The Gates of Hell

“Render unto Cesear that which is Cesear’s”.

I do not belong to the State and neither do my children.  Go ahead and try it Rahm Emanuel, and we’ll see how “The Plan” works out for you.

Source: Daily Newscaster

Barak Obama’s chief of staff Rahm Emanuel discusses his book The Plan in which he outlines a mandatory civil service requirement for all Americans from ages 18 to 25.

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Technorati Tags: Rahm Emanuel, mandatory civil service

Source:  washingtonpost.com

The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored — and labeled as terrorists — activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes.

Intelligence officers created a voluminous file on Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, calling the group a “security threat” because of concerns that members would disrupt the circus. Angry consumers fighting a 72 percent electricity rate increase in 2006 were targeted. The DC Anti-War Network, which opposes the Iraq war, was designated a white supremacist group, without explanation.

One of the possible “crimes” in the file police opened on Amnesty International, a world-renowned human rights group: “civil rights.”

According to hundreds of pages of newly obtained police documents, the groups were swept into a broad surveillance operation that started in 2005 with routine preparations for the scheduled executions of two men on death row.

The operation has been called a “waste of resources” by the current police superintendent and “undemocratic” by the governor.

Police have acknowledged that the monitoring, which took place during the administration of then-Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R), spiraled out of control, with an undercover trooper spending 14 months infiltrating peaceful protest groups. Troopers have said they inappropriately labeled 53 individuals as terrorists in their database, information that was shared with federal authorities. But the new documents reveal a far more expansive set of police targets and indicate that police did not close some files until late 2007.
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The surveillance ended with no arrests and no evidence of violent sedition. Instead, troopers are preparing to purge files and say they are expecting lawsuits.

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Technorati Tags: Maryland State Police, surveillance

Source:  The Guardian

The private sector will be asked to manage and run a communications database that will keep track of everyone’s calls, emails, texts and internet use under a key option contained in a consultation paper to be published next month by Jacqui Smith, the home secretary.

A cabinet decision to put the management of the multibillion pound database of all UK communications traffic into private hands would be accompanied by tougher legal safeguards to guarantee against leaks and accidental data losses.

But in his strongest criticism yet of the superdatabase, Sir Ken Macdonald, the former director of public prosecutions, who has firsthand experience of working with intelligence and law enforcement agencies, told the Guardian such assurances would prove worthless in the long run and warned it would prove a “hellhouse” of personal private information.

“Authorisations for access might be written into statute. The most senior ministers and officials might be designated as scrutineers. But none of this means anything,” said Macdonald. “All history tells us that reassurances like these are worthless in the long run. In the first security crisis the locks would loosen.”

The home secretary postponed the introduction of legislation to set up the superdatabase in October and instead said she would publish a consultation paper in the new year setting out the proposal and the safeguards needed to protect civil liberties. She has emphasised that communications data, which gives the police the identity and location of the caller, texter or web surfer but not the content, has been used as important evidence in 95% of serious crime cases and almost all security service operations since 2004 including the Soham and 21/7 bombing cases.

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Technorati Tags: Surveillance

Source: Los Angeles Times

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev paused in the last, quiet hours of a dying year to sign into law a controversial bill that eliminates jury trials for “crimes against the state,” a move that lawyers and human rights groups fear will be the start of a dangerous exertion of Kremlin control over government critics.

The law does away with jury trials for a variety of offenses, leaving people accused of treason, revolt, sabotage, espionage or terrorism at the mercy of three judges rather than a panel of peers. Critics say the law is dangerous because judges in Russia are vulnerable to manipulation and intimidation by the government.

A parallel piece of legislation, pushed by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and still awaiting discussion in parliament, seeks to expand the legal definition of treason to such a degree that observers fear that anybody who criticizes the government could be rounded up by police — and, because of the law signed Wednesday, tried without a jury.

Human rights groups and lawyers have warned that the changes to Russia’s criminal code, largely undiscussed in the state media, would allow the government to crack down on any whispers of dissent. The changes also seek a stronger hand for the FSB, the modern incarnation of the Soviet KGB, by giving the state wider latitude in cases that fall under intelligence agency rather than police jurisdiction. Some critics point to the days of dictator Josef Stalin as a comparable legal structure.

“It’s a preparation for terror, although not the grand terror of the 1930s,” said Andrei Illarionov, a fellow at Washington’s Cato Institute and a former economic advisor to Putin. “They are much smarter now. They are preparing some kind of selective terror against those who are courageous enough to speak up.”

The purpose, many observers agree, is not only to give the government greater tools in cracking down, but also to send out tremors of fear.

“Not that they necessarily will go ahead and do it, but they are threatening us very, very seriously that they can do it and are ready to do it,” said Lev Ponomaryov, leader of the For Human Rights movement. “They want to have the legitimate possibility to call all opposition people enemies of the state.”

Medvedev’s last-minute signing had all the trademarks of a pre-holiday news dump engineered to generate the least possible media coverage. New Year’s Eve is the biggest holiday of the year in Russia, and even those watching the news were distracted by the failing negotiations over shipments of Russian gas to Ukraine. The law was announced by a single sentence on Interfax.

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Technorati Tags: jury trials, crimes against the state, treason, revolt, sabotage, espionage, terrorism

Source: Telegraph

The surveillance equipment is in use in around 85 primary and secondary schools and colleges across the country.

Classwatch, the company behind the system, says it is being used as a way to monitor children who are disrupting lessons.

The firm said the equipment, which is sold with evidence bags approved by the Crown Prosecution Service to store material for court cases, can be used to compile “proof” of wrongdoing.

The system includes ceiling-mounted microphones and cameras and a hard drive recorder housed in a secure cabinet.

They cost around £3,000 to install in each classroom or can be leased for about £50 a month for each classroom.

Data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner has warned the surveillance may be illegal and demanded to know why schools are using it.

Classwatch said the devices act as “impartial witnesses” which can provide evidence in disputes and curb bullying and unruly behaviour.

They can also be used to protect teachers against false allegations of abuse and provide evidence acceptable in court, it said.

Andrew Jenkins, the firm’s director, said: “The system can be turned on and turned off as they wish.

“It is a bit like a video at home. This is not Big Brother. The system is under the control of the teacher.”

A Schools Department spokesman said: “We do not prescribe what schools must do to tackle security.”

Technorati Tags: Classwatch