In the United Kingdom there is a move afoot to require all who purchase mobile phones – regular and pre-paid – to present their passports for identity registration.

With 72 million cell phones already in use in the U.K., 42 million being the pre-paid or go-as-you-pay style (these afford more privacy), any registration of such communication equipment would be a gargantuan boon to the country’s eavesdropping center, the GCHQ (Government Communications Headquarters.)

The GCHQ already has a database started that would monitor and save the browsing habits, emails and telephone records of of every UK citizen. But the pre-paid mobile phones were seen as a bit of a loophole, because, the GCHQ says, they are used by terrorists and criminals for their greater anonymity, and GCHQ had, up to now, no way to monitor them.

The great "Big Brother" database plan to eavesdrop on all UK citizens has already been funded, according to the London Times, to the tune of £1 billion. GCHQ's very ambitious plans also call for interception of phone communications. This can't be done without the help of British telecommunications providers, and Vodaphone, one of the UK's largest phone companies, along with several other companies, has agreed to install "black boxes" in order to kick off the pilot interception program.

With these boxes in place, by the time the British government dictates the newest dystopian law and demands passports for the purchase of communication equipment, the monitoring can begin. That probably will happen in 2009. According to the London Times: "The office of Richard Thomas, the information commissioner, said it anticipated that a compulsory mobile phone register would be unveiled as part of a law which ministers would announce next year."

Why report on this here, in America, the "land of the free"? Who cares what the Brits are doing across the big pond? It is a reasonable question, but with America's foreign policy elite determined to pursue transatlantic integration with someone, whether it be the UK or the European Union, it behooves American citizens to start paying attention to events on the other side of the Atlantic.

By the way, it also behooves American citizens, in our humble opinion anyway, to join The John Birch Society and work together with others to keep America free and independent. You can get started for free on the right side of this page, or click here to purchase a full membership and start receiving the Bulletin of The John Birch Society and The New American magazine in your mail box.

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