statism watch

CBC News
August 15, 2008

The controversial governor of Kandahar, who former Canadian foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier once suggested should be replaced, has been removed from his post, the Afghanistan government announced Friday.

Asadullah Khalid has been replaced by Rahmatullah Raufi, who has served for three years as the chief of the Afghan National Army forces for five southern provinces, including Kandahar.

Khalid had been considered a strong leader, but in his three years as governor he faced criticism that he wasn’t effective enough against Taliban insurgents.

He was also among Afghan officials alleged to have participated in torture of detainees, but Khalid denied the reports.

Bernier caused a political stir during a three-day visit to Afghanistan in April when he suggested Khalid should be removed to help fight political corruption in the south.

Although Bernier later clarified his comments, the diplomatic gaffe prompted opposition MPs to call for Bernier’s resignation.

One Afghan parliamentarian said Khalid had been on his way out until Bernier made his comments.

Bernier later stepped down as foreign affairs minister when his former girlfriend revealed he had left classified documents at her home.

Source | See Also under Afghanistan: America to assume command in Afghanistan | Afghani Narco-state Continues to Blossom under Puppet President | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan | Afghan war finally grabs U.S. attention | Canadians could be defending Afghan gas pipeline | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | Don’t look, don’t tell, troops told in response to Afghani child abuse | Canada sets up new military spy unit | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | Truth or Terrorism? The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts | Demise Of Al-Qaeda Leader Championed For Second Time | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

BBC News
August 15, 2008

Ministers have been accused of building a national DNA database “by stealth” by retaining profiles of nearly 40,000 children never convicted of a crime.

The government says there are 39,095 DNA profiles of 10-18 year olds from England and Wales who were arrested but never cautioned or charged.

The Home Office said retaining DNA was a “key intelligence tool” for police fighting serious and violent crime.

The Lib Dems say the DNA of “blameless children” should not be retained.

‘Startling figures’

Last month, a government-funded inquiry recommended that DNA profiles of people who had never been convicted of a crime should be removed from the database, which it said should be controlled by an independent body.

But currently samples from anyone arrested for a recordable offence and detained at a police station in England and Wales – innocent or guilty – can be kept on file indefinitely. Innocent people who volunteer to give a DNA sample during a police inquiry also have their details kept on record.

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Stephen C Webster, The Raw Story
August 15, 2008

During the 2004 Republican Nation Convention in New York City, over 1,700 protesters were taken into police custody in one of the most sweeping mass-arrests in US history. Many were held in Manhattan’s Pier 57, inside a warehouse which was contaminated with lead and asbestos. Some were held for days, and without proper access to food, water, outside communication or legal counsel.

In Denver, police are preparing what a local political organizer calls a ‘concentration camp,’ laying in wait for mass arrests anticipated during the upcoming Democratic National Convention.

On Wednesday, a Denver CBS affiliate sent a news crew to crash the police department’s improvised detention facility, found in a warehouse owned by the city on the north-east side of town.

“This is a building filled with metal holding cells,” described reporter Rick Sallinger, introducing the segment. “We showed up at the facility unannounced today, the doors were wide open, and we managed to shoot for several minutes until a Denver sheriff’s captain asked us to leave.”

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CBC News
August 15, 2008

A Russian general says the recently negotiated deal to allow the United States to place a missile interceptor base in Poland “cannot go unpunished.”

Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian general staff, made the comment to reporters on Friday.

Nogovitsyn was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying Poland was risking attack by agreeing to the deal.

“Poland, by deploying [the system] is exposing itself to a strike —100 per cent,” he said.

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CBC News
Aug 15, 2008

Papers discovered include risk assessment of Environment Canada database

A sensitive government document detailing a classified computer database has been given to the CBC after it was found lying on an Ottawa street in a rain-stained, tire-marked brown envelope.

The document is a risk assessment of an Environment Canada classified environmental enforcement database. It details a number of the system’s failings and describes exactly how the data could be attacked and corrupted, the CBC’s James Cudmore reported.

The so-called NEMISIS database is used by officers to track and prosecute polluters and environmental law-breakers.

The acronym stood for National Enforcement Management Information System and Intelligence System when it was unveiled in 1999. However, the title page of the mislaid document calls it the National Enforcement and Emergency Management Information System and Intelligence System, adding the words “and Emergency” to the name.

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