By Graham Vanbergen
– Until the revelations of Edward Snowden emerged just a few years back
in 2013, British citizens had no idea as to the level of state
surveillance they were subjected to. The government, without due
process, debate or permission installed a massive taxpayer funded spying
system via its domestic agency GCHQ, to tap into internet cables and
build an enormous and detailed database of the communications of every
man, woman and child in the country with little to no legal oversight.
An ID system is no longer relevant, they have far more information than
an ID card could ever store.
GCHQ’s 360 degree full spectrum bulk
collection data system was constructed in brazen and arrogant defiance
of Article 8 of the European Convention of Human Rights. Britain’s
parliament never debated or approved this massive construction programme
as it would for any national infrastructure project. Every phone call,
no matter the device is recorded, every image, website visited, personal
details such as medical and financial records, contacts, everything
private to you is no longer private. Under just one of dozens of
surveillance programmes, one was called “Optic Nerve” that captured
millions of images via webcams, illegally taken and stored. An
undisclosed number, but estimated to be around one fifth of the
population were images that were “compromising in nature” including that
of naked young children in their homes and intimate images between
consenting adults. The government were found to have acted illegally for
17 years. These were crimes and no-one was prosecuted. The standard
response by government is the need for ‘national security’.
And let’s not forget, terrorism is fundamentally
a politically generated problem. Britain has been complicit in the
destruction of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and the ongoing crisis in Syria –
all of which are in now in total chaos and all of which are the real
breeding grounds for terrorism. No amount of internet surveillance on
our own people will deal with that but the British people are now paying
the price for that in more ways then one.
