statism watch

Cynthia McKinney is an icon in the movement to expose government corruption, having blown open the massive state-wide election irregularities in Ohio in 2004 in the film American Blackout.

Update (2009/7/7): After a week-long ordeal, McKinney and her shipmates have been returned to the US.

Flashback: Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Former US congresswoman, presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney barred from boarding plane to human rights conference

Fox News
June 30, 2009

Former U.S. lawmaker and Green Party leader Cynthia McKinney, a longtime activist for the Palestinians, says her boat, the Spirit of Humanity, was carrying medical supplies, cement, olive trees and children’s toys to Gaza when it was seized by an Israeli navy ship.

Former U.S. lawmaker and Green Party presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney, whose relief boat was seized by an Israeli naval ship Tuesday for the second time in a year, is demanding the immediate release of her and 20 other activists.

McKinney, a longtime supporter of Palestinians, said her Greek-flagged boat, the Spirit of Humanity, was carrying medical supplies, cement, olive trees and children’s toys to Gaza when it was boarded by the Israeli navy.

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Remember that heel prick they did when your son or daughter was born in Canada? That’s the same thing.

Flashback: Study finds genetic discrimination by insurance firms | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | Australians refused insurance because of poor genes

By Rob Stein, The Washington Post
June 30, 2009

Some Samples Are Stored and Used For Research Without Parents’ Consent

Matthew Brzica and his wife hardly noticed when the hospital took a few drops of blood from each of their four newborn children for routine genetic testing. But then they discovered that the state had kept the dried blood samples ever since — and was making them available to scientists for medical research.

“They’re just taking DNA from young kids right out of the womb and putting it into a warehouse,” said Brzica, of Victoria, Minn. “DNA is what makes us who we are. It’s just not right.”

The couple is among a group of parents challenging Minnesota’s practice of storing babies’ blood samples and allowing researchers to study them without their permission. The confrontation, and a similar one in Texas, has focused attention on the practice at a time when there is increasing interest in using millions of these collected “blood spots” to study diseases.

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Flashback: Flu shots, including H1N1, to require 3 doses | Swine Flu May Be Human Error; WHO Investigates Claim | 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

Steve Connor, The Independent
June 30, 2009

Same strain of influenza was released by accident three decades ago

It has swept across the world killing at least 300 people and infecting thousands more. Yet the swine flu pandemic might not have happened had it not been for the accidental release of the same strain of influenza virus from a research laboratory in the late 1970s, according to a new study.

Scientists investigating the genetic make-up of flu viruses have concluded there is a high probability that the H1N1 strain of influenza “A” behind the current pandemic might never have been re-introduced into the human population were it not for an accidental leak from a laboratory working on the same strain in 1977.

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Flashback: MPs call for expanded privacy law

CBC News
June 30, 2009

The Saskatchewan agency overseeing how government handles personal information reported Tuesday that the province needs to clean up its act.

Gary Dickson, the Saskatchewan information and privacy commissioner, reported that his office handled 62 complaints of a privacy breach in 2008, up from just two investigations in 2004.

“This explosion in the volume of breach of privacy complaints … constitutes the single most significant change in our caseload,” Dickson said on Tuesday.

His 2008-09 report released Tuesday highlights some of the cases he examined.

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Readers of this journal will rapidly note the similarity to the new Canadian border regulations, and the way they were implemented. After years of pressure from the US to adopt something compatible with the REALID program and its successors, Canada took a firm stand and allowed that, yes, you’ll be able to use your passport as well to cross into the US and, yes, the TSA (American border guards) will have access to Canadian identity databases. Britons, too, will be able to use their enhanced ID cards to travel throughout the EU. The UK and Canada have both moved that much closer to a regional, and thence an international ID card. It doesn’t matter what physical form it takes, the point is – what new data is being collected, and who has access to that data? The cards are irrelevant, obsolete, they’ve admitted they’re going to be scanning your fingerprints, they won’t need a card any more.

Flashback: Incoming CSIS chief to seek biometric data at border | UK: Shifting justifications for ID card scheme prompts call to scrap program | Ontario’s high-tech driver’s licences pose privacy risk: watchdog | Moratorium sought on RFID driver’s licenses | Smart licences now available for border-hopping Quebecers | UK Pilots threaten strike over ID card plan | UK Home Secretary: People ‘can’t wait’ for biometric ID cards | Saskatchewan adopting US-mandated ID card, to include RFID chip, facial recognition | North American ID card in the works through SPP

Alan Travis, The Guardian
June 30, 2009

Johnson accused of pressing ahead compulsory scheme by ‘back door’

British citizens who apply for or renew their passport will be automatically registered on the national identity card database under regulations to be approved by MPs in the next few weeks.

The decision to press ahead with the main elements of the national identity card scheme follows a review by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, of the £4.9bn project. Although Johnson said the cards would not be compulsory, critics say the passport measures amount to an attempt to introduce the system by the backdoor.

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While it’s true that this is not much of a withdrawal and that cynicism is amply justified, this journal has some hope, at least, that this bodes well for Iraqi citizens. As the American presence ‘withdraws’ from major urban centres to focus on their chess game in other middle eastern venues, perhaps we’ll see a reduction of violence in Iraqi cities as well.

Flashback: Dismay at Obama plan to leave 50,000 US troops in Iraq after 2010 | Brown: British military to withdraw from Iraq, to ’share burden’ in Afghanistan

Alissa J Rubin, New York Times
June 30, 2009

BAGHDAD – Iraq celebrated the withdrawal of American troops from its cities with parades, fireworks and a national holiday on Tuesday as the prime minister trumpeted the country’s sovereignty from American occupation to a wary public.

