The Meaning of Hong Kong WTO

by Deborah James
January 14, 2006

Last week, 11 of the 14 last detainees from the December protests in Hong Kong against the World Trade Organization were ruled innocent. Three Koreans still face trial for unlawful assembly.

Over 1,000 people were arrested in Hong Kong during the 6th Ministerial meeting of the WTO, even more than the hundreds arrested in mass protests in Cancún, Mexico in 2003 or Seattle in 1999. Just like during those WTO Ministerial meetings, workers, farmers, environmentalists, students, heath activists, and other human rights advocates came from countries as far-flung as South Korea, the US, Kenya, Brazil, the Philippines, France, South Africa, and Indonesia to manifest their overwhelming opposition to this institution.
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"Every day, we are counting dead bodies"

by lenin
January 18, 2006

Demonstrations erupted in Cité Soleil on Thursday, January 12 against the UN occupation and its collusion with the coup government that has jailed political opponents. One person was confirmed killed and 17 were injured in clashes with UN troops as of Wednesday last week. One of the wounded was a 12-year-old girl. “Every day, we are counting dead bodies,” said Joel.

A 30-year-old woman named Edline Pierre-Louis, who lost her unborn baby when she was shot by UN troops on July 6, protested the UN’s denial of the massacre. “The blue helmets [UN troops] are lying,” she told the Haitian Information Project. “They killed so many people, and I praise God that I am alive to call them liars.”
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Beam weapons almost ready for battle

By Leonard David
12 January 2006



OS ALAMOS, N.M. - There is a new breed of weaponry fast approaching — and at the speed of light, no less. They are labeled "directed-energy weapons," and they may well signal a revolution in military hardware — perhaps more so than the atomic bomb.

Directed-energy weapons take the form of lasers, high-powered microwaves and particle beams. Their adoption for ground, air, sea, and space warfare depends not only on using the electromagnetic spectrum, but also upon favorable political and budgetary wavelengths too.

That’s the outlook of J. Douglas Beason, author of the recently published book "The E-Bomb: How America’s New Directed Energy Weapons Will Change the Way Wars Will Be Fought in the Future." Beason previously served on the White House staff working for the president’s science adviser under both the Bush and Clinton administrations.

After more than two decades of research, the United States is on the verge of deploying a new generation of weapons that discharge beams of energy, such as the Airborne Laser and the Active Denial System, as well as the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL.
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New Body Screeners in use in London: We are living in a dystopian nightmare

By Steve Watson
January 12 2006



A high-tech body scanner for detecting would-be terrorists has been unveiled at London's Paddington station ahead of a four-week trial, the BBC reports.

Passengers will be randomly selected to pass through the seven-metre box at the Heathrow Express platforms, while baggage is also screened.

Other technology being tested includes advanced closed circuit television systems programmed to sound an alarm when they spot suspicious behaviour.

The implementation of such technology represents a giant leap into a total surveillance Big Brother society. People are faced with walking into booths raising their hands above their heads like they're a criminal and being electronically scanned by a machine that produces a naked image of their body.
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China, Russia would fight Iran oil sanctions: experts

By Chris Baltimore
January 18 2006
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.N. Security Council heavyweights China and Russia have too much riding on Iran's energy sector to let the West slap sanctions on Tehran to punish its nuclear ambitions, experts say.

Fears of supply disruption from the world's fourth largest crude exporter, along with rising tensions in fellow OPEC member Nigeria, sent U.S. crude oil futures to a three-month high near $67 per barrel this week.

The United States and three European Union nations are pressing the 15-member U.N. Security Council to take up the Iranian nuclear issue, which could open the door to potential oil sanctions.

