Das Buch Wer mitmacht, hat Recht!

German news website heise online reports:

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wants to see a timely end of the current discussion on the proposed tough anti-terror laws proposed by Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU).

The key points of the new law are

• Online search and seize of computers using the so-called “Federal Trojan Horse”
• Use of information gained from autobahn toll collecting for law enforcement
• Fingerprints as part of biometric passports and national ID cards
• Additional storage of biometric data at the local registration office (“Meldeamt”, where citizens have to be registred)
• Even more possibilities for computer-aided search / investigation

The decision has already been made

Merkel is quoted saying “[She] wants to join talks which would speed up the agreement process”.
Right now every parliamentary group claims that the other groups are blocking the law.
Deputy Chief of the parliamentary group SPD, Fritz Rudolf Körper said they’d agree on passing the new law “right now” if it wouldn’t incorporate the online search and seize.

There is no room for discussion on online search and seize.

The ministry of the interior states: “There is no room for discussion on online search and seize.”
Merkel said she knows for a fact that “Schäuble is no reckless man” but would “pick his words based on careful consideration.” Furthermore there should neither be “thinking barriers nor bans on thinking” due to the “new, clear and present danger of terrorism.”

Faint voices of protest

While higher ups of CDU are dancing in step with Merkel and Schäuble, voices from SPD claim that the latest advances on the topic are “moving into the wrong direction” using terms like “militarization of the interior” or “guantanamofying”.

Comment:
Who thought that the only crazy people in power here are Schäuble and some of his fellows has to re-think.
Now even the chancellor (highest political position in Germany) is walking to the march of the same drum.

Deception on grand scale

Just take the toll collection data. They (the government) claimed the data from scanned license plates would only be used to collect toll fees and catch people evading paying said fees.
They clearly emphasized that the data would NOT be used for law enforcement or ANYTHING else.
That managed to keep protests low, since it was only affecting the large trucks (normal cars don’t have to pay toll).
So they implemented a new technology that, at first, only affected a very small portion of the Germans.
Now, that the new tool is in place on all German autobahns, they’re ready to abuse it in the very way critical voices were claiming that it will happen right from the beginning.
There’s a word for that: hypocrisy.

For us Germans it looks like we’re powerless before our own government, having to watch our civil liberties an freedoms slip away on an almost daily basis. All in the name of terror prevention.
It’s said that Germany is moving from a constitutional state to become a “prevention state”.
Schäuble is talking about canceling one basis of our state after another. For instance he wants to get rid of “Unschuldsvermutung” which is the German word for “not guilty until proven”, effectively rendering every citizen a possible suspect.
This and the growing hunger for data (read Google on state-level) is scaring not just me but a lot of Germans.

I’m also pretty concerned about the very determined wording of everything coming from the higher ups in Berlin. What Merkel was quoted saying was not “let’s talk about it” but “I’ll join those talks that will end in the result I want to see.”

History repeating

Wake up everyone! The decision is already made, all discussions are nothing but a farce put up to make us believe there is still a decision process involving the careful weighting of pro and contra.
Can’t you see how history is about to repeat itself?
We, being German, should know best about what happens if the state is moving towards tougher and even tougher laws that strengthen law enforcement and weaken the separation of power.

It feels like the state has become the very thing they are claiming to protect us from, reigning over it’s people, rather than the people being in power of the state (as our constitution states).

I am scared.
Not by fuzzy and vague islamic terror coming out of the middle(-east) of nowhere to our doorsteps at any minute.
No. I’m scared by the latest developments our state has taken and almost certain will take in the near future.