We have previously discusses alarming moves in France to limit or deny speech through blasphemy prosecutions to hate speech to barring “antihistorical” speech. Now, in the wake of the recent killings by a Muslim extremist, the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy is proposing a new law that would jail repeat visitors to extremist web sites. It is a measure that strips away core free speech rights of citizens and gives the government a new ambiguous power to arrest people for the things that they read.
Sarkozy insists that such websites should be treated the same as child pornography and that “anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison.” Of course, child pornography contains an objective identifiable component to the child — picture of a minor engaged in sexual conduct. Sarkozy’s Internet law would leave it to the government to determine what sites are espousing “terrorist” viewpoints. Authoritarian governments have long defined critics as criminals and terrorists from China to Iran to North Korea.
Sarkozy expressed impatience with those who raise the niceties of free speech: “Don’t tell me it’s not possible. What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.”
So, Sarkozy will identify those people “in training” to be terrorists.
It is a pattern that is all too familiar to Americans. After an individual or group commits a heinous act of terror, the government immediately uses the attack to limit freedoms of all citizens and to expand its own ill-defined powers. In this case, Sarkozy’s prospects for reelection increased with the massacre and he appears to be riding the backlash following the attacks.
It appears however that the last victim of these attack will be free speech in France.
Source: Yahoo
“Soon enough, we’ll all be considered viewed as potential terrorists by our ‘governments’ and speaking out against anything and everything they do will get us labeled as a Terrorist and subject us to whatever ill they wish to do.” -JCTheBigTree
Yep. And it’s all well underway.
(The following isn’t a surprise, merely confirmation.
NYPD Infiltrated Liberal Political Groups, According To New Documents
Posted: 03/23/2012 8:41 am
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/23/nypd-infiltrated-liberal-political-groups_n_1374823.html?ref=new-york&icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl1|sec3_lnk1%26pLid%3D146021 )
This is scary. I’d be afraid to go to our governments websites after this news.
Soon enough, we’ll all be considered viewed as potential terrorists by our ‘governments’ and speaking out against anything and everything they do will get us labeled as a Terrorist and subject us to whatever ill they wish to do.
The Founding Fathers would be considered terrorists by own government if they were alive today.
Even before these killings, France was a tinder-keg…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1Btc9qMALg&feature=related
influence Nibiru….
Very good analysis, Blouise.
The French authorities have much to answer for to their citizens especially when one considers the amount of time that elapsed between the two shooting incidents and the fact that Merah had slipped through the cracks in their security plans.
Sarkozy is pulling a “Bush” as he seeks to find cover and in the seeking turns up the wattage on the very truth he is attempting to hide.
In the words of his famous countryman:
“Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.” (Napoleon Bonaparte)
The French will be as blind and dumb as we were at the time we allowed our law makers to approve the “reorganization” we call The Department of Homeland Security if they accept Sarkozy’s explanation and move forward under his proven incompetence.
That’s what we did with Bush and look where we are now. We rewarded incompetence with more power and even less accountability.
How terribly humorous that we can see it in the French but not in ourselves. But then, like the ever indulgent voting parent, we refuse to accept the fact that our incompetent children are monsters of our own creation.
SWm:
” If one has not been able to visit Europe recently and witness the segregation and poverty of the large Muslim population, one has no idea how potentially dangerous it is to everyone involved.”
We don’t have to leave the homeland.
“Documents on NYPD spying have been coming out on a regular basis for months now. Every time a new story has come out, Bloomberg and Kelly either have denied the police are engaged in such operations or they have tried to excuse the operations by saying that this is what must be done to prevent terrorism”
http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/03/09/yet-another-ap-report-is-released-on-nypd-spying-on-muslims/
“I realized that posting something from the liberal Jewish newspaper, Hareetz, might cause some concern for some here but I read that and al-jazeera for news.” -Swarthmore mom
No “concern” on my part, Swarthmore mom 😉 (I was only addressing the substance of the article that you posted. You didn’t add any commentary, so I didn’t draw any conclusion about your particular position/s.
