Security Threat (cbc)

Description: The attack on September 11th has led to a ready acceptance by the public to trade rights for security. "Shorter chains and smaller cages," is how John Perry Barlow, founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and former Grateful Dead lyricist, describes it in the program. Without much fanfare, a surveillance net that can encompass the world and make everyone a suspect is being woven around us. SECURITY THREAT, which illustrates just how perilously close we are to drifting into an Orwellian nightmare debuted on CBC Television’s WITNESS on January 30, 2003. Among the victims of this new surveillance society is Shakir Baloch, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, who was plucked off an American street and held in complete isolation for almost 4 months. The search for security is also behind the explosive growth in Canadian and American biometric companies. Biometrics is the technology that uses parts of our bodies to identify us, such as fingerprints or retinas and even the way we walk. Biometrics is touted as the security solution for the 21st century. The American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators, with members in every province and state in North America, has its own idea. It is promoting the introduction of a standardized motor vehicle license for all of North Americans. An ID card could very well be introduced in the guise of a more secure driver’s license. In the end, SECURITY THREAT makes clear that post-September 11th, America started creating a surveillance society that transcends borders and endangers hard-won civil rights around the world. As Simon Davies of Privacy International puts it, "It’s like slow boiling a lobster, eventually, people just accept the surveillance.