[FYI] Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties

["Axel H Horns" <horns@ipjur.com>]

http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/09/17/1758231&mode=nocomment

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Stallman: Thousands Dead, Millions Deprived of Liberties  

Posted by CmdrTaco on Monday September 17, @02:36PM from the well-
said-man dept. 

Hobart noted that Richard Stallman has written a very well said piece 
on the civil liberties that we will no doubt be deprived of following 
the recent terrorist attacks on the US. I know RMS takes a lot of 
heat for being out there sometimes, but this is a really well said 
bit and worth a read.  

Thousands dead, millions deprived of civil liberties?  

By Richard Stallman  

The worst damage from many nerve injuries is secondary -- it happens 
in the hours after the initial trauma, as the body's reaction to the 
damage kills more nerve cells. Researchers are beginning to discover 
ways to prevent this secondary damage and reduce the eventual harm.  

If we are not careful, the deadly attacks on New York and Washington 
will lead to far worse secondary damage, if the U.S. Congress adopts 
"preventive measures" that take away the freedom that America stands 
for.  

I'm not talking about searches at airports here. Searches of people 
or baggage for weapons, as long as they check only for weapons and 
keep no records about you if you have no weapons, are just an 
inconvenience; they do not endanger civil liberties. What I am 
worried about is massive surveillance of all aspects of life: of our 
phone calls, of our email, and of our physical movements.  

These measures are likely to be recommended regardless of whether 
they would be effective for their stated purpose. An executive of a 
company developing face recognition software is said to be telling 
reporters that widespread deployment of face-recognizing computerized 
cameras would have prevented the attacks. The September 15 New York 
Times cites a congressman who is advocating this "solution." Given 
that the human face recognition performed by the check-in agents did 
not keep the hijackers out, there is no reason to think that computer 
face recognition would help. But that won't stop the agencies that 
have always wanted to do more surveillance from pushing this plan 
now, and many other plans like it. To stop them will require public 
opposition.  

Even more ominously, a proposal to require government back doors in 
encryption software has already appeared.  

Meanwhile, Congress hurried to pass a resolution giving Bush 
unlimited power to use military force in retaliation for the attacks. 
Retaliation may be justified, if the perpetrators can be identified 
and carefully targeted, but Congress has a duty to scrutinize 
specific measures as they are proposed. Handing the president carte 
blanche in a moment of anger is exactly the mistake that led the 
United States into the Vietnam War.  

Please let your elected representatives, and your unelected 
president, know that you don't want your civil liberties to become 
the terrorists' next victim. Don't wait -- the bills are already 
being written.  

Copyright 2001 Richard Stallman  

Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article are 
permitted in any medium provided the copyright notice and this notice 
are preserved.  

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