[Peakoil] Terror laws may not be for terrorists

[Alex P]

Hi folks,

Thinking about the recent terror laws, the public debate about them was 
pretty thin. The Premiers met the PM without (apparently) knowing exactly 
what the proposed laws were. The public justification for the laws was 
vague.

The hold-outs, including Jon Stanhope, were apparently convinced in a 
briefing from the AFP and ASIO.

I don't think the new laws are to protect us against terrorists. I also 
have some doubts as to whether the laws are intended to attack the 
political enemies of the Federal or state Governments.

Rather, I think the laws may be a last-minute measure to pre-empt the 
enormous social unrest to come. The world financial system is highly 
imbalanced, and Peak Oil is more than enough to push it over. There are 
going to be lots of angry people. Broke small businesses, home owners with 
massive negative equity, bankrupt ex home-owners, angry unemployed people 
with nothing to occupy their time, truckers blockading highways etc...

Consider the preventative detention powers. Any well-funded intelligence 
agency would be best off just monitoring terror suspects (or small groups 
of harmless political activists). That way evidence can be collected, 
appropriate charges can be laid, and long jail terms sought.

But ASIO etc can't monitor thousands of angry people threatening to create 
chaos (blockading roads etc) but who haven't necessarily committed a crime. 
Instead, ASIO would prefer to detain those people so they can "calm down" 
for a couple of weeks. Police do not want to go to all the time and effort 
of giving them each a slap on the wrist and a minor criminal conviction.

The current detain-and-interview powers are not appropriate because then 
there would be some obligation to interview each of the thousands of 
detainees, or else release them.

If this is the motivation for the terror laws it would be fascinating to 
know who is in the know.

Alex
O4O4873828

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