SECURITY - The Floggings Will Continue Until Morale Improves.

[Sunfish]

Bohica, we are in for another reaming. I'm going to get done twice over since I own a yacht.

What people frequently overlook is that all this security, while justified in the name of fighting "organised crime", provides a perfect basis for control of peoples movements of a sort not seen since the days of the USSR.

While the report focuses on aviation and marine security I would guess it will be extended to interstate rail as well.

At least they finally mention the Forty year old issue of "the little man and his Piper Cub". Drugs have been flown in to the Top End from New Guinea for at least that long.


No pic, no fly plan for airports
Nick McKenzie and Richard Baker
June 16, 2011

Vote

Airport and port security is set to strengthen, for passengers and for workers.

Airport and port security is set to strengthen, for passengers and for workers. Photo: Peter Braig

PASSENGERS will be required to produce photo identification before boarding domestic flights as part of the biggest proposed overhaul of airport and maritime security since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States.

The Age believes a report to be released today on the failure of existing security measures to combat organised crime in the aviation and maritime sectors will also call for:

Private security guards who work at major airports to be replaced by a government-trained force.
Thousands more aviation and maritime industry workers - including truck drivers and customs brokers - to undergo further background vetting to get a mandatory security clearance.
Giving a ''suitable'' law- enforcement agency the power to revoke such clearances.
The creation of police taskforces across Australia to target organised crime on the waterfront and the ''hardening'' of port security by introducing fingerprint screening and installing more closed-circuit cameras.

The committee is believed to have identified illicit drugs as the focus of most organised criminality in the aviation and maritime sectors, but says tax evasion, money laundering, fraud, identity crime and high-tech crimes are also being committed.
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The committee's recommendations will provoke a strong reaction from some unions, which have argued that increased screening of workers may breach their civil liberties, and from airlines concerned that the recommendations, if implemented, would cause major delays at boarding gates.

Qantas is believed to have argued against the mandatory use of photo ID, claiming elderly people, infants and people without a driver's licence might not be able to meet requirements.

However, the committee is believed to have rejected Qantas's view and suggests those unable to provide photo ID produce a signed statutory declaration confirming their identity before boarding.

The committee, which is chaired by Labor senator Steve Hutchins, also found ''that the e-ticketing process introduces further vulnerabilities, increasing the opportunity for organised criminal networks to exploit the sector for illicit gain''.

In addition to its call for a joint police taskforce in every state and territory to probe the

maritime industry, the committee recommends ''the formation of a Commonwealth maritime crime taskforce that would act as a national, Australian Federal Police-led ''flying squad'', responding to specific intelligence and also conducting randomised audits of maritime and seaport security.''

The Age believes the committee was provided with evidence by the Australian Crime Commission and other law-enforcement agencies that led it ''to the view that serious and organised criminality in the aviation and maritime sectors poses a very real threat to Australia''.

Last year, a port crime taskforce was set up by state and federal police in NSW under a model that Victoria Police is considering replicating.

The committee's report will pose a major challenge for the Gillard government, whose May budget has forced staff cuts at the ACC, Customs and the federal police. The three agencies would have to commit dozens of extra staff under the recommended overhaul.

The committee is expected to also call for more sniffer dogs at airports and raises the prospect of introducing passenger profiling, involving individual risk assessments of passengers being conducted before boarding.

Other recommendations are likely to include new laws to make it a crime to travel under a false identity and the introduction of CCTV software that enables the recognition of number plates and human faces.

The maritime sector is believed to have been found to be more vulnerable to organised crime than the aviation sector due to the greater volume of goods passing through ports, with ports in Victoria and New South Wales judged to have the highest levels of criminality, according to advice provided by the ACC.

The committee is believed to have found that criminal gangs are using small boats and fishing vessels to import drugs, bury illicit consignments in the ocean and conduct meetings at sea. Police in Brisbane recently discovered 464 kilograms of cocaine on a yacht.

Light aircraft have also been used to conduct ''black flights'' to smuggle drugs from neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

The committee is believed to have found potential weaknesses in Australia's capacity to monitor small aircraft coming from nearby countries, with an admission by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority that private aircraft did not require its permission to enter Australia.

The report is also expected to examine the role of the ''trusted insider'' working inside transport hubs on behalf of criminal networks.

Such insiders usually have no criminal record and have worked for some time in trusted positions within the aviation or maritime sector.

