Slashdot Mirror
Security Versus Science
dogfrt writes "According to this Wired News article, post-9/11 homeland security has had a decidedly negative effect on US scientific research. In specific, researchers are self-censoring what they publish, talented foreign students are being denied visas (approximately 20%, according to one source in the article), and researchers are avoiding work with dangerous pathogens, choosing more innocuous micro-organisms."
Actually, the article says that 20% of accepted foreign students in physics "...had problems entering the country last year". It doesn't say they've been denied visas. It also doesn't say what constitutes "problems", and what percent normally had trouble before 9/11. They all may have made it in, just with some troubles.
If you don't think that full protection is fair, too bad. But don't travel to other places, as you will not enjoy the same rights as those citizens.
Well this is the problem; we'll be heading towards a situation where any sort of global travel has to be avoided. If I, as a British Citizen, have to travel to the US for a short term period, either for business or for a holiday, I don't see why I shouldn't be entitled to human rights or justice. These things aren't something that come from being a tax-payer of that country - they should be universal.
I'm reminded of the situation where a group of British tourists were detained as spies by Greece.
Interestingly, the press always reported them as being "plane spotters" and "tourists", and never "potential terrorists". Yet here's a link from the same day where we're told that the new laws are to detain terror suspects without trial, and indeed, the same government that said the aforementioned group were "only tourists" tell us that opponents of the legislation are "naive".