Fun and games with UK's big brother

Hey all,

Just a few humble musings from a newbie on how we can get value for all our tax money spent on all these lovely new fangled advanced surveillance systems our government in the UK and its overseas parners are spending for our protection.

Since I'm new here by way of introduction and to set the scene, I live in the outskirts of London, a soul-crushing, cold city and demesne of some of the most evil and barbarous creatures ever to sully a human form. I am of middle-eastern descent (I was born in Suleimaniyah in Kurdistan and have spent 25 of my 28 years in this country) which makes life, shall we say, INTERESTING in the current sociopolitical climate. This is ironic where I myself am concerned since I do not at all ascribe to the Islamic religion personally - my parents were open minded enough to allow me to choose my own spiritual path though they themselves are Muslim. The current situation in London affects me acutely since in the course of my normal daily routine I must travel via the London Underground through major stations in Central London, the scenes of so much recent hilarity caused by Her Majesty's intelligence services at the orders of (among others) that rather pathetic lackey and sycophantic aspirant to the New World Order, Tony Blair.

It's my belief given the evidence that 7/7 was almost certainly an intelligence psy-op (ie. a covert intelligence operation designed to provoke some shift in psychology, perception and sociopolitical stance in the public or specific groups with the aim of setting the optimum conditions for acceptance of some policy or action by the government or group carrying out the operation, thereby making the overt operation more acceptable, workable and likely to succeed) done with remarkable and almost foolhardy operational similarity to the psy-op conducted against the American public on 11/9/2001, and it was done with the same purposes in mind - to garner support from the British public for involvement in further costly aggression in the Middle East, to instill in the public a climate of fear and distrust (of Muslims in general and middle-easterners in particular), and to thereby make the population more amenable to the construction of a surveillance society and the voluntary waiving of their privacy, civil rights and powers of dissent, all with an eventual view to the incremental imposition of outright totalitarian control and government oversight of every aspect of society and the complete subjugation of every individual to the state.
I realise that this has probably been said umpteen times before by many members of this forum and the evidence laid out in thoroughly convincing arguments - I just thought I'd summarise my views on it. I was to give a presentation on the 7/7 bombings at my university last year, intending to summarise the evidence kept out of the mainstream regarding the events but was cut short by members of my faculty's administration who felt that, after demanding to see the script in advance, the University did not deem it fitting to associate themselves with such "speculation". Despite my arguing that all that was presented was simply an alternative chronology of the events incorporating nothing but verified and fully documented information with care taken to make engage in no speculation WHATSOEVER, they flat refused permission.
This made a lot more sense to me when I did a little digging and found that many of the member universities of the University Of London invest in the international arms industry, UCL (my university) being one of the heaviest investors.

(continued...)

And of course, the state controlled television media, being bound by Law in the United Kingdom (the so-called "Official Secrets Act") not to disclose details of anything their Government owners don't want disclosed (even to the people whose taxes - amounting to over 100 pounds per year for the privilege of having access to these sickening propaganda organs - fund their very existence! What a #ing outrage! The only supposedly democratic free country (hah! chance would be a fine thing) in the world to charge a LICENCE fee to own a television and the only such country whose government OPENLY ENACTS LAWS that censor its content, preventing even the DISCUSSION of such censorship!), earned their pay and completely whitewashed the event for the benefit of the public (including the supposedly "independant" television networks in this country, who are also bound by this legislation), skating conveniently around the gaping holes in the official conspiracy theory and stigmatising and character assassinating a whole racial segment of its viewership at the orders of Herr Blair und Co. And the sickening cherry on this steaming *SNIP* that much of the dumbed down, binge drinking, obese, illiterate and just generally *SNIP* brain-dead barely human denizens of this jaded island lapped it up and swallowed this steaming PR horse# whole with a big, gap-toothed smile.