Read more: No pic, no fly plan for airports (http://www.theage.com.au/travel/travel-news/no-pic-no-fly-plan-for-airports-20110615-1g3zb.html#ixzz1PNTBw7ZA)

[mmciau]

You are right - big brother is flexing his muscles so that he can control your every move!!!



Mike

[Ultergra]

Makes that 'next gen' check in thingo kinda a waste of 'time saving' doesn't it?

Even if they check the id at the gate, it still under cuts the purpose, and hence a waste of time, money and bad pr.

[paulg]

Well said Sunfish.

Here is my somewhat boring but relevant post put in response to the article you quote from in the Sydney Morning Herald SmartEdition:

This proposal if adopted represents an encroachment on the freedom of people to live their lives without interference from the State. Common law provides a person may adopt and use any name provided it is not for an unlawful purpose. It should not matter if a person travels under an assumed name. I am sure active criminals form a very small proportion of airline passengers and employees. Existing laws provide sanctions for possession of drugs and stolen goods. Police already have adequate powers of search and seizure where a reasonable suspicion of criminality exists.

[mcgrath50]

We used to have this thing called freedom of movement, before the 1900s there was no such thing as passports or visas. In fact our right to move is enshrined in the basis of all common law, the magna carta

It shall be lawful to any person, for the future, to go out of our kingdom, and to return, safely and securely, by land or by water, saving his allegiance to us, unless it be in time of war, for some short space, for the common good of the kingdom: excepting prisoners and outlaws, according to the laws of the land, and of the people of the nation at war against us, and Merchants who shall be treated as it is said above.

[Cost Index]

...and as usual addendum after addendum over the decades has diluted it to nothing. Kinda explains the nanny states we live in now. We supposedly live in the free world, but who's free?

[Pappa Smurf]

Now if i was up to no good ,do you think i would have my real licence on me.

[Mr. Hat]

Another complete waste of time and money that will only penalize law abiding citizens. Incompetence and low IQ is a must in the departments where this stuff originates.

[neville_nobody]

It's just another move toward a pseudo socialist/police state.

The ultimate solution to all this will be to microchip the whole population whereby you positively identify everybody. That way you stop terrorism/organised crime/identity theft whilst speeding up the checkin/boarding process in one go. Easy.

[ejectx3]

Exactly..... any crim is going to be using a fake id anyway and it's just going to be check-in staff looking at the id's not pros in recognising fakes...waste of time.


(http://www.passports.cz.cc/)

[TBM-Legend]

so what does a five year old use for picture ID?

International flights are easy because of passports.

Boys and girls here comes the national ID card and ID number that was mooted years ago.....

The book, 1984, is actually a training manual for these over-controlling morons.

My friend who grew up in Croatia said even the Commos there didn't have a patch on what's happening here.:confused:

[ejectx3]

Apart from all 'dem murders they done. :hmm:

[neville_nobody]

Not to mention that the real crims and or spies have real ID's that are fake identity anyway. So they will never be caught.

[Wally Mk2]

They can make the rules as tough as they like, the real cunning crims have & will always be one step ahead of the authority. It's the law of the jungle, survival of the fittest! Security is only as strong as it's weakest link, that's where you will find the smartest 'fish' (crims) where they are being 'fed'.
You can build a 100ft high fence that we cannot get over but follow it to the end & simply step over where it ends, there's an 'end' to every level of security & corruption is rife from the poor man to the very top!

God 'elp us for the terrorist/crims won a long time ago, all we are doing now is controlling them!!

ALL security is just a screen in itself, to make us feel warm & fuzzy, no more.


Wmk2

[Icarus2001]

so what does a five year old use for picture ID?

I was about to ask the same thing!

So if they check your ID at check in. Then what stops you handing your boarding pass to another person before boarding? I know, another ID check at the gate!

That should streamline the process and make self check in unviable.

Sunfish, I gather this is discussion only at this point?

[Sunfish]

Committee report apparently, and now Minister Albanese has got his knickers in a knot because somebody leaked the details before it was presented to Parliament.

[Frank Arouet]

Albanese probably leaked it. Ran it up the flagpole to see who salutes.

We are governed by idiots.

[Ken Borough]

Boys and girls here comes the national ID card and ID number that was mooted years ago.....

What would be so inappropriate about a national ID card. FFS there's so much out there known about us it's not funny. Think about it: how many times have you been asked/demanded of to produce a driver's licence or passport to identify yourself. A simple card would overcome that.

