a world of high tech police state style surveillance.

You can read the full Daily Mail article at www.dailymail.co.uk