Until recently, purely for my own personal entertainment, I had taken to growing a beard and fumbling with my bag while on the train, taking special care to be sitting in amongst and make eye contact with the pinstriped yuppies, reading yet another story in the Metro with a headline title such as "Fanatics A Threat To Us All", until the novelty of finally securing my own seat with BOTH armrests had worn off and the frightened looks on the faces of these sleepwalking, gibbering automatons lost its mirth value. Not to mention that after repeated and highly entertaining conversations with the jack-booted monkeys being employed these days by the Metropolitan Transport Police, I had finally realised that even my not insignificant powers of Socratic argument would suffice, no matter how embarrassingly loudly argued, to convince even one of these drooling crypto-fascists that perhaps they are being exploited every bit as much as the thousands of innocents they victimise at the order of the unaccountable alphabet-agencies that feed them their laughable "intelligence".

London, as I'm sure by now most members here are aware, is the most watched city in the WORLD - millions of surveillance cameras linked into a network of computers with biometric facial/body/movement recognition, behaviour pattern analysis and tracking software, all of it funded by the unwitting taxpayer with NO PUBLIC OVERSIGHT WHATSOEVER. Add to this the prospect that our trusted government is at this very moment building a national database containing comprehensive biometric data on all its citizens (gained through warrantless police searches and arrests of tens of thousands of innocent people including several hundred CHILDREN under 16 years of age under the new "anti-terror" legislation - all of whom now have no way of removing themselves from this growing database despite more than 99.99% of these cases not leading to formal charges of any kind being leveled - as well as restructuring of application procedures for such things as passports to require mandatory fingerprinting & biometric face scanning, all in the name of combating this illusory terrorist threat from Al-CIA-da) is linking this database to the camera surveillance and analysis system to allow instant identification of anyone, anywhere. In real terms, even if we are to grant the unlikely premise that this system is purely there for our protection against terrorists and criminals, the logistics of such a system amounts to the fact that EVERY PERSON IN THE COUNTRY IS AUTOMATICALLY A SUSPECT FOR EVERY CONCEIVABLE CRIME.

(...continued)

Mod Edit: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.

Mod Edit: Terms & Conditions Of Use – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 19/6/2006 by Mirthful Me]

In short, our government (and its criminal partner states) and a few choice private corporate entities, are now in possession of a system of surveillance over its citizens whereby the identities, movements, activities and even the mental and emotional states of every single one of us are tracked and recorded at all times whether in or out of a vehicle or building, and that the personal details, vital statistics, psychological profile, educational and medical histories, financial details and records, criminal records, and all other conceivable information relating to any individual will soon all be available at the touch of a button to agents of these organisations over whom we have neither oversight nor control. And the average British citizen is becoming more and more aware of this by the second.

Another observation from the perspective of a UK citizen is the tangible shift over the last few years from the media simply not mentioning this encroachment of detailed, constant surveillance into our lives, to the situation we find ourselves in now where the media (especially the BBC) seems to be entirely populated by talking heads who use almost Orwellian language and tactics to push the idea that such systems are a necessity and the marginalisation of all argument to the contrary. To those in the UK who still believe we have any privacy, perhaps you'd better make a daytrip down to Menwith Hill in Yorkshire and have a good look at one of the many huge, golf ball shaped "radomes" they have there, where they (GCHQ in the UK and its sister spy agencies in the states and australia, an elsewhere) record all your mobile 'phone and landline calls the second you use a "keyword", and send them to those lovely folks at the NSA over in "Crypto City" across the pond so they can analyse your calls, spend $50,000 (on average) datamining and profiling you to decide whether to ask MI6 to kidnap you, stick you on an unchartered "extraordinary rendition" flight to an Egyptian or Israeli dungeon so their CIA trained "interrogators" can find out how much of a threat you really are to the establishment without running into trouble from any pesky "human rights" laws.

Finding ourselves in such a mess, we in the UK I believe must ensure that we get the best possible use from these oversight systems our esteemed leaders have deemed necessary for our protection from those crazy A-rabs. Here are a couple of ideas I've had recently...

