‘Spying more intimidating than terrorism’

A senior analyst has described spying on people in the UK as a crime, saying surveillance and intrusion into private lives is, in many ways, more intimidating than terrorism.

Press TV conducted an interview with Ian Williams, a senior analyst and contributor to Foreign Policy in Focus. Williams said “clearly, everyone has the right to conduct his private affairs.” He noted that British intelligence agency justifies its surveillance programs by saying it spies on everyone to prevent crimes. Williams further describes such a policy as self-contradictory, saying the act of spying on people itself is a crime.

“We [British intelligence agency] actually have gone beyond Stalin and Hitler now, because everybody is under surveillance. That makes people scared and more subservient to authority, because if you think you are under scrutiny all the time, then you do what you think authorities want, not necessarily what is right, legal or ethical, but what you think the authorities want. The act [spying on people] itself is a crime. Surveillance and intrusion into private lives is in many ways more intimidating than terrorism.”

Williams made the remarks a day after Europe’s human rights chief warned that mass surveillance conducted by intelligence agencies, including the UK’s, cannot be justified by the fight against terrorism.

Nils Muižnieks, the commissioner for human rights at the Council of Europe, made the warning in a report released on Monday. He said the mass gathering of data in the absence of any form of suspicion is “ineffective” and “contrary to the rule of law.”

The commissioner added that the UK and other European Union member states “should not resort to it or impose compulsory retention of data by third parties.”