But two key U.N. Security Council members that carry veto powers -- China and Russia -- have multibillion-dollar oil and natural gas projects hanging in the balance, and China depends on Iran's imports to quench its oil thirst.
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European parliament adopts data retention directive

18 January 2006

The European Parliament gave its final vote on 14 December 2005 on the European mandatory data retention directive. The Parliament approved the compromise that was reached between Council of Ministers of Justice (JHA Council), representatives from the Commission and the leaders in the European Parliament of the social-democrat and Christian-democrat groups. (see EDRI-gram 3.24)

The final text was approved with 378 for, 197 against and 30 abstentions. The two biggest parties, the PSE (socialist group) and PPE (conservative group) overwhelmingly voted in favour -only 39 PPE MEPs voted against (10 abstained) and 24 PSE MEPs voted against (2 abstained). The Green/EFA and GUE (left group) voted against while the ALDE (liberal group) split with 25 MEPs voting in favour and 37 against (including Mr Alvaro, the rapporteur). Rapporteur Alexander Alvaro (Liberals) was so disappointed by the procedure and the outcome that he asked to have his name removed from the report.

The European Commission Vice-President Franco Frattini hailed a "victory for democracy"
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Report: RFID production to increase 25 fold by 2010

By Dylan McGrath
18 January 20006

SAN FRANCISCO — The number of RFID tags produced worldwide is expected to increase more than 25 fold between 2005 and 2010, reaching 33 billion, according to market research company In-Stat.
Total production of RFID tags in 2005 reached more than 1.3 billion, according to a recent report.
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Huge rise in juvenile DNA samples kept by the police

By Philip Johnston
9 January 2006

The DNA from 750,000 juveniles has been added to the national police database over the past 10 years, the Government has revealed.

Nearly a third of the samples has been included over the past two years since police were given power to take DNA from under-18s for the first time without the permission of their parents or guardians.

Parliamentary written answers show that the genetic profiles of 230,000 juveniles were added to the database in 2004 and 2005, compared with 3,000 10 years ago.
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Bush to criminalize protesters under Patriot Act as ''disruptors''

by Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse
Jan 11, 2006

Bush wants to create the new criminal of "disruptor" who can be jailed for the crime of "disruptive behavior." A "little-noticed provision" in the latest version of the Patriot Act will empower Secret Service to charge protesters with a new crime of "disrupting major events including political conventions and the Olympics." Secret Service would also be empowered to charge persons with "breaching security" and to charge for "entering a restricted area" which is "where the President or other person protected by the Secret Service is or will be temporarily visiting." In short, be sure to stay in those wired, fenced containments or free speech zones.
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SuperCom announces award of a tender for biometric passport issuing and control system for a western European country

January 12 2006

Smart card and electronic ID provider SuperCom says it has been awarded a six-year contract by an western European country for a biometric-based passport and control system. The new venture is seen as "further strengthening" the company's position in the e-passport market, according to one of its executives.
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After death of Brasilian general, UN and elite have increased violence in Haiti

13 January 2006
The commander of the MINUSTAH (United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti) forces, General Urano Bacellar, was found dead on January 7th with a bullet in his head. It is unclear whether he was murdered or whether it was suicide, but it is known that he was constantly being pushed to escalate the occupation of local neighbourhoods in Haiti. In particular, they demanded that UN troops occupied and acted with "more energy" in the local districts of Porto Principe, with the justification being that in those areas were groups involved in recent kidnappings. Human rights activists state that the real reason is the persecution of opponents to the current regime.
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Robot Cops to Patrol Korean Streets

By Kim Tae-gyu

By the 2010s, Korea is expecting to see robots assisting police and the military, patrolling the neighborhoods and going on recon missions on the battlefield.
The Center for Intelligent Robots on Monday said the state-backed agency plans to check the feasibility of security robots by convening a 40-member planning committee late this week.

``If the robots prove to be viable technically and commercially, we will be able to begin developing them late next year,'' said Lee Ho-gil, head of the center.

When completed, the outdoor security robots will be able to make their night watch rounds and even chase criminals, according to Lee.
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The United Nations Own Private Gulag (Oh yes, they have one folks!)

