statism watch

Flashback: UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Canadian Junior Hockey team gets ‘military training’

Jennifer Steinhauer, NY Times
May 13, 2009

IMPERIAL, Calif. — Ten minutes into arrant mayhem in this town near the Mexican border, and the gunman, a disgruntled Iraq war veteran, has already taken out two people, one slumped in his desk, the other covered in blood on the floor.

The responding officers — eight teenage boys and girls, the youngest 14 — face tripwire, a thin cloud of poisonous gas and loud shots — BAM! BAM! — fired from behind a flimsy wall. They move quickly, pellet guns drawn and masks affixed.

“United States Border Patrol! Put your hands up!” screams one in a voice cracking with adolescent determination as the suspect is subdued.

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More ‘change’…

Flashback: Obama publishes torture memos, protects perpetrators | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | After Obama praises torture ruling, civil liberties group appalled | Obama shuts network of CIA ‘ghost prisons’ | Obama requests Guantánamo Bay tribunals suspension

Paul Koring, Globe and Mail
May 13, 2009

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama, jettisoning previous pledges of openness, ordered a new court battle Wednesday to keep secret photographs of U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Allowing publication of pictures of torture or abuse would “further inflame anti-American opinion and … put our troops in greater danger,” the President said, explaining that the risk of enraging millions of Muslims and creating a recruiting tool for Taliban jihadists in Afghanistan had prompted his decision. [Ed. Note: Too late for that.]

Mr. Obama turned to an often-used excuse when presidents seek to keep secrets, saying national security was at stake.

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People are not going to just lie down and let this aspect of the high tech control grid be built around them. There’s a lot of awareness out there on this specific issue – Jesse Brown has done a lot of good work raising public awareness about RFID.

Flashback: Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | Canada backpedals on sharing ID database with U.S. | UK Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | RFID passport security defeated in minutes | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | Drivers licences with chips spark heated debate | Your turn to speak: Privacy chief seeking input on biometric ID plan | Ontario Privacy Czar Worried about High-Tech Licences | North American ID card in the works through SPP | Electronic Passports Raise Privacy Issues | Heibert says U.S. giving Canada time to implement enhanced driver’s licence

CBC News
May 13, 2009

The technology behind Ontario’s new enhanced driver’s licences will allow people to secretly track other people’s activities and movements unless privacy protection is added, warns the province’s privacy commissioner.

“The radio frequency identity (RFID) tag that will be embedded into the card can be read not only by authorized readers, but just as easily by unauthorized readers,” Ann Cavoukian said in a statement accompanying the release of her 2008 annual report Wednesday.

Cavoukian called on Ontario’s minister of transportation to include an on-off switch that will provide better privacy protection with the new licences, which are scheduled to start rolling out June 1.

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The reason researchers are coming to the conclusion that the ’swine flu’ may have been created artificially is that there is no known pedigree for this virus, no close links to any other viruses in the wild from which it may have evolved. It incorporates DNA from three continents, and has emerged outside of the flu season. Why is it that much more deadly to Mexican people? There are a lot of questions that remain around this bug.

Flashback: Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | Swine Flu: In Mexico, an outbreak of police-state opportunism | Illinois-based Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu outbreak in Mexico | Army: 3 vials of virus samples missing from Maryland facility | ‘Accidental’ Contamination Of Vaccine With Live Avian Flu Virus Virtually Impossible | Officials investigate how bird flu contaminated vaccines in Europe | Researchers unlock secrets of 1918 flu pandemic | Government lab both source of anthrax attacks as well as false reports linking them to Iraq, Islam | Bruce Ivins, scientist set for prosecution in US anthrax attacks, ‘commits suicide’ | Anthrax Coverup: A Government Insider Speaks Out | White House Mail Sorters Anthrax-Free

By Jason Gale and Simeon Bennett, Bloomberg News
May 13, 2009

The World Health Organization is investigating a claim by an Australian researcher that the swine flu virus circling the globe may have been created as a result of human error.

Adrian Gibbs, 75, who collaborated on research that led to the development of Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu drug, said in an interview that he intends to publish a report suggesting the new strain may have accidentally evolved in eggs scientists use to grow viruses and drugmakers use to make vaccines. Gibbs said he came to his conclusion as part of an effort to trace the virus’s origins by analyzing its genetic blueprint.

“One of the simplest explanations is that it’s a laboratory escape,” Gibbs said in an interview with Bloomberg Television today. “But there are lots of others.”

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