Even with a deadly car bombing and other mayhem marring the day – the deadline for the American troop pullback under an agreement that took effect Jan. 1 – Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki seized on the occasion to position himself as a proud leader of a country independent at last, looking ahead to the next milestone of parliamentary elections in January.

He made no mention of American troops in a nationally televised speech, even though nearly 130,000 remain in the country; most had already pulled back from Iraq’s cities before Tuesday’s deadline.

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Our friends at the Munk Centre for International Studies seem to be keener on a UN strategy than they do an Ottawa strategy. This journal doesn’t care where PsiPhon gets its funding, they’re in Canada and ought to be focussing on national solutions and defence rather than more international entanglements. And White Hat or not, SecDev (hello) and the Citizen’s Lab should really stop trying to pretend they’re not an intelligence operation – it’s a little embarrassing, frankly.

Flashback: Are the Iranian Protests Another US Orchestrated “Color Revolution?” | Twitter emerges as news source during Iran media crackdown | Moldova’s ‘Twitter Revolution’: Made in America? | Protests in Moldova Explode, With Help of Twitter | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | John Manley, committed globalist, to chair Munk Centre’s School of International Studies | New Canadian think-tank to study foreign relations, modelled after CFR

Ronald Deibert, Rafal Rohozinski, The National Post
June 30, 2009

Recently, the Canadian envoy to Iran was called in and admonished by Iranian officials for contributing to the destabilitization of the regime because of support for social networking tools, like Twitter and Facebook. The envoy must have scratched his head in puzzlement.

The Iranians’ furor was ignited by the work of our company, Psiphon, which is based in Canada and has actively engaged in a campaign to help Iranians bypass their country’s filters and exercise basic human rights of access to information and freedom of speech. On average, one Iranian per minute has signed up to our “right-2know” nodes — customized websites pushed into Iran that contain access to BBC Persian and Radio Farda — and more than 15,000 have used our service since the crisis began.

However, we have received no support from the Canadian government — not even a note of thanks. As far as we know, the Canadian government does not even have a cyberspace strategy (of promoting access to information and freedom of speech) about which a country like Iran would be irritated. As Canadians, we wish it did.

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The only ‘threat’ to the corrupt shadow government of the US is that the citizens of America might wake up and figure out what is being done to their country. Hence the need to re-establish absolute control over the media.

Flashback: UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | US Cyber Security Czar Front-Runner No Friend of Privacy | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | UK chases Obama on cybersecurity | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Put NSA in Charge of Cyber Security, Or the Power Grid Gets It | Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies | Pentagon spending millions to fix cyberattacks | Should Obama Control the Internet? | Cybersecurity law would give feds unprecedented net control | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

BBC News
June 30, 2009

The issue of cyber security is of “great concern” to the US, the nation’s homeland security secretary has said.

Janet Napolitano told the BBC that protecting against virtual attacks was something the US was “moving forward on with great alacrity”.

Speaking on a visit to the UK, she said the US also had “a number of capabilities” to launch such attacks.

Ms Napolitano’s comments follow the announcement last month of a new cyber security office in the White House.

Ms Napolitano said cyber attacks were an “area where critical infrastructure can be affected and where economic damage can be done”.

She said the US government took all aspects of cyber crime very seriously and that the US defence department had formed “an entire cyber command” to handle online threats.

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Flashback: Canadian Courts don’t buy word of government | CSIS forced to ‘reveal’ info on secret source in Harkat case | Tories aim to bring back anti-terrorism provisions | Last security certificate detainee to be freed | If released, security detainee Almrei to be surveilled, wiretapped, and GPS-tracked | Security expert: Weak accusations against Almrei, held 7 years on security certificate | Feds ordered to share evidence with defence in Harkat security case | More secrecy added to already secret process | Charkaoui set to fight new security certificate law | The New Security Certificate: Rushing injustice through the Senate

Michelle Shepherd, Tonda MacCharles, Toronto Star
June 30, 2009

Canada’s spy agency mishandled evidence in a second high-profile terrorism case, the Star has learned, prompting calls for an independent investigation.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service admitted it failed to disclose evidence that a confidential informant was “deceptive” in answering questions and that a second source was not subjected to a lie-detector test as the agency had claimed.

The disclosures were made in two letters written by Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley to lawyers for Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei. They come just weeks after another Federal Court judge slammed CSIS for omitting evidence.

Almrei, who was detained in October 2001, was the first person arrested in Canada on a national security certificate. He was accused of belonging to a forgery ring that provided documents to terrorists.

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Apparently it is now a received truth that the police are the cause of a decrease in crime at the affected schools, despite the fact there’s absolutely no evidence provided other than statistics – causation is merely implied. The case becomes weaker when you realize crime dropped across the entire school board at the same time, police or no police.

Flashback: UK schoolkids trained to inform on ‘extremist’ classmates by police DVD | UK Schoolkids Protest CCTV, Hidden Microphones in Class | Lunchtime lockdown to promote healthier eating: T.O. school plan | Schools seek more police as crime drops | Police presence in high schools makes the grade | Safety report author Falconer on armed police in schools: “Facile” | 27 Toronto schools to get armed police presence | Frequent school lockdowns raise questions | Two trustees stand opposed to armed police in schools | Armed police officers heading to high schools | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | $4 Million Earmarked for Cameras, “Respect” at Toronto Schools

CBC News
June 29, 2009

Twenty more Toronto public high schools will each get a police officer on a full-time basis when students return to class in the fall, bringing the total number of schools with officers to 50, the police chief said Monday.

Last September, 30 high schools across the city were each assigned a police officer who worked full-time with students, and an additional 20 schools will each get an officer under the School Resource Officer program for the 2009-10 academic year, Chief Bill Blair said.

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