From: Jeff Wood [SMTP:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] A devil at every door Panic fears are haunting the Home Office Free speech on the net: special report Saturday June 17, 2000 Where New Labour has most cruelly disappointed is the speed and completeness with which it became "executive-minded". That especially marks Jack Straw and his Home Office colleagues. They slip too easily into the world view of security service directors-general and senior police officers. The state is under siege. Crime, disorder and libertinism are rife. Unless "the authorities" (a satisfying Home Office term, that) are given vast new powers to eavesdrop, discipline and investigate, chaos will ensue. It is a fundamentally conservative attitude and so by no means new - the only surprise is the shamelessness of Labour politicians who made so much capital out of opposing it when out of office. A novelty is the tone adopted this week by Mr Straw and his henchman Charles Clarke in rebutting criticism of their regulation of investigatory powers (RIP) bill. It is not far short of hysterical. Unless the UK acts swiftly drug runners and international crime syndicates will flood the country, or at least its communications media with encoded messages which common carriers must now be compelled to decipher. Mr Clarke has every right to dispute estimates of the cost to internet service providers of compliance with his bill, but his blustering misses the point. Why does the UK government need to rush this fence at all? Internet technology is changing fast, content faster. The United States, to which we are entitled to look for example, is in the throes of a debate about giving government a right to decode. There, would-be intelligence-gatherers are matched by passionate defenders of privacy in communications. The RIP bill does rationalise the safeguards surrounding interception of communications by the state - though it would be a lot more convincing if there were any lay and external element in the supervision. But it also extends the state's reach. And "the state" we know not just to be Mr Straw or Mr Clarke, who might in theory be hauled before fellow MPs to account for themselves, but a legion of unnameable executive functionaries. The Home Office is saying: trust us . Why should we? Look at the disposition to coerce shown by its pursuit of the press, this newspaper included, in the Shayler affair. On display there is the same mind-set which we are being asked to prize and privilege in this repugnant bid to extend government power over the internet. -------[Cybershooters contacts]-------- Editor: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website & subscription info: www.cybershooters.org
