Originally Posted By cmpaley I recently bought the first four seasons of Babylon 5 and came across this scene that I find prescient...and VERY chilling. The setting is a meeting of members of a group called the Nightwatch, a division of the Ministry of Peace, an relatively new arm of EarthGov under the direct authority of the Earth President (who rose to power through nefarious means, to say the least). As an example of how Nightwatch operates, in previous episode, Nightwatch closed down a shop in the station's mall area because the shop owner said that he thought the new regulations on imports were "a little crazy." Julie Masante is the "Political Officer" assigned to Babylon 5 and Zack is one of the B5's security officers. JULIE MASANTE Before coming here, I was authorized to being implementing certain changes. From this point on, it will be inappropriate for EarthForce personnel to publicly criticize the government or its decisions. Violations will result in immediate fines and penalties. OFFICER What about civilians? JULIE MASANTE That's not something you need to worry about. Just take down the information and pass it along. We'll take it from there. The new policies expand the range of investigation to include past associations...families and friends who might draw others into compromising situations. [ZACK figets in his chair] JULIE MASANTE Is there a problem, Sargeant Allen? ZACK Well, yeah. Babylon 5 Security is supposed to act according to the rules of due process. JULIE MASANTE When enforcing crminal law, that's correct. But you are ot an arm of the political office and that widens the scope of your authority. You are empowered to examine station publications to ensure that they're ideologically correct. We've revised the rules of evidence to make them more flexible. OFFICER Isn't this all a little extreme? JULIE MASANTE Yes. Yes it is. I shouldn't be telling you this yet, but in the coming months, certain individuals will be purged from their government positions on charges of sedition, immoral conduct, even spying for alien governments. With our basic freedoms at stake, no response can be too extreme. There may be some minor, and temporary, abridgements to the traditionally protected areas of speech and association, but only until this crisis is over. We have been betrayed on every level and it is going to take the efforts of every loyal citizen to keep Earth safe and ideologically pure. ================= This was written in the mid-1990's but it is certainly prescient considering what is going on today. I can definitely see a speech like this being given by Homeland Security officials to people in training classes.
Originally Posted By Spree Want prescient; read the 'Sum of all Fears' and the last chapter of the book that preceded it by Tom Clancy.....both written nearly a decade before 9/11.
