Related: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | Outraged G20 protesters rally against police abuse and arbitrary detention | 20 G20 detention reports: ‘I will not forget what they have done to me’ | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Canadian Press
June 30, 2010

Toronto’s top police officer misled the public by displaying fake weapons used in a medieval-themed role-playing game to help justify their actions during G20 protests, their owner said Wednesday.

Brian Barrett said everything in the backpack police confiscated from him “was safe enough for toddlers.”

Barrett’s “spell-balls,” foam-covered batons and scale-mail vest were among items police Chief Bill Blair showed reporters on Tuesday.

“He turns around and states that they are specifically dangerous terrorist items that were solely intended to hurt police,” Barrett said. “That’s unacceptable to me.”

Barrett, 25, of Whitby, Ont., was en route to a west-end park for a role-playing fantasy game called Amtgard when police stopped him at Union Station on Saturday.

Players ranging in age from early teens to late 40s regularly participate in the fantasy combat involving foam swords often referred to as live action role-playing or LARPing.

Police questioned Barrett for almost three hours, confiscated his gear, and released him.

He said he expected it would be returned as early as Monday.

But when he turned on his TV Tuesday, he saw the gear displayed along with hatchets, bats and tire irons that police had confiscated over the weekend.

His homemade shield, foam-covered baton, scale-mail vest, and roll of hockey tape sat next to bear spray, a modified BB-gun, and gas masks.

Barrett was enraged to see his property associated with violence and vandalism.

Could be used to set fire

Police did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but had previously insisted the items were potentially dangerous.

For example, they said, the “spell balls” could be used to set fire to a building.

Blair had already been forced to admit that a chainsaw and crossbow on display at the news conference had nothing to do with G20 protests.

The police chief was also forced to admit that a regulation granting police unprecedented search and arrest powers did not apply to the area outside the summit fence.

However, Blair said he deliberately chose to leave the public in the dark.

More than 900 people were detained for incidents related to G20 protests.

Civil libertarians and opposition politicians both federally and provincially are calling for an independent review of how police behaved amid accusations of widespread abuses.

They claim police illegally detained, searched and arrested people.

Barrett said he’s baffled that Blair would try to mislead the public with his homemade props, especially while under such scrutiny.

Source | See Also under Police: Four detained journalists file complaints of assault, sexual threats against G20 police | Inside the G20 Eastern Avenue Detention Centre | Toronto Police Lied: No five-metre rule existed in G20 security fence law | The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Black Montreal teacher alleges police abuse | Former Toronto drug squad officers must face trial after all, top court rules | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Nine charged after marijuana compassion club raided | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Victoria police investigate their own in assault posted on YouTube | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public land | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | The dark side of DNA | Tories revive random roadside breath test | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | UK: Former Met police detective facing jail over cocaine smuggling plot | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | RCMP needs broader overhaul, more cameras, Senate group says | UK photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest | The truth about the Mossad | N.Y.C.’s former top cop sentenced for felonies | RCMP to test Taser cameras | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | RCMP complaints to get ‘independent’ probes | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Ont. top cop pushed for charges against protester | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Police beat 18-year-old violinist over phantom Mountain Dew bottle | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | New RCMP watchdog is toothless | ‘Toronto 18′ accused involved in bomb plot through RCMP agent, defence says | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones |UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Vancouver police apologize after wrong man beaten by plainclothes officers | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | No need for OPP head to take leave whilst being investigated for criminal charges: McGuinty | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Police

Related: The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Black Bloc tactics sparked Saturday G20 vandalism, confrontation | G20 protesters clash with Vancouver police | ‘Anarchists’ leave trail of destruction, peaceful 3hr march forgotten | Four alleged G20 violence ringleaders appear in court | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Naomi Klein and 500 marchers crash party at tent city | Protesters flood the streets on first day of Toronto G20 summit | First G20 ‘secret law’ arrestee plans Charter challenge | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Huntsville G8: Military, locked down security, few protesters | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Canada flunks on indigenous rights: G20 native protesters | Marcus Gee: Why the G20 protesters won’t condemn violence | Peaceful protests continue in Toronto as G20 nears | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Anti-poverty activists occupy ESSO station during Monday G20 protest – for ten minutes | Toronto activists launch G20 alternative media centre | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | Oxfam astroturf march leads early G20 protest for bank tax | Activists plan walkout and tent city to protest G8/G20 summits | G20 centre for protesters set to open | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | Anarchists plan ‘militant’ protests at Toronto G20 | Toronto labour, native protesters ready for G20 demonstrations | Toronto G20 protest area moved to Queens Park | All Toronto G20 protests will be directed to Trinity Bellwoods Park | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Hundreds of Toronto G20 delegates granted diplomatic immunity | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

The Canadian Press
June 29, 2010

‘I was trying to keep the criminals out,’ police chief says

The expiration of the five-metre rule that had Toronto residents fearing arrest if they strayed too close to the G20 security perimeter came with a startling revelation Tuesday – it never existed.

The rule seemed straightforward when the news broke last Friday that the Ontario government made a regulatory change to a little-known act in secret.

Come within five metres of the summit security fence and you’d better have some identification or risk arrest.

The temporary regulation, which was passed in secret June 2, did decree that all streets and sidewalks inside the fence were a public work until 11:59 p.m. Monday. Under the Ontario Public Works Protection Act, that allowed police to search people trying to enter that area.

But there was no power to search people coming within five metres of the fence, said ministry spokeswoman Laura Blondeau.

“The area designated by the regulation as a public work does not extend outside the boundary of the fence,” Ms. Blondeau said.

Asked Tuesday if there actually was a five-metre rule given the ministry’s clarification, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair smiled and said, “No, but I was trying to keep the criminals out.”

The confusion, it seems, came from the wording of the regulation.

The phrase five metres does appear, but it references land well within the fence that is neither a sidewalk nor street – land near a parking lot and land behind the Rogers Centre. A driveway below ground level in front of Union Station was also designated a public work.

Still, the misconception that any zone within five metres of the imposing steel fence – which wound its way through the downtown core – was included persisted throughout the weekend despite extensive media coverage Friday.

Neither the province nor police set the record straight. In fact, both made comments about the necessity of such powers.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association demanded an apology from the Ontario government.

“The lack of transparency surrounding the designation of the security perimeter as a public work led to misunderstanding as to the scope of the search and seizure powers during the summit,” said association spokeswoman Nathalie Des Rosiers.

“In our view it was an inappropriate use of search and seizure powers.”

There were complaints about police engaging in arbitrary searches throughout the weekend in different areas of Toronto, even far away from the G20 security zone.

The New Democrats said Premier Dalton McGuinty and his community safety minister allowed people to misinterpret the law until the G20 was over and the regulation itself had expired.

“Mr. McGuinty’s solicitor general misled the people of Ontario and the police into believing that police had the authority to demand identification and to search people without warrants,” said NDP justice critic Peter Kormos.

Toronto lawyer Rob Kittredge, an avid photographer who works near the G20 site, said Tuesday he was handcuffed and searched by police last week for taking pictures of the security fence, from the outside.

Mr. Kittredge said he knows his rights – or at least thought he did in this case – and always politely refuses to comply with police demands for identification if he feels they have no grounds.

“They told me that I did in fact have an obligation to answer their questions and provide identification and cited the Public Works Protection Act,” said Mr. Kittredge.

“They explained they had the right to ask me the purpose of my being there, they had the right to ask my name and demand identification and my address.”

Mr. McGuinty still hasn’t explained why cabinet passed the regulation change in secret, and then kept it secret.

“They knew that this was going to be a live issue and that people were going to be getting legal advice and that chances are if they didn’t publicize it, the legal advice would be wrong and misleading,” said lawyer Jonathan Dawe, who has argued cases before the Supreme Court of Canada on the scope of police powers.

“As a matter of basic fairness people should be told in advance what they’re doing that constitutes an offence.”

Opposition Leader Tim Hudak said Mr. McGuinty “should have been more honest” about the regulation change.

“I think if this was known to the general public ahead of time the vast majority of Ontario residents would have understood the need,” said Mr. Hudak.

