French President Proposes Jail For Terrorist Website Visitors 402
howardd21 writes "French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is only a month away from an election, argued that it is time to treat those who browse extremist websites the same way as those who consume child pornography. 'Anyone who regularly consults Internet sites which promote terror or hatred or violence will be sentenced to prison,' he told a campaign rally in Strasbourg, in eastern France. 'Don't tell me it's not possible. What is possible for pedophiles should be possible for trainee terrorists and their supporters, too.' Is this a good move for security, or just another step towards a totalitarian society that prohibits free expression?"
Attacking the soul of France... (Score:5, Insightful)
The French should remind themselves that their motto is Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and that all three bits are important.
Re:Is It One of Those Laws Where Everyone is Guilt (Score:5, Insightful)
Presidential elections are just one month from now. He just wants to glean some votes from the far-right voters
Publicity whore... (Score:5, Insightful)
What he proposed isn't going to happen of course.
Re:Do you have to ask? (Score:5, Insightful)
Naturally, no.
Special exemptions for "special citizens".
Like how Congress passes a law, but conveniently exempts themselves from it's application to themselves.
Re:Do you have to ask? (Score:5, Insightful)
Police and civilian IT forensic staff have to witness all kinds of completely illegal images/content on a daily basis and there is no question of any wrongdoing on their part.
But then you knew that anyway.
Re:bring it on. (Score:5, Insightful)
this is the kind of warped perspective that makes no sense to me
so much venom for the west
what do you think of guys who hold the hair of eight year old girls and execute them?
i'm not supporting this ridiculous visit-a-website,go-to-jail law. it's stupid
i'm taking a stand against the warped perspective that: the west does something you dislike, so you support something far worse
you do realize it's possible to be disgusted by BOTH islamic radicalization and censorial overreach, right?
Violence or Violence? (Score:5, Insightful)
Such a law would be a joy for military recruiters. Click the links below to be put onto a French terrorist watch list!
Army [army.mil], Air Force [af.mil], Navy [navy.mil], Marines! [marines.mil]
Army [defense.gouv.fr], Air Force [defense.gouv.fr], Navy, Marines! [defense.gouv.fr]
I suppose the French President meant violence he does not agree with should be prosecuted. That makes more sense.
Thought police (Score:5, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:bring it on. (Score:5, Insightful)
Just because you and a bunch of English/American people hate France doesn't mean everybody hates France. The guy who carried the attacks was pretty much targeting the Western world in any case, and in the case of Sarkozy, he's very afraid of losing the elections since the leftist candidate is going to win so he has started making crazy and racist comments.
Re:Do you have to ask? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:4, Insightful)
Pretty much. I'll be curious to see how that plays out. As others said, this is nothing but a transparent attempt to curry favor with the far-right. They are a minority, but a consistent minority. There's some electoral value in getting on a part of their plank. The real test will be the actual election: will Sarkozy be elected because of it, and will he remember this pledge?
To some extent, I feel the same way about this idea as I feel about a lot of campaign rhetoric in the US. Most of it is nothing but basic pandering to extremist and unpatriotic viewpoints. If we'd take every politician at their election year worth, we'd have been in WW3 for the last 15 years or so.
Re:Losing liberty because of tolerance (Score:4, Insightful)
So in that sense we should also forbid the free flow of capital, natural resources, telecommunications and just live in our own separate tribes. Then war can make things better when said tribes have an issue because whoever loses gets assimilated or becomes slave labor. Yeah, it definitely is a better system.
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:4, Insightful)
For everybody else, though, the lousier and more hypocritical your execution of your supposed ideals, the worse you look, and the better the chap down the road who has shit ideals, but is at least real sincere about them, starts to look.
I'm convinced that that is 90% of Ron Paul's appeal. Or Santorum, for that matter.
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:5, Insightful)
The French should remind themselves that their motto is Liberté, égalité, fraternité, and that all three bits are important.
I beg to disagree. I live only a few miles from France, in a possibly worse country (Italy). the three words of the motto are sometimes in contradiction of each other, because one of the best tenets of liberty,and relevant to the topic, is that i must be allowed to hate your guts, which means "middle finger to fraternitè", but that I must not be allowed to limit YOUR liberty to hate MY guts.
individuals will mostly prefer liberty over fraternity; the politicians will always prefer fraternity over liberty, because it will give them the means, and the moral justification to meddle in everybody's life and make themselves relevant. this case is no different, and there's no politico like a french one.
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:5, Insightful)
'The French' are perfectly aware of their motto. This inflammatory statement is nothing more than Sarko playing to the far right trying to take votes away from Marie Le Pen as he knows he can't win with the left.
Re:Do you have to ask? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, just journalists and researchers.
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:5, Insightful)
I think on a social level however that a lot of the recent flareups are less about religion and more due to poverty and social inequity. Youths who happen to be muslim engage in criminal activity, the police crack down in a heavy handed way and a things turn into a riot with religion as the excuse.
Re:bring it on. (Score:4, Insightful)
Everyone hates France?
Maybe in America, but who cares about what America thinks of an EU country?
The problem here is Sarkozy not France in its entirety.
Re:I have visited terrorist websites (Score:5, Insightful)
. Why? Why do you want to understand these people?
Know your enemy.
Re:Potentially both (Score:2, Insightful)
The occupy movement labeled as terrorists in the UK. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2011/dec/05/occupy-london-police-terrorism-document
Seems to me that anything that opposes the global elitist oligopoly/corporatocracy trends towards being refered to as terrorist in nature.
Anything that threatens the US Dollar Hegemony will have a vicious propaganda campaign waged against it. We will be made to believe that whoever or whatever threatens it eats babies, hates freedom and doesn't put the toilet seat down after taking a leak.
Re:Do you have to ask? (Score:5, Insightful)
I hope the next massive trojan, doesn't start "visiting" these websites, and of course, it won't infect congressmen or even the president's computer.
Because if it infects regular citizens... I guess many people is going to land jail. Great next trick and seems easier than "planting" child porn on people's computers.
Re:Hey Sarkozy (Score:5, Insightful)
Since when do laws apply to those that make them?
Re:Parent post is not "flamebait" (Score:5, Insightful)
May be worth mentioning the guy who killed 70+ people in Sweden was snow white and claimed to be Christian. Look that fact up too.
Re:Attacking the soul of France... (Score:1, Insightful)
There, FTFY
Re:bring it on. (Score:4, Insightful)
that's insane
we're not talking about fashion or music choice
if enough pakistanis tell you this is ok, its ok by you?:
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/03/22/202385.html [alarabiya.net]
cannibalism was once ok in certain parts of the world. its about evolving away from bad practices to better ones
you may say i have an absolutist position, but it is you who has the absolutist position: that culture's mores never change, and are unquestionable
i object as a human being to your relativity, an excuse to justify atrocities. nationalism and religion do not excuse gross violations of simple human rights