(...continued)

amen bro you keep it going!!!

Firtsly, I have taken recently to routinely ending all my 'phone calls by the string of words, carefully enunciated for all listening parties, "president bush murder kill bomb terrorist al-qaeda osama nuclear passport jihad bush kill blair die infidel hello there, ECHELON!", just so I know my calls get that special, PERSONAL attention). Perhaps we could collaborate on this site to come up with the most effective string of keywords that can be clearly spoken sequentially in one minute at the end of every call we make, designed to get the attention of ECHELON. Hey, if we ALL ended our calls with that, we'd only be paying a fraction more on our 'phone bills and it would cause some quite comic and well deserved headaches for our overlords, and perhaps they would then be put in the position of actually having to discuss the these Orwellian monitoring systems with the public. Also, if they got miffed enough to have a word with you about it you could start your defence by simply saying "well, you see I agreed with Tony Blunkett in that if I have nothing to hide then what have I to fear from saying whatever I want?"

Another idea to perhaps throw a few monkeywrenches in the cogs of the machine would be for all UK citizens to demand all footage and images taken of them by all surveillance cameras owned and/or operated by the governement and its contracted ancillaries under the FOIA - technically it's all the property by law of the individual whose image/footage has been captured, is it not? If we all did that I'm sure the consequences (unless there's a legal hitch in my dastardly plan - any lawyers wanna help me out with a strategy here?) would bring smiles to the faces of many here. Also, if we all did that and forced them to comply we could all become millionaires by buying shares beforehand in TDK, BASF and Memorex - I hear with the mass migration to solid state they'll soon be cheap as chips...

Like I say, just a few musings.

Anyway, sorry for the length of this, my first post(s?), I guess its more cathartic ranting here than I expected. Ooh, I feel so much better now, but fear ye not! I'm sure the accumulation of spiritual vitriol will have to find vent soon enough again, and you shall all have to be my audience once more! Mwah ha haaa!

Love this site and have been extremely pleasantly surprised by the quality of debate here, as well as the sheer quantity of well referenced information. To all, keep up the good work, and if anyone's got any good ideas for some fun and games with UK big brother, do let us all know.

Fulcanelli

Hi all,

I've just had a look through the rules and regs and realised that I was perhaps a little loose in my use of colourful metaphors and, shall we say, "spirited" language in the above diatribe.

My sincerest apologies for having unwittingly broken the rulesand for anyone I may have offended, and may I offer to the moderators my assurance that I shall not be so lax with my language in the future.

Fulcanelli

nice post there with some excellent ideas

but germany also charges a fee to allow you to own a television,here its called the GEZ

Wow, I didn't know about the GEZ in Germany - I feel your pain, my friend! Added to this insult here in the UK is that the licensing agency here thinks nothing of dotting the landscape with drab, grey, menacing looking billboards warning "Our national database contains details of every home without a TV license...", threatening us with a fine of 1000 pounds and a possible prison sentence for non compliance. I hope the Germans have not yet become so openly dictatorial over their viewership!

My thanks for the positive comments.

You have voted fulcanelli for the Way Above Top Secret award. You have one more vote left for this month.

Great post mate! Welcome to ATS...I don't usualy read the long ones, but enjoyed yours very much.

I'm a Brit too, from the Midlands, but did a runner to the States a few yrs ago somewhat due to the establishment we all love
But unforunately I think out of the frying pan....

Look fwd to reading more posts from you.

What do you think of Black Flag, or Class War in London? Have you read their newspapers?

Hey ANOK,

Great to hear so soon after joining from a fellow Brit (your current location notwithstanding!). I can empathise with your exit from this island - the thought has been a recurring one in my mind also, and becomes more naggingly persistent by the say, unfortunately. I guess I'm just playing the game until I can engineer the optimum circumstances for my own relocation.

