PARIS, September 16 — As in most Western “democracies,” French capitalists are using new technologies to reinforce the state’s police powers. The latest step is the organization of a Justice Ministry “national platform for court-ordered wiretaps,” to become operational this fall.
This 42-million-euro (53 million USD) centralized computer system will collect, manage and store massive amounts of information: who owns which cell phone, calls made and received, SMSes and e-mails, Internet pages that have been visited, on-line purchases and GPS information. Presently this information is scattered among 350 different police and gendarme stations and is managed by five or six different private companies.
Work on the new centralized system began in 2006 in utter secrecy. It has been classified “Top Secret — Defense.” The National Commission on IT and Liberty — which normally must be consulted whenever such a system is created — has been shut out. No watchdog agency (even though such things are just window-dressing) has been set up.
The computer programs used to spy on the French will be the same ones that the Amesys company sold to dictator Muammar Khadafy to spy on Libyans. The computers will be housed on the premises of the Thales company, which won the contract to manage the system.
The bosses are establishing this creeping police state to enable them to move swiftly to crush any rebellion against future imperialist wars or against massive unemployment (see adjoining article).