The War on Freedom

international | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Thursday April 24, 2008 16:18 by K. Harris - newsmedianews

Is the world really fighting a war against terror? Or has it become a war against our own freedoms?

Almost seven years have passed since the catastrophe at the World Trade Centre gave birth to what became euphemistically known around the globe as the war on terror.
Within weeks, that ‘war’ actually became more a war on freedom than anything else. Since 2001, massive disruptions have been inflicted on individual freedoms through the abundance of counter-terrorism surveillance technology, restrictions on free travel, inroads into the erosion of habeas corpus and the retention and retrieval of personal private communications such as telephone calls, fax and email messages.
New anti-terror laws have effectively strangled the right to habeas corpus for those unlucky enough to be detained for suspected terrorism.
It is time the record was put straight, the obfuscation removed and the reality of living in our world of today seen for what it is. Despite what politicians may ceaselessly try to convince us, we are caught up in a war against out own freedoms. And that war is being waged by our own sides, against us. Osama bin Laden and his followers must be laughing their socks off.
There are those who will vehemently deny that our freedoms are being decimated on such a grand scale. Most simply do not wish to acknowledge the reality, others are simply too afraid to do so, and others are brainwashed into believing the lies that have been fed to them.
The voices of those speaking out against the erosion of civil liberties in the name of the prevention of terrorism are often ridiculed and sometimes blatantly rubbished by those who see their power and control as under threat.
The same power lords send men and women off to die in wars in foreign lands and make efforts to convince those men and women that they are helping to bring freedom to those invaded lands. Uncounted thousands of civilians have so far died in the two military invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Some freedom, you might think.
There is little we can do other than to try and maintain real clarity on what is happening, and that in itself is tough enough given the grip on the population by governments, police forces and educational systems. Not to challenge those who strip away civil liberties is to give carte blanche to the road to despotism.