by Tom McNichol

They possess weapons of mass destruction, including biological and chemical weapons. Their government labs possess cultures of anthrax bacteria, and are likely to be the source of the anthrax mail attacks in Fall 2001.

They have conducted research into dozens of deadly biological agents, including Eastern equine encephalitis, Korean hemorrhagic fever, plague, potato blight, typhus, dengue fever, Rift Valley fever, Chikungunya disease virus, rice brown spot disease, and botulism toxin.

Their annual military budget is estimated to be $396 billion, more than six times larger than that of Russia. They have a standing army of one and a half million troops, with an additional two million soldiers in reserve.

They have the largest prison population in the world, with more than two million people behind bars. According to Amnesty International, they have the fourth-highest execution rate in the world, trailing only China, Iran, and Saudi Arabia. Two thirds of the all the known executions of child offenders in the past decade were carried out there, and in 2002, they were the only country in the world to execute anyone younger than 18. An unknown number of those executed are innocent of the "crimes" with which they were charged.

People charged with being "enemy combatants" have no legal rights. They are routinely detained in small cells for up to 24 hours a day with no access to lawyers or family, and are given no indication when, or even if, they will be tried.

In 2002, this regime approached several governments requesting them to enter into agreements that will not surrender their nationals accused of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes to the new International Criminal Court.

Scoping out regime change. "Their annual military budget is estimated to be $396 billion, more than six times larger than that of Russia." (Photo: Reuters/Oleg Popov)

In the past year, they have dramatically stepped up surveillance of their own citizens under the pretext of "national security." Their government has sought to establish a nationwide network of informants to spy on citizens and report any "suspicious" behavior. Although accessing the Internet is still officially legal there, the government has announced plans to build a centralized system to enable broad monitoring of the Internet and, potentially, surveillance of its users.

In this regime, private sector employees can be fired for any reason. They can be compelled to submit to drug tests and punished for their political views. They can be subjected to secret computer, video and telephone monitoring. Police can legally confiscate a citizen's personal property without ever proving wrongdoing. As long as police have "probable cause," they can seize virtually anything, including a person's home, automobile, and life savings.

In this regime, freedom of assembly is restricted. A citizen who wants to hold a street protest against the government has to apply for a "permit," and his name is kept in a permanent file.

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9 March 03

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