Source | See Also under Police: The G20: Brutal spectacle failed a city and its people | The G20’s ignominious end: Panic, outrage as police detain hundreds for hours in pouring rain | National Post photographers arrested, spend night in G20 detention camp | Peaceful Eastern Ave jail solidarity action attacked by Toronto police | Police Raid U of T Student Union for Hosting G20 Protesters | Guardian journalist beaten, arrested at peaceful G20 protest on Esplanade | Pre-dawn raids in Toronto homes result in four arrests | Mass sit-in in Egypt over police killing | G20 law gives police sweeping powers to arrest people | Judge Greenlights Sonic Cannons for Use on Civilian Protest, Further Court Tests Slated for Fall | Collingwood man dies after being tasered by police in group home | CP Reporter: How I was detained by G8 security | G20: Activists Arrested, Others Denied Entry into Canada | Toronto no longer feels like home | Police stop car containing ‘weapons’ near G20 summit | G20: Canada’s billion-dollar summit mystery | Police TASER Grandmother in Bed | UK: Filmmaker Captures Absurdity, Empty Threats Of Police Terror Stop Laws | Sacco and Vanzetti in Ottawa: How Media and Police are Politicizing the RBC Arson Case | G20 security prepared for any threat, at any cost | Peel cop guilty in fake cocaine case | G8/G20 Police Fusion Centres Unmasked in Barrie, North Toronto | No legislation, no precedent to limit G20 police powers | Hospitals, medics prepare for G20 injuries and tear gas | Soldiers and secret police: Some in Huntsville ‘getting nervous’ over G8 | G20 traffic fence can be closed at ‘a moment’s notice,’ police say | Police add water cannon to G20 arsenal | Toronto G20 police arsenal includes plastic bullets | Real IRA plot accused entrapped by MI5 rules judge | Special prosecutor named as inquiry blasts ’shameful’ Dziekanski Tasering | Ban G20 summit agents provocateurs: activist groups to PM | RCMP wrong to use Taser on Dziekanski: final Braidwood report | Air India report: American-style security czar needed to end agency turf wars | Russian police seize 100,000 anti-Vladimir Putin books | New RCMP watchdog on a short leash: critics | Rights group files for injunction against G20 ‘sound cannon’ | New RCMP watchdog to have more tools to check complaints about force | RCMP to get new oversight agency | Police use teargas on disgruntled World Cup workers | JTF2 Commandos prepare for G20 with secret night raids, frighten Brockville residents | The drug sting that stung a cop | Toronto G20 weekend: Private security fast-tracked, traffic jams, heavy police presence, but no sonic weapons | World Cup: Street kids rounded up and run out of town | G20 activists accuse CSIS of intimidation | G8/G20: Cell phones to be jammed as motorcades move through Huntsville, Toronto | G20: Eastern Avenue Protest Jail | Toronto police beat man, TASER dog in failed gun raid | G20 Security unbridled: Cops bring out artillery as civil rights observers preach vigilance | Security company hired by RCMP for G20 not licensed in Ontario | G20 protesters say they won’t be intimidated by police | Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | Police And Courts Regularly Abusing Wiretapping Laws To Arrest People For Filming Cops Misbehaving In Public Places | Toronto police show off G20 summit security | Mounties shun ‘sound cannons’ in urban settings ahead of G20 | 1,100 private security guards to work G8-G20 summits | Russian police crush anti-government protests | Police detail G20 security zone | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto police buy four ’sound cannons’ for G20 | The Toronto G20 Police State Crackdown | Toronto police agree to erase security zone pass info after G20 | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | Toronto streets get 77 more surveillance cameras for G20 | Young Quebec student strip-searched, stranded in U.S. border ordeal | Random sobriety tests would breach constitutional rights: Bar association | Ontario police forces seek access to driver’s-licence photos | RCMP launches investigation into five officers after in-custody death | Keeping America Safe: SWAT Team Storms Family Home, Shoots Pet Dogs, Over Small Bag Of Marijuana | Toronto family blames police for son’s death, demands probe | Press For Truth Arrested While Reporting On The G20 Summit | Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Downtown Toronto To Be Transformed Into Locked-Down Police State This Summer | Police State Canada 2010 and the G20 Summit | Halifax G8 protester charged with assault | Protesters and police get ready to square off at G20 summit | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Militarized police integrate with private security for G20 Toronto concourse drill | Black Montreal teacher alleges police abuse | Former Toronto drug squad officers must face trial after all, top court rules | Small army to protect Toronto during G20 summit | Feds mulling plan to turn Parliament Hill into high-security zone | Nine charged after marijuana compassion club raided | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Interpol heads to World Cup in record numbers | Raid on ‘unheard of’ Hutaree militia puzzles small town | The prison spending boom | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | FBI raids in Washtenaw, Lenawee counties tied to Michigan militia group | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Toronto G20 summit security to be ‘massive’ | Victoria police investigate their own in assault posted on YouTube | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | RCMP needs 5,500 rooms during G20 summit | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Montreal police accused of protest sabotage | 100 arrested at anti police brutality march in Montreal | Planned random DUI checkpoints a violation of rights | US Forest Service admits putting surveillance cameras on public land | Public Safety Canada announces national plan to centralize operations in state of emergency | Undercover policeman reveals how he infiltrated UK’s anti-racism activists | The dark side of DNA | Tories revive random roadside breath test | General strike cripples Greece as protesters clash with police | Chicago police expanding Taser use | Obama Supports DNA Sampling Upon Arrest | UK: Mobile fingerprint scanner for English and Welsh police | Plan to put more police on Toronto transit | Downtown Toronto to become a fortress for G20 summit | UK: Former Met police detective facing jail over cocaine smuggling plot | Feared police crackdown absent during Games | G8/G20: Gearing up for the biggest security event in Canadian history | RCMP needs broader overhaul, more cameras, Senate group says | UK photographer films his own ‘anti-terror’ arrest | The truth about the Mossad | N.Y.C.’s former top cop sentenced for felonies | RCMP to test Taser cameras | UK Police use spy drone for first domestic arrest – without airspace clearance | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Police lines block overwhelmingly peaceful Olympic protest march on BC Place Stadium | Vancouver police shut down several blocks, shopping mall to blow up fishing rod | Future police: Meet the UK’s armed robot drones | Troops Randomly Patrol Streets In Pittsburgh in Wake of Snowfall, Respond To “Domestic Disputes” | Elite Toronto police squad stops and questions thousands | RCMP complaints to get ‘independent’ probes | US Interrogation Squad Doing ‘Scientific Research’ | Winter Olympics on slippery slope after Vancouver crackdown on homeless | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Domestic threats biggest Olympic security concern: expert | Washington DC transit system holds anti-terror drills | Ont. top cop pushed for charges against protester | Let the Olympic surveillance begin | Israeli Scientists Show DNA Evidence Can be Fabricated | Winnipeg police caught on video beating man | Police beat 18-year-old violinist over phantom Mountain Dew bottle | Toronto Star Columnist Fiorito: The cops came and took my gun | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case | New RCMP watchdog is toothless | ‘Toronto 18′ accused involved in bomb plot through RCMP agent, defence says | The War on Terrorism and the Countdown to the 2010 Olympics | UK police plan to use military-style spy drones |UK: Photographers protest over terror search laws | Vancouver police apologize after wrong man beaten by plainclothes officers | FBI ‘fabricated terror emergencies to get phone records’ | BATF Notice Bans Private Gun Sales In Texas | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Walkom: Mole crucial to terror trial | RCMP hasn’t closed book on missing potential explosive as Olympics loom | RCMP ends search – and Wiebo Ludwig opens his door | No need for OPP head to take leave whilst being investigated for criminal charges: McGuinty | UK: Anti-terror stop and search policy ruled illegal by European human rights court | Obama Executive Order Stokes Martial Law Fears | A North American Security Perimeter Coming Into View | Wiebo Ludwig arrested ‘to protect public’: RCMP goes fishing in pipeline bombing case | US Domestic Espionage Alert: Spy Drone Discovered | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | DNA matches solve only a fraction of crimes, police admit | Britain, U.S. to fund Yemen anti-terror unit | For more see The Memory Hole – Police

Greg Miller, Ernesto Londoño, The Washington Post
June 27, 2010

Prosecutors ordered to cross names off case files, disregard evidence

Top officials in President Hamid Karzai’s government have repeatedly derailed corruption investigations of politically connected Afghans, according to U.S. officials who have provided Afghanistan’s authorities with wiretapping technology and other assistance in efforts to crack down on endemic graft.

In recent months, the U.S. officials said, Afghan prosecutors and investigators have been ordered to cross names off case files, prevent senior officials from being placed under arrest and disregard evidence against executives of a major financial firm suspected of helping the nation’s elite move millions of dollars overseas.

As a result, U.S. advisers sent to Kabul by the Justice Department, the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration have come to see Afghanistan’s corruption problem in increasingly stark terms.

“Above a certain level, people are being very well protected,” said a senior U.S. official involved in the investigations.

Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar denied investigations had been derailed. “There is no case, no instance, in which the palace or anyone from the palace has interfered with a case,” he said.

Afghanistan is awash in international aid and regarded as one of the most corrupt countries in the world. Indeed, even as the United States and its allies pour money in, U.S. officials estimate that as much as $1 billion a year is flowing out as part of a massive cash exodus. The money, as first reported in The Washington Post in February, is often carried out in full view of customs officials at Kabul’s airport, where such transfers are legal as long as they are declared. Officials suspect much of the cash is going to the Persian Gulf emirate of Dubai, where elite Afghans, including Karzai’s older brother, have villas.

For the Obama administration, the ability of Afghan investigators to crack down on corruption is crucial. If American voters see Karzai’s government as hopelessly corrupt, public support for the war could plunge. Corruption also fuels the Taliban insurgency and complicates efforts to persuade ordinary Afghans to side with leaders in Kabul.

Afghanistan’s attorney general, Mohammed Ishaq Aloko, was seen as a potential ally against corruption when he took the job two years ago. Some investigations have ended in convictions. But U.S. officials said that Aloko, a native of Kandahar province who studied law in Germany, has repeatedly impeded prosecutions of suspects with political ties.

