Fergus Cassidy

The old Bill

THE BBC's The Power of Nightmares is a powerful and brilliantly made documentary series. Written, directed and produced by Adam Curtis, the programme was deservedly nominated for a Bafta award last week.

If you didn't watch it, The Power of Nightmares's introduction opened with this: "In the past our politicians offered us dreams of a better world. Now they promise to protect us from nightmares".

Strong words, but it takes a different kind of strength to say them in the first place. For a journalist to be asking fundamental questions about how society is governed is one thing. To boldly challenge the governors is quite another. Especially when it comes to terrorism.

Not since the days of the McCarthy 'communist' trials in the US during the 1950s, has a word been held in such fear and awe. To the extent that people are even afraid to say it. The word is itself terrorising language.

It's so bad at the moment, that any mention or discussion about terrorism, must always be proceeded with some vigorous condemnation, to avoid guilt by word association.

I suppose if you're a member of the British House of Lords, then you can take a chance. "Terrorist crime, serious as it is, does not threaten our institutions of government or our existence as a civil community", said Lord Hoffman last December.

You might well be wondering what has all this got to do with technology, but technology is now an important factor in influencing law-making. It creates new possibilities and re-arranges old boundaries.

That's precisely what happened here in Ireland recently when a government bill - languishing in some drawer since 2002 - was amended oh so quietly in the Seanad.

The amendment is called 'Part 7, Communications Data', and the Act was duly agreed by the Oireachtas and signed by the President on 5 March last. The new law requires telephone companies, fixed and mobile, to store data on all calls for a minimum of three years. This includes the numbers called, received and the location of mobiles.

The reason? "... it is necessary to underpin the fight against international terrorism", said the justice minister.

If the amendment was quietly introduced, the passing into law was positively serene. Journalist Karlin Lillington and myself being the first to stick our heads over the parapet on this issue. And the view is not good.

While the vista may not yet be appalling, it is certainly very worrying in its consequences. Because the data retention aspect of this new law reveals more than the desire to deal with the 't' word.

Its existence means that the government has decisively made up its mind and marked off new boundaries between civil rights and "the security of the State" with grey paint. And thinners are on order for the future.

The complete absence of public debate on the data retention laws is a delightful outcome for the government. Having 'Terrorist Offenses' in the Act's title ensured sufficient silence, lest anyone get the rub of a tarry brush.

Public debate was neatly bypassed and with it the thorny question of rebalancing civil rights. After all, it is for our own good.

The minister has been trying to get this legislation through for a while now. Things were grand until Karlin revealed secret directives from the government to the phone companies.

Now that he has achieved his ambition for phone calls, there's the pesky question of using pre-paid mobile phones. Let's face it, using these is deemed to be not good, and is almost up there with the 't' word.

So coming soon is the 'Electronic Communications (Misc. Provisions) Bill. According to the Taoiseach's website, this will provide for "the registration of the use of Prepaid Mobile Phones". Sic or what?

Even greyer paint on civil rights boundaries is on the way with the 'Communications Data Retention Bill'. This will require "licensed operators to retain records of communications data for a specified period". Let's take a wild guess at three years. That's every website we visit and who we correspond with by email.

Other than the fact that technology makes such databasing possible, introducing laws to monitor society for its own good fulfils the promise of protection from nightmares.

"The real threat to the life of the nation, in the sense of a people living in accordance with its traditional laws and political values, comes not from terrorism but from laws such as these," said Lord Hoffman recently.

Now that's something worthy of retention.