Back on September 11, Zero Hedge accurately predicted not only the terrorist events [4]which unfolded in Paris on November 13, but also the resulting aftermath with uncanny accuracy.
We said that "as the need to ratchet up the fear factor grows, expect more such reports of asylum seekers who have penetrated deep inside Europe, and whose intentions are to terrorize the public. Expect a few explosions thrown in for good effect" and we added that "since everyone knows by now "not to let a crisis go to waste" the one thing Europe needs is a visceral, tangible crisis, ideally with chilling explosions and innocent casualties. We expect one will be provided on short notice."
It was provided exactly two months later. But it was the "fine print" in out forecast that was most troubling:
... the second key role of ISIS is also starting to emerge: the terrorist bogeyman that ravages Europe and scares the living daylight out of people who beg the government to implement an even more strict government apparatus in order to protect them from refugees ISIS terrorists.
... Certainly expect a version of Europe's Patriot Act to emerge over the next year, when the old continent has its own "September 11" moment, one which will provide the unelected Brussels bureaucrats with even more authoritarian power.
All of this is coming true.
First, just a few days after the November 13 terrorist attack The European Commission announced [5]it had adopted a package of measures to strengthen control of firearms across the European Union and meant simply to make it "difficult to acquire firearms."
Second, as part of the sweeping "emergency powers" implemented by France in the aftermath of the Paris mass shootings, civil liberties were promptly trampled, giving the local authorities a carte blanche to arrest anyone with or without cause: as we said [6]"it is sufficient is for someone, somewhere in the chain of command to suggest any one individual is a potential threat, and they will be promptly removed from society for an indefinite period of time. As such, French "civil rights" have completed a full cricle and are now back to the infamous "Law of Suspects [7]" drafted originally by Maximilien Robespierre during the French Revolution."
Then, a few days later, Europe which clearly wasn't letting this crisis go to waste, and certainly wasn't wasting time, decided to quickly seize state border sovereignty by forcing EU members to submit to a Brussels-controlled standing border force [8], one which would act even if a government objects. As the FT said [9], "the move would arguably represent the biggest transfer of sovereignty since the creation of the single currency."
And now, in the latest incursion of personal liberty and privacy, the Socialist government of President François Hollande has proposed to amend the French constitution to allow authorities to strip some natural-born citizens of their nationality if they are convicted of terrorism, the WSJ reports [10].
And the punchline is that just as expected, Europe's Patriot Act has finally taken shape: according to a proposed amendment, the French state-of-emergency police powers, such as to conduct warrantless searches and order house arrests, will be unconditionally shieleded from court challenges.
In other words, a handful of government bureaucrats will soon be above any and all legal "checks and balances", and will be provided absolute power to decide the fate of virtually any French citizen without due or any process. This is precisely what took place for decades in the Soviet Union, and why the west was so proud to provide its own citizens with those core civil rights which the soviets never enjoyed. And now it is the turn of the "democratic" western powers to unleash their own mini USSR on their citizens. You know, in the name of "preventing terrorism."
Some in France are appaled by this blatant trampling of the most basic of human rights:
“Stripping citizenship from people born French—who have belonged to the national community since their birth—raises a substantial problem on a fundamental principle: the right of soil,” Justice Minister Christiane Taubira told a radio station in Algeria.
On Wednesday, the government said its proposal to strip convicted terrorists of their French nationality would apply only to people with dual citizenship. Still, many French Muslims are also citizens of Algeria, Morocco and other North African countries.
“We are creating two categories of citizens in our constitution,” said Patrick Weil, a prominent French historian and political scientist, warning the new amendment threatened “social cohesion.”
No worries there: just look at the US which is nearly 15 years ahead of France - after adoping the Patriot Act, there has been no problems with "social cohesion" under Obama. Of course, one should probably exclude the now daily mass shootings, the record gun ownership, and the unprecedented polarization of society along race, gender, wealth, and ideology for that statement to be even remotely true.
The WSJ adds that the changes, which parliament is expected to approve next year, are a measure of how the French state is adapting to the threat posed by Islamic State and other extremist groups. With a solid dose of sarcasm it also adds that the French state was founded on the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.
The time has come to quickly and quietly sweep all those ideals under the rug.
