statism watch

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press
September 3, 2008

OTTAWA — The RCMP has closed its long-running investigation into damaging leaks about Maher Arar – who was falsely accused of terrorist ties – without laying charges, The Canadian Press has learned.

It marks the end of Operation Soya, a criminal probe initiated by the Mounties almost five years ago that led to a high-profile raid on a journalist’s home and a successful constitutional challenge of Canada’s secrets law.

“Our investigators did the best they could to locate the source of the leaked information,” said Cpl. Greg Cox, an RCMP spokesman. “In the end there was not the necessary evidence to support charges.”

Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained in New York in September of 2002 and soon after deported by U.S. authorities – winding up in a grave-like cell in Damascus.

Under torture, Mr. Arar gave made-up confessions to Syrian military intelligence officers about supposed involvement with Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaida network.

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CNet News
September 3, 2008

Microsoft has an idea for keeping children safe online: create “digital playgrounds,” sites where visitors have to prove their age using digital identity credentials.

The idea was detailed in a paper Microsoft was set to release early on Wednesday as part of its Trustworthy Computing initiative. The concept builds on a notion called “End to End Trust” that Microsoft first proposed in April at the RSA Security conference.

The company is tackling the challenge of how to make the Internet safer not just for children, but also for adults wanting to conduct business, make transactions, and communicate with the confidence that the people they are interacting with really are who they say they are. A big concern is how to add more identity authentication without compromising the privacy of the people involved.

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CNet News
September 2, 2008

One of the great things about the Discovery Channel show, Mythbusters is that it confronts the realities behind some of the most interesting phenomenons and technologies around.

That’s why, reported the Consumerist blog, at a recent conference–it’s not clear which one–Mythbusters co-host Adam Savage was asked why the show hasn’t tackled the technology behind the security limitations of RFID.

His eyes lighting up at the chance to talk about something that clearly was a memorable experience for him, Savage said the show had actually set out to do an episode on the vulnerabilities of RFID but encountered some very powerful resistance.

In the video, Savage says that a conference call was arranged between co-host Tory Belleci and Texas Instruments to talk about the RFID vulnerabilities. But when Bellici and a MythBusters producer got on the call at the appointed time, “Texas Instruments comes on along with chief legal counsel for American Express, Visa, Discover, and everybody else….(Bellici and the MythBusters producer) were way, way out-gunned and (the lawyers) absolutely made it really clear to Discovery that they were not going to air this episode talking about how hackable this stuff was, and Discovery backed way down, being a large corporation that depends upon the revenue of the advertisers. Now it’s on Discovery’s radar and they won’t let us go near it.”

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CBC News
September 3, 2008

Canada’s national police force should end its controversial use of stun guns, former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli says.

Zaccardelli said he supported the use of stun guns, commonly known as Tasers, during his seven-year reign as commissioner because they were simply another tool for policing.

But given the recent controversy surrounding police force’s use of Tasers in Canada, the former commissioner has reconsidered his position, he said.

“And you know, after all that I’ve thought about it, I’ve come more and more to the conclusion that I’m not sure that having Tasers is worth the negative impact that it has on police forces in terms of public perception,” he told the CBC’s Peter Mansbridge.

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Apparently they don’t know the definition of ‘rational’. Not accepting collective guilt for your country’s past is one thing, whitewashing and rationalizing it is entirely another.

Will Stewart, The Daily Mail
September 3, 2008

Stalin acted ‘entirely rationally’ in executing and imprisoning millions of people in the Gulags, a controversial new Russian teaching manual claims.

Fifty-five years after the Soviet dictator died, the latest guide for teachers to promote patriotism among the Russian young said he did what he did to ensure the country’s modernisation.

The manual, titled A History of Russia, 1900-1945, will form the basis of a new state-approved text book for use in schools next year.

It seems to follow an attempt backed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin to re-evaluate Stalin’s record in a more positive light.

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Do you know what these tests involved? Standing in range of an exploding A-bomb, that’s what they involved. But your state would never do anything to hurt you.

CBC News
September 2, 2008

Canadian soldiers who took part in nuclear weapons testing will be compensated, Defence Minister Peter MacKay announced Tuesday in Calgary.

MacKay said the soldiers will each be paid $24,000, and the money will also be available to estates and families of dead veterans.

MacKay said about 900 people were involved in the tests.

“The participants have received no recognition for their dangerous assignments in the service of Canada,” MacKay said.

Alberta resident Jim Huntley, a spokesman for the Canadian Atomic Veterans Association, said the group wasn’t notified about the announcement. The compensation package is insufficient, he said.

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