Sweden May Spy On E-Mails

Government Wants To Give Intelligence Agency Right To Spy On E-Mail That Crosses Nation's Borders

(AP)  Sweden's government presented a contentious plan Thursday to allow a defense intelligence agency to monitor — without a court order — E-mail traffic and phone calls crossing the nation's borders.

The government insists only a fraction of the electronic communications will be affected, but critics worry the program, designed to combat terrorism and other threats to national security, is too far-reaching.

Their concerns resemble criticism of a U.S. surveillance program launched in 2001 that monitors international phone calls and E-mails to or from the United States involving people suspected by the government of having terrorist links.

The Swedish proposal, which needs parliamentary approval, would give the National Defense Radio Establishment a green-light to use so-called data mining software to search for sensitive keywords in all phone and e-mail communication passing through cables or wires across the country's borders.

Today, such traffic can only be monitored with court approval if police suspect a crime, although the agency is already free to spy on airborne signals, such as radio and satellite traffic.

European governments have gradually been expanding their surveillance powers, wiretapping rules and police search powers as part of efforts to unravel terror plots. But the Swedish proposal is among the most far-reaching when it comes to intercepting e-mail traffic.

The Dutch secret service can monitor E-mail in specific cases, but does not have a mandate to conduct blanket monitoring of international traffic.

In Britain, E-mails can only be intercepted with a warrant signed by a secretary of state, and the intercepted communications cannot be used in court.

Sweden's center-right government says it's only interested in international traffic, and that E-mails and phone calls between Swedes will be filtered out.

"This is about mapping situations so that we in Sweden will be able to fulfill what is one of the most central tasks for a government: protecting the country and its own citizens," Defense Minister Mikael Odenberg said.

However, critics say it is impossible to make such guarantees, as E-mails sent between two colleagues in the same office are often routed via a server abroad and could end up in the military's hands.

"They're going from fishing with a hook to fishing with a net," said Par Strom, a spokesman for The New Welfare Foundation, a civil liberties think tank. "We are crossing a very fundamental border."

Even Sweden's security police, SAPO, has criticized the proposal, saying it violates personal integrity.

Opposition politicians from the Green and Left parties say they will fight the bill when it comes to a vote in Parliament later this year. The main opposition Social Democrats said they had not yet decided how to vote.

"We're going to evaluate whether there are enough guarantees to safeguard people's integrity," said Thomas Bodstrom, justice minister in the previous Social Democratic government. "The other issue is, do we want to change society so that the military gets a completely new role when it comes to fighting crime?"

[cutopia]

Sweden has always been very keean on controlling and monitoring the activities of it citizens. Swedes are entered into hundreds of government registers. Now this country is going global with this kind of activity.
The Swedish tax authority recently announced a plan to start datamining in order to catch tax evaders (big and small). (Not one peep was heard in protest.) It also plans to fine a customer in a store who cannot show a receipt for the item he or she bought. This is not meant to catch shoplifters but to catch those who somehow managed to avoid paying the 25% sales tax on the purchase.
Sweden requires pensioners who live in other countries to report to the tax authority their social security number in the country where they live, for the purpose of "international information exchange" - without any privacy assurances and without revealing the purpose. This is done by forcing the pension fund to withhold payment of the pension unless the pensioner reports the personal ID number once a year. It should be noted that this has nothing to do with paying taxes in Sweden - this is after taxes have been paid in Sweden. Swedish tax authorities work internationally to get other countries involved in this global information and ID exchange. The Russian maffia is drooling.

With regard to the interception of international e-mails and phone traffic, at least Finland is considering rerouting calls and emails through other countries.

[hawksprings]

Sweden? How can this be? We're always told what a wonderful, socialist utopia Sweden is. And if the US could only be more like Sweden.
Mean, nasty Rebuplicans must have taken over Sweden and passed these evil laws.

[lars008-2009]

It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death! March 23, 1775 Patrick Henry

[lars008-2009]

DefndLiberty

Patrick Henry and franklin were referring to the british.....

and today he would be referring to the fascist nazi islamic muslims that want to kill and enslave all non muslims......

dnc are like john adams and want to give the jihadist their lunch money hoping they will leave us alone....

gop are like thomas jefferson and want to spend their lunch money on weapons and go kick the jihadists in their arses.....

What Thomas Jefferson learned from the Muslim book of jihad

Thomas Jefferson knew about fascist nazi islam..... he killed plenty of them....

In 1786 Jefferson and John Adams went to negotiate with Tripoli's envoy to London, Ambassador Sidi Haji Abdrahaman or (Sidi Haji Abdul Rahman Adja). They asked him by what right he extorted money and took slaves. Jefferson reported to Secretary of State John Jay, and to the Congress:

The ambassador answered us that [the right] was founded on the Laws of the Prophet (Mohammed), that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have answered their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found, and to make slaves of all they could take as prisoners, and that every Mussulman who should be slain in battle was sure to go to heaven.[1]
http://www.usvetdsp.com/jan07/jeff_quran.htm

[stever2258]

When it comes to terrorism, those who have nothing to hide have nothing to worry about! Perhaps Europe is finally waking up to the potential danger and using common sense to do something about it for a change. If the US and Europe don't wise up and get over their political correctness when it comes to Islamic terrorists, there will be dire consequences. And at that point, communication monitoring will be the least of our worries. Wake up, America and Europe, before it's too late! You're all worked up about nothing and inadvertantly being used to fight for the wrong side to your very own peril!

[lars008-2009]

round them all up sweden......

COWARDLY SATANIC FASCIST NAZI ISLAMIC MUSLIM MONSTERS
ONLY BRAVE WITH LITTLE GIRLS.....

Immigrant Rape Wave in Sweden....
Swedish girls Jenny and Linda were on their way to a party on New Year's Eve when they were assaulted, raped and beaten half to death by four Somali immigrants. Sweden's largest newspaper has presented the perpetrators as "two men from Sweden, one from Finland and one from Somalia", a testimony as to how bad the informal censorship is in stories related to immigration in Sweden. Similar incidents are reported with shocking frequency, to the point where some observers fear that law and order is completely breaking down in the country. The number of rape charges in Sweden has tripled in just above twenty years. Rape cases involving children under the age of 15 are six - 6 - times as common today as they were a generation ago. Most other kinds of violent crime have rapidly increased, too. Instability is spreading to most urban and suburban areas.
http://fjordman.blogspot.com/2005/12/immigrant-rape-wave-in-sweden.html

[musty2u]

Patriot Act IV ??????

[pakaal]

Hmm, now I wonder which global superpower they got this idea of disregarding citizens' rights from? ;-)