Αναλύσεις και σχόλια για Ιστορία, Εξ. πολιτική και άλλα ζητήματα
Μέσα σε αυτό το περιβάλλον απορίες δημιουργεί η πολιτική των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών καθώς η Ουάσιγκτον ανακινεί, με δική της πρωτοβουλία, μερικά από τα πιο ευαίσθητα θέματα, όπως αυτό του μέλλοντος του Κοσσυφοπεδίου. Πιο συγκεκριμένα:
Παρά τις πολυάριθμες διεθνείς εκκλήσεις για να βρεθεί μια κοινή συναινετική λύση ανάμεσα στην Ελλάδα και τα Σκόπια, δεν έχει επιτευχθεί, ακόμη, κανένα αποτέλεσμα.
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"The whole area of intercept needs to be looked at. We have got a real debate, and it is a genuine debate in a democracy, between the libertarians who say the state must not get too powerful and pretty much the rest of us who say the state must protect itself." — Liam Fox, Former British Secretary of DefenseA recent spike in the number of British jihadists fighting with Sunni militant groups in Syria and Iraq is fuelling a heated debate over how much government surveillance is necessary to keep the United Kingdom safe from domestic terrorism.
In his testimony, Farr defends the practice because Britain has for "many years faced a serious threat from terrorism," especially the threat derived from "militant Islamist terrorists." He says the practice has prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives.
"No-one should be in any doubt that what we see in Syria and now in Iraq in terms of ISIS is the most serious threat to Britain's security that there is today. The number of foreign fighters in that area, the number of foreign fighters including those from the UK who could try to return to the UK is a real threat to our country."Cameron's view has been echoed by dozens of recent articles warning about the jihadist threat to Britain. Some titles include: "Are the British Jihadists Going to Turn Their Guns on Us?," "Get Ready for an ISIS Backlash in the UK," "The West Will Pay for Losing Its Backbone," "The Threat to Britain that Cannot be Ignored," "British Jihadists are the Most Bloodthirsty in Syria," and "UK Police: British Jihadists Provoked by Syria, Iraq War Images."
An ISIS recruitment video released in June 2014, titled "There is no life without Jihad", features British and Australian Muslims fighting in Syria and Iraq.
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"We are really alert to the fact that people may come back and they may have military training. They may seek—although it's very difficult—to smuggle weaponry here and they may seek to cause violence or to encourage others to cause violence.Some British jihadists have faked their deaths on the battlefield in order to sneak back into Britain undetected, the Sunday Times reported on June 22. In one instance, the martyrdom of a fighter in Syria was announced by his colleagues on social media, only for police to arrest the "dead" individual at Dover.
"So a huge part of our effort is about trying to work out who is coming back and intercept them at the port, and of course if we discover that there are plots being planned either from abroad, for example from Syria, or within the UK, we will do everything we can to disrupt that plot."
"If you imagine what it would cost to really look at 300 people in depth, clearly it would be completely impossible to do that, probably impossible even at a third of that number.Barrett has also authored a new report entitled "Foreign Fighters in Syria," in which he predicts that the Syrian war "is likely to be an incubator for a new generation of terrorists." He estimates that more than 12,000 foreign fighters have gone to Syria since the war began in March 2011. This is more than the estimated 10,000 foreign fighters who went to Afghanistan during the decade-long jihad against Russian occupation.
"With this whole business in Syria, although there is no linear projection from foreign fighters to domestic terrorists, it's inevitable that a number will fall into this category."
"The progression from foreign fighter to terrorist is not a linear one, nor is it inevitable, and the majority of people who return from the fighting in Syria may pose no terrorist threat. But the difficulty remains how to distinguish those who will from those who won't."Barrett told the Independent that he estimates that one in nine foreign fighters could become domestic terrorists. If this ratio is applied to the current estimates of fighters in Syria, the conflict there will have already spawned more than 1,300 terrorists, dozens of whom are British.
"The whole area of intercept needs to be looked at. We have got a real debate, and it is a genuine debate in a democracy, between the libertarians who say the state must not get too powerful and pretty much the rest of us who say the state must protect itself."Speaking at the annual Lord Mayor's Defense and Security Lecture in London on June 24, Home Secretary Theresa May called for a change to British law that would hand the security services more powers to scrutinize online communication, a bid that has previously been blocked by the Liberal Democrats. She said:
"The terrorist threats to this country and our interests are changing faster than at any time since 9/11. This is quite simply a question of life and death, a matter of national security. We must keep on making the case until we get the changes we need."Defending the government's use of surveillance powers, May said:
"There is no program of mass surveillance and there is no surveillance state. The real problem is not that we have built an over-mighty state but that the state is finding it harder to fulfil its most basic duty, which is to protect the public."May is behind the so-called Communications Data Bill (also known as the Snooper's Charter), draft legislation that would require Internet service providers and mobile phone companies to maintain records (but not the content) of each user's Internet browsing activity (including social media), email correspondence, voice calls, Internet gaming, and mobile phone messaging services and store those records for 12 months.
"Under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which regulates the surveillance powers of public bodies, 'internal' communications may only be intercepted under a warrant which relates to a specific individual or address. These warrants should only be granted where there is some suspicion of unlawful activity. However, an individual's 'external' communications may be intercepted indiscriminately, even where there are no grounds to suspect any wrongdoing."In his testimony, Farr defends the practice because Britain has for "many years faced a serious threat from terrorism," especially the threat derived from "militant Islamist terrorists." He says the practice has prevented terrorist attacks and saved lives.
"We all live in a world in which there are occasional paradoxes. When a terrorist atrocity occurs, the majority of the public tends to ask why the Agencies knew so little about those who were responsible. When, however the surveillance activities of the Agencies are revealed, a smaller but vocal minority tends to ask why they need to know so much. We need to do a better job of recognizing the competing demands we place upon the Agencies, and do more to establish a consensus as to how these demands can be reconciled."Soeren Kern is a Senior Fellow at the New York-based Gatestone Institute. He is also Senior Fellow for European Politics at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group. Follow him on Facebookand on Twitter.
