from:"radtimes"


-Caveat Lector-

FrontLine PBS Special

SuitCase Nukes

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/russia/suitcase/

In 1997, the public became aware of a Russian nuclear device they had not
known even existed--the so-called suitcase bomb. These devices were made for
the Soviet KGB. One of these bombs had an explosive charge of one kiloton,
equivalent to one thousand tons of TNT. If a device like this made its way
to the U.S. it could destroy everything within a half-mile radius of the
Capitol in Washington, D.C. Within hours, prevailing winds would carry the
nuclear fallout throughout Washington.

What Are These Russian 'Suitcase Bombs' Like?
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/russia/suitcase/comments.html

The comments of Alexei Yablokov, former science adviser to Boris Yeltsin;
Russian General Vladimir Dvorkin; policy expert Matthew Bunn; U.S. General
Eugene Habiger; and U.S. Congressman Curt Weldon.

The U.S. Version of a 'Suitcase Bomb'

In the 1960s the U.S. built its own version of a mini nuclear device-- the
Special Atomic Demolition Munition (SADM). It weighed 80-100 pounds, was
small enough to fit in a duffel bag or large case and was designed for
sabotage missions-- airfields, bridges, dams. Like the Russian device, it
had an explosive charge of roughly one thousand tons of TNT ( one kiloton).

Film of the SADM was declassified in 1997 and shows how it would be deployed
by a parachutist for a jump mission into water to reach a target. Although
the parachute jumps and retrieval operations were rehearsed many times, the
project was never put to use and these nuclear devices do not exist in
current stockpiles.

(Both video clips require RealPlayer 5.0 or higher and a 56K modem to be
viewed).

http://video.pbs.org:8080/ramgen/wgbh/pages/frontline/1712_prepare.rm
This shows how the SADM was designed for a parachute jump and swimmer
delivery system. The SADM was fit into a special flotation bag so the
atomic munition would float when the parachutist hit the water. This clip
also shows how the flotation bag was designed to attach to the parachutist's
body.

http://video.pbs.org:8080/wgbh/pages/frontline/1712_jumping.rm
This shows test jumps into water from several Navy and Marine aircraft, and
how the Navy parachutist- with the SADM attached- swims to target and
de-attaches and activates the bomb.

At 09:48 AM 9/18/01 -0400, you wrote:
-Caveat Lector-

From: Steve [EMAIL PROTECTED]

  That would be very. Tunnels and caves would be a relatively good way to
avoid radiation, and radiation would contaminate the environment and lead to
further escalation including possible nuclear war.

Oh brother. Here we go. Possible nuclear war with just WHO Steve??? A bunch
of Afghani herdsmen with AK-47's? Please. Granted, great guerilla fighters
they may be. But nuclear capability? C'mon. That's a stretch, even by the
incredibly credulous standards of the CTRL!

So...let's see. What other Mid East baddie might engage in a bit of the old
nuclear escalation. Oh! I know! Saddam Hussein. Yeah. Let's see. He could
take an oil tanker and retrofit a missle gantry on the deck. Then he could
load it up with a nuclear tipped SCUD. Then he could cross the Atlantic,
park off the New York coastline, and (given the SCUD's known accuracy) might
hit the Jersey swamps.

Or how about one of those misnamed suitcase nukes? OK. Let's consider that
scenario. Suitcase nuke goes off in a major US city, doing massive damage,
albeit in an extrememly limited area (approx. 1 mile radius). Fallout is
minimal precisely because the weapons are low yield. US reaction? The entire
Arab world gets lit up like a Christmas tree. Now THAT'S what I call
escalation!

DC

A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A
DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

Archives Available at:
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[CTRL] Radio Sings Self-Censorship Tune


-Caveat Lector-

Radio Sings Self-Censorship Tune

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,46925,00.html

By Brad King
Sep. 18, 2001

Queen's Another One Bites the Dust.

Led Zeppelin's Stairway to Heaven.

They are rock classics, heard on radio stations across the country for
more than two decades. But now they're on a list of about 150 songs that
a group of radio programmers deemed too offensive to play on the
airwaves in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks.

Executives within the radio division at Clear Channel Communications --
one of the nation's largest radio conglomerates -- denied any list had
been developed.

But sources familiar with the situation said an informal list of
songs -- with lyrics and/or themes that might seem inappropriate to
some -- had been delivered throughout the music industry.

Although there doesn't appear to be any direct censorship involved,
entertainment groups -- long the whipping boys of child watchdog
organizations and some in Congress -- believe this is an overreaction
brought on during a time of national tragedy. They fear that Congress
may be too quick to curtail civil liberties.

There is massive self-censorship that is going on, said John Perry
Barlow, an Electronic Frontier Foundation board member. I was worried
about this because that censorship is (the) most insidious thing.

This is what totalitarianism is. It's not the will of someone inserting
their will on the populace. It's the will of the populace exerting its
will on the populace.

The entertainment industry has been wary after last week's attacks,
taking protracted first steps toward limiting images being promoted
after facing congressional scrutiny over advertising practices and
parental advisory labels in the last year.

But the list of songs wasn't meant as a way to censor stations. Radio
programmers with Clear Channel -- parent company to 1,170 stations
across the United States -- began developing a list of songs, apparently
through e-mail, with lyrics that some might consider offensive in the
wake of the attacks.

As the list was forwarded from station to station, people continued to
add songs. Eventually, the list had over 150 songs.

The list was then sent out to managers, artists and radio stations
across the country, according to sources familiar with the events.
However, the move was meant as an informational campaign for programmers
not familiar with all of the songs.

On the list were rather obvious songs to be avoided like Steve Miller's
Jet Airliner, Queen's Another One Bites the Dust and Led Zeppelin's
Stairway to Heaven.

But the list was meant to help programmers who might not envision that
Everclear's Santa Monica might offend some listeners, said sources
familiar with the list. Without knowing the lyrics to the song,
programmers might have played the song that contains the lyrics swim
out past the breakers/watch the world die.

Even the BBC's Radio 1 has put a brief ban on certain songs, including
ex-Spice Girl Geri Halliwell's remake of It's Raining Men, according
to NTK.net.

Of course, not all artists were happy to hear about the list that was
circulated around the Clear Channel stations.

Former Too Much Joy front man Tim Quirk said that developing a list of
songs that might upset people was an overreaction, since some of those
on the list had messages of hope and love.

The blanket decree from Clear Channel was frightening in its apparent
assumption that all station employees and potential listeners are
insensitive morons, and the inclusion of songs of peace and wonder (such
as 'What a Wonderful World' and 'Imagine') was particularly sad and
unhelpful, Quirk said.

Major conglomerates weren't the only stations worried about
repercussions from programming.

Tazy Stein's was scheduled to broadcast his show SP Radio One from New
York during the College Media Journal music conference. Built around
live performances from emerging bands, Stein was set to feature Swedish
band, The (International) Noise Conspiracy.

After the terrorist attacks scuttled the conference, Stein had to
reconsider the content on his show, which airs on San Diego's
independently owned KFSD.

I'm a fan of their band, but it wasn't the right timing, Stein said.
The first song in their set list was called 'The Reproduction of
Death.' That obviously wasn't appropriate for my show, after those
events in New York.

Reality also forced California hip-hop group The Coup to recall a
recently released CD that featured a picture of the World Trade Center
towers on fire.

While the events in New York and Washington have forced entertainment
companies of all types to reconsider their content, some Internet sites
have pushed forward with gruesome pictures and images.

Rotten.com has continued its daily mission of publishing photographs and
video clips of dead people and animals, along with graphic sexual
encounters. Although it's announced no plans to publish photos from the
attacks, the company -- which published a

[CTRL] Anti-war actions...(1)


-Caveat Lector-

[multiple items]
--

500 gather to mourn, urge peace in demonstration at UW campus

http://www.jsonline.com:80/news/state/sep01/peace18091701a.asp

By STEVEN WALTERS of the Journal Sentinel staff
Sept. 17, 2001

Madison - In Madison's first peace rally since terrorists struck the U.S.,
more than 500 University of Wisconsin students and area residents Monday
called for the nation's political leaders to not answer those murders with
more murders disguised as revenge.
In a respectful rally on Library Mall, scene of violent Vietnam War-era
protests and hundreds of campus rallies and marches since, speakers mourned
the more than 5,000 Americans believed to have died at the hands of
terrorists on Sept. 11. But, they said, declaring war on foreign citizens
to avenge the dead would be equally wrong.
Things are looking a little apocalyptic right now, warned the Rev.
Michael Schuler of the First Unitarian Society. Today, most Americans do
seem willing to level whole cities.
Schuler asked that President Bush show restraint in the nation's response
to terrorism because when good men do bad, too often they become bad
themselves.
Anyone who questions Bush's international military response will be
accused of disloyalty, Schuler warned. But this senseless slaughter of
pain on all sides, it must stop.
Carol Powell of the group US Out Now asked that America say 'no more' to
the killing, 'no more' to the dehumanizing of human beings.
American foreign policies have contributed to international refugee camps
where millions struggle to stay alive, Powell said. She called Americans
arrogant and oblivious to world affairs.
Revenge does not work, added Carol Weidel, a labor activist and member of
the American Federation of Teachers. We need restraint, not intimidation.
Allen Ruff of Jews for Equal Justice said that to answer the terrorism
visited on New York City and Washington, D.C., the United States is willing
to partner with countries that rule brutally, crush and kill to stay in
power and have destroyed cultures.
I am concerned about victims all over the world, Ruff said. We know
where terror comes from. We know what this country has done.
Some in the crowd held signs that read: Call for peace and justice - not
revenge;
No more blood for oil; How much good will $40 billion buy?; and War is
not the answer.

--

Anti-war protesters demonstrate at WSU

http://detnews.com:80/2001/metro/0109/18/d05-296967.htm

By Hawke Fracassa / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- Some 300 anti-war protesters marched and chanted Hey, hey! Ho,
ho! Racist war has got to go! at a demonstration  Monday on Wayne State
University's Gullen Mall.
The protest, sponsored by the Revolutionary Communist Party USA, the
Anti-Racist Action group and Solidarity, called for President Bush to seek
peaceful remedies for the terrorist attacks last week.
U.S. retaliation won't help anything, said rally organizer Brad Duncan,
23, of Detroit.
Brett Ward, 28, of Royal Oak, a Wayne State senior, said he was appalled
and outraged by the terrorism that struck New York.
That was terrorism, but our retaliation, too, would be terrorism, Ward
said. We've trained these people we now call terrorists.
The three-hour anti-war protest was peaceful and orderly. There were no
arrests.
Lance Hamilton of Detroit, a teacher who attended the rally, said he wants
the anti-war message to spread.
People are showing support for Arab Americans and need to unite on the
view that increasing military action is not the answer, he  said.
-
You can reach Hawke Fracassa at (313) 222-2320 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]

--

Anti-war activists demand Bush rule out military retaliation

http://www.abc.net.au:80/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-16sep2001-57.htm

Sun, 16 Sep 2001

Anti-war activists in Atlanta are demanding US President George W Bush rule
out military retaliation for the terror attacks that left thousands of
Americans dead or missing this week.
Carrying signs that read Stop The US War Machine and No More War, about
100 protesters say the blood of innocent people will be on the US
Government if it launches military strikes on countries believed to harbour
suspected terror networks.
Andrew Greenberg, a Green Party representative, says justice and killing
are two separate ideas.
There are millions of Americans who want to see justice, but they have no
interest in indiscriminate killing, he said.
The rally occurred shortly after Mr Bush singled out Afghanistan-based
militant Osama bin Laden as a prime suspect behind Tuesday's air assaults
on New York's World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.
A Newsweek poll this week found that 71 per cent of respondents backed a US
military strike against

[CTRL] Its the End of the World as Clear Channel Knows It


-Caveat Lector-

It's the End of the World as Clear Channel Knows It

http://slate.msn.com/code/chatterbox/chatterbox.asp?Show=9/17/2001idMessage=8314


By Eliza Truitt
Sept. 17, 2001

On Thursday of last week Clear Channel Communications, a company that owns
and programs air time at over 1,000 U.S. radio stations, sent e-mail to its
program directors at stations across the country with an updated and
expanded list of songs with questionable lyrics that they should avoid
playing. Some of the 162 songs, more if you include the blanket directive
against All Rage Against the Machine Songs are understandable, such as
Metallica's Seek and Destroy or Ozzy Osbourne's Suicide Solution.
But many of the songs on the list are ridiculous in their tenuous
connection to anything even remotely offensive to survivors of the Sept. 11
attack. The Bangles' utterly harmless piece of fluff Walk Like an
Egyptian? Or what about Elvis' (You're the) Devil in Disguise, Pat
Benatar's Love Is a Battlefield, and Bobby Darin's Mack the Knife?
Large stretches of the list reveal a grisly perspective on the part of the
authors: Boston's Smokin, Springsteen's I'm on Fire, Blue Oyster Cult's
Burnin' for You, Jerry Lee Lewis' Great Balls of Fire, Judas Priest's
Some Heads Are Gonna Roll, and the Dave Clark Five's Bits and Pieces.
Several pro-peace songs made it onto the list: Cat Stevens' Morning Has
Broken and Peace Train, presumably because Stevens is now Muslim and
goes by the name Yusuf Islam. The oddest inclusion has to be John Lennon's
explicitly pacifist anthem Imagine, unless Clear Channel is pushing a
pro-war agenda.
Jack Evans, a regional senior VP of programming at Clear Channel insisted
this list was not an effort initiated by management: After and during what
was happening in New York and Washington and outside of Pittsburgh, some of
our program directors began e-mailing each other about songs and
questionable song titles, though the finished list was distributed to the
program directors by Clear Channel management.
Evans concedes that some of the songs are off base: I think there were
certainly songs on the list that people were reading too much into (the
Beastie Boys' Sabotage, perchance?) though he supports the list in
general. There were a substantial amount of songs in question that I'm
glad the [program directors] brought up so we didn't air them at a very,
very sad time. You can judge for yourself. Here's the list, with original
spellings intact.
Clear Channel is now denying the existence of the list.
Click here to find out more.
http://slate.msn.com/code/chatterbox/chatterbox.asp?Show=9/18/2001idMessage=8318