In meetings with U.S. Justice Department officials, Aloko has seemed almost apologetic and acknowledged coming under pressure from Karzai as well as members of parliament, officials said. On one occasion, according to a U.S. official, Aloko told his American counterparts, “I’m doing this because that is what the president tells me I have to do.”

The official, like others quoted in this report, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive investigations.

Aloko directed questions to his deputy, Rahmatullah Nazari, who blamed resource constraints for his office’s failure to win more corruption convictions. “There isn’t any kind of pressure on the attorney general’s office” Nazari said. “If anyone caves to pressure, they should go to prison.”

But U.S. officials point to multiple instances of interference. The most prominent example to surface publicly involves Afghanistan’s former minister of Islamic affairs, who fled the country this year as prosecutors were preparing to charge him with extorting millions of dollars from companies seeking contracts to take pilgrims to the Muslim holy land, a trip known as the hajj.

A travel ban was issued to block the former minister, Mohammad Siddiq Chakari, from leaving. But U.S. officials said Chakari escaped after showing airport security officials a letter he obtained from Aloko’s office saying he had cooperated in the case and was not to be detained. Nazari said Chakari had not been convicted of a crime and, therefore, could not be prevented from leaving.

Chakari, who is now in London, has repeatedly maintained his innocence. Because there is no extradition treaty between Afghanistan and Britain, U.S. officials said it is unlikely that he will ever stand trial. Even so, some regard his departure as a moral victory.

“The very fact that the former minister of the hajj had to leave the country is in a way a remarkable achievement,” said Steve Kraft, director of Afghanistan and Pakistan programs for the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. “We would rather see him in jail here. But in the old days, they would have scoffed” at the idea of pursuing such a probe.

Combined efforts

Critics say Karzai’s initiatives are meant to appease the international community. “It’s all a show,” lawmaker Sayed Rahman said, noting that no senior government official has been imprisoned on corruption charges.

Over the past year, U.S. officials said, Afghan investigators have assembled evidence against three Karzai-appointed provincial governors accused of embezzlement or bribery. All three cases have been blocked. The interference has persisted, officials said, despite Karzai’s pledge in November during his second inaugural address to make fighting corruption a focus of his new term.

The extent of the interference has become evident, officials said, in large part because of improvements in Afghan authorities’ ability to pursue corruption cases.

Over the past two years, U.S. agencies have allied with their Afghan counterparts to create elite investigative and prosecutorial teams. Afghan applicants undergo polygraph tests in which they are asked whether they have taken bribes. Some have been sent to U.S. facilities, including the DEA academy in Quantico, to be trained.

Still, Karzai’s administration has reportedly taken steps to limit the independence of these units. The U.S. official said that Aloko recently created a three-member commission to “review” the units’ cases and that the panel has removed names of politically connected Afghans from prosecutors’ files.

Nazari, Aloko’s deputy, said that if others know of a list of names that have been removed, “they should bring it to us.”

The long-term aim of the anti-corruption units, Kraft said, is to assemble cases in which the evidence is “so profound and well-known that the ability to get people off the hook will no longer be there.”

Evidence from wiretaps

A key capability is a U.S.-provided eavesdropping system that allows Afghan investigators to intercept cellphone calls in the most populous parts of the country.

The wiretaps, approved by Afghan judges, have yielded key evidence in a growing list of embezzlement and bribery cases. U.S. officials said the wiretaps have also caught senior officials and members of parliament discussing efforts to derail certain cases.

In January, Afghan authorities raided the offices of New Ansari, a firm that has served as Afghanistan’s primary link to the “hawala” money exchange system. This informal system for transferring cash overseas makes electronic tracking difficult. A second U.S. official familiar with the investigation said the firm is suspected of laundering drug money, delivering funds to insurgents and helping Afghan officials transfer tens of millions of dollars to accounts abroad.

After the raid, wiretaps picked up conversations indicating that there had been a frantic meeting with Karzai aides at the presidential palace. U.S. officials said members of Karzai’s administration as well as members of parliament held subsequent meetings with Aloko, pressuring him to ensure that certain New Ansari executives not be charged.

Among those protected was Haji Muhammad Rafi Azimi, deputy chairman of Afghan United Bank, a subsidiary of New Ansari, U.S. officials said. Azimi is heard discussing on a wiretap recording bribes paid to Chakari. The recorded conversations were played in open court in the trial of a lower-ranking official in the Religious Affairs Ministry, Mohammed Noor.

“It’s clear to everyone involved he should be indicted and charged,” a U.S. official said of Azimi. But, the official said, Azimi is “a businessman who knows a great deal about the finances of government officials.”

A second U.S. official familiar with the case concurred. “What happened is a large group of very powerful people . . . went to the attorney general and told him to stand down,” the official said.

Phone calls and e-mails to Azimi did not elicit any responses. Guards outside New Ansari’s office in Kabul told a reporter that the site had been closed for months. They said they did not know why they were still getting paid to guard it.

Noor, a civil servant, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being convicted in May of collecting bribe money for Chakari in Saudi Arabia and bringing it to Afghanistan. Two others in the case are awaiting trial. Azimi remains in his position at Afghan United Bank.

Aloko has announced that his office is investigating five current and former ministers, reportedly including Mohammad Ibrahim Adel, the mines minister, accused by U.S. officials of taking a $30 million bribe from a Chinese firm. Adel stepped down, but neither he nor any other minister — besides Chakari — has been charged.

Source | See Also under Afghanistan: Bin Laden’s location still unknown: CIA boss | UN pulls foreign staff out of Afghanistan amid rising violence | US officials back away from July 2011 Afghan withdrawal deadline | Blackwater/Xe Awarded New Contract as More Afghan Civilians Said to Be Killed in an Airstrike | US May Unleash Microwave Weapon in Afghanistan | US officials back away from July 2011 Afghan withdrawal deadline | Blackwater/Xe Awarded New Contract as More Afghan Civilians Said to Be Killed in an Airstrike | US May Unleash Microwave Weapon in Afghanistan | Army Preps ‘Unblinking Eye’ High Altitude Airship for Afghanistan | WikiLeaks to release video of deadly US airstrike in Garani | Prepare for tough summer in Afghanistan, Canadian commander warns | Deal reached on detainee documents — but NDP pulls out | Surprise! That Story About Afghanistan’s $1 Trillion In Commodities Came Out Just Ahead Of Major Mining Auction | US Knowledge of Aghan Mineral Bonanza Confirmed in 2002, 2007 | Military wanted detainee whistle-blower pulled from Afghanistan | Lithium, gold, iron, copper: Massive mineral discovery in Afghanistan could alter the war | Moscow opens Central Asian supply route for Afghan mission, NATO believes tide turning in Kandahar | Canada’s Dhala Dam development project hobbled by connections to Karzai security firm | Tories worked hard to paint bloody Afghan war as peace mission: MEP documents | Karzai’s Afghan peace conference ends with agreement on Taliban amnesty | Afghan deployment past 2011 possible: MPs | US acknowledges mistaken attack on Afghan civilians | Afghan president’s half-brother denies corruption | Abuses at US ‘Black Jail’ in Afghanistan confirmed | MPs reach agreement to share Afghan detainee document information | Afghan torture documents release talks get extension | Afghan authorities beat citizens on ‘whim’: Military inquiry | Omar Khadr turned down plea deal | Speaker orders Harper government to cough up Afghan detainee documents | Khadr pretrial hearings begin | Taliban fighters lay down their guns to harvest opium poppies | NATO to begin handing control to Afghans | ‘Vast’ biometric database prompts troops to open fire on vehicle, 4 unarmed Afghans killed | Censors threaten detainee hearings | Afghan torture allegations erupt in UK | Canadian Afghan withdrawal could pass through Pakistan | Canadian forces covered up shooting of sleeping 17-yr old: Afghan translator | Canada knew in 2007 Kandahar governor tortured prisoners in dungeon, bombed UN personnel | U.S. officials say Pakistani spy agency released Afghan Taliban insurgents | Taliban support strong in Kandahar: poll | Military Police begin Afghan detainee torture investigative hearings, reporters barred | US special forces ‘tried to cover-up’ botched Khataba raid in Afghanistan | Controversial use of mercenary forces surges in Afghanistan | Afghan tension mounts as NATO offensive looms | Tories table thousands more censored Afghan files | Afghan parliament says no to Karzai bid for more control over election watchdog | MacKay knew of Afghan detainee concerns: diplomat | Full Afghan withdrawal ‘wrong,’ top Tory says | Tories flood Ottawa with blacked-out documents in response to Afghan torture scandal | U.S. to press for Canada to keep troops in Afghanistan | New policy shrouds number of Canada’s Afghan campaign injuries in secrecy | Opposition threatens contempt motion over Afghan torture documents | Defence Department official used private contractors for spy network in AfPak | Ottawa anticipated Afghan torture allegations: memo | CSIS secretly interrogated Afghan prisoners | Canada wanted Afghan prisoners tortured: lawyer | Harper grilled over prorogation, Afghan detainee torture documents | Russia blames Nato for heroin surge from Afghanistan | NATO prepares for major Kandahar offensive, refugee camps | Afghan ministers voice anger as civilians killed in Nato air strike | Hamid Karzai takes control of Afghanistan election watchdog | White House welcomes Afghan Taliban No. 2 capture | Five civilians killed in Nato rocket attack in Afghanistan | NATO’s novel battle tactic spawns opposite effects as 12 civilians killed | NATO, Afghan troops launch largest air assault of Afghan war | Blackwater accused of defrauding US government, billing for hooker under ‘morale’ | Marjah, Afghanistan: Countdown To A Battle | Omar Khadr’s rights were violated: Ruling sees top court clash with Tories | Military probes beating of Afghan prisoner | Afghanistan conference agrees on exit timetable, Taliban bailout | British and US troops to launch new Afghanistan offensive | General McChrystal indicates talks with Taliban to be discussed | Killer of CIA agents in Afghanistan called for revenge for Baitullah Mehsud | Ex-Blackwater contractors charged with Afghan killings | For more see The Memory Hole – Afghanistan