If I lived in France, I would vote for the democrat guy running against him–early and often. Is Zarkosy from Corsica, or is his family from there?
anon nurse, I realized that posting something from the liberal Jewish newspaper, Hareetz, might cause some concern for some here but I read that and al-jazeera for news. Posting that was not meant to be an endorsement of Sarkozy’s proposal but quite the opposite. I was trying to show the shooter was already under surveillance and slipped through so why would additional measures be needed. If one has not been able to visit Europe recently and witness the segregation and poverty of the large Muslim population, one has no idea how potentially dangerous it is to everyone involved.
Osama bin Laden may be dead, but his doctrine and ideas are alive and kicking. —–by Avi Issacharoff for Hareetz.com (article posted by Swarthmore mom)
So we should all continue to be very, very afraid. Any and all measures implemented by the government are necessary — the government will take care of us.
That we might be radicalizing others by our policies is just a detail that is better ignored.
Well thank Pasta! This will solve the problems France has with terrorism.
“…the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy is proposing a new law that would jail repeat visitors to extremist web sites.” -Jonathan Turley
What about journalists or others who might be doing research? What about those who are merely intellectually curious?
“Look homeward, angel(s)”…
Merah apparently worked alongside his brother and perhaps with the knowledge of a friend, but Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri probably knew nothing about his intentions. But ultimately, even if Merah “only” shared Al-Qaida’s views and was not an integral part of the organization, it is clear that extremist Islam is trying to lash out in order to prove it is still relevant in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Merah, who died following a shoot-out with French police yesterday, was a “classic candidate” for Al-Qaida membership. He was 23, of Algerian descent, and visited Pakistan and Afghanistan. In France, he joined the Knights of Pride, a radical Salafi group that France outlawed last January after it called for a non-recognition of the country’s secular, democratic regime. The French security forces had group members, including Merah, under surveillance, but he managed to give them the slip.
In many senses, the terrorist from Toulouse was a relatively small headache for Western intelligence. He was a known target, they had information about him, and he was under surveillance. The more meaningful threat in Europe and the United States is from dormant, unknown activists, who are believed to be present in every major European city. Some were born there, others immigrated from Muslim countries.
Alongside the events in Toulouse, Egypt reportedly arrested two suspects Wednesday in a plot to strike a Western ship entering the Suez Canal. The two, apparently Islamic extremists, wanted to hit both Western targets and the Egyptian economy. The extremists are displeased by Egypt’s transformation and the growing strength of political Islam there, namely among the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafi Al-Nour party. In Iraq, Sunni organizations continue to launch terror attacks, and in Syria, a Sunni group claimed responsibility for the car bombings in Damascus last weekend that left dozens dead.
Osama bin Laden may be dead, but his doctrine and ideas are alive and kicking. by Avi Issacharoff for Hareetz.com
“We are, like, that far from a turnkey totalitarian state,” he says.
~~former NSA official and crypto-math William (Bill) Binney, as reported in Wired Magazine, April 2012, as he held his thumb and forefinger a short distance apart
March 21, 2012 | By Trevor Timm
NSA Chief Appears to Deny Ability to Warrantlessly Wiretap Despite Evidence
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2012/03/nsa-chief-denies-ability-warrantlessly-wiretap-despite-evidence
Feeling that “stellar wind”… but, hey, “it could never happen here”…
Reactionary…… But revolutions are reactionary as well….. Oh, wait a minute….. You’ve hired gonzo, Bebee, yoo and rove as part of your legal staff and election team… Right?
Well at least he isn’t sending drones out to kill people who he THINKS might be “terrorists” without due process…just arresting them. -John
No, he has us to do it for him.
Measures like the one proposed by Sarkozy won’t be effective and may, in the end, make things worse.
“Authoritarian governments have long defined critics as criminals and terrorists from China to Iran to North Korea.” -Jonathan Turley
Let me correct that: “Authoritarian governments have long defined critics as criminals and terrorists from China to Iran to North Korea” to the United States. We’re not simply not as “open” about our means of oppression. But make no mistake, we have our own “methods”…
France is liding away from free speech. Are we far behind?
John has a point.
Oh, and of course they will be careful not to go beyond the parameters of that censorship.
Why not just ban those type websites and be done with it. Less administration.
Well at least he isn’t sending drones out to kill people who he THINKS might be “terrorists” without due process…just arresting them.
Gezzzz must be bad when THIS kind of abuse looks good…Hahhahhaha