  Drowning
Pool Bodies
  Mudvayne
Death Blooms
  Megadeth
Dread and the Fugitive
   
   Sweating
Bullets
  Saliva
Click Click Boom
  P.O.D.
Boom
  Metallica
Seek and Destroy
   
   Harvestor
of Sorrow
   
   Enter
Sandman
   
   Fade
to Black
All Rage Against Machine Songs
  Nine Inch
Nails Head Like a Hole
  Godsmack
Bad Religion
  Tool
Intolerance
  Sound
Garden  Blow Up the Outside
   
   World
  AC/DC
Shot Down in Flames
   
   Shoot
to Thrill
   
   Dirty
Deeds
   
   Highway
to Hell
   
   Safe
in New York City
   
   TNT
   
   Hells
Bells
  Black
Sabbath   War Pigs
   
   Sabbath
Bloody Sabbath
  Ozzy
Osbourne Suicide Solution
  Dio
Holy Diver
  Steve
Miller  Jet Airliner

[CTRL] Nightmare Of Peace Prosperity Finally Over


-Caveat Lector-

 From the Onion, shortly after the Inauguration

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

http://www.theonion.com/onion3701/bush_nightmare.html

WASHINGTON, DC -- Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the
door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured
the nation in a televised address Tuesday that our long national nightmare
of peace and prosperity is finally over.
My fellow Americans, Bush said, at long last, we have reached the end of
the dark period in American history that will come to be known as the
Clinton Era, eight long years characterized by unprecedented economic
expansion, a sharp decrease in crime, and sustained peace overseas. The
time has come to put all of that behind us.
Bush swore to do everything in [his] power to undo the damage wrought by
Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to
developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical
weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the
mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.
During the 40-minute speech, Bush also promised to bring an end to the
severe war drought that plagued the nation under Clinton, assuring citizens
that the U.S. will engage in at least one Gulf War-level armed conflict in
the next four years.
You better believe we're going to mix it up with somebody at some point
during my administration, said Bush, who plans a 250 percent boost in
military spending. Unlike my predecessor, I am fully committed to putting
soldiers in battle situations. Otherwise, what is the point of even having
a military?
On the economic side, Bush vowed to bring back economic stagnation by
implementing substantial tax cuts, which would lead to a recession, which
would necessitate a tax hike, which would lead to a drop in consumer
spending, which would lead to layoffs, which would deepen the recession
even further.
Wall Street responded strongly to the Bush speech, with the Dow Jones
industrial fluctuating wildly before closing at an 18-month low. The NASDAQ
composite index, rattled by a gloomy outlook for tech stocks in 2001, also
fell sharply, losing 4.4 percent of its total value between 3 p.m. and the
closing bell.
Asked for comment about the cooling technology sector, Bush said: That's
hardly my area of expertise.
Turning to the subject of the environment, Bush said he will do whatever it
takes to undo the tremendous damage not done by the Clinton Administration
to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. He assured citizens that he will
follow through on his campaign promise to open the 1.5 million acre
refuge's coastal plain to oil drilling. As a sign of his commitment to
bringing about a change in the environment, he pointed to his choice of
Gale Norton for Secretary of the Interior. Norton, Bush noted, has
extensive experience fighting environmental causes, working as a lobbyist
for lead-paint manufacturers and as an attorney for loggers and miners, in
addition to suing the EPA to overturn clean-air standards.
Bush had equally high praise for Attorney General nominee John Ashcroft,
whom he praised as a tireless champion in the battle to protect a woman's
right to give birth.
Soon, with John Ashcroft's help, we will move out of the Dark Ages and
into a more enlightened time when a woman will be free to think long and
hard before trying to fight her way past throngs of protesters blocking her
entrance to an abortion clinic,
Bush said. We as a nation can look forward to lots and lots of babies.
Continued Bush: John Ashcroft will be invaluable in healing the terrible
wedge President Clinton drove between church and state.
The speech was met with overwhelming approval from Republican leaders.
Finally, the horrific misrule of the Democrats has been brought to a
close, House Majority Leader Dennis Hastert (R-IL) told reporters. Under
Bush, we can all look forward to military aggression, deregulation of
dangerous, greedy industries, and the defunding of vital domestic
social-service programs upon which millions depend. Mercifully, we can now
say goodbye to the awful nightmare that was Clinton's America.
For years, I tirelessly preached the message that Clinton must be
stopped, conservative talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh said.
And yet, in 1996, the American public failed to heed my urgent warnings,
re-electing Clinton despite the fact that the nation was prosperous and at
peace under his regime. But now, thank God, that's all done with. Once
again, we will enjoy mounting debt, jingoism, nuclear paranoia, mass
deficit, and a massive military build-up.
An overwhelming 49.9 percent of Americans responded enthusiastically to the
Bush speech.
After eight years of relatively sane fiscal policy under the Democrats, we
have reached a point where, just a few weeks ago, President Clinton said
that the national debt could be paid off by as early as 2012, Rahway, NJ,
machinist and father

[CTRL] THE cyborg COMETH

2001-09-17 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

 From Worldlink,
http://www.worldlink.co.uk/stories/storyReader$844
-
THE cyborg COMETH

Microchip implants may be the next best thing to a miracle cure for
disabilities. Michael Brooks describes the medical benefits of fusing the
powers of man and machine

Brooks is a features editor at New Scientist magazine and a regular
contributor to World Link

In science fiction, they call it a cyborg. In medicine, they call it
progress. The future, as envisioned by science-fiction writers, is already
among us: people and machines are becoming, quite literally, inseparable.

Researchers are gradually learning how to meld together electronic
circuitry, such as microchips, and biological tissue. In a decade or so you
might buy the latest hardware upgrade and implant it in your head.



Illustration by John McFaul

More than 20,000 people worldwide already have such implants. These circuits
are known as cochlear implants, and can restore hearing to people with
profound hearing loss.

Cochlear implants were first conceived some 30 years ago by French
researchers. Whereas standard hearing aids amplify sounds, cochlear implants
turn sound into electrical signals, much like a microphone does. The signals
are then sent to an implanted microchip, which stimulates nerve fibres in
the inner ear. When stimulated, these nerves send a signal to the brain that
is interpreted as sound. Normally, these nerve fibres are stimulated by hair
cells responding to vibrations. But where the hairs don't do their job, the
electrical signal from a cochlear implant can step in. Because the implants
are using the latest electronics technology, they are sensitive enough to
make speech sounds recognisable.

Stanford University neurosurgeon Gary Heit is going even further into the
head and implanting microchips in people's brains. It's no weird
thought-control experiment, or an attempt to allow them to influence the
electronics. It's quite simply a medical procedure that can revolutionise
someone's life.

Heit's patients suffer from debilitating tremors, similar to those caused by
Parkinson's disease. These tremors can prevent them from being capable of
doing anything for themselves - even buttoning up a shirt becomes an
impossible task. But when they receive a chip implant in the area of the
brain known as the hypothalamus, everything changes. Flick a switch to turn
the chip on and it emits signals that interfere with the brain signals
causing the tremor. The patient's hands suddenly stop shaking. The relief,
after years of impairment, is enough to make some of his patients
immediately burst into tears.

MICROCHIP MIRACLES

Heit is one of a growing band of researchers who believes that much more can
and will be done in harnessing electronics to repair damage to the human
body. He believes, for example, that actor Christopher Reeve, who suffered
severe spinal injuries in a riding accident, could walk again next year if
all the research knowledge in the world were pooled.

Researchers at the University of Illinois in Chicago, for instance, have
invented a microcomputer system that sends electrical pulses to a patient's
legs, causing the muscles to contract. Using a walker for balance, people
paralysed from the waist down can stand up from a sitting position and walk
short distances. Some have walked as far as a mile using the technology. It
needs smoothing and optimising, but the fundamentals are done. Another team,
based in Europe, is doing similar work. Last year, they enabled a paraplegic
to walk using a chip connected to fine wires in his legs. When activated -
by pressing buttons on his walking frame - the wires stimulated his leg
muscles and allowed him to take steps.

Heit's chip implant could be tailored to talk directly with these muscle
stimulators. It may eventually be possible that the thought of walking will
be enough to get people moving again. Think walk, and off you go.

That might sound like a step too far, but the first astonishing move toward
such thought-controlled electronics has already been taken.

THOUGHT CONTROL

Last year, researchers at Northwestern University Medical School wired up a
lamprey's brain to a set of wheels. The brain was able to move the wheels.
It was the first demonstration of how an animal's nervous system and a
machine could work together in the future.

Sandro Mussa-Ivaldi's team took a lamprey's brain and part of its spinal
cord and connected them to light detectors. Then they mounted the brain on
what was effectively a trolley with wheels that was controlled by electrical
inputs. The signal to these inputs were connected directly to the brain.
When the researchers shined light onto the optical sensors, the light
converted into electrical signals that fed straight into the lamprey's
brain.

Because they had connected into the brain's vestibular system - the part
that gives information about orientation and balance - the lamprey brain
interpreted the signals as information about, for

[CTRL] US troops in Pakistan for assault

2001-09-16 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

US troops in Pak for assault

http://www.kashmirtimes.com/world.htm

Bush in talks to prepare for military response

ISLAMABAD, Sep 15 (uni) Preparing for an assault on Afghanistan, a
contingent of US marines and the FBI
officials have landed in Pakistan for launching 'target-oriented' operation
against Saudi fugitive Osama Bin Laden, prime suspect in black Tuesday
string of attacks on the United States.

Leading Pakistani daily 'The News' reported today a contingent of the
special services group of the US marines (green seals) and the FBI
officials landed at the Islamabad International Airport at wee hours yesterday.
A military plane brought the us troops to Islamabad, who were later taken
to an unknown place, the paper said.
The airport remained closed from 0300 hrs to 0500 hrs on Friday
morning  which according to the paper was
the time of arrival of US troops.
Senior Pakistani official confirmed a military movement was going on at the
airport during its closure.
There is a normal schedule of such type of exercises, and one should not
worry about it, the official said.
The green seals are the latest version of super-trained, highly
sophisticated, armed with hitech weaponry and
aided by satellite-guided navigation commandos, who are given special and
difficult assignments.
According to the paper, it was perceived that the elite green seals would
change the mode of their action in case of missing bin laden. They would
spread across Afghanistan, sniffing on Osama's whereabouts. And in the
event of detection, they would guide the us navy aircraft in the possible
airstrikes, the paper added.
It said there were speculation that the green seals would also conduct a
quick survey of the region before an
anticipated attack on a larger scale, if, at all, required.
The green seals have conducted joint exercises with the Pakistan ssgs on
multiple occasions on the pakistani
soil since 1998, when the US first planned to hunt down Osama. These
exercises were reportedly conducted in cherat, attock with a specific view
the terrain was similar to the Afghanistan's terrain, the paper said.
United States President George W Bush was on Saturday huddled in high-level
talks with his top advisors at
Camp David to prepare military response to Tuesday's terror attacks.
The meeting with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defence Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld and national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice followed the authorisation by the Congress to the
President to use all necessary and appropriate force in retaliation.
Bush is expected to use his regular Saturday radio address to move away
from healing touch to harsher language that educates the public about the
struggle that lies ahead.
Bush has already declared a national emergency and given the military the
authority it needs to call up 50,000
reservists. The Pentagon has said the first 35,000 reservists to be called
up - including fighter jet pilots and
crews - would be for homeland defence - to protect US cities. They will
include 13,000 airmen, 10,000 army
soldiers, 7,500 marines, 3,000 navy personnel and 2,000 coastguard troops.
Bush travelled to Camp David for Saturday's decision-making meeting after
making his first visit to New York
since the disaster. He addressed rescue workers through a loudspeaker, with
his arm around a firefighter. As
some of the crowd shouted that they could not hear, he replied: I can hear
you and the rest of the world hears
you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Hold the Vision by Starhawk

