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Manchester Attack Could Lead To Internet Crackdown (independent.co.uk)

New submitter boundary writes: The UK government looks to be about to put the most egregious parts of the Investigative Powers Act into force "soon after the election" (which is in a couple of weeks) in the wake of the recent bombing in Manchester. "Technical Capability Orders" require tech companies to break their own security. I wonder who'll comply? The Independent reports: "Government will ask parliament to allow the use of those powers if Theresa May is re-elected, senior ministers told The Sun. 'We will do this as soon as we can after the election, as long as we get back in,' The Sun said it was told by a government minister. 'The level of threat clearly proves there is no more time to waste now. The social media companies have been laughing in our faces for too long.'"

215 of 384 comments (clear)

  1. They've definitely been laughing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    But only because so many people are willing to give them all their personal information for free.

    1. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, "in my book" doesn't count as a regular rule of grammar or communication observed by all humans, you actual lazy and yet somehow pedantic imbecile.

    2. Re:They've definitely been laughing by ewanm89 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No, this isn't just that, this is "we want to access all encrypted information". We must have broken encryption because "terrorism". Basically Theresa May has fascist tendencies she wants to enforce. Unfortunately the other political parties are such a mess at the moment that well... yeah, the whole thing is not good.

    3. Re:They've definitely been laughing by hidflect · · Score: 1

      Way to go hijacking the argument with linguistic semantics. You are why we can't have a normal conversation.

    4. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Cederic · · Score: 2

      Although on this occasion, yes, the government want to make the Stasi feel like amateurs.

      Labour wanted this when they were in power, the coalition only didn't do this because the Lib Dems are happy flower people and the Conservatives would have done this irrespective of the incident in Manchester.

      See also the unpublicised consultation that ended last week: https://www.openrightsgroup.or...

    5. Re:They've definitely been laughing by jenningsthecat · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Basically Theresa May has fascist tendencies she wants to enforce.

      Yup, time to Godwin this discussion and start calling the British PM "Theresa Maydolf".

      The thing that gets me is how few people among the 'general public' understand that every single time a country enacts measures like this, it's an unqualified win for the terrorists. But you can be sure that the leaders of those countries are aware of that fact, and welcome terrorist attacks as excuse and justification for fulfilling their darkest fantasies of domination and subjugation.

      The other thing that many people don't stop to think about is that if their governments hadn't insisted on on interfering with other countries' governments and ways of life, we wouldn't have nearly so big a problem with terrorism.

      --
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    6. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Rick+Schumann · · Score: 2

      What the UK government, like pretty much every government, apparently, doesn't understand is that 'cracking down on the Internet' (i.e. censorship) is an endless, pointless, no-win game of Whack-a-Mole. Just ask anyone who ever operated a discussion forum site and tried to prevent people from posting certain words; they'll come up with endless permutations of that word to get around word filters. So it will go with 'cracking down on the Internet' in the UK: They think they're going to prevent radicalization via the Internet, they think they're going to prevent radicals from communicating with each other, but they're so, so wrong; criminals and terrorists will just change up their strategies, change up their language, always staying at least one step ahead of the government, who will never know if someone talking about 'milk delivery being on time' is talking about dairy products arriving on their doorstep, or a dirty bomb being detonated at the appointed time. The only way they can effectively 'crack down on the Internet' would be to shut it down completely and rip it out by the roots.

    7. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Godwin+O'Hitler · · Score: 1

      Nope. May was there first.

      --
      No, your children are not the special ones. Nor are your pets.
    8. Re:They've definitely been laughing by sound+vision · · Score: 3, Insightful

      20 people die listening to Ariana Grande and it's a national tragedy.
      A couple of days later, 100 civilians die from a bombing in Iraq and nobody bats an eye.

    9. Re:They've definitely been laughing by stdarg · · Score: 1

      The thing that gets me is how few people among the 'general public' understand that every single time a country enacts measures like this, it's an unqualified win for the terrorists.

      The thing that gets me is how many people project these kinds of motivations onto terrorists. No, I really don't think ISIS gives a fuck if the UK starts snooping on citizens more.

      I'm pretty sure that some people make assertions like that just because they think it's persuasive to argue in the line of "Terrorists want X, so we must do the opposite."

    10. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Maritz · · Score: 2

      The thing that gets me is how many people project these kinds of motivations onto terrorists. No, I really don't think ISIS gives a fuck if the UK starts snooping on citizens more.

      They want non-muslims to hate moderate muslims and associate the attacks with islam in general, thereby boosting their numbers. It all helps, whether achieved through murder or oppressive changes to law.

      And yeah, lots of dumbasses are doing their work for them. Golf clap.

      This isn't a defence of islam. In my eyes all religions are worthless.

      --
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    11. Re:They've definitely been laughing by stdarg · · Score: 1

      They want non-muslims to hate moderate muslims and associate the attacks with islam in general, thereby boosting their numbers.

      It's equally likely (well actually I'd say more likely) that they want non-muslims to like muslims as that provides greater cover for the extremists.

      We don't know what terrorists really want. You can't necessarily just believe what they say. And there are situations where different terrorist groups want different things -- there are pro-Assad terrorists and anti-Assad terrorists in Syria for instance. There are terrorists who want Shia supremacy, and terrorists who want Shias to be destroyed.

      And even if we did really know what they want, it doesn't matter. We need to make decisions based on what we want, not what terrorists want.

    12. Re:They've definitely been laughing by K10W · · Score: 1

      The thing that gets me is how many people project these kinds of motivations onto terrorists. No, I really don't think ISIS gives a fuck if the UK starts snooping on citizens more.

      They want non-muslims to hate moderate muslims and associate the attacks with islam in general, thereby boosting their numbers. It all helps, whether achieved through murder or oppressive changes to law.

      And yeah, lots of dumbasses are doing their work for them. Golf clap.

      This isn't a defence of islam. In my eyes all religions are worthless.

      Jim Mitchell and several others with a lot of contact to extremists have said they actually do it for the opposite reasons. They want none muslims to basically play the islamaphobe card so they get a free pass. The secondary thing is to cause infighting and a distrust of "the system" and I see both of those effects. FWIW I am not a fan of Mitchell in many regards but he has valid points in many areas whether you like it or not. He mentions KSM et al talking to him about that very thing here YT Jim Mitchell EIT's

    13. Re:They've definitely been laughing by Kjella · · Score: 1

      They want non-muslims to hate moderate muslims and associate the attacks with islam in general, thereby boosting their numbers. It all helps, whether achieved through murder or oppressive changes to law. And yeah, lots of dumbasses are doing their work for them. Golf clap.

      Well Islamic terror is the icing on the cake, but there's plenty other and more widespread reasons people do not like Muslims when it comes to gender equality, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, treatment of LBGTs, religious doctrine as law and so on. Quite a few "moderate" Muslims are highly regressive elements in a modern western democracy. And contrary to what we might think of ourselves, many find our culture decadent with women walking around like sluts or whores, deviants of all forms roaming free, full of blasphemy, apostates and heretics. Not particularly unique to Islam, but that we've spent the last few centuries beating back in Europe, inch by inch.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    14. Re:They've definitely been laughing by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      When you don't trust what people say they want, look at what they're doing and the effects. Most people aren't actually stupid.

      Murdering people and taking credit for it isn't going to make non-muslims like muslims more. I'd say they're trying to alienate non-muslims from moderate muslims.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
    15. Re:They've definitely been laughing by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      It was an American air strike. If it were just Muslims killing Muslims, we wouldn't have this issue in the first place.

    16. Re:They've definitely been laughing by stdarg · · Score: 1

      Most people aren't actually stupid.

      You've got to be joking.

      Murdering people and taking credit for it isn't going to make non-muslims like muslims more. I'd say they're trying to alienate non-muslims from moderate muslims.

      Well like you said how about we just look at what they're doing and the effects. ISIS killing people and taking credit for it in the Middle East... has that resulted in a lesser or greater population of Muslims in Europe, for instance? Has it resulted in lesser or greater alienation of Muslims?

      Radical Muslims DO want moderates to radicalize, but that requires 2 conflicting forces. First, there's a force needed to increase Islamization in the West, because that means more Muslims in the West where the terrorists want to target things. Second, the Muslims who end up in the West need to be kept ghettoized so that they don't become too Westernized themselves. So it's both. That's why I'm saying, whatever they do, there is more than one plausible explanation. You could say "Oh they did this to get more Muslims into the West. Why else do they put Syrian towns under siege but allow journalists to come in and broadcast images of children starving to death?" That makes some group of Westerners say "OMG we need to invite refugees to come here." A second group will say "Look at how barbaric they are, we don't want them."

      Then they'll attack a nightclub in Paris and that'll make the first group say "OMG these poor young men are so isolated, we have to help them." The second group will say "Fuck these Muslims."

      They can profit from both reactions. There are enough people in the first group that Muslim immigration continues. There are enough people in the second group that Muslim alienation continues. Who cares what the "real" goal is? Is it even meaningful to suppose they have just one "real" goal?

  2. In other news... by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...Mainstream media are reporting today that the government was given credible warnings about the suspected bomber as many as five times over the past few years, from a variety of sources and via exactly the sorts of channels you're supposed to use if you're worried that someone might do something like this. None of these source appear to have relied on high-tech surveillance and intercepted communications. They were reportedly based on in-person observations, which tragically doesn't seem to have set off the right alarm bells soon enough.

    --
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    1. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

      He and a bunch of others. Are you saying the police should go round up all the other foreigners on their watch list?

    2. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      You saying they shouldn't? The watch list is there for a reason. It's about time they start using it.

      I for one, cannot figure why anyone would allow foreigners with even the smallest criminal records, especially if they look like criminals, to stay in their countries at all.

    3. Re: In other news... by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm wary of speculating or trusting early information too much in a situation like this. The truth is that I have no idea how many people actually come to the attention of the police and security services so many times or for reasons as disturbing as saying they think suicide bombing is OK. It seems likely that in this case something has gone wrong with the system, obviously with horrible consequences, and no doubt there will be a lot of reviews and discussions in the weeks and months ahead to try and work out whether anything could be done better to reduce the danger in the future.

      However, if the reports are broadly accurate and that much direct warning wasn't enough to allocate resources and intervene to prevent the attack at any stage, it seems even less likely that fishing expeditions based on extensive monitoring of online communications would have led to a better conclusion.

      --
      If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
    4. Re: In other news... by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2, Funny

      if they look like criminals

      Italy just let this guy in, so go figure.

      https://cdn.theatlantic.com/as...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    5. Re: In other news... by brantondaveperson · · Score: 5, Insightful

      especially if they look like criminals

      That's cool that you know what criminals look like, we could just pay you to go through photographs, and we'll just arrest or deport the ones with the bad faces.

    6. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You saying they shouldn't? The watch list is there for a reason. It's about time they start using it.