January 11 2006

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has all their defendants, material witnesses, and such locked up in a UN run gulag in Netherlands. While you would think given the high-minded rhetoric coming form the UN and it’s membership in re prisons and prisoners that this place would be a penologist’s version of utopia, according to the inmates you’d be wrong. However reading about it does offer some interesting insights on how the blue helmets run their show when comes to imprisonment.

Maybe in few years, (when and if they do end up running the show, eh?), we can see what we are all gonna be in for.
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Southern Indian State to Monitor Cybercafe Users to Combat Online Crime, Terrorism

By S. Srinivasan
January 10 2006
BANGALORE, India Jan 10, 2006 — The southern Indian state of Kerala will join two other states in requiring cybercafes to record the names and addresses of their customers in an effort to combat online fraud, virus attacks and terrorism, an official said Tuesday.

The new rules would require cybercafes to verify the identities of Internet surfers and record their home addresses and visiting times, said M. Vijayanunni, the top administrator of Kerala's government.
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U.S. can open private mail in terrorism fight

January 9 2006

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials can open personal mail arriving from abroad as part of the fight against terrorism, and do so when they deem it necessary to protect the country, a Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman said on Monday.

News of the little-known practise follows revelations that the government approved eavesdropping on U.S. citizens without judicial oversight after the September 11 attacks, which sparked concern from civil liberties advocates and some lawmakers who called for congressional hearings.
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Judge: NYC Subway Bag Searches OK

December 2 2005
Random police searches of riders' bags to deter terrorism in America's largest subway system do not violate the U.S. Constitution and are a minimal intrusion of privacy, a federal judge ruled Friday.

"The risk of a terrorist bombing of New York City's subway system is real and substantial," U.S. District Judge Richard M. Berman said in a 41-page ruling.
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Station trial for anti-terror system

By Peter Woodman
11 January 2006

The workings of new high-tech security systems to detect would-be train terrorists were shown off today at Paddington station in London.

A seven-metre-long steel box has been erected next to Heathrow Express platforms at the west London station.

Inside the box is a millimetre wave scanner which can detect items concealed beneath clothes.

Next to it is a baggage-screening device, and the whole security box is to be tested for four weeks at Paddington starting from tomorrow.
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Phone Tap: How's the Traffic?

JEFFERSON CITY, Missouri -- Driving to work, you notice the traffic beginning to slow. And because you have your cell phone on, the government senses the delay, too. A congestion alert is issued, automatically updating electronic road signs and websites and dispatching text messages to mobile phones and auto dashboards.

In what would be the largest project of its kind, the Missouri Department of Transportation is finalizing a contract to monitor thousands of cell phones, using their movements to map real-time traffic conditions statewide on all 5,500 miles of major roads. It's just one of a number of initiatives to more intelligently manage traffic flow through wireless data collection.
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Eviction threat in 'respect' plan

People could be banned from their own homes for three months for being nuisance neighbours under Tony Blair's latest "respect agenda" proposals.

Police could also get new powers to deliver on-the-spot fines, and there would be more parenting orders.

The public would also be able to demand tougher action from their local police on anti-social behaviour.
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New Orleans Levees Intentionally Exploded by Bomb?

By Greg Szymanski
10 January 2006

Eye witnesses are starting to come forward, some only a block away from the 17th St Canal levee break, saying they heard a loud, powerful explosion right before water starting gushing in, as they ended up in a matter of minutes floating downstream on their rooftops.

Terry Adams, who lives one block away from the 17th St. break, remembers hearing what sounded "like a bomb going off" from where the levee gave-way before rushing water forced him to his rooftop.

"Everything was calm, it was late at night and the storm had passed. I thought we had dodged a bullet and there was no water in my house and I was only a block away from the 17th St. break," said Adams, a lower 9th Ward resident, in an extended conversation this week from New Orleans.

