statism watch

Related: Airport body scanners raise radiation concerns – again | ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

The Daily Mail
June 30, 2010

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn.

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.

But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body – that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University’s centre for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is ‘very low’, he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.

He says children and passengers with gene mutations – around one in 20 of the population – are more at risk as they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA.

(more…)

Related: Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | Canadian sci-fi writer avoids jail time in Michigan for questioning border cop and being assaulted | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Laptops fair game for border searches | Border guards resorting to force more often | Border agents handcuff, interrogate Winnipeg couple | Mohawk protesters block Ontario bridge over arming of border guards | Akwesasne natives protest armed border guards, border crossing closed in retaliation | New border rules create ‘invisible Berlin Wall’: mayor | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | U.S. border agents given power to seize travellers’ laptops, cellphones | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | U.S. to collect DNA at border | For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature

Update (2010/06/27): Charlie Veitch appeared on the Alex Jones show Sunday to give us some more details on what went down.

Kurt Nimmo, PrisonPlanet.com
June 25, 2010

Dan Dicks of Press for Truth reports this morning that Charlie Veitch of The Love Police was arrested yesterday in Toronto for refusing to cooperate with the police.

“While using his megaphone to inform the people of Toronto about G20 related issues we were surrounded by police who demanded our identification. When Charlie stated that he wishes to remain anonymous he was immediately detained and placed under arrest. The officer stated that Charlie was being detained under the ‘public works protection act’ for failing to identify himself,” writes Dicks.

Charlie Veitch produces videos of his confrontations with government officials and police. His Love Police blog is popular. Veitch appeared on the Alex Jones Show on May 20, 2010.

“The province has secretly passed an unprecedented regulation that empowers police to arrest anyone near the G20 security zone who refuses to identify themselves or agree to a police search,” the Toronto Star reports today. “The regulation was made under Ontario’s Public Works Protection Act and was not debated in the Legislature. According to a provincial spokesperson, the cabinet action came in response to an ‘extraordinary request’ by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair, who wanted additional policing powers shortly after learning the G20 was coming to Toronto.”

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Here we go again. It’s for the earth, taxes will save you – really. What a load. Perhaps this isn’t the most incisive commentary, but come on. These people will try anything, and they think we’re complete idiots. And maybe they’re right, we let the HST just slide by in this province. Get ready to see this implemented as some sort of per-km ‘carbon tax’.

Related: Montreal flirting with road tolls | GTA road tolls are inevitable, professor says | GPS Tracked Road Tolls Back On Agenda for Toronto Metrolinx | Report suggests road tolls, parking and fuel taxes for GTA | UK: Rothschild bank pitches motorway privatisation plan | Vancouver kicks off quest for ways to fund transportation system | Province assumes control of transit board, pays Toronto $9 billion for projects | Metrolinx’s draft report called for supporters to infiltrate public meetings | GTA Transit plan needs taxation, ‘governance’ powers | Is road-tolls fix running out of gas? | Federal government stages another retreat on road tolls | Federal Road Toll Meeting Sponsorship Kept Quiet Until After Election | Metrolinx considering road tolls after all | GTA Transport Plan Defers Road Tolls, Focuses on Centralization, Intensification | Federal road-toll study announced, immediately cancelled on eve of election call | Regional transit requires ‘good governance’ | Get set – the future starts now | Today’s suburbs, tomorrow’s slums? | Road tolls, a bitter pill that works | Is it time for toll roads? | Metrolinx Proposes Satellite Vehicle Tracking for Road Tolls | Vancouver to import road tolls from UK | UK proposes national road tolls to cut congestion | Motorists to pay London toll

The Canadian Press
May 31, 2010

Ontario’s environmental commissioner is recommending road tolls and other charges to help the province cut the greenhouse gases it produces.

In his annual progress report on greenhouse gas reductions, Gord Miller calls for a comprehensive assessment of how road pricing can help in the battle against climate change.

Miller says the transportation sector is the single largest producer of greenhouse gas emissions in Ontario, and steps must be taken to make public transit a more attractive option.

