Sweden to implement surveillance en masse
The new liberal/conservative government, fresh in office for only 4 months or so, recently got a pass from various parliamentary institutions to make real the controversial law which will allow the state to monitor, register and analyze all phone calls, e-mails and other electronic communications going in and out of Sweden. Since most operators nowadays sidestep national boundaries, this means that the bulk of domestic phone calls also will be subject to surveillance. The institution chosen for this task could not have been any better. FRA, a military branch whose former more prestigious tasks included spying on Soviet vessels in the Baltic sea. Their professionalism and integrity will make sure that no acts of terror will be prepared in, on, through, or somewhere in between, Swedish borders.
That this new law is a clear violation of UN and EU law, does not seem to bother our heroic conservative minsiter of defence Mikael Odenberg. Nor the fact that the council of Swedish lawyers, Swedish Security Police (sic!), leading oppositional and partisan politicians, and Swedish media, all have directed severe critique towards the law.
From the UN's declaration of human rights (integrated into the Swedish constitution) we read:
Article 19.
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
If you want to speak your mind as a global but concerned citizen, please don't hesitate to drop an e-mail to mikael.odenberg@riksdagen.se, you may even want quote one of his predecessors, Erich Mielke, minister of defence in the former DDR, and the man responsible for the construction of Stasi:
"Um sicher zu sein, muss man alles wissen"
How little could we know that his prophecy would once again be heard. You may also want to recall another great mind, who you are all familiar with:
"Some laws of state aimed at curbing crime are even more criminal"
Damn right.
Martin Kragh