      I for one, cannot figure why anyone would allow foreigners with even the smallest criminal records, especially if they look like criminals, to stay in their countries at all.

      The foreigner who blew himself up at the concert was BORN in the UK. He was as British as Theresa May or Tony Blair.
      Amazing isn't it ? At what point is a foreigner not a foreigner anymore ? Careful with your answer otherwise we could classify all people living in the US (minus the native americans) as foreigners. Do we kick them out and give back the US to the native people we stole the lands from ?

    7. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      This particular attacker was born in the UK, in Manchester, and therefore not a foreigner.

    8. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The simple truth is that 24/7/365 surveillance of a target is expen$ive. It was mentioned in BBC interviews that full coverage of an individual requires something like 70 people with air and ground assets, analysts, investigators, etc. The UK and also the US are wealthy countries, but we don't have the resources to cover everyone on the suspicious list with that level of monitoring. The UK could probably monitor a few dozen suspects at that level for a limited amount of time. They have thousands of people on the suspicious persons list. There's no way they can keep track of all their movements and everyone they move and sit with at that level. There just isn't enough manpower to do that. They have to pick and chose their battles and this guy obviously wasn't at the top of their list before this attack.

    9. Re: In other news... by amiga3D · · Score: 1

      If someone is saying hey, lets go blow up the train, rounding them up is a good idea. If all they're doing is saying Allah Akbar then certainly not.

    10. Re:In other news... by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Insightful

      None of these source appear to have relied on high-tech surveillance and intercepted communications

      We know that. And we know also that most people, maybe 95%, don't have the necessary scientific background to comprehend that fact, and presented with the horror of these attacks, will comply without blinking to more Internet censoring.

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    11. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Man, I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not.

    12. Re:In other news... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Physical surveillance would be a hopelessly inefficient approach. Building bombs requires supplies, and purchases of such supplies can and should be tracked. I mean, I'm not advocating that buying nails should require a photo ID, but if somebody goes into a hardware store and buys hundreds of dollars' worth of nails using cash, that should raise red flags, and should get reported along with surveillance camera photos.

      Similarly, if somebody buys any quantity of nails on a credit card belonging to someone who is on a terrorist watchlist, that should raise red flags, and that person's future and recent past purchases should undergo more intensive scrutiny.

      And if a credit card gets flagged as stolen, all recent purchases should be similarly carefully scrutinized under the assumption that the person using it may have been doing something nefarious.

      The design of a machine learning system capable of doing this sort of analysis autonomously is left as an exercise for the reader.

      --

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    13. Re:In other news... by golodh · · Score: 5, Informative
      Yes, here's the link:

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/new...

      It appears the authorities were warned on five (!) separate occasions about this boy being mentally unstable and embracing terrorism by people who knew him personally. They ignored it.

      To be honest, they might have thought the suspect was just a buffoon. You can't go round arresting every loony you find. But what you can do is pay such people a visit (you can even use social workers for that if the police has a capacity problem) and/or interview them at the police station, have a mental assessment done, and see who they're connected with.

      Well, now is the time to improve procedures instead of outlawing encryption and introducing Internet censorship..

    14. Re:In other news... by madenglishbloke · · Score: 4, Informative

      The apparent lack of security is a red herring - the attack took place in a publicly-accessible area, BEFORE any security checks to get in to the arena. Indeed, most of the security is aimed at finding drinks and snacks (protecting the venues revenue), cameras (protecting the artists IP), and knives/handguns, in that order, and they use profiling techniques for all these. The thing is, even the most high-tech security checks are prone to failure - just look at the number of times investigators in the US have smuggled illicit objects through TSA scanners and onto aircraft.

    15. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      He wasn't foreign, he was born in the UK. Plus if you can't find a needle when the balloons are pointing at it and saying "that's a needle", then I don't really think you should be worrying about getting into the haystack to look.

    16. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      if somebody goes into a hardware store and buys hundreds of dollars' worth of nails using cash, that should raise red flags, and should get reported along with surveillance camera photos.

      Never worked outside of an office eh? That is not at all an unusual thing to do for commercial contractors. They usually send one of the newbies and use the cash income that isn't going to be declared.

      The design of a machine learning system capable of doing this sort of analysis autonomously is left as an exercise for the reader.

      Computers do start out ignorant but how are you gonna make them paranoid too?

    17. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ...Mainstream media are reporting today that the government was given credible warnings about the suspected bomber as many as five times over the past few years, from a variety of sources and via exactly the sorts of channels you're supposed to use if you're worried that someone might do something like this.

      and so long as your career can end in an instant if you investigate them based on these sorts of reports, nothing is going to change.

    18. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Believe? The fact the terrorist was British is not an article of faith. It's a fact.

    19. Re: In other news... by coastwalker · · Score: 1

      Sadly the ability to monitor all of a persons communications would probably have caught this piece of shit if all of his communications had been monitored. What the Snoopers Charter is disliked for is its envisaged use by general policing and low level bureaucrats in a wide range of government departments. This will obviously lead to widespread criminalization of the population, we will need double the number of jails to hold all the people this will ensnare. Catching terrorists is already a fairly low priority given that we have 3000 people on the watch list - including this bomber and no one actually watching. The boundless opportunities for promotion by catching people who say rude things on chat forums will exceed the anti terror activities by several orders of magnitude. This government are indeed self interested and useless as the alt-right complain. The Snoopers Charter is unlikely to actually catch terrorists unless an appropriate many thousand increase in the number of spies is done. Or of course you could let the local cops fit up people they don't like as terrorists.

      --
      Facts are history now plebs have politics for religion on social media.
    20. Re: In other news... by stealth_finger · · Score: 2

      Jailing might be a bit extreme, but deporting is just fine by me.

      Deporting where? If you deported this guy to where he was from you would have sent him to exactly where he went to.

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    21. Re: In other news... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      > He was as British as Theresa May or Tony Blair.

      This is what you ACTUALLY BELIEVE

      Exactly, for all intents and purposes May and Blair were not British and did more damage to this country than a thousand nutters with bombs could even dream of.

      --
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    22. Re: In other news... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1, Troll

      The foreigner who blew himself up at the concert was BORN in the UK. He was as British as Theresa May or Tony Blair.

      Jesus was born in a stable. That doesn't make him a horse.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    23. Re:In other news... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      This guy was just a tool, used by the ones who planned the attack and built the bomb. If he had been arrested, they would have used someone else. They take standard precautions to make sure that low level people like him being picked up doesn't compromise the ones higher up.

      They have been doing it that way for decades now. The police are running around blowing up doors and random "packages" that turn out to be nothing, but it would be crazy to assume that those responsible had not anticipated their actions and made sure they were protected.

      --
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    24. Re:In other news... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      It appears the authorities were warned on five (!) separate occasions about this boy being mentally unstable and embracing terrorism by people who knew him personally. They ignored it.

      They get ten thousand similar reports a week. They can't possibly follow up on all of them.

      Monday morning quarterback.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    25. Re:In other news... by bazorg · · Score: 1

      HI

      (you can even use social workers for that if the police has a capacity problem)

      Unfortunately, the social services have the same capacity problems that police does in the UK. We have an ageing population, increasing tax revenue from working people and companies is complicated. Even if we did fund everything better, recruiting and convincing the village idiot to blow themselves up is likely to be much cheaper than anything authorities can do about it.

      In any case, Theresa May would not miss an opportunity to "do something" about the internet.

    26. Re:In other news... by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 5, Insightful

      They get ten thousand similar reports a week. They can't possibly follow up on all of them.

      But they can possibly follow up on all filter hits from UK's teeny-tiny Internet traffic, right? ;)

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    27. Re:In other news... by Xest · · Score: 4, Insightful

      His Dad was also a Libyan militant, in Libya, who he had just visited, days before the bombing.

      This guy is a poster child for the type of person that should be picked up trivially if MI5 was even half way competent. There's literally no reason if MI5 were doing this job that this guy should've slipped through the net - just about every indicator for potential terrorist was ticked, and they failed to follow it up.

      I agree with you - on it's own, you can't just pick people up based on reports. But I don't imagine there's too many people flying back from ISIS hotbeds with family that are linked to militant groups, and who have been reported for saying "suicide bombings are okay" repeatedly over a number of years, including by others in his extended family and local Imams.

      I simply cannot comprehend what MI5 are doing to have managed to have missed this one. I've often written before that all the terrorists that slip through the net in the West whether it's in the US, France, or the UK all seem to be known to the security services, but this particular case shows an astoundingly exceptional level of incompetence compared to even those.

      How can they ask for more access to data when they can't even work with intel handed to them on a plate?

    28. Re: In other news... by tehcyder · · Score: 1

      The foreigner who blew himself up at the concert was BORN in the UK. He was as British as Theresa May or Tony Blair.

      Jesus was born in a stable. That doesn't make him a horse.

      No but it does mean that he was born in Bethlehem.

      --
      To have a right to do a thing is not at all the same as to be right in doing it
    29. Re:In other news... by jandersen · · Score: 2

      To be honest, they might have thought the suspect was just a buffoon. You can't go round arresting every loony you find. But what you can do is pay such people a visit (you can even use social workers for that if the police has a capacity problem) and/or interview them at the police station, have a mental assessment done, and see who they're connected with.

      I'm sure they would have done that and more, if they had the resources. Regrettably, they don't. Remember, we have been in the grip of the Conservative goverment's austerity policies for what almost feels like a lifetime, because of the financial crisis, which in turn was caused by the drive towards privatisation and deregulation over the last few decades. I know there are people who don't want to admit that this is the way it is, but I think most of us realise that this is true. I'm not really a huge fan of government doing everything for us and and spending loads on police, military and public services, and I agree that we need to get as much out of our money as possible, but we can't let blind ideology overrule rational decision making, when it comes to crucial functions in our society.

      Well, now is the time to improve procedures instead of outlawing encryption and introducing Internet censorship.

      Encryption is not going to be outlawed - it is fundamentally important to trade over the internet - nor are we about to introduce censorship. But I think we have far too long shied away from tackling hate speech head on for fear that we may seem racist, somehow. There has been a sort of policy of letting people in and packing them away in some corner with the instruction to 'Go and get yourselves integrated, as long as you don't try to mingle with Real British People' - how could that ever work? We, as a society, need to be more genuinely welcoming; but it is problem that sticks very deep in British society, and it is one that the especially Tories have never really understood. Government and politicians very often make all the right noises and are generally kind-hearted and well-meaning, but they have this facile approach to how to "just" solve problems without doing too much.

      And to be honest - I don't think you really understand the issues either, not if you imagine it is just a question of improving procedures. That is a bit like trying to handle a cholera epidemic by advicing people to be more careful and wash their hands.

    30. Re: In other news... by Charlotte · · Score: 1

      Jesus was born in a stable. That doesn't make him a horse.

      Wikipedia: "British people, or Britons, are the citizens of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown dependencies, and their descendants."

