The surveillance state

A picture of North Camp Station seems innocuous enough.

North Camp Station is on the Reading-Guildford-Gatwick line. For many it is the start of their holiday, or maybe they are on a day trip to Brighton, changing at Gatwick. What could be more innocent than taking a photo of their starting point, North Camp Station?

This simple act could have them picked up and arrested as terrorist suspects, and if neo-Labour have their way, held for 42 days without charge.

In a letter to the Farnborough News, C J Tokeley expressed his concern at what next, commuters at Farnborough Station being questioned by the police as terrorist suspects. [see There is no right stop plane spotters]

What had got C J Tokeley so incensed was the the police were stopping and searching for no apparent reason plane spotters observing the comings and goings at Farnborough Airport.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411431.html?c=on

C J Tokeley did not seem to understand the draconian powers terrorism legislation hands to the state, and if they have these powers, then they will be used. [see Terrorism legislation and Farnborough Airport]

The most likely explanation that these powers are being used, apart from the fact they can, is to deter plane spotters from recording what is flying in and out of Farnborough. Many of the flights in and out of Farnborough are from the Middle East and Farnborough was one of the airports named as being used for extraordinary rendition.

 http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/torture/extraordinary-rendition.shtml
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/329968.html

Not wishing to alarm C J Tokeley even further, the police are already using terrorism legislation to question and detain terror suspects at railway stations.

A 15-year-old schoolboy caught taking photos of Wimbledon Station was detained and held as a terror subject by three PCSOs. 15-year-old Fabian Sabbara was forced sign a form titled 'Stop-and-Search Terrorism Act' under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act or face arrest. PCSOs do not have the power of arrest or to detain or to stop and search.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1081995/Schoolboy-15-held-terror-suspect-taking-photos-railway-station-GCSE-project.html

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith says people can't wait for ID Cards. And no, it was not the First of April, All Fool's Day. It was though the day after Guy Fawke's Night.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7712275.stm

Never mind about Gunpowder Plots, had Guy Fawke's been spotted outside Parliament wearing a protest badge, he would have been arrested under today's terrorism legislation.

All 46 schools in Aldershot and Farnborough are being placed under secret surveillance to catch any parent who may dare to drop their children off at the school gates. The evidence will then be used to issue an on-the-spot fine.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/412020.html

Many schools now bar parents from filming the school Nativity Scene, but it ok for the local Stasi to film the kids using hidden cameras.

Using terrorism legislation, many local councils are setting up hidden cameras to catch households who put their wheelie bins out on the wrong day or in the wrong place. The evidence will be used to issue on-the-spot fines.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1082225/March-dustbin-Stasi-Half-councils-use-anti-terror-laws-watch-people-putting-rubbish-wrong-day.html

In Aldershot and Farnborough, CCTV with number plate recognition software has been installed to monitor who is bringing rubbish to the local tip. [see Waste centre spy cameras 'may fuel fly-tipping']

It is routine for any protest or demonstration to be filmed by the police.

Soon it will be a requirement to show a passport or an ID Card to obtain a pay-as-you-go mobile phone.

 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411302.html
 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article4969312.ece

A huge data base is being created to record all internet and telephone activity.

Legislation passing through Parliament will make it a criminal offence with a ten year sentence for taking a photo of a constable, ie a police officer.

 https://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412187.html?c=on

Airport workers airside will be compelled to hold an ID Card. Next is likely to be those on state benefits as a prerequisite to claim benefits.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7301424.stm

No2ID, the campaign group opposing ID cards, have managed to snatch a copy of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith's fingerprints, ironically at the very event she was claiming we couldn't wait to get our ID Cards!

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/smith_dabs_grab/

Earlier this year No2ID offered a reward of a thousand pounds, to be paid to the finder's favourite charity - for the fingerprints of Jacqui Smith and Gordon Brown. Gordon Brown's are still up for grabs. Once No2ID has the complete set of prints, it intends to make them public, as the Chaos Computer Club did with the fingerprints of German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schauble.

 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/07/brown_smith_fingerprints_wanted/
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/30/german_interior_minister_fingerprint_appropriated/

The venue of Smith's speech, Social Market Foundation, was kept secret until the last minute for reasons of security - and possibly demo dodging. But unless Smith was prepared to wear gloves for the rest of her life, or to be followed around by a duster-armed security squad, it was inevitable that she would one day be fingered. And Gordon Brown's days, too, must be numbered.

Soon articles like this will not be possible. MPs on the Commons Intelligence Select Committee are seeking to censor any article harmful to the national interest.

 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-seek-to-censor-the-media-1006607.html

This evening Amnesty International is hosting a talk by the leader of the Free Tibet Movement at St Nicholas Church in Guildford (bottom of High Street by the river).

Evening Tuesday 25 November 2008 Amnesty International is hosting an event at Holy Trinity Church in Guildford (top of High Street near Sainsbury's) to commemorate 60 Years of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Websites

 http://www.no2id.net/
 http://www.privacyinternational.org/
 http://www.amnesty.org.uk/
 http://www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/

reference

Rebecca Connop-Price, Waste centre spy cameras 'may fuel fly-tipping', Farnborough News, 7 November 2008

John Lettice, Jacqui Smith prints seized by No2ID in daring dabs grab, The Register, 6 November 2008
 http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/11/06/smith_dabs_grab/

Keith Parkins, CIA extraordinary rendition, Indymedia UK, 15 December 2005
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/12/329968.html

Keith Parkins, Farnborough Airport 'terrorist' plane spotters, Indymedia UK, 23 October 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/411431.html?c=on

Keith Parkins, Big Brother targets the school run, Indymedia UK, 31 October 2008
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/10/412020.html

Keith Parkins, Terrorism legislation and Farnborough Airport, letter to Farnborough News

People 'can't wait for ID cards', BBC News on-line, 6 November 2008
 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7712275.stm

Kim Sengupta, MPs seek to censor the media, The Independent, 10 November 2008
 http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/mps-seek-to-censor-the-media-1006607.html

C J Tokeley, There is no right to stop plane spotters, letters, Farnborough News, 7 November 2008