2001-09-16 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Hold the Vision

http://www.starhawk.org/activism/holdthevision.html

by Starhawk
September 14, 2001

The world has changed in the past week. An act of violence and horror has
cost the lives of thousands, and shattered all of our plans and
expectations for the future.
We who have been working for global justice now face an enormous challenge.
Since Seattle, we've built and sustained a movement in spite of continually
escalating police violence and attempts by the media to paint us as violent
thugs. Genoa did not intimidate us, and momentum was growing for the
demonstrations in Washington DC at the end of the month. Public opinion was
shifting, and the whole edifice of corporate rule was losing legitimacy.
The terrorist attacks of last Tuesday could undermine all of our work, at
least in the short term. They are the perfect excuse for the state to
intensify its repression, restrict civil liberties, and for anyone who
speaks out against blind retaliation to be demonized.
The mood of the country is potentially ugly. People are scared. They're
angry. Their sense of power and invulnerability has been badly shaken, and
in the U.S., they're not used to it. They're grasping at anything which can
restore their sense of power over their lives, and in a violent society,
that means punishment, retaliation, war.
And many of us activists are also scared. I know how easily I can sink into
fear and despair right now. I'm scared of the repression that might come,
scared of being personally targeted, scared of the loss of our liberties,
scared, yes, of further attacks. But most of all I'm scared for the
movement, which I believe is crucial to our survival as a species.
And yet I also believe that the current crisis can be a great opportunity,
if we can only see how to grasp it. Extraordinary times create
extraordinary openings and possibilities. Our usual patterns and ways of
thinking are shattered. When structures fall, something new can be built.
To do that, we have to behave in extraordinary ways. We need to acknowledge
our fears, but not act out of fear. Fear leads to bad decisions and
constricted vision, just when we need to see most clearly.
Hold on, hold on, hold the vision, that's being born, our cluster chanted
in Quebec City.
It may be that the most radical thing we can do right now is to act from
our vision, not our fear, and to believe in the possibility of its
realization. Every force around us is pushing us to close down, insulate,
retreat. Instead, we need to advance, but in a different way. We're called
to take a leap into the unknown.
As a movement, we've often been accused of lacking a clear vision of the
world we want. I think we do have a vision, that includes diversity and
rejects uniform, dogmatic formulations. But within all its varied forms
there's a clear common ground: we want a world of liberty and justice for
all. It sounds downright patriotic but if you think about its
ramifications, they are revolutionary. And we want a world in which no one
has to fear violence, which is the ultimate violation of freedom.
There are many voices right now trying to mobilize people around fear,
anger and blame. As radicals, we've too often tried to mobilize people out
of guilt, or shame. This is the moment to reinvent our approach, our
strategies and our tactics, to believe in the possibility of moving people
to act from hope, to act in the service of what they love. What would this
look like? It would mean embodying the world we want to create in our own
movement, and in our actions.
Times of grief and anguish can strengthen our bonds. Right now, more than
ever, we in the movement need each other as never before, and we need to
treat each other well, to cherish and care for and support each other and
become the community we like to imagine. Our solidarity must go deeper than
we've ever known before. Solidarity means listening to each other with
respect, and being willing to protect and support people with whom we may
disagree on many levels, or who might simply irritate us. Solidarity means
strengthening our practice of direct democracy, our openness and
communication with each other,
our willingness to bring everyone to the table and give everyone affected
by a decision a voice in making it. It means putting aside our usual
internal politicking and maneuvering and treating each other with openness
and trust. This is not simple to do.
But in a moment when the ordinary patterns of life around us have been
shattered, shifting our own patterns of behavior may actually be easier.
Perspectives change, and the issues that last week seemed so important now
seem trivial.
What would this look like tactically, say, in DC two weeks from now? First,
we'd have to deliberately drop our assumptions, whether they are that
confrontation is always the strongest action, or that nonviolence is always
the most moral action, or that direct action is always our strategy of
choice, or that a march and a rally with

[CTRL] Despite National Emotion, Theres No Rush to Enlist

2001-09-16 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

September 16, 2001
THE SERVICES

Despite National Emotion, There's No Rush to Enlist

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/16/nyregion/16ENLI.html

By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON and AMY WALDMAN

Workers at the collapse site in Lower Manhattan greeted President Bush by
chanting U.S.A., U.S.A.! At memorial sites, there have been spontaneous
outbreaks of God Bless America.
American flags sprout from window boxes and moving trucks, on the helmets
of rescue workers and the electronic marquees of Times Square.
Yet while the armed services report a spike in the number of people
inquiring about enlistment and a near-doubling in the visitors to the
Army's online recruiter chat room, they also report no rise in actual
enlistments since the attack.
In contrast to the days after the attack on Pearl Harbor, when thousands of
young men got in line to sign up for combat, this time, with the apparent
loss of life much greater, there are no such lines. And many of the
expressions of interest have come from men too old to serve, according to
spokesmen for the national headquarters of all four recruiting commands.
These people in their 40's, these old guys, wanted to serve their country,
but the younger people just don't have any patriotism, said Staff Sgt.
Donald Wilson, a Marine Corps recruiter. The maximum age for Marine
recruits in most cases is 29.
Patriotism is not always the driving force behind military enlistment.
Still, some argue that these days may represent a test for a generation
largely detached from the military.
On Friday, James Young, 18, a high school senior from Rochester, joined the
Marines, the only person in the state's third-largest city to do so since
Tuesday. He said he had tried to persuade friends to sign up on Thursday
and was mocked.
They are all cowards, self-centered and afraid, said Mr. Young, a senior
at an alternative high school. They just wanted to get an education, get
women and get drunk.
Charles Moskos, a professor of military sociology at Northwestern
University, said the lack of enlistment reflected a trend of increasing
estrangement between the military and society. Baby boomers at least
grappled with whether to serve, even if many eventually did not. But since
the draft's repeal in 1972, only a small percentage of Americans have
served in the military, and even events like the Persian Gulf war failed to
drive many more to do so.
Flag-waving is not patriotism, Professor Moskos said.
The flag wavers, of course, would say differently. On Wednesday, with the
sun shining, Midtown Manhattan looked as if it were gearing up for a Fourth
of July parade. Robert Negron was selling flags at the corner of 34th
Street and Seventh Avenue for $1 apiece, and selling out.
The Palestinians are waving theirs, he boomed out. You should be waving
yours.
His goal, he said, was to create a snowball effect, and by Thursday, the
snowball was rolling. It was hard to go almost anywhere without seeing an
American flag.
Evaluating enlistment last week by comparing it with Pearl Harbor may be
unfair, given that this time around, the nation's leaders have yet to
decide whom to fight or how. Also, most of those joining the military these
days are driven less by patriotism than the desire for educational benefits
and skills training.
Still, last week's events seem certain to recalibrate the emotions even of
those already committed to serve.
Joshua Sanders, 18, lives in New City, N.Y., and had been recruited, as he
put it last week, after weighing a military career for two years. On
Friday, picking up some forms at the Times Square recruiting station, he
talked about how the attack had strengthened his commitment.
After what I saw on the news, he said, my blood started to boil.
In the days since the attack, many people have called in to the country's
thousands of service recruiting centers to find out how to help.
Maj. David C. Andersen of the Marine Corps said the corps' public affairs
office at 50th Street and Third Avenue had been getting 20 calls a day from
people saying they wanted to enlist. (For those interested: that office
does not process enlistments.)
In many communities, the recruiting centers are the military's most visible
presence, a fact that also has military officials worried. Spokesmen for
the recruiting commands said they were taking increased precautions to
ensure the safety of their recruiters and the facilities.
There are no such worries on the recruitment Web site for the Army,
goarmy.com, where the recruiter chat room was packed last week. The site is
logging about 743 visitors during a four-hour chat, up from 400 before the
attack, according to Mr. Smith. There have been 500 e-mail messages a day
to the Web site recently, up from 200.
The postings Friday afternoon were fervent: I want to help my country all
I can even if I have to die doing it!
If I enlist now will I get a shot at those responsible for the terrorist act?
How do I become a sniper?
Many chat-room visitors said they

[CTRL] MP warns against Afghanistan be terrorists' stronghold

2001-09-11 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

MP warns against Afghanistan be terrorists' stronghold

By Ivan Novikov
September 11, 2001

MOSCOW, Sep 10, 2001 (Itar-Tass via COMTEX) via NewsEdge Corporation  - -

The struggle against international terrorism demands that the whole world
community
should pool and coordinate their efforts, leader of the Russian Regions
bloc of the
State Duma Oleg Morozov told Itar-Tass on Monday, commenting on the death of
the leader of the Afghan Northern alliance Ahmad Shah Masood.

The terrorist act against Masood was directly aimed at turning Afghanistan into
a permanent stronghold of international terrorism, Morozov said. Terrorists
need neither normalization in Afghanistan, nor Afghanistan being a full-fledged
member of the world community. On the contrary, the terrorists are doing
everything possible so as to traffic drugs from its territory in future,
Morozov said.

We should bring it home to the people that if someone gets killed in
Afghanistan, Northern Ireland or Chechnya, this is not an event of local
importance. In a contemporary world under conditions of globalization the
local
mentality becomes ineffective and therefore, international efforts are needed
to rebuff international terrorism, Morozov said.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Another Apologist

2001-09-11 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar soaked
fingers
out of the business of these [Third World] nations so full of depressed,
exploited people,
they will arrive at a solution of their own. And if unfortunately their
revolution must be of
the violent type because the haves refuse to share with the have-nots
by any peaceful
method, at least what they get will be their own, and not the American
style, which they don't
want and above all don't want crammed down their throats by Americans.

   General David Sharp
(former United States Marine Commandant - 1966)

A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A
DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] What did they know? When did they know it?

2001-09-11 Thread radtimes

RIW Digest - Extra

What did they know? When did they know it?

From: PA List Manager [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Monday, September 10, 2001 
Subject: Worldwide Caution - Public Announcement

Worldwide Caution - Public Announcement
September 7, 2001

Over the last several months, the U.S. Government has learned that
U.S. citizens and interests abroad may be at increased risk of a
terrorist action from extremist groups. In addition, we have received
unconfirmed information that terrorist actions may be taken against
U.S. military facilities and/or establishments frequented by U.S.
military personnel in Korea and Japan. We are also concerned about
information we received in May 2001 that American citizens may be the
target of a terrorist threat from extremist groups with links to Usama
Bin Ladin's Al-Qaida organization.

In the past, such individuals have not distinguished between official and
civilian targets. As always, we take this information seriously. U.S.
Government facilities worldwide remain at a heightened state of
alert.

U.S. citizens are urged to maintain a high level of vigilance and to take
appropriate steps to increase their security awareness to reduce their
vulnerability. Americans should maintain a low profile, vary routes and
times for all required travel, and treat mail and packages from
unfamiliar sources with suspicion. In addition, American citizens
are also urged to avoid contact with any suspicious, unfamiliar
objects, and to report the presence of the objects to local authorities.
Vehicles should not be left unattended, if at all possible, and should be
kept locked at all times. U.S. Government personnel overseas have been
advised to take the same precautions. In addition, U.S. Government
facilities have and will continue, to temporarily close or suspend public
services as necessary to review their security posture and ensure its
adequacy.

U.S. citizens planning to travel abroad should consult the Department of
State's Public Announcements, Travel Warnings, Consular Information
Sheets, and regional travel brochures, all of which are available at the
Consular
Affairs Internet web site at
http://travel.state.gov.
We will continue to provide updated information should it become
available. American citizens overseas may contact the American Citizens
Services unit of the nearest
U.S. Embassy or Consulate by telephone or fax for up-to-date
information on security conditions. In addition, American citizens
in need of emergency assistance should telephone the nearest U.S. Embassy
or Consulate before visiting the Embassy or Consulate.

Department of State travel information and publications are available at
Internet address:
http://travel.state.gov.
U.S. travelers may hear recorded information by calling the Department of
State in Washington, D.C. at 202-647-5225 from their touch-tone
telephone, or receive information by automated telefax by dialing
202-647-3000 from their fax machine.

This Public Announcement supersedes the Public Announcement - Worldwide
Caution of June 22, 2001 to inform U.S. citizens of unconfirmed threats
against U.S. military facilities, personnel and establishments frequented
by U.S. military personnel. This Public Announcement expires on December
22, 2001.

[CTRL] Fwd: Conference set for SLC Olympics 2002 security planning

2001-09-07 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Fwd:

Conference set for SLC Olympics 2002 security planning

Facility protection, risk of terrorism at Salt Lake City 2002 Winter
Olympics to be addressed at Jane's conference

As Salt Lake City, Utah, prepares to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, a
group of leading experts on the protection of facilities in the public and
private sector will discuss infrastructure protection and the threat of
terrorism at the Jane's Conference, Facility Security: Protecting
Infrastructure and Special Events. The event will take place in Salt Lake
City on September 11-12, 2001.

Security and law enforcement personnel worldwide are increasingly being
called upon to protect facilities in both the public and private sectors
against terrorist or criminal attacks.

Contingency planning is difficult to do 'correctly' and hard to sell
politically. The 2002 Olympics provides a unique opportunity to do both and
lay a foundation for infrastructure assurance that will serve the area well
into the next decade. Doing so will require a public-private partnership
that is motivated, understands the risks and is able to implement the
options for managing those risks, says Jane's Conference speaker John
Powers, Chairman of Corporate Communications Resource, Inc. He will discuss
these and other issues during his presentation on Facility Security and
Infrastructure Protection on September 11.

The conference will provide attendees with a unique opportunity to meet
experts and explore the latest cutting-edge analysis and information, with a
particular focus being placed on the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympic Games.
Panel subjects include: Concepts and Trends; Facility Security Planning and
Preparation; Infrastructure Protection; Crisis Management ?-Dealing with
Bombings, Threats and Large Crowds; Unconventional Threats and Special
Events and Response.