It's interesting that you should come to the subject of anarchism, one in which I have had an interest in for some time but consider myself a relative neophyte to - I say this tentatively since I believe I have a workable understanding of the theories and ideology, and more importantly to me, one which resonates viscerally with my instincts - it's an area in which I continue to educate myself. I would say, however that thus far in my education, I feel that I have conclusively proved to myself that the alternative ideologies to anarchism which have been and are currently applied to societal governance have all been the creations of the few to control and exploit the many, and that as such I believe anarchism could well provide at least part of the makings of the required paradigm shift necessary to bring the collective situation of the human race to sanity.

I have been aware of Black Flag and Class War for a short while - I was actually switched onto them by a friend who lives in Warwick (lots of anarchists up in the Midlands eh?) who is a subscriber, though I have not read either as much as I'd like.

Rest assured, my self-education here will continue. If you have any other good resources you feel would help me I would be most grateful if you could provide some links.

Thank you for your input and your vote my friend, and my hope is that I can do them both justice in future.

Fulcanelli

Here and here are lists of ECHELON keywords, both conveniently on ATS already.

Great read you gave me there, fulcanelli!

Until recently, purely for my own personal entertainment, I had taken to growing a beard and fumbling with my bag while on the train, taking special care to be sitting in amongst and make eye contact with the pinstriped yuppies, reading yet another story in the Metro with a headline title such as "Fanatics A Threat To Us All", until the novelty of finally securing my own seat with BOTH armrests had worn off and the frightened looks on the faces of these sleepwalking, gibbering automatons lost its mirth value.

rofl

Welcome to ATS! Hope you have a few more threads like that . . . But I'll bet there is a legal hitch concerned with asking the govt. for footage of yourself. Those bastards always have a quiver of tricks up their sleeve/s.

edit: itrytomakesense,butitjustdoesntworksometimes




[edit on 19/6/2006 by watch_the_rocks]

If you don't like it here then you have an obvious choice......

Obviously it's not perfect but when you find that perfect country do let us know.

I notice you've taken full advantage of our subsidised further education system.

You do NOT have to have a licence to have a TV - you have to have a licence if you use your TV to receive signals. So it's c. £130 p/a - big deal! For that you get 7 BBC TV channels and 7+ radio stations.

Someone has to fund the best broadcast organisation on the planet. Again if you don't like it don't have a TV or leave.

I'm proud of my country and proud of the Beeb - the licence is fantastic value if you compare the cost / quality of Murdoch's channels.

As for fiddling with your bag on the tube - that's just pathetic. 50 people were killed - a significant proportion being muslim / immigrants. As Londoners we all felt that loss. To play games with the aim of causing distress is just petty and sick.

Presumably if two fellow travellers wrestled you to the ground and incapacitated you as a result of your pretending to be a bomber you'd have no issue with that?
If I saw you doing that I'd probably call the Police (with good reason) and presumably you'd be the first to bleat after a weekend of 'interviews'. To deliberately pretend to be a bomber is, rightly, an offence and I hope they catch / prosecute you.

We are a very, very tolerant, welcoming nation (go to Germany / Russia and you'll see the difference) but we don't like our generosity being abused.

Thanx for the reply Fulcanelli! Somehow I had a feeling you might have an interest in anarchism, it is taken more seriously in britania than here in the states I think. We both know the left and right are not what they claim to be anymore, too much infiltration from the ruling elites to be trusted. Head or Tails, either way you choose you lose.

To be honest you have the best resource in the world for anarchism right in London, 'Freedom Press'. They have a bookstore in Whitechappel, Angel Alley. Been there many times. I got special attention at Newark airport for having some of their books on me...LOL
www.libcom.org...

There's a few websites but most I find are full of clueless kids or stupid crap like anarcho-capitalism, talk about an oxy-moron...LOL

The beauty of anarchism to me is not having to conform to someone elses doctrine.
How can you be truly free when your thoughts are not your own?
Is true anarchism possible? Not without some serious re-education of the population, which unfortunately is probably not possible. But unless we strive for the top of the hill, chances are we won't even make it halfway.

ANOK, it's mans true nature...

