statism watch

Paul Stokes, Telegraph UK
June 6, 2008

Pubs in Yorkshire have been ordered to ban people from wearing flat caps or other hats so troublemakers can be more easily recognised.

The Park Hotel in Wadsley, Sheffield, is the latest to be asked to impose the rule by senior police officers.

Mark Kelly, the landlord said: “Police asked us to ensure that everyone removes headgear.

“With pensioners, by the time they sit down their hats always come off anyway because they were brought up with manners so usually take their hats off indoors.”

The measure, designed to prevent people from obscuring their faces from CCTV cameras, has been questioned by Barnsley’s former Test umpire Dickie Bird, 75, well-known for his favoured white flat cap.

He said: “Asking a Yorkshireman to take off his flat cap — whoever heard of anything so silly.

“It’s a Yorkshire tradition, men wearing flat caps. Although youngsters don’t bother these days, older men still wear them and should be allowed to continue.

“I still wear a flat cap when I go out shopping and often leave it on when I get home and end up sitting watching TV with my cap on They look smart and they keep your head nice and warm.”

A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said bans on people wearing headgear in public premises had been operated in banks and post offices for years.

She added: “There have been incidents both in pubs and other establishments when it has not been possible to identify offenders captured on CCTV because hats were hiding their faces.”

Source

Isabel Teotonio, The Toronto Star
Jun 06, 2008

Alleged members of Toronto 18 outlined plan to use `white girls’ in fund-raising bank scam

Members of an alleged homegrown terror cell were hoping to use a few “very presentable” blonde women as part of an elaborate bank scam to raise funds necessary to carry out devastating attacks on Canada, a Brampton court was told yesterday

According to electronic intercepts, the alleged ringleader can be heard explaining that he needs $10,000 to pay for a shipment of 13 imported firearms, including AK-47s, M16s and assault rifles.

…

“They’re probably expecting what happened in London … some bombing in a subway,” he says, referring to the July 2005 terror attack. “Our thing is, it’s much, much greater on a scale. It’s you do it once and you make sure they can never recover again.”

He criticizes Canada’s military presence and role in Afghanistan and explains why it warrants retribution.

“You harm one Muslim, the whole Muslim nation has to defend that person,” he is overheard saying. “You wanna be on the sidelines or you wanna be on the front lines? Sideliners get no reward and they still die. Frontlines gets you rewards.”

Rather than attacking Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan, where they will retaliate using a “carpet bomb” to destroy an entire village and kill hundreds of Muslims, it makes more sense to attack here, he says.

…

The featured speaker in most of the intercepts is the alleged ringleader, whose rants on jihad and waging war appear to startle Talib, the evidence suggests.

In a follow-up conversation, an accused warns the alleged leader that if he continues “talking about religion as part of this, and we gotta do this for religion and where people die … (Talib) is not gonna get those things … He’s gonna be like, `I wouldn’t give a dollar if, if I know civilians gonna get hurt.’ ”

In another car probe, the alleged ringleader refers to Paul Martin, who he thinks is still prime minister, and says to another accused, “I know you might not be too down with the beheadings but it’s terror, it strikes in their hearts.”

The soft-spoken man responds, “What does that poor person feel like when they lose their head?”

The informant, Mubin Shaikh, pipes up, “Nothing … He’s dead, man.”

Full Story | See Also: Toronto ‘Terrorists’ Agree on Decapitation Plot, Fail to Open Tuna Tin | Many Question if Toronto “Terrorists” Were Led by Informants as Case Weakens | Crown presents evidence in Toronto terror suspect trial | Terror case begins to emit ripe aroma | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Anti-terror cops probed Ottawa punk band for Cartoon, Political Speech | Rumsfeld to Pentagon Media Analysts: America Needs another Attack | Canada’s anti-terror law unconstitutional, defence says | Toronto’s Terrorism Case: For the Families, Fear and Bewilderment | Terror trial proceedings troubling | CSIS informant admits cocaine, marijuana use during investigation | Alleged Toronto terror plot included two police agents | Toronto Terrorist Ringleader Has Military Connections | Canadian ‘Terror Plot’ Begins To Unravel | Police arrest terrorist suspects in Toronto

CBC News
Friday, June 6, 2008

A new report makes it clear that a high-level decision was made to send Maher Arar to a country where he was likely to be tortured, one of his lawyers said Friday.