      If you want to redefine that to something else then you'll need the worldwide community to agree with you. Maybe you can force them to agree with you... You know, bombs etc. sometimes do the trick?

    31. Re: In other news... by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This particular attacker was born in the UK, in Manchester, and therefore not a foreigner.

      Legally, yes.

      Culturally, morally, and ideologically?

      He might as well have had blue skin and spoke Betelgeusean.

      That's the problem with the ME refugees; They come to Western nations but never leave their original country. They just bring a piece of it with them, and soon, as their numbers swell, all those little pieces join together and marginalize the native culture until it looks and feels much like where they fled from, including bombings, beheadings, rapes, pedophilia, murder, and the rest of the ME cultural armageddon.

      TPTB want a major global shift in power and economics. Major changes can be made during major crisis.

      Western leaders know full well that bringing in masses of poorly-vetted Muslim refugees is dangerous and will lead to conflict. That's the goal. Just look at TFA. Crisis => invasions of privacy. They set up the conditions for the crisis and step in to "save the day" with new losses to individual liberty and privacy.

      If this were in a medical context, we'd be discussing Munchausen syndrome by proxy with Western citizens the victims and their governments their abusers.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    32. Re: In other news... by johanw · · Score: 1

      But he will be leaving shortly.

    33. Re: In other news... by RDW · · Score: 1

      Western leaders know full well that bringing in masses of poorly-vetted Muslim refugees is dangerous and will lead to conflict. That's the goal. Just look at TFA. Crisis => invasions of privacy. They set up the conditions for the crisis and step in to "save the day" with new losses to individual liberty and privacy.

      If this were in a medical context, we'd be discussing Munchausen syndrome by proxy with Western citizens the victims and their governments their abusers.

      No, Strat, we'd be discussing paranoia and why people believe in ludicrous conspiracy theories: https://xkcd.com/258/

    34. Re: In other news... by johanw · · Score: 1

      Just the muslims will do.

    35. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Who do you mean by "they"?

      Oh - muslims.

    36. Re:In other news... by gweihir · · Score: 1

      While I still tend towards "incompetence" and not "intent", it is getting harder. Obviously, May does regard this as an excellent opportunity to push stronger for her anti-freedom agenda (which will do exactly nothing to curb terrorism, but may encourage it).

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    37. Re:In other news... by purple_cobra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If you are a UK resident, do not vote Conservative. There are soldiers on UK streets instead of police because we don't have enough police to do the job! The government that slashed police numbers, meaning they were and are effectively crippled? That would be the Conservatives and their Home Secretary at the time, Mrs Theresa May. There is blood on May's hands for this event yet the tabloid press will not report it. She was an incompetent Home Secretary and is an incompetent Prime Minister, but her tabloid lapdogs continue to point everywhere but to the person with whom the blame should rest.

      Vote these Tory idiots out before Daesh turn the country into a smoking ruin.

    38. Re:In other news... by prefect42 · · Score: 1

      *Did* they ignore it? The wonderful thing with intelligence is you don't get to hear what they did or didn't do. They might have investigated him and found him to be mentally unstable with an interest in terrorism, but the evidence may have fallen short of proof of criminal activity.

      If that was the case, we can do what the US do and intern people without trial, or we can let them remain free in society. If there are enough people like this, you can't effectively monitor them all, so you have to accept that sometimes people will slip through. How much of your activity you redirect towards internal security is a choice your government has to make, and there's no right answer.

      You could end up concluding that the UK is spending a reasonable amount on security, they followed the procedures, and the procedures were reasonable.

      --

      jh

    39. Re: In other news... by orlanz · · Score: 1

      No it won't. There is something called too much data or noise. If you had ALL the fingerprints in the world updating with time of death, it will make case solving worse! The entire database would become useless. You would have too many false leads to weed through. To keep a proper justice system, you would need a lot of man power to execute on the results. Resources that systems just do not have.

      We are already at this level of information. This is why "all the signals were there" but ignored happens in these events. And ppl think the system is broken. Then they make the system worse by adding more shit.

    40. Re: In other news... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And why would the country of his ancestors let him back in? Should the UK allow all Americans residence automatically if any of their ancestors came from here? If not, then why should Syria?

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    41. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      ...all people living in the US (minus the native americans) ...

      Don't kid yourself. Even they came here from somewhere else. They didn't just spontaneously appear out of thin air 15K (or 130K) years ago. (You do believe in science, right?)

      Which is why I like the Canadian term "First Nations" instead of Native Americans.

    42. Re:In other news... by goose-incarnated · · Score: 1

      I simply cannot comprehend what MI5 are doing to have managed to have missed this one.

      What makes you think that they missed this one? It's ironic that here on /. I was recently involved in another thread (Starship Troopers) where it was pointed out, repeatedly, that it's in the states interest to have an attack to retaliate against.

      Government cannot seek expansive and invasive powers without a reason. Terrorist attacks are that reason.

      --
      I'm a minority race. Save your vitriol for white people.
    43. Re:In other news... by Charlotte · · Score: 1, Flamebait
      Nah we just burn witches, torture heretics to death, murder gays, tell people not to use condoms (so they have no control over their lives and are easily manipulated), erect schools with the express purpose of brainwashing children (Jezuits: "give me a child until 7 and I will give you the man"). Christians commit terrorist attacks against Children (Oklahoma daycare bombing). All of these are identical to what ISIS is doing.

      Fucking hang yourself tool.

      It would appear that you are the tool. You're the one repeating nonsense that's been specifically drafted for your minute brain.

    44. Re: In other news... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      He might as well have had blue skin and spoke Betelgeusean.

      After the attack, Mail Online journalist Katie Hopkins went as far as to call for a new holocaust to eradicate Muslims in a tweet. The point is, even for someone who I'm sure you would regard as culturally British, extremism exists.

      Posts like yours, where you argue that even the children of immigrants aren't British, and are in fact so different from us that they are completely alien, just encourage extremist views like that. And from there, all it needs are some mental health issues and careful grooming to turn that person into a weapon.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    45. Re:In other news... by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      then maybe it's not a good idea to self-colonize with tens of thousands of Muslims at taxpayer expense...nah, that's racist, better put the resources into impregnating animal rights activists

    46. Re:In other news... by Xest · · Score: 1

      Because conspiracy theories like that are obviously nonsense. They'd require too many people to be involved, and someone would eventually leak it. When someone did eventually leak it there'd be riots in the streets trying to lynch the people responsible.

      No one in politics is that suicidal.

      As the saying goes, never attribute to malice what can more easily be attributed to incompetence. This is a fine example of that.

    47. Re:In other news... by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      You can't go round arresting every loony you find.

      Yet they arrested a guy for training his dog to salute Hitler. Normal people have a hard time understanding psychopaths: government allows and promotes Islamic terror because it benefits its interests

    48. Re:In other news... by jimbolauski · · Score: 1

      Another simple trick that terrorist don't want you to know about is to stop granting people with ties to terrorists groups refugee status.

      --
      Knowledge = Power
      P= W/t
      t=Money
      Money = Work/Knowledge so the less you know the more you make
    49. Re:In other news... by Xest · · Score: 1

      But you have no control over when that will be. What if it's in the next government, and when that government investigates how this happened they ask the Director and he says "The minister told me to stop investigating so hard"? Unless you can get a director that's a zealous fall guy, then it's a hard call. Again, you're going to really struggle to find people willing to put their life on the line for something that doesn't even benefit them personally, that's not typically the sort of person that makes it into a leadership position precisely because they're sheep, not leaders.

      You only have to look at the current situation with Trump's administration - he's finding out how hard it actually is to keep secrets involving corruption related to national security.

      Again, incompetence is a far more realistic explanation.

    50. Re: In other news... by Headw1nd · · Score: 2

      So you're assuming that whatever social media trawling they engage in is going to create a smaller list of suspicious individuals? That's ridiculous. If they can't investigate the leads they have now, then adding more noisy data is not going to help anything.

    51. Re: In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Bullshit! He was the son of a know terrorist, and was a cousin of a convicted rapist. This murderer was radicalised from birth by Islam extremist, and like them, they are not more British the the old colonies. Muslims are invading the civilised world with one thing on their mind. The utter destruction of the West, its beliefs and way of living. They will never stop until we are hearing the call to pray across the nations.

    52. Re:In other news... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Two of those are things christians used to do. The others are ones that, in the present day, christians do considerably less often than muslims.

      While "they're worse" is no excuse for doing something wrong it does disprove a laughably false claim of equivalence like yours.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    53. Re:In other news... by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Yep, when I was a builder's labourer back in the 70's, carpenters and framers used to buy 2 inch nails in 20 gallon drums. Now they buy nail gun ammo by the crate.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    54. Re:In other news... by chihowa · · Score: 1

      I don't agree that the GP is right about malice vs incompetence here, but simply allowing a discovered attack to happen wouldn't require a vast and unsustainable conspiracy.

      A single, or very few, higher-ups could allow such an attack to proceed by using the expected incompetence and unresponsive nature of bureaucracy. They can dismiss the credibility of the reports a few times and ask for resources to be dedicated to more credible threats. If the threat becomes grave, they can ask for more detailed analysis of the situation and a time-consuming network of known contacts to be built. And if they don't prevent it in time, then the bureaucracy was either incompetent (which is expected and excused) or they didn't have the tools they needed. Nobody would suspect that the slow movements of a large bureaucracy were made to be deliberately slow.

      Again, I'm not saying that this is the case here. I'm just pointing out that this scenario wouldn't require a vast conspiracy of low-level mooks orchestrating an attack against fellow citizens.

      --
      If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
    55. Re: In other news... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      You saying they shouldn't? The watch list is there for a reason. It's about time they start using it.

      Absolutely they shouldn't.

      Or would you like me to report you as suspicious, harbouring extremist views and causing me fear, so that you get arrested/deported/imprisoned?

      Just that, I have evidence that you don't like the rule of law and want to damage democracy.

      I for one, cannot figure why anyone would allow foreigners with even the smallest criminal records, especially if they look like criminals, to stay in their countries at all.

      Given that the individual named as being the bomber in Manchester on Monday was born in Britain and was thus a native Brit (in legal terms) I think border controls and immigration policies are only tangentially linked.

      Anyway, did he even have a criminal record? I've read nothing that would suggest that he did.

    56. Re: In other news... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      What the fuck does that have to do with whether or not he was British?

      You're probably are stupid enough to wear a donkey on your head.

    57. Re: In other news... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      (doh. Should've left it at "You're stupid enough").

    58. Re: In other news... by RazorSharp · · Score: 1

      especially if they look like criminals

      What, exactly, does a criminal look like? I suspect you posted AC because you were aware of the racist implications and overt xenophobia of your post.

      --
      "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
    59. Re:In other news... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Building bombs requires supplies, and purchases of such supplies can and should be tracked.

      That already happens.