Related: Peak oil postponed again? | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Oil Companies Support Global Warming Alarmists, Not Skeptics | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill | Oil, oil everywhere? Well, just maybe | World has enough oil reserves, says BP boss

Naked Capitalism
June 26, 2010

Gulf resident and fisherman’s wife Kindra Arnesen took advantage of the offer extended to her to visit cleanup sites and staff meetings:

At any rate, I was invited the following week to go behind “enemy lines.” They gave me, of all people, security clearance to go into the base of operations meetings in Venice, Louisiana eight days in. Open door invitation to sit like a fly on the wall. Can you believe it? It’s really going on. They also gave me security clearance to go up to the Homer Incident Command Post which is over the entire region of Louisiana. I’ve been in Coast Guard planes all the way out to the site itself. Helicopters. Boat rides. I have been everywhere that anybody could ever want to go to get an inside look at what’s really going on.

Arensen appears to have been invited in because she got media coverage earlier in June when CNN covered her efforts to organize wives of Gulf fisherman over concerns about the safety of working on oil cleanup:

Arnesen believes it was vapors from the oil and the dispersants from the BP Gulf oil disaster that made her husband and the other shrimpers sick. She says they were downwind of it, and the smell was “so strong they could almost taste it.”

For several weeks, she hesitated to talk publicly about it. Like many fishermen who can no longer fish in the Gulf, her husband has signed a contract to work with BP to clean up the oil, and she doesn’t want to bite the hand that puts food on her family’s table.

But now Arnesen, a 32-year-old “uneducated housewife” — her words — is breaking her silence and is encouraging others in her community do the same. After attending a lecture by Rikki Ott, a toxicologist who’s worked with families affected by the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska, Arnesen decided to organize other wives to ask questions about the safety of working near the oil.

Apparently embedding is more successful with journalists than with people who have a stake in the events they are witnessing. Her report indicates (transcript via Suburban Guerilla, courtesy Democratic Underground):

1. BP is playing down concerns over the safety of exposure to oil and chemical fumes, and attributing ailments and symptoms to causes that strain credulity. In addition, it is, as we reported earlier, making it well nigh impossible for responders to obtain respirators (the method is bureaucratic impediments: they not only need to prepare an OSHA form, but need an evaluation by “a medical professional”. Pray tell, how many people have the time and money to do that? (The detail of the interview indicates a Catch 22 in action). And again as reported here, BP is refusing to employ workers who bring their own respirators, even those OSHA rules workers to provide them.

2. Cleanup measures are far less aggressive than depicted to the media and visiting politicians:

So basically, this whole “ponies and balloons” act — if someone does not come in and properly oversee this response — our marsh now is being used as a boom. an overworked (?) boom, a big, giant sponge. It’s on both sides of us. It will fill up, it is filling up, constantly. We have heavy, heavy crude penetrating our marsh right now as we speak. They deploy , and then they pull ‘em back in when the politicians leave and this is not acceptable!

They’re not cleaning it up; they’re covering it up! This is, we’re barely into this. This could go on for years and years and they are already cutting costs! Cutting costs, cutting corners, taking shortcuts is why we are all sittin’ in this room today.

Enough is enough!

Now, as far as EPA, OSHA, NOAA, BP, and the federal government , they every one of them’s in collaboration with each other. That comes from someone at the top of NOAA. That’s who I’ve been talking to. They gave me someone at the top of NOAA. But, they’re all in collaboration with BP.

[Ed. Note: Washington's blog also supplies an additional video with the text below.]

Former clean-up worker Candy Morris also said the clean-up efforts are just for show, are only cosmetic, and are just for the cameras:

Source | See also under Environment: Maurice Strong: I don’t want to rule the world but global cooperation needed on climate, population, and consumption | Canada commits $400M to climate change fund | Peak oil postponed again? | Bee decline could be down to chemical cocktail interfering with brains | Deepwater Horizon worker claims oil rig leaking weeks before explosion | States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Mike Masnick, Techdirt.com
June 25, 2010

Earlier this year, we noted that government contractor Booz Allen Hamilton had been making the rounds ringing up the moral panic over “cyberterrorism,” without any significant evidence of it actually existing in any real form. The key to all of this was the hiring of former director of national intelligence Michael McConnell as a VP, whose main job seems to be scaring the press into repeating Booz Allen fear mongering talking points and attributing them to him without even bothering to mention that he’s employed by a company that is making a ton of money from this fear mongering. And, boy, has Booz Allen raked in the money. Since the fear mongering began, the firm has secured at least hundreds of millions of dollars in contracts.

Of course, that’s good for the firm, but what about its investors? Well, now that it’s scared the government and the public into handing over all this cash, it looks like its investors want to cash out. The company has now announced plans for an IPO so they can walk off with the cash, built off of scaring the public over a supposed threat for which they have little actual evidence. What a deal!

Source | See also under Internet: Obama Can Shut Down Internet For 4 Months Under New Emergency Powers | Australian Government to Force Use of State Firewall Package, Block ‘Unauthorized’ Programs | Heritage Minister tars those opposing copyright bill C32 as ‘radical extremists’ | Experts Draft Document Critical Of ACTA: Signatures Wanted | Google facing multiple international probes over Street View GPS wardriving campaign | US Senator: China Can Shut Down The Internet, Why Can’t We? | Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Pro-copyright bill group busted as recording industry astroturf campaign | Internet ‘kill switch’ proposed for US President | U.S. seeks international organization in battle against cyber terror | Homeland Security’s Cyber Bill Would Codify Executive Emergency Powers | Pentagon hunts WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in bid to gag website | Rural Internet providers angered by federal support of bigger rivals | Maybe it’s time to muzzle the trolls: Globe tech writer advocates online moderation | US Federal Trade Commission considers taxing online speech | Lieberman Bill Gives Feds ‘Emergency’ Powers to Secure Civilian Nets | Tories unveil tougher copyright bill, requires ISPs to keep user info | Copyright Act changes to be revealed today | India Gearing Up To Fight ACTA; Seeking Other, Like-Minded, Countries | Cyber Command: We Don’t Wanna Defend the Internet (We Just Might Have To) | Pentagon: Let us monitor your network or else | US appoints first cyber warfare general | Harper government secretly monitoring online chats about politics | Obama Czar Wants Mandatory Government Propaganda On Political Websites | Power Corp. open to charging for online content | NSA head confirmed as chief of US cyber command | Pirate Bay Appeal Judges Cleared of Bias | International Copyright Draft Release Was Apparently A One Time Deal: Now We’re Back To Secrecy | Industry Minister Clement invites input on Canadian digital economy | Google attorney slams ACTA copyright treaty | US regulators seek new network neutrality laws | CRTC approves usage-based internet billing | Red Alert: New Canadian DMCA Bill Within Six Weeks | Fox News Caught Aggregating Others Copyrighted Photographs… Something Murdoch Insists Is Illegal | Cybersecurity event seeks to spur international talks | Australian PM shelves web filter legislation until after election | China wants internet firms to inform on clients | Official ACTA Draft Released, Only Very Slightly Less Awful Than Expected | Big Content’s dystopian wish-list for the US gov’t: spyware, censorship, physical searches and SWAT teams | Danger Room What’s Next in National Security Prospective U.S. Cyber Commander Talks Terms of Digital Warfare | Thousands condemn secrecy of New Zealand round of internet copyright talks | Leading UK ISP Says It Will Defy Government’s Net Censorship Bill | Nikkei Restricts Links to Its New Web Site | Canadian researchers reveal another botnet in China, call for state cybersecurity | Internet linking rights case to go before Supreme Court | Isohunt Ordered to Remove Infringing Content | CETA worse than ACTA – EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property Laws | UK: Met Police launch net café spy operation | ACTA Draft: No Internet for Copyright Scofflaws | UK Budget 2010: Darling puts emphasis on broadband for all | Entire Text of ACTA Treaty Leaks to Online Rights Website | Google reroutes uncensored search to Hong Kong, raises stakes in row with China | Revealed: ACTA to cover seven categories of intellectual property | New ACTA Leaks Complete Picture of Oppressive Global Copyright Treaty | Net produces new generation of human rights activists in China | U.S. cybersecurity bill introduced in Senate | Copyright conviction raises privacy concerns | U.S. feds snooping on Facebook | MP Charlie Angus Introducing Private Copying Levy Bill, Flexible Fair Dealing Motion | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | Pot, Palin and prorogation: Stephen Harper gets grilled on YouTube | Government Internet Censorship Begins In Stealth In New Zealand | PM turns to YouTube – and takes questions | EU Parliament votes down ACTA global copyright resolution by overwhelming margin | Cyber-bullying cases put heat on Google, Facebook | Cyberattacks push CSIS to reach out to business | United States weighs massive expansion of Internet monitoring | Cyberwar Hype Intended to Destroy the Open Internet | UK: Open Wi-Fi ‘outlawed’ by Digital Economy Bill | Cryptome.org Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown Under Copyright Law | Italy Convicts Google Execs over Youtube Video of Downs Syndrome Boy | China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | More Details Emerging About School Laptop Spying, And It Doesn’t Look Good | School Spycams Case Explodes As Feds Initiate Probe | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | Pennsylvania schools spying on students using laptop Webcams, claims lawsuit | Google Books Fosters Intellectual, Legal Crossroads | Google Bans Sale of DVD Critical Of Obama Administration | EU Already Has A ‘Public/Private’ IP Observatory To Watch For Copyright Infringement Online | Google shuts down music blogs without warning | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | Swedish Justice Minister reluctant to store internet user’s data | Google, NSA may team up to probe cyberattacks | Hollywood loses landmark copyright case in Australia | Police want backdoor to Web users’ private data | Time Magazine Pushes Draconian Internet Licensing Plan | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | CBC’s new licencing plan: Pay to Print, Email, and Blog, and outsource enforcement to American Copyright Digital Rights Bounty Hunters | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | China Google Hack Exploited Security Gaps Introduced By State Surveillance Provisions | Privacy watchdog wants public input on social networking sites | Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Obama Information Czar Outlined Plan For Government To Infiltrate ‘Conspiracy Groups’ | China tells web companies to obey controls | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Privacy no longer a social norm, says Facebook founder | For more, visit The Memory Hole – Internet