"Then I heard what sounded like a bomb go off from the direction of where the levee gave-way and within a matter of minutes I was forced up on my roof where I floated for about a mile into town before somehow getting to safety."

Asked if he was sure he heard an explosion, he added: "Water breaking a levee isn't going to make the noise I heard and besides, the levee should have broke before or during the storm, not afterward.
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Annoying someone via the Internet is now a federal crime

By Declan McCullagh
January 9, 2006

It's no joke. Last Thursday, President Bush signed into law a prohibition on posting annoying Web messages or sending annoying e-mail messages without disclosing your true identity.

In other words, it's OK to flame someone on a mailing list or in a blog as long as you do it under your real name. Thank Congress for small favors, I guess.

This ridiculous prohibition, which would likely imperil much of Usenet, is buried in the so-called Violence Against Women and Department of Justice Reauthorization Act. Criminal penalties include stiff fines and two years in prison.
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Implants turn humans into cyborgs

by Gillian Shaw
January 07, 2006



Cyborgs have stepped out of science fiction and into real life with a small but growing group of tech aficionados who are getting tiny computer chips implanted into their bodies to do everything from opening doors to unlocking computer programs.

Amal Graafstra and his girlfriend Jennifer Tomblin never have to worry about forgetting the keys to her Vancouver home or locking themselves out of Graafstra's Volkswagen GT.

They can simply walk up to the door and, with a wave of a hand, the lock will open. Ditto for the computer. No more struggling to remember complicated passwords and no more lost keys.

As Graafstra puts it, he could be buck naked and still be carrying the virtual keys to unlock his home.
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Australia: Police use new powers to “lock down” rural housing estate

By Rick Kelly
9 January 2006

Police in the rural New South Wales town of Dubbo activated the state Labor government’s newly legislated “lockdown” powers following a clash with about 100 Aborigines on New Year’s Eve. More than 60 officers erected roadblocks around the Gordon public housing estate and conducted random searches of individuals and vehicles. Non-residents were prevented access to the area, and police confiscated one vehicle after a knife was allegedly found.

According to Eunice Hartnett, an Aboriginal youth worker on the Gordon Estate, the violence erupted after police assaulted a 16-year-old youth who had been arrested for car theft. “They started to bash him,” she told the Australian. “His mother saw what was happening and she came tearing across the paddocks and then they were bashing her. Then her brother, his uncle, came to help, and he got smashed in the jaw. You can’t blame people for jumping in.”

Two police officers were reportedly injured in the ensuing clash. A police car and the stolen vehicle were also set alight. Thirteen people were later arrested, at least six of whom have been charged with riot and affray. Under the new laws, riot now carries a maximum jail sentence of 15 years, and affray 10 years, and anyone charged with these offences is denied bail unless they can prove “exceptional circumstances”.

The lockdown was suspended on January 2, but police warned that they would renew the action if any further unrest developed. “We want to send a clear message to the local community that any type of violent or anti-social behaviour will not be tolerated,” Detective Inspector Mick Willing declared.
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The Quiet Death Of "Freedom"

By John Pilger
5 January 2006

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Eighty-year-old John Catt served with the RAF in the Second World War. Last September, he was stopped by police in Brighton for wearing an "offensive" T-shirt, which suggested that Bush and Blair be tried for war crimes. He was arrested under the Terrorism Act and handcuffed, with his arms held behind his back. The official record of the arrest says the "purpose" of searching him was "terrorism" and the "grounds for intervention" were "carrying placard and T-shirt with anti-Blair info" (sic).

He is awaiting trial.
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Blood vessels in human hand and contactless card combine to create secure biometric IDs

January 6 2006

Forget fingerprints. A Toronto, Ontario company wants the whole hand involved. And it's not talking palm prints. It wants to identify the blood vessels in your hand.