I'm with Strangerous on this one.

You clearly don't like this country, so go elsewhere.

Its a simple remedy. Nothing to do with race, religion or creed. Its like choosing your favourite supermarket.

If you like playing racial sterotypes on the tube and projecting paranoia onto people, expect to get harrassed, or even shot. Lets see how funny that is.

Playing stupid games when people have actually been killed is - to be blunt - sick.

You aren't solving a problem, you're being part of it.

@ Strangerous

To answer your gripes one by one;

You have somehow extrapolated from what I have said the impression that I in some way hate living in this country. I am careful with my words - look carefully and you will see that nowhere have I made that assertion.

And I agree with you, it's FAR from perfect - as far imperfect as any other nation you could name - but then I never implied any nation was perfect. These are certainly ASPECTS of this life in this country I dislike, some that I have listed and MANY, believe me, that I will list in posts to come. However, having spent my whole life in this country I consider it my home and feel proud to be British, and it's my love for this country and, more importantly, for those who inhabit it, which is the biggest reason I raise the issues I do. I would submit that to do anything else would be unpatriotic and anti-human, and so I will call it as I see it, as much for YOUR benefit as for my own or anyone else's.

Yes, I have, as you put it, "taken advantage" of the subsidised further education system here - having been resident here since the age of three I could hardly have done otherwise, but to put that into perspective I have repaid the student loans I have taken out in full and have been a taxpaying, law abiding and positively contributing member of society since. Is there any further contribution a British citizen is obliged to make? Or perhaps you simply begrudge a "foreigner" coming to "your" island and "taking advantage of YOUR educational system"? Did you have a point there?

I am well aware that the licence is applicable for the reception of TV signals, but I know of one person who was threatened with court action since he didn't have a licence and when stating that he only used it to watch movies on his video recorder he was told that since his television had a built in aerial he COULD have been using it for terrestrial TV signal reception and was therefore potentially liable.

I myself own a television, pay a licence, and barely ever watch it except for a few comedies here and there - and again, if you actually bother to read what I have WRITTEN as opposed to what you seem to have read into it, you will see that my complaint was not about the quality or content, if you're happy with it all the better for you, but I'm afrad that has little bearing on what I wrote.

As for fiddling with my bag on the tube, I consider it just recompense after the treatment I'm forced to endure at the hands of the indoctrinated in, among other places, the London Underground - people like you, I imagine - who blindly and unquestioningly believe everything they are told and lack the intelligence to see that they have been lied to. A cabal within your beloved government murdered those people, and anyone who still believes the propaganda deserves to have their reality challenged. Especially if you find yourself posting here. And I will continue to do that in my own way, and I will continue, my friend, to derive a great deal of enjoyment from it.

As for "pretending to be a bomber" - this shows YOUR level of conditioning. I advise you again to READ my words CAREFULLY. My answer here is that if being brown, bearded and simply reaching into my bag to YOU constitutes my "pretending to be a bomber" then yes, I was pretending to be a bomber, but only if you are a person who believes that being brown, bearded and reaching into a bag constitutes a positive idenification as a bomber. You wouldn't be a POLICEMAN, by any chance would you? I suggest you do what you said you would and report to the police every time you see someone matching that description do that on the underground and watch the hilarity that ensues, at your expense.

"We are a very, very tolerant, welcoming nation (go to Germany / Russia and you'll see the difference) but we don't like our generosity being abused. " I guess you've shown all here just how very, very tolerant and welcoming you are.

Fulcanelli

Playing stupid games when people have actually been killed is - to be blunt - sick.

So you will stop your kids from playing 'war'?

Come to Aus, fulcanelli, where no one gives a stuff what you do!

You guys would just love that wouldn't you?

Anybody who questions, or doesn't like the present regime should go somewhere else...

What garbage! It's people who question present situations that get things changed.

If we followed your logic we'd still have slavery, kids working in factories and sweeping your chimneys.