Related:  Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal | Revenue Canada destroys man’s life, refuses to pay for million-dollar mistake | Canada Revenue Agency employees arrested in corruption probe | Obama takes heat for third cabinet appointee that hasn’t paid taxes

Dean Beeby, The Canadian Press
June 22, 2010

Rogue tax workers snooped on ex-spouses, family members

OTTAWA—Dozens of workers at Canada’s tax agency have been caught snooping on their ex-spouses, mothers-in-law, creditors and others by reading confidential tax files.

Internal reports at the Canada Revenue Agency show that rogue employees are improperly reviewing the private financial affairs of taxpayers without their knowledge.

And some are using agency computers to give favoured treatment to colleagues, friends, family — and themselves.

In one egregious breach last October, a woman accessed 37,500 emails and 776 documents containing confidential financial information about ordinary Canadians. She downloaded the files onto 17 compact discs for her personal use, inexplicably helped by agency technicians.

Documents outlining the forbidden invasions into private tax data were obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act.

In one case, a worker secretly operated a business on the side with her spouse, and between 2004 and 2009 “accessed the accounts of two creditors and the spouse of one of those creditors.”

Another worker was found to have inspected his spouse’s tax information 69 times without permission.

A woman in one unidentified office poked into the agency’s data looking for confidential information on colleagues, friends and family — apparently to give them a break on their taxes.

“The employee made unauthorized access to the tax information of three colleagues and to the tax information of a colleague’s daughter, spouse and mother,” says one report.

“She accessed her own tax information and the tax information (of) 13 relatives…. She provided preferential treatment to colleagues, relatives and acquaintances.”

Agency gumshoes then stumbled on a secret cell of snoopers in the same location.

“The investigation also determined that 13 other employees of the same office made unauthorized accesses to taxpayer information. Of the 13 employees, 10 provided preferential treatment to taxpayers, five accessed their own tax information, four received preferential treatment …”

Another worker peeked at secret agency information about two companies she operated on the side — while those firms were undergoing tax audits.

“In addition, the employee made extensive unauthorized accesses to the taxpayer information of friends and family members and hundreds of other individuals.”

Yet another investigation found an employee peering into the electronic tax files of two of her spouse’s business partners, though the motive is not specified.

The documents show that ex-spouses are sometimes targeted, for reasons not made clear in the heavily censored material from September and October last year. Family members were also a favoured target.

Some workers who were caught claimed they were simply helping relatives file their income-tax forms.

But one worker admitted using the CRA computer system and confidential tax information to issue himself a false charitable donation receipt for $3,000, thus reducing his income-tax payable.

Agency records for 2008-2009 show there were 29 cases in which workers were caught accessing taxpayer records without authorization, about the annual average for the last five years. And there were a dozen instances in 2008-2009 in which tax records were improperly disclosed to third parties.

All information about disciplinary measures taken against staff who broke the rules is censored in the released documents. But in several cases, the agency appeared to be lenient with long-term employees.

“The employee admitted that she accessed the taxpayer information belonging to a former employer, her relatives including her mother, her father, her sister and her brother, as well as the information belonging to her former spouse,” says one report.

In deciding on discipline, “management took into consideration the employee’s years of service, her good employment record and her co-operation with the investigation.”

A spokesman for the agency said the number of breaches is relatively small, given that there are more than 40,000 employees.

“While the number of unauthorized access incidents is not large, the agency consistently continues to review its activities to enhance … prevention, detection and deterrence,” Noel Carisse said in an email response to questions.

Carisse said taxpayers are not always informed when workers improperly access files because the breach may be judged too minor. But taxpayers whose information is improperly disclosed to third parties are almost always alerted by telephone or mail.

“The (CRA) assessment will almost always lead to the conclusion that injury to the taxpayer is likely, or has already occurred,” he said, referring to disclosures.

Carisse did not provide information on the numbers of employees suspended, fired or criminally charged for such breaches, but said the agency has a “strict and enforced Code of Ethics and Conduct.”

“While any unauthorized access is unacceptable, the agency believes that the current numbers indicate that the agency is doing a good job protecting taxpayer information.”

He declined to provide any further information on the worker who downloaded 37,500 emails and 776 documents, saying only that the investigation continues.

There have been previous reports of isolated security breaches by insiders at the tax agency.

CTV News reported last year, for example, that a tax agency worker was found to be leaking confidential information to a violent gang in British Columbia. The worker was suspended months after the agency was first alerted to the problem through a police wiretap.

Source | See also under Taxation: The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | EU to push for global bank tax at G20 | Ontario’s First Nations to be HST exempt | B.C. anti-HST petition meets legal benchmark | Liberals admit HST will cost families up to $480 a year | G20 media centre with fake lake to cost $1.9M | US Federal Trade Commission considers taxing online speech | G20 to delay tough bank tax regulations | Underground economy emerges in Ontario in response to HST | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | B.C. anti-HST petition hits target weeks ahead of schedule | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | UK Coalition ministers and bankers to oppose pan-European bailout fund | Protesters worked up over HST levy on fitness | Congress blocks indiscriminate IMF aid for Europe | Anti-HST petition nears goal in B.C. | HST rage puts B.C. Liberals in a spot | Privacy commissioner outlines concerns surrounding Ontario’s Smart Grid plan | Harmonized tax could cost Ontarians $5.9B a year | Canada, EU at loggerheads over bank tax | HST will cost families, McGuinty finally admits | New austerity measures essential, says Greek PM | HST begins taxing Ontario on Saturday | Auditor General produces new warning on E Health record plan | Flaherty wins delay in decision on global bank tax at interim G20 meeting | Unconstitutional? Ontario government slips another new energy tax in under the radar | Bankers Prepare To Assault Americans With VAT, Transaction Taxes | First Nations protest against HST | Montreal flirting with road tolls | GTA road tolls are inevitable, professor says | Global bank tax urged by IMF | Canadian taxes fastest-growing expense: Report | BC Govt, Anti-HST Campaigners Dispute Legality of Pro-HST Leaflet | Flaherty stands firm against new bank tax | Toronto mayor David Miller uses subway PA to push for funding | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Up to 50,000 protest Charest’s tax hikes | Paul Volcker: VAT, Carbon taxes may be necessary | Nova Scotia budget hikes HST rate | Newfoundland residents protest national park fees on ‘traditional’ land | HST fight makes allies of B.C. political foes | Ottawa busker bylaw enforced | Thousands protest Quebec budget | HST legislation introduced in B.C. | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | More stimulus spending coming | MP Charlie Angus Introducing Private Copying Levy Bill, Flexible Fair Dealing Motion | Former premier Bill Vander Zalm rallies against the HST in BC | Ontario tax collectors get $45K severance, keep jobs in HST federalization deal | MEPs vote overwhelmingly for an EU Tobin Tax | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | Frustrated Icelanders vent rage by voting no in referendum | EU considers general carbon tax | UK: Spy chips hidden in 2.5 million dustbins, councils plan 60% tax hike | Greece unveils radical austerity package | Tories hand out $75 billion worth of ’spending restraint’ | Obama unveils newest health-care plan | Gordon Brown’s plan for global bank tax ‘a step closer’ | EU leaders reach secret Greek bailout deal | HST ad campaign debuts in Ontario | The US budget: Barack Obama’s $3.8 trillion red ink blueprint | Global Bank Insurance Levy Wins Support over Transaction Tax at Davos | Cellphone fines up to $500 for Ont. drivers start Monday | IMF warns against retreat from stimulus spending | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | EU urged to adopt bank supertax | Flaherty’s economic plan blasted as leading to taxation or cuts | Obama ponders bank transaction levy to recoup bailout shortfalls | Running a red light? It’ll cost you big time now | See more in The Memory Hole – Taxation

Related: States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Obama targets US public with call for climate action | Obama to stake reputation on fast-tracked climate bill

Graeme Wearden, The Guardian
June 21, 2010

Oil worker told the BBC’s Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak

An oil worker who survived the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion has claimed that the oil rig’s safety equipment was leaking several weeks before it exploded, triggering the huge spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Tyrone Benton says that he spotted a leak on the rig’s Blowout Preventer (BOP), the device that is meant to shut the well down if there is an accident. He told the BBC’s Panorama programme that both BP and Transocean, who owned the rig, were informed of the leak, and the faulty part – a control pod – was switched off rather than being repaired.

