Illusions of Security, by Maureen Webb (City Lights), 304 pp.

If only Webb wrote sci-fi novels. But for better and for worse she is a human rights lawyer with impeccable credentials. For better because Illusions of Security is probably the most comprehensive snapshot to date of official overstretch and incompetence in the "war on terror;" for worse because every harrowing story of mistaken identity, unlawful detention and personal suffering really happened.

The book starts with the now familiar, but still unresolved, story of Maher Arar. A law-abiding Canadian citizen, Arar was detained at a New York airport in late 2002, questioned for two weeks, then "rendered" to Syria to be tortured. Syrian officials asked questions that could only have been provided by Canadian sources. And while some Canadian politicians worked towards Arar's eventual release, writes Webb, other state officials fed the media false information in an attempt to cover their backs.

From there, Webb broadens her perspective. Arar's case, and those of other Canadians like Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad Abou El Maati, Muayyed Nurredin and Arwad Al Boushi, turns into dozens, probably hundreds and possibly thousands of instances where innocent people (mostly young Muslim men) have been detained without charge, deported to countries or covert U.S. bases for questioning, tortured and sometimes "disappeared."

Webb then explains how Bush's doctrine of pre-emption, which the U.S. used to justify invading Afghanistan and Iraq (and possibly soon Iran), also applies to the idea of "homeland security." Draconian antiterrorism legislation has been passed in countries around the world. Some of it was mandated by the United Nations, some forced on other governments by the Bush administration, and the rest willingly enacted by U.S. allies like Canada. These countries are also collecting huge amounts of personal and consumer information about their citizens and storing it on centralized, internationally shared databases which can be "mined" for patterns indicating terrorist behaviour.

The problem, which Webb uses countless personal experiences to illustrate, is that the margin of error is gigantic (around 5 per cent at present) when you consider that millions of people will eventually find their way onto these databases, producing hundreds of thousands of terror suspects all in the name of managing risk. It creates a world, writes Webb, where no one is innocent but some of us are a little less risky, a little less guilty than others. "This is the essence of the pre-emption model: it treats as intolerable risks the very legal protections that are fundamental to free and democratic societies. Like an autoimmune disease, it harms the very democratic organism it is supposed to protect."

It has been oddly difficult, especially in Canada, to convince people that the world actually has been turned on its head; that in the post-9/11 environment, co-operation with the United States in its "war on terror" could be as immoral and useless as it was to fly a plane into the World Trade Center. Webb's clear, matter-of-fact approach in Illusions of Security will hopefully lead us quickly towards that realization. As she mentions in her book, nothing less than the fate of democracy depends on it.

Maureen Webb launches her book, Illusions of Security: Global Surveillance and Democracy in the Post-9/11 World, in Ottawa on Thursday, March 29, at 4 p.m., at the Amnesty International Boardroom (312 Laurier). Info: (613) 744-7667, ext. 247.

 
 

