From: Amara Graps (amara@amara.com)
Date: Wed Nov 21 2001 - 04:19:09 MST
Samantha wrote:
>I humbly request that people of good will that care
>about preserving our freedoms read the following and seriously
>think about the ramifications (outside of characteristic
>ideological posturings if possible). I don't think we have a
>lot of time left to wake up and act.
Too late :-(
The rest of the world's governments don't have the power to resist
the actions of the U.S. government, and these other governments
are already acting to restrict more our freedoms.
Germany used to have very strong laws (with some exceptions, see
below) for protection of privacy. Now legal wiretapping, in the
interest of "The war against terrorism" is under serious discussion
here, and will probably be passed into a new law.
Some trivia:
Many years ago at the Munich Olympics and following, there were a
number of terrorist actions, and the German government initiated a
new law to "register" people, in the interest of "tracking
terrorists". This law applies to all people, not only to foreigners
like me. So if a German citizen wants to move one floor down in an
apartment building, for example, they would be breaking the law if
they didn't register their new address within a short period of time.
Did it help "track terrorists" then? Does it now? People here can
figure out the answer quick enough, and see the high price
that a nebulous goal of "tracking terrorists" costs.
Ciao (I'm off for a while),
Amara
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Amara Graps, PhD email: amara@amara.com
Computational Physics vita: ftp://ftp.amara.com/pub/resume.txt
Multiplex Answers URL: http://www.amara.com/
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"Trust in the Universe, but tie up your camels first."
(adaptation of a Sufi proverb)
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