Wednesday, November 14, 2012

treason and terrorism

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Russia has approved an expanded and vaguely-worded law that targets "treason:"

Under the new law, anyone possessing information deemed secret - whether a politician, a journalist, an environmentalist or a union leader - could potentially be jailed for up to 20 years for espionage.
It is hard not to think of this law as being the next and most logical step in the wake of a worldwide governmental embrace of the word "terrorism."

Other western governments may bridle and snicker at the Russian heavy-handedness:

"We're way kooler than that!"

What they neglect, however, is a careful look in the "terrorist" mirror.
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4 comments:

  1. AlNovember 14, 2012 at 3:30 PM

    As time passes, I get a stronger impression the respect for individual rights and freedoms among western governments (and societies) is less than frivolous.

    In Britain draconian anti-terror legislation seemingly isn't sufficient, with a man recently arrested for posting a picture of a burning poppy on facebook on veterans day - the latest string of arrests/ prosecutions/ imprisonments for 'offensive' or 'malicious' communications. These include a joke tweet threatening to blow up an airport, wearing a t-shirt celebrating the death of police officers, and posting sick jokes on facebook.

    Meanwhile, immigrants in Greece are being attacked with impunity (reportedly half of the Greek police force are neo-nazi sympathizers), while in Australia, hundreds of asylum seekers in offshore processing camps are protesting on hungerstrike against their poor treatment.

    Not sure how to hyperlink:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/nov/12/teenager-arrested-burning-poppy-facebook

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter_Joke_Trial

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/oct/08/april-jones-matthew-woods-jailed

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/oct2012/dawn-o09.shtml

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-20321462

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  2. AlNovember 14, 2012 at 3:37 PM

    p.s: for a eye opening documentation on the scale of censorship in western democracies highly recommend 'You can't read this book' by journalist Nick Cohen

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/You-Cant-Read-This-Book/dp/0007308906

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  3. genkakuNovember 15, 2012 at 8:13 AM

    Thanks for the researched reply, Al. Appreciated.

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  4. olcharlieNovember 16, 2012 at 11:25 AM

    But Americans are protected by a bureaucratic backlog.

    ReplyDelete