“We saw a leak on the pod [and] we informed the company,” Benton told the programme, which will be broadcast at 8.30pm tonight. “They have a control room where they could turn off that pod and turn on the other one, so that they don’t have to stop production.”

Benton added that he was unsure whether the leaking control pod had been turned back on again before a huge gas explosion ripped through the rig on 20 April, killing 11 workers.

The failure of the BOP was one key factor that led to the ongoing environmental disaster. The BOP is designed to clamp the well tightly shut, using cutting equipment to slice through the casing, but on 20 April it did not engage.

After the explosion, BP sent robot submarines down to the seabed to try to trigger the BOP, but failed. The company has already admitted to a Congressional committee that the robots discovered a leak in the BOP’s hydraulic systems, which meant they could not generate enough force for its giant shears to cut through the pipe.

Last week, BP chief executive Tony Hayward repeatedly cited the BOP as a major cause of the disaster, saying it was “not as failsafe” as BP had been told.

Benton’s revelations will pile even more pressure on BP, at a time when its minority party in the leaking well is refusing to pay its share of the costs. Anadarko Petroleum Corporation argues that BP was “grossly negligent” or guilty of “willful misconduct” in the way it drilled the Macondo prospect, which some workers described as a “nightmare well”. Last week the Congressional committee accused BP of taking “risky” decisions to save time and money.

And in another development, BP has been accused of lying after internal documents showed that it has estimated that the leak could reach 100,000 barrels a day, much higher than its public forecasts.

$2bn and rising

The cost of the clean-up operation has now broken through the $2bn (£1.3bn) mark, BP told the City this morning. That is just a fraction of the total bill, though, with BP already committed to putting $20bn into an escrow account to cover compensation claims. That will not cap its liabilities, though, and there are suggestions that BP is now looking to raise $50bn.

The company has said it will sell off some of its assets. This has raised concerns in several countries, including Russia, where the TNK-BP joint venture generates around a quarter of BP’s global production.

Hayward is to fly to Russia to assure the Kremlin that BP can survive the oil spill disaster, the Financial Times reported today.

BP’s chief executive took the decision to meet Russian president Dmitry Medvedev in the next few weeks following a weekend board meeting, and after Medvedev warned that the catastrophe could lead to BP’s “annihilation”.

BP continues to insist that it will clean up the spill and pay “all legitimate claims”, and rejected Anadarko’s claims.

“These allegations will neither distract the company’s focus on stopping the leak nor alter our commitment to restore the Gulf coast,” said Hayward. “Other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from the oil spill, and we expect those parties to live up to their obligations.”

Shares in BP fell by more than 3% this morning to 345p, making it the biggest faller on the FTSE 100. Swiss bank UBS warned shareholders that it did not expect the company to resume paying dividends until 2012. Last week it agreed to cancel payments for the rest of this year, but UBS believes that the cost of the Deepwater spill means a longer suspension is inevitable.

City sources believe that BP may have to sell its operations in the North Sea as part of its drive to cut spending and raise funds.

Source | See also under Environment: States Need To Launch Criminal Investigation Into BP, Federal Government’s Role In Oil Spill | The White House’s Climate Strategy: Pass Bill Now, Slip Carbon Taxes in Later | Climate and CO2 levels linked: study | BP Aware Of Cracks In Oil Well Two Months Before Explosion | Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
June 17, 2010

Former BP Chairman and current BP CEO both dumped stocks in weeks before disaster

BP was aware of cracks appearing in the Macondo well as far back as February, right around the time Goldman Sachs and BP Chairman Tony Hayward were busy dumping their stocks in the company on the eve of the explosion that led to the oil spill, according to information uncovered by congressional investigators.

The Mining and Mineral Services agency released documents to Bloomberg indicating that BP “was trying to seal cracks in the well about 40 miles (64 kilometers) off the Louisiana coast,” according to the report.

The fissures, which BP began to attempt to fix on February 13, could have played a role in the disaster, though this is a question still being explored by investigators. Improperly sealed, the cracks cause explosive natural gas to rush up the shaft.

“The company attempted a “cement squeeze,” which involves pumping cement to seal the fissures, according to a well activity report. Over the following week the company made repeated attempts to plug cracks that were draining expensive drilling fluid, known as “mud,” into the surrounding rocks,” states the report.

As we previously highlighted, eyewitness evidence indicates that Deepwater Horizon managers knew that the BP oil rig had major problems before its explosion on April 20. A crew member who rescued burning workers on the rig told Houston attorney Tony Buzbee of a conversation between Deepwater Horizon installation manager Jimmy Harrell and someone in Houston. According to the witness, Harrell was screaming, “Are you fucking happy? Are you fucking happy? The rig’s on fire! I told you this was gonna happen.”

The fact that BP managers were aware of problems with the rig and were seemingly unconcerned about fixing them only lends more weight to the already startling indications of some having foreknowledge of the disaster.

As we highlighted last week, on page 37 of British Petroleum’s own investigative report into the oil spill, it is stated that the Hydraulic Control System on equipment designed to automatically seal the well in an emergency was modified without BP’s knowledge sometime before the explosion.

Highly suspicious stock and share trades by people connected to BP before the explosion indicate some extent of foreknowledge.

Goldman Sachs dumped 44% of its shares in BP Oil during the first quarter of 2010 – shares that subsequently lost 36 percent of their value, equating to $96 million. The current chairman of Goldman Sachs is Bilderberg luminary Peter Sutherland, who is also the former chairman of British Petroleum.

Furthermore, as reported by the London Telegraph on June 5th, Tony Hayward, the current BP CEO sold £1.4 million of his shares in the fuel giant weeks before the spill.

On April 12th, just over one week before the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, Halliburton, the world’s second largest oilfield services corporation, surprised some by acquiring Boots & Coots, a relatively small but vastly experienced oil well control company.

Halliburton is named in the majority of some two dozen lawsuits filed since the explosion by Gulf Coast people and businesses who claim that the company is to blame for the disaster.

Halliburton was forced to admit in testimony at a congressional hearing last month that it carried out a cementing operation 20 hours before the Gulf of Mexico rig went up in flames. The lawsuits claim that four Halliburton workers stationed on the rig improperly capped the well.

