David Emery Online

Critical

10 August 2006

No doubt you will have seen all the furore about the latest exploits of the “evil” terrorists, and the subsequent crippling of the countries airports.

In my eyes, this is one step by the government too far.

Granted, it appears that they have credible information which has lead to the arrest of around 20 people that were going to attempt to blow up 10 planes on their way to the US. That’s of course assuming that the information is credible (they don’t exactly have a good track record…). But what are they trying to gain by the hugely increased security measures at airports?

For a start, they have stopped the “terrorists”, so why the need for security? One reason I’ve seen is that there could be other terrorist cells that they are unaware of that could perform a similar attack – but surely that’s no different then any other point in time; there could always be terrorists planning attacks (and there probably always are).

Also, the measures they are taking are to be completely draconian. According to reports the plan involved the use of liquid explosives, so stopping people taking liquids on board would seem to be a reasonable precaution (although obviously traditional policing such as what lead to the arrests is so much more effective). But why the complete ban on all other cabin luggage? I can see where they’re coming from on with not allowing electronics on board (I’m sure any bomb concealed in a laptop would do no damage in the hold), but magazines? Glasses cases? Books?

The whole story is just an exercise in scare mongering by the government, and yet another example of a completely unnecessary removal of our personal freedoms. I’m sure ID cards will get brought up again in the next few weeks, and the whole thing has proved an easy distraction from the war in Lebanon – of which we have played a despicable role, all at the behest of the US.

The point of terrorism is by it’s very definition is to cause terror – I think out current government is at the moment causing far more terror then the people planning to blow up planes.