Curiouser and Curiouser! on leviathan http://matt.blogs.it/ RSS feed for topic leviathan Copyright 2006 Matt Mower Squib/0.1 self@mattmower.com self@mattmower.com en-gb You wanna come back don't you? Tue, 19 Apr 2005 09:01:55 +0100 <p>David Weinberger offers some <a href="http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/mtarchive/003874.html">advice to young terrorists</a>. The whole screening program seems like a dull-witted <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leviathan">Leviathan</a> answer to the problem of airborne terrorism to me but what do I know?</p> <p>Has anyone seen any statistics about exactly how many people have been screened since 9/11, how much it has all cost, including the collateral costs (lost business and so forth), how many people have been falsely accused/abused/frightened, and how many bona fide terrorists have actually been caught?</p> <p>Have any credible models been advanced to suggest how the screening system has affected the way in which terrorists operate? What's the supporting evidence?</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002506.html Leviathan's boys in blue Mon, 03 Oct 2005 16:03:38 +0100 <p>Via <a href="http://blog.twowolves.co.uk/">The Two Wolves Weblog</a> comes a version, by the chap himself, of <a href="http://gizmonaut.net/bits/suspect.html">one mans story</a> of being arrested as a suspected terrorist for wearing a jacket, carrying a rucksack, and, well, ..., that's about it.</p> <blockquote>The Police eventually decided to take No Further Action (NFA): ‘a decision not to proceed with a prosecution’. In a democratic country such as the UK, one would be forgiven for naively thinking that this is the end of the matter. Under the current laws the Police are not only entitled to keep my fingerprints and DNA samples, but apparently, according to my solicitor, they are also entitled to hold on to what they gathered during their investigation: notepads of the arresting officers, photographs, interviewing tapes and any other documents they collected and entered in the Police National Computer (PNC). (Also, at the time of this writing, I still have no letter stating that I'm effectively off the hook and I still haven't been given any of my possessions back.)</blockquote> <p>Maybe I'm an extremist but, if true, this seems piss poor to me. This <em>war on terrorists</em> (necessary, we are told, because of Chairman Blair's eternal <em>war to create as many terrorists as possible</em> in the Middle East) seems too important to leave in the hands of the Met who, although they didn't prevent July 7th or the follow-up did manage to shoot an innocent Brazillian 6 times in the head. [Note I'm not suggesting they could have stopped July 7th, merely pointing out the limits of what we should expect and be prepared to pay for in Anti-Terrorism.]</p> <p>What about reparations for this mans lost time? For the distress caused to him and his girlfriend? What about his possessions that they have <strong>stolen</strong> from him without just cause? What about the damage they have willfully done to his identity and reputation?</p> <p>How can the police get away with wrongly turning this guys life up and down and then walk away from the incident with an airy <strong>N</strong>o <strong>F</strong>ucking <strong>A</strong>ccountability?</p> <p>We're definitely in <em>Quis custodiet ipsos custodes</em> territory now. Who is making the police accountable for the powers they are wielding against us? Who is holding them responsible for their mistakes? Who is demanding they make reparations for the wrongs they cause? Who is challenging them to do better and do no harm?</p> <p>Well, me, for one.</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002955.html Quis custodiet ipsos custodes (Part I) Mon, 03 Oct 2005 21:32:36 +0100 <p>Do the police publish statistics for:<ol><li>Number of people stopped in relation to anti-terrorist laws</li><li>Specific criteria used for deciding to stop an individual</li><li>Whether detained or not</li><li>Outcome: prosecution, detention, NFA</li></ol>This kind of information is vital for oversight over anti-terrorist measures. I can't find it on the <a href="http://www.met.police.uk/">Met website</a> either generally or in the <a href="http://www.met.police.uk/foi/">FOI publication scheme</a>. If it's not public, why not?</p> http://matt.blogs.it/entries/00002959.html