During December, the focus of the Ant-TWAT action is changing, moving from the issue of the Afghan War to the recent round of legislation in the UK and USA that restricts civil rights.

What we're asking people to do is 'get personal' with the Home Office, via the web and email, and to first register with the Home Office as prospective terrorists because taking part in an online action is a technical breach of the new legal definition of a terrorist.

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The Anti-Terrorism, Security and Crime Bill

The Anti-Terrorism, Security and Crime Bill builds on the highly invasive laws of The Terrorism Act 2000 and The Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to further restrict the rights of the public to protest and organise, and to institute permanent mass surveillance of all electronic communications. The Bill was introduced into the House of commons in early November, and received only three days of detailed debate on its 122 pages. After completing its debate in the House of Commons in late November, it currently being debated in the Hourse of Lords.

The bill seeks to introduce new laws that:
Enable different arms of the state, who are currently prohibited from sharing their information held on groups or person without prior apporoval, to share their data where they are investigating disorder, crime or terrorism;


Enable the state to collect and permanently database all the data generated by the use of electronic communications in the UK, and allow the police, security forces, local authorities, and states interested in investigating particular groups or persons to have access to that data;


Restrict the rights of anti-nuclear campaigners to reveal the presence or the safety status of radioactive materials at nuclear sites, or in transit; and


Allow the executive, rather than Parliament, to control the introduction and use of 'Euro-warrants', arrest and extradition warrants that work between countries within the European Union irrespective of whether the offence is unlawful in the country of arrest; these same powers would also allow the introduction of other crime and security measures that are agreed at the European level without any realistic debate within the legislature.


For more details of the Bill, and its impacts, read the electrohippies Occasional Paper No.5: The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill (this is available as an Adobe Acrobat file).

Please note, that this paper should be read in conjunction with the electrohippies Occasional Paper No.4: Online Civil rights After September 11th (this is also available as an Adobe Acrobat file.

Together, these two papers provide the background on the issues that surround the "Anti-TWAT" campaign.


The days when the Bill will be debated in the Lords, and the days selected for a co-ordinated campaign of action around the Bill via this page, are:

TUESDAY 4TH December — Committee stage of the Bill will be concluded in the Lords

THURSDAY 6TH December — Report stage of the Bill will begin in the Lords

MONDAY 10TH December — Report stage of the Bill will be concluded in the Lords

TUESDAY 11TH December — Third Reading of the Bill will be taken in the Lords


There will then be a special action immediately after the Royal Assent, when the Bill becomes law, sometime just before Christmas

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the electrohippies "Anti-TWAT" campaign

The "anti-TWAT" — anti-The War Against Terrorism — campaign is the first long-running, continuous action mounted by the electrohippies. The purpose of the action is to provide an outlet for dissent, and a means of expressing that dissent in a direct manner, for those parts of the populations in various states, such as the USA and the UK, who are being denied a voice under the current 'War Against Terrorism'.

"Anti-TWAT" was launched on November 14th as part of a day long action on 'the TWAT' held in rural Wales. This day was not just to mark the prosecution of the Afghan War, and the continued death of innocent civilians, but also to provide workshops and information on the impacts of new anti-terrorism laws in the UK and elsewhere.

Also, as part of this campaign, the electrohippies, in co-operation with Paul Mobbs Multimedia Productions, have produced a special on-line video production called, "Anti-TWAT" -- the movie. This shows the "anti-TWAT" launch in rural Wales, and outlines some of the objections to the TWAT and the Afghan War.

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The "Anti-TWAT" Online Protest Action against the Home Office

The "Anti-TWAT" online protest will continue every day during December. However, there are five days when we will be asking people to spend as much time as possible online taking part in the protest. These are:
Tuesdat 4th December;

Thursday 6th December;

Monday 10th December;

Tuesday 11th December;

Another day, around December 14th to 23rd,
when the Bill is adopted as law — we'll post this date as soon as we know when it is (it's depends on whether the Bill makes it through the House of Lords intact).


On these days the purpose of the protest will not be just to 'mark' the event in the logs of the Home Office, but to create as great an impact on bandwidth as possible.

