Just who would the Civil Liberty mob want on the committee. Good Law abiding citizens overseeing the gathering of intelligence by lawful Law enforcement Authorities. Hmmm...

Lets see; Leaders of all the Bikie Gangs, A few Judges/Barristers & Legal people that are the Mr Big's in the Drug & Paedophile trade, Heads of any radical Muslim groups & The heads of the Russian & Chinese Triads should be included as well. We wouldn't want to be seen as racist. Would we?

Yes, That should about do it. I feel safer already. Don't you?

While it might be a little inconvenient, and embarrassing, if all my personal peccadilloes, were common knowledge?
It can't be worse than sharing your most private moments, thoughts and images, with the whole world, via Facebook etc.
We have CCTV in many public places, which along with better lighting has made us marginally safer.
A very few see this as some sort of invasion of privacy!
Absolutely absurd, given, there never ever is any element of actual privacy in a public place!
And cyber space is a very public place!
I find this Author's musings quite an interesting juxtaposition?
On one hand, she seems to defend illegal/immoral hackers?
Yet, appears to critique official lawful application of similar technology?
We are at war, with an enemy who would cheerfully and without any compunction whatsoever, exterminate us; and indeed, even their own, who have the temerity, to simply disagree with their fanatical fundamentalism!
Just like that young Girl from Pakistan, who now lies in a British hospital recovering from a very serious head wound.
Or the Pakistani wife, simply condemned by her Taliban husband, without so much as a single shred of actual evidence, and summarily executed, kneeling, by a bullet to the back of the head!
Judging by the battered Wife's evocation to get on with it, the poor woman saw her assassination as blissful relief, at the hands of a domestic tyrant?
And some of these domestic despots could now be living amongst us? Advocating on behalf of the most brutal and fanatical tyrants the world is ever likely to see or experience?
And if the perceived, if not actual, loss of some personal cyber space privacy, exposes and "eliminates" any of these animals, then on balance, it has to be a good thing?
As for who should be on the committee making said decisions?
What's wrong with the very independent Judges, we have come to rely on for their even handed and balanced judgement, like that on public display, when the judiciary, almost to a generic man, condemned the govt's handling of Dr Haneef or Mz Rue etc/etc/etc!
Rhrosty.

The securocrats' mishandling of Dr Haneef was made possible by government foolishly giving them the power to do so. When powers are misused the answer in a society valuing its freedom is to strike them out of the hands of those who misuse them, not give them more and more powers. This should have been obvious from at least as far back as the day of the Hilton bombing and the relentless 13-year harassment of Tim Anderson by the secret political police who were much more likely to have planted the bomb than Mr Anderson.

Their latest victims are Tamil refugees given an "adverse security report" without any scrutiny of whether the report is merely part of a policy of protecting trade relations with Sri Lanka.

Special liberties for secret police are in inverse ratio to civil liberty for the population, and terrorists are not the only threat to our freedom.

Emperorjulian: Tamil refugees given an "adverse security report" without any scrutiny.

Are you saying that Australia shouldn't have sent the last lot of Tamil refugees home because they might go to prison?

Seems I remember that they hijacked a fishing boat & crew, threw the crew overboard, then sailed for Australia, so that they could be economically better off like most Tamil illegal immigrants who try to come here do.

That had nothing to do with intelligence agencies, That was just plain Police work.

Jay b I was not referring to those Tamils and it was quite right that they be sent home.

See Lateline item at http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2012/s3567008.htm about Tamils in indefinite detention because of an adverse secret police (ASIO) report.

Interesting. The guy looks more Assameese than Tamil. Tamils are long & lanky & black as ink with long straight dark brown hair. Very close to Aboriginal. I wonder what language he speaks. When it comes to Indian peoples, they are the greatest con artists you will ever meet. (3 years in S.E. Asia) These are a people that live to con someone out of something. It's their natural way of life. Nothing to do with racism or anything like that. It's just the way it is for them.

If A.S.I.O. says they are unsafe to be allowed into Australia then they are unsafe. Let them nominate another country. There are plenty of Indian people in Malaysia for instance. Or is Australia a better economic proposition for them.

Jayb puts all his faith in ASIO? Our Intelligence agencies control our Govt by controlling information.If you think you live in an open an safe democracy,then you are a fool.

Hello Arjay. A person who believes Muslim Fundamentalists are just misunderstood nice guys. Of course Arjay wouldn't want A.S.I.O. looking their way. Would you dearie.

Jayb the Muslim Fundies are just like the Christian and Zionist fundies; ie Fund a mental lists.

They are all power hungry lunatics like the ones who frequent our intelligence agencies whether they be Russian ,Western or Chinese.

Arjay: Muslim Fundies are just like the Christian and Zionist fundies; They are all power hungry lunatics like the ones who frequent our intelligence agencies whether they be Russian, Western or Chinese.

