i am sparticus: Everyone is so near, what's going on?

Everyone is so near, what's going on?

Normally I'm a big fan of the British way of dealing with things, but sometimes I wish we were just that bit more American. The bassist in a Clash tribute band texts the lyrics of a Clash song to the lead singer. The lyrics contain the words "gun" and "jet airliner". Unfortunately he sends the text message to the wrong person on his phone. Now here's where it all goes a bit wrong. A month later, special branch don't organise a co-ordinated raid on his home. They don't break down his front door, they don't surround his house with armed police officers and they don't drag him into the back of an armoured police van in front of his family and neighbours. Instead, they send a officer round to have a chat with him.

Now, if you think that is alarming then you'd better prepared to be... uh, more alarmed, because it gets worse! They take him down to the police station and don't lock him up for hours without telling him why. Instead, while trying to find a room to question him in, they realise what's happened, and let the guy go without charging him or even giving him a warning! Good grief! To top it all off, when he gets back home neither he nor his partner sue for emotional damages. In fact, his partner actually says that "it is quite reassuring intelligence agencies are on top of these things".

Where I ask, are the lawsuits? Where are the angry protests and claims of abuse? Why was he held for such a short period of time? Why was he told exactly what he being brought to the station for? Why wasn't he shot dead standing over his toaster when special branch kicked the door down to arrest him? It's no wonder this country is going to pot! (the bbc news article)

Postscript:
You've got to love The Sun's (trashy British tabloid) version of events. "PUNK rock fan Mike Devine sent an innocent text message containing lyrics by The Clash ó and was quizzed as a terror suspect after it was INTERCEPTED" "But last night experts said the amazing incident proved NO phone call or text was now safe from monitoring in the war on terror." "Terrorism expert Chris Dobson said: 'It is clear from this incident that the computers at the GCHQ listening operation in Cheltenham have been programmed to listen in on all vocal and textual mobile phone traffic.
'They are probably programmed to pick out key words like bomb and hostage.
'Having this kind of surveillance is the price we have to pay in a modern society to protect us from terrorists.' "
Good grief you morons! Get your facts straight! The police were alerted because the person who accidently got the text message showed it to the police! It is clear from this incident that the computers at GCHQ either completely ignored this message or weren't monitoring it in the first place.

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