A huge attack on civil rights is being prepared under the banner of fighting terrorism. Governments in the US, the EU and in Britain suddenly find that they can bring in measures which would have been unthinkable only three weeks ago.
In the USA and in Britain politicians are arguing that democratic rights have got out of hand and are now playing into the hands of the terrorists.
In Britain Home Secretary Blunkett is arguing that if terrorism is to be combatted, civil liberties should be in the hands of politicians and not the courts.
In fact this is already law, because when Parliament incorporated the European convention on human rights into British law it gave politicians the final word.
In the US there are already proposals to lift the ban on the CIA on killing foreigners. Of course the CIA never stopped assassinations when the ban came in, but official sanction would clearly escalate the policy and a lot more people will die.
New powers are being given to the police to arrest and detain on suspicion. Powers to tap telephones and install surveillance cameras in private homes are being prepared.
In Britain, where the draconian Terrorism Act and other reactionary legislation passed by New Labour already gives sweeping police powers, Blunkett is now considering the introduction identity cards – in what would be a grim echo of South Africa’s hated apartheid "pass laws".
It is something which British governments have dearly wanted for a long time in order to clamp down effectively on asylum seekers, but would have been unable to do under other circumstances. The Tories considered it several times – and decided against it.
Also mooted is the idea that such identity cards would not just be used to prove identity and address to police on the streets but would be the means of access to a range of services from the NHS to schools libraries and other public services.
New technology would also give the government a range of options in terms of the information it could contain from finger prints to DNA.
How such measures would stop a suicide bomber is not clear: the evidence so far suggests that those who hi-jacked the planes were legally resident in the USA prior to the attack on New York and Washington, and that they had valid documents.
But there are real and obvious dangers that new powers to stop "suspects" and demand ID cards will be used almost invariably against black people and ethnic minorities – adding yet another strand to the web of state racism.