Swedes outraged over law allowing officials to snoop on all emails leaving the country

STOCKHOLM, Sweden: More than two million Swedes are saying "No" to a new law that gives the government the right to snoop on all emails and phone calls crossing the country's borders.

The online petition drive comes as other EU countries consider granting authorities unprecedented spying powers over their own citizens amid fears of a mounting terror threat.

"This would have been totally unthinkable before Sept. 11," said Anne Ramberg, Secretary General of the Swedish Bar Association, calling for challenges to the law in Swedish and European courts.

While supporters say the legislation will help avert terrorist attacks by keeping tabs on suspect communications and planned financial transfers, opponents says the measures are just too intrusive.

Swedish telecommunications group TeliaSonera AB and U.S.-based Google Inc. have called the law passed June 18 the most far-reaching eavesdropping plan in Europe, comparable to snooping powers authorized in the United States.

Andreas Hellsten, a 37-year-old engineer, said it reminded him of something the dreaded East German police would have dreamed up had e-mail been around during the Cold War.

"It looks too much like the Stasi," he said. "It is surprising when Sweden passes a law like this."

The law narrowly passed Parliament in a 142-138 vote two weeks ago, despite protests that included demonstrators handing out copies of George Orwell's novel "1984" about a fictional futuristic police state.

It gives Sweden's National Defense Radio Establishment, or FRA, the right to scan all international phone calls, e-mails and faxes without a court order as of January.

"Since 1766, we have had freedom of expression ... Can that be guaranteed if the FRA has to right to monitor, for example, all e-mails from abroad?" Thomas Mattsson, digital editor of the major Swedish newspaper Expressen, wrote in his blog.

The newspaper provides a link that allows readers of its Internet edition to file a protest to lawmakers — and so far more than 2 million Swedes have taken part in the campaign.

Under current law, e-mail and phone surveillance in Sweden require a court order in a suspected criminal case. Critics say the new law will encroach on privacy, jeopardize civil liberties and violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

Sweden's Defense Minister Sten Tolgfors defended the law in an online forum on the Expressen Web site Tuesday, saying data regarding individuals will be destroyed unless it is directly relevant to intelligence activities.

He also stressed the need to defend Sweden from terror attacks like those in New York, Madrid and London.

"The information is needed to evaluate, and meet, outside threats against Sweden," he said.

Even before the law was passed, TeliaSonera in April moved its e-mail servers to Finland because of the expected passage of the legislation.

Timo Lehtinen, of the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, said he expected other telecommunications groups to rethink how they handle cross-border traffic, and expressed doubts about the effectiveness of the Swedish measures.

"The amount of traffic is so vast that it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack," he said. "If someone was planning some kind of terrorist activity they could make it extremely hard, or even impossible, to trace."

Other EU countries have enacted or are mulling stronger government snooping rules.

Britain has some of the most extensive surveillance powers in the world, allowing law enforcement, intelligence agencies and others to monitor telephone calls, e-mails or mail, with special permission from the Home Secretary.

The evidence in not admissible in court; Prime Minister Gordon Brown wants to change that with new laws allowing use of some wiretap evidence.

In Germany, Parliament is expected to pass a new bill later this year giving officials the right to monitor some criminal suspects' e-mails, but only with a court order, as is the case now for telephone wiretaps in serious crimes.

In Italy, which experts call one of the world's most wiretapped democracies, the debate is going the other way — now focusing on how to do more to protect privacy.

A Swedish opinion poll published last week indicated that 47 percent of Swedes opposed the new law, while 36 percent are for it; the rest were undecided. The margin of error was not available. continues here

As you go about your daily life unconcerned, tyranny’s grip tightens, readying itself to take control of your children and grandchildren, yet you continue to care for self, not for those to come, it is too difficult, requires too much effort. So despotism grows, as is the way with the left, see their policies are so utterly unnatural that, they can only ever be enforced, only ever imposed, the west will awaken one day to a nightmare, trapped totally within an Orwellian dystopia. Do you not see it, do you not sense the impending new order, is not a prison filled with toys still a prison, your too scared, too concerned for self, you will not stand, you will capitulate for bread on the table and no knock upon your door. No prison for you, not for you gaol, denial of freedom, no, you would rather us all become imprisoned, within this growing malevolence, than you alone, for to stand when all around make merry whilst sitting, takes courage many do not possess, to speak truth whilst tyranny rages, takes altruism now forgotten by our race. Instead you are herded by an evil shepherd, contend for bread and water, happy to be inside the fence, lest the wolves begin their hunt and so the benevolent shepherd protects you from the beast, by penning you in, you exchange freedom for safety and all is well in your world. The fact that the wolf is merely fable, a tale told to help contain the sheep, the wolf no risk, no threat, no danger, still the sheep must see, must witness and so the shepherd antagonises the pack and the lone wolf, the solitary predator shows his teeth. It is enough, the sheep bleat in terror, huddle further into the arms of the benevolent shepherd, the shepherd smiles and builds the pen ever higher and the sheep look on gratefully. 14

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