Among the confirmed speakers are:
John Powers, Chairman, Corporate Communications Resource, Inc;
Dr. Robert J. Bunker, Adjunct Professor, National Security Studies,
California State University;
Lt. Col. Larry Richards, United States Marine Corps Reserve;
John Sullivan, Conference Advisor and Co-author, Jane?s Facility Security
Handbook;
Matt Begert, Project Leader, National Law Enforcement and Corrections
Technology Center ? West;
Annabelle Boyd, Senior Consultant and Partner, Boyd Caton  Grant
Transportation Group;
Jim Caton, Vice President, Boyd Caton  Grant Transportation Group;
Dan Lindsay, Chief Airport Safety Officer, Los Angeles Department of
Airports, Ontario National Airport;
David G. Maples, Vice President and Director, Corporate Events Security
Management, Investigations Group International, Inc;
A.D. Vickery, Interim Assistant Chief of Operations, Seattle Fire
Department;
Howard Seguine, Program Manager, Battelle Memorial Institute;
Chief Rick Dinse, Salt Lake City Police Department;
Chris Kozlow, Senior Associate, Community Research Associates, Inc;
Ron Watson, Battalion Chief, Los Angeles County Fire Department.

Delegates include:
The FBI;
US Department of Defense;
Defence Nuclear-Biological-Chemical Center;
Emergency Management Agencies;
DERA;
The Coca-Cola Company.

Jane's Conference - Facility Security: Protecting Infrastructure and Special
Events

Note: If you would like to know more about the Jane's Conference on Facility
Security: Protecting Infrastructure and Special Events, please contact
Erika Davies or Katrina Thompson on +1 700 683 3700. To discuss
discretionary free journalist participation, please contact Melissa Golding
-- Jane's PR Executive in the USA -- on +1 703 236 2467.

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] FBI denies bias as raid shuts Arabic Web sites

2001-09-07 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

FBI denies bias as raid shuts Arabic Web sites

from REUTERS in Dallas
Friday, September 7, 2001

  A United States terrorism task force raided the Texas-based host of
Arabic Web sites, including that of the Arab world's leading independent
news channel, prompting charges on Thursday of an anti-Muslim
witchhunt.

But the FBI, which took part in the raid on Wednesday at privately held
InfoCom Corp, in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, denied any anti-Arab
bias and said it was executing an unspecified federal search warrant.

The FBI declined to specify the target of the search warrant, which is
under seal in a federal court, except to say in a statement that the
search was one aspect of a more than two-year investigation that is
ongoing.

InfoCom's owners said the raid resulted in a temporary shutdown of Web
sites it hosts for about 500 customers, including that run by Al-Jazeera
television and the newspaper Al-Sharq, both based in the Gulf state of
Qatar.

Al-Jazeera is a major regional news source for Arabic speakers. Often
dubbed the Arab CNN, it has emerged as a major force in a region where
most broadcasters operate under direct state control.

The Web sites were shut down while about 80 agents copied information
from InfoCom's Internet servers, said Ghassan Elashi, brother of owner
Bayan Elashi.

He said many of the sites were able to start up again on other servers,
while the task force continued to copy computerised information on
Thursday. The office remained sealed off by FBI agents.

We have nothing to hide. We are co-operating 110 per cent with the FBI,
InfoCom's lawyer Mark Enoch said.

Mr Enoch said whatever tips had led to the search was bad information.

If they think they're going to find that InfoCom is associated with
terrorism, they're wrong. It's not, he said.

Mr Elashi said InfoCom's customers were not solely Arabic or Muslim.
They are across the board, from Dallas to California to other places
around the world, he said.

Several American Islamic groups condemned the search as an anti-Muslim
witchhunt promoted by the pro-Israel lobby in America, according to a
statement from 10 organisations, including the Muslim Public Affairs
Council.

We are deeply concerned that there is a pattern of stereotyping that
permeates all these types of investigations. There is a marginalisation
of the American-Muslim population, Mahdi Bray of the Los Angeles-based
council said at a news conference outside the closed InfoCom office.

The FBI denied the raid was any kind of witchhunt. We were executing a
search warrant as part of a criminal investigation. It had nothing to do
with anti-Islamic or anti-Palestinian or anti-Middle East issues or
anything like that, said special agent Lori Bailey, spokeswoman for the
Dallas FBI office.

The search was conducted by the North Texas Joint Terrorism Task Force, a
multi-agency federal and local grouping which includes the FBI, Secret
Service and the US Customs Service.

It also includes the US Office of Foreign Assets Control, an arm of the
Treasury Department empowered to freeze or seize the assets of
individuals or organisations that have been designated by the government
as terrorist.

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Two Marijuana Activists Murdered By Federal and State Muscle


-Caveat Lector-

Two Marijuana Activists Murdered By Federal and State Muscle

Thu, 06 Sep 2001

for more and comments on this appalling article, go here:-
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=61876group=webcast


Two Marijuana Activists Murdered By Federal and State Muscle (english)  by Pete
Brady 7:00pm Wed Sep 5 '01 (Modified on 5:17am Thu Sep 6 '01)

Two prominent Michigan marijuana activists were shot dead Labor Day weekend,
during a police siege of the activists' Rainbow Farm compound in Vandalia,
Michigan.

Tom Crosslin, a 47-year-old events promoter who hosted pro-marijuana concerts
and rallies on his rural Southern Michigan land, was shot dead by federal and
state police on Monday. Rolland Rohm, 28, was shot Tuesday morning. Agencies
involved in the fatal siege include the Cass County Sheriff's Department,
Michigan State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Crosslin, Rohm and their allies have been sponsoring counterculture events,
including two High Times WHEE festivals, for several years. Entertainers like
Merle Haggard and The Birds graced the stage at Rainbow Farms happenings, which
were also known for their freewheeling recreational activities, such as the
famous nude hippie mountain mud slide.

Police and other anti-drug minions had spent years trying to shut down Rainbow
Farms using techniques similar to those used against Oregon pot events promoter
Bill Conde, New York events organizer Rob Uncle Sam, and Washington
landowner-activist Gideon Israel. Crosslin had bitterly complained about police
roadblocks, undercover officers, and other harassment, which he believed were
being used to keep people away from his popular counterculture resort.

In May, police stormed Crosslin's 34-acre property and arrested him in
connection with alleged marijuana use and cultivation, as well as possession of
firearms. Crosslin and his attorneys insisted that the arrests were a
politically motivated attempt to shut down pro-marijuana activities that were
generally peaceful and posed no threat to the community.

Authorities responded by investigating Crosslin's accounting records and by
court-ordering him to abstain from holding any more marijuana-related events on
his land. They also initiated asset forfeiture proceedings, which Crosslin
described to friends as the government trying to steal my property because
they don't like my political views.

Crosslin was out on $150,000 bond, facing 15 years in prison and the loss of
his property when he allegedly defied the court order and held a pot event at
Rainbow Farms in August.

Just before Labor Day weekend, officials told Crosslin his bond was going to be
revoked. Crosslin responded by setting fire to many of the buildings on his
property, and by allegedly shooting at media aircraft and police aircraft that
flew over his home as the situation became an armed siege.  As Labor Day
weekend commenced, squadrons of FBI agents and foot soldiers surrounded the
farm. Although police reports about Crosslin's death were not delivered in a
timely manner and contain puzzling omissions, current reports indicate that an
FBI agent killed Crosslin Monday afternoon when Crosslin and another activist
discovered the agent on Rainbow Farms property. Police allege that Crosslin
pointed a gun at the agent before he was shot.

The siege continued because Rohm and other Crosslin associates refused to
surrender. Police say Rohm was shot early Tuesday because he too pointed a gun
at an officer. Friends of Crosslin and Rohm who were camped near the Farm in a
support encampment disputed police reports, saying that the dead pair were
legally walking on their own property when they were shot in cold blood by
police.

Crosslin was widely respected in the North American marijuana movement and even
among his conservative non-pot smoking neighbors in Southern Michigan. He had a
20 year history of civil rights activism. He bought and restored a historic
brick house built in 1807 that had been used by anti-slavery Underground
Railroad activists during the 1800's, intending to use the house as an
educational bed and breakfast. He donated thousands of dollars to local
charities, and worked hard to keep hard drugs, sexual harassment, and violence
out of his popular events, which sometimes drew as many as 20,000 visitors.

Cannabis movement videographer and potographer Chadman, whose digital photos
and movies have been widely distributed in cannabis media and mainstream media,
told Cannabis Culture that he had been to a dozen events at Rainbow Farm in the
last two years.

Tom was a dedicated, caring guy, Chadman reported. He wasn't a militia guy
or a gun nut, but he did believe in the Constitution and in freedom, and he
felt that if other people have a right to put on events where thousands of
people get drunk, shoot guns, tie cattle in ropes and otherwise act crazy, that
he had a right to provide a campground and entertainment for our non-violent
marijuana culture. He hated

[CTRL] Environmentally friendly explosives get ready for ignition


-Caveat Lector-

Environmentally friendly explosives get ready for ignition

http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns1244

05  September  01
Damian Carrington, Glasgow

The advent of environmentally friendly explosives has moved a step closer,
with German scientists solving the problem of water absorption in one
promising compound - the moisture literally turns the compound into a damp
squib.
It may sound strange that military are concerned about health and safety,
says Thomas Klapotke, at the University of Munich. But 99.9 percent of
missile launches and explosions take place in training, over your own
territory and involving your own personnel.
Conventional explosives and missile propellants are packed with metals and
halogens, which can be harmful before and after combustion. Even guns can
produce smogs of lead compounds in the indoor shooting ranges now used by
many police forces, because lead azide is used as the initiator.
I would not call them environmentally friendly, but environmentally
compatible, Klapotke told New Scientist. But replacing conventional
explosives with compounds containing only nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen means the only combustion products are N2, water and methane - hot
air, says Klapotke.
Rained off
Klaptoke has been working with the highly explosive compound hydrozinium
azide (N5H5) but the synthesis process used meant it was highly
hydroscopic. The water attracted completely defuses the explosive properties.
However, Klapotke found that by crystallising hydrozinium azide directly
from water-free hydrazine, the hydroscopic property was removed. The work
has just been published in the journal Propulsion, Explosives and Pyrotechnics.
Hydrozinium azide is particularly promising because its combustion products
are N2 and H2 alone. The lightness of these gases means that the detonation
velocity is especially high and when the H2 burns to produce water just
milliseconds later, a second powerful burst of energy is released.
Big bang
The new generation of explosives need not only be greener, they can also be
more powerful. Klapotke has found that diazyltetrozolate, which is 90
percent nitrogen by weight, is 25 percent more powerful than HMX, the most
powerful explosive currently in use.
A number of groups in countries belonging to the NATO military alliance are
investigating green explosives, but are taking different approaches. The
German team is looking at compounds that store their energy in single
nitrogen to nitrogen bonds. When detonated, the atoms form highly stable
triple nitrogen to nitrogen bonds, releasing energy.
In contrast, US teams are testing materials in which the energy is stored
as molecular strain in twisted chains or rings of atoms.
The key difficulty that remains to be overcome is cost. Currently green
explosives are 100 times more expensive to produce than conventional ones.
Klapotke believes that even at best the new generation materials will be
double or triple the price, but says that the military is highly committed
to developing less environmentally harmful options. If your new explosive
has metals or halogens in, its not even worth putting on the drawing
board, he says.
Klapotke presented his research at the British Association's Festival of
Science in Glasgow.

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major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Wanted: Enemy to Justify $344 Billion War Budget


-Caveat Lector-

Wanted: Enemy to Justify $344 Billion War Budget

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11427

by Ben Cohen, AlterNet
September 4, 2001

You may know some despicable characters, but are they mean enough to apply
for this job posting?
ENEMY WANTED. Serious enemy needed to justify Pentagon budget increase.
Defense contractors desperate. Interested enemies send letter and photo or
video (threatening, ok) to Enemy Search Committee, Priorities Campaign,
1350 Broadway, NY, NY, 10018.
Here's the deal: We know our politicians have their work cut out for
them.  They need to find an enemy to justify maintaining the Pentagon
budget as if the Cold War never ended. But the pool of credible enemies is
evaporating.  North Korea is even going diplomatic. The Soviets took
themselves out of the running years ago. And countries like Iraq, or tough
looking trading partners like China, don't make the cut.
So, I am distributing a job description as widely as possible to help our
politicians find the enemy they seek. Even with the help of defense
contractors, who spend $50 million on lobbyists annually, our politicians
do not possess the creativity to find the right adversary. It's clear that
the old concept of enemy doesn't work anymore.
The trouble is the Defense Department needs to find an enemy in a
hurry.  The Bush Administration has proposed to increase Pentagon spending
by $33 billion, the largest defense increase since the Cold War.
This inexplicable proposal is under attack by children's advocates, who
would rather use the $33 billion earmarked for the Pentagon to begin
modernizing our crumbling public schools and to buy health insurance for
millions of U.S. kids and Head Start for the one-third of eligible children
who can't get in because it's under-funded.
As pressure mounts to pay for these domestic programs, and the size of the
projected surplus shrinks, defense contractors and the Pentagon PR machine,
including their legion of liaisons on Capitol hill, are getting
nervous.  Meanwhile, high tech airplanes crash inexplicably, Star Wars
tests miss their targets, and the budget crunch in Congress looms. All of
this raises questions, questions, questions:
  - Why does the Pentagon need a budget of $344
billion, which would be over three times as much as the combined defense
spending of Russia, China, and America's potential adversaries (Cuba, Iran,
Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria)? And this does include not the
over $200 billion spent by U.S. allies annually on defense.
  - How do Congress and the President know how much
money the Pentagon needs when it can't pass a financial audit, despite
legal obligations to do so? Without audited books, the President and
Congress do not know for certain what the Pentagon has and what it really
needs.
  - Why does the federal government want to spend $344
billion on the Pentagon, when the federal government currently spends only
$42 billion on education, $26 billion on affordable housing, $6 billion on
Head Start, and only $1 billion on school construction? Does it appear that
our national priorities are mixed up or what?