Identica Corp. has linked its Universal Controller with a hand vascular scanner manufactured by a Korean company. The result is a biometric access control mechanism solution that it claims is accurate, fast, and non-intrusive for users.

Terry Wheeler, Identica president, calls this a "whole new paradigm of biometrics on its own. Ours is completely unique."

Mr. Wheeler started Identica in 2003. "My background goes back to biometrics," he said. "At Identica, we were first involved with fingerprint-based solutions but then I started looking at what was going to be next, and I found this technology from Seoul, Korea. We got the rights for Canada, and at that point we realized we needed a bigger marketplace. Last spring, we acquired American Biometric and Security in Naples, Florida."

To expand its North American market, Identica recently signed Johnson Controls Inc. (JCI), Sima Valley, Calif., to sell and integrate the Techsphere Hand Vascular Pattern Recognition (VPR) biometric solutions to its clients in the US and Canada (Identica also owns the rights for the vascular scanner in North America and Mexico).
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Computers estimate emotions

Many computers are already able to see and hear. However, they have no way of telling whether their users are happy or angry. At CeBIT 2006, researchers will be presenting techniques that could one day enable the digital servant to respond to the mood of its human master.

Several recent studies have found that computer users not only love and cherish their machines, but very often maltreat them. Experts have identified aggression towards the PC as a genuine problem that deserves greater attention in the academic field. The kicks and blows of frustrated users cause computer damage that cannot be dismissed as negligible, neither in terms of personal property nor on a commercial and economic level. If only for this reason, it would be good for computers to assess their users’ emotions correctly and respond accordingly.
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'Robot agents' to help settle disputes

By electricnews.net
6 January 2006

A new system which provides fast online arbitration, mediation and conciliation services to help organisations quickly resolve disputes has been launched.

The e-Dispute system, which has already been successfully piloted at the European Court of Arbitration and the Emilia-Romagna Chamber of Commerce in Italy, is now being trialed at a number of hospitals in the UK where it is being used to assist with claim resolution.
Using e-Dispute, claimants and respondents can put their case before an independent online arbitrator (or "robot agent") who having reviewed the case will then set up a meeting between the two parties via chatrooms and video conferencing, at which possible binding settlements can be reached.
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Feds begin "behavior monitoring" of air travelers this year

AIRPORT SCREENING TO BECOME MORE INTRUSIVE, BUT NOT MORE EFFECTIVE

This year the U.S. Transportation Security Agency will begin behavior
monitoring of airplane passengers at 40 major American airport, reports
Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace &
Liberty. "The screeners," writes Eland in his latest op-ed, "will look
for 'suspicious' signs that might indicate a passenger could be a
terrorist: having dry lips or a throbbing carotid artery (I'm not
kidding), failure to make eye contact with or say hello to the screener,
or evasive or slow answers to casual questions asked by the screener."
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National DNA Database continues to expand

The National DNA Database Expansion Programme figures have been published by the Home Office. The report is available online: DNA Expansion Programme 2000-2005: Reporting Achievement (.pdf)

It has been analysed somewhat by the BBC

"ast Updated: Wednesday, 4 January 2006, 11:21 GMT
DNA database continues to swell

More than 3 million samples are in the DNA database
The number of samples held on the DNA database will rise to 4.25 million within two years, the Home Office says.

There are three million samples held at the moment, with some of the expansion due to law changes in 2001 and 2004.

[...]

Police can now track down offenders by matching samples with other family members who may be on the database."
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DHS completes foundation Of biometric entry system

WASHINGTON-- Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) US-VISIT program has completed installation of biometric entry capabilities at 104 land border ports, as mandated by Congress. Biometric entry capabilities are now deployed at all fixed ports of entry open to US- VISIT travelers.

