Abstract
The horrific events of September 11, 2001 led to calls for the deployment of state-of-the-art security systems and the creation of an “invisible shield” to protect America. Such proposals immediately triggered debate about the constitutional ethics of surveillance in the United States. While there has been widespread support for the surrender of some cherished civil liberties in the war against terror, surveillance, especially the visual variety, is still seen to be innately un-American. Technologies like biometric face recognition systems, critics argue, are not consistent with the values of an open society and should consequently be considered with great caution. The widespread introduction of such invasive technology, pundits claim, would signal a victory for the terrorists.
Many American commentators fail to recognize, however, that the United States, far from being the open society they imagine, has long been characterized by exclusion. Moreover, such exclusion is increasingly enforced by the same high technology of which biometrics is a part. In fact, for at least a decade before the declaration of the war on terror, the United States has been undergoing a multifaceted process of fortification both within its cities and at the US-Mexican frontier. Investigation of this phenomena reveals the central role of the US’s longest running concept war, the war on drugs. This paper argues that within this narrative biometric surveillance and the creation of “an invisible wall” should not be regarded as a break with American traditions but as the next organic phase of an ongoing process of fortifying the United States.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbott, C., Urban America in the Modern Age; 1920 to the Present, (Harlan Davidson, Inc., IL, 1987), p. 69.
Andreas, P., “U.S. – Mexico; Open Markets, Closed Borders,” Foreign Policy, No. 103, Summer 1996, p. 58.
Andreas, P., Border Games, Policing the US-Mexico Divide, Cornell University Press, 2000a, p. 58.
Andreas, P., Border Games, op. cit., 2000b, p. 80.
Andreas, P., Border Games, op. cit., p. 97 Note 49. For an account of the use of sensors see Augusta Dwyer, On the Line: Life on the US Mexican Border, Latin American Bureau, 1994, p. 107.
Andreas, P., Border Games, op. cit., 2000c, pp. 81–82.
Belsie, L., “The eyes have it – for now,” The Christian Science Monitor, November 7, 2002, retrieved from http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/1107/p15s02-lihc.htm 10 July 2003.
Bertram, E., M. Blachman, K. Sharpe and P. Andreas, Drug War Politics: The Price of Denial (University of California Press, California, 1996). p. 5.
Bewley-Taylor, D.R., “Certification Meets NAFTA: More Schizophrenia in the Misguided War,” The International Journal of Drug Policy, 1998(9) 424.
Bewley-Taylor, D.R., The United States and International Drug Control, 1909–1997, Continuum, 2001, 191–192.
Guardian: “The Secret State and the Assault on Privacy,” Part 2, The Guardian, September 14, 2002.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States, Brookings Institute Press, 1999, p. 18.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America, op. cit., 2005b, p. 2.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America, op. cit., p. 3 and Setha Low, Behind the Gates, op. cit., 2005c, p. 15.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America, op. cit., p. 5 and Setha Low, Behind the Gates, op. cit., 2005d, p. 8.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America, op. cit., 2005e, p. ix.
Blakely, E. and M.G. Snyder, Fortress America, op. cit., 2005f, pp. 140–141.
Blendon, R. and J. Young, “The Public and the War on Illicit Drugs,” Journal of the American Medical Association 279 18 March 1998. See also Ted Chiricos et al., “Crime, News and the Fear of Crime,” Social Problems 44 (1997): 342–357 cited in Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear, op. cit., p. xxi.
Boal, M., “Spycam City,” The Village Voice, September 30–October 6, 1998a.
Boal, M., “Spycam City,” The Village Voice, September 30–October 6, 1998b. Also see Dean E. Murphy, “As Security Camera Sprout, Someone’s Always Watching,” The New York Times, Section 1, page 1, Column 5, September 29, 2002.
Byford, G., “The Wrong War,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2002, p. 34.
Chang, N., Silencing Political Dissent: How Post-September 11 Anti-Terrorism Measures Threaten Our Civil Liberties, Seven Stories Press, 2002, p. 47.
Curry, M.R., “The Digital Individual and the Private Realm,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1997a (87:4), 682–688.
Curry, M.R., “The Digital Individual and the Private Realm,” Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 1997b (87:4), 687.
Daily Herald (UT) August 13 2001 (Curry, 1997b).
Davis, M., City of Quartz, op. cit., 1990a, p. 243.
Davis, M., City of Quartz, op. cit., 1990b, p. 252.
Davis, M., City of Quartz, op. cit., 1990c, p. 253.
Davis, M., City of Quartz: Excavating the Future in Los Angeles, Verso, London, 1990, pp. 221–263.
