The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fightersThe US and Iraqi governments have vastly overstated the number of foreign fighters in Iraq, and most of them don't come from Saudi Arabia, according to a new report from the Washington-based Center for Strategic International Studies (CSIS). According to a piece in The Guardian, this means the US and Iraq "feed the myth" that foreign fighters are the backbone of the insurgency. While the foreign fighters may stoke the insurgency flames, they only comprise only about 4 to 10 percent of the estima... (more)
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Credit card companies can keep data ID theft secretCredit card companies don't have to notify customers their personal information has been stolen, a California Judge ruled today.
The Rothken law firm in Marin County, Ca had brought a class action suit on behalf of cardholders and merchants against CardSystems Solutions, Visa and MasterCard following a high profile data ID heist in June. [PDF, 200kb]
The suit accused the defendents of violating California state law by failing to notify them that personal data ha... (more)
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Senior Polish Politician Compares Russia to Nazi RegimeThe man who may be Poland’s next prime minister accused Russia on Friday of using methods even the Nazis would eschew in inciting assaults on Polish diplomats in Moscow.
Conservative Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s comparison of Russia with Hitler’s Germany seemed likely to further strain ties already tested by the former Soviet ally’s integration into the West.
“What Russia has done recently is surprising and unusually drastic —- I can&rsqu... (more)
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Iran ready to notify uranium enrichment: DiplomatLONDON, September 24 (IranMania) - Iran warned that it was ready to submit a note informing the UN atomic watchdog that it will begin enriching uranium if a resolution against its atomic program is adopted, a diplomat said.
"Iran is to notify the IAEA in writing about beginning uranium enrichment, and also cease applying a protocol for wider UN inspections, if the resolution is actually adopted" by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, a diplomat close ... (more)
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Could scientists de-intensify storms?Project Storm Fury was a futile attempt in the 1960's to stop hurricanes. The idea was reborn last year after four hurricanes rocked the Florida coast. Now with the aftermath of Katrina and the onset of Rita, scientists are even more in tune with such a possibility.
"If there was someway we could de-intensify these storms, we could reduce the risk in terms of death, we could reduce the amount of damage that would be done by hurricanes. So the idea was being driven by economics, an... (more)
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Pattern of Abuse: A decorated Army officer reveals new allegations of detainee mistreatment in Iraq and Afghanistan. Did the military ignore his charges? The U.S. Army has launched a criminal investigation into new allegations of serious prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan made by a decorated former Captain in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, an Army spokesman has confirmed to TIME. The claims of the Captain, who has not been named, are in part corroborated by statements of two sergeants who served with him in the 82nd Airborne; the allegations form the basis of a report from Human Rights Watch obtained by TIME and due to be released in the... (more)
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Futuristic Shopping In The Works At Chicago LabCHICAGO -- With wobbly wheels and squeaky carts, you may have thought grocery technology was confined to bar codes and coupon dispensers.
You might want to think again.
Some stores are equipping their carts with self-checkout scanners. And soon, they could be combining those scanners with the data they've been gathering on your shopping habits every time you check out.
At Chicago's Accenture Technology Labs, researchers think it will work like this: a... (more)
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British government announces new attacks on civil libertiesOn September 15, Home Secretary Charles Clarke announced details of the proposed draft Terrorism Bill that represents a fundamental attack on democratic rights and civil liberties. The government plans to push the bill through Parliament as soon as Christmas.
Among its proposals are measures to extend the period police can hold “terror suspects” without charge from two weeks to three months.
A law will be passed outlawing the “glorification” ... (more)
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Software blocks 'unwanted' music files and "unwanted" file-swapping applicationsThe International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), which represents the recording industry worldwide, has teamed up with the Motion Picture Association to offer file-swappers Digital File Check. It's what the entertainment industry has been waiting for -- a programme that not only wipes file-sharing software from your PC but also blocks "unwanted" file-swapping applications from being installed. DFC will also allow users to delete copyrighted music and video files from the PC's sh... (more)
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Big Brother under the skinBy Judi McLeod
Thursday, September 22, 2005
It's 2005 and Big Brother is not watching you; he's under your skin.
