Top crime writer Ian Rankin says terror threat used to manipulate the public

From The Scotsman:

SCOTTISH detective writer Ian Rankin, in New Zealand recently, has accused governments of exploiting the fear of terror in order to manipulate populations.

In an interview with the German newspaper, Die Welt, he claimed that the fear of terrorism was being used to control populations and societies and that the tactic was similar to the widespread fear of nuclear attack during the Cold War.
"The fear of terrorism helps to keep the population under control," he said. "That is very useful for politicians, but no one actually needs that.
"First of all we had the Soviet Union, and we were all scared that they were going to attack us all with atomic bombs. When the Berlin Wall fell, everything looked OK for about five minutes. And all of a sudden we now have other wars there, such as climate change, terrorism. All these fears are being used to keep us in our places."

Both a spokeswoman for the Scottish Government and a Downing Street spokesman said they would not be issuing a response to the comments.
But writer Michael Fry said: "I think he has a point. In general I do agree with Ian Rankin. The threat from terror is very real but it is being used to build up an apparatus aimed to control us, which I think is a very bad thing."

In addition to being a top-selling author in English, Rankin and his character, Rebus, have become stars in their own right in the German-speaking world, where more than 10million copies of the books have been sold.
His books have twice won German literary prizes. Translated versions have regularly featured in top 10 lists and have even given rise to Rebus themed tours.
German readers have had a love affair with British crime fiction since the Sherlock Holmes volumes were translated at the end of the 19th century. In the 1950s, a string of films supposedly set in London and featuring Scotland Yard detectives became popular fare for German audiences.

Rankin, from Cardenden, Fife, has become one of the most successful figures in contemporary Scottish literature. As well as the John Rebus crime novels, his work includes several other novels, volumes of short stories, poetry and radio scripts.
He has become the UK's best-selling crime writer, accounting for 10% of all crime book sales, and his work has been translated into 25 languages.

His latest book, which was published in English last year, is set in July 2005, at the time of the gathering of G8 leaders at Gleneagles. It sees the police at full stretch amid demonstrations by anti-globalisation protesters. Evidence emerges that a serial killer may be on the loose, but the authorities are keen to hush up the issue for fear of overshadowing a meeting of global importance.
As ever, rule-breaker Rebus solves the situation in his own way.