statism watch

Well, the RCMP would probably know, given that they were behind the first round of pipeline bombings in collusion with Encana’s former incarnation. Do NOT close your eyes to this. Justice demands we face up to this as Canadians.

Update (2009/10/14): The CBC reports that the RCMP hope to make use of Weibo Ludwig to help ‘catch’ the ‘bomber’. For his part, Mr. Ludwig hopes to make use of the RCMP to take the community’s concerns to Encana.

Flashback: RCMP now refer to pipeline sabotage as ‘domestic terrorism’ | Latest EnCana pipeline explosion was deliberate: RCMP | RCMP investigate fourth pipeline bombing in British Columbia | Pipeline explosion investigation focuses on rural community | Ex-CSIS Agent, ‘Security Expert’, Paints Pipeline Explosion as “Terror” | Canadians who trust our secret police should think again | RCMP bombed oil site in ‘dirty tricks’ campaign

Mark Hume, The Globe and Mail
October 7, 2009

Three-month hiatus promised by bomber in a letter is almost over and Saturday is the anniversary of first attack

The very definition of an official coverup. Would the massive so-called ‘conservative’ voting bloc in this country be so willing to grant the neo-cons a majority if they weren’t in denial about this case? NB: StatismWatch certainly doesn’t advocate voting for the ‘Lieberals’ or NDP either (though Olivia Chow admittedly does some great work holding power to account). We’re actually rather disenfranchised.

Flashback: Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’

CBC News
October 7, 2009

A military watchdog has adjourned public hearings into the alleged torture of Afghan prisoners while lawyers battle over the scope of the investigation.

Peter Tinsley, chairman of the Military Police Complaints Commission, stopped the hearings two hours after they began Wednesday in Gatineau, Que.

Tinsley called the halt after the commission was hit with three government motions seeking an adjournment.

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At the risk of beating a dead horse, the US set up and continues to fund mercenary networks associated with Al-Qaeda, and Bin Laden, the great bogeyman, is probably long dead. Last anyone saw the guy, as the AFP originally reported, it was when the CIA met with him during dialysis treatment at the American Hospital in Dubai in July 2001.

Flashback: Madsen: CIA collusion with “Al Qaeda” financiers and attack planners | A Sibel Edmonds Bombshell – Bin Laden Worked for U.S. Until 9/11 | Pakistani president Asif Zardari admits creating terrorist groups | Western Governments Funding Taliban & Al-Qaeda To Kill U.S. Troops, Destabilize Countries | Obama Administration Shuts Down 9/11 Families Lawsuit | Leaked documents in 9/11 suit show House of Saud links to ‘Al-Qaeda’, extremism | 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 | 9/11 widows call for new investigation after revelations of White House, commission ties | Benazir Bhutto: Bin Laden Murdered | 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

PressTV.ir
October 7, 2009

Afghanistan and Pakistan are not the Pentagon’s sole targets in its war on terror, says Obama adding that the US will not hesitate to attack anywhere it deems a threat.

US President Barack Obama, speaking at the Counterterrorism Center in McLean Virginia on Tuesday, pledged that the US would target al-Qaeda “wherever they take root” and do everything to wipe out safe havens, where Osama bin Laden’s network can plot against the United States.

“The United States and our partners have sent an unmistakable message: We will target al-Qaida wherever they take root,” he said, Xinhua reported.

The US president cited East Africa, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Persian Gulf in addition to Afghanistan and Pakistan, as the hotbeds for terrorist activities and what he called threats against Washington.

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Mother Jones is posting articles critical of the Obama regime? Hell truly has frozen over.

Flashback: Obama administration tries to kill Bush e-mail secrecy case

John Byrne, RawStory.com
October 7, 2009

President Barack Obama has a problem.

In February, the Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, tried to kill a lawsuit that sought to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails in a stunning reversal of Obama’s rhetoric about Bush secrecy on the campaign trail.

Two advocacy groups had sued the Executive Office of the President, including one of the groups that helped derail former House Speaker Tom DeLay. They said that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office were missing, and that the government needed to undertake an extensive recovery effort. The emails were seen as crucial as the “deleted” days include ones in the run up to the Iraq war and the outing of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson.

(more…)

Do you have a ‘gut feeling’ that something isn’t right? Call your local anti-terrorism centre immediately!

Flashback: US Police to get access to classified military intelligence | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | DoD Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” | UK schoolkids trained to inform on ‘extremist’ classmates by police DVD | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com

October 7, 2009

Owning gold or firearms, donating to charity, finding out information about things all constitute suspicious activity to be reported to the authorities

A new video produced in association with the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI and narrated by former Denver Broncos quarterback John Elway urges people to report suspicious activity that could constitute terrorism, behavior that includes buying gold, owning guns, using a watch or binoculars, donating to charity, and all manner of mundane things.

