Archivo etiqueta «Seguridad ciudadana»
By Mike McConnell, director of national intelligence (THE WASHINGTON POST, 15/02/08):
One of the most critical weapons in the fight against terrorists and other foreign intelligence threats — the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — has not kept up with the technology revolution we have experienced over the past 30 years. We are on the brink of bringing this 20th-century tool in line with 21st-century technology and threats. The Senate has passed a strong bill, by an overwhelmingly bipartisan margin, that would modernize FISA and do the right thing for those companies that responded to their country’s call for … Seguir leyendo
Por Joan-Josep Queralt, catedrático de Derecho Penal de la UB (EL PERIÓDICO, 14/02/08):
La propuesta del PP para mejorar la seguridad ciudadana, presentada para las próximas elecciones, es seguidismo del irracionalismo punitivo internacional. Son cuatro páginas que solo hablan de aumentar las penas e incrementar la represión. Es alarmante que un documento tan falto de rigor haya sido fruto, además, de quienes, hasta hace una legislatura, tenían responsabilidades de gobierno.
Para saber si hay que crear nuevos delitos y/o aumentar las penas, hace falta saber si la delincuencia está siendo razonablemente contenida o aumenta de forma que haya que … Seguir leyendo
By Christina Zaba, the managing director of ethical media relations consultancy prone and union liaison officer for the NO2ID campaign no2id.net (THE GUARDIAN, 27/11/07):
Last week’s loss of confidential child benefit records has been a wake-up call to 25 million people about the reality of the government’s handling of our personal information. But few realise the extent of what lies ahead. The Identity Cards Act, which slipped, barely noted, on to the statute books in 2006, is the jewel in the crown of a wholesale and well-advanced government commitment to “share” data about each of us between departments on … Seguir leyendo
By Timothy Garton Ash (THE GUARDIAN, 15/11/07):
Smiley swirled the last of the brandy in his balloon glass and muttered: “We’ve given up far too many freedoms in order to be free. Now we’ve got to take them back.” That legendary spymaster’s warning about the over-intrusive, over-mighty national security states that we in the self-styled “free world” built up during the cold war was delivered in John le Carré’s novel of 1990, The Secret Pilgrim. But instead of taking those freedoms back, British people have lost more of them. Across the western world, vastly more personal information is held on … Seguir leyendo
By John Ashcroft, the United States attorney general from 2001 to 2005. He now heads a consulting firm that has telecommunications companies as clients (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 05/11/07):
For almost two years, the country has debated whether the Bush administration acted properly and lawfully in undertaking emergency surveillance operations of suspected foreign terrorists on presidential authorization in the wake of 9/11. For several months, we have been debating bills that seek to modernize the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court statute.
There are many complex and difficult issues associated with these debates, but whether to terminate the huge lawsuits that … Seguir leyendo
Por Gregorio Morán (LA VANGUARDIA, 03/11/07):
Perplejo. La sociedad se conmociona ante dos escenas simultáneas, la de un descerebrado convertido en arrogante canalla que golpea a una joven indefensa, con alevosía e impunidad, y en un segundo plano, acompañando la escena como un fondo musical, un tipo acojonado porque el destino está dubitativo y aún no ha decidido si las hostias le van a caer sólo a la chica o también le tocarán a él, que nunca se sabe lo que puede ocurrir cuando las bestias se desatan. Le cayeron a la chica, es obvio, porque la gente basura siempre … Seguir leyendo
By John D. Rockefeller IV, a Democrat from West Virginia, is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (THE WASHINGTON POST, 31/10/07):
In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, the Bush administration had a choice: Aggressively pursue potential terrorists using existing laws or devise new, secret intelligence programs in uncharted legal waters.
Unfortunately, President Bush often chose the latter, and the legitimacy and effectiveness of our efforts to fight terrorism were dramatically undermined.
The president’s warrantless surveillance program and his decision to go it alone — without input from Congress or the courts — have had devastating consequences. … Seguir leyendo
Por Antonio Camacho Vizcaíno, secretario de Estado de Seguridad (EL PAÍS, 19/10/07):
Nota: este señor fue quien hace unos días, después de la explosión de una bomba colocada por etarras en el coche de un escolta, afirmó que ETA había “comprometido la vida de una persona”. Vamos, que ETA ya no mata, ni asesina; ahora “compromete”. Tras semejante eufemismo, comprenderán ustedes que no me crea una sola palabra de lo que pueda decir o escribir.