He says many jurisdictions around the world have realized significant environmental, social and economic benefits by putting a price on road use.

Miller’s report says the Liberal government will need to expand its climate-change policy agenda if it hopes to have any chance of reaching its short- and medium-term reduction targets.

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Don’t worry about being left out of the exciting new technology, motorists – you’ll be tracked and taxed by the kilometer too.

The Associated Press
May 27, 2010

Obama administration takes major step toward air traffic control system based on satellite technology

The Obama administration is taking a major step toward an air traffic control system based on satellite technology.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood released an order Thursday that requires all aircraft that use the nation’s busiest airports to have equipment by 2020 that continually broadcasts their location to other aircraft and air traffic controllers.

Mr. LaHood said the new system will be safer and more efficient than the radar-based system currently in use. It’s also expected to cut fuel consumption and pollution.

Airlines and small plane owners say they can’t afford the new equipment. They want the government to help pay for it.

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This is, by rough count, the fourth such warning seen in the press. Studies or announcements on the radiation risk of the naked body scanners have now been produced by: UC San Francisco, Columbia University, the Inter-Agency Committee on Radiation Safety, and Los Alamos Labs. Additionally, the National Council on Radiation protection and measurements has said there should be an effort made to verify whether millimeter wave technology is safe for public use. So boycott these devices, it’s as simple as that.

Related: ‘Naked’ scanners may increase cancer risk | Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Seattle Times
May 26, 2010

Airport body scanners raise concerns about radiation safety, but officials at the Department of Homeland Security say there is no need to worry.

A group of doctors and professors from UC San Francisco are raising new concerns about the safety of a type of airport full-body scanner built by Torrance, Calif.-based Rapiscan Inc.

To reveal weapons hidden under a traveler’s clothes, the scanner relies on “backscatter technology,” which uses the ricochets from low-level X-rays to create what looks like a nude image of the person.

The experts said they fear that the scanners may expose the skin to high doses of X-rays that could increase the risk of cancer and other health problems, particularly among people with weak immune systems.

But officials at the Department of Homeland Security say there is no need to worry.

(more…)

Related: Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | Government Lied: Naked Body Scanners CAN Transmit Images | UK: Children must go through airport naked body scanners | UK Airport worker warned over harassment using naked body scanner | Body scans eventually mandatory, TSA official says | 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners | Exposed: Naked Body Scanner Images Of Film Star Printed, Circulated By Airport Staff | Radiation Safety Group Says Naked Body Scanners Increase Risk Of Cancer | UK: Airline passengers have ‘no right’ to refuse naked body scanners | Full-body scanner blind to bomb parts | Airport scanner companies queue for business after ‘underpants bomber’ | German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners | Body scanners capable of storing, sending images, group says | Dutch police develop mobile body scans | Whole-body airport scanners are basically safe—or are they? | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Body scanners coming to Canadian airports | UK: New scanners break child porn laws | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | UK: Full-body scanners being ordered for airports, says Gordon Brown | Group slams Chertoff on conflict of interest in scanner promotion | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Underwear Bomber Renews Calls for ‘Naked Scanners’ | Federal Privacy Commissioner raises alarm over terror security measures | Privacy watchdog OKs ‘naked’ airport scanners | Security may soon test ‘virtual strip search’ at large Canadian aiports | US Border Guards to Expand Use of X-Ray Body Scanners | Homeland Security seeks Bladerunner-style lie detector | Greyhound introduces security screening of passengers, bans fruit, carry-ons | Germany rejects full-body scans at airports | Interpol wants facial recognition database to catch suspects | ‘Pre-crime’ detector shows promise | Eye scans, fingerprints to control NZ borders | Air passengers to undergo ‘virtual strip search’ | US Homeland Security Keen on ‘Novel’ Israeli Airport Security Technology | Israel startup uses behavioral science to identify terrorists | Airport scanner a ‘virtual strip search’

Kate Schneider, News.com.au
May 19, 2010

US scientists are warning that radiation from controversial full-body airport scanners has been dangerously underestimated and could lead to an increased risk of skin cancer – particularly in children.

