statism watch

Of course the cameras are there to stay once they go up. Wake up, Canada, for goodness sake, and resist the tyranny. Your national Privacy Commissioner warned you about this, right before they went after him for the sort of expense indiscretions everyone in Ottawa is guilty of.

Flashback: B.C. to get license-plate scanning system | Cops with cameras future of policing: Vancouver chief | Police State Canada 2010 and the Olympic Crackdown | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | Tanks, Face-Scanning Cameras Part of ‘Discreet’ 2010 Games Security | Vancouver Olympics security cameras raise privacy concerns

CBC News
January 18, 2010

Security personnel are installing hundreds of closed circuit surveillance cameras around downtown Vancouver in preparation for the Olympics, but questions remain about whether or not many of the cameras will be removed after the Games.

By the time the installations are completed over the next 10 days, an estimated 900 RCMP cameras will be eyeing the crowds around Olympic venues like BC Place Stadium and GM Place. They will be watching for possible criminal activity and medical emergencies.

Another 90 cameras are being set up by the city of Vancouver at the two LiveCity party sites at West Georgia and Cambie Streets and David Lam Park, and along the makeshift pedestrian malls on West Georgia, Granville and Robson Streets.

The cameras are scheduled to be turned on Feb. 1.

The RCMP said its cameras are rented and will be removed after the Games. But the city’s plan for its monitoring equipment has not been finalized.

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The federalization and takeover of local American police departments continues – it’s completely against their constitution (2nd and 10th amendment), of course, and it’s completely against stste’s rigths, but, hey, everyone loves the benevolent dictator, and the old Republic’s hard won freedoms are cheaply sold by an ignorant, brainwashed public that’s been trained since birth by big city cop shows to cower in fear at the sight of a firearm. Hey Canada, look at it this way – who are you going to feel smug about when even Texans aren’t allowed to buy and sell firearms without the micromanaging central state poking its nose in. All completely illegal, but they’re just going ahead and try to impose control anyways. Even Machiavelli knew better than to try this:

“When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred…” – Niccolo Machiavelli

“Laws that forbid the carrying of arms…disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes…Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man.” – Thomas Jefferson

Flashback: Parliament votes ‘in principle’ to scrap gun registry, bill moves to second reading | Tories move closer to killing gun registry | UK: Paramilitary police placed on routine foot patrol for first time | Toronto police seize 400 guns in ’safety push’ | Handgun bans and the world of make-believe | No vote scheduled on Tory bill to kill gun registry | Americans stick to their guns as firearms sales surge | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | 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 | Citizens Witness Gunplay, Black Uniforms as ‘Flashpoint’ Shoots Drama in Heart of Toronto | 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 | Armed Police to Roam Toronto High Schools | 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 | Machine Gun-Toting Officers To Patrol NYC Subway

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
January 18, 2010

There is no law to prevent private sales without a license, police issue “direction” on orders of Feds

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is actively issuing directions banning private sales of guns without licenses at gun shows in Texas, despite there being no law to justify such demands.

A caller to the Alex Jones show brought attention to BATF notices handed out at the entrance of the Texas Gun And Knife Show, on North Lamaar, in Austin this past weekend.

The flyers (pictured below) state that anyone selling a firearm “will be asked to comply with” conditions including operating through a licensed FFL dealer.

The notice also states that “Selling firearms in the parking lot will not be permitted.”

“The lady at the front desk used her ‘mommy voice’ to get everyone’s attention.” Scott from Austin told The Alex Jones show, noting that the owners of the private building where the gun show was held were contacted by the APD and the BATF and directed to hand out the notices.

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Ka-ching. Mission accomplished, underpants bomber! Guess you didn’t know how you were being played. Oh, and for the citizens that are going to docilely queue up to go through these things – maybe you should know first that they do have the capability built in to store and transmit your image, genitalia and all, and a study has raised concerns that the high frequency energy used could damage your DNA. So enjoy explaining how much your government cares about your security to your unborn kids when cancer rates explode in a decade from chronic exposure to these things, because you’ll probably be seeing them in a lot of places other than airports.

Flashback: –> Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion <– !!

Andrew Clark, The Guardian
January 18, 2010

Detroit bomb attempt opens $600m opportunities for Rapiscan and other full-body scanner manufacturers

The alleged “underpants bomber” who tried to blow up flight 253 to Detroit on Christmas Day has triggered a vigorous commercial race to cash in on a $600m (£370m) opportunity to fit airports with full-body scanners detecting concealed explosives.

Unnerved by terror suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s apparent ability to evade detection on a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit, the US government has pledged to install imaging machines that snap images of passengers’ naked bodies to spot hidden objects that can pass through metal detectors unnoticed. Britain, the Netherlands and other nations are following.