OMG, Arjay we finally agree on something. Way to go Arjay.

"Fund a mental lists." I do like that.

By the way, I see you didn't mention Islamists. No, I couldn't see any intelligence there either.

I think Intelligence Agencies are a necessary evil. You are dammed if you have them & totally beggared if you don't. I do believe that they can be the cause of controversy if the Government uses them in a way that pushes their own agenda. See Bush & Halliburton, etc.

Also see the combination of all I. A's after WW2. There was no money to fund the C.I.A. & America's support of Nationalist Chinese Government. The C.I.A. started the Golden Triangle to get money to supply the Nationalist Chinese with weapons. Burma fell to the Communists & they refused to let the C.I. A. move their drugs through their country. They went to Ho Chi Min in North Viet Nam. Who they had supported & armed, up until that time, against the French. Ho Chi Min refused also. So the C.I.A. went to the Sth. Vietnamese. They obliged. Hence the Viet Nam Conflict.

You see Arjay I'm not as naive as you may think, & I do know my history.

Jayb,is there a difference between being Islamic or Muslim?

I think the world collectively is headed for total chaos and those leading the charge,have totally lost the plot.Unless ordinary folk who hold up this fraglie umbrella called civilisation wake up and make a stand,the we are headed for a new dark age that George Orwell warned us about.

Arjay: Jayb, is there a difference between being Islamic or Muslim?

Summa, summa. Same, Same, but different. I guess. Either way you look at it they are both loony & dangerous to our Western Style freedom.

Arjay: I think the world collectively is headed for total chaos

Agreed: Humanity could probably do with a good culling anyway. (Tongue in cheek)

Arjay: and those leading the charge have totally lost the plot.
The more things change the more they stay the same. I'm sure they said that every 50 years threw out history.

Arjay: Unless ordinary folk who hold up this fragile umbrella called civilisation wake up and make a stand,

The thought is great, many have tried, and all have failed. Those leading the charge have too much at stake. I have done my bit in my own way at times.

Arjay: we are headed for a new dark age that George Orwell warned us about.

& Jesus is still coming "tomorrow" as he has been for 2000 years.

Arjay things are changing. With the invention of the internet more & more information is available to everyone. It's just how you chose to use it. For Good or evil. Fortunately the Intelligence Agencies mostly use it for good & to protect "ordinary folk" from those who would harm us "ordinary folk."

Would you rather they not keep tabs on someone who is importing Drugs & planning to give them to your children because it would interfere with that someone's "Civil Liberty." Or do you believe that that someone has the right to peddle drugs because you have told your children that taking drugs is a bad thing &, of course, they listen to you. Or would your children say that "you" are interfering with their "Civil Liberty."

It's a quandary. Isn't it?

Perhaps we should obtain the opinion of those who were under surveillance prior to the development of technologies, such as phone-tapping, etc.

I knew of two such people, Australians, who had been among the first to be expatriated from Europe in 1943. They did not know each other, but on arrival had attracted the interest of the Federal Police. Their lives were made a living hell.

They under constant surveillance, but also had to keep diaries of all who approached and spoke to them and whom they approached, along with conversation. Indeed any social interaction, no matter how banal.

Before going anywhere they had to provide details of where, why, , etc .. even for the most mundane of business.In fact, they had to get 'clearance' to do so.

Neighbours were 'conscripted' to spy on them, collecting evidence of anything suspicious and including movements of the individuals in their own homes. So assiduous were they, that it was tantamount to a witch-hunt. This role was not confined to neighbours, but also employers and workmates.

Mail was intercepted, invasion of their residences, whether anyone was at home or not, was commonplace. Everything gone through and often items were removed. In one instance, the brother who was fighting in New Guinea, had built a small radio (his hobby), this was smashed.

All friends were under suspicion, including those those past, who had just been school pals. Apart from being interrogated, they had to hand over any letters they had received from these 'suspects'. Having gone to Europe as young woman prior to the war. one had written of the gorgeous young Italian policemen she had seen on point duty,observing that she'd love to smuggle them back home in her luggage. This was taken as evidence of her fascist leanings.

They were regularly brought in for interrogation which lasted many hours, along with threats of 'we won't get rough unless we have to.'
One woman observed to me, that having been interrogated by the Gestapo ...

cont ..

When she unknowingly 'lost her tail' walking to her bus-stop, she was hauled in and interrogated at length as to why, and where had she gone etc. etc.

Both these people said 'if only there had been phone-tapping, or other technology available then, they wouldn't have had to endure these horrors. They added that they would have welcomed such technologies, no matter how invasive.

As other writers above have pointed out so well, so much is now available - Many people seemingly have a desperate need to publicly convey their most intimate activities online. On the other hand, others put an over-inflated importance, in the wider scheme of things, on what they consider 'private.'