The UK’s new Channel Project heralds the unofficial beginning of British law enforcement’s own ‘Pre-crime’ program. In this brave new world of pre-emptive measures, are civil liberties becoming a thing of the past?
A recent article in the UK Independent entitled, Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists, heralds what looks to be the unofficial beginning of British law enforcement’s own "Pre-crime" program. For the first time, we can begin to see intelligence gathering and emerging technologies converging in a culture of pre-emptive law enforcement. Officials interviewed in this article are keen to play down any concerns about racial or religious profiling, insisting the program is an innocuous one. Civil liberties group may argue otherwise.
The new program known as The Channel Project is run by the UK's Association of Chief Police Officers and hopes to target children with traits which may indicate an attraction to "extreme" views and a susceptibility to being groomed by "radicalisers" in the future.
In the article, Sir Norman Bettison, Britain's most senior officer in charge of UK terror prevention was quoted as saying, "We are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists who happen to be cloaking themselves in Islamic rhetoric. That is not the same as targeting the Muslim community." Sir Norman goes on to describe how the new "Channel Project" has already intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who they thought to be at risk of "extremism". Sir Norman continued, "What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'."
Read full article from link below:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-UK-Minority-Report-Ha-by-Patrick-St-James-090331-71.html
The new program known as The Channel Project is run by the UK's Association of Chief Police Officers and hopes to target children with traits which may indicate an attraction to "extreme" views and a susceptibility to being groomed by "radicalisers" in the future.
In the article, Sir Norman Bettison, Britain's most senior officer in charge of UK terror prevention was quoted as saying, "We are targeting criminals and would-be terrorists who happen to be cloaking themselves in Islamic rhetoric. That is not the same as targeting the Muslim community." Sir Norman goes on to describe how the new "Channel Project" has already intervened in the cases of at least 200 children who they thought to be at risk of "extremism". Sir Norman continued, "What will often manifest itself is what might be regarded as racism and the adoption of bad attitudes towards 'the West'."
Read full article from link below:
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-UK-Minority-Report-Ha-by-Patrick-St-James-090331-71.html 
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