Investors have been quick to spot a rapid profit. One Californian firm specialising in imaging machines, Rapiscan, has seen its shares in its parent company, OSI Systems, leap by 27% since Christmas. American Science and Engineering, is up by 16% and has deployed its chief executive to have his own body scanned on live television.

Analysts say that installing scanners within the US could cost $300m — paid for, in part, by economic stimulus money. As the US urges other nations to scan passengers on US-bound flights, the outlay could double internationally.

Michael Kim, an analyst at Imperial Capital in Los Angeles, said: “We estimate that there are approximately 2,000 security lanes at US airports, each of which would require a body scanning machine if that’s the route the TSA chooses to take. Our information is that the cost of each scanner is around $150,000.”

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From the “that figures…” dept.:

Flashback: China tells web companies to obey controls | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | We’re no thieves — despite what Rupert Murdoch claims, says Google | Google allows publishers to limit free content | FOX News owner’s media empire could block Google searches entirely | Google’s digitization of books | Keeping Google out of libraries | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Britons block Google Street View van | Google Street View comes to Canada | ISOHunt points out Google, Yahoo torrent engines too | Google plans to make PCs history | Google Street View could care less about your privacy | Bell’s internet throttling illegal, Google says

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
January 18, 2010

Google’s decision to change how it deals with China was supposedly precipitated by a hack attack on its computer system that was apparently most likely instigated by the Chinese government. While many are discussing how this shows the level of computer-based espionage — corporate and national — going on these days, a more interesting take comes from Julian Sanchez, who notes that the real issue isn’t so much about hacking into computers, but about the official “surveillance” apps that companies now use to placate law enforcement. That’s because what was hacked at Google was its surveillance app that it uses to help deal with law enforcement requests. As Sanchez notes:

The irony here is that, while we’re accustomed to talking about the tension between privacy and security–to the point where it sometimes seems like people think greater invasion of privacy ipso facto yields greater security–one of the most serious and least discussed problems with built-in surveillance is the security risk it creates.

Indeed, we were just discussing how more surveillance can make us less safe by creating a bigger backlog, but Sanchez is pointing out that it’s even worse than that. More surveillance can make us less safe because it can more easily expose data that should have been deleted. Creating surveillance databases creates a huge opportunity for attack. Remember those telco databases we were talking about that make it easy for law enforcement officials (hopefully with a warrant) to track your location by GPS? You have to imagine those make a nice target for hacking as well… And that’s true of any such surveillance database. While they’re supposed to help keep us “safer,” they also put a ton of valuable info in a single place — which makes them attractive targets for those who wish to make us less safe.

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You may as well go ahead and get fitted for your government jumpsuit now, comrade, because talk like this forebodes further nationalization of large swathes of the economy.

Flashback: Jim Prentice: Implement A ‘North American Climate Change Regime’ | Climate Cops To Fine “Wasteful” Homeowners & Businesses | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Ontario unveils cap-and-trade legislation | NRTEE Carbon Market Panel is ‘Round Table on Socialist Planning’ | Climate panel presses for federal cap-and-trade system | U.N. ‘Climate Change’ Plan Would Likely Shift Trillions to Form New World Economy | U.N. Environment Head Wants Global Warming Tax | US Congress passes mandatory national service bill | Time to emulate Roosevelt’s New Deal and create green jobs | Terence Corcoran: Ontario’s green energy plan sneaks in feed-in taxes | New World Order Crony Gary Hart Calls for “Civic Duty” | US Democrats Introduce Public National Service Bills | Justin Trudeau introduces National Voluntary Service motion | Ontario joins continental WCI cap-and-trade scheme | B.C. carbon tax kicks in on Canada Day | They call it cap and trade, but it’s just another fuel tax | Quebec, Ontario sign historic climate pact | Every adult in Britain should be forced to carry ‘carbon ration cards’, say MPs | CEOs call for ‘aggressive’ action on climate change

The Canadian Press
January 18, 2010

Barack Obama’s envoy to Ottawa says “green jobs” are the key to long-term economic recovery in both the United States and Canada.

Ambassador David Jacobson told The Canadian Press he expects eventual progress towards harmonized environmental and energy policy between Canada and the U.S., but hurdles still remain to getting climate legislation through the U.S. Congress.

“As the president has said, that is a jobs bill,” Jacobson said. “One of the reasons he wants to focus on climate change is because the green jobs that are created in that process are going to be critical to the long-term strength of our economy, and I think the same applies in Canada.”

Jacobson flagged climate and energy issues, balancing trade, stopping terrorism on the border and the need to make progress in Afghanistan before 2011 as key issues facing Canada and the United States.