Source | See also under Environment: Canada’s water policy needs overhaul: report | Scan of Arctic ice dispels melting gloom, scientist says | Obama Using Oil Spill To Push Green Economy Agenda | NGOs meet with G20 sherpas, press for ‘green economy’ and inclusive IMF | The IPCC consensus on climate change was phoney, says IPCC insider | Throw cold water on bulk-water export opposition | Report suggests road tolls to fight climate change | Indian Scientists: Mobile phones responsible for disappearance of honey bee | Polar bears not at risk: Nunavut | Couchiching First Nation’s highway ‘toll booth’ peaceful: OPP | Toronto G20 should address climate issues: Nicholas Stern, UN | Bulk water exports prohibited under new U.S.-Canada border regulations | Report: U.S. attempting global censorship of GMO food labeling at CODEX Conference | Quebec public-private wind power project generates turbulence | The promise and the peril of an engineered climate | Scientist says Arctic getting colder | Grassroots summit calls for international climate court | International World Bank ‘Farm-aid’ plan gets a modest start | Climate sceptic wins landmark data victory ‘for price of a stamp’ | Vancouver bans smoking in parks | Climategate whitewash: Climate-change partisans find mere sins of omission | EnCana bomber letter received by B.C. paper | Electricity rates surge in Ontario | Oil sands deal gives China crucial voting bloc in bitumen export issue | Confidential document reveals Obama’s hardline US climate talk strategy | Climate talks reopen at Bonn summit | Ontario unveils $8B in renewable energy projects | Mercury still plagues Ont. First Nation: report | Climategate Investigation A Monumental Whitewash | Britain pushes for new climate talks; IMF and global taxes to figure into wealth redistribution scheme | Obama sets sights on Arctic oil and gas exploration | Lovelock Calls For End to Democracy as Humans ‘Too Stupid’ to Prevent Climate Change | New chief Climategate investigator failed to declare eco directorship | Nicolas Sarkozy under fire after carbon tax plan shelved | Arctic winds and not global warming ‘responsible for much of record loss of sea ice’ | UK: Carbon capture storage lauded, will ‘generate 100,000 jobs and £6.5bn a year’ | UK climate change ads pulled as ‘misleading’ | Subsidized solar power projects approved in Ontario | Pacific North American Regional Integration and Control | ‘Doomsday’ seed bank growing strongly | Green energy bubbles threaten to pop at both Federal and Municipal levels | IMF chief calls for quota-based global warming slush fund | EU considers general carbon tax | Baffin Bay polar bear hunting quota to be cut despite Inuit claim of rising numbers | Will This Little GMO Piggy Go to Market? | A perfect storm is brewing for the IPCC | UK: University at center of Climategate accused of misleading MPs, deleting information | Global warming panel to get independent review | Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2012 | Climate scientists withdraw journal claims of rising sea levels | Obama proposes Great Lakes cleanup | Climategate U-turn as scientist at centre of row admits: There has been no global warming since 1995 | B.C., 3 US states sign accord for ‘Pacific North America’ hours before Olympic kickoff | Climate emails review panellist quits after his impartiality questioned | Carbon trade phish scam disrupts exchanges | Leaked climate change emails scientist ‘hid’ data flaws | Canada files ‘continental’ Copenhagen emissions target with UN | Natural water vapour largely responsible for Global Warming: NOAA, NASA | ‘Bin Laden’ slams U.S over global warming, dollar, in another unconfirmed tape | Davos: Global climate fund threatens aid to developing world, campaigner warns | Obama Likely to Rebrand Climate Bill as Jobs Bill | Canadian scientist says UN’s global warming panel ‘crossing the line’ | Manufactured ‘Science’: Another IPCC Scientist Reveals How UN Scientists talked about ‘trying to make IPCC report so dramatic that US would just have to sign Kyoto Protocol’ | Glacier scientist: I knew data hadn’t been verified | UN wrongly linked global warming to natural disasters | One quarter of US grain crops fed to cars – not people, new figures show | Terence Corcoran: Ontario puts $10B in the wind | Ontario Premiere McGuinty heralds Samsung ‘green energy’ deal | UN drops deadline for countries to state climate change targets | EU Embargoes Canada’s GMO-sabotaged Flax Industry | The IPCC glacier meltdown: More global warming fraud exposed | ‘Green jobs’ are key to U.S., Canadian recovery: US Ambassador | Taxpayers’ millions paid to Indian institute run by UN IPCC climate chief | Monsanto’s GMO Corn Linked To Organ Failure, Study Reveals | The next big scam: Fraud endemic to carbon market | For more see The Memory Hole – Environment

Related: Taser International allowed to challenge Braidwood report | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Scathing report concludes RCMP used TASERs prematurely in Vancouver airport death | Taser inquiry wraps up in Vancouver with legal squabbles | Canadian police adopt new TASER directive | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | Braidwood inquiry reopens, RCMP bickers over preplanned TASER use | TASER files court motion to quash Braidwood probe’s findings | Mounties have no choice but to comply with TASER ruling | Justice says changes needed in Taser use | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | Judge: B.C. taser probe can rule on Mountie misconduct issue | Mounties want to bar Taser inquiry from finding misconduct | RCMP spokesman told to hold off correcting false details of Dziekanski incident, inquiry hears | RCMP supervising officer contradicts earlier testimony in Dziekanski inquiry | RCMP to face no charges in case of TASERed Polish immigrant: Report | Mountie involved in fatal crash was supervisor at time of airport Taser death | Perjury: Is it different for cops? | Mounties censor Taser report | Witness blames RCMP, Vancouver airport for death of Tasered man

CBC News
June 17, 2010

Officers’ accounts called ‘patently unbelievable’

The final inquiry report on the death of Robert Dziekanski has concluded the RCMP were not justified in using a Taser against the Polish immigrant and that the officers later deliberately misrepresented their actions to investigators.

The long-awaited report, by retired B.C. Court of Appeal justice Thomas Braidwood, was released Friday in Vancouver.

Braidwood was commissioned by the B.C. government to investigate the actions of the four RCMP officers who confronted and subdued Dziekanski on Oct. 14, 2007, at Vancouver International Airport.

Braidwood said the four officers involved initially acted appropriately, but the senior corporal intervened in an inappropriately aggressive manner.

“I found that Mr. Dziekanski had been compliant and was not defiant or resistant, did not brandish the stapler, did not move towards any of the officers,” he said.

“I concluded that the constable was not justified in deploying the weapon and that neither the constable nor the corporal honestly perceived that Mr. Dziekanski was intending to attack any of the officers,” he said.

Officers misrepresented actions

Braidwood concluded the officers later deliberately misrepresented what happened at the airport to justify their actions.

“I also concluded that the two other officers during their testimony before me offered patently unbelievable after-the-fact rationalizations of their notes and their statements” to the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, Braidwood said.

“I found all four officers’ claims that they wrestled Mr. Dziekanski to the ground were deliberate misrepresentations made for the purpose of justifying their actions.”

“I also disbelieved the four officers’ claims there was no discussion between or among them about the incident before being questioned by IHIT investigators, although I did not conclude that they colluded to fabricate a story.”

“From this review I drew two final conclusions,” he said. “Despite their training, the officers approached the incident as though responding to a barroom brawl and failed to shift gears when they realized that they were dealing with an obviously distraught traveller.”

“This tragic case is at its heart a story of shameful conduct by a few officers. It ought not to reflect unfairly on the many thousands of RCMP and other police officers who have, through years of public service, protected our communities and earned a well-deserved reputation for doing so.”

Criminal charges left to Crown

Braidwood said he would leave any further questions about possible charges against the officers for the Crown to decide.

In his conclusions, he called on the B.C. government to establish a civilian-led body to investigate similar police incidents in the future.

Braidwood also applauded improvements made by at the Vancouver International Airport since the Dziekanski’s death, but criticized the Canada Border Services Agency for making only “minor and few” changes.

After the release of the report, B.C. Attorney General Mike de Jong said he was appointing a special independent prosecutor to re-examine the airport Taser incident in light of Braidwood’s findings.

De Jong also said the government was accepting all of Braidwood’s recommendations and moving immediately to set up a new civilian-led body to oversee investigations of police in B.C.

Confronted in arrivals lounge

Dziekanski died after being stunned multiple times by RCMP officers using a Taser. The 40-year-old Polish immigrant, who spoke no English, had been wandering in the international arrival area for several hours, unable to communicate with anyone, while he waited for his mother to drive from the B.C. Interior to meet him.

He became distraught and angry, prompting airport staff to call police. Within 30 seconds of arriving at the lounge, the four RCMP officers surrounded him and knocked him to the ground with one Taser stun, then pulled the trigger four more times.

By the time medical help arrived, Dziekanski was dead.

Initially, police said Dziekanski had attacked the officers, but a digital camera video taken by a bystander raised questions about the RCMP account and became the key piece of evidence in the inquiry.

No officers were ever charged in the death and the RCMP defended the handling of the incident, saying Dziekanski was advancing at the officers when he was stunned with the Taser.

Before the report was released, Dziekanski’s mother, Zofia Cisowski, said she believed there was no doubt about the role the Mounties played in her son’s death.

“That was torture. That was execution, because nobody help him. He shouldn’t [have] died on the floor, but I see that,” Cisowski told CBC News Thursday.

Braidwood also released a previous report last July that was critical of police guidelines on their use of Tasers and other conducted energy weapons.

