On Tuesday 10 December 2013, the French Senate has its second reading of the Military Programme Legislation (LPM) for 2014-2019 which the National Assembly adopted on first reading on December 3.
“Liberticidal” - this bills kills freedom
Whereas until now any so-called “security interceptions” were limited to the struggle against terrorism, the current bill enlarges the justifications for them, and its Article 13 aids the information services of several ministries (defense, interior, economy and budget) by opening up “administrative access to the connection data” gathered by the operators of electronic communications, the hosts and providers of Internet access.
The bill’s text authorises the “accredited “agents” of these administrations to access in real time the connection data of mobile terminals (smartphones, cellphones, etc.) and compels all air carriers to pass on “registration data concerning the passengers in flights to and from France’s national territory” and the passengers registered in their reservation systems. By these measures, everybody (except crime professionals, who will know how to get round them...) may at any moment be “localised” geographically anywhere, in France or abroad... even before arriving there! That is good for liberties, it seems.
Thus, at a time when the EU is condemning the methods of the US National Security Agency, France is setting up the same type of state surveillance, in theory “targeted” and monitored by the National Commission for Computers and Freedoms (but only in retrospect..) and inaccessible in practice to any monitoring by citizens. “Big Brother” is gaining ground in the nation that calls herself “the homeland of human rights”.
Criminal - this bill flouts law
In addition, the LPM "ring-fences" the defense budget, which will rise by 3.6% between 2014 and 2019 and will reach “190 billion euros at current value, if not more”, according to the Ministry of Defense. The funds for equipment, set at 16 billion euros for 2013, will reach an average of 17.2 billion per year over this period. Equipment will carve out the lion’s share, at the expense of personnel. Equipment means in particular funds to produce new nuclear weapons. An additional budget of 1.5 billion euros will be established in 2014 for "Technological Excellence in defense industries", and will essentially benefit the Commission for Nuclear Energy. “We will continue our forces’ simulation and modernisation programme, following the principle of strict sufficiency,” said the Defense Minister on 26 November.
This so-called ‘strict sufficiency’ consists in the ability, with 300 atom bombs, to cause nearly a billion deaths. Each of these bombs is 7 to 22 times more powerful than the Hiroshima one and can cause several million deaths, naturally without discriminating between civilians and military personnel. These are weapons of crimes against humanity. The UN General Assembly has formally condemned them: "Any state using nuclear and thermo-nuclear weapons is considered as violating the Charter of the United Nations, as acting contrary to the laws of humanity and as committing a crime against mankind and civilization" (Resolution 1653, XVI of 24 November 1961)
So the LPM kills freedom, and is criminal in that it flouts International Law and France’s constitution. The parliamentarians who vote for it will become accomplices in the preparation of crimes against humanity and in the potential forfeit of which the President and PM are now guilty since it was they who inspired this bill. Each of these people must be aware of this and must know that justice almost always ends up catching the criminals.
8 December 2013
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On this topic, see :
Request for the Constitutional Council to invalidate the candidacies of MM. Hollande et Sarkozy for preparing crimes against humanity, non-respect of international treaties ratified by France, and non respect of France’s Constitution.
Open Letter to the President of France
