An excellent piece by Bruce Schneier in today's Guardian:-
What is it with photographers these days? Are they really all terrorists, or does everyone just think they are?
Since 9/11, there has been an increasing war on photography. Photographers have been harrassed, questioned, detained, arrested or worse, and declared to be unwelcome. We've been repeatedly told to watch out for photographers, especially suspicious ones. Clearly any terrorist is going to first photograph his target, so vigilance is required.
Except that it's nonsense. The 9/11 terrorists didn't photograph anything. Nor did the London transport bombers, the Madrid subway bombers, or the liquid bombers arrested in 2006. Timothy McVeigh didn't photograph the Oklahoma City Federal Building. The Unabomber didn't photograph anything; neither did shoe-bomber Richard Reid. Photographs aren't being found amongst the papers of Palestinian suicide bombers. The IRA wasn't known for its photography. Even those manufactured terrorist plots that the US government likes to talk about -- the Ft. Dix terrorists, the JFK airport bombers, the Miami 7, the Lackawanna 6 -- no photography.
Short answer : No. But Schneier thinks the movies have a lot to answer for...
continues at http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/jun/05/news.terrorism
This is a great article. I work in law enforcement and I am continually amazed at how easily politicians and senior law enforcement officials come up with these "Doomsday" scenarios. I am convinced they are just mistaking the local cinema complex for a live news network. I wish more people would, likeBruce obviously has, sit down and have a good hard think about the actual facts before running off on a mission to save "everyone" from "everything".
http://www.flickr.com/photos/demosthien/
"Loyalty above all else; except honour."
(=II=)
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