      I suggest you don't try buying 40 gallons of hydrogen peroxide then stopping off at the garden centre for a ton of compost.

    60. Re: In other news... by RazorSharp · · Score: 1

      Hey, those Native Americans got here by crossing the Bering Strait. We're all from Africa, so I guess according to his logic we need to all go back there.

      --
      "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
    61. Re:In other news... by Cederic · · Score: 1

      The government that slashed police numbers, meaning they were and are effectively crippled?

      This doesn't look like "slashed" to me:
      https://assets.publishing.serv...

      Or do you want police officer numbers?
      https://assets.publishing.serv...

      Meanwhile in that same period (2006 to 2015) recorded crimes fell from 5.5m to 3.8m (see https://www.gov.uk/government/... )

      Looks to me like you're a hyperbolic idiot. Me, I'm glad we're not spending too much on the police and don't for a moment mistake their role with that of the army.

    62. Re: In other news... by stealth_finger · · Score: 1

      So essentially you're going to force another country to take someone who isn't one of their citizens? And what if they don't want said person?

      --
      Wanna buy a shirt?
      https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
    63. Re:In other news... by guruevi · · Score: 1

      They ignored it and now they can take over more and more civil rights. Sounds a lot like the playbook to get the PATRIOT act, DHS, airport security etc.

      I don't think the government is interested in preventing any of these atrocities, they are more than willing to let it play out just so they can take a jab at getting more powers.

      --
      Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
    64. Re: In other news... by BlueStrat · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Posts like yours, where you argue that even the children of immigrants aren't British, and are in fact so different from us that they are completely alien, just encourage extremist views like that.

      Reality is often extreme and quite rude, as are many people and their beliefs such as radical Islamists. To refuse to acknowledge reality because it may at times seem 'extreme' to delicate sensibilities is irrational.

      Britain is once again being invaded, and British leadership cheer for the invaders.

      Strat

      --
      Progressivism (aka US 'Liberalism'): Ideas so good they need a police/surveillance-state to enforce.
    65. Re:In other news... by yodleboy · · Score: 1

      "but if somebody goes into a hardware store and buys hundreds of dollars' worth of nails using cash, that should raise red flags"

      And now you're chasing the tools, which is futile. a guy with a bandsaw and some steel plate could make a pile of "nails". requires no special skills, no suspicious items, just patience. When it's over we say "Ah HAH! they use XYZ this time" and we flag XYZ. if you want to flag everything that can be used to harm people when propelled by explosive force, you're going to have a long list of common items. Guns are hard to come by in the UK? People get killed by knives and cars. These people want to kill, and they will find a way to kill, it's as simple as that.

      As long as people keep dancing around the issue that they are not like us, this will never end. Some viewpoints are just not compatible and can never be reconciled. Let the middle east follow their own course. They don't HAVE to be part of the global community if they don't want to and we should stop trying to convince them.

    66. Re: In other news... by Kiuas · · Score: 1

      Western leaders know full well that bringing in masses of poorly-vetted Muslim refugees is dangerous and will lead to conflict. That's the goal. Just look at TFA. Crisis => invasions of privacy.

      Also, the sun rises each day after the rooster crows, so therefore it's blatantly obvious that the rooster is causing the sun to rise, right?

      The origin point of the current refugee crisis lies in US-lead ME politics. The actions of the US throughout the region in the 2000s have created several power vacuums (Iraq, Libya) which have allowed for the formation of several violent groups to rise and cause massive havoc.

      Now obviously the reasons for the US involvement in the middle-east are complex but I for one do not agree with this idea of a 'master plan' wherein all the leaders of the west somehow planned all this from the beginning with the intention of a massive crisis just to be used as an excuse to bring in more refugees so they can tighten surveillance laws. I mean countries throughout the west have been amping up surveillance of their citizens with the pretense of combating 'terrorism' entirely successfully without the refugees. Terrorism and these kinds of attacks have happened and been used as an excuse to strip rights away from people way before the current migrant crisis began.

      The west, especially those countries in the west that have the capability to exert military power, has a sort of god-complex where we have such belief in our capabilities to do pretty much anything, including removing despots from countries and installing democracy and human rights and western values to countries on different continents without problems, that we seem to be unable to accept that we can in fact fuck up and make huge mistakes. So in comes the conspiratorial mindset and tries to get us to believe that in fact we never fail, we never make stupid and arrogant plans based on incorrect assumptions and planning and end up creating messes that are worse than the ones we originally wanted to solve but that it must all be planned. Everything happens for a reason and the military industrial complex works in mysterious ways. This must be precisely the desired outcome because the powers that be make no mistakes, ever.

      Let's borrow the razor from mr. Occam and ask, which of the following 2 scenarios is more likely and takes fewer assumptions:

      1. The leaders of the western military machine are imperfect and not all knowing and prone to errors in judgement. They make calls based on their ideological beliefs about 'national interests'. Therefore outcomes of military interventions are not always the desired ones and often fail in achieving their desired goals and making the situation worse,
      2. The leaders of the west are in fact completely in control and incapable of making mistakes. They're involved in a shadowy cabal that plans conflicts years or decades in advance just so that the conflicts can be used as an excuse to create chaos in their own countries and pass legislation.

      Look at history: men in charge of gigantic military machines have always been highly prone to wishful thinking. Hitler invaded the soviet union under the firm (and entirely delusional) belief that the entire soviet army would be defeated in 6 weeks. It never happened. The soviets believed they could occupy the whole of Finland in 2 weeks, they never did. Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan (for both the soviets and Americans) etc...

      All examples of scenarios where the overconfident people in charge are seemingly convinced that because of the numerical/technological advantage the conflict they're about to undertake will be short and over quickly.

      I find it hard to look at the chain of events that's unraveled in the middle-east and find it any different: men with relatively narrow perspectives and understanding of the region and what's actually at stake being confident in their military advisors who tell them that it will all be very clean and quick. Does it mean there are no components o

      --
      "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
    67. Re: In other news... by whoever57 · · Score: 1

      We're all from Africa, so I guess according to his logic we need to all go back there.

      Or not.

      Perhaps we all need to go back to Europe!

      --
      The real "Libtards" are the Libertarians!
    68. Re:In other news... by Kiuas · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Islam is as much a political idea as a religious one, if not more so. Their stated goal is and have always been conquest. The average Yusef-schmoe may not know this, or admit to this, but their so called "scholars" and IS knows this.

      Islamists should be extended the same courtesy as non-islamic religions get in saudi arabia.

      All islamists are muslims, not all muslims are islamists.

      There once was a time when christianity was a political idea as much as a religious one (and in some places it still is). In fact, pick ANY organized religion and I can offer you numerous examples of said religion being used as an extension of politics to support violence, subjugation of non-believers and military expansion. It just so happens that when the starting point of a belief is '$OUR_GROUP has access to Ultimate Truth(tm) about the universe and who do not agree with us are wrong by definition' that can be easily used to instigate tribal conflicts.

      I fully agree that islamist groups ought to be tolerated no more than any other groups seeking to overthrow freedom of religion and other core values of civilized societies, but you cannot get from that to 'therefore all muslims are evil' any more than I can get from the fact that there are christian dominionists in the US who'd like to establish a 'christian nation' to saying all the lutherans here in Finland must also be raging theocrats that need to be opposed.

      --
      "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" -Alfred North Whitehead
    69. Re: In other news... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      You are currently marked Troll, but really there should be a mod for Moronic instead.

    70. Re:In other news... by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Much like the two dick bags who bombed the Boston marathon, or the guy who was pig fucker of the month in ISIS's English language magazine who was the Paris attack master mind. At times it almost seems they don't want to catch these guys.

      --
      Time to offend someone
    71. Re:In other news... by avandesande · · Score: 1

      This argument is baloney. Lines to go through security have to be somewhere and are a prime target. The fact of the matter is that if someone is determined and has the know how they can do this no matter what precautions are taken.

      --
      love is just extroverted narcissism
    72. Re: In other news... by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      I have never had a herd of buffalo destroy my fence.

    73. Re: In other news... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Culturally, morally, and ideologically?

      What is culturally British? What is it about his culture that upsets you? I'm genuinely interested, let's see how much it overlaps with true British white people.
      What is morally British? Are there no white Brits on on 4chan? No white Brits who rape or kill?
      What is ideologically British? Is it the Tories? Is it Labour? Which political party along with a large percentage of the population do you want to deport?

      Western leaders know full well that bringing in masses of poorly-vetted Muslim refugees is dangerous and will lead to conflict.

      No, western leaders know to ignore racist idiots talking out of their arse. As for vetting... well these people go through a more strict vetting process than you will ever endure travelling or relocating to any country. White privilege is a wonderful thing isn't it.

    74. Re: In other news... by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      Why wouldn't the leadership cheer?

      Somebody blows something up, the leadership gets to take over more of the internet.

      Why not cheer?

    75. Re: In other news... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      To refuse to acknowledge reality because it may at times seem 'extreme' to delicate sensibilities is irrational.

      Refusing to accept demonstrably untrue claims is rational. Clearly, the vast majority of children of immigrants are well integrated.

      As I demonstrated, white "native" British people seem to be just as prone to thinking that mass murder can be acceptable. In fact, the main cultural difference is that jihadis are willing to commit suicide, where as European terrorists prefer to survive the attack.

      Need I remind you of that Breivik guy? Killed far more children and young people, and in a far more cold and calculated way since he was able to witness the suffering he was inflicting and sustained his attack for an extended period of time. This kind of mental illness and descent into hatred is not unique to Muslims of refugees or the children of immigrants from particular countries.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    76. Re: In other news... by Martin+S. · · Score: 1

      So was the last one, but this will not stop the Bigots stereotyping until they are blue in the face.

      https://www.theguardian.com/uk...

    77. Re: In other news... by painandgreed · · Score: 1

      This particular attacker was born in the UK, in Manchester, and therefore not a foreigner.

      Legally, yes.

      Culturally, morally, and ideologically?

      He might as well have had blue skin and spoke Betelgeusean.

      Couldn't the same thing be said of the National Front skinhead that hates WOGs and multiculturalism and wants to return to a Britain that has never existed? Couldn't it be applied also to those on either side of the Irish Troubles? How about 75 years ago with regards to sexual introverts?

    78. Re: In other news... by OzoneLad · · Score: 1

      Everyone knows he was born in the land of Murica and that the three Wise Pundits, riding in on giant bald eagles, delivered unto him the blessed gifts of ammo, guns and stock options.

    79. Re:In other news... by Xest · · Score: 1

      I'm not sure that would work, we've had plenty of cases of actual incompetence including involvement of the GMP as in this case itself but it still becomes public knowledge. The Rochford paedophile ring is one fine example - no matter how hard the higher ups tried to bury their fuck up, you still have low level case officers who aren't paid enough to give a shit about their bosses career who will lift the lid on it. It only takes on disgruntled member of staff who knew they could've stopped and attack but were blocked from doing so to make the point, and it's unlikely that member of staff would be the only one that knew about the situation, colleagues talk.

