Census forms are dropping through letterboxes in Scotland. Some vital information is missing from them. They don't explain that key work for the census has been contracted to CACI UK, a wholly-owned British subsidiary of a US-based company that was involved in human rights abuses at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq.
The law requires every household to complete and return its census form (this can be done online). But enforcement of the law will be almost impossible.
When news of the contract award broke in July 2008 there were widespread calls for a change of mind. But the General Register Office of Scotland and the Scottish Government blocked every attempt to get the contract cancelled.
CACI International is a US-based defence contractor. From August 2003 until the early autumn of 2005 it was contracted to provide "interrogation services" for the US Army at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. While CACI staff were employed as interrogators at Abu Ghraib, prisoners were humiliated and tortured there by US military police. Photographs of the abuse shocked the world and led to the conviction of a number of low-ranking US soldiers by courts martial.
CACI International is now trying to block lawsuits brought against it in the US by former Abu Ghraib prisoners by claiming "official immunity." The US Supreme Court is currently considering whether to allow one of the lawsuits (involving over 250 Iraqi plaintiffs) to go ahead. Another case (involving 4 Iraqi plaintiffs) is currently before the US Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, in Richmond, Virginia. CACI International has not so far contested the substance of the allegations against it in court.
The company denies any wrongdoing. But is does not dispute its involvement with Abu Ghraib. Prisoners at Abu Ghraib were routinely held in circumstances that violate international human rights norms.
All the money that CACI UK makes belongs to CACI International. CACI International doesn't deserve Scottish taxpayers' money. And it certainly shouldn't be trusted with our personal data. Any data that comes into its hands would be available to the US Government under the Patriot Act. The Scottish Government acknowledges the problem and says that it has set up a contract structure that will prevent that happening. But intelligence work for the US Government is a mainstay of CACI International's business. It's difficult to believe that the safeguards put in place by the Scottish Government can really guarantee that personal data won't cross the Atlantic.
What can we do?
Census Day is on Sunday 27 March. Census staff will be collecting forms for at least a month after that.
The Scottish Government says "it would be impossible to carry out a census without the willing co-operation of the public." So don't give the census your willing co-operation. There is no legal requirement on people to co-operate with census staff. Most of them are temporary staff who know nothing of the links between the census and Abu Ghraib. So you might want to give them a copy of the Ethical Census flyer (download from http://bit.ly/cenflyer ). But don't give them any information that could help them carry out the census.
Don't be in a hurry to return your census form. And don't fill it in online.
If you don't eventually return your census form you could be prosecuted and, if convicted, you could be fined a maximum of £1000. In the last census (in 2001), over 200,000 people went missing. Just 3 people were convicted for refusing to return their census forms. One of them was fined £200. The other two were fined £50.
Why is it so hard to obtain convictions?
After the 2001 census the Register Office said:
"For refusals' to be successfully prosecuted, a complicated and time-consuming process had to be undertaken by field managers to ensure that the necessary documentary evidence was in place. This involves warning letters pointing out the legal obligation, extra visits, and the taking, witnessing and signing of an interview 'under caution' in which the refusal is admitted by the person responsible for completing the form. Potential refusals are allowed legal representation at this interview which can complicate the process further." (my emphasis).
So if you are interviewed under caution, you should exercise your right to silence, regardless of whether you filled in your census form or not. That's all part of the perfectly legal process of withholding "willing co-operation." Without an admission, a "successful" prosecution would be extremely difficult.
Census data isn’t essential for policy-making. It's just one of a range of statistical tools. Census data has often in the past been used to justify fewer services. Scotland's census doesn't deserve to succeed. Let's make it a monument to the struggle to end corporate and state impunity over human rights violations.
There is more information at www.ethicalcensus.org.uk and there are frequent updates at http://news.ethicalcensus.org.uk
Far too few people know about Scotland's census scandal. So please print off a few copies of the flyer, ask your friends to visit the website, and post a link on any blogs or websites you have access to.
Don't let then get away with it!
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Comments
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
I do wonder about people. When told to jump, 95% only ask "How high, Sir?" When told to fill in a census form, all they think about is, "I may be fined a thousand pounds if I don't!" So all their actions are designed to minimise present pain, rather than to do what is right and proper. Every choice is dictated by moral cowardice. This is no way to live.
By always saying "Yes" you undermine your credibility as a person. If you say No, you should realise that you have that inalienable right, whether you are right or wrong is immaterial. These are the teachings of Transactional Analysis. By practising this skill when it possibly doesn't matter very much, you learn to be able to say No when it does matter. If you don't practise, the muscles of choice become flaccid and unusable in time of need. A nation that is worth living in will recognize that some of its people will wish sometimes to reject its requests, which must be accepted, especially as those forcing the issue are only people like ourselves, whom we have chosen to put into the positions of temporary power amongst us. If they cannot live without everyone's details, they can go to Facebook, as someone points out. Even if they do go there, the savage cuts will still occur. Interest repayments must take priority over people's welfare, this is the dictat of the World Bank. What we have now is a totalitarian mindset. "You must all do exactly what you are told!" It is an approach worthy of a six-year old bully in the playground. And his mates.
