statism watch

Kim Zetter, Wired
December 31, 2008

The profits of (conventional) war must not be as good as they used to be.

Lockheed Martin and Boeing have decided the next cash cow is cyber defense.

According to Bloomberg, both companies, “eager to capture a share of a market that may reach $11 billion in 2013,” have formed new business units to attract money that the U.S. government will be spending to secure U.S. government computers and, no doubt, to break the security of enemy computer systems.

The companies awoke to the money-making opportunity after President Bush signed a National Security Directive in January, which is commonly known as the Comprehensive National Cyber Security Initiative and is estimated will cost $30 billion or more to implement.

The initiative, which includes the creation of a National Cyber Security Center to be run by the Department of Homeland Security, has been criticized for its secrecy and the role that intelligence agencies may play in the plan. Critics fear the plan is a cover to give U.S. intelligence agencies the unfettered ability to monitor all traffic that passes through the internet.

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CBC News
December 31, 2008

Food and medical supplies are trickling into Gaza, aid agencies said Wednesday, warning a lull in violence is urgently needed to stem a deteriorating humanitarian situation.

John Holmes, the United Nations under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, said roughly 115 trucks filled with supplies crossed into Gaza Tuesday and Wednesday.

Gaza’s main power plant shut down on Tuesday because no fuel has entered the Palestinian territory in the past three days. Roughly 650,000 Palestinians in central and northern Gaza will be without electricity for 16 hours for each day, he said.

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I’d call it Soviet-style micromanagement. But same thing, point taken.

CBC News
December 31, 2008

2008 will probably be remembered as ‘the year of the ban’ in Ontario.

The provincial government moved to make a lot of things illegal – the use of hand-held cellphones while driving, smoking in cars with children and the cosmetic use of pesticides included.

Acting Conservative Leader Bob Runciman says it shouldn’t be the job of government to tell people what’s good for them.

“This is Big Brotherism at its finest,” said Runciman. “If you look down the list, it’s unprecedented.”

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But of course they have. Just like The USA, Canada, and the UK when they staged terror attacks as marketing stunts to get their populations to cede their freedoms as well. Oh, and we mustn’t forget Australia. It’s a part of that particularly neolithic form of statecraft honed by the British during their Imperial phase, and people should have woken up to it after it was declassified that the USA staged the attacks off the coast of Vietnam to go to war with that country as well.

CBC News
December 31, 2008

In response to the deadly Mumbai attacks, India’s president has signed into law a bill that doubles the number of days police can detain terror suspects and extends police powers to conduct searches.

President Pratibha Patil approved the anti-terror legislation, which has been criticized by some human rights groups.

Police will now be able to detain terror suspects for 180 days before filing charges, up from 90.

The president also signed a bill that will create an FBI-style national investigation agency, said Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, the country’s top law enforcement official.

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We’re living in a Twilight Zone episode. It’s time to roll back this global police state insanity now. Privacy is not an obsolete concept, but part of the foundation of a free society.

Alan Travis and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
December 31, 2008

‘Hellhouse’ of personal data will be created, warns former DPP

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a “hellhouse” of personal private information.

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Reuters
December 30, 2008

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Researchers have found out what made the 1918 flu pandemic so deadly — a group of three genes that lets the virus invade the lungs and cause pneumonia.

They mixed samples of the 1918 influenza strain with modern seasonal flu viruses to find the three genes and said their study might help in the development of new flu drugs.

The discovery, published in Tuesday’s issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could also point to mutations that might turn ordinary flu into a dangerous pandemic strain.

Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin and colleagues at the Universities of Kobe and Tokyo in Japan used ferrets, which develop flu in ways very similar to humans.

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David Edwards and Muriel Kane, The Raw Story
December 30, 2008

An Israeli patrol boat intercepted a yacht carrying three tons of medical supplies to Gaza in international waters early on Tuesday as it attempted to run an Israeli blockade. According to those on board, the patrol boat accused the relief vessel of being involved in terrorist activity and then deliberately rammed it, forcing it to return to port in Lebanon.

Among the yacht’s 16 passengers were doctors, journalists, and human rights activists, including former Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA). McKinney spoke to CNN from Lebanon, telling John Roberts, “Our boat was rammed three times, twice in the front and once on the side.”

McKinney described as “outright disinformation” a statement by the Israeli Foreign Ministry which called the charge that the ramming was deliberate “absurd.” According to the Israeli spokesman, the boat was struck as it attempted to outmaneuver the Israeli vessel.

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More conditioning to get you used to the idea that the state’s tracking devices belong in your vehicle, in your life. Just look at the links at the bottom of this article – this is being rolled out or marketed in various forms throughout the west.

BBC News
December 30, 2008

Speed-limiting devices should be fitted to cars on a voluntary basis to help save lives and cut carbon emissions, according to a new report.

The government’s transport advisers claim the technology would cut road accidents with injuries by 29%.

The device automatically slows a car down to within the limit for the road on which it is being driven.

But campaign group Safe Speed warns against its use, saying it encourages drivers to enter a “zombie mode”.

Ministers are planning to help councils draw up digital maps with details of the legal speed on every road.

The speed-limiting devices will then use satellite positioning to check a vehicle’s location and when its speed exceeds the limit, power will be reduced and the brakes applied if necessary.

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Getting the kids used to the idea of being surveilled for the rest of their natural lives… that’s sick, and this site isn’t willing to venture a guess about how such initiatives will distort the culture.

Jason Lewis, Daily Mail
December 29, 2008

Schools have installed CCTV cameras and microphones in classrooms to watch and listen to pupils as young as four.

The Big Brother-style surveillance is being marketed as a way to identify pupils disrupting lessons when teachers’ backs are turned.

Classwatch, the firm behind the system, says its devices can be set up to record everything that goes on in a classroom 24 hours a day and used to compile ‘evidence’ of wrongdoing.

The equipment is sold with Crown Prosecution Service-approved evidence bags to store material to be used in court cases.

The microphones and cameras can be used during lessons and when a classroom is unattended, such as during lunch breaks.

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Hasso Hering, Albany Democrat-Herald
December 29, 2008

A year ago, the Oregon Department of Transportation announced it had demonstrated that a new way to pay for roads – via a mileage tax and satellite technology – could work.

Now Gov. Ted Kulongoski says he’d like the legislature to take the next step.

As part of a transportation-related bill he has filed for the 2009 legislative session, the governor says he plans to recommend “a path to transition away from the gas tax as the central funding source for transportation.”

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