Maria LaHood hailed a report by Richard Skinner, chief of internal investigations at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as important for “truth and accountability.” Skinner said on Thursday he was reopening the investigation into the Canadian man’s deportation to Syria in 2002.

“The most interesting thing is that the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Services] knew that Maher was going to be tortured or was likely to be tortured if he was sent to Syria — yet the decision to send him to Syria was made anyway,” LaHood told CBC News.

“In fact, the decision was made before Maher was questioned about his fears of being sent to Syria, before the INS received so-called assurances — and those assurances, the inspector general found, were ambiguous and were never even assessed by the INS.
Maher Arar, who had immigrated to Canada from Syria as a teenager, was detained in September 2002 as he tried to change planes at JFK airport in New York.Maher Arar, who had immigrated to Canada from Syria as a teenager, was detained in September 2002 as he tried to change planes at JFK airport in New York. (CBC)

“So it’s clear, as we’ve alleged, that this was a top-down decision and that Maher’s torture was expected, and we say, intended,” LaHood said.

…

Last year, the Canadian government apologized to Arar, who now lives in Kamloops, B.C., and agreed to pay him almost $10 million in compensation.

The Bush administration continues to bar Arar from entering the U.S., citing classified information.

Full Story | See Also: Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | CSIS suspected U.S. would deport Arar to be tortured: documents | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

Dan Williams, Reuters
Jun 06, 2008 09:12 AM

JERUSALEM–An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites looks “unavoidable” given the apparent failure of sanctions to deny Tehran technology with bomb-making potential, one of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s deputies said on Friday.

“If Iran continues with its program for developing nuclear weapons, we will attack it. The sanctions are ineffective,” Transport Minister Shaul Mofaz told the mass-circulation Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper.

“Attacking Iran, in order to stop its nuclear plans, will be unavoidable,” said the former army chief who has also been defence minister.

It was the most explicit threat yet against Iran from a member of Olmert’s government, which, like the Bush administration, has preferred to hint at force as a last resort should UN Security Council sanctions be deemed a dead end.

Iran has defied Western pressure to abandon its uranium enrichment projects, which it says are for peaceful electricity generation rather than bomb-building. The leadership in Tehran has also threatened to retaliate against Israel – believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal – and U.S. targets in the Gulf for any attack on Iran.

Full Story | See Also: Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’ | U.S. Navy starts exercises in Gulf waters | U.S. National Intelligence Estimate: Iran stopped nuclear weapons work in 2003 | Cheney Orders Media To Sell Attack On Iran | Former CIA Officer – US Plans Nuclear Attack On Iran

Tess Kalinowski, The Toronto star
Jun 06, 2008

Transport officials, city politicians say public safety paramount as TTC considers screening practice

It may be unpopular with workers and human rights advocates, but testing employees for drugs and alcohol deters on-the-job use of both, say some experts and employers.

“It clearly does act as a deterrent. It’s just like (tickets for) speeding down the highway – you can lose your licence,” said Jim Devlin, president of Coach Canada, which uses both random and pre-employment tests on drivers and others in its 800-employee workforce.

Devlin was defending the practice in light of the TTC’s plan to consider testing for its workers as part of a broader safety review this summer.

…

Such screening is common among U.S. public transit agencies, but in Canada, only Windsor screens its bus drivers.

About half of Transit Windsor’s 161 full-time drivers have been submitting to random Breathalyzer and urine tests over the past decade because they want to qualify to drive across the border to Detroit, said Patrick Delmore, director of operations. Tests are administered by an outside lab approved by the U.S.

Delmore refused to comment on how effective the practice is in reducing drug and alcohol use on the job.

But David Bradley, president of the Ontario Trucking Association, said it’s an effective tool for the 60 per cent of Ontario truckers who undergo screening because they, too, drive across the border.

“We’re tested pre-employment, we’re tested post accident, and we’re tested if there’s a reasonable suspicion – and each (trucking company) operator has to have some of its supervisory staff trained to spot the signs (of drug use or inebriation).”

Full Story | See Also: TTC studies using Tasers | Privacy International responds to Ontario Privacy Commissioner ruling on CCTV | T.T.C. Starts Camera Installation On Buses & Streetcars | Privacy issues surround planned TTC cameras | Photo surveillance on Toronto Transit System aims to snap every user