Before taking part in the action we are requesting that participants "register" with the UK Home Office as 'terrorists'. This is because this type of action technically breaches the Terrorism Act 2000, and in order to ridicule the basis of the UK's new definition of a terrorist we're asking people to formally notify the Home Office that they're 'terrorists' before they take part in the electrohippies action, basically to say 'here I am, come and get me'. We can't make people do this, but we see it as important to make this action as open and accountable as possible.

The address to send 'registrations' to is:
 public.enquiries@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk.


Please only send action registrations to this address — nothing else. This is because this address is the main public contact point for the Home Office. If you're stuck what to say, a sample letter template has been set up for you to cut'n'paste into your email program.

There are two parts to the inline protest — a sit-in of the web site and a 'lobby' by email. We have also provided details of where you may 'complain' to politicians. These are detailed below:


Sit-in of the Home Office web site

The main target of the action is the Home Office's web site. The purpose of the action is to show the level of public dissatisfaction in the logs of the server — there will be able to see the level of participation in the action as it progresses by the usage their site receives. However, if sufficient people take part, and we're talking 5,000 or 10,000 people simultaneously, it might even slow or stop their server because of the 'weight of opinion' against the Home Office's anti-terrorism legislation.

If possible, please try and return to the protest site during the five 'main' protest days — the 4th, 6th, 10th and 11th of December, and the day that the Bill becomes law.

The action uses the new, updated version of the electrohippie collective's 'D3oS' (Democratised - Distributed - Denial - of Service) tool. To use the tool you must have JavaScript enabled. So far the tool has been tested using Netscape and Internet Explorer on various Windows platforms, and Netscape on Red Hat and SuSE Linux platforms. Be aware that some systems, such as those in libraries, or schools, or cyber-cafes, may not run the system because of the use of certain JavaScript functions.

Taking part in the sit-in involves just 'sitting' with your computer running the sit-in page for a long as possible — the longer the better. After setting the control of the page to reflect your own type of connection and interest, you click the button to run the page and it will carry on, and on, until you pause the page or close the window the page runs in.

Note also, if you want something to do whilst you're just sat 'sitting in', read the two sections below.


Email the Home Office

In parallel to the sit-in, we're asking people to send their cmplaints about the new laws to the Home Office directly. The email address to send them to is:
 colin.harnett3@homeoffice.gsi.gov.uk

We're asking that people send their own personal views on the Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Bill, along with existing legislation such as the Terrorism Act and the RIP Act during the month of December. Please only send letters as text — no attachments.

However, there are five exceptions to this rule — the 4th, 6th, 10th and 11th of December, and the day that the Bill becomes law. On these days we leave it up to people's own discretion what they send, how much, and how often.

Note also, if you take part in the email part of the protest, we'd also like you to 'register as a terrorist' (see previous section).

Complain to your MP and the Lords

This is not part of the action. But while your just sitting at your computer, taking part in the sit-in action, you might like to do some of the following:

People should, if they have time, write, fax or phone (only a minority of MPs/Lords have official email addresses) their MP, and members of the House of Lords. The contact details are below:

To contact an MP:
If you don't know who your MP is, you can find them by going to the Commons Constituency Locata

You can write to your MP at:
name of MP, House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA.

You can telephone you MP, and talk to them or leave a message, by phoning the switchboard — 020 7219 3000 — and asking for the office of your MP.

You can fax your MP using a wonderful service called faxyourmp.com

To contact a Lord:
There are many Lords, who represent no-one in particular, so if you don't know of a member of the House of Lords who you'd like to contact, we suggest that you send you complaints to the members of the House of Lords European Union Committee's Common Foreign and Security Policy Sub-Committee. These are:
Lord Jopling (Chairman)
Baroness Park of Monmouth
Lord Wallace of Saltaire
Lord Williamson of Horton
Lord Bowness (co-opted)
Lord Harrison (co-opted)
Baroness Hilton of Eggardon (co-opted)
Lord Inge (co-opted)
Lord Powell of Bayswater (co-opted)
Lord Watson of Richmond (co-opted)


The address to send your complaints to is:
name of the lord,
Common Foreign and Security Policy Sub-Committee,
Committee Office,
House of Lords,
London, SW1A 0PW.

telephone: 020-7219 5791
fax: 020-7219 6715

Video of launch of anti-TWAT Action at:
 http://www.fraw.org.uk/ehippies/action/anti-twat.html