Jacobson said that despite the recent foiled al-Qaeda attempt on Christmas Day to blow up a Detroit-bound passenger airliner, the $1.7-billion-a-day flow of trade across the 49th parallel does not have to be adversely affected by security concerns.

He urged Canadians to sign up in greater numbers for the Nexus program, which issues travel cards that allow frequent and low-risk travellers to get fast-lane treatment at airports and at land crossings. Nexus has been touted as a tool for frequent business travellers, but Jacobson said, “anyone who crosses the border more than a couple of times a year ought to seriously consider it.” [Ed. Note: If you want your irises scanned and held in a bilateral government database, you go right ahead.]

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Read the complete Harper’s article here.

Flashback: US Buying Illinois Prison for Guantanamo Detainees | Guantanamo won’t close by January: Obama | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Guantanamo January closing deadline may slip | Pentagon-handpicked 9/11 families want Gitmo kept open | Guantanamo’s closure window dressing — overseas CIA ‘black sites’ to stay | CIA waterboarded 2 al-Qaida suspects 266 times | Psychologists Helped Guide CIA Interrogations | Document lays bare CIA torture techniques | Obama administration: Guantanamo detainees have ‘no constitutional rights’ | CIA destroyed 92 interview tapes | Tortured Guantanamo detainee set free | 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

Ian Cobain, The Guardian
January 18, 2010

Harper’s investigation quotes camp staff who say suspects died in interrogation and their deaths were made to look like suicides

US government officials may have conspired to conceal evidence that three Guantánamo Bay inmates could have been murdered during interrogations, according to a six-month investigation by American journalists.

All three may have been suffocated during questioning on the same evening and their deaths passed off as suicides by hanging, the joint investigation for Harper’s Magazine and NBC News has concluded.

The magazine also suggests the cover-up may explain why the US government is reluctant to allow the release of Shaker Aamer, the last former British resident held at Guantánamo, as he is said to have alleged that he was part-suffocated while being tortured on the same evening.

“The cover-up is amazing in its audacity, and it is continuing into the Obama administration,” said Scott Horton, the contributing editor for Harper’s who conducted the investigation.

When the three men — Salah Ahmed al-Salami, 37, a Yemeni, and two Saudis, Talal al-Zahrani, 22, and Mani Shaman al-Utaybi, 30 — died in June 2006, the camp’s commander declared that they had committed suicide and that this had been “an act of asymmetrical warfare”, rather than one of desperation.

According to an official inquiry by the US navy, whose report was heavily censored before release, each man was found in his cell, hanging from bedsheets, with their hands bound and rags stuffed down their throats.

However, Horton spoke to four camp guards who alleged that when the bodies were taken to the camp’s medical clinic they had definitely not come from their cell block, which they were guarding, and appeared to have been transfered from a “black site”, known as Camp No, within Guantánamo, operated by either the CIA or a Pentagon intelligence agency.

The men said that the following day, a senior officer assembled the guards and told them that the three men had committed suicide by stuffing rags down their throats, that the media would report that they had hanged themselves, and ordered that they must not seek to contradict those reports.

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Flashback: Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | Facebook Privacy Changes Break the Law, Privacy Groups Tell FTC | Think before you post, privacy czar says | Facebook to make privacy changes, keep user data indefinitely if not deleted | Facebook violates privacy law: watchdog | Facebook’s Users Ask Who Owns Information | UK Security services want personal data from sites like Facebook | MI6 seeks recruits on Facebook | Behavioral Targeting: ‘It’s Only Going to Get Creepier’ | Facebook ‘violates privacy laws’ | With friends like these …

Michael Oliveira, The Canadian Press
January 18, 2010

Canada’s privacy commissioner is launching a series of public consultations to investigate how personal data is being mined online through social networking sites.

The public has until Mar. 15 to file written submissions to Jennifer Stoddart, who is examining the privacy risks associated with the tracking, profiling and targeting of consumers online.

The consultations are being done in the lead-up to a review by Parliament of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act.

Ms. Stoddart, who was not available for comment Monday, said in a statement that she hopes to examine “issues that we feel pose a serious challenge to the privacy of consumers, now and in the near future” and to promote debate about “the impact of these technological developments on privacy.”

She cited Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and Foursquare as examples of websites that collect mounds of personal information from users, mostly voluntarily.

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Flashback: RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says | Inquiry says ‘insidious’ TASERs being used as tool of convenience, should be reclassified, restricted under criminal code | RCMP firing Tasers multiple times at subjects, probe reveals

CBC News
January 18, 2010

The Regina Police Service has been tapped to investigate allegations against five current and former Manitoba RCMP officers accused of offences ranging from fabricating evidence to torture.

The charges relate to complaints filed in civil and criminal court by a man from Portage la Prairie, Man.