University of California biochemist David Agard said that unlike other scanners, the radiation from these devices is delivered at low energy beam levels, with most of the dose concentrated in the skin and underlying tissue.

“While the dose would be safe if it were distributed throughout the volume of the entire body, the dose to the skin may be dangerously high,” Dr Agard said.

“Ionizing radiation such as the X-rays used in these scanners have the potential to induce chromosome damage, and that can lead to cancer.”

Of further concern is that a failure in the device – like a power or software glitch – could cause an intense radiation dose to a single spot on the skin.

The warnings come ahead of the planned rollout of the scanners in Australia next year as part of the Federal Government’s crackdown on airport security.

David Brenner, the head of Columbia University’s Centre for Radiological Research, says the concentration on the skin – one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the body – means the radiation dose is actually 20 times higher than the official estimate.

(more…)

Julian Assange, international man of mystery and now enemy of the state has been warned. In a related story the noted scholar and anti-war social critic Noam Chomsky was denied entry to Israel on the way to give a speech on his usual anti-Imperial themes to an audience in the Gaza Strip. Prominent TV host of Democracy Now Amy Goodman was detained at the Canadian border last year and grilled over whether she was going to speak ill of the sacred Olympics. Is dissent no longer to be tolerated?

Related: U.S. Troops Apologize For Wikileaks Massacre Video | WikiLeaks releases video of alleged U.S. helicopter attack on Reuters reporters | Secret Document Calls Wikileaks ‘Threat’ to U.S. Army | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights

Sophie Tedmanson, The Times
May 17, 2010

The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.

Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.

However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter – which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list.

Mr Assange, 37, told The Age newspaper that half an hour after his passport was returned to him an AFP officer searched one of his bags and questioned him about a previous criminal record for computer hacking offences when he was a teenager.

He was then told his passport status was classified as “normal” on the immigration database.

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Here’s a link to the report that’s mentioned below, Flight Plan: Managing the Risks in Aviation Security. It’s based on a new regulatory framework called SeMS or Security Management Systems, and may be worth ploughing through to see what’s in the fine print. And this new three-stage alarm system: It will be interesting to see, should this go through, how often we’re informed in the future that airports are on a Level 2 ‘ increased risk of a probable incident’ alert.

Update (2010/05/15): The next day, two CF-18s scrambled from CFB Comox to escort a passenger liner from Hong Kong to the airport over some form of bomb threat the details of which are not clear at this time.

Flashback: Full-body scanners are waste of money, Israeli expert says | US Airline Security Moves to Known Threat Descriptive Profiling | Canadians to get biometric, RFID enabled passports in 2011, security experts voice concerns | USA: Fourth Amendment Trashed As Airport Tyranny Hits The Streets | Remain vigilant while travelling, Baird tells Canadians | Airport security starts in the parking lot | Obama orders ’strengthened’ no-fly list after bomb plot | US implements travel profiling: Tougher air screening for ’security-risk’ countries | The ‘Israelification’ of airports: High security, little bother | Airport restrictions denounced as ’security theatre’ | No carry-on bags for flights to U.S., RCMP assisting with screening | U.S. visitors now required to register online with Department of Homeland Security | U.S. air-security rules cause Canadian turbulence | Air Canada objects to US plans to fingerprint exiting foreigners | Ottawa Proposes Band-Aid ‘Bill of Rights’ for Airline Travellers | Pistol Pendant Causes Airport Holdup | Canada to launch no-fly list in June

Angela Gilbert, CBC News
May 14, 2010

Changes ‘long overdue’: security expert

Transport Canada is looking to implement a three-level security alert system at major airports across the country to address “higher risk” conditions, CBC News has learned.

The proposal, outlined in the Canada Gazette, the official newspaper of the Government of Canada, calls on airports to run their operations according to:

• Level 1: normal operations.
• Level 2: increased risk of a probable incident.
• Level 3: an incident is imminent or underway.

