Personal Background

My blog focuses on the influence of international terrorism in western countries. Terrorism is a topic that I have been interested in for a long time. A marking point for me was three years ago when I first heard about the plans of the German government to introduce the so called telecommunications data retention law. I became more interested in it and I got to know more about it. At that time many people in Germany simply did not care about this law that would affect each and every person using a phone, a computer or a fax machine.¹ As I got to know more I also saw how much information was concealed in the media or simply presented wrong about the law. The German government claimed that they had to adopt this law as it was enacted by the European Union but this was misleading. In fact the German law went much further than it was required by the European Union.

This was one of the many laws in Europe that was made to enhance the fight against terrorism. Many people I talked to were not aware of this fact or said that it must be right simply because the government must have a good reason for the law. But as I looked further into the topic I could not find good reasons for many of these laws. An example would be the public call by many politicians for video surveillance everywhere. But how does a surveillance camera help the victims of a terror attack?
Instead of solving the problem of terrorism at the root, many politicians tend to rather work on the surface and come up with laws that are about the symptoms of terrorism. A surveillance camera doesn't prevent a terrorist attack, it just gives the feeling of security.
We can't give up the personal freedom of the individual just because there could be a terroristic attack
-somewhere, somehow at some time.


¹The Directive requires Member States to ensure that communications providers must retain, for a period of between 6 months and 2 years, necessary data as specified in the Directive

• to trace and identify the source of a communication;

• to trace and identify the destination of a communication;

• to identify the date, time and duration of a communication;

• to identify the type of communication;

• to identify the communication device;

• to identify the location of mobile communication equipment.

Patriot act

USA PATRIOT act

"Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001"

-A "direct answer" to the terroristic attacks on 9/11

"The Act increases the ability of law enforcement agencies to search telephone, e-mail communications, medical, financial and other records; eases restrictions on foreign intelligence gathering within the United States; expands the United States Secretary of the Treasury authority to regulate financial transactions, particularly those involving foreign individuals and entities; and enhances the discretion of law enforcement and immigration authorities in detaining and deporting Immigration in the United States suspected of terrorism-related acts. The act also expands the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism, thus enlarging the number of activities to which the USA PATRIOT Act’s expanded law enforcement powers can be applied."
(quote: Wikipedia)


What it does:

• It allows the police, secret service, etc. to arrest any American as well as non-American citizen for an undefined time.
  
  
• To examine any suspect -with torture "if necessary"
  
  
• It allows any secret service to search the house of a suspect undercover
  
  
• Any form of communication (Internet,phone, etc) of a suspect can be monitored without an approval by any court

all over the world

Today some news not directly connected to terrorism:

• Latvia, officially declared a democracy has its own ways to work around the economic crysis.
  "Hammered by economic woe, this former Soviet republic recently took a novel step to contain the crisis. Its counterespionage agency busted an economist for being too downbeat."
  That's right being pessimistic about the economic situation in the world can get you in prison.
  
  
  
• In Croatia a man got arrested for creating a Facebook group against his Prime Minister.
  "I bet I will find 5,000 people who do not like the Prime minister [Ivo Sanader]."
  The man got arrested and later on the police claimed that they found Nazi-symbols and propaganda in his home. He was later released due to a lack of evidence but the police argued that “Police acted legally [...] because Mr Klecak’s group displayed a photo montage of Mr Sanader in a Nazi uniform. Nazi symbols are banned under Croatian law,”
  The opposition against Croatia's leading politicians has been growing lately and so far almost 15,000 people have joined the facebook group.
  

mumbai terrorist attacks

After the terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India it it not sure yet who is responsible for the 150 deaths of American, British and Jewish hostages.

An indian media organisation claimed that they had recieved an email by an islamistic militant group. The existance of this group is questionable however, security experts say. It could easily be faked.

American media now claims that the terrorists are connected to Al-Qaeda and Pakistan though there are obvious evidences that this is not true.

nude: body scanners

The European Union is currently discussing a new way of security controls on airports: body-scanner.
These scanners would scan a human similar to the way the luggage is scanned -any surgical operation such as breast ablation would be visible.


The Frankfurter Rundschau quotes many different German politicians and explains the positive and negative aspects of this new feature.
The author Volker Schmidt doesn't make a big secret out of his personal opinion.
In the first paragraph of his article he quotes a member of the German liberal party who says that "the pictures are very detailed and equal a virtual striptease." Further he quotes a spokesman of the green party who claims that "the observation vagaries of the EU-Commission are worse than even George Orwell could have imaged.
The author continues to quote only people that do not support this new idea and presents only a few supporting arguments such as higher security and no need of personal contact.
In his commentary he criticizes the operator of the airport in Zurich, Switzerland for supporting a "security method that does not respect the dignity of a human being".
The commentary ends with an explanation why undressing in front of a total stranger gives the airport traveler a feeling of swoon: Even nudists would never undress before a total stranger, especially if they can't see the opponent.

Commentary

Sources & research: other blogs about my topic

Of course there are lots of blogs out there, talking about what I am talking about.

Following I will show some sites, that I visit on a regular base.

1. http://www.gulli.com/news/
Gulli:news is basically a site that collects news about terrorism laws, personal freedom and general IT-issues.
It gives a good overview about news allover the internet.


2. www.legalaffairs.org
Legalaffairs is -as the name suggests about new laws in western country that might be passed under suspicious circumstances.


3.http://blog.fefe.de/
Fefe is a popular blogger in Germany who talks about globalization, news from the European-Union and humorous news about general politics.

An example:

Somali pirates: A helping hand in the global fight against illegal weapon shipments?

Somalian pirates seized a shipment with tanks destinated for Somalia.
The ship was originally believed to be from Ukrania.
Now as most people will now Somalia is under the international UNO weapon embargo.
Therefore this shipment over middlemen from Kenia was totally illegal.

Now should we really fight against those pirates?


As seen on bbc-news

terrorism as the legislator

This Blog will focus on the influence of terrorism in western legislative.

Not only since 9/11 but especially since then personal freedom of everyone living in a western country has been abridged or narrowed down.
Torture has been declared a valid method in the fight against terrorism, the Patriot-act declared as an important law in this fight and much more.

This blog will show the international influence of "terrorism" .