Matthew Gray is suing the officers for jolting him multiple times with a Taser in 2003. Gray says he was handcuffed at the time.

Last summer Gray, 47, initiated a private prosecution before Manitoba’s provincial court seeking charges against the officers. In October, a judge agreed there’s enough evidence to proceed with charges against five of the officers.

Manitoba Justice appointed Winnipeg lawyer Marty Minuk to act as an independent prosecutor in the matter.

In turn, Minuk asked police in Regina to conduct an independent investigation.

At a hearing on Monday, Minuk said he expects a report back from the Regina force in about a month.

Hymie Weinstein, a Winnipeg lawyer who has represented a number of police officers in the past, has been retained by each of the RCMP officers involved in the case, court heard.

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Note that it’s admitted below that there will be no communique issued at the outcome of this summit, held as it were in Canada’s fortress of solitude. These are our leaders, not global supermen, and they have no right to eschew accountability on the pretext that it will make them too nervous to negotiate effectively. Bullshit!

Flashback: Sarkozy says world currency disorder unacceptable | Climate summit showcases new world order | Final Copenhagen Text Includes Global Transaction Tax | Harper confirms June G20 summit in Toronto | Is G20 more than Toronto can handle? | With only seven months to go, G20 site may be moved to Toronto | Top Mountie says Huntsville too small for G20 | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | G20 decides to become world’s new ruling economic council | G20 nations meet as protests flare on issue of international banking regulation | Dollar to fall under scrutiny at G20 summit | Gordon Brown urges EU to back new economic order | A year after financial crisis, a new world order emerges | UN wants new global currency to replace dollar | UK PM reveals G20 plan to boost IMF by $1 trillion, hails new world order (again) | World Bank President Admits Agenda For Global Government | Gordon Brown chooses pulpit as latest platform to push New World Order | US backing for world currency stuns markets | Gordon Brown’s amazing patent cure-all globalization deal | Volcker sees crisis leading to global regulation | Gordon Brown seeks sweeping reforms to give IMF global ’surveillance role’ | Kissinger Calls for a New World Order | Kissinger Calls For New International System Out Of World Crises | Financial Times: And now for a world government | Gordon Brown calls for new world order to beat recession | Baron Rothschild tags along with Gordon Brown, expects new world order | Hope for Obama’s US and Europe to drive a ‘new deal’ for a ‘new world’: Barroso, Brown | ‘Stick together or sink together’: European Commission president invokes ‘global governance’ | Paul Martin calls for ‘global solution’ | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA | Paul Martin promoting a new League of Nations on the road | The Resurgent Idea of World Government

The Canadian Press
January 18, 2010

Canadian meeting in Iqaluit to dispense with formalities

Canada is warning that time is running out to make the meaningful reforms to the global financial system necessary to avert future economic meltdowns and wants the issue addressed at next month’s meeting of G7 finance ministers in Iqaluit.

Canadian officials briefing reporters on what is likely to be the most unusual G7 meeting ever say signs of hubris are again apparent among many of the global financiers blamed for plunging the world into recession.

Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is hoping that holding the meeting in isolated Iqaluit in the middle of winter will concentrate minds and lead to a renewed commitment to implement reforms.

The officials, speaking on background, said Monday that Flaherty is concerned that the momentum for reform of the world’s financial and banking sectors is waning as the economic crisis recedes.

The United Kingdom has imposed a punitive tax on executive bonuses, and the United States is also proposing to tax its largest banks. But reforms to the system to ensure risk is properly assessed still remain to be implemented.

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Flashback: Tories force Elections Canada to accept campaign refund, hope to hit Liberals with bill | Author wins award for work identifying categories of state corruption | Tories admit to using regional funds for federal campaign last election | Tories announced $8.8B in spending before election call | Another Conservative candidate attacks ‘in-out’ ad scheme | Donations of money, property and services continue to corrupt Canadian politics

CBC News
January 18, 2010

The Conservative Party of Canada has won a decisive victory in Federal Court over Elections Canada in its long-running dispute over the so-called “in-and-out” election financing scheme.

Justice Luc Martineau in Ottawa set aside the chief electoral officer’s decision not to approve $1.1 million in Conservative Party expenses challenged by Elections Canada after the 2006 federal election.

The court determined the expenses were incurred by the applicants – identified in court documents as official agents of two Conservative candidates – and ordered the chief electoral officer to approve the claims.

The ruling means the Tories will be entitled to reimbursements on the purchase of certain regional media spots in the 2006 election that featured nationally produced ads, followed by the taglines of individual candidates.

Elections Canada alleged the Conservatives directed money to local candidates, who then transferred the funds back to the party to spend on more advertising for the national campaign. It alleged the Tories set up an elaborate plan involving the participation of 67 candidates, including four cabinet ministers.

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