statism watch

For starters, the documentation of his CIA alias – ‘Tim Osman’ is all over the web.

Flashback: Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | Delta Force Officer: We Weren’t Allowed to Kill Osama Bin Laden | Low Level Driver Convicted Of Terror Charges While Bin Laden’s Senior Body Guard Was Let Go | US scales up covert destabilization efforts in Iran, continues funding ‘al-Qaeda’ | Report: U.S. Gave Green Light For Taliban Prison Attack | New Bin Laden Video: 100% Forgery | Investigative Reporter Seymour Hersh: US Indirectly Funding Al-Qaeda Linked Sunni Groups in Move to Counter Iran | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

Luke Ryland, DailyKOS.com
July 31, 2009

It appears as though the federal government is looking out for Canadian interests on one of our national frontiers, at least.

Flashback: Arctic expert questions Canada’s northern strategy | Northwest Passage surveillance study halted | Military’s ‘Polar Breeze’ cloaked in secrecy | Ignatieff on Obama visit: Crisis an opportunity for continental, global integration | Harper plays down threat to Arctic sovereignty | New policy emphasizes U.S. interests in Northwest Passage | UN Given Power to Mediate in Arctic Disputes | Nunavut taken aback by military plan for drone patrols | Remote-controlled aircraft would patrol Arctic: military

CBC News
July 31, 2009

Canada will keep a close eye on all military activities in the Arctic region, including watching Russian plans to drop paratroopers in the area next spring, said Defence Minister Peter MacKay on Friday in Halifax.

“Any country that is approaching Canadian airspace, Canadian territory, will be met by Canadians,” MacKay said after an announcement about an international security conference planned for November.

MacKay declined to offer specifics on what Canada’s reaction would be to unauthorized activities, but said the country will defend its national borders.

(more…)

Far from being some benevolent ‘food safety bill’, the new bill HR 2749 represents the wholesale federalization of food production in the US. As Naturalnews.com reports, the bill would allow direct regulation of the means by which food is raised and harvested, it would allow for warrantless, unnanounced audits of the financial records of small-time farmers, and new levies and fines. In short,

It is obvious from investigation that this bill presents incredibly ominous ramifications for small, local farmers, local food producers, and anyone else who grows or sells food. It favors industrial, factory food operators, who are the perpetrators of food contamination, at the expense of small providers who many have come to rely upon for safe and nutritious fare. The bill also shifts a monumental and unprecedented amount of power and control to the federal government to dominate everything from the produce in the grocery store to the peppers a backyard farmer sells to his neighbor.

Doing little to address the food safety issues introduced by industrial farming processes, the bill targets independent producers, just as recent legislation in Ontario has done, and as the Weatherill report into the listeriosis scandal recommends. It seems incredible, but this journal must point out that this is yet another example of near-simultaneous harmonization of legislation in multiple jurisdictions to conform to international treaties – in this case, the UN’s Codex Alimentarius. The next steps to fulfill the agenda are sure to include food irraditation and the announcement of the food tracing system, which by all accounts will incorporate the USDA’s National Animal Identification System (NAIS), mandating RFID tracking tags for livestock which, again, will bankrupt small farmers and deliver their operations into the hands of industrial-scale producers with the ear of the federal government. You can read select provisions of the bill at the Farm to Consumer Legal Defence Fund.

Update (2009/8/5): As it turns out, Obama has just appointed chief Monsanto lobbyist and genetically modified food advocate to the position of FDA ‘food safety czar’. Any questions?

Flashback: Listeriosis report urges cleanliness and – increased federalization of food safety | New Ontario regulations forcing local butchers out of market | Details being withheld of listeria discussion held prior to outbreak | Harper government withholds listeriosis notes | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Listeria reporting rule dropped before crisis | Radiation touted to protect meat | Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts more than 50 new food standards

Lyndsey Layton, Washington Post
July 31, 2009

WASHINGTON – The House approved the first major changes to food safety laws in 70 years yesterday, giving sweeping new authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate the way food is grown, harvested, and processed.

(more…)

Flashback: Mother who smacked son, 8, with hairbrush is forced to give him up to social services | Woman swats children on plane, charged with Terrorism | UK Parents Need Government Permission to Kiss Children | In the new Canada, we are all wards of the state | Senators approve anti-spanking bill | Why letting courts overrule parents is a dumb idea

CBC News
July 31, 2009

New Zealanders have begun voting on a referendum on whether smacking children should remain a criminal offence.

Three million voters began receiving ballots through the mail on Friday. The vote is open until Aug. 21, and the government will not be legally bound by the result.