      Besides, they can't even keep evidence photos and suspect names secret when they want to and when it's the right thing to do and everyone should be ethically and morally onboard with doing that, let alone keeping something secret when it's the wrong thing to do.

    80. Re:In other news... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's amazing that there haven't been more attacks at airports before security

    81. Re:In other news... by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      In the real world, those of us who work for a living use hundreds of nails every single day

      I didn't say hundreds of nails. I said hundreds of dollars' worth of nails. That's many, many thousands of nails—enough to build a stud wall several hundred feet long. Besides, in the real world, you aren't on a watch list, and you should be paying for building supplies on a company card so that expenses can be easily tracked, rather than doing it under the table in cash, which is much more likely to result in theft. But don't let facts get in the way of your perfectly good rant.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    82. Re:In other news... by sound+vision · · Score: 1

      The higher-ups are sitting in Iraq or Syria, giving orders via internet. We generally already know who they are. Or in many recent cases, the attackers have had no direct contact with a terrorist organization at all. Their attacks are not so much "ordered" as they are "inspired by". That is why trying to attack a command structure, like you would in a traditional war or even fighting organized crime, is going to be minimally effective.
      To combat something like this, you have to get to the core of what is inspiring these attacks, which is the narrative that the West is at war with Islam. That comes from the constant intervention by Western powers in the Middle East over the past half-century. Look how we responded to 9/11 - we ramped up the intervention. Now, terrorist attacks on our own soil are ramping up. It's not a coincidence, we are reaping what we have sown. When our politicians suggest things like a "Muslim ban", that plays right into the Islamists' narrative. We are sowing the seeds for yet more attacks. I fully expect them to continue at breakneck speed. And even if we pulled our troops out of the Middle East tomorrow, the attacks wouldn't stop tomorrow. It took us a half-century of intervention to get to this point, it will probably take another half-century for Muslims to forget. We are in this for the long haul, but we need to stand up and be the better man starting today, if we want it to ever end.

      All that said, our police and intelligence agencies definitely need to stay on their toes at home, so that we can disrupt the attacks whenever possible. And in this attack, there were probably like-minded accomplices. But until we get to the root of the problem, of why so many are being radicalized, all of this is just playing clean-up after the fact.

    83. Re: In other news... by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Are you having a break from sucking Lennart's cock?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    84. Re: In other news... by stdarg · · Score: 1

      It's about time "right of return" started applying around the world!

      But in all seriousness, the country of his ancestors is in no position to refuse. In the hypothetical world where we had the balls to deport suspected terrorists, we would also coerce the countries rather than just ask nicely. Just search for UK aid to Libya. The UK gave Libya 9 million pounds recently to help them deal with refugees... there's another article about millions of pounds being spent to help some shit city called Misrata. How about "Take this guy or no more aid for a year." Chances are Libya would be willing to take him back and execute him if they didn't really want him around.

    85. Re: In other news... by hawkinspeter · · Score: 1

      His parents were Libyan's what?

      --
      You're a temporary arrangement of matter sliding towards oblivion in a cold, uncaring universe
    86. Re: In other news... by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      Yes, I'm busy sucking your mum's instead.

      But hey, this has been your most insightful post so far. Atta boy, you'll get there one day.

    87. Re:In other news... by david_thornley · · Score: 1

      Everybody knows that one. Of course, even if you deny someone refugee status who was born and raised in your country, they're still there.

      --
      "When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
  3. The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by Streetlight · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If the Internet and the World Wide Web become too dangerous for terrorists to communicate they'll find other ways to communicate their nefarious plans which may be more immune to cracking. This could include face to face meetings in secure venues such as caves or messenger transmissions. It may be that the best way to learn of such plans is the old fashion method of inserting moles into such organizations. They must be really good or they'll end up as recent moles have in China.

    --
    In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
    1. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by AHuxley · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The UK faced that with the Irish question before the wide use of the Internet. The UK solved that by collecting all phone calls into and out of Ireland, the UK.
      The very smart thing the UK did was never to mention collection to lawyers, the media, human rights groups or its own police.
      Very interesting people in Ireland and the US, UK kept on talking, funding, making calls, arranging meetings, moving hardware thinking phone calls and voice prints could only be used in the Soviet Union for a select few Soviet mil sites and officials.

      The very interesting people in the UK do not need the internet. They can use their holidays to move information in person.
      The UK solved the "This could include face to face" meeting issue down to two people meeting in isolated areas.
      Get the voice prints, the faces and follow a person all over Ireland, the UK with vans, trucks, cars, helicopters, early satalite tracking. Find out who they meet, record the talk or exchange and then offer both sides a "deal" to work for the UK intelligence services.
      The deal on offer was usually accepted.
      As people who got turned early on moved up to more trusted Irish networks, more interesting people got exposed and got offered the same deal.
      The UK police, media, lawyers, human rights groups never really worked that aspect out.
      The other aspect was support from the USA. The US was not interested in UK/Irish issues so the UK had to act in the USA without US knowledge.
      The same methods got used in the US and support and funding from the US to Ireland was tracked and later "found" with a good cover story.
      Face to face meeting provide not much of the expected cover if one or both people are known or the meeting place is been watched

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    2. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by lucm · · Score: 1

      If the Internet and the World Wide Web become too dangerous for terrorists to communicate they'll find other ways to communicate their nefarious plans which may be more immune to cracking. This could include face to face meetings in secure venues such as caves or messenger transmissions.

      Really. You're not curious as to why after decades of face to face meetings and messenger transmissions they switched to using social media? You don't think that maybe, just maybe, they adopted social media because it allows for a loose, decentralized form of terrorism, as opposed to a complex structure with secret protocols and challenging geographical restrictions that can be more easily taken down?

      Bring up privacy issues if you have to, but please, let's not make up absurd reasons for not making it more difficult for those fuckers to recruit and radicalize idiots.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    3. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by dbIII · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The other aspect was support from the USA. The US was not interested in UK/Irish issues

      They were interested but on the wrong side. Senator Peter King was very active and vocal in his support for the IRA and lobbied for US law enforcement to deny assistance to the UK. I've got no idea why he wasn't voted out after 9/11 or thrown out of the Republican Party entirely due to his history of supporting terrorists.

    4. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by sg_oneill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      The IRA where never beaten by counterterrorism forces. They where beaten by the peace process. Thats a historical fact. All the spies, wiretapes and surveilance from the full might of the british establishment could never crack the IRAs primary command structure, only bust the occasional cell and react to incidents after the fact. What succeeded was creating a political environment where Sinn Fein and the UK govt could negotiate a peace such that Irish patriots didn't need the IRA anymore.

      Thats a very different kettle of fish to the jihadis

      --
      Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
    5. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      AC re "Why not recruit from ..."
      People lie to get into a nation, lie to get into the security services. They stay loyal to their faith, their politics and spy on the security services.
      No way to talk to their parents, grand parents, friends, teachers, consider university politics, discover reading material, net use over years.
      The security services made many mistakes by just trusting people in the 1920-70's.
      People stay loyal to their faith and will any lie to get work with the police and security services.
      The only "infiltrating" will be of the security services.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    6. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by c-A-d · · Score: 2

      Watch them start their own number station. Try and block that.

      --
      some karma... and kinda lukewarm about it.
    7. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      AC Re 'Why not recruit from among ...?
      The security services tried that in the 1920-70's in a few different nations.
      Their secrets and methods walked out as the "recruit" stayed loyal to their own nations, faiths, cults, politics and pretended to be loyal to the nations that trusted them.
      Thats why the security services walk the life of their staff, talk to their parents and grand parents. Look at their school work, friends, university. What their parents did, their parents politics. What they read, do on the internet, what their family, friends and extended family did decades ago.
      Hiring strangers who lie to get into a nation and they lie to get work with the security services just invites many well understood security issues.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    8. Re: The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      There is no such thing as a pirate numbers station. They are just too easy to locate. The only reason they continue to exist is they are run by the state in which they reside.

    9. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by Alioth · · Score: 2

      Why would they need to? Radio direction finding is well understood, and the transmitter will be located in short order. Ofcom continuously monitors and triangulates transmissions and will undoubtedly be sharing this data with GCHQ.

    10. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      You overestimate the importance of 9/11 outside the US and you very strongly overestimate its retroactive effects. The peace process was already going towards conclusion long before 9/11.

    11. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by gweihir · · Score: 1

      Indeed. The Snoopers Charter is extremely dangerous to individual freedoms of ordinary citizens, but it will do absolutely nothing to reduce terrorism. It may encourage terrorism though, because the terrorists must think they are winning.

      --
      Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
    12. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by purple_cobra · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The Stormont Agreement was signed 3 years before the September 11th attacks. The IRA had a crystal ball, did they?

    13. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      It was signed, but then for the next 2-3 years there were constant rumblings from IRA splinters about returning to violence. Then the funding dried up in 2001 for anyone involved in terrorism and suddenly they were silent.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    14. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      No need to use radios these days, just hop on Tor and post your numbers to Twitter. There are lots of numbers stations on Twitter already.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    15. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      There only was a peace process because the IRA were losing.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    16. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by illtud · · Score: 1

      Exactly this. The peace process was well underway before any James Bond voice prints and satellite tracking. Technology didn't bring peace to Northern Ireland.

    17. Re:The Internet isn't the only way to communicate by illtud · · Score: 1

      The IRA where never beaten by counterterrorism forces.

      Exactly this. The peace process was well underway before any James Bond voice prints and satellite tracking. Technology didn't bring peace to Northern Ireland.

  4. Guilty by default? by info6568 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It is an ominous action what was performed when parents were waiting to pickup their children after a concert.

    After declaring something that it is true, let's talk about technology and the justification to violate the privacy human right in the name of security.

    If there is any justification to break all rights trying to catch terrorists, then we must stop using paper because somebody "could" have been designing a terrorist act in a piece of paper. Let's also stop talking, because when we talk could be possible that we let others to receive messages describing how to perform terrorist acts.

    Let's give the authorities the right to use "advanced" interrogation methods, because we could be thinking on performing terrorist acts and, in general, let's become guilty by default in a world were it is enforced to demonstrate that we are not guilty on any possible action that could hurt others.

    The main problem is that the human being it is very capable to bypass the obvious communication methods and the bad people will continue performing bad actions in one or another way, and in the middle all the really innocent people will become guilty by default and the freedom that humanity has been working to acquire during thousands of years and millions of lives will be lost in just some years. And if this happen, the terrorists will win the war.

    1. Re:Guilty by default? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      The main problem is people overreact. This isn't a Luftwaffe bombing campaign, there is no existential threat against the British state, so the idea that British authorities should just start torturing people seems like outrageous overreaction.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Guilty by default? by Desler · · Score: 1

      So you've taken down all the curtains on your house and allowed police to install cameras in your house? If not, what are you hiding?