The only people who oppose a National ID card are those who have something to hide. It would, for example, solve a lot of problems such as illegal immigrants/visa overstayers who take jobs away from bona fide Australian residents and Australian Nationals.

Is anyone able to articulate a logical and sustainable argument against a National ID card? I would like to understand an unemotional contrary view.

[ross_M]

Is anyone able to articulate a logical and sustainable argument against a National ID card? I would like to understand an unemotional contrary view.

How hard is it to get a fake ID? Unless every check is going to be electronically tied to a central database.

This is mere security theater. Only inconveniences the law abiding PAX without doing anything to stop the bad guys. Let's say I'm a motivated smuggler or terrorist do I really lack the ability to procure a counterfeit ID card?

During my college days at a US university the going rate for a fake ID was about a $100.

[ejectx3]

Here's the price list as of today, I guess inflation has pushed it up a bit
Price for Passport $900
Price for Passport + Driving license $1150

[RATpin]

What's worse Frank,is they think we are all idiots.
Laughable.

[Ken Borough]

Unless every check is going to be electronically tied to a central database.

Very achievable at airports - all of the immigration/passport data is on a central computer. Police use a centralised data base in each state. Systems can and do work well.

Only inconveniences the law abiding PAX without doing anything to stop the bad guys

A fair comment but sometimes the majority have to make a small sacrifice to help protect society. What is there to be afraid about having an ID card? Most carry a passport and/or driver's licence while there are plenty of tossers more than happy to flash their ASICs everywhere and anywhere, especially when it results in a discount on goods or services being purchased.

What do people use for ID if they hold neither passport nor driver's licence? In NSW the Road and Traffic Authy issues IDs for non-drivers. I gather they are used primarily for admission to pubs and to faciliate the sale of alcohol. Again, if an ID card issued by a Govt authority is acceptable to buy grog, than the universal use of a National ID should not be discouraged.

[Sunfish]

Ken, the sustainable argument regarding a national ID card in the context of our Constitution and legal system is that it arms the Government with a totally new power - that of requiring a person to identify themselves for any reason at any time to anyone the Government designates. This is not part of Common Law.


While of course the card would be implemented on the grounds of "Fighting/terrorism/organised crime/ child pornography (pick any Two) " the reality is that the Fabian tactic will be applied and over time it's use will become compulsory for an ever increasing number of reasons.

..And the reason that is bad is because we know from historical experience that such systems will be almost immediately abused by government.

It will thus become possible to implement a "No fly", "No train" movement control system across the country, cars are already controllable via licence plate identification systems, at least in Victoria. For example our "random" breath tests aren't random anymore.

[neville_nobody]

What would be so inappropriate about a national ID card.

It sets the framework for a police state. You will be owned by the big corporations and/or the government ultimately. You will have no option other than to do what they tell you.

Romania and other Eastern Bloc countries have already been through this. Only recently has the general public known about what those governments knew about them at the time. What was scary about the Romanian situation was that the government knew so many intricate details about the general public. Which girl you were dating, who your friends were, what your hobbies are your favourite food etc etc

All this is centralised and as long as you do what they tell you they will leave you alone. That is how they control you.

Now imagine a Chinese type government, or worse Shari a law with that kind of information.

[Ken Borough]

Sunnie.,

Common Law and our Constitution have little in common. In fact, the Constitution is silent on this and related matters althouh it is in dire need of an overhaul bearing in mind our modern society. (This is a pipe dream!!) That said, I have sufficient faith in the Westminster System and our judiciary to protect the citizenry from over-zealous public servants and their demands. Don't you?

[ross_M]

Here's the price list as of today, I guess inflation has pushed it up a bit
Price for Passport $900
Price for Passport + Driving license $1150

Which prices are these: American or Australian? Just curious.

[ejectx3]

US dollars

[ross_M]

Very achievable at airports - all of the immigration/passport data is on a central computer. Police use a centralised data base in each state. Systems can and do work well.

In the US we show ID's to TSA for the last several years. No electronic validation. It's just smoke and mirrors. Any fake ID would work.

Is Australia going to be any better?

I'd be curious to know from frequent fliers: Any country you fly where domestic-flight ID checks are accompanied by a electronic swipe-n-verify? Not so, for India, US, Germany at least.

Ken, the system is all fine in theory if implemented correctly. But if they obviously are not, why bother?

[Ken Borough]

Ross,

The land in which you live does not have a good track record from which you can objectively make a valid judgement (said without being patronising! :ok:). I am confident that we in Australia can get it right - as we do most things.

Cheers

[Neptunus Rex]

The Hong Kong ID Card has a chip which contains, inter alia, the holder's thumbprint. I imagine that is rather difficult to forge.

[Frank Arouet]

When this government has everybody totally dependent upon them for their day to day existence, a communist/ and/ or national socialist new world order will reign supreme. Personal data collection is necessary to achieve this aim. But Hitler or Mao never charged money for "papers".

Why do you think this mob of Bolsheviks running your country are fighting for seats on the UN security council. That's the new world order. Ask any of the miserable sand pit despots who kept the tribes in order up until recently. Ask anybody if things got better when Saddam got hung. Ask any tactician what is wrong with the Libya situation.

Don't you think the whole divisive carbon freak show is anything but an excuse for a redistribution of the wealth?

Why do you think a Malaysia swap 5:1 is a good idea?

And Ken, old mate:

I am confident that we in Australia can get it right - as we do most things.

We have got nothing right since the bureaucrats took control from our elected representatives and they all went mad.

[RATpin]

I am reminded of a quote from Benjamin Franklin; "they who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety,deserve neither liberty nor safety"

[Sunfish]

Ken Borough:

Sunnie.,

Common Law and our Constitution have little in common. In fact, the Constitution is silent on this and related matters althouh it is in dire need of an overhaul bearing in mind our modern society. (This is a pipe dream!!) That said, I have sufficient faith in the Westminster System and our judiciary to protect the citizenry from over-zealous public servants and their demands. Don't you?

I have absolute faith that the public service is made up of human beings with exactly the same frailties as the rest of us.

We have plenty of examples of misfeasance in office - from prisoners released from jail after it was discovered that the prosecution cheated on the evidence, to the treatment of messrs Haneef and Habib, to the murder of Two confidential police informers in Victoria, etc.

You cannot and must not give the Government any more power over our lives than it already has. The poor Yanks are already suffering much more than we are from this security state disease.

[teresa green]

Plenty of passports floating around in the East Timor sea, take your pick. I had a electric toothbrush taken off me in HKG the other day. (without batteries) WTF! What the hell did they think I was going to do with that?

[Ken Borough]

Sunnie,

Possession of a National ID card does not give anyone any more powers than they currently have. You can be sure that adequate safeguards would be enshrined in any enabling legislation as there are plenty of civil libertarians in the Parliament.

Citing the actions of some rogue police etc does not validate your argument. There will always be misfeasance in office but we are fortunate to live in a country that has enough checks and balances to ensure that such are kept to a minimum. The detention of Harbib and the guy from SA by the US has nought to do with a National ID card. Nor does the wrongful arrest, detention and deportation (?) of Haneef. I'm afraid that you're drawing a long bow, just like the Monarchists who reckon the GG is our Head of State.

BTW, the Yanks don't deserve any sympathy for a lot of the mess they are in. If they had decent systems in place, then maybe we would not have had the attacks on the Twin Towers. They can't even manage to run fair elctions with their many differing systems of voting. Until 9/11, they had something like 50 systems and standards of aviation security.

[HF3000]

National ID Card:

Sufficient checks and balances?

Maybe initially, but one more suicide bomber manages to knock out an embassy and suddenly we have some kind of patriot act amendment rushed through parliament that knocks out most of the checks and balances and suddenly your insurance company (who requires your National ID card for insurance) knows that you had a parking fine when you were 18 or had an abortion when you were 21. Your employer (who requires your National ID card to make sure you are allowed to work in Australia) knows you smoked weed once 20 years ago at a University party which was raided because someone ran naked around the footy oval to settle a bet about who had bonked who last weekend. And the media (because Packer is in bed with everyone of some power) knows everything you every did ever, so don't think you can run for office for a party that might not agree with his personal financial strategy.

They'll also know everything you have bought on eBay because paypal requires you ID card to avoid fraud, every X-rated video you may have rented because the video store requires your ID card to prevent child pornography, it goes on and on.

I'd rather have a Tax file number, which is used for tax, and nothing else, a drivers Licence, a passport and a Medicare card thank you, even it it makes my wallet annoyingly fat with all the cards I have to carry.

[Frank Arouet]

There will always be misfeasance in office but we are fortunate to live in a country that has enough checks and balances to ensure that such are kept to a minimum.

And the arguement that we should accept and expect politicians to tell lies is somehow part of our national makeup!

Why? because Ken, you say, perceived checks and balances keep them to a minimum. Bloody hell, There should be none.

Sorry mate, I expect my elected representatives to be accountable to criminal, corporate and common law, as do I expect those morons giving advice to them, and especially those having positions of power in concert with those drones. Do these type take any oath of office?

Any misfeasance should be a hanging offence. The concept is anathema to the Australia I remember.

[Ken Borough]

Any misfeasance should be a hanging offence. The concept is anathema to the Australia I remember.

Not quite. As humans will be humans we can't legislate for perfection but we can make sure that those holding any public office comply with the law in all of its facets.

[Wally Mk2]

A Nat ID card won't change a thing. Just another avenue for corruption at all levels with the cost back to you know who!!!.:ugh: We really are losing the plot in the western world, the terrorists must be laughing at us whilst we run around like kids in a school yard waving a new cap gun!!!!:-(






Wmk2

[ross_M]

Ken: I'll strongly recommend reading this article:

Bruce Schneier: National ID will make US less secure (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/19/1082326122398.html)

Bruce Schneier does a great job explaining the issue in a very rational, thoughtful manner.

Are you still not convinced that it is a bad idea?

[HF3000]

As humans will be humans we can't legislate for perfection but we can make sure that those holding any public office comply with the law in all of its facets.

It won't make sure of that at all.

But what it will do is make sure that politically motivated media will come to know more about a person's private life than they should and thereby ensure politically biased domination of public office.

Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

We have a human right to privacy. It is not about law-abiding citizens having nothing to hide. Everyone has things to hide (doesn't have to be illegal things). And they have a common-law right to hide it. Have you seen the movie "Gattaga"? That has a pretty good commentary on the subject where every citizen does not have an ID card but have to identify themselves every moment of their existence via a DNA scan. It's only a movie, but it explores the potential of loss of identity privacy.

[neville_nobody]

Yes Minister was all over this topic in the early 1980's which you make you question the entire point of the 'National Identity Card' in 2011. Good to see that the arguments haven't changed in 30 years.........which I think was the whole point of the Yes Minister series in the first instance.

YouTube - ‪Yes Minister S1E4 - 'Big Brother' - Part 1‬‏

YouTube - ‪Yes Minister S1E4 - 'Big Brother' - Part 2‬‏

YouTube - ‪Yes Minister S1E4 - 'Big Brother' - Part 3‬‏

[CharlieLimaX-Ray]

Local council carpark ticketing machine failed, so ring the number to avoid getting a $50 on the spot fine. The lady politely asks for my full name, car details, my licence number, address and what time would I be in to sign the declaration form. When replied giving my car rego is no problems, but the rest of the details are not required, she replied that it is required by the council for whatever purposes!

Take a trailer load of rubbish to the council tip you are now required to produce your drivers licence.

Having a very lengthy battle with a utility company in regards to being significantly overcharged. Rang the call centre and get the usual run around, but even though the account is in my name for the last ten years or so, and I have been at the present residence for at least eight years and I also pay the account my direct debit bank account, I am not authorised to get them to come and reread the meter. The official reason given is that they computer security system and been significantly upgraded since 2001 and customers were invited to provide updated details for security checks and data base entry, and as you have failed to provide these details we are unable to assist you at this time. No worries, direct debit is cancelled, and you can chase me for any monies owing!!!

[RATpin]

Thanks Neville,great humor with a message that is still so relevant.

[fencehopper]

Photo ID is not a problem to get on an aircraft. The problem is the reason for needing such. No biggie to flash my license. I take more offence to the pat downs. In everyday life I would probably show photo ID 3 or 4 times a month as it is. Pretty poor attempt if they were really serious about the game. With the high (er) tech cards with chips open up a much secure method with a lot more options from thumprint to retina scans. I'd be more happy if they required that type of ID. But hell not even the banks are willing to invest in this type of ID to prevent ATM skimming. So what hope in it being used for airport security. They have enough problems in not tripping over the power leads. As for a step towards the national card and the view of big brother always watching theme is really irrevelant these days. Between your ATM, mobile phone and online activities you already leave a pretty traceable footprint to follow. Having one smart card or even a skin chip is appealing to me. Every card in your wallet on one secure card or a small chip under your skin.
FH

[neville_nobody]

For those who are happy for the government to know where you are and what you do 24/7 this is the type of society you are in for.