There is a major Agenda visible, not just to those seers and prophets amongst us who, quite rightly, have chosen to wear tinfoil hats and eat al dente beans; but also to anyone with an eye that sees. Mainstream media gives you no idea whatsoever about this, so I do not harbour ill-will towards those others on this page who are speaking from a lack of knowledge. This agenda is spoken about openly by the individuals who, we are led to believe, guide our destinies. It involves, inter alia, global depopulation of 90%, and the concentration of all power in the hands of a very few. It involves the continuing despoliation of the only place available for us all to live, as payment for the enrichment of the few. The agenda is financed via the central banks which now control the world's politicians, and have rendered national identity null and void.
So let us not be hypnotised by the clamourous demands of the 2011 Census. It is a small part of a far more sinister design.
It is not easy to stand alone against these deeply-entrenched forces of treason and wickedness. If you visit the British Constitution Group, you will begin, I earnestly hope, to wake up from this fungal nightmare that we have been gradually duped into believing is all that there is.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
For anybody to co-operate with this intrusive, unnecessary, and fraudulent exercise would be a craven act. So the point here is not about how few will not co-operate; neither is it about how little this will affect the profits of CACI.
The point is, that we should each take a stand against this unwarranted encroachment on our rights as sovereign beings. Who has the right to demand that we fill in these forms, under threat of financial penalty ? Would they fill in a form you sent them ? Of course not; no reasonable human being would demand this of another. Are they able to truthfully guarantee that any of the facts they glean about you will not be on CIA desks tomorrow ? Absolutely not.
This operation is part of a global agenda which can be summarised metaphorically as "boiling the frog". They wish to remove what few rights you still have, but so slowly that you do not notice what is happening. And gradually get you used to the idea that you must do whatever they tell you, immediately and without question.
Recall that, of the millions who lived in Germany during the Nazi terror, the only ones whose names we remember with admiration today, are those who resisted the fascist holocaust.
Do the right thing. Do not co-operate with these tyrants. The more you resist, the weaker they become.
Tim Webb, Edinburgh.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
"Intrusive, unnecessary, and fraudulent." Pardon? It's the census. It's a statistical thing. It's not about surveillance. Now, it's quite probable that even if the govt finds the population of a given city to be whatever, that they still won't build enough housing for them. But they're not going go say "Ah, that's whatever many people for the death camps! I guess we'll be needing more barbed wire!"
Honestly. Take off the tinfoil hat, wrap your ideas in it, and finish baking them. They're only half done.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
Too little too late. What will refusing to return the census achieve? At best, no more than a few hundred will not return it on political grounds. Even if no-one returned, CACI will still have got their dough.
I call Godwin
By CH
The census has been happening for, what, more than 150 years? Not so much boiling the frog as sous vide-ing it.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
Funny answer. Filling in this form is no more 'craven' than paying National Insurance or registering with your GP. Even using a mobile phone. Taking a stand is fine, but you should have stood up 2 years ago or whenever the contract was tendered for.
I'm also sure that the CIA can get whatever info they want from any of us. A glance at Facebook will give you more info on someone than this form. So, the government will know that I can speak Gaelic and have central heating in my home. Big deal. Go on any march, write an article for Indymedia or make a mobile phone call and you're giving them the same if not more info.
And aye... after more than a century I wouldn't call the census 'boiling a frog'. Though its true that the people who filled in the first census are all dead. Mysterious...
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
Daft point about Nazi Germany too. Many of those who resisted got shot. I don't know their names. On the other hand many got on with their lives quietly and 'resisted' in other ways - hiding Jews or other wanted people in attics and basements etc... There's a million and one things you can do to improve the plight of ordinary people in Scotland and other places. Refusing to fill in the census aint one of them.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
"CACI will still have got their dough." Certainly, but it's small dough to them. More importantly, they won't have whitewashed their reputation. The next Government thinking of using their services won't be able to say thay it worked out OK in Scotland. If you think this doesn't matter, just consider the huge efforts CACI made to supress this story and this campaign.
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By Anonymous
if people follow your advice, are you going to back them up if they get into trouble?
Re: Scotland's census - Don't Co-operate!
By MindYourOwnBusiness
The govt? Do you agree the American Govt should have all our personal details, should a defence contractor have them, should a defence contractor who has tortured people have them. Are sick or a CACI troll i wonder?