La política en la era de la globalización ya no se divide en Interior y Asuntos Exteriores. El vertiginoso proceso de mundialización tiene entre … Seguir leyendo
By Nick Clegg (THE TIMES, 16/09/07):
Protecting long-standing British liberties, while equipping ourselves against Al-Qaeda, is one of the greatest political dilemmas facing us today. How do we remain a liberal society at a time of heightened public fear?
The government’s initial response in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks was to introduce a volley of new anti-terror laws, some of which were good, many of which need revisiting. Tony Blair, and John Reid as his last home secretary, indulged in spine-chilling rhetoric about the terrorist threat, in part to justify their legislative hyperactivity and to crush any concerns about … Seguir leyendo
Firman este artículo Mariano Fernández Bermejo, Alberto Costa, Rachida Dati, Clemente Mastella, Lovro Sturm y Brigitte Zypries, ministros de Justicia de España, Portugal, Francia, Italia, Eslovenia y Alemania, respectivamente (EL PAÍS, 15/09/07):
El pasado 15 de agosto, el asesinato de seis italianos en Duisburgo, Alemania, aparentemente como consecuencia de un ajuste de cuentas entre organizaciones mafiosas, ha puesto de manifiesto el carácter transnacional de la criminalidad y la violencia y que estos fenómenos sitúan a nuestros Estados frente a los mismos desafíos.
El mismo día, Francia tuvo que enfrentarse al drama de los abusos sufridos por un niño, que fue … Seguir leyendo
Por Javier Otaola, defensor de la ciudadanía del Ayuntamiento de Vitoria-Gasteiz (EL PAÍS, 08/09/07):
Me comentaba no hace mucho un buen amigo que había observado con cierta inquietud que, en una mediana ciudad como Vitoria, en el trayecto desde su domicilio al trabajo había diecinueve cámaras de videovigilancia instaladas en oficinas de inmobiliarias, joyerías, bancos, grandes almacenes, semáforos y controles de tráfico. Sin embargo, esto no es nada comparado con lo que sucede entre nuestros queridos vecinos de la rubia Albión. En el Reino Unido hay instaladas cuatro millones de cámaras de seguridad, una por cada quince habitantes, y … Seguir leyendo
By Naomi Klein’s, author of the forthcoming The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism; a version of this article appears in the Nation www.thenation.com www.naomiklein.org (THE GUARDIAN, 24/08/07):
As protesters gathered recently outside the Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in Montebello, Quebec, to confront George Bush, Felipe Calderón, the Mexican president, and Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, Associated Press reported this surreal detail: “Leaders were not able to see the protesters in person, but they could watch the protesters on TV monitors inside the hotel … Cameramen hired to ensure that demonstrators would be able to pass along … Seguir leyendo
By Philip Bobbitt, a professor of law and the director of the Center for National Security at Columbia University, and a National Security Council senior director from 1998 to 1999 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 22/08/07):
CONGRESS just passed, and President Bush hurriedly signed, a law that amends the legal framework for the electronic interception of various kinds of communication with foreign sources. Almost immediately, commentators concluded that the law was unnecessary, that it authorized a lawless and unprecedented expansion of presidential authority, and that Democrats in Congress cravenly accepted this White House initiative only for the basest political reasons. … Seguir leyendo
By Eugene Robinson (THE WASHINGTON POST, 07/08/07):
Several times a month, a woman calls my office in the middle of the night and leaves long voice-mail messages about how she’s the target of a vast, sinister conspiracy. I won’t give her name — obviously, she suffers from a mental illness. The conspiracy she perceives involves the U.S. military, the CIA, interference with her brain waves and constant monitoring by the evil people who, for whatever reason, have decided that her thoughts somehow threaten their nefarious plans. Sometimes she disguises her voice and pretends to be a lieutenant in … Seguir leyendo
By Michael Portillo (THE TIMES, 29/07/07):
In the absence of Tony Blair, sanity has returned to the national debate on security and civil liberties. His messianic certainties, along with his wish to score political points from terror, made it impossible to build consensus or even identify areas of honest disagreement.
Last year he asserted that the police needed the power to hold suspects for up to 90 days without charge. He offered nothing by way of evidence (except that some policemen wanted it) and he used the issue to paint the Conservatives as soft on terror.
Since Blair had previously … Seguir leyendo