The eight minute video was produced by the Colorado-based Center for Empowered Living and Learning (CELL) in conjunction with the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference to promote CELL’s $7 million dollar exhibit entitled “Anyone, Anytime, Anywhere: Understanding the Threat of Terrorism,” which is currently on display at the Mizel Museum in Denver, Colorado.

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‘Assault with intent to resist arrest’? Judge for yourself, it’s a favourite charge during arrests. The schools are being turned into little prison camps, with cameras and armed guards. Is this the right approach? Is this an environment conducive to learning? Julian Falconer even has his doubts. But why pay attention to the guy that actually wrote the report into Jordan Manner’s shooting? He’s played his role, and it’s obvious that what children need is to be acclimatized to armed and uniformed authorities watching their every move. (Note: Sarcasm) It’s besides the point if the kid is playing to the camera. Was there an ‘assault’ or not? Was there a reasonable pretext for arrest? Does a police officer have the right to arrest someone for a verbal insult? Multiple eyewiteness reports online have it that Maliq, the kid in the video, called the officer ‘bacon’. That’s what he was then called to identify himself for – despite the fact that students at Northern are forced to wear dog tags around their necks. That’s what he was then arrested for. And there you have the crux of the problem with putting power-tripping Officer Friendly in the school.

Flashback: 50 Toronto high schools to have armed police presence | 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 | Texas truant students to be tracked by GPS anklets | CCTV cameras spying on hundreds of classrooms | Scots schoolchildren to be fingerprinted in controversial ID scheme | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | In the new Canada, we are all wards of the state | $4 Million Earmarked for Cameras, “Respect” at Toronto Schools | Random use of police sniffer dogs breaches Charter: top court

Toronto Star
October 7, 2009

A cellphone video posted on YouTube captured the first alleged attack on a Toronto police since the new school policing program was introduced last year.

The headline on the video, which had drawn more than 100 comments by Wednesday morning, says the teenage boy was arrested “for no reason” at Northern Secondary School.

Over and over, the boy on the video says, “You have to let me know what I’ve done” then adds, “Everybody sees this, you see this” to the crowd of students around him. The incident occurred Friday.

The officer, meanwhile, keeps asking him to put his hands behind his back.

Toronto police Const. Wendy Drummond said Wednesday morning the video shows the officer “beyond being patient” with the student, who has been charged with assault with intent to resist arrest. The officer had minor injuries, she said.

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It’s interesting how the truth ‘shifts’ as the reporting on a story drags on. Reading below, one is given the impression William Kuebler was some sort of grasping attention seeker that couldn’t be a team player. Reading the actual history of the reporting on this story, a different story emerges: that of an idiosyncratic defence lawyer that raised the profile of the case, uncovered some of the evidence most damning to the prosecutor’s position, and who went public with accusations of a conflict of interest in the defence’s chain of command. All things considered, then, it may be that Kuebler was yanked from the case for not being compliant enough with the official narrative of Omar Khadr’s role in that firefight so long ago. Was Kuebler doing his job too well?

Flashback: Supreme Court to hear government’s appeal of Khadr case | Ottawa to appeal Khadr ruling to top court | Harper hints at appeal of Khadr ruling | CSIS ignored Khadr’s human rights: Parliamentary report | Ottawa appeals court order to repatriate Omar Khadr | PM must press U.S. for Khadr’s return from Guantanamo, court rules | Khadr’s military lawyer reinstated | Pentagon fires Omar Khadr’s lawyer | Arar in Canada when ’seen’ by Khadr, hearing told | Khadr, interred in rubble, couldn’t have thrown grenade in firefight: Evidence | Stop ignoring Omar Khadr case: Opposition MPs to PM | Bid to dismiss Omar Khadr’s charges fails | CSIS faces review in Khadr case | Low Level Driver Convicted Of Terror Charges While Bin Laden’s Senior Body Guard Was Let Go | Protesters push for Omar Khadr’s release | ‘You don’t care about me,’ Omar Khadr sobs in interview tapes | Canada’s top court orders partial access to Khadr transcripts | Canada losing moral standing over treatment of Omar Khadr: Dallaire | Khadr Defence chips away at military prosecution

CBC News
October 7, 2009

Omar Khadr’s high-profile Pentagon-appointed lawyer was officially dismissed from the legal defence team at a hearing in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Wednesday.

The move came in the wake of Lt.-Cmdr. Bill Kuebler’s turbulent relationship with his colleagues on Khadr’s defence team.

