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Good, quiet police work pays off big in the strategy to counter terrorism. And to be sure, terrorism, worldwide, is a part of life.
Since the tactic roared forth, we have all wanted effective deterrence. No one except the hard core supporters of extremism want them to succeed. The 'with us or with them' meme is bankrupt. It was never operative, except as jingoistic sloganeering.
So what has been the evolution? What has been the solution? What has been the result? What has been the success rate? What has been the fallout? And what has become of *us* - the innocent, uninvolved, but incredibly affected citizenry?
Well ...... apart from the honest police work done by annonymous law enforcement people across the country, there has been a federal overlay put in place by the rfegime that wishes to totally control us all. The result? We've become a nation of suspects.
Have you entered an office building lately? In many cases (and almost always here in the DC/Baltimore area) you need to show an ID and sign a log.
Have you tried to open a bank account? You now need two forms of 'government' IDs.
Need a library card? A drivers license? Cable teevee service?
In each case, even when the people with whom you deal have known you for years - maybe even been to your house - you need to prove who you are.
When you place a cell phone call, an entry is made in a government database. It is probable the actual call is recorded. Your location during that call is noted in the same database.
When your land line phone rings, that transaction, too, is duly noted.
That debit card that's so convenient is also a wealth of information for those who suspect you of a crime. Ladies, they know when you menstruate. That purchase of super absorbent tampons and the overnight pads allow them to know your monthly cycle.
Guys, they know not only that you enjoy watching porn, but they can deduce your sexual proclivities. They know if you're a top or a bottom. Erectile dysfunction? Ha! Don't ask. Its part of your psychological profile, buddy. How soon until you're dragged in for questioning when a person is found brutally murdered in a way that matches your porn preferences?
Airport security is on our minds of late given the activities in the UK. But ever since the Bushpublicans have been in charge, you've been suspected before the fact of plotting a crime. Your travel habits have been cross checked with that other data. They know you. You've long been forced to surrender property before you fly. You've long been restricted in what you can carry. In some cases, you've been deemed such a great risk to the country that you're prohibited from peeing for 30 minutes prior to arrival at your destination.
When they riffle through your personal belongings, latex gloved hands touch your property. They use rubber tipped wooden rods to poke and prod your belongings. You need to prove your laptop is, in fact, a functioning laptop. Same with your IPod. Same with your cell phone. Same with your little kid's GameBoy. Yes, even your children are suspects.
And how soon until we start to undergo body cavity searches? Not too long, I suspect. I've no doubt the real bad guys have studied the drug mules of yore. A little C4 in a swallowed condom, with a trigger that reacts to the turning off of the seat belt sign and its done. They need only claim to have busted such a 'plot' and you will be linked to it. In order to fly, you'll need to be checked for the possibility that you're the bad guy. As a suspect, you'll have to undergo the indignity of a latex gloved digit poking into you sphincter. Will they at least use some KY?
We are a nation of suspects.
For all these suspects, the success rate has been pretty damned pitiful. How many plots have been uncovered as a result of such surveillance? One? Ten? Out of, literally, millions upon tens of millions, upon hundreds of millions of individual acts of surveillance and intrusion.
And yet you're still a suspect. One of three hundred million such suspects.
And it would seem that very few of us mind.
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