Egyptian Emergency Law Is Extended for 2 Years (allowing arrests w/o charges)

Source: The New York Times

CAIRO — After years of the government’s promising to end Egypt’s state of emergency, Parliament on Tuesday approved a government request to extend for two years its right to arrest people without charge, detain prisoners indefinitely, limit freedom of expression and assembly, and maintain a special security court.

In an unusual case of public outreach by Egypt’s normally tight-lipped leaders, the government took pains to explain its decision and announced that the emergency law — in place continuously since President Anwar el-Sadat was assassinated in 1981 — would be used only in cases of terrorism and drug trafficking. Officials also said that some provisions of the law would be dropped.

But the concept of terrorism is so broad in Egyptian law and the language in the new measure so malleable, that the government decision was immediately criticized by human rights groups, political activists and independent human rights monitors, who say they expect little to change in a nation that routinely uses the heavy hand of the police and prisons to silence political opposition.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/12/world/middleeast/12egypt.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Wow, pre-emptive arrests? Way to go Egypt!

Also, in the US, there've been cases where police officers pre-emptively shoot suspects without legitimate suspicion, like this case in Chino, California where a cop shot and killed an innocent man who happened to be wearing the same colored shirt as a robbery suspect.

With the oil spills, global warming, and increasing police state governance in the world, I think the apocalypse may really be taking place a few days before Christmas in 2012. :sarcasm: