Terrorism and civil rights New Feature By Anthony Giddens International Herald Tribune Friday, March 4, 2005
These are excerpts from two of the speeches delivered in the House of Lords of the British Parliament in the current debate on the proposed "Prevention of Terrorism Bill," which empowers the government to impose various restrictions on individuals suspected of terrorist activities. The full debate can be found at www.parliament.uk/hansard/hansard2.cfm. . *** . My Lords, as someone who has studied terrorism intensively over the past few years, I should like to say something about what I take to be the backdrop to this debate. . In my view discussion of terrorism in this country, and, indeed, in some European countries, has been undermined by a failure to draw a distinction between two types of terrorism. The first type of terrorism - for want of a better word - I call "old-style" terrorism. . Old-style terrorism is the kind of terrorism that we have been familiar with for many years in this country. It is the terrorism of the IRA, the Basque separatists, the separatists in Sri Lanka, Kashmir and many other countries around the world. Old-style terrorism is fundamentally local in character. It is concerned with nationalism and establishing a state in nations that do not have a state. . I would submit that new-style terrorism is absolutely different from this previous form. New-style terrorism is a creation of globalization. It is an expression of the massive acceleration of the interdependence of the world in which we now live. . There are four differences between new and old-style terrorism that are crucial to discussion of the Bill. The first is in respect of its aims. New-style terrorism has aims that are geopolitical. Al Qaeda seeks to achieve nothing short of the rolling back of modernity and the reconstruction of world society. Such demands are not negotiable in the way that old-style terrorism was. . The second difference is in organizational capacity. 9/11 would have been inconceivable without the use of modern technologies: mobile phones, the Internet, computers and so forth. That gives a completely different scope to new-style terrorism in the world today. . The third difference, as noble Lords said earlier, is ruthlessness. Bin Laden has said that he wants to kill millions of Americans. There is no limit to the destructive intent of new-style terrorism, very much in contradiction to the forms of terrorism that we have known before. . The fourth difference is weaponry. We live in a world where, through the Internet, access to destructive weaponry is readily available to anyone who takes the time to learn the procedures involved. . .. Noble Lords will remember that, a few years ago, one of the leaders of the IRA said to the security services, "You might be right 99 per cent of the time, but if you are wrong 1 per cent of the time, we will wreak havoc in your cities." That threat is now much more severe, given the nature of the weaponry that can be deployed. . Against the background of what are massively elevated risks from those that we faced in the past, even 10 years ago, I do not see how anyone can cogently argue that those risks can be handled by orthodox judicial process. Of course we want to bring terrorists to trial whenever we can and, whenever we can, convict them, but as the Bill states, there are bound to be areas where we cannot directly prosecute but where there is clear and present danger and where that danger, in some circumstances, may be extreme and devastating. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Help save the life of a child. Support St. Jude Children's Research Hospital's 'Thanks & Giving.' http://us.click.yahoo.com/mGEjbB/5WnJAA/E2hLAA/BRUplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> *************************************************************************** Berdikusi dg Santun & Elegan, dg Semangat Persahabatan. Menuju Indonesia yg Lebih Baik, in Commonality & Shared Destiny. www.ppi-india.uni.cc *************************************************************************** __________________________________________________________________________ Mohon Perhatian: 1. Harap tdk. memposting/reply yg menyinggung SARA (kecuali sbg otokritik) 2. Pesan yg akan direply harap dihapus, kecuali yg akan dikomentari. 3. Lihat arsip sebelumnya, www.ppi-india.da.ru; 4. Satu email perhari: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 5. No-email/web only: [EMAIL PROTECTED] 6. kembali menerima email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ppiindia/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/