These would be tough questions, even if America had a serious
enemy.  Without one, these are devastating questions, and it's so painful
to see our politicians trying to answer them that I want to help them find
an enemy as quickly as possible.
Larger trends are also causing our politicians to squirm when defending the
Pentagon budget, and frankly it's an embarrassing sight (hence, again, the
immediate enemy need). For example:
  - In our country, the richest nation in the world --
14 million kids attend schools that need extensive renovation or
replacement. In international test scores, our eighth graders rank 18 in
math and 19 in science, below Slovenia, Singapore, and Hungary, among others.
  - The child poverty rate hovers at over 15 percent,
meaning that about one in six kids lives in poverty.
  - Over 40 million Americans, including about 10
million children, have no health insurance.

My enemy search, if successful, would go a long way toward easing the
consciences of our politicians who support the fat Pentagon budget, which
diverts money from poor children, the environment, and other good things.
As of today, however, my search is not going well. So, I am open to any and
all suggestions or leads that you might have. I am, of course on the
lookout for the right headhunter, but none has materialized.
If you've got any killer ideas, please let me know.
---
Ben Cohen is co-founder of Ben and Jerry's and President of the Priorities
Campaign (www.businessleaders.org).

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[CTRL] DIA Hopes to Grow Anthrax Variant to Test Vaccine

-Caveat Lector-

Date: Thu, 6 Sep 2001
From: Press Service [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:  DIA Hopes to Grow Anthrax Variant to Test Vaccine

By Sgt. 1st Class Kathleen T. Rhem, USA
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Sept. 6, 2001 -- The Defense Intelligence
Agency hopes to grow a Russian-engineered variant of
anthrax to test the effectiveness of the vaccine given to
U.S. troops.

We have a vaccine that works against ... all of the known
anthrax strains. What we want to do is make sure we are
prepared for any surprises, Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria
Clarke said Sept. 4.

A 1997 medical journal reported that Russia might have
developed a modified anthrax strain. Concerned about its
possible use as a biological weapon, DIA officials
requested a sample from Russia, but to date have received
none, Clarke said in a Pentagon media briefing.

Earlier this year, the DIA started to look into what it
would take to get the legal approvals, to get the
interagency coordination, to do the congressional
briefings, to look into developing that strain so they
could test vaccines and they could see what we have to do
to make sure we're protected against it, Clarke said.

She stressed no scientific work has been done so far in
developing this strain and that the proposed work,
codenamed Project Jefferson, would be in compliance with
the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.

Clarke said the convention allows work that is purely
defensive in nature. It allows you to have small
quantities of a known agent, limited quantities of an agent
if you want to study it for the purpose of protecting
people against that threat, she added.

Once the legal work is done, DIA intends to go forward with
developing the anthrax strain, Clarke said.

We take the threat of the spread of biological and
chemical warfare very, very seriously. We have an
obligation -- and it's an important obligation -- to make
sure we protect, first and foremost, the men and women in
uniform against those threats, she said. So with all the
appropriate legal reviews, with all the appropriate
interagency coordination and congressional briefing, we
plan to proceed.

Related Site of
Interest:http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Sep2001/t09052001_t0904asd.html
DoD News Briefing, Sept. 4, 2001

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  http://www.defenselink.mil/news/subscribe.html

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==
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Who's the Rogue State Now?


-Caveat Lector-

Who's the Rogue State Now?

http://www.fpif.org/commentary/0108usunilat.html

By Phyllis Bennis

  Hardly a week goes by that the United States declines to sign a world
treaty on security or the global environment-or threatens to withdraw from
one it has already signed.

Even worse is its record on international human rights. Despite lots of
high-sounding rhetoric about a human rights-based foreign policy, the U.S.
is no paragon when it comes to action. The U.S. routinely refuses to sign or
ratify numerous human rights-related treaties and conventions, and at other
times, actually violates internationally agreed upon human rights standards.

Consider the recent record:

Alone among its European and other Western allies, the U.S. continues to
impose the death penalty. It even allows imposition of a death sentence
against minors and those found to be mentally incompetent, in direct
contravention of international human rights law.
The U.S. is responsible, by refusing to allow the UN to end the devastating
economic sanctions, for killing hundreds of thousands of Iraqi children and
violating virtually all of the economic and social rights of Iraq's civilian
population.
The U.S. has refused to ratify the Convention on the Rights of the Child, a
distinction it shares only with Somalia. It opposed a key provision
prohibiting child soldiers under the age of 18, because the Pentagon found
it convenient to continue recruiting 17-year-olds for the U.S. military.
The U.S. spent years demanding international support for an International
Criminal Court. But throughout the Rome negotiations aimed at creating the
Court, U.S. diplomats worked to weaken the independence of the Court, and to
insure that no future U.S. war criminal would ever be brought before the
Court. Ultimately, while 120 countries cheered the birth of the Court that
summer, the U.S. led the seven-nation rejection front (including China,
Israel, Iraq, Libya) that refused to support the Court.
Washington stands alone in protecting Israel's illegal military occupation
of Palestinian lands, and its continuing violations of human rights and
international law, including illegal settlements, and tank and helicopter
gunship attacks on refugee camps and other civilian targets.
The U.S. reluctantly signed but has refused to ratify the Convention on
Economic and Social Rights. In conference after conference the U.S. has
opposed declaring housing and food to be internationally recognized human
rights in separate treaties, despite the explicit inclusion of such rights
in the convention's own language guaranteeing an adequate standard of
living.
The U.S. has refused to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Women, and
has strongly opposed UN efforts to make women's right to inherit property an
internationally recognized human right.
As a result, there is a growing global dismay at what is widely perceived to
be an escalating go it alone tendency in U.S. foreign policy, an approach
that dismisses the significance of multilateralism, international law, and
the United Nations.

For instance, just days before the UN votes, the Bush administration
announced its intention to abandon the requirements of the Kyoto
environmental treaty on climate change, and to unilaterally renounce the
almost 30-year-old Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty that has been a
linchpin of international strategic arms control since 1972. Coming after so
many years of big U.S. talk but little U.S. accountability to multilateral
decisionmaking, UN resolutions, and international treaties, its not
surprising that European allies were furious. Many are now calling the U.S.
a rogue state.

One example of roguish behavior toward the UN may have pushed several
countries over the edge, from irritation to fury. That is the seemingly
endless problem of unpaid U.S. dues. Washington's arrears to the UN,
including both peacekeeping and regular assessments, total over $1.3
billion. In a much praised negotiated settlement last year, the U.S.
agreed to finally pay a portion of those overdue assessments (a little more
than $530 million), if the UN accepted a long list of unilaterally imposed
restrictions crafted largely by UN-bashing Senator Jesse Helms. And now,
months later, despite the high-profile agreement, even that partial payment
has never been sent. The U.S. remains the biggest deadbeat country in the
UN.

And finally, it is not only U.S. failures and hypocrisy and double standards
on human rights, not only U.S. rejection of multilateralism in favor of raw
power that antagonizes U.S. friends, allies, and adversaries alike. It is
the ugly arrogance with which Washington wields that power that leads to
such animosity. One hopes that some here in Washington will take seriously
the sobering lesson of what begins to happen to superpowers, even to
empires, that overreach their legitimacy once too often.

(Phyllis Bennis [EMAIL PROTECTED] is an expert with Foreign Policy In
Focus, a Fellow of the

[CTRL] It's only the wind

2001-09-05 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

09-04-01: It's only the wind

www.onlinejournal.com

By Carol Schiffler

con·spir·a·cy (n.)

1. An agreement to perform together an illegal, wrongful, or subversive act.
2. A group of conspirators.
3. Law. An agreement between two or more persons to commit a crime or
accomplish a legal purpose through illegal action.
4. A joining or acting together, as if by sinister design: a conspiracy of
wind and tide that devastated coastal areas.

September 4, 2001-Horror film fans will recognize the following dramatic
convention:

A well-scrubbed American family moves into a rambling farmhouse in the
middle of nowhere. For about a week-twenty minutes in movie years-the
family is happier than they have ever been. Mom plants a garden, Dad throws
sticks for the dog, the children do a lot of giggling and running through
fields of wildflowers.

One day, Dad is in the bathroom washing up after another jolly good romp
with Rover, when all of a sudden he notices that the tap water has turned a
suspicious shade of red, the walls seem to be breathing, and there is a
disembodied head hovering above the laundry hamper. It is speaking in Latin.

Dad squeezes his eyes shut and begins to hyperventilate. The audience knows
this is the wrong response. A much better approach would be to run down the
stairs screeching like a scalded dog, pack up the family, and move into the
Motel Six, at least until a suitable exorcist can be located. But no. Dad's
no sissy. So this bastion of American manliness wipes his face, tells
himself he must be coming down with something, and adjusting the pleats in
his Dockers, strolls nonchalantly out of the bathroom to join his family
for the evening meal.

Later, when his wife starts levitating in the middle of the night and the
children are sucked into the television set, it will be a little harder for
Dad to ignore the fact that his new house is trying to kill him. But for
now, Dad tells himself, Relax. It is only the wind.

Why does this hackneyed scene work so well although it is drawn time and
again from the horror filmmaker's toolbox? Perhaps it is because every
American raised with the proper amount of cognitive repression understands
that if an otherwise rational person seriously broaches the subject of
spooky stuff around the water cooler, it is the cultural equivalent of
farting in church.

Just ask a conspiracy theorist. (By the way, how did you feel when you read
the words, conspiracy theory? Did you recoil just a little? Do you now
feel like you will have to struggle to keep an open mind about the words
that follow? If so, the government has done its job. Read on.)

This month's Nexus Magazine contains an interesting article by Donald W.
Scott called, Mycoplasmas and Neurosystemic Diseases
http://www.nexusmagazine.com/mycoplasma.html. Although considered a
fringe publication by some, there is nothing in Mr. Scott's article that
suggests the presence of a tinfoil hat. The first portion of the piece
deals with the mechanisms by which pathogenic mycoplasm infects a host
cell. Scott then takes us on a trip down memory lane to the idyllic days of
the 1950s when Mom was planting a garden, Dad was throwing a stick for the
dog, and the Pentagon, in conjunction with the Canadian government, decided
it might be a nice idea to test their new biological weapons on the city of
Winnipeg.

The chemical deployed was a watered down version of the real deal, but it
was still enough to sicken one-third of the Winnipeg population. Symptoms
ranged from a sore throat to ringing in the ears. In order to obtain
official cooperation, the Pentagon told the mayor of Winnipeg that they
were testing a chemical fog . . . that would protect Winnipeg in the event
of a nuclear attack.

Now if Mr. Scott had trotted this information our prior to May 14, 1997, he
would have almost certainly be labeled a conspiracy theorist. But on that
day, the Pentagon called a press conference where they admitted the whole
sordid affair. How nice of them to come clean 40 years after the fact.

As it turns out, the same biological agent tested on the unsuspecting
citizens of Winnipeg may be capable of producing a number of strategically
useful illnesses such as AIDS, multiple sclerosis, and chronic fatigue
syndrome. Whether or not you believe that the Cold War Era scientific
community possessed the technological sophistication to whip up a batch of
jiffy germs, it is clear that the army thought it could. Scott reports that
upon discharge from the service, one bacteriological warfare specialist who
routinely handled the mycoplasmic goop received papers informing him that
if he were to develop multiple sclerosis within two years of leaving the
service, he was entitled to disability compensation which is payable to
eligible veterans whose disabilities are due to service.

Now I cannot remember when I first heard gay activists propose that AIDS
was a government gig, but I believe it was sometime in the late '80s. The
earliest

[CTRL] U.S. Troops In World's Largest Military Manoeuvres

2001-09-05 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.jordantimes.com/Wed/news/news7.htm

September 5, 2001

US equipment starts arriving in Egypt for the world's
largest military manoeuvres

CAIRO (AP) ? US troops, tanks and artillery are
pouring into the Mediterranean port of Dekheila for
the world's largest military exercises, Egyptian
Defence Ministry sources said Tuesday.
The 10-days war games dubbed Bright Star are due to
begin Oct. 13. Forces from 10 nations will take part,
familiarising themselves with each other's equipment
and techniques.

The main military manoeuvres, including land, sea and
air operations, are to begin on Oct. 18 and runs
through Oct. 23.

The biannual Bright Star manoeuvres began in 1981 as a
US-Egyptian training exercise. Other nations joined
over the years. This year, eight other countries will
take part in the exercises designed to improve the
ability of allies from the United States, Europe and
the Middle East to work together in times of war.

Jordan, Greece and Germany will take part in the
exercises for the second time. France, Britain, Italy,
Spain and Kuwait will also participate.

Egypt, a strategic ally of the United States, is the
second-largest recipient of US military aid, after
Israel, receiving $1.3 billion a year in military aid.

It was the first Arab country to sign a peace
agreement with Israel and is a key player in Mideast
peacemaking efforts.

About 18,000 US soldiers took part in the last
manoeuvres. This year, some 14,000 American troops are
expected to take part.

On Monday and Tuesday, about 110 people from Hill Air
Force Base in Utah began heading to Egypt as an
advance team to build an air base. They will set up
electrical and water operations, along with a tent
city and dining facility.

Gen. Tommy Franks, head of the US Central Command, was
in Egypt in August and held meetings with Egypt's top
brass about the exercises as well as the escalation of
violence between Israel and the Palestinians.

On Aug. 19, Egypt received four F-16 jets from
Lockheed Martin, the first batch of its six orders of
F-16s, a company statement said. Four more aircraft
are to be ferried to Egypt in early September.

The six orders make Egypt the second biggest repeat
buyer after the US Air Force, according to an official
of the US aeronautics company.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] CIA faces up to a better lie detector

2001-09-04 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

CIA faces up to a better lie detector

http://www.vnunet.com/News/1125097

By John Geralds in Silcon Valley [03-09-2001]

Two US research teams developing software that can recognise and analyse
facial expressions have caught the attention of the US Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), as a potential tool to build a better lie detector.
Professor Terry Sejnowski, who leads one of the research teams in the
Computational Neurobiology Laboratory at the Salk Institute for Biological
Studies in California, calls the new facial technology an emotion
detector.

It could be used in conjunction with a polygraph or more casually, for
example, a camera hidden in the corner of a room. It distinguishes finer
gradations of emotional response - whether the person is truly happy, sad or
angry.

Professor Sejnowski's work coincides with that of Professor Jeffrey Cohn of
the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.

Cohn's work is based on the coding system known as the Facial Action Coding
System (FACS) developed in the 1970s. It defines the movements of each of
the 44 muscles in the human face, information used by experts to study
frames of video images and read people's expressions.

Our Automated Face Analysis system studies wrinkles and furrows, as well as
other features, to quantify subtle changes in facial motion, rather than
focusing on prototypic expressions, explains Professor Cohn.

The CIA, intrigued by both sets of research, has now funded a collaborative
effort between the two teams, using the same set of data to compare their
results.

The CIA is interested in the impact of this technology, said Professor
Sejnowski.

We will deliver the comparison study sometime this fall, but it's going to
take several years and a significant financial investment before we have a
marketable product.

Current lie detectors, such as the polygraph, are used by several companies
for security clearances and sometimes by the police, though the results are
not normally admissible in US courts.

They measure perspiration, breathing and heart-beat rates while the subject
is being questioned, but critics claim that the same physical reactions can
be caused by a number of different emotions, like anger or pain, and
consequently are unreliable indicators.

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always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Scientist reveals 'green' bombs for soldiers plan

2001-09-04 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Scientist reveals 'green' bombs for soldiers plan

Tue,  4 Sep 2001

Soldiers could soon be carrying 'green grenades' filled with an
environmentally friendly explosive.

Scientists are developing new kinds weapons which do not pollute their
surroundings.

They will be just as effective at killing the enemy - but will not harm the
environment or risk the health of the soldiers using them.

Professor Thomas Klaptoke, a German researcher from Ludwig-Maximilians
University in Munich, who is working on the materials, said: It's a very
important issue.

You have to keep in mind that shooting, missile launches and explosions,
within the army and also the police force, are done 99.9% in training.

Neither do you want to pollute your own environment nor do you want to put
your own policemen and soldiers at risk.

The aim is to replace potentially toxic metals and chlorine-based chemicals
with materials like nitrogen, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon.

All you get from these materials is virtually hot air, said Professor
Klaptoke, speaking at the British Association science festival at Glasgow
University.

He said his team of researchers, working for the German Army, had patented
at least two new environmentally friendly explosives. So far they had not
been used in the field.

See this story on the web at http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_389983.html

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[CTRL] Anarchism and the Anti-Globalization Movement

2001-09-04 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Anarchism and the Anti-Globalization Movement

by Barbara Epstein [UC Santa Cruz]

Monthly Review

Many among todays young radical activists, especially those
at the center of the anti-globalization and anti-corporate
movements, call themselves anarchists. But the
intellectual/philosophical perspective that holds sway in
these circles might be better described as an anarchist
sensibility than as anarchism per se. Unlike the Marxist
radicals of the sixties, who devoured the writings of Lenin
and Mao, todays anarchist activists are unlikely to pore
over the works of Bakunin. For contemporary young radical
activists, anarchism means a decentralized organizational
structure, based on affinity groups that work together on an
ad hoc basis, and decision-making by consensus. It also
means egalitarianism; opposition to all hierarchies;
suspicion of authority, especially that of the state; and
commitment to living according to ones values. Young
radical activists, who regard themselves as anarchists, are
likely to be hostile not only to corporations but to
capitalism. Many envision a stateless society based on
small, egalitarian communities. For some, however, the
society of the future remains an open question. For them,
anarchism is important mainly as an organizational structure
and as a commitment to egalitarianism. It is a form of
politics that revolves around the exposure of the truth
rather than strategy. It is a politics decidedly in the
moment.

Anarchism and Marxism have a history of antagonism. Bakunin,
writing in the late nineteenth century, argued that the
working class could not use state power to emancipate itself
but must abolish the state. Later, anarchists turned to
propaganda of the deed, often engaging in acts of
assassination and terrorism in order to incite mass
uprisings.

In the early twentieth century, anarcho-syndicalists
believed that militant trade unionism would evolve into
revolution as a result of an escalating logic of class
struggle. Marx (and also Lenin) had pointed out that
constructing socialism would require a revolutionary
transformation of the state (and ultimately a withering
away of the state based on class). Anarchists, however,
criticized Marxists for tending in practice to treat the
state as an instrument that could simply be taken over and
used for other ends. Anarchists saw the state not as a tool,
but as an instrument of oppression, no matter in whose
hands. The Stalinist experience lent credence to that
critique.

The anarchist mindset of todays young activists has
relatively little to do with the theoretical debates between
anarchists and Marxists, most of which took place in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It has more
to do with an egalitarian and anti-authoritarian
perspective. There are versions of anarchism that are deeply
individualistic and incompatible with socialism. But these
are not the forms of anarchism that hold sway in radical
activist circles, which have more in common with the
libertarian socialism advocated by Noam Chomsky and Howard
Zinn than with the writings of Bakunin or Kropotkin. Todays
anarchist activists draw upon a current of morally charged
and expressive politics.

There is considerable overlap between this contemporary
anarchism and democratic socialism partly because both were
shaped by the cultural radicalism of the sixties. Socialists
and contemporary anarchists share a critique of class
society and a commitment to egalitarianism. But the history
of antagonism between the two worldviews has also created a
stereotype of anarchism in the minds of many Marxists,
making it difficult to see what the two perspectives have in
common. Anarchisms absolute hostility to the state, and its
tendency to adopt a stance of moral purity, limit its
usefulness as a basis for a broad movement for egalitarian
social change, let alone for a transition to socialism.
Telling the truth to power is or should be a part of radical
politics but it is not a substitute for strategy and
planning.

There are also things that Marxists could learn from the
anti-globalist activists. Their anarchism combines both
ideology and imagination, expressing its fundamentally moral
perspective through actions that are intended to make power
visible (in your face) while undermining it. Historically,
anarchism has often provided a too-often ignored moral
compass for the left. Today, anarchism is attracting young
activists, while Marxist socialism is not, or at least, not
in the same numbers. What follows is an effort to make sense
of the reasons for this attraction.

1.

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries,
anarchism anchored the militant, radical side of the U.S.
labor movement and left in something like the way that
Communism would in later decades, in the wake of the
Bolshevik Revolution. Though there were anarchist
organizations, most importantly the anarcho-syndicalist
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), organization was

[CTRL] Justice Department looking more like secret police


-Caveat Lector-

Danger Zone: Justice Department looking more like secret police

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/story.hts/editorial/1030811

Sept. 3, 2001
Houston Chronicle

To some, it will no doubt sound like journalists whining over the treatment
of other journalists and trying to curry some special favor from society.
To most, however, it will hopefully sound like what it is, a true and
legitimate alarm over the U.S. Justice Department's handling of First
Amendment rights that profoundly affect how we all find out what our
government is up to.
First, as most Houstonians now know, came the strange case of Vanessa
Leggett, who sits in federal detention here for refusing to let her notes
and tapes, gathered for a book about a River Oaks murder case, fall into
the hands of federal prosecutors. If the feds succeed in making Leggett, in
essence, a surrogate investigator for the government it will have a
dangerous and lasting chilling effect on the way information gets gathered
and disseminated in this supposedly free and open society.
And now comes the case of Associated Press reporter John Solomon in New
Jersey. The Bush Justice Department has subpoenaed and acquired Solomon's
home telephone records, both incoming and outgoing calls during a five-day
period in which he investigated and reported on New Jersey Sen. Robert
Torricelli's 1996 campaign.
Even more frightening, the Justice Department subpoenaed the bookstore
purchase records of eight people, including those of Toricelli and an
individual purported to be a central witness in the investigation.
The Justice Department must immediately stop its attempts at threatening
and intimidating journalists and writers, says Ray Marcano, president of
the Society of Professional Journalists and managing editor of the Dayton
(Ohio) Daily News. Someone at Justice needs to be held accountable for
these outrageous acts.
Observers are also concerned because the Justice Department has refused
detailed comment on either Leggett's or Solomon's cases.
What's going on here? Why the reluctance on the part of the government to
at least explain itself?
Targeting journalists for simply doing their jobs. These secret police
tactics are more appropriate for some Third World, fascist regime.
No journalist is above the law, but the jobs they do play a special role in
our society that needs to be safeguarded not for the sake of journalists,
but for the sake of knowing what the government is doing and to whom.
The press may not be popular, and our excesses may anger many people. But a
pattern of government agents raiding citizens' personal records and
clamping down on information (and information gatherers) about what they
are doing without explanation ought to scare the devil out of us all.

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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] [radtimes] # 210


-Caveat Lector-

[radtimes] # 210

An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities.

We're living in rad times!
---
Send $$ to RadTimes!!  --  (See ** at end.)
---
Contents:

--Global arms sales up in 2000
--RTMark Quarterly Report
--Campus Activism: What's Hot for Back-to-School
--Radicalism reborn
--WTO shocker, invite only
--The Fight For Everything
--Argentina Braces for Mass Protest
--Slavery story stuns UN racism conference
--DynCorp: Beyond the Rule of Law

===

Global arms sales up in 2000

DAVID MULHOLLAND, Jane's Defence Weekly Business Editor
London, 24 August 2001

Global arms sales to the developing world, which represent about two-thirds
of global arms deals, increased 7.7% last year reaching $25.4 billion, up
from $23.6 billion the year before, with the USA, Russia and France leading
the pack, according to a US government report.

The report, Conventional Arms Transfers to Developing Nations, 1993-2000,
is a product of the Congressional Research Office, a non-partisan research
group that works for the US Congress.

However, while sales have climbed in 2000, in the period 1997-2000 new arms
sales fell 21.1% to $125.1 billion from $142.4 billion during the 1993-1996
period, the report said. Additionally, developing nations are representing
a larger share of the total international arms trade, reaching 70.2% during
the 1997-2000 period, up from 65.8% in the 1993-1996 period.

Among other things, the report shows that while Russia's arms deliveries
have been lagging, sales are picking up with major deals with China and India.

In 2000, Russia signed $7.7 billion worth of deals, 20.9% of all
agreements, globally putting the country behind only the USA in new deals
inked.

The USA leads 2000 with almost $18.6 billion, or slightly over 50% of all
sales worldwide, up from $12.9 billion in 1999. The spike in sales is
largely because of an order by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for 80
F-16C/D block 60 aircraft.

During the 1997-2000 period, the UAE became the number one-recipient of
weapons on the strength of the F-16 order. Following the UAE was India,
Egypt, Saudi Arabia and China, in that order. In the 1993-96 period the
order was Saudi Arabia, China, Kuwait, UAE and Egypt.

SALES

Sales to developing nations 1997-2000 (in $ millions)

   1. USA 30,486
   2. Russia 16,200
   3. France 9,200
   4. China 5,000
   5. Germany 4,600
   6. UK 2,600
   7. Sweden 2,300
   8. Israel 1,500
   9. Belgium 1,000
   10. Belarus 1,000

Sales to developing nations 1993-96 (in $ millions)

   1. USA 30,965
   2. France 15,500
   3. Russia 14,300
   4. UK 6,300
   5. China 2,200
   6. Italy 1,600
   7. Ukraine 1,400
   8. Germany 1,200
   9. Israel 1,100
   10. The Netherlands 1,100

ARMS DELIVERIES

Arms deliveries to developing nations 1997-2000 (in $ millions)

   1. USA 42,452
   2. UK 18,000
   3. France 15,500
   4. Russia 8,900
   5. Sweden 2,400
   6. China  2,300
   7. Germany 1,600
   8. Ukraine 1,500
   9. Belarus 1,100
   10. Italy 1,000

Arms deliveries to developing nations 1993-1997 (in $ millions) 1. USA  35,958
   2. UK 19,200
   3. Russia 8,400
   4. France 6,400
   5. Germany 3,300
   6. China 3,000
   7. Sweden 2,300
   8. Israel 1,900
   9. Canada 1,000
   10. South Africa 900

Source: Congressional Research Service

===

http://www.rtmark.com

From: RTMark Quarterly Report [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: WTO applauded for insulting Gandhi

  August 30, 2001
  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

  WTO INTRODUCES NEW MEMBER

  Gold and one meter long, phallus is brand-new technology to control
  distant workers

  Anti-WTO impostors have struck again, delivering a lecture about the
  rights of slavery, the stupidity of Gandhi, and the supremacy of free
  trade to an enthusiastic crowd of scientists, engineers, and marketing
  professionals--all of whom thought they were watching an official WTO
  representative.

