statism watch

Spin Alert! Nothing in here about all of the indiscriminate, non-warrantless wiretapping that’s going on. But don’t worry – Mr. Hope and Change voted for that, too. And given that the Department of Homeland Security considers alternative media, states rights activists, constitutionalists, and the US patriot movement to be on a par with Al-CIAda, you can bet that Big Brother now has a ‘national security interest’ and a pressing need to monitor the communications of pretty much anyone it damn well pleases.

Related: Bill would give president emergency control of Internet | Bush’s Search Policy For Travelers Is Kept | ACLU Sues US Department of Homeland Security over Border Laptop Searches | US Federal Judge Tosses Telecom Spy Suits | Showdown in NSA Wiretap Case: Judge Threatens Sanctions Against Justice Department | NSA Surveillance Exploding, Americans Wiretapped Beyond Congressional Limits | Put NSA in Charge of Cyber Security, Or the Power Grid Gets It | Following Bush lead, Obama moves to block challenge to wiretapping program | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Obama tries to kill lawsuit challenging wiretapping program, fails | New law to give police access to online exchanges | Whistleblower: NSA even collected credit card records | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Big brother to track all emails, internet history and telephone calls under UK plan | Bush approves surveillance bill | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Secretive Canadian spy agency to get $62-million HQ | Whistle-Blower: Feds Have a Backdoor Into Wireless Carrier — Congress Reacts

David Kravetz, Wired.com
September 15, 2009

The Obama administration has told Congress it supports renewing three provisions of the Patriot Act due to expire at year’s end, measures making it easier for the government to spy within the United States.

In a letter to Sen. Patrick Leahy, the Vermont Democrat and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Justice Department said the administration might consider “modifications” to the act in order to protect civil liberties.

“The administration is willing to consider such ideas, provided that they do not undermine the effectiveness of these important authorities,” Ronald Weich, assistant attorney general, wrote to Leahy, (.pdf) whose committee is expected to consider renewing the three expiring Patriot Act provisions next week. The government disclosed the letter Tuesday.

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Are you kidding? Security? Strafing and bombing are not exactly requisite activites for Olympic security. So the justification given is civilian escorts and, presumably, interception. What a crock. Even if we were to buy the idea someone might fly a plane into an Olympic venue, there’s no reason this couldn’t be practiced on base or in a simulator.This smacks of acclimatization, of training us to get used to the idea of warplanes over our cities.

Flashback: Military helicopters over downtown Montreal for exercise | Oympics push army to edge | Military and police practice integration during Olympic security exercises | Military to be out in force for Vancouver Olympics | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security

CBC News
September 15, 2009

Low-flying Canadian fighter jets will take to the skies over B.C.’s south coast Tuesday and Wednesday during security preparations for the 2010 Olympic Games.

Residents can expect to see — and hear — Canadian Forces’ CF-18s escorting what appear to be civilian aircraft, according to Lt. David Lavallee, the Canadian Norad region public affairs officer.

The aircraft will be taking part in Exercise Fabric Virgo, organized by Norad —the North American Aerospace Defence Command — in co-ordination with Nav Canada — a private company that provides air traffic control, flight information and other air navigation services in Canada — to familiarize both organizations with joint operations in the Vancouver area in advance of the Games, which open in February.

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The concern here is not with ‘ungoverned spaces’, but merely spaces that are not yet governed by the international world order. The heroin, after all, must continue to flow.

Flashback: Selling Canada on Afghanistan | Canada should stay in Afghanistan: NATO head | Britain and US prepared to open talks with the Taliban | U.S. military seeks ’second surge’ for Afghan mission | UK PM Gordon Brown plans troop surge in Afghanistan | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | Whistleblower Who Linked “Taliban” Leader To US Intelligence Is Assassinated | The Main Result of the “War on Terror”: The Destabilization of Pakistan | Supreme Court of Canada won’t hear Afghan detainee torture case | Canadian Forces: Worries about child abuse by Afghan allies ‘unfounded’ | Afghan front lines take mental toll on military and RCMP | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | Cost of Afghan mission jumps to $11.3-billion | New Canadian commander in Afghanistan welcomes U.S. troop influx | Canadians could be defending Afghan gas pipeline | US Allowed Taliban, Al-Qaeda Airlift Evacuation

CBC News
September 15, 2009

A former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security calls it “regrettable” that Canada plans to withdraw from the conflict in Afghanistan.

“The consequences of failure in this part of the world will not be limited to the United States,” said Michael Chertoff, who served from 2005 to 2009 in the administration of former president George W. Bush.

“They will be felt by everybody,” Chertoff said in an interview broadcast Wednesday on The Current with Anna Maria Tremonti.

“Support by our NATO allies is a very, very important element of the strategy [in Afghanistan].”

Chertoff said he strongly supports President Barack Obama’s buildup of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. If an “enduring infrastructure” is not established in that country, Chertoff believes extremists will regain control of large chunks of territory,

“That’s exactly what put us into the situation we had prior to 9/11,” he said. “The consequences of that will be felt not only in the United States but in Canada and around the world.”

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Obama is a warmonger. Repeat after me: Obama is a warmonger. (Or a puppet. Take your pick.)

