lambs to the slaughter

Family's shock at council spying (BBC News, Friday, 11 April 2008)

Spy law 'used in dog fouling war' (BBC News, Sunday, 27 April 2008)

Draconian legislation that was presented to us as indispensable in the fight against terrorism and organised crime is now being used to investigate minor offences. How much furore did this spark? Not much. It took The Guardian several weeks to pursue the second story:

Council accused of foul play to catch guilty dog owners (The Guardian, Thursday May 22 2008)

although the issue was parenthetically mentioned in:

Council used terror law to spy on fishermen (The Guardian, Wednesday May 14 2008)

Apparently, even newspapers said to be to the left of the political spectrum are slow to report about the government snooping on us.

It also took much of the British press more than a week to get the facts straight on this shameful matter:

Student was 'studying terrorism' (BBC News, Friday, 23 May 2008)

Student researching al-Qaida tactics held for six days (The Guardian, Saturday May 24, 2008)

Note that the facts were known many days before:

Anger Over "Terror Arrests" at Nottingham University (Indymedia UK, 20.05.2008)

I would not be surprised if this is the last we hear about it from the 'respectable' media. Who cares about two young guys with Islamic sounding names, one of whom is fucking Algerian! The daily gibberish uttered by a warmonger and religious crackpot is much more newsworthy: Blair's faith in difficult task, BBC News 31 May; Blair launches faith foundation, BBC News 30 May; Blair 'to devote life to faith', BBC News 29 May.

Your name is not Rizwaan or Hisham? You're not a student of politics and international relations? You've nothing to hide? Then rest assured your government will fully respect your privacy and not put you in jail for up to 28 (soon 42) days for no reason whatsoever. Sleep tight!