Khadr’s Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, said Kuebler put his self-interest ahead of his client. The appointment of two new civilian lawyers will strengthen the defence team, Edney said.

Toronto-born Khadr, now 22, is accused by the United States of killing a U.S. soldier with a hand grenade in Afghanistan in 2002, when he was 15. He has been held at Guantanamo Bay since then.

(more…)

It’s not as if faces and license plates are the only ways to positively place people at locations in Street View – but to be fair, Google’s willingness to institute these measures should help assure critics who might wish to see this as a massive surveillance operation. One could view Google’s operations as putting open source intelligence tools in the hands of the public. This site takes advantage of their resources every day as an integral part of its open source intelligence mission. Now, this might point towards a mutual surveillance society, where the public watches power and power watches back – but to some degree one can’t ever put the technology genie back in the bottle, and the Google effect – a decentralization, or levelling effect when it comes to the power of public knowledge – is better than the alternative. So, +1 to Google (provisionally).

Update (2010/02/09): The CBC is reporting that Google street view now covers much of Canada, with the densely populated areas around the border blanketed.

Flashback: Britons block Google Street View van | Google Street View comes to Canada | Google Street View could care less about your privacy

CBC News
October 7, 2009

Google Street View, a feature of Google Maps that shows high-resolution street-level images on the internet, has gone live in several Canadian cities.

The service is now available in much of the Greater Toronto Area and in Vancouver and the surrounding area, north to Whistler and east to Chilliwack, B.C.

Google Street View is also available in the Ontario cities of Hamilton, Kitchener, Waterloo, and Ottawa, as well as Calgary, Canmore, Banff and Lake Louise in Alberta, Montreal and the surrounding area, Quebec City and Halifax.

The street-level view can be accessed from Google Maps by clicking on the small orange figure that appears above the zoom control and dropping it on the map.

(more…)

Flashback: Ontario health minister quits over $1B scandal | McGuinty had hand in hiring disgraced eHealth CEO | More untendered eHealth spending, Liberal connections emerge | Head of eHealth Ontario is fired amid contracts scandal, gets big package | Personal ties exposed in eHealth’s untendered contracts | Ontario eHealth approved 4.8 million in no-bid contracts | Electronic immunization records needed: Toronto health official

CBC News
October 7, 2009

A scathing report on the eHealth Ontario spending scandal charges that successive governments wasted $1 billion in taxpayer money.

Ontario Auditor General Jim McCarter released his investigation into the eHealth agency on Wednesday morning.

His report says the board of directors at eHealth Ontario felt it had little power over CEO Sarah Kramer because she had been hired by chair Alan Hudson “with the support of the premier.” That, McCarter said, gave Kramer the impression she had approval to ignore normal procurement procedures.

It was revealed late Tuesday that Health Minister David Caplan resigned because of the report.

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Flashback: Obama considers new strategies for Afghanistan and Pakistan | U.S. commander warns of failure in Afghanistan, calls for more troops | ‘Regrettable’ if Canada quits Afghanistan: Chertoff | Selling Canada on Afghanistan | Canada should stay in Afghanistan: NATO head | 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 | NATO agrees to Afghan troop increase | Obama adds another brigade to Afghanistan troop surge | Afghanistan needs 4,000 extra soldiers for elections: NATO | Canada, allies will never defeat Taliban, PM says | 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 | Obama’s planned troop surge in Afghanistan could lead to more violence: ISAF | US faces downward spiral in Afghan war, says leaked intelligence report | Victory impossible in Afghanistan: senior British commander | ‘Some’ Troops to stay in Afghanistan past 2011: McKay | America to assume command in Afghanistan | Obama promises 10,000 more troops for Afghanistan

James Sturcke, The Guardian
October 7, 2009

Obama says he has yet to decide on general’s request for more troops in Afghanistan, in meeting with congressional leaders

John McCain, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner after the meeting with Barack Obama. The Republicans are pressing the president to heed military calls for more troops in Afghanistan. Photograph: Ron Sachs/pool/EPA

Barack Obama has ruled out substantially reducing troop numbers in Afghanistan, it emerged today.

But he has still to decide whether to agree to a request from the head of US and Nato forces, General Stanley McCrystal, to dramatically increase the number of soldiers fighting in the eight-year-old conflict.

The president held a meeting in Washington yesterday with 18 Republican and Democratic congressional leaders, as he reviews the Afghan war policy. Politicians emerging from the meeting said Obama seemed to be seeking a middle ground and that views were divided on the way forward. Republicans urged Obama to heed his military commander’s call for more troops.

Obama said he was not contemplating reducing troop levels in the near future under any scenario, a number of those at the meeting told the Washington Post.

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