The question reads: “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”

Smacking was criminalized in 2007 in New Zealand in order to stop the use of “parental discipline” as a legal defence in assault cases.

(more…)

As though there’s any doubt that these intelligence agencies were up to their necks in it.

Flashback: UK: Secrets of CIA ‘ghost flights’ to be revealed | UK: CIA ‘put pressure on Britain to cover up its use of torture’ | Revealed — the secret torture evidence MI5 tried to suppress | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing – overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | ‘If I didn’t confess to 7/7 bombings MI5 officers would rape my wife,’ claims torture victim | MI5 faces fresh torture allegations | UK: Government makes ‘unprecedented’ apology for covering up Binyam torture | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | Obama backs Bush: No rights for Bagram prisoners | U.K. resident held at Gitmo alleges Canadian involvement in torture | Obama shuts network of CIA ‘ghost prisons’ | Confirmed: Mexico drug plane used for CIA ‘rendition’ flights | Chinese Torture Techniques Inspired Interrogations at Guantánamo | Third Cocaine Plane Surfaces and is Tied to Web of Government Connections

Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian
July 31, 2009

Documents reveal MI5 official visited Morocco three times during period ex-Guantánamo detainee claims he was interrogated

An MI5 officer visited Morocco three times during the period former terror suspect Binyam Mohamed claims he was secretly interrogated and tortured there, according to documents revealed by the high court today .

Lawyers acting for MI5 have repeatedly told the high court in London the agency had no idea Mohamed was in Morocco in 2002-03. But documents passed to the court show an MI5 officer, known as Witness B, visited Morocco during that time.

New evidence of MI5′s involvement in Mohamed’s earlier interrogation in Pakistan was disclosed yesterday by Lord Justice Thomas and Mr Justice Lloyd Jones. Thomas said they had taken the “very unusual step of correcting a judgment”, a move dictated by the emergence of new documents about MI5′s role in the affair.

(more…)

Flashback: Military spycraft patrols Ontario border from Fort Drum | Pentagon plans blimp to spy from new heights

Stephen C. Webster, Rawstory.com
July 30, 2009

A Canadian man is planning what local press called a “moon mission” in protest of a U.S. spy balloon being tested for the Department of Homeland Security. In other words, when the balloon flies, he and other Canadians (he hopes) will give its operators a glimpse at how they feel about the aerial spying.

The Vancouver Sun kept score:

A Sarnia resident is organizing a protest to express his displeasure over a balloon equipped with a surveillance camera that was hoisted last week just across the St. Clair River in Port Huron, Mich., with its eyes set on the border.

Eli Martin said Thursday he hopes protesters at “moon the balloon” will simultaneously drop their trousers to send a signal that Sarnia “doesn’t like being watched.”

The 15-metre long balloon has a high-tech camera capable of identifying the name on a ship 12-15 kilometres out in Lake Huron, according to the American company operating it. The Sierra Nevada Corp., is testing the technology that could eventually be used by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

(more…)

If you want to see what organic mercury compounds do when they come into contact with neural tissue, watch this video.

Flashback: Fast-tracked swine flu vaccine will be safe, officials insist | Legal immunity set for swine flu vaccine makers | France Considers Mandatory Flu Vaccinations | Children Who Get Flu Vaccine Have Three Times Risk Of Hospitalization For Flu, Study Suggests | Vaccines delayed, ’still in danger zone,’ for swine flu: UN chief | Canada waiting for WHO guidance on swine flu vaccine | Researchers working on swine flu ‘vaccine corn’ |  Lessons of 1976: swine flu, fear, mass vaccinations, wasted millions | Illinois-based Baxter working on vaccine to stop swine flu outbreak in Mexico | Vaccine Court: Autism Debate Continues | Vaccines ‘not to blame for autism’, U.S. court rules | Vaccines Found to Cause Diabetes in Children | Families will make case for vaccine link to autism | Bush To Veto Ban On Mercury In Vaccines

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
July 30, 2009

Toxin linked to autism and neurological disorders to be included in shots

The Washington Post confirmed today that the swine flu vaccine, which is set to be rolled out nationwide this fall in what some fear could ultimately become a mandatory vaccination program, will contain mercury, a toxin linked with autism and neurological disorders.

Claims by the CDC and the Institute of Medicine, following a whitewash study that ignored previously verified evidence, that thimerosal, a mercury based preservative, has no causal relationship to skyrocketing cases of autism have been soundly rejected by top doctors and scientists ever since.

Epidemiologist Tom Verstraeten and Dr. Richard Johnston, an immunologist and pediatrician from the University of Colorado, both concluded that thimerosal was responsible for the dramatic rise in cases of autism but their findings were dismissed by the CDC.