A company is implanting Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) tags in corpses in Mississippi to help identify the dead in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Principals of Florida-based VeriChip said RFID tags had already been implanted into 100 corpses on behalf of the Mississippi State Department of Health. (1993-2005 Red Her... (more)
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No2ID ejected from government's ID roadshowFour No2ID campaigners were ejected from Gateshead Metro Centre yesterday, after their attempts to protest against the introduction of a national identity register and identity card were deemed "inappropriate" for local shoppers.
Home Office Minister Andy Burnham was due to appear at the centre as part of his whistlestop tour aimed at persuading the nation of the benefits of ID cards and biometric technologies.
No2ID argues that the Home Office is rigorously exc... (more)
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US plans for star wars: U.S. deploys warfare unit to jam enemy satellitesThe U.S. military is bracing for future attacks in space, and the Air Force has deployed an electronic-warfare unit capable of jamming enemy satellites, the general in charge of space defenses says.
"You can't go to war and win without space," said Gen. Lance Lord, the four-star general in charge of the Colorado-based Air Force Space Command.
Gen. Lord said in an interview with The Washington Times that his command plays a key role in monitoring space, prote... (more)
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British Forces 'Free Jailed Servicemen'British forces using around 10 tanks have broken down the walls of Basra jail to free two service personnel arrested for firing on Iraqi policemen.Witnesses said about 150 Iraqi prisoners fled the jail as well.The Ministry of Defence would not comment on the report.
Violence erupted earlier in the city after the two men were arrested for allegedly shooting dead one policeman and wounding another.
The MoD refused to comment after officials said that they were underco... (more)
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Brzezinski believes U.S. needs to shed paranoia If the United States wants to be a great world leader, it has to climb out from under the bed, a former presidential adviser says.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as the national security adviser under President Carter, discussed the dangers of being a fear-driven nation Thursday night in front of about 140 people at the Cleveland Play House. His lecture was the first in a Cleveland Council on World Affairs series called "An Independent Opinion."
Our country has lo... (more)
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FLASHBACK: "According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, "the adversary's closer to home. It's the Pentagon bureaucracy," he said.
He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.
"In fact, it could be said it's a matter of life and death," he said.
Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11-- the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to ha... (more)
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The Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorismThe Pentagon has no accurate knowledge of the cost of military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan or the fight against terrorism, limiting Congress's ability to oversee spending, the Government Accountability Office concluded in a report released yesterday.
The Defense Department has reported spending $191 billion to fight terrorism from the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks through May 2005, with the annual sum ballooning from $11 billion in fiscal 2002 to a projected $71 billion in fiscal 20... (more)
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Poll: Fewer than half think U.S. will win in IraqWASHINGTON (CNN) -- A CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll released Thursday indicated fewer than half of Americans believe the United States will win the Iraq war, and 55 percent of those surveyed said it should speed up withdrawal plans.
Only 21 percent said the United States definitely would win the war in Iraq, which began when a U.S.-led coalition invaded in 2003 to topple Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. Another 22 percent said they thought the United States probably would win.
... (more)
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Feds Evoke "State Secrets Privilege", "the most powerful privilege the government has", To Steal Inventor's PatentWhen New England inventor Philip French had his epiphany 15 years ago, he didn't dream it would lead to an invention that would be pressed into service in a top-secret government project, or spawn an epic court battle over the limits of executive power. He was just admiring a tennis ball.
The ball's seam, with its two symmetrical halves embracing each other in a graceful curve, intrigued him. "I thought, my god, I bet you can do something with that kind of shape," he recalls. He w... (more)
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Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to AdministrationRepublican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bragged two years ago that he was in contact with White House political aide Karl Rove on behalf of a large, Bermuda-based corporation that wanted to avoid incurring some taxes and continue receiving federal contracts, according to a written statement by President Bush's nominee to be deputy attorney general.
Timothy E. Flanigan, general counsel for conglomerate Tyco International Ltd., said in a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee last we... (more)
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California Wants to Serve a Warning With FriesAmericans may have plenty of reasons to fear French fries. While they are one of the country's favorite foods, they are soaked with trans fats, loaded with sodium and full of simple carbs, the bad kind. And, it turns out, they are also full of a chemical called acrylamide, which is known to cause cancer in laboratory rats and mice.
That discovery a few years ago has raised questions about the safety of fries, as well as potato chips, which are also packed with acrylamide.
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