From Terror To Telescreens
May 13, 2010 by Bob Livingston
“There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live—did live, from habit that became instinct—in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized.”
— George Orwell, 1984.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg wasted no time in capitalizing on the fear of the populace in the wake of Time Square bomb plot. Less than two weeks after the “bomb” was found and disarmed, Bloomberg was touring London’s “ring of steel”—some 12,000 security cameras that blanket the city’s underground train system.
Why? He’s ready to ramp up New York City’s own ring of steel by adding to the 4,000 surveillance cameras already there. I say “already there” rather than “already watching” because Bloomberg himself has said about half of the cameras don’t work, forcing authorities to rely on police patrols and random bag searches.
Bloomberg told reporters that with street crime low, a stronger surveillance system can help deter and track down terrorists.
“There is always the threat of terrorism,” Bloomberg told The New York Daily News. “That’s what really this is all about, in being able to deter, prevent—and if God forbid something happens, apprehend—the people that caused it.”
Bloomberg acknowledged what he called “very serious” concerns about civil liberties and the use of surveillance cameras. But he said the threat of global terrorism had forced authorities to make adjustments, according to the Tri-City Herald.
Serious concerns? Those same serious concerns he acknowledged back in 2007 when he announced the installation of the first 4,000 cameras?
“We just have to do something here to make the city safer. Sadly, it is a little bit of an infringement on your rights,” Bloomberg told a news conference in October, 2007, according Reuters.
New Yorkers and those who will visit that nanny state should be the ones with serious concerns. Bloomberg is working fast and furious to control every aspect of the populace—banning smoking, monitoring fat intake and now watching their every move.
It all seems quite orchestrated. The “bomb,” as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said, didn’t look very sophisticated. It wasn’t. It consisted of two five-gallon gasoline cans, three propane tanks, two toy clocks, a couple of M-88 firecrackers and a non-explosive fertilizer.
Accused bomber Faisal Shahzad, reportedly an adherent of members of the Pakistani Taliban, is said to have attended a terrorist school in Pakistan. If so it’s a safe bet he flunked. As one explosives expert said, “I would venture to say, he’s not the valedictorian of the bomb school.”
The whole operation was amateurish, from the way the car was illegally parked and drew immediate suspicion, to the toy clock in the window that was readily visible, to the bomb that stood little chance of exploding. Add to that the failure of the United States security apparatus to notice Shahzad’s travel to and from Pakistan even though he was on a no-fly list and it seems another false flag terror operation was underway.
It almost mirrors the underwear bomber story, which we wrote about last January. You can read those articles here, and here.
Bloomberg is so interested in keeping us safe… safe from secondhand smoke, safe from trans-fat and safe from car bombers… that he’s willing to make concessions with “a little bit of an infringement on your rights.”
It’s just one more step toward fascism and a tightening of the grip the state has on its subjects. The first steps began long ago. And then 9/11 came along—an incident in which the evidence that it was an inside job has become overwhelming (see www.911truth.org, www.ae911truth.org and Google “rediscover 911” and “nano-thermite”)—and we got the USA PATRIOT Act and the suspension of habeas corpus.
Then the underwear bomber came along and we got naked body scanners in airports.
The Times Square bomber came along and we’re going to get surveillance cameras all over New York City.
As a commenter on one blog site posted: “One incompetent Muslim bomber-$400. Closed circuit television cameras all over New York City-$$millions. Coming martial law-Priceless.
In Orwell’s 1984, Winston knew he could escape Big Brother’s view after dark because the telescreens couldn’t see in darkness. Orwell predicted the surveillance but he couldn’t predict night vision technology.
Where will you go to escape Big Brother’s view?
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