    3. Re:Guilty by default? by harlequinn · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yes, you do have something to fear. The removal of your privacy and the abuse of these powers.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      You should probably read it.

    4. Re:Guilty by default? by info6568 · · Score: 2

      It depends on what is the "current" definition for "wrong".

      Some day the governments establish some generic framework because of a valid reason, but then they change the parameters and that framework can be used legally for something different. If the framework has an opportunity to provide excessive power to the authorities, always will exist a high possibility that it be used against its original purpose. And this is not a naive idea, our human history is full of cruel examples.

    5. Re:Guilty by default? by Desler · · Score: 1

      Your deflection attempt is cute. Care to actually answer my question?

    6. Re:Guilty by default? by lucm · · Score: 1

      You should trust your government. You elected it.

      For the most part, the government is not the people that were elected. The government is the cadre of civil servants who keep their jobs no matter who is elected. The lifers who feasts at the public trough and who quietly and relentlessly promote their own agenda with little regard to the nation's wishes. The ones who leak documents to the media or to Wikileaks when they dislike the people in office, or who bury evidence of mischiefs when they do like them.

      That's the real government, and no I don't trust them.

      --
      lucm, indeed.
    7. Re:Guilty by default? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Never mind the Luftwaffe, the murderous activities of the IRA and their loyalist counterparts were a lot worse than these (thankfully rare) deranged jihadis, specially if you lived in Northern Ireland. A crisis is always a convenient time to grab more power and there's always a group of fools for whom action, any action, is the solution.

    8. Re:Guilty by default? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      When I'm judging the severity of a terrorist attack the fact that the terrorist didn't survive definitely makes it seem more terrifying to me...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    9. Re:Guilty by default? by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      Actually, the current government in the UK polled far less than 50% of the vote in the 2015 election. Most people didn't vote for them.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
    10. Re:Guilty by default? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      I voted against the current government. I voted against the next government too.

      Even if I'd voted for them, I still wouldn't trust them. That's one reason the court system needs to be distinct from government.

    11. Re:Guilty by default? by sverdlichenko · · Score: 1

      If you are not a terrorist, there is no reason for you to be watched.

    12. Re:Guilty by default? by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Riiight, 'cause I so remember them blowing themselves up at public events in the midst of massive unsuspecting crowds back in the day.

      Only by accident. Usually they only blew up the unsuspecting crowds, not themselves.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    13. Re:Guilty by default? by lucm · · Score: 1

      just looking/sounding good.

      Were you in a coma during the last election?

      --
      lucm, indeed.
  5. Ahh... by EmeraldBot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Multiple warnings over several years, and the UK government never acted on them. So now, rather than admit they were incompetent or not funding their human agents enough, they're going to cut off free speech online? Congratulations Britain, you have the dubious honor of being the second country in the world to fall to terrorism.

    --
    "Set a man a fire, he'll be warm for the rest of the night. Set a man afire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life."
    1. Re:Ahh... by MightyMartian · · Score: 2

      And what is it you're supposed to do with a warning. Their could be dozens or hundreds or probably more individuals whom authorities are being warned about; terrorists, murderers, rapists, Mafioso and plenty of other people that some foreign and/or domestic intelligence agencies are warning any government about. In a lot of cases until they actually strap on a nail bomb or gun down a competing mobster, any government is stuck with finite resources and trying to find the most efficient way to use them.

      The fact is that even when Britain probably new the identity of almost every significant IRA member or sympathizer they still couldn't prevent terrorist attacks. Even truly authoritarian regimes like China and Iran can't prevent all terrorist attacks.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re: Ahh... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      So how does cracking down on the internet* prevent such finite resources going to waste? Surely such a thing will just generate more avenues to waste resources.

      *good luck with this by the way. I'm sure it'll go as well as the porn filters or the piracy filters. As we all know piracy and porn are a thing if the past in the U.K...

    3. Re:Ahh... by Aighearach · · Score: 1

      The UK might not have ever had free speech that you're worried about them losing.

    4. Re:Ahh... by jeremyp · · Score: 1

      The UK government has almost certainly been extremely successful at stopping terrorist attacks since 7/7/2005. The trouble is, we only get to hear about the relatively few failures. There is no need to panic and put draconian measures in place, but the government will panic fuelled by the media. It's so depressing.

      --
      All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  6. If I were Amazon... by scdeimos · · Score: 1

    I'd be saying, "Sure, but we're going to shut down all GovCloud regions. One level of encryption for everybody."

  7. will they force apple to unlock phones as well? by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 1

    will they force apple to unlock phones as well?

  8. Who else is sick of governmental opportunism? by seoras · · Score: 2

    Legislation only removes objects, even virtual and intangible, from the law abiding public.
    Not from those outside the law who will carry on doing what they do.
    Manchester was someone outside of the law and this crackdown does nothing, yet again, to prevent re-occurance.
    Government's cause terrorism, who in turn target the public for voting them in.
    You end up feeling like the pig in the middle between both extremists (legislative & violent).

  9. Come out ye Black and Tans by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I'm old enough to remember when bombings like Manchester were commonplace in England, but they still let Irish Catholics into the country.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not to marginalize the awfulness of those bombings, but I don't remember a lot of them that specifically targeted young girls. That takes a special kind of evil.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
    2. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by AHuxley · · Score: 1

      Re "into the country." was not easy. A lot of police, undercover police, informants, landlords, tip lines looked over everyone of interest.
      Moving into the UK at that time was not a case of anyone just wondering in as it is now.
      Landlords did chat downs, police looked at all new faces in their area. Who had a job, what job, if not who was supporting a new person? What did they do all day?
      Mixing with other interesting people in locations of interest and not working?
      Accents, reports and paperwork was often the start of an investigation. The ability to just sneak, or tell a fake story to get into the UK, hide in the UK was not a viable option.
      The accent issue could not be solved with acting skills or months of intensive language immersion.
      The solution to not been able to move interesting people in from Ireland was to wait a generation. People would move to the UK, establish a normal life for decades.
      The second generation would become active with local UK accents and have normal paperwork. Such people could not be detected using existing methods and would not show on any database.
      That was the next emerging issue into the 1980's. The issue was solved.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    3. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 1, Funny

      This is all because of gun control in the UK. If all those little girls had been armed this would have never happened.

    4. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Catholicism doesn't have a holy book that says "I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them". The IRA was not supported by a meaningful and persistent portion of Catholics.

      There's no comparison. Look, your philosophy has produced consistently mediocre results. Maybe consider a mild revision?

    5. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

      Also, the IRA's goal was to blow stuff up and survive. This involves getting in and either placing the device well in advance (which risks it being discovered) or sneaking out after depositing it (which risks either the device or the bomber being spotted).

      It's an order of magnitude harder.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    6. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 2

      A Texas sheriff actually made this argument: "Pay attention to what you see in Manchester England tonight. Pay attention to what is happening in Europe. This is what happens when you disarm your citizens."

      Not sure what good a gun does against an exploding suicide vest, but whatever.

    7. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Agreed, but the particularly repugnant nature of this crime shouldn't influence how we react to it.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    8. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      That is sort of different.
      The entire point of the IRA was to separate the countries. Continuing to allow the Irish into Britain was a continuation of the British colonialism that the IRA was fighting against.
      It was an aggressively defiant act designed to defeat the Irish to retain control of Ireland.

      Western ISIS members bombed Manchester because they want the West to stop acting so Western. Putting a wall between the two cultures and stop trying to change their culture and counties is the opposite of colonialism.
      Stopping the cultural experimentation of the Muslim's would allow both cultures to live in peace. Their are loads of historical stories of Muslims and Christians living peacefully alongside each other when strong and high walls are enforced. When the one does not encroach on and try to manipulate the other.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    9. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      That is sort of different.

      Not according to the number of dead British people. If someone sets off a pipe bomb next to you, does their motivation really matter?

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    10. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by wisnoskij · · Score: 1

      The motivation matters to the response. Soldiers die in war, civilians die as well. Britain invaded Ireland, and was willing to accept losses to subdue them.
      Britain never should of invaded Ireland nor held them against their will. But the British people were a colonial power, they wanted to invade foreign countries.

      American, British, Western civilians and soldiers are dying because the West wants to control, manipulate, change, the Middle East.
      It is wrong of the West of invade, manipulate, integrate, Middle Eastern countries. And the People are and have always been opposed to these middle eastern wars and manipulation. No American wants an American Empire. No Englishman wants to take over the Middle East.

      --
      Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    11. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      No Englishman wants to take over the Middle East.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Most of the Islamic terrorists want to survive too, that's why the ones who do the planning and make the bombs give them to other people that they have groomed to be suicide bombers. This guy is little more than a tool, a component in the explosive device, much like the cars that the IRA used.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    13. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      I can't say I disagree with that. But it's hardly the only case of its kind. Kind of raises the question of why didn't the IRA do this?

      Because even paddies aren't fucking thick enough to fall for such twaddle, that's why.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    14. Re:Come out ye Black and Tans by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Yes, but all that old testament shit is superseded by (a) the Ten Commandments, which is supposed to be a direct order from god and categorically says thou shalt not kill, and thou shalt not commit adultery

      Have you read the bible? The Ten Commandments are handed down in exodus, the second book. Immediately after it comes Leviticus, which lists a whole load of reasons why it's acceptable to kill someone (including as punishment for being raped). The remaining books are full of examples, for example Elijah (profit, direct representative of God on Earth) killing people for believing in a different god and the Hebrew God explicitly endorsing this behaviour.

      (b) the teachings of Jesus, who is basically Communications From God 2: This Time, In Person, and who also said it's wrong to kill and that if someone smites you, you should turn the other cheek and let them smite that too

      That's a better argument, though not one that seemed to stop any of the last two thousand years of crusades and so on in the name of Jesus.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  10. Hummm by Venereo · · Score: 1

    I don't remember cryptography coming after INTERNET

    1. Re:Hummm by Bob+the+Super+Hamste · · Score: 1

      Didn't you know, Benjamin Franklin invented the internet and then Thomas Jefferson invented some strong crypto.

      --
      Time to offend someone
  11. Re:The Mosque by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to the front page story in today's Telegraph, a mosque banned him and reported him to the authorities because of his extremist views.

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  12. Re:The Mosque by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, do you even know the history of Britain. Look up "the Troubles". The IRA were way more sophisticated than any would-be Jihadi. They even managed to blow up Prince Charles' uncle. All ISIS's band of maniacs seem able to do is blow up concert goers and little girls.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  13. Re:The Mosque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    But the IRA weren't terrorists, they had friends in Washington, DC.
    Also, Saudi Arabia doesn't fund any terrorists, it's the Iranians sponsoring the people who want to burn them as heretics.

  14. Time to stop coddling the fascists by hyades1 · · Score: 1, Interesting

    As many here have pointed out, attacks like this were far from unknown during "The Troubles". Yet somehow, the UK managed to muddle through without turning into a police state.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_terrorist_incidents_in_Great_Britain

    May and the rest of her pet fascists need a strong lesson in reality, and I don't think the voters can deliver it without some encouragement about votes having consequences.

    I wonder what would happen if every social media account in the UK...all of them...stopped working. Email only if you want to contact somebody there. And telephone, of course.

    --
    I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    1. Re:Time to stop coddling the fascists by boundary · · Score: 1

      Most of that Irish stuff happened before The Internet posed a significant threat to government control of the population. They didn't need to control anything but roadblocks back then. Today's a different story.

    2. Re:Time to stop coddling the fascists by hyades1 · · Score: 1

      What, there were no telephones? No other ways for terrorists to communicate without actually meeting? You were right, perhaps unintentionally, when you spoke of "government control of the population". Because that's what this is about. Not terrorism, but control.

      Today is NOT a different story, at least not as far as this loathsome law is concerned.

      --
      I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
    3. Re:Time to stop coddling the fascists by boundary · · Score: 1

      I'll state the obvious, as you seem to have missed it. Internet = broadcast. Telephone = point to point. Therefore different story.

    4. Re:Time to stop coddling the fascists by tshawkins · · Score: 1

      Demon was active long before that. It grew out of the "tenner a month'' club on CIX. That group was an internet connectivity "collective" that purchased and operated a bunch of dialup modems with routing onto the internet as far back as 1991/1992 i belive.

  15. Re:The Mosque by ArylAkamov · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Because it isn't the 60s anymore?
    b-b-but they did it too is a pretty piss poor argument. It's completely irrelevant at this point, it doesn't matter who is doing it, it needs to stop.

  16. Some idiots don't believe that "low-tech" works by knorthern+knight · · Score: 5, Informative

    "Cracking down on the internet" will do nothing but inconvenience innocent ordinary citizens.

    The US had a very hard time finding Osama bin Laden after 9/11. He dropped off the net, and no cellphones either. He communicated via trusted couriers.

    Another example is "Millenium Challenge 2002" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... This was a simulated war game with "Blue" force (USA) versus "Red" force (middle eastern, probably Iran).

    > Red, commanded by retired Marine Corps Lieutenant General Paul K. Van Riper, adopted
    > an asymmetric strategy, in particular, using old methods to evade Blue's sophisticated electronic
    > surveillance network. Van Riper used motorcycle messengers to transmit orders to front-line
    > troops and World-War-II-style light signals to launch airplanes without radio communications.

      The initial result was an absolute disaster for "Blue" at the beginning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    >At this point, the exercise was suspended, Blue's ships were "re-floated", and the rules of engagement were changed;

    [...deletia...]

    > After the war game was restarted, its participants were forced to follow a script
    > drafted to ensure a Blue Force victory. Among other rules imposed by this script,
    > Red Force was ordered to turn on their anti-aircraft radar in order for them to be
    > destroyed, and was not allowed to shoot down any of the aircraft bringing Blue
    > Force troops ashore. Van Riper also claimed that exercise officials denied him
    > the opportunity to use his own tactics and ideas against Blue Force, and that they
    > also ordered Red Force not to use certain weapons systems against Blue Force
    > and even ordered the location of Red Force units to be revealed.

    The USA lost to "low tech" in Viet Nam. Afghanistan and Iraq weren't exactly "glorious victories" either. The UK seems to be falling into the same trap. They'll only succeed in shutting down internet connectivity for innocent citizens. Terrorists will continue to use "sneakernet", trusted couriers, etc.

    --

    I'm not repeating myself
    I'm an X window user; I'm an ex-Windows user
    1. Re:Some idiots don't believe that "low-tech" works by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Irony is, they can't even win a fake war without changing the rules in their favor.......

      You'd think they'd get the hint, and try to learn from their mistakes, but apparently even in a simulation, these idiots are doomed to loose again and again.

    2. Re:Some idiots don't believe that "low-tech" works by Lodragandraoidh · · Score: 1

      Another point that I don't see mentioned is that the data for the vast majority of social media companies is either on US soil or diversely hosted across multiple sites around the globe. In either case, the UK does not have jurisdiction to force the companies to fork over the data.

      Furthermore, for those companies that do have operations or other business activities inside the UK, this might be the impetus to move out. Of course, these UK employees would be redundant (laid off).

      The social media companies have been laughing in our faces for too long.

      That is clearly a mischaracterization. The social media companies are trying to protect customers from undue searches and seizures of personal data - thereby protecting their revenue streams. I don't expect that to be a laughing matter in the board rooms of these companies.

      --

      Lodragan Draoidh
      The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
  17. Let no disaster go to waste by rossz · · Score: 2

    Just like our government used 9/11 to implement all kinds of useless but intrusive laws to poke into our private lives, expect the UK to do the same. It's unlikely something that protects the citizen will come about, but that really isn't the point. The government has a golden opportunity to do all kinds of shit that people would normally be up in arms about, but now they will cheer the erosion of rights along.

    --
    -- Will program for bandwidth
  18. Re: The Mosque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The IRA were terrorists and were supported by Washington DC.

  19. not enough info by aepervius · · Score: 1

    How many duch credible warning do they get per day, and how many can they realistically investigate ? If the y get 5 per day in average and can realistically investigate 10, no excuse. But if they get 50 per day for the same workforce, the y have to prioritize, and maybe some of the workforce were locked into other investigation too (the other nutjob at the bridge comes to mind)

    --
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    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
    1. Re:not enough info by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If the y get 5 per day in average and can realistically investigate 10, no excuse. But if they get 50 per day for the same workforce, the y have to prioritize, and maybe

      ...just maybe they should investigate someone for whom they have had five separate reports.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:not enough info by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      How many people do they have 20 separate reports for?

      How many little old ladies are calling in these reports daily on everybody that isn't blonde-haired and blue-eyed?

      How many leads do they have to follow up on from their ever expanding stranglehold on the internet?

      How many more will slip through as they get even more false leads from tightening that strangehold?

    3. Re:not enough info by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      How many little old ladies are calling in these reports daily on everybody that isn't blonde-haired and blue-eyed?

      if you'd read any of the articles about the reports on this individual, you'd probably still spew this ignorant shit, but you'd at least see how dumb it is

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    4. Re:not enough info by Wulf2k · · Score: 1

      It's bullshit to say that they have too much information, too many leads, and them getting a stranglehold on the internet will only make the situation worse?

      I don't care about this individual.

      The government agencies apparently don't either.

      They want more and more information and they're doing fuck-all with the information they have. ...Which elaborates on the semblance of a point I was not really making in my first post.

  20. Hitler's minions did not need... by EzInKy · · Score: 1

    ...an internet to communicate. Still, anything that will slow down terrorists communications will be most welcome among us proles.

    --
    Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
  21. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  22. Clueless politicians strike again. by Going_Digital · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Clearly they learnt nothing from the CIA exploits leak that cased the NHS to go into meltdown when black hats got hold of the code. They just don't have a clue, compelling legitimate companies to provide ways to break into their encryption just means that the terrorists will use other encryption techniques either developed themselves or from a company outside of the UK who doesn't care about UK laws. End result, law abiding citizens loose their privacy, terrorists continue with impunity.

  23. Re: The Mosque by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Mate, the IRA basically established the modern Terror franchise. They were terrorists before all the cool kids were doing it. If you looked up "Terrorist" in the dictionary before 9/11 it would have just been a picture of an Irish bomb maker

  24. Unfortunately by Chrisq · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Unfortunately it is likely to be a crackdown on people supporting equality, democracy, and free speech and pointing out that Islam is against all of these. The muslims will be allowed to carry on as normal.

    Why is it that when the muslims say they fear reprisals from non-muslims after an attack it is fine, but when non-muslims say they fear further attacks by the muslims it's islamophobia?

  25. Surprise! by MrKaos · · Score: 1

    The existing anti-terrorism laws didn't work so we need more of the same shit, even if this guy is a loopy mass murderer and has nothing to do with terrorism.

    How convenient that governments can use their own incompetence to increase their power.

    --
    My ism, it's full of beliefs.
  26. Cui bono? by Max_W · · Score: 1

    It is not possible to understand a crime deeply without answering a question: Cui bono? or Cui prodest? (Eng. Whom does it profit?)

    In fact the original text of Marcus Tullius Cicero's speach was: "...asking, time and again, To whose benefit?" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

  27. The Sun? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    You must be joking, that's the local equivalent of the National Enquirer.

  28. If there is something to learn with Trump.. by Z80a · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Is that you never, ever, EVER give the president a power that you will regret later when someone like Trump steps in.

  29. Re:The Mosque by Bongo · · Score: 1

    It's a matter of scale. But first, there's some issues:

    The monotheistic religions go on the premise that there's one God, one true way, one single identity which is above all else.
    In history, many regions of the world have seen the rise of empires, which expanded through war and conquest.
    An empire is a large social order, and so monotheistic religion and empire building were very similar, and worked hand in hand.
    So it was noble to die for King and empire and God.
    The notion of empire isn't that there are a bunch of empires, there is actually only one "empire" and everyone else is "barbarians".
    Later, with things like the French Revolution, personal individual freedom started to ascend, and hand in hand with that, the modern nation state, and diversity, live and let live.
    I've no idea why personal freedom and democracy started in Europe. It could be a historical fluke. Some argue Jesus inserted a virus into the monotheistic religions and that later flourished as the idea of personal freedom. But I've no idea if Jesus was even a real person.
    Europe also discovered that monotheistic one true way dogmas tend to eat themselves, as competing interests all claim to be the superior party, and you get armies each shouting "God is on our side" all fighting each other. After say, 30 years of that, people start to see sense.
    The separation of church and state becomes part of the matrix of modern nation states.
    Now here's the kicker: the world is one planet in space but it is many places in time. Depending on where you travel, you will encounter ways of life and social structures from all of Earth's human history, right back to Kalahari bush people.
    If you take any group of people who claim to belong to one identity, like "Christians" or "Moslems", there will be a huge variation of characters, beliefs, and values, within that group. A billion Moslems are not all the same, by any means, and Trump's idea of painting all Moslems with one brush is stupid stupid stupid.
    Likewise, Buddhists have this sort of aura of being peaceful, but if you look at the world's Buddhists, and atheists for that matter, you'll again find a massive variety of beliefs, ideas, philosophies, ways of life, attitudes, etc. A person can take Vedanta and use it in their minds to go bomb people.
    A fact remains, today, that terrorism and Islam are tied together by terrorist groups, in their minds, and we continue to see attacks.
    The same could have happened with say, Buddhists in Tibet when the Chinese kicked them out. But it didn't, not on the scale we are seeing.
    So let's say that you wake up one day and decided you want to become a terrorist and your ego demands you do it for a higher purpose. Which religion are you going to pick to give you that all-mighty feeling of supremacy over everyone else?
    Back in Roman times I guess you could have joined one of the outlawed religions sects I guess.
    Today, Islam has certain characteristics which make it more appealing. First, it sees itself as the version 3 coming after two failed and corrupted versions (Judaism and Christianity). It also has a culture of purity and return to earlier ideals and examples. Its founder was a tribal warrior. It expanded to cover India and many regions, building an enormous empire. I mean, the list goes on.
    The Ottoman Empire was one of the most recent great empires to fall.
    Now, many of those features of Islam are of no relevance to many many Muslims. See what I said about how within any large group there will be a huge variety of people with different attitudes and beliefs and os on.
    The question then is, what percentage of Muslims go for this monotheistic, empire building, purity, supremacist, AND war-like or political conquest ideology and will act on it?
    A tiny tiny percentage. And we all hope it stays that way.
    The scary part, where everyone want to demonise everyone else, is that we have had major events like the Nazis coming to power in Europe's most leading culturally advanced nation, Germany, and that it reall

  30. Re: The Mosque by Charlotte · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    You're implying that there is something innately wrong with terrorism.