"The U.S. Government's efforts to strengthen our nation's immigration and border management system have taken a giant leap with the deployment of US- VISIT entry capabilities at all our ports and visa-issuing posts abroad," said DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. "US-VISIT is making America safer by enhancing our border management system with next-generation technologies and processes to address the emerging threats, challenges, and opportunities of our 21st century world."
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Don't Even Think About Lying

By Steve Silberman
January 2006

I'm flat on my back in a very loud machine, trying to keep my mind quiet. It's not easy. The inside of an fMRI scanner is narrow and dark, with only a sliver of the world visible in a tilted mirror above my eyes. Despite a set of earplugs, I'm bathed in a dull roar punctuated by a racket like a dryer full of sneakers.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging - fMRI for short - enables researchers to create maps of the brain's networks in action as they process thoughts, sensations, memories, and motor commands. Since its debut in experimental medicine 10 years ago, functional imaging has opened a window onto the cognitive operations behind such complex and subtle behavior as feeling transported by a piece of music or recognizing the face of a loved one in a crowd. As it migrates into clinical practice, fMRI is making it possible for neurologists to detect early signs of Alzheimer's disease and other disorders, evaluate drug treatments, and pinpoint tissue housing critical abilities like speech before venturing into a patient's brain with a scalpel.

Now fMRI is also poised to transform the security industry, the judicial system, and our fundamental notions of privacy. I'm in a lab at Columbia University, where scientists are using the technology to analyze the cognitive differences between truth and lies. By mapping the neural circuits behind deception, researchers are turning fMRI into a new kind of lie detector that's more probing and accurate than the polygraph, the standard lie-detection tool employed by law enforcement and intelligence agencies for nearly a century.
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New Children’s Database Announced

The Government announced shortly before Christmas that it is creating a database for all children in the UK, to be up and running by 2008.
It will cost £224 million to set up, £42 million per year to run, and according to the government will contain the following information:

“The Index will hold the following details for every child or young person:

*basic identifying information: name, address, gender, date of birth and a unique identifying number based on the existing Child Reference Number/National Insurance Number;
* basic identifying information about the child’s parent or carer;
* contact details for services involved with the child: as a minimum school and GP practice, but also other services where appropriate; and
* the facility for practitioners to indicate to others that they have information to share, are taking action, or have undertaken an assessment, in relation to a child.”
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Prescott's pie in the sky ?

Yesterday, the Mail on Sunday (Council tax spy in the sky) and the Independent on Sunday (Prescott satellite to spy on your home) both carried claims that Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott's bureaucratic empire was planning to use "spy satellites" in order to help with the increased taxation of private property.

Coming on top of NuLabour's other intrusive mass surveillance plans, it is right that people like Longrider should be furious.

However, why have none of the mainstream journalists bothered to ask how exactly commercially available satellite imagery , with a resolution of about 1 metre, could possibly be of any real use in determining if your kitchen extension etc. is breaking any planning permission rules or not ? Are we meant to believe that there are thousands of unplanned, shanty town buildings in the UK ?
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Now you can be arrested for any offence

By John Steele
29 December 2005

Police are to be given sweeping powers to arrest people for every offence, including dropping litter, failure to wear a seat belt and other minor misdemeanours.

The measures, which come into force on Jan 1, are the biggest expansion in decades of police powers to deprive people of their liberty.

At present, officers can generally arrest people if they suspect them of committing an offence which carries at least five years in prison. They will now have the discretion to detain someone if they suspect any offence and think that an arrest is "necessary".
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Who trusts Home Office crime statistics ? Nobody, according to the Statistics Commission

The Statistics Commission which is:

"an independent non-departmental public body. It was set up in June 2000 to help ensure that official statistics are trustworthy and responsive to public needs. It operates independently of both Ministers and the producers of statistics;"

has published its Crime Statistics User Perspectives interim report December 2005 (13 page .pdf)

This report confirms our impression that the two major sources of Crime Statistics, the British Crime Survey and the number of Crimes Recorded by the Police are being regularly manipulated by the Home Office for political ends, with the consequence that neither the media nor the public trusts them.
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