Posted on 07/30/2012 12:31:02 PM PDT by IbJensen
“As London prepares to throw the world a $14 billion party, it seems fair to ask the question: What does it get out of the bargain?” asks the Christian Science Monitor in a recent story on the 2012 Summer Olympics. “Salt Lake got to show that its Mormon community was open to the world,” observes journalist Mark Sappenfield. “Turin got to show that it was not the Detroit of Europe. China got to give the world a glimpse of the superpower-to-be. And Vancouver got to show the world that Canadians are not, in fact, Americans.”
And what is London showing the world? Sappenfield suggests that London is showing off its new ultramodern and efficient infrastructure, but if the security for the 2012 Olympics is anything to go by, it would seem that London is really showing the world how easy it is to make the move to a police state without much opposition from the populace.
It’s what the Romans used to refer to as “bread and circuses” – the idea that the key to controlling the masses is by satiating their carnal appetites and entertaining them with mindless distraction. Thus, while the world loses itself in the pomp and circumstance of a thoroughly British Olympics, complete with Sir Paul McCartney rocking the opening ceremony, celebrity sightings galore and a fair share of athletic feats and inspirational victories to keep us glued to our TV sets, a more sinister drama will be unfolding.
Under cover of the glitz and glamour of these time-honored Games, a chilling military operation is underway, masterminded by a merger of the corporate, military and security industrial complexes and staffed by more than 40,000 civilian police, British military and security personnel, as well as FBI, CIA, and TSA agents, and private security contractors. Appropriately enough, this year’s Olympic mascot, Wenlock – a strange, futuristic blob with an all-seeing eye to “record everything” in the games – is being sold in Olympic stores dressed in a policeman’s uniform. “As a metaphor for the London Olympics, it could hardly be more stark,” writes Stephen Graham for the Guardian. “For £10.25 you, too, can own the ultimate symbol of the Games: a member of by far the biggest and most expensive security operation in recent British history packaged as tourist commodity.”
In addition to the usual tourist sights such as Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London and Big Ben, visitors to London may find themselves goggling at the military aircraft carrier floating in the Thames, the Typhoon fighter jets taking to the skies, ready to shoot down unauthorized aircraft, aerial drones hovering overhead to track residents and tourists, snipers perched in helicopters, an 18-km high, 11-mile long, 5,000-volt electric stun fence surrounding Olympic Park, and 55 dog teams patrolling the perimeter. Several locations throughout London will also feature surface-to-air missiles, including some residential areas in East London that will have them perched on top of apartment buildings. All these and more are supposedly part of the new security apparatus required to maintain security in an age of terror.
Roughly 13,000 private security guards provided by G4S, the world’s second largest private employer, will be patrolling the streets of London, under a $439 million contract with the British government. Due to some last minute trouble recruiting and training guards, 3,500 additional British military troops will be called in, making a total of 17,000 troops scheduled to police the Olympics.
More than 500 American federal agents, trained in the methods of security theater, will be on hand to assist Britain’s security forces. In fact, the CIA, State Department, and FBI have all been working closely with British authorities for well over a year in preparation for the Olympic games. TSA agents – infamous for stealing large sums of money from passengers’ luggage, patting down children and the elderly and handicapped, and, among other things, breaking diabetic passengers’ insulin pumps – will also be on loan to the British to assist with airport passenger screening during the Games, which will include fast-track fingerprinting for Olympic athletes.
There’s even a security patrol tasked with making sure that local businesses observe the government ban on symbols and words relating to the Olympics lest they cause economic harm to the “official” corporate sponsors, including Adidas, McDonald’s, Coca-Cola, and BP. These purple-capped government officials are authorized to enter businesses to look for violations, and can impose fines up to 20,000 pounds ($31,000). Included on the banned list are such words as games, 2012, gold, silver, bronze, summer, sponsors, and London. As Slate reports, “So far a London café has been forced to remove five offending bagels from its windows, as has a butcher who had the temerity to do the same with sausage links. Spectators have been warned that to risk wearing a garment adorned with the Pepsi logo may result in being banished from game venues and that nobody but McDonald’s can sell French fries at any Olympic concession stand. An old lady got tagged for sewing the five rings onto a mini doll sweater.”