Unlike the alert system in the United States, the public will not automatically be notified when threat levels change. Instead, alerting the public would be “considered on a case by case basis,” Transport Canada told CBC News.

The proposed changes were first suggested more than four years ago in a report, tabled in Parliament, which raised serious concerns about a lack of coordination between aviation security agencies.

(more…)

Related: Couple Arrested At U.S. Border For Asking Questions | Canadian sci-fi writer avoids jail time in Michigan for questioning border cop and being assaulted | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Laptops fair game for border searches | Border guards resorting to force more often | Border agents handcuff, interrogate Winnipeg couple | Mohawk protesters block Ontario bridge over arming of border guards | Akwesasne natives protest armed border guards, border crossing closed in retaliation | New border rules create ‘invisible Berlin Wall’: mayor | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | U.S. border agents given power to seize travellers’ laptops, cellphones | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | U.S. to collect DNA at border

CBC News
May 12, 2010

A young woman from Gatineau, Que., says she was strip-searched and stranded in Windsor, Ont., in the middle of the night by U.S. border officials.

“It was a horrible experience,” said Nina Vroemen, 20, who was on her way to volunteer at a California organic farm. “There was no need for that humiliation and mistreatment of a young, female Canadian volunteer.”

As of Wednesday morning, U.S. immigration officials had not returned calls about the case.

Vroemen, who studies theatre at Concordia University, set off from Montreal on May 5 on a Greyhound bus. She had found the volunteer job in California through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, and planned to spend a month helping run art workshops at the farm. She thought she would explore the U.S. by bus on the way there.

You can go to a farm anywhere in the world and help out,” she told CBC’s Ottawa Morning Wednesday. “You gain friends and experience…you travel, it’s low cost and you feel good.”

The bus arrived at the Windsor-Detroit border at 2 a.m., and Vroemen was interviewed about her plans by a U.S. border guard.

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Related: Canadian sci-fi writer avoids jail time in Michigan for questioning border cop and being assaulted | Are our customs officers traumatizing visitors? | Canadian sci-fi author, assaulted at border, convicted of ‘non-compliance’ | Dr Peter Watts, Canadian science fiction writer, beaten and arrested at US border | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Laptops fair game for border searches | Border guards resorting to force more often | Border agents handcuff, interrogate Winnipeg couple | Mohawk protesters block Ontario bridge over arming of border guards | Akwesasne natives protest armed border guards, border crossing closed in retaliation | New border rules create ‘invisible Berlin Wall’: mayor | ‘Say please’ at U. S. border nets pepper spray | U.S. border agents given power to seize travellers’ laptops, cellphones | American Border Officers Want to Fingerprint Canadians at SPP Bridge | U.S. to collect DNA at border

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
May 5, 2010

Immigration official demands to know what shops Canadian man and his wife plan to visit

In another perfect illustration of why the U.S. tourist industry is in free fall, audio has emerged of a Canadian couple who were interrogated and arrested by immigration officials after they dared to inquire as to why they were being asked such pointless and invasive questions.

Attempting to enter the U.S. at the Niagara Falls border, the couple were asked where they were going, to which they responded the Niagara Falls shopping mall. When the immigration official bizarrely demanded to know what shops they were planning to visit, the situation quickly worsened.

After daring to ask why they were being bombarded with such ridiculous questions, they were told to exit their car and are taken inside for further interrogation by another official. When the Canadian man rhetorically asks, “what are you gonna do, shoot me” the officials claim he is threatening them before he is arrested.

Officials claim the man “assaulted” them because he backed away for a moment when being arrested. The officials claim that their victims are required to submit to whatever order they give no matter how ridiculous.

To underscore the ludicrous justifications officials use for harassing people, the officer claims he personally stops three terrorists a day entering the United States from Canada. One wonders whether he characterizes a “terrorist” as someone who doesn’t instantly obey his every inane command.

Despite his pleas, the man and his wife are thrown in jail, at which point the audio ends.

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