I thought testing the publics paranoia to be quite funny myself. I love to see the yuppies squirm. If wearing a beard and messing with your backpack will get you in trouble, then the govs program of fear is more effective than I thought. Scary!

Paranoia Paradise...

Obviously we are a welcoming country and one of the most tolerant egalitarian countries in the World. Immigrants have added immensely to the UK and will continue to do so.

There is a big difference between constructively joining the debate and trying through peaceful protest and representation to alter some of the obvious flaws and mere mischief-making.

So you've been looked suspiciously - so has everyone who takes a rucsac onto the tube. Rather than blame your fellow commuters for their understandable apprehension why don't you blame the guys who blew themselves up, their Imams, or the ideology that convinced them such attrocities were justified?

To deliberately set out to cause fear and upset is disgraceful and shows contempt for your fellow citizens. You're admitting cheerfully to committing a repeated offence on here so presumably you'd be happy if the law of the land was applied.

That's what makes me question whether you're happy here and whether you fully appreciate the opportunities and benefits you've derived from being in the UK.

This thread is disgusting.

You are not being held in this country, you are free to leave and persue a new life elsewhere, or is the free health care, benefits and support for you and your relatives to much of a draw? If you don't like it, go elsewhere.

For the information of you and others, a national identification card is something that has been proposed, but twice has been denied the right to be made law as there is such a strong feeling about our (the british people's) right to freedom.

You are not helping the current sitution, specifically by your foul acts on public transport. Your views and name calling of the government also highlight your racist views. Some of your names and phrase's i can draw parallels with speechs made 60 years ago.

I for one dont totally agree with or like this current governement, which we've had for 7 years already but they are not as bad as you are making them out to be.

It is a VERY SAD time that we live in currently, there is alot of mistrust brought about by newspapers/TV/internet disscussions and people like you only fuel these issues.

And another thing the British TV is one of the most free thinking/speech television broadcasting countries in the world to my knowledge, try the Chinese State TV if you want to see heavily governed televisual content. The only reason why you have to pay a license is to enable public sector jobs, inpartial news coverage and NO commerical adverts! Excellent TV if you want my opinion.

I will say again, a VERY SAD time we currently live in.

NOW READ THIS CAREFULLY:

99% of all terrorists ARE NOT MUSLIMS

BUT

99% of terrorists ARE MUSLIMS

Its a sad case but the Police have to deal with current threats to society, this is the current threat. People who are in the current 'focus' of police investigations are bound to be targetted if they display enough behaviour that attracts the police attention.

And muslim's are currently the main focus of the police's ongoing terror investigations - just as white males of a certain age range are subject to paedophilia investigations.
This is not a racist stance, it is just the way things are!

You should not play the race card to win arguements or discussions, we are all adults we should be able to get along just fine. There are always two sides to any arguement and such there will be two lots of (often contraviening) evidence to backup events/stories.

Deny Ignorance

ANOK and watch_the_rocks,

Glad to see I'm in like minded company, and again, thanks for the links ANOK. Anyone who believes all brown people are potential bombers is a justifiable target for hi-jinks, for the benefit of their own education and so that they present less of a threat to society.

@ neformore, strangerous:

What i find "sick" is the voluntary abandonment of all sense of proportion and reality to the extent that people like you need your opinions, "facts" and even your PARANOIAS dictated to you by the deservedly named "nanny state" - consider also that I am a daily traveller on the London Underground and daily face the same "threat" alongside the poor morons who think this threat is contained in my bag, added to which I also face racism and victimisation by the police who clearly share your criteria for the identification of a bomber. NOBODY outside those killed and their families and friends has felt the repercussions of this incident the way people like me have in this country, and I invite you to argue otherwise.

Neither of you have spoken to the FACTS I have presented, but in a typical knee-jerk response to any idea that challenges your paradigm, you have both revealed the depths of both your conditioning and your ignorance. Watch this space, my crypto-racist friends, I intend to educate you in times to come.

Fulcanelli ...out