(Note to literalists: the Watched column presently contains only a smattering of 'warblogs' because the facilitator of the template-change--Dr. Menlo--is not very familiar with them, and will be adding more as they are sent to him. Also, this blog may contain areas of allusion, satire, subtext, context and possibly even a dash of the surreal: wannabe lit-crits beware.)
Control
[Watch this space for: Pentagon and Petroleum, The Media is only as Liberal as the Corporations Who Own Them, Wash Down With, and Recalcify]
WARBLOGGER WATCH
Tuesday, July 16, 2002
Harold “That's what I saw and I'm sticking to my story” Owens, it seems, dismisses us as ineffectual on GNW, his continuing agglomeration of prejudices and hallucinations. It’s always touching to see someone convinced of the divinity of the status quo wax righteous. It is especially so to see someone of such modest neural amperage as Owens getting on the bandwagon. If the suspension of habeas corpus can be so breezily dismissed by a self-depicted “conservative,” I’m certain the below will be treated at least as lightly. The below is from The Times of London. So sensitive we are to the scaling back of our right to privacy that the story ran in Britain, Australia, and Canada – but not America [excerpted in part as The Times charges for content; subscribers can click here]:
July 16, 2002, Tuesday
Bush plan to recruit 11m US 'spies'
Tim Reid in Washington
Millions of US citizens are to be recruited as domestic spies and informants by the Bush Administration in a move that has alarmed the country's civil liberty groups.
The Terrorism Information and Prevention System (Tips) will use a minimum of 4 per cent of Americans, or more than 11 million civilians, to report "suspicious activity".
A pilot programme advertised yesterday on a Justice Department website will be started next month in the ten largest cities, with one million informants participating in the first stage. The huge informal surveillance network, the latest move by the Bush Administration to improve domestic security after the September 11 terrorist attacks, will mean that the United States will have a similar percentage of civilian informants as that employed by the East German Stasi police at the height of the Cold War. It is the latest in a series of post-September 11 measures that critics say are fast eroding the checks and balances that Americans have relied upon to protect individual liberty. posted by Anonymous7:56 AM
The Watchers
WBW: Keeping track of the war exhortations of the warbloggers.