ABSTRACT
This chapter describes two power effects of the heightened in security associated with the war on terrorism. The war on terrorism has generated a critical discourse that attempts to measure its economic costs in dollars spent. The first effect has been to radically intensify the policing of the American population. The second effect has been in the order of knowledge the birth of terrorism and the terrorist as objects of serious scientific research. Michel Foucault's analysis of security systems in modern liberal societies is directly applicable to an understanding of the dangerous social consequences of the war on terrorism. More recently, the intensification of surveillance has been driven by the compulsive repetition of victimage rituals targeting illegal drugs, drug abusers, and organized crime. It is no exaggeration to say that the heightened terror of the US population and emergence of homeland security has caused a proliferation of new surveillance technologies.
