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  • The Surveillance Legacies of 9/11:Recalling, Reflecting on, and Rethinking Surveillance in the Security Era
  • David Lyon and Kevin D. Haggerty

Recalling Security-Era Surveillance

Do we need yet more analysis of the responses to the September 11, 2001 (hereafter 9/11), terrorist attacks? Those tragic events occurred more than a decade ago, and their 10-year memorial focused on bringing "closure" to the event. For many, those attacks have become an increasingly distant, if still poignant, memory. For still others—such as the new cohort of undergraduate students who were only nine years old on the day of the attacks— 9/11 is social history.

Our contention in putting together this volume is that there continues to be significant reason to scrutinize 9/11 in terms of its consequences for the dynamics of surveillance. The aftermath of that tragic event played a major role in policy changes and in international relations. Wars were fought in Iraq and Afghanistan, sparked by 9/11, and many thousands more people died as a result. "National security" was elevated to a top priority in the United States and elsewhere, and this approach has had wave and ripple effects throughout the world. This is the "War on Terror," and, unlike other wars, this one has no visible end point.1 These developments certainly affected surveillance practices internationally and have been the cue for the United States to demand that other countries fall in line with its approach. On the other hand, for many countries, especially in the global south, 9/11 is not a top-of-mind matter, nor is "national security" a vital concern.

The events of 9/11 brought home to ordinary people as never before the fact that we live in what Magnus Hornqvist2 and others call the "security era." The intensification of surveillance is one key dimension of that security era, which works with the other dimensions to disrupt the rule of law as an overriding principle, replacing it with security.3 This fact alone means that it is a vital issue for law and society. The keywords here are "intensification" and "expansion" as many existing tendencies were reinforced in the aftermath [End Page 291] of 9/11, which cumulatively expanded the scope and intensity of surveillance. Three types of developments are particularly important: the technological, the military, and the corporate. Each of these has surveillance implications.

One, technological solutions are sought for political problems as technological means are favoured over conventional labour-intensive police work. The personal data suited to such systems are sought promiscuously and voraciously. Two, such attacks are seen as a declaration of war, requiring a military response, rather than crimes requiring a criminal justice response. Military surveillance methods (e.g., drones, interception of messages) are deployed, and military budgets take on a surveillance emphasis, reinforcing a doctrine that exceptional circumstances justify almost any means. Three, commercial and corporate entities are engaged as partners with government authorities. Corporate bodies have become increasingly involved, directly and indirectly, in surveillance, offering expertise and contributing to policy, despite the fact that they typically have even less oversight than government security agencies. The security-surveillance-industrial complex was empowered by 9/11.4 This may also be seen, for instance, in the greatly increased funding to the Communications Security Establishment in Canada, including a one billion dollar new Ottawa headquarters5 and a budget that has doubled since 9/11. Significant aspects of this are discussed in this special issue by Walby and Anaïs.

The decade since 9/11 has been a bonanza for corporations dealing in surveillance technologies. New systems have proliferated since 9/11, from attempts to "connect the dots" through data sharing and data mining, to camera surveillance, full body scanners, wider use of Passenger Name Records by border agencies, international data sharing, and ID cards and enhanced driver's licences.6 Then there are the many ways in which revitalized "urban security" reflects 9/11 priorities, with, for example, restricted access and more policing at organized events,7 and how everyday information, such as that gleaned from social media, is now appropriated for security-related surveillance.8

The decade since 9/11 has...

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