    I believe that terrorism/guerrilla/freedom fighting is warranted in some circumstances. Though not for purely religious reasons. There has to be a political component that cannot be addressed peacefully -- and the Troubles fit that description.

  31. Re:The Mosque by Kjella · · Score: 1

    All ISIS's band of maniacs seem able to do is blow up concert goers and little girls.

    Could they have staged an attack on centers of power like 9/11? Those hit the Pentagon, WTC towers and the 4th plane was probably going for the White House or Congress. They have hit places like Charlie Hebdo. But going after "important" people would imply that the "unimportant" people were pretty much safe except for some collateral damage. They want everyone to feel unsafe just for going to a concert or restaurant or nightclub or football game or Christmas market or beach stroll or running the marathon or going to the airport or taking the subway or train or whatever.

    They don't need to hit Paris and London, they can just as easily pick Nice or Manchester or any other gathering of people. They are on a campaign of universal terror and it's not an accident that they can strike pretty much anywhere, killing anyone. They're deliberately picking soft targets they know there's a million of and no real way to secure to make us seem powerless to stop it. It's pure malice and hatred, not incompetence. It's intended to fuel an anger towards Muslims, so they can find more angry rejects of society to recruit. Not sure it's working, but they're making a mess in the progress.

    --
    Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
  32. We need a slogan by Gription · · Score: 1

    I can see it now. Banners, pitchforks, and people chanting, "Broken encryption for safety!!!"


    (Government is the best solution for EVERYTHING! Just ask someone in government and they will tell you!!!)

    1. Re:We need a slogan by RatchetDriver · · Score: 1

      That's really not funny in a really not funny way. Totally unfunny, in fact, and a little scary.

      --
      Nothing to see here. Move along.
  33. Found the SJW by Hognoxious · · Score: 2

    If you want to redefine that to something else then you'll need the worldwide community to agree with you.

    Actually countries can decide for themselves who is and who isn't a citizen. Jus soli or Jus sanguinis are the two main priciples.

    Worldwide community, WTF is that?

    Maybe you can force them to agree with you... You know, bombs etc. sometimes do the trick?

    That says a lot more about your attitudes than it does mine.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    1. Re:Found the SJW by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      Actually countries can decide for themselves who is and who isn't a citizen.

      Within certain limits. Countries are now allowed, by international law, to make people stateless by revoking their citizenship when they have no other. In other words, no dumping your problems on other countries.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Found the SJW by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      Countries are now allowed, by international law, to make people stateless by revoking their citizenship when they have no other.

      Sounds reasonable to me, but even if they hadn't changed it I'd say stuff international law. It's pretty much imaginary anyway.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    3. Re:Found the SJW by AmiMoJo · · Score: 1

      But what are you going to do with them? Anywhere they go, they will lack a passport or any citizenship, and other countries won't recognise your revocation, so they will just come back to you.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    4. Re:Found the SJW by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      If you go to fight for Isis, then you're a citizen of Isis.

      I'm sure some see the gingerbread under the gilt. There should be proper channels for those to apply for conditional readmission.

      The rest? If we lock them up my taxes are feeding them. I have absolutely zero sympathy for them. They can turn round and go back to Syria or jump in the sea for all I care. If you're that bothered about your cousins then make up your spare room and be ready to stand surety for them.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  34. Re:The Mosque by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    And if ousting a small number of homosexuals would make the majority feel safer? Or gingers? Or geeks?

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  35. Re: The Mosque by Charlotte · · Score: 1

    If your cause involves killing innocent people you are a coward and a terrorist, and your cause deserves to crumble into nothing.

    What if the cause you're fighting against is causing innocent victims?

  36. Re:3rd party encryption by tietokone-olmi · · Score: 1

    This could involve all encryption on their networks, however. Implying that operators would be required to ban forms of encryption that they cannot crack.

    Which has an interesting knock-on in that concealing unbreakable encryption within breakable encryption will only be caught and excluded if breakable encryption will be circumvented as a matter of course.

  37. Re:The Mosque by jeremyp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The IRA could easily have done something like 9/11. It's not like it was that hard at the time to take over a plane and fly it into a building. There are two reasons why they didn't which both stem from the fact that their motives were political, not ideological.

    Firstly, they never did suicide attacks. The IRA perceived themselves as soldiers fighting for a cause, not jihadis fighting for God. Consequently, there were no IRA suicide attacks. 9/11 would have been impossible if you had to factor in an escape plan for the perpetrators.

    Secondly, (and admittedly this didn't always apply) they had a concept of enemy combatants and civilians. As a rule their attacks were targeted at the system that prevented a united Ireland (police officers, politicians, soldiers) or causing disruption rather than deaths. If they planted a bomb targeted at civilian areas, they normally sent a warning to the police.

    Also, let's not forget that they several times got close to "centres of power". They successfully murdered a British MP in the House of Commons car park, they slaughtered a troop of mounted ceremonial cavalry in Hyde Park, they murdered a relative of the Queen and they came close to assassinating the prime minister and many important cabinet ministers at a party conference.

    --
    All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
  38. More walls and higher! by DarkOx · · Score: 1

    The sooner we can just admit that humans are naturally xenophobes and respond accordingly the better. The problem isn't encryption is communication in general. A smaller world really does not mean better understanding it just means we are all at each others throats.

    The real problem is the Internet *NEEDS* national boarders. We need heavy restrictions on any kind of real-time cross boarder communication.

    --
    Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
  39. Now we'll see... by Somebody+Is+Using+My · · Score: 1

    Now we'll see if AFRINIC, the internet registry, is more than hot air.

    "No IP addresses for governments that shut down internet access," they said. If you cut access or start censoring feeds from tools like Google, Twitter, and Facebook to deny their citizens access, the infringing government could find themselves refused new IP addresses. Well, this seems exactly what Britain seems to be thinking of doing. They say that the Internet views censorship as damage and routes around it; is it time to start routing around the UK?

    Okay, technically, this was a measure that was to be considered in June. However, the proponents of the measure really should speak up about it now. The Manchester attacks were terrible but the Investigatory Powers Act is even scarier.

    1. Re:Now we'll see... by EvilSS · · Score: 1

      Geography isn't your strong suite I take it?

      --
      I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
  40. Re: The Mosque by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

    It was sarcasm, ya wanker.

    --
    And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  41. Re:Well no real U.K. resident... by Cederic · · Score: 1

    30 years of violence in (and from) Northern Ireland proves what a fuckwit you are.

  42. The worst stragety ever... by evolutionary · · Score: 1

    Okay, this is foolish on SO many levels and proves either that the conservatives in the UK know knowing about security in general, or are just looking to increase it's grip on the public (and manipulate the public/elections with the data they will have unmitigated access to.

    First, we already know may of these violent collaborations are done without encryption or even high tech in many cases. So that won't stop anything.

    Second: It will be an open invitation for hackers worldwide to probe for the back doors in products they know will be required if this power hungry party gets it's way.

    It will make everyone's information open to the hackers/groups with less than ideal motives and will protect no one. All it will do is allow the government to get more information on the innocent citizens, whom I suspect is what these laws are really about and terrorism is just an excuse to tighten the grip of a party whose power hunger will never be sated. In essence, make innocent public citizens more vulnerable to extortionists, manipulators and hackers both foreign AND domestic. Which in the end will make the country less secure.

    Benjamin Franklin had incredible foresight. HIs words "Those who give up their civil liberties for a little extra security deserve neither" are proving so true today.

    --
    "Imagination is more important than knowledge" - Einstein
  43. Just to show how nuts Daesh is by laurencetux · · Score: 1

    Okay so they maybe inspired/ordered this and decided to CLAIM it as one of theirs

    Do They not know about the IRA, The folks that fought the IRA and the Gurkas??

    you start blowing up kids on purpose and you had better be well hidden

  44. Re:Found the bigot by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Of course. That's exactly what I said, almost word-for-word. And must you post two replies to the same comment?

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  45. As a social media company, I'd reply: by TheOuterLinux · · Score: 1

    "It's my company that no one is forcing to use. We like making sure people are safe online as much as its YOUR job to make sure they are safe offline. I will not break encryption, and you are free to block us out of your tiny, wolf in sheep's clothing, KGB wannabe country. You are a constant headache to deal with and we'll gladly take the minuscule loss in profit compared to the hell you'd catch for doing so. It's costing us to deal with you anyway. Besides, thank god for Tor and VPN." ---- Your reality face-smacker, Social Network.

  46. Re: The Mosque by illtud · · Score: 1

    Yeah, I think that was his/her point.

  47. We need this... by iq145 · · Score: 1

    Sure, the Constitution guarantees the freedom to share more information in the public, and the right to free speech is great... but NOT when it will cause a danger to National Security. The info Snowjob likely possesses is probably EXACTLY the kind of stuff al Qaeda wants leaked out so they can learn better of how to successfully find ways to kill Americans at will. Not to mention, maybe names and locations of counter-terrorism spies that the U.S. has out in the field infiltrating the ranks of those would-be murderers. People want to complain about the NSA and allegedly "spying" on them, but then they'll also complain about not feeling the government is doing enough to protect them from al Qaeda! The NSA is not "hiding" anything, but they'll be truly ineffective if EVERYONE knows what they're working on. They're not interested in photos of your baby or mom's recipes. Has NOBODY stopped for a moment and asked "why" the NSA has been doing what they're doing? Did people think the authorities use magic to uncover terrorist plots? Which would you prefer, "spying" on you or terrorism on you? Snowflake (a high school drop-out) did what he did for the fame (for the escape from obscurity that everyone wants... although most average people simply use Facebook). http://www.newser.com/story/17... Special Ed is a traitor... Some still say what he did was NOT treasonous... But those weren't "leaks". He falsified his credentials and used other agents' identification so he could flat out steal sensitive information...