  The 150 experts at the Textiles of the Future conference in Tampere,
  Finland heard one Hank Hardy Unruh explain that Gandhi's self-
  sufficiency movement was entirely misguided, because it centered
  around protectionism, and that Lincoln, by outlawing slavery, had
  criminally interfered with the trade freedom of the South, as well as
  with slavery's own freedom to develop naturally. Had slavery never
  been abolished, Unruh said, today's much cheaper system of sweatshops
  would have eventually replaced it anyhow; following this free-market
  logic to the end, Unruh declared the Civil War just a big

[CTRL] COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story


-Caveat Lector-

The following paper was presented to the WCAR in Durban, S. Africa
yesterday.

From: Paul Wolf [EMAIL PROTECTED]

COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story

Compilation by Paul Wolf with contributions from Robert Boyle, Bob Brown,

Tom Burghardt, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Kathleen Cleaver, Bruce
Ellison, Cynthia McKinney, Nkechi Taifa, Laura Whitehorn, Nicholas
Wilson, and Howard Zinn.


A longer and annotated version of this document is available online:

http://www.house.gov/mckinney/news/index.htm


Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS
   
Page #

Overview   
 1
Victimization  
 4
COINTELPRO Techniques   6
Murder and Assassination   
 8
Agents Provocateurs
   18
The Ku Klux Klan   
   18
The Secret Army Organization  23
Snitch Jacketing   
   26
The Subversion of the Press
   27
Political Prisoners
   32
Leonard Peltier   32
Mumia Abu Jamal   35
Geronimo ji Jaga Pratt35
Dhoruba Bin Wahad 41
Marshall Eddie Conway 46
Justice Hangs in the Balance  47
Appendix: The Legacy of COINTELPRO50
CISPES54
The Judi Bari Bombing 56
Bibliography   
   64


Overview

We're here to talk about the FBI and U.S. democracy because here we have
this peculiar situation that we live in a democratic country - everybody
knows that, everybody says it, it's repeated, it's dinned into our ears a

thousand times, you grow up, you pledge allegiance, you salute the flag,
you hail democracy, you look at the totalitarian states, you read the
history of tyrannies, and here is the beacon light of democracy. And, of
course, there's some truth to that. There are things you can do in the
United States that you can't do many other places without being put in
jail.

But the United States is a very complex system. It's very hard to
describe because, yes, there are elements of democracy; there are things
that you're grateful for, that you're not in front of the death squads in

El Salvador. On the other hand, it's not quite a democracy. And one of
the things that makes it not quite a democracy is the existence of
outfits like the FBI and the CIA. Democracy is based on openness, and the

existence of a secret policy, secret lists of dissident citizens,
violates the spirit of democracy.

Despite its carefully contrived image as the nation's premier crime
fighting agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has always
functioned primarily as America's political police.  This role includes
not only the collection of intelligence on the activities of political
dissidents and groups, but often times, counterintelligence operations to

thwart those activities.  The techniques employed are easily recognized
by anyone familiar with military psychological operations.  The FBI,
through the use of the criminal justice system, the postal system, the
telephone system and the Internal Revenue Service, enjoys an operational
capability surpassing even that of the CIA, which conducts covert actions

in foreign countries without having access to those institutions.

Although covert operations have been employed throughout FBI history, the

formal COunter INTELligence PROgrams (COINTELPRO's) of the period
1956-1971 were the first to be both broadly targeted and centrally
directed.  According to FBI researcher Brian Glick, FBI headquarters set

policy, assessed progress, charted new directions, demanded increased
production, and carefully monitored and controlled day-to-day operations.

This arrangement required that national COINTELPRO supervisors and local
FBI field offices communicate back and forth, at great length, concerning

every operation. They did so quite freely, with little fear of public
exposure. This generated a prolific trail of

[CTRL] McKINNEY Takes COINTELPRO to UN Human Rights Commissioner


-Caveat Lector-

McKINNEY Takes COINTELPRO to UN Human Rights Commissioner

http://www.truthout.com/0563.McKinney.CON.UN.htm

McKinney Raises US Government¹s COINTELPRO program with UN Human Rights
Commissioner

DURBIN, SOUTH AFRICA -- 09.02.01 | Today, in a meeting with United Nations High
Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney
presented
Robinson with two documents as evidence of the US governments violations of
both US and
international law and, in particular, specific violation of the
International Convention on the
Elimination of Racial Discrimination. The first document given to Robinson
was confidential
memorandum 46, written by National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski on
March 17, 1978
and it details the federal government's plan to destroy functioning black
leadership in the United
States. This document provides a critical insight into the federal
government's concern at the
apparent growing influence of the African American political movement. The
second document is
a report entitled Human Rights in the United States [The Unfinished Story-
Current Political
Prisoners- Victims of COINTELPRO] and it was compiled by the Human Rights
Research Fund,
headed by Kathleen Cleaver. This document provides an overview of the
counterintelligence
program which, from the 1950s to the 1980s, was run in the United States
against political activists
and targeted organizations. The excesses of the counterintelligence program
were first exposed in
1975 by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, known as the Church
Committee.
From as early as the 1950's and right up until the 1980's the US
government directed the
machinery of state against the African American political movement and, in
so doing, effectively
put an end to the civil rights movement inspired by Dr. Martin Luther King.
COINTELPRO was in
clear violation of the US Constitution and a wide range of US laws, as well
as, in clear breach of
internationally accepted standards for human rights and fundamental
freedoms. That our government
would turn its full resources against its own law abiding citizens is
unforgivable and ranks us among those rogue nations of the world who have
chosen to kill hope and sow misery in its place, stated McKinney.

Also see: http://www.house.gov/mckinney/news/index.htm

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Standoff at Michigan marijuana farm


-Caveat Lector-

September 1, 2001

Cops Still Surround Mich. Property

By Associated Press

VANDALIA, Mich. -- A news helicopter was hit by a bullet during a standoff
between police and the owner of a campground who was due to appear in court
on drug and weapons charges.
Police still had the property surrounded Saturday, a day after the shot was
fired.
The bullet tore through the helicopter's rear stabilizer, but the helicopter
was able to land safely and no injuries were reported, reported the Indiana
television station operating the aircraft.
Sheriff's deputies went to the Rainbow Farm Campground about noon Friday
after neighbors reported the owner, Grover T. Crosslin, 46, was burning
buildings on the property in southwest Michigan.
Deputies evacuated six houses and watched as three buildings burned. Gunfire
came from the campground and the helicopter from WNDU-TV of South Bend,
Ind., was hit, Cass County Sheriff Joseph Underwood said.
We're trying to set up some negotiations right now, to get a phone line in
and do some talking, Underwood told The Truth newspaper of Elkhart, Ind.
Obviously, (Crosslin) is in an agitated state at this time.
Calls to Rainbow Farm on Saturday met with busy signals.
Crosslin's sister, Shirley DeWeese, of Elkhart, Ind. said her brother wanted
to be left alone.
I can't talk to him ... he was very angry with the government and the way
they have done things, DeWeese told the South Bend (Ind.) Tribune. I just
hope he remains cool and calm. He doesn't want all the violence.
Authorities arrested Crosslin and others on drug charges in May after a long
investigation into allegation of marijuana use at the campground and its
annual festivals, Underwood said. A Hemp Fest there typically draws
thousands of visitors
A statement on Rainbow Farm's Web site says it supports the medical,
spiritual and responsible recreational uses of marijuana for a more sane and
compassionate America.
Crosslin was charged with felony possession of a firearm, growing marijuana
and maintaining a drug house.
On Friday, he was facing a $150,000 bond revocation hearing because police
believed he was violating the terms of his release. The property is also the
target of civil forfeiture proceedings.
I assume he's upset about the court hearing, Underwood said.

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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
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That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Michigan : Standoff Near Vandalia

-Caveat Lector-

Michigan : Standoff Near Vandalia

From: Mike Dooley [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: farm
Date: Sat, 1 Sep 2001 13:57:05 -0700

The Farm has been under heavy police watch for supporting the PRA
petition here in MI. www.PRAyes.com  now this. No CNN or Network news. Dick
Cowan said he will do a show on Tuesday about it. at www.marijuananews.com
see you mike.

www.cannabisnews.com
By Jim Meenan, Tribune Staff Writer
Source: South Bend Tribune

Pubdate: Sat, 1 Sep 2001
Source: South Bend Tribune (IN)
Copyright: 2001 South Bend Tribune
Contact: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/621
Website: http://www.southbendtribune.com/
Author: Jim Meenan, Tribune Staff Writer

STANDOFF NEAR VANDALIA

RAINBOW FARM OWNER UPSET WITH PROCEEDINGS

VANDALIA -- Tom Crosslin had a court date he apparently just didn't want to
keep Friday.

The 47-year-old owner of Rainbow Farm Campground was charged last May on
criminal counts of manufacturing marijuana, maintaining a drug house and
felony firearms following a two-year investigation into claims of illegal
drug activities on his 34-acre property.

And Rainbow Farm had been shut down twice this year by authorities,
including for Labor Day weekend, through a civil suit claiming alleged drug
use at the campground's gatherings constituted violation of Michigan's
Public Nuisance Abatement Act.

On Friday, Crosslin was facing a $150,000 bond revocation hearing in Cass
County District Court because police believed he had violated terms of his
bond and was involved in illegal drug activities.

But he failed to show up in Cassopolis. And the Cass County Sheriff's
Department received a fire call about the property at 59896 Pemberton Road
about 12:15 p.m. EDT, Sheriff Joseph Underwood said.

The caller told authorities that the property owner didn't want anyone on
his property.

Police immediately discovered it was Rainbow Farm Campground, and that it
was Tom Crosslin.

Crosslin or someone on the premises, burned a couple buildings at Rainbow
Farm to the ground Friday afternoon, the sheriff said. And Crosslin or
someone there fired off 20 rounds of ammunition, hitting a helicopter
operated by WNDU-TV, Channel 16, South Bend.

No one was injured. And no other neighboring structures were harmed Friday
at the campground, located near Kirk Lake in Newberg Township northeast of
Vandalia.

But six nearby residences were evacuated as a precautionary measure, and
Crosslin and several others remained holed up on Rainbow Farm late Friday
night.

Crosslin's mother and brother sought to talk him into surrendering to
authorities Friday evening, but that apparently failed, said Sgt. Doug
Westrick of the Cass County Sheriff's Department.

I assume he's upset about the court hearing, Underwood said.
Everything's a concern right now.

Underwood's assumption was the same many shared as they awaited what they
hoped would be a peaceful resolution to the armed standoff.

His sister arrived about 9 p.m. EDT, but was unable to talk to him police
said, because Crosslin advised them if anyone drove toward the farm after
dark he would shoot.

I can't talk to him. ... (But I do know) he was very angry with the
government, and the way they have done things, said Shirley DeWeese, of
Elkhart.

I just hope he remains cool and calm; he just wants to be left alone. He
doesn't want all the violence. ... We're hoping and praying for the best.

Crosslin's nephew, John DeWeese, 24, of Elkhart, arrived on the scene
Friday before dusk to show support for his uncle.

They need to leave him alone, he said of Crosslin, adding that his uncle
was peaceful.

One of John's friends, Johnny Muday, of Elkhart, was among those who drove
out with him.

He will come out when he's ready, Muday said of Crosslin. I just think
he wants to have a graceful exit. ... He's trying to buy time.

Crosslin had reportedly told neighbors to leave their residences, noting
that there would be problems out there this weekend, Underwood said.

Police had difficulty establishing contact with Crosslin, who was armed,
police said.

While Crosslin was only talking to a select few Friday, his Rainbow Farm
Campground Web site at www.rainbowfarmcampground.com said its share for
him: The Labor Day Weekend Camp-out has been called off. Bad government
has intervened, once again, and closed Rainbow Farm Campground.

Rainbow Farm had been shut down in May just before Hemp Aid 2001, a
Memorial Day weekend event drawing hundreds to the campground and extolling
the virtues of legalizing marijuana.

Crosslin was among five people arrested in May by Michigan State Police,
the Cass County Sheriff's Department and the Southwest Michigan Enforcement
Team (SWET) in conjunction with the Cass County prosecutor's office after a
two-year probe into illegal drug activity at Rainbow Farm.

Others charged last May included Michael Royal, 37, of Defiance, Ohio;
Aaron Brown, 22, of Allegan, Mich.; Andrew Rasmussen, 20, of Bay City,
Mich.; James Schmidt, 29,

[CTRL] Death squad's mass grave found on former CIA base

2001-08-31 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Death squad's mass grave found on former CIA base

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/nat/newsnat-31aug2001-62.htm

The remains of people tortured and murdered by Honduran military agents in
the 1980s have been found buried on a former military base used by the
American Central Intelligence Agency.

The remains of 15 people have been found at the Aguacate military base used
by the CIA as a support facility for US-funded contra rebels seeking to
overthrow the Sandinista government in neighbouring Nicaragua.

Members of a former Honduran military death squad have confessed to at
least 184 disappearances.

Some of them say the US Embassy turned a blind eye to the repression in the
80s.

Former US ambassador in Honduras Jack Binns says he was told by the State
Department to stop reporting human rights abuses because it could
prejudice the contra operation.

