Abbott has put Australia in the crosshairs.Will QANTAS and others survive the drop in business?. Do Australians travelling even know of the increased danger their PM has put them in? Thank you Abbott for your foresight

 

The era of absurdity has begun

The AIM Network

I genuinely feel for what the Muslim community in Australia are going to be putting up with in the coming months. It will feel for them like 9/11 all over again, which is exactly the divisive and fearful mind-set Tony Abbott is happily nurturing and fueling. As “fear” is the great distraction as corporate and state agendas and carefully executed under its dark shadow. In the wake of last week’s arrest we already we see this process under way. Somehow this immediate “threat “justifies re-writing all our laws on how we combat terrorism, unsurprisingly giving the police more powers and even less accountability.

Under the proposed counter-terrorism laws, radical preachers who encourage others to engage in extremist acts could be jailed for up to five years.

How “encourage” is legally defined is ambiguous. What constitutes as extreme act? A hunger strike? A sit in protest? An invasion of foreign country?

Police would also be given the power to conduct what amounts to covert search warrants on terrorism suspects’ properties, enabling them to delay notification of a search warrant for up to six months.

This a long winded way of saying the police will now be able to conduct warrant-less snooping and spying on any person by penciling the word “terror threat” 6 months down the track.

A new offence would also make it illegal for anyone to advocate a terrorist act, even if the act did not occur.

This type of blurry legislation opens the door for all sorts of twisted interpretations. As what is it to “advocate” and what is a “terrorist act”? Is sympathising the same as advocating? Where is our right to free speech fit into this? Is defending yourself from an invading army defense, or terror?  Would Australian planes bombing and killing civilian in ISIS controlled Iraq defined as terror acts? Can Tony Abbott go to jail for encouraging such acts?
History shows us the more power that is given those in power, the more power will be abused. Once new powers are granted they are not easily or willingly let go. Laws that were exclusively for the “terrorist bad guys” can be eventually used to control dissent and opposition to those in power.
As we move closer toward a hybrid fusion of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World” and Orwell’s “1984”, I really hope there is enough Australians that see through this façade and prevent even further encroachments on our freedom and liberties. Here is hoping.