Flashback: Obama’s effort in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’: U.S. defence secretary | U.S. military seeks ’second surge’ for Afghan mission | UK PM Gordon Brown plans troop surge in Afghanistan | Taliban flee new U.S. drive in Afghanistan | Cost of Afghan mission jumps to $11.3-billion | New Canadian commander in Afghanistan welcomes U.S. troop influx | Obama eyes 3 more brigades for Afghanistan | Top U.S. general boosts troop pledge to Afghanistan | Afghan war boosts recruiting | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay | Canadian military acquiring new helicopters, drones | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

Ewan MacAskill, The Guardian
September 15, 2009

Admiral Mike Mullen urges patience as poll indicates declining public support in the US for the Afghanistan war

The top US commander today signalled for the first time that Washington will almost certainly deploy more troops to Afghanistan later this year.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chair of the joint chiefs of staff, told the Senate armed services committee: “A properly resourced counterinsurgency probably means more forces.”

He did not specify how many more troops he thought would be needed. Estimates have ranged from 10,000 to 45,000.

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Flashback: In wake of 9/11, ‘War on Terror’ spawned more terrorism | UK: Brown defends Afghan campaign in wake of aide’s resignation | Obama’s effort in Afghanistan ‘just beginning’: U.S. defence secretary | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | US faces downward spiral in Afghan war, says leaked intelligence report | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander

CBC News
September 15, 2009

Security conditions throughout Afghanistan continue to deteriorate, according to a Canadian government report on the mission, with the frequency of attacks in May and June higher than in any month since the fall of the Taliban.

The government’s latest quarterly report said Kandahar province in particular, where Canadian forces are concentrated, experienced “a steep increase in the number of enemy-initiated attacks against soldiers, civilians and facilities during the quarter.”

Although it follows a yearly trend that usually sees violence increase at the end of the poppy harvest, “the frequency of security events in Kandahar was exceptionally high,” the report said.

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It’s abundantly clear that cops in the UK think they are the law. Maybe they read too much Judge Dredd growing up. In any case, this reporter is not going to live in some sort of inane dystopia where everyone’s genetics are in a government database. The Island, 1984, Brave New World, etc, were not meant to be instruction manuals.

Flashback: UK: Police ‘arrest innocent youths for their DNA’, officer claims | UK: Fury as Commons denied vote on DNA database | UK: DNA details of 1.1m children on database | Controversial US measure would require DNA sampling at arrest | Police to demand blood, urine at roadside stops | Newborn Blood-Storage Law Stirs Fears of DNA Warehouse | Man spends 18 hours in police cell and has his DNA taken for ‘dropping an apple core’ | Widen DNA dragnet: Police Chief Blair

BBC News
September 15, 2009

Ministers should instruct police in England and Wales to stop retaining the DNA of innocent people, the Equality and Human Rights Commission has said.

Last year human rights judges called for an end to the holding of samples from nearly a million people arrested but never convicted of an offence.

But the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) advised staff to add new samples until the law was changed.

The human rights group said this breached the law.

In December, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that blanket retention of all suspects’ DNA was disproportionate.

And the judges focused their criticism on the “limited” opportunities for those found not guilty, or mistakenly arrested, to have their DNA data removed.

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240 kids were killed during Operation Cast Lead as well. Watch more over at Democracy Now.

Flashback: Israeli soldiers allege abuses against Palestinians | Israeli troops kill apartheid wall protester | Israeli military whistleblowers: troops fired on children | Israel pulls land forces from Gaza, gunboats continue shelling coast | Israel admits troops used phosphorus shells in Gaza | Israel steps up Gaza withdrawal after ceasefire | Hamas joins fragile Israeli ceasefire | Israel declares ceasefire | Unusually Large U.S. Weapons Shipment to Israel | Video shows proof of phosphorous bombs in Gaza | Aid destroyed as UN’s Gaza HQ hit by Israeli fire | Protests over Israel’s Gaza offensive held in Canadian, world cities | Israel ignores ceasefire plea, pounds Gaza | UN relief agency halts aid to Gaza, citing Israeli attacks on staff | Rockets fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel | Israel is on its way to reoccupying all of the Gaza Strip | Israeli shelling kills dozens at UN school in Gaza | Tanks, rockets, death and terror: Gazan civilian catastrophe unfolding | They hate us for our bombs | Israeli army set for invasion | Food, medicine, fuel needed in Gaza, agencies warn | Gaza relief boat carrying former Congresswoman rammed by Israelis | Worldwide protests urge end to attacks on Gaza

BBC News
September 15, 2009

There is evidence that both Israeli and Palestinian forces committed war crimes in the recent conflict in Gaza, a long-awaited official UN report says.

It accuses Israel of deliberately using “disproportionate force” in the three-week operation in December and January.

The report also condemned rocket attacks by Palestinian groups which Israel says sparked its offensive.

Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed, but Israel puts the figure at 1,166.

Three Israeli civilians and 10 Israeli soldiers were also killed.

Israel, which had refused to co-operate with the UN fact-finding team, said the report was “clearly one-sided”.

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Flashback: Judges give Iraqi shoe thrower 3 years in prison | George Bush shoe-thrower ‘too severely beaten’ for court appearance

Hamza Hendawi, Globe and Mail
September 15, 2009

Journalist who targeted former U.S. president George W. Bush claims he was tortured by security forces after his arrest

The Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush was released today after nine months in prison, and he claimed security forces tortured him with beatings, whippings and electric shocks after his arrest.

Muntadhar al-Zeidi, whose stunning act of protest last December made him a hero around the Arab and Muslim worlds, said he now feared for his life and believed that U.S. intelligence agents would chase after him. “These fearsome services, the U.S. intelligence services and its affiliated services, will spare no efforts to track me as an insurgent revolutionary … in a bid to kill me,” he told a news conference at the TV station where he works.

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