As the United States congress debates the FISA bill, or more importantly - the retroactive immunity for telecom companies currently under consideration, the surveillance society is continually strengthened and a police state expanded. And while it seems that the government and telecoms are immune from law, above law, and therefore sovereign - a study released last week says that 1% (actually 1 in 99.1) of their subjects [Americans] are in fact in violation of law and currently in prison.

The FISA act was created to provide Judicial and congressional oversight of the government's covert surveillance activities of foreign entities and individuals in the United States, while maintaining the secrecy needed to protect national security. It allows warrantless surveillance within the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization was required within 72 hours after surveillance begins. The Bush administration continues to believe that these measures are inadequate and that private companies should receive retroactive immunity – even IF a crime was committed, which with the above mentioned exemptions would seem difficult.

The prison report, from the Pew Center on the States, showed that at the start of 2008 - 2,319,258 adults were held in American prisons or jails.

I suppose the Justice Department would have us cheer that 2 year olds are not behind bars, at least not the state’s bars. Apart from the possible critiques of the “success” achieved by “punishment”, the costs and resources dedicated to the prison camp is astounding. About one in nine state government employees work in corrections and states spent $49 billion in tax dollars on corrections (what by the way are these… “corrections”?).

The question of control does not however end with “criminals” or actions against law, but have seeped into every action and movement. Members of the British Parliament were shocked to discover that they themselves are subject to the UK’s surveillance society - the same laws they were quite content to subject “the people” to. Details of correspondence between MPs and their constituents, lists of websites visited from MPs offices and home computers and details of which instant messaging services they have been accessing, are accessible to any of the 800 separate bodies that could potentially request to see them. The UK’s extensive CCTV surveillance network has long been used to monitor “terrorist activity” including the IRA, but the monitoring of public spaces, especially in the US, continues to increase and what’s more – Americans don’t seem to mind.

Airports, a gateway (along with the internet) in and out of our current camp, are also increasingly monitored. They’ve already developed machines that can smell you, they tell you to take of your shoes and bag your liquids, and can seize any electronic device. Oh yeah, the government has authority over EVERY part of your laptop, ipod, phone etc. and can search or seize whatever and whenever they want. Biometrics is another frontier being fully developed. Since 2004, non US residents traveling internationally have been required to allow airport personnel to scan their two index fingers and since January, foreign travelers have to scan all 10 fingers. In the UK, Heathrow airport (terminal 5) will be the first hub to fingerprint and photograph all passengers checking in for domestic flights. Iris-scanning technology is also used to “fast-track” passengers through Heathrow. On March 6 the US government announced that it’s going to expand an airport security program that creates three special checkpoint lanes: one for families, another for “expert” travelers who move quickly and a third for “casual” travelers.

Convenience and efficiency seem so appealing from far away, but this is a government we’re talking about – a government that can’t even stop themselves from breaking the law.