And then there’s the surveillance. With one government-operated outdoor surveillance camera for every 14 citizens in the UK, Great Britain is already widely recognized as a surveillance society. However, in preparation for the Olympics, London has also been “wired up with a new range of scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking systems, new police control centres and checkpoints. These will intensify the sense of lockdown in a city which is already a byword across the world for remarkably intensive surveillance,” reports journalist Stephen Graham. Even neighborhoods beyond Olympic park have been embedded with biometric scanners and surveillance cameras with automatic facial and behavior recognition technologies.
Unfortunately for the people of London and beyond, the UK’s willingness to host the 2012 Summer Olympics has turned this exercise in solidarity, teamwork and nationalism into a $17 billion exercise in militarism, corporatism, surveillance and oppression.
This issue is hardly worth a lot of my time so I’ll end my part of this exchange with the observation that Ann Coulter was quite obviously not commenting on terrorism throughout human history, as you referenced, but terrorism in the past 10 or 15 years, which has been primarily generated by Muslim jihadists. If you can’t grasp that obvious fact, then you have no business calling anyone else an idiot.
No.
Have you BEEN to London? It is already “Orwellian.” CCTV cameras cover almost everything throughout London.
Doesn’t seem to prevent or solve crimes, though.
That said, it just makes sense to have this sort of security when Moslems make up a major part of the local population. The same writer talking about the “police state” will be harping about the “lack of security” if they manage to blow something up...
Obviously?.
Sorry, but where Ms Coulter is concerned, you cannot assume anything. Coulter is one of these people who would such a gross blanket statement.
Gee, who cares what percentage of the population Moslems are when they seem to be able to get whatever they want: sharia courts, protection for criticism of their religion, de facto recognition of polygamy, stores removing PIGGY BANKS for heaven’s sake.
You need to take a step back. Just as I have to frequently have to read the BBC for decent news on the US, you might need to pay attention to things we’re seeing.
Hell, just look at how 2% of our country (homosexuals) are tying the USA in knots. And you have 4% Moslems.
Obviously?.
Sorry, but where Ms Coulter is concerned, you cannot assume anything. Coulter is one of these people who would such a gross blanket statement.
Sharia courts exist in just five English cities. With no plans even by Labour to make more. It is a civil court and by law and parliamentary act, is subject to English law.
The polygamy was a loophole not closed by Labour or previous govts.
Piggy banks?. That was one alleged bank branch in Yorkshire. And it wasnt true. The Daily Express story was a load of rubbish. Halifax bank (now HBOS) immediately shot it down in an official statement.
Are we too PC?. Yes. But that and ‘conquest’/’dhimmitude’ etc are not the same.
ONLY five cities? So, you have a foreign courts, even they are only “civil courts” and subject to “English Law” in five cities?
Sorry about the piggy bank thing. Didn’t know that.
The polygamy part stinks though.
I’ll agree that they’re not there yet. Yet. But they won’t ever stop pushing until somebody pushes back, hard.
As I said, look at what sort of knots homosexuals are tying the US in, and they’re about 2% of the population.
And don’t get me started on illegal aliens.
Geez. If anything we’re a lot worse off than the UK.
And what is London showing the world? Sappenfield suggests that London is showing off its new ultramodern and efficient infrastructure, but if the security for the 2012 Olympics is anything to go by, it would seem that London is really showing the world how easy it is to make the move to a police state without much opposition from the populace.
Could be. If you don't want to go that deep for an answer, try this. Countries that haven't had the Olympics yet want them to prove something about themselves. Hosting the Olympics means that Japan or Spain or South Korea or China or Australia or Brazil is really in the big leagues, really on the map, really a power to take seriously.
Countries that have already had the Olympics don't need to prove things like that. But their politicians want the Olympics as a feather in their cap to enhance their standing at the polls. So it was with London, and with Chicago's bid for the Olympics.
Of course, within a country, Atlanta may want to prove that the South has finally arrived, Vancouver may want to prove itself the equal of Toronto or Montreal, Chicago may want to prove that is a world class city (finally? still?), or Madrid may want to prove that it can host better than Barcelona. Manchester's bids have been of that sort. But in London's case, I think it was more about the politicians (and other fame and prestige seekers) than anything else.
4% of 60 million is 2.4 million. Radical Muslims are estimated to be 10 to 25% of their population, or up to
600,000. That’s a lot of Muzzies in a small country.
The UK radical element is much much smaller than 600000. Take a couple of zeros off and youd be nearer.
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