From: Martin Kragh (Martin.Kragh@hhs.se)
Date: Tue Jun 10 2008 - 09:04:37 EDT
Dear all, When the former Social Democratic government representative Thomas Bodström (nowadays a rather retired and poor fiction novelist) argued for total surveillance of e-mail and mobile communications a few years ago, few people took him seriously. This proposal has now been made real, as the new right wing coalition parties are in agreement, and majority, to push this legislation through parliament. This legislation is the most far reaching ever on an international level, even in comparison with the criticized American "Patriot Act", and obviously way more advanced than could ever China or North Korea dream of. The organization in charge is the "FRA", a military institution whose previous goal was to scan the traffic of the Baltic sea (which they still are?). Since the end of the Cold War, they're raison d'être seems to be "terrorism". Transparency is very low, and threatens individual integrity. Anyone is subject to surveillance on political ground (by government decision), with no need for court decision or scrutiny. Any communication going through the borders of Sweden - which is a lot considering the structure of the global hub network - will be subject to surveillance. In Sweden, the media debate seems however more concerned over other issues deemed more urgent. After all, the European Soccer Cup is in full effect. More info in English can be found here: http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number6.11/nsa-fra-sweden Considering the current power balance of the parliament, only four right wing party representatives will need to vote against party line to stop this legislation. The Social Democrats, the Green Party and the former Communist Party are voting against. It will be interesting to see what happens. Many kind regards Martin _______________________________________________ ope mailing list ope@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/ope
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