The Power to Snoop Continues by Chelle Stockman

"The Power to Snoop Continues"

Those boarding trans-atlantic flights are probably aware that their personal information is stored in security data banks of the governments. The Bush administration demanded of EU countries they hand over PNR Data for "purposes of security." PNR is short for Passenger Name Record. The agreement between the European Commission and the US government failed to establish limitations on their reasons for data collection and storage for the millions of travelers who fly. The Parliment kept up their protest that it violated the British citizens rights of protection but got nowhere as many people felt the governments had every right to this information if it prevented terrorism.  
 
There has been no terrorist caught since this program went into place some 3 plus years ago and the European Court of Justice annulled the Eu-Us illegal agreement pending a viable legal solution. They have until September 30 of this year to accomplish this. Meanwhile the searches will continue. The Bush administration fired back that it would impose heavy fines and deny landing rights for any airline failing to meet the agreement demanded of them sending a message of threat to our allies and others. 
 
The testimonies of people who were detained for hours and in some cases days were alarming to say the least. In each and every case, no probable cause was given other than they had the rights to investigate any individual they deemed necessary. The list of those detained were interesting. Most worked in fields of engineering or were professors at Universites around the world, specialists in computer encryptian fields, etc. These people were due to give speeches on such things as government spying using encryted programs. So what happens to them? They are detained for a lengthy period of time until they miss their event and any monetary suffering is the responsibility of the detainee. They are put on a list and get singled out every time they fly and probably will continue to do so.  
 
The most interesting case that I found myself heartsick over was of a Professor out of the University of Granada in Spain. Professor Arturo Quirantes Sierra, a specialist in cryptography and member of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility has a huge story to tell. For more information, I urge you to log on to: 
 
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2003/oct/12pnrspain.htm. 
 
From there, you'll be able to find a slew of valuable information by way of links on the last page of the article.  
 
You won't easily find the news article about Washington's threat to the EU about what will occur if they follow their courts annullment of the "agreement". So, I'll post another link for you: 
 
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/5028918.stm 
 
I submit to you that if we continue on our path of dominance we will suffer the same shame Humpty Dumpty did. 

By Chelle Stockman