Crumbling Rights

Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |

It is surprising but sad that an articles on the eroding democracy in Russia get corporate media coverage, but that the eroding democracy in the US gets so little. An example is Steve Gutterman's article in Newsday - Russians Accept Limitations on Rights (10/06/04). After the deaths in Beslan, Russians (like the citizens of the US) have been willing to accept limitations to their rights and freedoms. Among the freedoms and rights on the block is the election of governors and representatives. Putin's proposal would give him the power to appoint the governors of the 89 provinces of Russia. While things haven't quite reached that state in the US, other protections are eroding - particularly the right to privacy.

Intelligent Transportation Systems is a sub agency of the Dept of Transportation. They have been working for 13 years on a program to track every car on the roads of the US. The tracking plan takes on a totally new aspect with the ongoing passage of "security" bills. Just in case you decide to walk (and allowing tracking on an individual rather than a vehicle level), there are proposals being put forward to add RFID technology to drivers licenses. This technology would place a chip in drivers licenses that would send out biometric and unique iinformation about the license holder via radio transmission.

The legislation being hammered out in the wake of the 9/11 Commission report brings back in a slew of questionable changes. This includes resurrection the Total Information Awareness Program as part of the package. One of the many ironies here is that the Total Information Awareness program, was defunded after public protest, but refunded again as the Terrorist Information Awareness program. The proposed legislation essentially takes us back to the original project.

The "Intelligence" bill has been accused of going far beyond the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission in some areas, and not meeting them in others. For example, the proposed bill does not give the level of authority or independence to the Director that the Commission thought necessary, but does add in a number of measures that are law enforcement and immigration provisions (House Approves Intelligence Bill). To me these additions look suspiciously similar to PATRIOT II.

For those of you following the Model State Health Powers Emergency (MSHEPA - for a collection of articles on this plan see 911review.org or In Our Best Interests?). There is a test of the plan in Kansas where ten counties will do a mass emergency inoculation test called Flu X. According to the Director of Kansas' Health Department, the exercise will "condition" local health staff in dealing with mass emergency inoculations, and the public to respond to the process for receiving them. Actual flu vaccines will be given.

Last, but not least, freedom of speech and community voice has again come under attack. The systems of IndyMedia have been disrupted (again) as the FBI confiscated their hard drives from RackSpace. Purportedly they were confiscated at the request of the governments of Italy and Switzerland. IndyMedia has had no response as to why the order was issued. You can read more about this as the IndyMedia Main Site.

Articles
10/07/04 WorldNet Daily, Feds plan to track every car

10/06/04 Wired, RFID Driver's Licenses Debated

9/30/04 PrisonPlanet, Return of Total Information Awareness Tied to 9/11 Commission Legislation

10/09/04 Shenon & Swarns, NYT, House Approves Intelligence Bill

9/30/04 Erwin, Flu-X: Conditioning Kansans to Give or Accept Mass inoculations on Cue

Posted by rowan at October 10, 2004 09:07 AM | TrackBack | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |