statism watch

From a CanWest article of Feb 22, 2008, quoting Stuart Trew from the Council of Canadians: “He noted that work is also underway for the two nations to put in place a joint plan to protect common infrastructure such as roadways and oil pipelines.”

Karen Hawthorne, the National Post
January 5, 2009

VANCOUVER — There has been another pipeline explosion in northeast British Columbia, the RCMP said Monday.

The site of what appears to be a deliberate explosion was discovered on Sunday after EnCana gas line workers located the partial destruction of a metering shed at a well head site near the community of Tomslake, B.C.

RCMP officers immediately secured the scene after the discovery, according to an police news release.

Investigators from the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, the Explosives Disposal Unit and Forensic Identification are now investigating.

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Here’s an idea: Predator drones have no business being in Washington state. What they are talking about here is a total surveillance society. And despite the fact that we’ve essentially become conditioned to the idea and it’s become normalized by our seeing it so often in the media, it’s not a good thing. So tell someone.

Mark Rutherford, CNet News
January 5, 2009

Action spy dramas increasingly feature a computer geek character who accesses everything from satellite imagery to floor plans to convenience store security cameras, then feeds the data to his team, saving the day. This type of work, it turns out, is easier said than done.

Two agencies are trying to make it easier to access and blend Web-based snoop-scoop. The U.S. Joint Forces Command and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency are sponsoring an annual demonstration called Empire Challenge, which “seeks to improve interoperability of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance activities” among end users.

One of last year’s Challenge participants, the Open Geospatial Consortium, or OGC, has already demonstrated a common interface that allows “analysts to detect and access sensors from different sources.”

“Let’s say you’re an analyst, and you want (to find) out what’s going on in Bellingham, Wash., and you don’t know what sensors are available in Bellingham,” said Sam Bacharach of OGC. “Is there a Predator with an electrical-optical camera overhead? Maybe there are Washington State Patrol cameras on the interstates. Right now, just to know all those things exist, you have to go through an exhausting process to find them.”

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Hazem Balousha, Chris McGreal, The Guardian
January 5, 2009

Incessant bombardment, no electricity, no water, and the hospitals full to overflowing – how Gaza was torn apart

It has never been like this before. The assault is coming from the sky, the sea and the ground. The explosion of shells, the gunfire from the tanks and the missiles from planes and helicopters are incessant. The sky is laced with smoke, grey here, black there, as the array of weaponry leaves its distinctive trail.

Most Gazans can only cower in terror in whatever shelter they can find and guess at the cost exacted by each explosion as the toll for those on the receiving end rises remorselessly.

As Israeli forces carved up the Gaza Strip yesterday, dividing the territory in two , the UN warned of a “catastrophe unfolding” for a “trapped, traumatised, terrorised” population.

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