statism watch

Joby Warbick, The Washington Post
October 15, 2008

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration issued a pair of secret memos to the CIA in 2003 and 2004 that explicitly endorsed the agency’s use of interrogation techniques such as waterboarding against al-Qaeda suspects — documents prompted by worries among intelligence officials about a possible backlash if details of the program became public.

The classified memos, which have not been previously disclosed, were requested by then-CIA Director George J. Tenet more than a year after the start of the secret interrogations, according to four administration and intelligence officials familiar with the documents. Although Justice Department lawyers, beginning in 2002, had signed off on the agency’s interrogation methods, senior CIA officials were troubled that White House policymakers had never endorsed the program in writing.

The memos were the first — and, for years, the only — tangible expressions of the administration’s consent for the CIA’s use of harsh measures to extract information from captured al-Qaeda leaders, the sources said. As early as the spring of 2002, several White House officials, including then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Cheney, were given individual briefings by Tenet and his deputies, the officials said. Rice, in a statement to congressional investigators last month, confirmed the briefings and acknowledged that the CIA director had pressed the White House for “policy approval.”

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Such a policy would of necessity require massive surveillance of online activity. Some sources online have it that we’re enjoying the last hurrah of the free Internet as it is, with coming generations forced to sign acceptable use contracts, subject to limited content provided by large portals. If true, dissent online will no longer be thinkable: thought crime will be further institutionalized. With the RCMP looking to set the terms of national cyber security, Tim Berners-Lee suggesting corporate vetting of web content, Richard Clarke’s rumoured ‘i-Patriot Act’ on deck, ACTA, and the warmed-over DMCA, the future looks bleak indeed. Every Canadian owes a debt of gratitude to Michael Geist for his activist work on these issues.

The Canadian Press
October 15, 2008

GATINEAU– The CRTC is reviewing its policy of allowing unregulated distribution of broadcast media content over the Internet and cellphones.

The federal regulator has taken a hands-off approach to newer types of media distribution, while continuing to regulate radio and television outlets.

However, the CRTC wants to re-examine its current policy, noting that Canadians are spending more time accessing high-quality content over the Internet and mobile devices.

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Steve Watson, Infowars.net
October 15, 2008

The total potential cost of the financial bailout to the U.S. taxpayer is already rapidly approaching $5 trillion, over seven times as much as the meaningless $700 billion bailout bill figure.

Analysts have previously marked out the $5 trillion figure as the actual cost, now those predictions are becoming demonstratively accurate.

Meanwhile, Hank Paulson has defended government intervention, stating “There’s no doubt that the way to get the maximum bang for the taxpayers here was to invest in banks.”

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CBC News
October 15, 2008

Most of the world’s stock markets fell Wednesday as optimism over government moves to stabilize the financial system was elbowed aside by persistent worries about the economy and the prospect of a global recession.

Toronto’s TSX composite index, coming off a one-day record gain of 890 points, tumbled 365 points in late morning trading. In New York, the Dow Jones was down 349 points, while the Nasdaq was off 60 points.

In Europe, Britain’s FTSE 100 index was down 5.46 per cent, Germany’s Dax dropped 4.44 per cent and France’s CAC 40 shed 4.85 per cent as the trading day neared an end.

In Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index lost five per cent after rising more than 13 per cent in the previous two days. Markets in Australia, South Korea and China were also lower. Japan’s Nikkei index bucked the trend, rising 1.1 per cent.

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Eddie Evand and Paul Taylor, Reuters
October 15, 2008

NEW YORK/BRUSSELS — European leaders pressed on Wednesday for an overhaul of global financial structures, building on trillion-dollar bank bailouts announced this week, as signs of global recession mounted.

The United States reported its biggest monthly decline in retail sales in more than three years, along with other negative economic data, and markets around the world fell.

EU leaders called for financial reforms as they arrived in Brussels for a meeting, after committing €2.2-trillion ($3-trillion U.S.) this week to rescue European banks and break a logjam in money markets, in the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.

The U.S. government followed with similarly radical action to stem the crisis, which began with a U.S. housing market collapse and now threatens economies worldwide.

“The IMF has got to be rebuilt as ‘fit for purpose’ for the modern world. We need an early warning system for the global economy,” British Prime Minister Gordon Brown told reporters in Brussels.

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Note how the line between ‘terrorists’ and ‘criminals’ – those breaking civil law – is now being blurred.

Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
October 15, 2008

Ministers say terrorists and other criminals are using free websites as a way of concealing their communications

The government is drawing up plans to give the police and security and intelligence agencies new powers to access personal data held by internet services, including social network sites such as Facebook and Bebo and gaming networks.

The move, heralded in this morning’s speech on international terrorism by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary, is prompted by concern that criminals and terrorists are using websites as a way of concealing their communications, according to Whitehall security sources.

At present, security and intelligence agencies can demand to see telephone and email traffic from traditional communications services providers (CSPs), which store the personal data for business purposes such as billing.

The rapid expansion of new CSPs – such as gaming, social networking, auction and video sites – and technologies such as wireless internet and broadband present a serious problem for the police, MI5, customs and other government agencies, the security sources say.

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