Davis, M., Dead Cities, The New Press, 2002, p. 12.
Davis, M., Ecology of Fear, op. cit., 1998, p. 367.
Davis, M., Ecology of Fear: Los Angeles and the Imagination of Disaster, Picador, 1998, p. 366.
Duke, L.L., “Urban Neighbourhoods and the War on Drugs,” in Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (eds.), The Great Issues of Drug Policy, Drug Policy Foundation, Washington D.C., 1990a, p. 90.
Duke, L.L., “Urban Neighbourhoods and the War on Drugs,” in Arnold S. Trebach and Kevin B. Zeese (eds.), The Great Issues of Drug Policy, Drug Policy Foundation, Washington D.C., 1990b, p. 90.
Dunn, T.J., The Militarization of the US-Mexican Border, 1978–1992: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home, The Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996a, p. 3.
Dunn, T.J., The Militarization of the US-Mexican Border, 1978–1992: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home, The Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996b, pp. 110 & 114.
Dunn, T.J., The Militarization of the US-Mexican Border, 1978–1992: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home, The Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996c, p. 38.
Dunn, T.J., The Militarization of the US-Mexican Border, 1978–1992: Low Intensity Conflict Doctrine Comes Home, The Center for Mexican American Studies, The University of Texas at Austin, 1996d, pp. 43–45 & p. 69.
Dwyer, A., On the Line: Life on the US Mexican Border, Latin American Bureau, 1994, p. 107.
Ellin, N., “Shelter from the Storm or Form Follows Fear and Vise Versa,” p. 13 in Nan Ellin (Ed) Architecture of Fear, Princeton Architectural Press, New York, 1997.
Elliott Currie Reckoning: Drugs, The Cities, and the American Future, Hill and Wang, 1993.
Engel, M., “To Complain is to be Un-American,” The Guardian, January 23, 2002, p. 18.
Epstein, E.J., Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America, Verso, London, 1990a, pp. 165–172.
Epstein, E.J., Agency of Fear: Opiates and Political Power in America, Verso, London, 1990b, p. 178.
Falcoff, M., “North of the Border: Origins and fallacies of the ‘Hispanic’ threat to the United States,” Times Literary Supplement, May 17, 1996, pp. 14–15.
Flusty, S., “Building Paranoia” in NanEllin (ed.), Architecture of Fear, op. cit., 1997, p. 55.
Flynn, S.E., “Beyond Border Control,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2000.
Garreau, J., Edge City; Life on the New Frontier, Anchor Books, 1991.
Glassner, B., The Culture of Fear, op. cit., 2000a, p. 110.
Glassner, B., The Culture of Fear: Why American’s Are Afraid of the Wrong Things, Basic Books, 2000, p. 111.
Glassner, B., The Culture of Fear; Why Americans are Afraid of the Wrong Things, Basic Books, 2000b, p. 132.
Interview at Industrias Tuk (Adhesive Products), Ave. Los Angeles, No. 2306 OTE., APDO Postal 1868, N.L., Mexico., Mexico. December 1 1998.
Jackson, K., Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States 1985, pp. 290–296.
Jackson, K., In Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1985, p. 290 and Setha Low, Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002, p. 18.
Jentleson, B.W., American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century, W. W. Norton and Co., 2000, p. 224.
Levine, H., “Global Drug Prohibition: Its uses and crises,” The International Journal of Drug Policy, April 2003 (14:2), 147–148.
Low, S., Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002a, pp. 21–22 & p. 116.
Low, S., Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002b, p. 116.
Low, S., Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002c, p. 120.
Low, S., Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002d, p. 121.
Low, S., Behind the Gates: The New American Dream, Routledge, 2002e, p. 123.
Lusane, C., Pipe Dream Blues: Racism and the War on Drugs, South End Press, 1991.
Lyon, D., Surveillance Society: Monitoring Everyday Life, Open University Press, Milton Keynes, 2001, p. 19.
Marx, G., Undercover: Police Surveillance in America, University of California Press, California, 1988, p. 211.
Matthews, W., “Privacy Still a priority, officials say,” Federal Computer Week, July 29, 2002, retrieved from http://www.fcw.com 10 July 2003.
Matthis, N., “High-Tech Plan to Zap Drugs: X-Rays, Sensors to be Set on Border with Mexico,” Houston Chronicle, December 12, 1997, p. A4.
Mills, S.F., The American Landscape, BAAS Paperbacks, Keele University Press, 1997, p. 80.
Newsweek, Nov 12, 2001.
Ohmae, K., Borderless World: Power and Strategy in the Interlinked Economy, London Collins, 1990.