(more…)

This study would have a lot more credibility were it not for the fact that it’s a part of a deliberate propaganda campaign to wear down European’s resistance to genetically modified foods. International food treaties driven by agribusiness threaten your right to control what goes in your body. Whether it be resistance to labelling identifying GM food ingredients or legislation like the Tories’ failed bill C-51 that would have effectively criminalized and restricted the unregulated use of natural supplements and herbs, these companies are moving to legislatively monopolize the market in this basic human need.

Flashback: UK Environment minister calls for international food treaty, GM foods at Fabian Society address | Europe’s secret plan to boost GM crop production | Small Farmers Pushed to Plant GM Seed | Agribusiness positions GM crops as panacea to predicted global food shortage | Monsanto Plans to Save World with its Biotech Crops | Scientist who claimed GM crops could solve Third World hunger admits he got it wrong | Codex Alimentarius – An Emerging Threat | Codex Alimentarius Commission adopts more than 50 new food standards

CBC News
July 30, 2009

As of June 30, 2009, producers can choose to stamp their products with this logo if they wish to indicate their products have been certified organic by the CFIA.

There is no evidence that organically produced foods are nutritionally superior to conventionally produced food, a new British survey suggests.

The massive study – covering 50 years worth of data from 162 separate surveys – was funded by the British Food Standards Agency. Carried out by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and led by Alan Dangour. It found that organic food has the same nutritional content as conventionally developed foodstuffs.

“There is currently no evidence to support the selection of organically over conventionally produced foods on the basis of nutritional superiority,” Dangour said.

The research, published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that for 10 out of the 13 nutrient categories analyzed, there were no significant differences between production methods in nutrient content. Conventionally produced crops had significantly more nitrogen, and organically produced crops more phosphorus and higher acidity, but it is unlikely that consuming these nutrients at the levels reported in organic foods would provide any health benefit, the report found.

Organic food proponents have been quick to discredit the study, arguing that it does not take factors such as pesticides, herbicides, pollution, environmental impact and animal welfare into account.

(more…)

Flashback: Abdelrazik accuses CSIS, MPs of harassment and interrogation | Mysterious people tailing recently repatriated no-fly-list refugee | UN rushes Abdelrazik terror allegations onto website in wake of exoneration | Ottawa will allow Abdelrazik to return to Canada | Ottawa defies court, refuses emergency travel documents to citizen trapped in Sudan | Canadian Courts don’t buy word of government | Court orders Ottawa to let Abdelrazik return to Canada | Committee calls on Cannon to let Abdelrazik appear in Ottawa | Canadians secretly interrogated Abdelrazik, papers show | Parade of excuses continues as Ottawa denies citizen’s repatriation | Supporters defy law, buy plane ticket for Montrealer stuck in Sudan | Ottawa balks at travel permit for man trapped in Sudan | CSIS faces review in Khadr case | Family of Canadian stranded by no-fly list to make public appeal

CBC News
July 30, 2009

A government watchdog will launch an investigation into the alleged role Canada’s spy agency played in the case of a Montreal man who spent almost six years stranded in Sudan.

“We received a complaint from Mr. [Abousfian] Abdelrazik and we’ve accepted jurisdiction on that complaint,” Steven Bittle, a senior adviser for the Security Intelligence Review Committee, confirmed on Thursday.

The committee’s mandate is to review and investigate the operations of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and follow up on complaints.

The 47-year-old Sudanese-born man, who said he was tortured during the two times he was detained in Sudan, has also claimed that CSIS agents harassed his family for months before he went there.

(more…)

Flashback: Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Harper urges supporters to fight long gun registry | Police-run gun amnesties in trouble across country | 1,900 Guns Traded for Cameras in Toronto | Toronto Police offer gun owners shiny new camera, home visit to disarm themselves | Layton promises urban gun control | Ont. premier calls for Canada-wide ban on handguns | A historic gun club’s final days | Chicago, awash in gun violence, gives Toronto advice: You need a gun ban like ours | Illinois governor suggests National Guard help with Chicago gun crime | My gun, my right. We’ll see | Municipalities Join Miller in Calling for Final Citizen Disarmament | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Miller wants shooting ranges shut down

Kelly McParland, National Post
July 29, 2009

You don’t need to be a fan of handguns to accept that a ban is useless unless there is some likelihood the prohibition will succeed in reducing the ability of criminals to get their hands on weapons.

The argument against banning handguns is the slim chance of this happening. Unless the crooks who use the guns are willing to abide by the law — or can be forced to abide by effective policing — the ban is a waste of resources. The anti-ban argument appears to be supported by this:

(more…)