Source | See also under Tasers: RCMP unveil new stun gun rules: Verbal warning, imminent harm required | Taser International allowed to challenge Braidwood report | Toronto police disclose Tasers often used on mentally ill | Taser International challenge should be dismissed, B.C. government argues | Taser use by Montreal police focus of hearings | RCMP gives cash settlement to Taser victim’s mother | Cop Cleared By Grand Jury For Tasering Great Grandmother During Speeding Stop | Officers suspended after using Taser on 10-year-old | Ontario report rewrites stun gun rules, somewhat | UK: Police Taser use ‘doubled’ in third quarter of 2009 | Ontario stun gun review complete: report | Chicago police expanding Taser use | RCMP to test Taser cameras | RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy | Regina police probe RCMP torture claims | Taser inquiry can rule on RCMP misconduct | U.S. ruling limits how police can use Tasers | RCMP had no grounds to use Taser on N.W.T. girl: report | Scathing report concludes RCMP used TASERs prematurely in Vancouver airport death | U.S. police taser 10-year-old | Death linked to ‘excited delirium’: coroner | US Cop Tasers and Arrests a 10-Year Old Girl For Throwing a Fit | RCMP defend Taser use on girl, 16 | Taser inquiry wraps up in Vancouver with legal squabbles | Canadian police adopt new TASER directive | PQ wants probe after Taser used on mentally challenged man | RCMP actions ‘gratuitous, ‘violent,’ BC needs own police lawyer tells inquiry | RCMP tests Tasers that record video | Braidwood inquiry reopens, RCMP bickers over preplanned TASER use | Merced police used TASER on unarmed, legless man in a wheelchair | UK: Police may be issued with new high-power Taser | TASER files court motion to quash Braidwood probe’s findings | Pregnant mother tasered at baptism party | TASER introduces 3-shot semiauto | Mounties have no choice but to comply with TASER ruling | Justice says changes needed in Taser use | US Lawsuit: Cops tasered 3 kids in shelter, threatened one with sodomy | Officer denies uttering sexual threat before lethal TASERing | Latest TASER victim looked ’scared’ as officer approached with knife | Safety Tests MIA for Taser’s Shocking New Shotgun | Mounties discussed Tasing Dziekanski prior to altercation | UK Police watchdog to investigate Taser arrest, beating posted on YouTube | Judge: B.C. taser probe can rule on Mountie misconduct issue | New video shows officer shove, then taser 72-year-old great grandmother | Mounties want to bar Taser inquiry from finding misconduct | US: Ruling allowing Taser use to get DNA may be nation’s first | RCMP halts use of malfunctioning Tasers after B.C. decision | Taser inquiry into Dziekanski’s death hears last witness | Dziekanski’s death following Taser jolts no coincidence: expert | Dziekanski ‘would not have died’ if spared Taser, expert tells inquiry | TASER’s medical expert says weapon didn’t cause Dziekanski’s death | RCMP didn’t tell pathologist Dziekanski suffered multiple TASER stuns, inquiry hears | RCMP spokesman told to hold off correcting false details of Dziekanski incident, inquiry hears | RCMP ’sorry’ for errors in taser briefings | MPs grill top Mountie on tasers | RCMP shocked 16 people five times or more last year | RCMP still uses Tasers too often, watchdog finds | RCMP credibility battered by TASER inquiry | Quebec orders police to turn in Tasers | RCMP softened Taser-use restrictions | RCMP supervising officer contradicts earlier testimony in Dziekanski inquiry | Boys, 15, Tasered by police, stats show | Toronto police used Tasers 367 times in 2008: statistics | Stun gun shock to head may cause seizures, doctors warn | TASER launches new headcam for police – with ‘privacy mode’ | TASERed immigrant ‘had the stapler open… he was in a combative stance’ | Dziekanski’s ‘combative behaviour’ justified Taser jolt: Mountie | Witness alters story but maintains Dziekanski attempted to staple RCMP | Airport refused help from Polish-speaking employee before Taser death | Dziekanski didn’t wield stapler before RCMP fired Taser, inquiry hears | Selkirk teen sues RCMP over stun gun allegations | Ban stun gun use on young people, Ontario child advocate urges | Emergency call taken out of context: airport Taser death witness | RCMP destroyed evidence, charges dismissed in second torture case for officers | U.S. study raises more questions about TASER safety | Second phase of Taser inquiry begins in Vancouver | RCMP watchdog launches new Taser probe around deaths | Police forces withhold information on Taser use from public: audit | US police could get ‘pain beam’ weapons | No charges to be laid against RCMP officers in airport Taser death | RCMP to face no charges in case of TASERed Polish immigrant: Report | Taser International disputes CBC/Radio-Canada testing as ‘flawed’ | Red Deer man shot by Taser had pre-existing heart condition: doctor | Cops Taser Drowned Dad’s Distraught Son | Amnesty urges moratorium on Taser use after CBC/Radio-Canada probe | Some tested Tasers fire stronger current than company says: CBC/Radio-Canada probe | RCMP Investigates, Clears Self of Wrongdoing in Case of TASERed Inuvik Girl | US Cops Tase 54 Year Old Woman For Sitting In Wrong Seat At Football Game | Prison service ices TASER pilot project | B.C. man dies after Taser used during Calgary arrest | Mountie involved in fatal crash was supervisor at time of airport Taser death | Drug abuser executed by TASER blasts – TASER toll stands at 25 | Mountie arrested in fatal crash present at airport Taser death | Inquiry into Vancouver airport Taser death put off 2nd time | Tasers being used for pain compliance during interrogation, suit alleges | Family sues police claiming Taser raid on autistic son in own bedroom | Naked Langley, B.C., robbery suspect dies after Taser jolt | Tasering of mom with baby ‘necessary’ in order to take child, police say | Brampton man is 23rd Canadian TASER death; police duly investigate themselves | RCMP didn’t study Taser use enough: Report | Probe into tasering of teenaged girl reopened | Police Taser and abuse suspect, lie on stand, man still convicted | RCMP should end use of Tasers: Zaccardelli | Police delay report on Taser until 2009 | Mounties pinned me down in cell and tasered me, Manitoba girl says | 21st Canadian TASER death occurs in Winnipeg alleyway | RCMP e-mails throw Dziekanski Taser probe into question, critics say | TASER bracelets considered for airline passengers | Taser use could put police under fire | Inquiry says ‘insidious’ TASERs being used as tool of convenience, should be reclassified, restricted under criminal code | Man dies in custody after Taser incident involving Ontario police | Ban Tasers if RCMP doesn’t curb use by year’s end: Commons committee | One-third of people shot by Taser need medical attention: probe | RCMP firing Tasers multiple times at subjects, probe reveals | U.S. jury shocks Taser, investors, with rare 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Related: Security unit shows off G8 plans for Huntsville | G20 media centre with fake lake to cost $1.9M | Clement blasted for G8 riding spending, Baird drags out 9/11 trope | Budget watchdog probing G8/G20 summits’ $1-billion price tag | Toronto Police to take up to $100-million of G20 security funds | Toronto and Muskoka G8/20 Summit security costs hit $1.1B | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Les Whittington, Toronto Star
June 17, 2010

Well before the summit motherlode, Industry Minister delivered the goods

OTTAWA—In the wilderness cottage country north of Parry Sound, where a two-lane road peters out in the middle of nowhere, motorists can keep going through the bush on a winding roller-coaster of paved track called the Bunny Trail. Thanks to the Harper government, this little-travelled side road is now slated for improvement—at a cost to Canadian taxpayers of nearly half a million dollars.

“Reconstruction of Bunny Trail”—as the project near the town of Dunchurch is described in federal government records—will cost $463,061. But that’s just a drop in the bucket compared with the nearly $100 million the Conservatives have poured into the riding of Parry Sound-Muskoka in the past couple of years since former Tory MPP Tony Clement took over as federal industry minister.

Under Clement, who originally won the former Liberal-held riding by only 28 votes in 2006, Ottawa has tapped every funding program available to shower the 90,000 residents with cash.

The largely rural riding is not poor—its average family income of $73,000 is in line with the average for the whole country. But the residents of Parry Sound-Muskoka have still been major benefactors of government generosity.

For a G8 summit which lasts for mere hours over June 25-26, taxpayers are on the hook for nearly $50 million to spruce up the riding.

That has garnered headlines and opposition attacks. But a Star investigation shows the federal government has funneled more than $50 million in additional cash into Parry Sound-Muskoka in the past few years, money which has nothing to do with the global summit.

No possible spending proposal seems to have gone unrewarded. There’s money for bridges, roads, hockey arenas, museums, health programs and college dorms. Small airports are getting fixed up, as are fire halls, train stations, libraries, water mains, parks and bike paths in the riding.

The town of South River, for example, is receiving $40,780 to help a women’s centre set up a car pool system, while Port Carling in the heart of upscale Muskoka cottage country is getting a cheque for $20,295 to upgrade its curling club and $258,265 for improvements to its “streetscape.” And Parry Sound alone has more than $9 million coming in from Ottawa for a variety of projects, including $1 million for the Bobby Orr community centre.

Accusing Clement of blatant pork-barreling, the Liberals complained Wednesday that he is streaming money into his riding at the expense of much needier areas of Canada.

“This has to be recoecord-breaking,” said Liberal MP Mark Holland. “I can’t think of any other riding that has received this kind of money for local, miscellaneous infrastructure projects.

“It looks to me like they are trying to buy votes. I think this is a cabinet minister who was given a $100-million slush fund to spread around the riding to ingratiate himself.”

Clement defended the spending as part of the government’s overall attempt to fight off the recession and build up the economy. “We’ve had thousands of projects throughout the country, economic stimulus projects that have been funded through various envelopes,” he told reporters.

The bulk of the money pouring into Parry Sound-Muskoka is coming from Ottawa’s Building Canada infrastructure fund—totaling more than $35 million for the riding.

Another $1.1 million is from FedNor, the northern Ontario development program run by the federal government. Another $8 million comes from the Community Adjustment fund for northern Ontario, plus $4 million from the Infrastructure Stimulus fund and $1.4 million from Ottawa to build recreational facilities.

The Knowledge Infrastructure fund is also providing $3.1 million.

Federal cash flows into Parry Sound-Muskoka

Among the non-G8 projects listed in government records:

• $5.2 million for dorms for the Bracebridge campus of Nipissing University.

• $184,000 to put a museum and art gallery in the former South River train station.

• $6.1 million for a civic centre and swim facility in Gravenhurst.

• $500,000 to Niigon Technologies to improve energy efficiency in its manufacturing.

• $100,000 for the Muskoka Community Network to launch a broadband project for E-business and marketing.

• $1.4 million for a bridge in Kearney.

• $22,500 for the village of Sundridge to develop an economic plan.

• $22,500 for a wastewater improvement study in Britt.

• $833,333 to replace a bridge in Burk’s Falls.

• $110,000 for “rehabilitation” of Bracebridge.

• $1.3 million to expand the Parry Sound campus of Canadore College.

• $2.1 million for a fire hall, a sports park and other projects in Huntsville.

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