Don't be so flippant with your freedom.

The lady's parents in this radio documentary held different political opinions to those in power. The government had 85 volumes on her family. Now imagine how easy this would be with today's technology.

BBC World Service - Documentaries - State Secrets (http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/documentaries/2009/12/091204_state_secrets_one.shtml)


Romania's revolution: The day I read my secret police file - Europe, World - The Independent (http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/romanias-revolution-the-day-i-read-my-secret-police-file-1838206.html)

Romania's revolution: The day I read my secret police file

In the small crowded reading room a man wearing thick glasses mutters curses as he leafs through a mound of files. In a corner, another silently studies a microfilm. I take a seat next to an Orthodox monk with a long beard and black robes and wait in trepidation. Finally, an attendant hands me my files. To my surprise there are two volumes. The spying on me had started earlier than I thought.

Growing up in communist Romania you carried around a terrible certainty – one in 10 people was an informer for the dreaded Securitate secret police on behalf of the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. My parents, like most Romanians, were convinced of that. But they were wrong.

According to the Securitate's own archives, an estimated 750,000 people out of a population of 23 million collaborated, so it was really "only" one in 30. The discrepancy is telling. By the 1980s, Stalinist-style brutality was largely a thing of the past, but its memory had a lasting effect. After the communist takeover in Romania, tens of thousands of people were killed, thrown in jail or sent to labour camps. As the regime entered its final decade, people had been cowed into thinking the secret police was all-powerful. The Securitate controlled us through our own fear.

In 1983, while at university, I was invited to be interviewed at a travel agency, on the pretext of a translation job. It soon transpired that the man who interviewed me was a Securitate captain. He offered me privileges: a passport to travel abroad and the cancer drugs my sick father needed. In exchange I would have to spy on people I knew. I said no. It has taken me until now to see the file the secret police kept on me as a result of that refusal.

It took years of political struggle for the bulk of Romania's secret police archive to be transferred to a special agency, the National Council for the Study of the Securitate Archives (CNSAS). It was done just before Romania joined the European Union in 2007. That's perhaps why the EU flag now stands in the agency's reading room in central Bucharest.

Two million files are kept in three warehouses at a former military compound on the outskirts of the capital. Ironically, it is not far from a huge rubbish dump, yet inside the air smells sweetly of ageing paper.

"It's an evil library," Germina Nagat, head of investigations at the CNSAS, said, guiding me through 20km of grey metal shelves stacked with files. Almost anybody could be the subject of a file, she explained. "Persons who had relatives abroad. Persons who used to tell jokes. Persons interested in studying foreign languages."

Looking back, I qualified on most counts. As a student of English and Spanish, I used to frequent the British Council library in Bucharest to borrow the works of clearly suspect writers including T S Eliot, Iris Murdoch and John Fowles. Through my occasional work as a translator and interpreter, I had British friends – a boyfriend, even.

Worse, I had failed to report these contacts to the police, as Romanians were required by law. And to complicate matters, my mother had gone to Germany on a rare tourist visa and hadn't come back.

Romania today, 20 years after the bloody revolution that in December 1989 swept Ceausescu from power, is a world away from what it was under communism. The streets of Bucharest are clogged up with expensive cars. Back then you would stand in line for hours to buy a loaf of bread, bones for soup, or a packet of butter.

In my file I find detailed reports about my visits to the British Council. Times, names of people I came or left with, car licence-plates. A staff member doubling as an informer is asked to check if I'd been chatting to another man they were watching. Then, a note on my first encounter with the Securitate captain. The translation job, or the travel agency meeting are not mentioned. There's a handwritten report about my mother's departure; details about my 23-year-old boyfriend, whom they suspected of "espionage activities".

Then, in April 1983, there is a type-written report on how I had refused to sign a written pledge to inform. I remember I had broken down in tears that day and said I just couldn't do it – but that's not mentioned. But on the very same day, a higher-ranking officer signed a document marked "Strictly Secret". It is a list of measures for my surveillance, including bugging my phone and opening my letters.

I suddenly recognise my father's minute handwriting, recounting how he found out he had lung cancer. It was a letter to a friend duly photocopied along with both sides of the envelope. Many of my own letters are there, with some parts underlined in blue or red pen.

The second volume has 138 pages – all handwritten transcriptions of phone calls, many with my mother and my then boyfriend. Some read like an absurd play by Eugene Ionesco (born, of course, in Romania). "Citizen 1: Hello. Citizen 2: Hello. Citizen 1: How are you? Citizen 2: So-so..." I burst out laughing. But these were painful conversations about my father's impending death.

There's one last surprise: the code-name the Securitate gave me. I was called "Lorena". The file is like a perverse time machine. It shows some kind of truth, but not the whole truth – not my truth.

It ends in December 1985, six months after I was allowed to leave Romania to join my mother and just as I had started working at the BBC's Romanian Service in London. Another arm of the Securitate continued to monitor me, as it did all exiles working for foreign broadcasters, until the last days of 1989.

Seeing my file at last, two decades after Ceausescu's violent demise is liberating, but deeply unsettling. An army of spies and scribes paid to collect trivial details about someone like me, a nobody. So many strangers who photocopied my letters, listened in to my phone calls. And for what?

But Ms Nagat believes the dark secrets have to be exposed. After a decade working on these files, one thing still shocks her. "Children, thousands of children, recruited to be informers. Forced to give information about the intentions of their families, about the remarks some teachers made in their lessons. And the youngest I've seen was 10 years old."

She regularly uncovers evidence that currently serving senior judges, politicians and top civil servants had links to the Securitate. "They have a hidden agenda – resistance to reforms," she claims. "To violate human and civil rights every day, that was their job. And now you have to do the reverse. How can you do this? You cannot be a ballerina after being an elephant!"

Romanian courts are dealing with some 700 cases of alleged Securitate collaborators in high places, but so far have ruled on only three. There may be many communist-era elephants out there still trampling on Romania's fledgling democracy. I'm determined to return one day to see my father's Securitate files. According to the records, he has two.

Oana Lungescu is the European affairs correspondent for the BBC World Service. Her documentary, State Secrets, airs tonight at 8.30pm

BBC iPlayer - Witness: Romanian family history (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00g1gbj/Witness_Romanian_family_history/)

[SpannerTwister]

Ken: I'll strongly recommend reading this article:

Bruce Schneier: National ID will make US less secure (http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/19/1082326122398.html)

Bruce Schneier does a great job explaining the issue in a very rational, thoughtful manner.

Are you still not convinced that it is a bad idea?

Ross, Don't like you :O !
(j/k)

As I was reading this thread I was thinking to myself, "Some of these guys need to read Bruce Schneiers blog / subscribe to his monthly newsletter" and then I came across your post !! :ok:

For the vast majority of the world who isn't aware of who Bruce Schneier is and who would doubt his credentials to speak on matters security..........

Schneier is the Chief Security Technology Officer of BT (http://www.bt.com/). That'll be "BT" as in the company once known as British Telecom.

He also invented the "Blowfish" algorithm as well as working with others to invent other encryption algorithms.

His philosophy (specifically in relation to cryptography) is that in order to make a truly secure algorithm you must lay it out in front of everyone for all to see.

Only when it can be seen and examined by everyone can you be sure that there are no faults in it, one thing he most certainly doesn't believe in is "security by obscurity", the favoured path of many other operators.

You may like to read his Bruce Schneier - Wikipedia, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Schneier) entry.

Quite clearly this is a man who knows what he is talking about, and yet (basically) he calls the TSA and Department Of Homeland Security jokes and a total waste of time, effort and money.

Reading his blogs and newsletters you just want to cry, they are full of such bleedin' obvious ideas / actions and plans it's obvious they would work, and yet our "security industry" spends money like there's no tomorrow shooting at shadows, ignoring the obvious !

ST

[ross_M]

Ross, Don't like you !
(j/k)

As I was reading this thread I was thinking to myself, "Some of these guys need to read Bruce Schneiers blog / subscribe to his monthly newsletter" and then I came across your post !!


Birds of a feather..... :)
Let's grab a beer sometime.

[breakfastburrito]

Fascism is on the way folks, this series of six video's (approx 59 min in total) explains why, how "the system" works an where we are heading
This is an automagic playlist -
Video's 5 and 6 are the ones you really want to watch, important background is covered in the first four. I would recommend taking an hour out of your life to understand the forces at play. Vital information.

YOUTUBE Debunking Money series by Damon Vrabel (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?p=PL88A96F7C0370118F)


(Damon Vrabel - Council on Renewal (http://www.csper.org/))