statism watch

David Edwards, Stephen C. Webster, RawStory.com
January 22, 2009

Ex-analyst believes program actually the remnants of ‘Total Information Awareness,’ shut down by Congress in 2003

On Wednesday night, when former NSA analyst Russell Tice told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann that the Bush administration’s National Security Agency spied on everyone in the United States, specifically targeting journalists, the Countdown host was so flabbergasted that Tice was invited back for a second interview.

On Thursday, he returned to the airwaves with expanded allegations against the NSA, claiming the agency collected Americans’ credit card records, and adding that he believes the massive, warrantless data vacuum to be the remnants of the Total Information Awareness program, shut down by Congress in 2003.

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If you or anyone you happen to like has to be on their phone for any substatntial amount of time, get them a Bluetooth headset – that at least has the advantage of using much lower power levels to communicate with the phone (which then communicates with the network from your purse or pocket, safely out of range of your cranium).

CBC News
January 22, 2009

Close to a dozen countries around the world have issued warnings or cautions about children using cellphones, but Health Canada has no similar message for Canadians.

France is about to make it illegal to market cellphones to children under 12. The United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, Israel, Russia and India are also advising children limit their use of cellphones.

Finland’s Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority encourages parents to err on the side of caution, saying radiation from cellphones could pose a health risk but the research into possible effects of prolonged cellphone use is unclear. In Russia, it’s recommended children under 18 not use cellphones at all.

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Jim Bronskill, Canadian Press
January 22, 2009

OTTAWA – Canada’s information watchdog says the public knows less than ever about what its government is doing – a stark contrast to Barack Obama’s push for openness in the United States.

Information Commissioner Robert Marleau said Thursday the grip on federal files is tightening, largely because of the Conservative government’s “communications stranglehold” on the bureaucracy.

“There’s less information being released by government than ever before. And that’s alarming.”

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And we’re not in a recession. And things are going just fine. Remember those messages from the Harper cabinet? Well now just let the Central Bank (run by Goldman-Sach alumnus Mark Carney) take care of everything and we’ll be all right. In other words, let them pump up a new, bigger bubble based on money at even one further remove from commodities.

Heather Scoffield, The Globe and Mail
January 22, 2009

OTTAWA — The world is in a deep, stubborn recession, but Canada should be able to dig itself out faster than in past slumps, and faster than many other countries, the Bank of Canada argues.

In its quarterly outlook, the central bank defended its renegade forecast for 3.8 per cent growth in Canada in 2010, crediting its own early cuts to interest rates for the speedy recovery.

Compared to Canadian recessions in the early 1980s and early 1990s, “monetary policy has been able to react in a timely and significant way to help offset the economic downturn and promote conditions to support recovery,” the bank’s Monetary Policy Report Update stated.
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A CIA proxy/patsy in the nuclear smuggling ring, providing the tech, no surprise. The previous administration insisted Iran was still making weapons until its last breath. Too bad the wider intelligence community had stopped playing along.

Flashback: How the USA Gave North Korea The Bomb

Frank Jordans, Associated Press
January 22, 2009

GENEVA — A Swiss man suspected of involvement in the world’s biggest nuclear smuggling ring claims he supplied the CIA with information that led to the breakup of the black market network led by Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

In a documentary scheduled to air Thursday evening on Swiss TV station SF1, Urs Tinner says he tipped off U.S. intelligence about a delivery of centrifuge parts meant for Libya’s nuclear weapons program.

The shipment was seized at the Italian port of Taranto in 2003, forcing Libya to admit and eventually renounce its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

The 43-year-old Mr. Tinner is suspected, along with his brother Marco and father Friedrich, of supplying Mr. Khan’s clandestine network with technical know-how and equipment that was used to make gas centrifuges.

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Graeme Hamilton, National Post
January 22, 2009

MONTREAL – Newspapers report this morning that Bruce Kert, a Montreal musician, will face trial in May on a charge of feeding peanuts to a squirrel.

Mr. Kert says he was strolling through a park in the tony Westmount district in 2006 when he spied some peanuts on the ground, picked them up and gave them to a squirrel that was descending from a tree.

A Westmount security officer spotted the illicit feeding, which is prohibited by municipal bylaw, and gave Mr. Kert a $75 ticket. He intended to contest the fine but says he never got a summons in the mail. The case was heard in his absence, he was fined $455 and a warrant was issued for his arrest.

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The 7/7 bombings have the stink of a false flag operation (see here also) as do so many events throughout history which have ended in warfare. Which makes the British government’s denial of the involvement of this Pakistani an interesting addition to the media research around this event. Mind you, the US will bomb wedding parties and say they’ve just achieved a great victory against terror, so any stories on this topic are worthy of skepticism.

Saeed Shah, Richard Norton-Taylor, Matthew Weaver, The Guardian
January 22, 2009

Seven suspected members of al-Qaida have been arrested in a raid in Pakistan after a tip-off from US intelligence agencies, Pakistani security officials said today.

The officials said one of the men detained could have played a role in the July 7 2005 London bombings, although the claim has been met with widespread scepticism by British intelligence officials.

They said the raid was witnessed by US intelligence officials from a nearby car as an unmanned spy plane and three helicopters hovered overhead.

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