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~Chapter & Verse~     Big Brother on steroids. That's the world we've allowed ourselves to become. Paranoid. Insular. Fearful. Distrustful. Dishonest. Vindictive. Oh yeah, and let's not forget willfully unapologetic. All this while our every movement is being tracked and scrutinized. That's what this book basically covers and if you care at all about the world you live in this is exactly the thing you should be cracking open.
Pedro Eggers	{1 vote}	April 30th, 2007
Security in Flames     What is going to be the limits of security is what is being illustrated by Webb, so much information can be gathered from the media coverage of Arar's deportation to Syria for questioning and then the torture we are not supposed to know about. But it is happening now because of a paranoiac system bent on creating an autoimmune disease against itself, the power base in the US wants to fan the fire between desirables and undesirables within and call to attention the need to protect itself from any further terrorist threat from without. It is the American way of liberty for a few and equality for a few while applying and old politival trick of getting voters to think the threat is only external. All the hype on security demonstrates that still any airport will be as unlikely to know about an upcoming terrorist plot as it did in 2001 even though new security systems are being introduced, And why? Because to get security to work it still takes people to operate the damn equipment. A security person had demonstrated this on the Canadian networks a while ago showing how he could pick up the codes on the security operated doors and work his way right to the pilot's cabin. And in the meantime you and I can bank on increased flight tickets because of the supposed beefed-up security. But we cover our eyes in the good tradition of the three monkies and see, hear and say nothing while our troops are fighting an open ended war to keep the opium trade alive and well on one hand, oil supplies flowing on the other while we suck up to our overloads south of the border.
Martin Dansky	{3 votes}	April 11th, 2007
Sounds like a Good Book, Sorry I Missed the Launch...     Another interesting read is the memoirs of Craig Murray, the former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan, "Murder in Samarkand" right now a book but soon to be a movie. Tells the interesting little tale from the mouth of one of those statesmen who could no longer stomach the vomit coming out of the UK and US. The former ambassador is no angel, he drinks a bit too much and womanizes a bit too openly, but he's honest about his beliefs and doesn't put up with bs. I'd vote for him.
Joe Shebib	{1 vote}	April 24th, 2007
We Need to Act Differently     The biggest blow we can serve terror is to make it irrelevant. The worst thing we could do is to feed it unintentionally by making it and its leaders the center stage of what we do. Let's choose democracy and reconciliation over revenge and destruction. Let's to do exactly what they do not expect, and show them it can work. A Call for the Unexpected Let me conclude with simple ideas. To face the reality of well organized, decentralized, self-perpetuating sources of terror, we need to think differently about the challenges. If indeed this is a new war it will not be won with a traditional military plan. The key does not lie in finding and destroying territories, camps, and certainly not the civilian populations that supposedly house them. Paradoxically that will only feed the phenomenon and assure that it lives into a new generation. The key is to think about how a small virus in a system affects the whole and how to improve the immunity of the system. We should take extreme care not to provide the movements we deplore with gratuitous fuel for self-regeneration. Let us not fulfill their prophecy by providing them with martyrs and justifications. The power of their action is the simplicity with which they pursue the fight with global power. They have understood the power of the powerless. They have understood that melding and meshing with the enemy creates a base from within. They have not faced down the enemy with a bigger stick. They did the more powerful thing: They changed the game. We will not win this struggle for justice, peace and human dignity with the traditional weapons of war. We need to change the game again.
Peter Peters	{2 votes}	April 17th, 2007
What Price Security?     What is security? We are told that are these measures are necessary to make Canada more secure. Eliminating peoples fundamental rights, stereotyping based on racial profiling, illegal searches, arrests and detentions, returning persons to countries to be tortured or killed, destroying person's lives. Is this making Canada a safer place? Until 1990 Canadian we liked and respected around the globe. People like Stephen Lewis were respected as statesmen. This is no longer the case. We are much less secure today not because of fanatical extremism but because of the direction we have allowed our country to take. Since 1990 we have 1 Sent Canadians troops to invade Iraq and help destroy the country even though the issue could have been resolved by diplomacy 2 Supported US embargo of Iraq that caused the death of 100,000's of Iraqis 3 Had Canadian law enforcement agencies send Canadian citizens back to countries to b tortured 4 Implemented "Security Certificates" which allowed power to arrest and detention without charge or trial 5 Held persons for up to 4 years in solitary confinement under "Security Certificates" 6 Had judges agree to return persons who have not been charged or tried to their homeland even though that there was 100% certainty that these individuals will be killed 7 Attempted to implement the "Sharia Law" in Ontario 8 Detained thousands of persons based on racial profiling 9 Built Guantanamo North 10 Almost sent in Canadian Army to remove the members of Six Nations from their lockade in Caledonia protecting their sacred burial ground 11 Sent our troops into an illegal invasion of Afghanistan 12 Elected a George bush clone, who if allowed, would dismantle all our civil liberties Now those around the world see no difference between Canada and the US and billions have every reason to hate the US. This is Freedom and Democracy?
Dave McMurran	{1 vote}	April 6th, 2007

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