Parenti, C., Lockdown America: Police and Prisons in the Age of Crisis, Verso, London, 2000, p. 155.
Perin, C., Everything in Its Place: Social Order and Land Use in America, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1977, p. 87 cited in Edward Blakely and Mary Gail Snyder, Fortress America: Gated Communities in the United States, Brookings Institute Press, 1999, p. 155.
Plotkin, H., “No Silver Bullets. Giving Up Privacy for Security Will Leave US With Neither,” SF Gate, September 18, 2001 retrieved from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file = /gate/2001/09/18/nosilvbullet.DTL on July 10, 2003.
Prince, S., Visions of Empire: Political Imagery in Contemporary American Film, Praeger, 1992, p. 177.
Reeve in “The Panopticization of Shopping” in C. Norris, J. Moran and G. Armstrong (eds.), Surveillance, Closed Circuit Television and Social Control, 1998.
Reinarman, C. and H. Levine (eds.), Crack in America, op. cit., 2005a, p. 22. The White House found it hard to procure the crack and eventually had to give a dealer directions to Pennsylvania Avenue.
Reinarman, C. and H. Levine (eds.), Crack in America, op. cit., 2005b, p. 40. Also see Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear, op. cit, p. 133.
Reinarman, C. and H. Levine (eds.), Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, University of California Press, California, 1997a, p. 37.
Reinarman, C. and H. Levine (eds.), Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, op. cit., 2005c, p. 37.
Reinarman, C. and H. Levine (eds), Crack in America: Demon Drugs and Social Justice, University of California Press, California, 1997b, p. 20.
Roach, S., “Sand in the Gears of Globalization,” Newsweek, February 4 2002.
Rogers, R., “This is Tomorrow,” Independent on Sunday, 23 November 1997.
Rosen, J., “A Cautionary Tale for a New Age of Surveillance,” The New York Times Magazine, retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/07/magazine/07SURVEILLANCE.html? ex = 1003665159&ei = 1&en = e6c0a1e1d9efd6f1 October 10 2001.
Rothkopf, D.J., “Business Versus Terror,” Foreign Policy, May/June 2002a, pp. 56–64.
Rothkopf, D.J., “Business Versus Terror,” Foreign Policy, May/June 2002b.
Rugoff, R., “L.A.’s New Car-Tography,” LA Weekly, 6 October 1995 cited in Nan Ellin (ed.), Architecture of Fear, op. cit., p. 38.
Uncle Sam and the Watching Eye, The Economist, September 22, 2001, p. 53.
Shenk, J.W., “Good drugs, bad drugs,” The New Statesman, 7 June 1999.
Sherry, M.S., In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1995a.
Sherry, M.S., In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1995b, p. ix & x.
Sherry, M.S., In the Shadow of War: The United States Since the 1930s, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 1995c, p. x.
Siant-German, M.A., “Re-Presenting the Public Interest on the Us-Mexican Border” in David Spener and Kathleen Staudt (eds.), The US-Mexican Border: Transcending Divisions, Contesting Identities, Lynne Rienner, Boulder and London, 1998. p. 62.
Smoloew, J., “Danger in the Safety Zone,” Time 23 August 1993 cited in Barry Glassner, The Culture of Fear, op. cit., p. 111.
Solberg, C., Riding High: American in the Cold War, New York: Mason and Lipscomb, 1973, p. 45 cited in David Seed, American Science Fiction and the Cold War: Literature and Films, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 1999, p. 71.
State Department position paper October 1993 cited in Peter Andreas, Border Games, op. cit., p. 58.
Teaford, J.C., The Twentieth Century American City, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, MD, 1993, 166.
US Office of Technology Assessment, Electronic Surveillance and Civil Liberties, US Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C., 1985, p. 62.
Vanderpool, T., “Native Trackers: Secret Weapon in Drug War,” Christian Science Monitor, 18 July 2002.
Vidal, G., “Taking Liberties,” The Guardian, 27 April, 2002.
Werthein, M., “The Pearly Gates of Cyberspace,” in Nan Ellin (Ed), Architecture of Fear, op. cit., 2005, p. 295.
Zelinsky, W., The Cultural Geography of the United States, Prentice Hall, London, 1992, pp. 59–61.
Zuniga, V., “Nations and Borders: Romantic Nationalism and the Project of Modernity,” in David Spener and Kathleen Staudt (eds.), The US-Mexican Border: Transcending Divisions, Contesting Identities, Lynne Rienner, Boulder and London, 1998, p. 36.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bewley-Taylor, D.R. US concept wars, civil liberties and the technologies of fortification. Crime Law Soc Change 43, 81–111 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-005-4054-z
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-005-4054-z