<nettime> Richard Stallman: Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties?

[Florian Cramer <cantsin@zedat.fu-berlin.de>]

Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties?

By Richard Stallman


The worst damage from many nerve injuries is secondary -- it happens in
the hours after the initial trauma, as the body's reaction to the damage
kills more nerve cells. Researchers are beginning to discover ways to
prevent this secondary damage and reduce the eventual harm.

If we are not careful, the deadly attacks on New York and Washington
will lead to far worse secondary damage, if the U.S. Congress adopts
"preventive measures" that take away the freedom that America stands
for.

I'm not talking about searches at airports here. Searches of people or
baggage for weapons, as long as they check only for weapons and keep no
records about you if you have no weapons, are just an inconvenience;
they do not endanger civil liberties. What I am worried about is massive
surveillance of all aspects of life: of our phone calls, of our email,
and of our physical movements.

These measures are likely to be recommended regardless of whether
they would be effective for their stated purpose. An executive of a
company developing face recognition software is said to be telling
reporters that widespread deployment of face-recognizing computerized
cameras would have prevented the attacks. The September 15 New York
Times cites a congressman who is advocating this "solution." Given
that the human face recognition performed by the check-in agents did
not keep the hijackers out, there is no reason to think that computer
face recognition would help. But that won't stop the agencies that have
always wanted to do more surveillance from pushing this plan now, and
many other plans like it. To stop them will require public opposition.

Even more ominously, a proposal to require government back doors in
encryption software has already appeared.

Meanwhile, Congress hurried to pass a resolution giving Bush unlimited
power to use military force in retaliation for the attacks. Retaliation
may be justified, if the perpetrators can be identified and carefully
targeted, but Congress has a duty to scrutinize specific measures as
they are proposed. Handing the president carte blanche in a moment of
anger is exactly the mistake that led the United States into the Vietnam
War.

Please let your elected representatives, and your unelected president,
know that you don't want your civil liberties to become the terrorists'
next victim. Don't wait -- the bills are already being written.


Copyright 2001 Richard Stallman 
rms@gnu.org

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