The Honduran Government says the search for bodies will continue for
several months.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Portland: Anti-Terrorism Task Force Targets Unions

2001-08-30 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

LABOR NOTES August 2001

Portland: Anti-Terrorism Task Force Targets Unions

By Leah Samuel

They did it in the '30s, they did it in the '60s, and they're doing it
now, said Bob Marshall, organizing director of the Oregon Federation of
Nurses and Health Professionals. He is talking about local and federal
law enforcement targeting unions for surveillance and arrest.
Portland unions want to get rid of a law allowing the police and the
FBI to spy on them. Union organizers say that the Portland Joint
Terrorism Task Force targets workers and unions.
Portland's city council passed the ordinance in a quick vote the day
before Thanksgiving last year. The ordinance increased the number of
Portland police officers assigned to anti-terrorism duty, and put them
under the direct supervision of the FBI. The ordinance also allows the FBI
electronic access to photographs gathered by Portland police.
The original wording of the ordinance was enough to give some workers
and activists pause. The proposal's mission statement said the law's
purpose is to identify and target for prosecution those individuals or
groups who are responsible for Right Wing and or Left Wing
movements...
In addition, unions are concerned that the Hobbs Act is being cited in
defense of these task forces. The Hobbs Act prohibits the use of force to
interfere with a business's operations. This law has historically been used
to stop or punish union organizing, picketing, and other activities since
its enactment in 1946.

TERRORISM TASK FORCES

Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) are partnerships between the
FBI and local police forces. An outgrowth of the l996 Anti-Terrorist Act
JTTFs are operating in various cities including Dallas, Houston, Atlanta,
Denver, and Sacramento.
Recent incidents of police interference with workers have escalated
concerns. When International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 5
organized workers at Powell's Books last year, Portland police videotaped
store workers and took notes on them at rallies and on picket lines.
A Carpenters union member who stood up to speak at a Jobs with
Justice meeting was later phoned by police and questioned about an
upcoming demonstration. In addition, protectors from environmental and
animal rights groups have complained of police harassment.
Marshall worries that stepped-up police surveillance further hampers
organizing efforts, which already face significant hurdles.
There's already a constricting environment for organizing, he said.

From the NLRB being a piece of junk to the Hobbs Act.
As we have to be more aggressive to get a contract, we're going to
be spied on because we're having a militant action in the streets, he
added. The ordinance that created the task force is up for review this fall.

Unions are campaigning to revoke the law. So far, 20 unions have signed
on to a resolution demanding revocation, including locals of the
Teamsters, AFT, ILWU, SEIU, CWA, and AFSCME.

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==
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Big Brother Logs On

2001-08-28 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Technology Review
http://www.techreview.com/magazine/sep01/amatoall.asp

Big Brother Logs On

By Ivan Amato September 2001

Feeling exposed? Watchful technologies could soon put everyone under
surveillance.

The door to paranoia opens benignlyand early. Just think of Santa. He knows
when you are sleeping. He knows when you're awake. He knows if you've been
bad or good, for goodness' sake. And he knows these things all the time,
even though you can't see him. Millions of kids all over the world happily
and wholeheartedly believe in ubiquitous surveillance as a de facto piece of
the annual Christmas present-getting machine. Parents just shake their heads
in adoring wonder.

But those same parents might be shocked to learn how short the journey is
from the pleasant surveillance fantasy of Santa to the freedom-squashing
invasion of Big Brother. In the world detailed by George Orwell in the novel
1984, surveillance cameras follow every move a person makes, and the
slightest misstep, or apparent misstep, summons the authorities. Now,
similarly, police departments, government agencies, banks, merchants,
amusement parks, sports arenas, nanny-watching homeowners, swimming-pool
operators, and employers are deploying cameras, pattern recognition
algorithms, databases of information, and biometric tools that when taken as
a whole can be combined into automated surveillance networks able to track
just about anyone, just about anywhere.

While none of us is under 24-hour surveillance yet, the writing is on the
wall. As Scott McNealy, CEO of Sun Microsystems, starkly told reporters in
1999, You already have zero privacy. Get over it. The techno-entrepreneurs
who are developing and marketing these tools anticipate good things to come,
such as reduced crime rates in urban environments, computer interfaces that
will read eye movements and navigate the Web for you, and fingerprint or
facial recognition systems and other biometric technologies that guarantee
your identity and eliminate the need for passwords, PIN numbers and access
cardseven identifying potential terrorists before they can strike.

But privacy advocates paint a far dimmer picture of this same future,
accepting its reality while questioning whether it can be managed
responsibly. The technology is developing at the speed of light, but the
privacy laws to protect us are back in the Stone Age, says Barry
Steinhardt, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which
is among several groups that have tried, so far almost universally
unsuccessfully, to introduce legislation aimed at protecting privacy. We
may not end up with an Orwellian society run by malevolent dictators, but it
will be a surveillance society where none of the detail of our daily lives
will escape notice and where much of that detail will be recorded.

The Fifth Utility

In many ways, the drama of pervasive surveillance is being played out first
in Orwell's native land, the United Kingdom, which operates more
closed-circuit cameras per capita than any other country in the world. This
very public surveillance began in 1986 on an industrial estate near the town
of King's Lynn, approximately 100 kilometers north of London. Prior to the
installation of three video cameras, a total of 58 crimes had been reported
on the estate. None was reported over the next two years. In 1995, buoyed by
that success, the government made matching grants available to other cities
and towns that wanted to install public surveillance camerasand things took
off from there.

Most of these closed-circuit TV systems are installed in business districts
or shopping centers by British Telecommunications, the national phone
network, and jointly operated and managed by law enforcement and private
industry. In addition, some townships are using BT to hook up video
telephony, a technology that allows transmission of video images via
telephone linesbut in a monitor-friendly network that provides officials
quick and easy remote access to the images. On another front, the U.K. Home
Office, the government department responsible for internal affairs in
England and Wales, is starting construction of what promises to be the
world's biggest road and vehicle surveillance network, a comprehensive
system of cameras, vehicle and driver databases, and microwave and
phone-based communications links that will be able to identify and track the
movements of vehicles nearly nationwide. All told, the country's electronic
eyes are becoming so prevalent that Stephen Graham of the Centre for Urban
Technology at the University of Newcastle upon Tyne has dubbed them a fifth
utility, joining water, gas, electric and telephones.

The United States and many other parts of the developed world are not far
behind in video surveillance. Just look at the cameras looking at you.
They're in ATMs, banks, stores, casinos, lobbies, hallways, desktops, and
along highways, main streets and even side streets. And those are the
cameras

[CTRL] Why Americans Will Believe Almost Anyhting

2001-08-28 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.thedoctorwithin.com/newwest/index33.html

chapter 33

THE DOORS OF PERCEPTION:  WHY AMERICANS WILL BELIEVE ALMOST ANYTHING

by Tim O'Shea

Aldous Huxley's inspired 1956 essay detailed the vivid, mind-expanding,
multisensory insights of his mescaline adventures.  By altering his brain
chemistry with natural psychotropics, Huxley tapped into a rich and fluid
world of shimmering, indescribable beauty and power.  With his neurosensory
input thus triggered, Huxley was able to enter that parallel universe
described by every mystic and space captain in recorded history.  Whether by
hallucination or epiphany, Huxley sought to remove all controls, all
filters, all cultural conditioning from his perceptions and to confront
Nature or the World or Reality first-hand - in its unpasteurized, unedited,
unretouched, infinite rawness.

Those bonds are much harder to break today, half a century later.  We are
the most conditioned, programmed beings the world has ever known.  Not only
are our thoughts and attitudes continually being shaped and molded;  our
very awareness of the whole design seems like it is being subtly and
inexorably erased.  The doors of our perception are carefully and precisely
regulated.  Who cares, right?

It is an exhausting and endless task to keep explaining to people how most
issues of conventional wisdom are scientifically implanted in the public
consciousness by a thousand media clips per day.  In an effort to save time,
I would like to provide just a little background on the handling of
information in this country.  Once the basic principles are illustrated
about how our current system of media control arose historically, the reader
might be more apt to question any given popular opinion.

If everybody believes something, it's probably wrong.  We call that

Conventional Wisdom.

In America, conventional wisdom that has mass acceptance is usually
contrived:  somebody paid for it.

Examples:

Pharmaceuticals restore health
Vaccination brings immunity
The cure for cancer is just around the corner
Menopause is a disease condition
When a child is sick, he needs immediate antibiotics
When a child has a fever he needs Tylenol
Hospitals are safe and clean.
America has the best health care in the world.
Americans have the best health in the world.
Milk is a good source of calcium.
You never outgrow your need for milk.
Vitamin C is ascorbic acid.
Aspirin prevents heart attacks.
Heart drugs improve the heart.
Back and neck pain are the only reasons for spinal adjustment.
No child can get into school without being vaccinated.
The FDA thoroughly tests all drugs before they go on the market.
Pregnancy is a serious medical condition
Chemotherapy and radiation are effective cures for cancer
When your child is diagnosed with an ear infection, antibiotics should be
given immediately 'just in case'
Ear tubes are for the good of the child.
Estrogen drugs prevent osteoporosis after menopause.
Pediatricians are the most highly trained of al medical specialists.
The purpose of the health care industry is health.
HIV is the cause of AIDS.
AZT is the cure.
Without vaccines, infectious diseases will return
Fluoride in the city water protects your teeth
Flu shots prevent the flu.
Vaccines are thoroughly tested before being placed on the Mandated Schedule.
Doctors are certain that the benefits of vaccines far outweigh any possible
risks.
There is a power shortage in California.
There is a meningitis epidemic in California.
The NASDAQ is a natural market controlled only by supply and demand.
Chronic pain is a natural consequence of aging.
Soy is your healthiest source of protein.
Insulin shots cure diabetes.
After we take out your gall bladder you can eat anything you want
Allergy medicine will cure allergies.

This is a list of illusions, that have cost billions and billions to conjure
up.  Did you ever wonder why you never see the President speaking publicly
unless he is reading?  Or why most people in this country think generally
the same about most of the above issues?

HOW THIS WHOLE SET-UP GOT STARTED

In Trust Us We're Experts, Stauber and Rampton pull together some compelling
data describing the science of creating public opinion in America.  They
trace modern public influence back to the early part of the last century,
highlighting the work of guys like Edward L. Bernays, the Father of Spin.
 From his own amazing chronicle Propaganda, we learn how Edward L. Bernays
took the ideas of his famous uncle Sigmund Freud himself and applied them to
the emerging science of mass persuasion.  The only difference was that
instead of using these principles to uncover hidden themes in the human
unconscious, the way Freudian psychology does, Bernays used these same ideas
to mask agendas and to create illusions that deceive and misrepresent, for
marketing purposes.

THE FATHER OF SPIN

Bernays dominated the PR industry until the 1940s, and was a significant
force for another 40 years after that.

[CTRL] Harass the Brass!

2001-08-27 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.altpr.org/apr15/keating.html

Harass the Brass!

Mutiny, Fragging and Desertions in the U.S. Military

By Kevin Keating

Is it Fleet Week in San Francisco again?
Let's rename 'Fleet Week' Mutiny Week!

Introduction:

'Fleet Week' is an annual event in San Francisco, held over a four or
five day period every September. Ships of the US Navy sail into port, and
a team of the Navy's 'Blue Angels' stunt fighter aircraft pretends to
strafe the city. No wonder they call San Francisco 'Baghdad-by-the-Bay!'
Thousands of young enlisted people from the visiting ships flood SF's
tourist traps in North Beach and Fisherman's Wharf. What follows is the
latest and longest version of a leaflet distributed to them on three or
four occasions since 1985.

A friend who was in the US military during the Persian Gulf War told me
that when George Bush visited the troops in Saudi Arabia before the war,
many enlisted men and women in Bush's immediate vicinity had their rifle
and pistol ammunition taken away. The bolts were also removed from their
rifles. If this was so, it makes it clear that Bush and his corporate
handlers may have been afraid of the US enlisted people who Bush would
soon be killing in his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

The suppressed history of the Vietnam war shows that the Commander-in-
Chief had good reason to fear and distrust the troops. Our rulers want us
to forget what happened during the Vietnam war, and they want us to
forget what defeated their war effort  and the importance of the
resistance to the war by enlisted men and women.

Until 1968 the desertion rate for US troops in Vietnam was lower than in
previous wars. But by 1969 the desertion rate had increased fourfold.
This wasn't limited to Southeast Asia; desertion rates among GIs were on
the increase world-wide. For soldiers in the combat zone, refusing to
obey orders became an important part of avoiding horrible injury or
death. As early as mid-1969, an entire company of the 196th Light
Infantry Brigade sat down on the battlefield. Later that year, a rifle
company from the famed 1st  Air Cavalry Division flatly refused  on CBS
TV  to advance down a dangerous trail. In the following 12 months the
1st Air Cav notched up 35 combat refusals.

 From mild forms of political protest and disobedience of war orders, the
resistance among the ground troops grew into a massive and widespread
quasi-mutiny by 1970 and 1971. Soldiers went on search and avoid
missions, intentionally skirting clashes with the Vietnamese and often
holding three-day-long pot parties instead of fighting.

By 1970, the Army had 65,643 deserters, roughly the equivalent of four
infantry divisions.

In an article published in the Armed Forces Journal (June 7, 1971),
Marine Colonel Robert D. Heinl Jr., a veteran combat commander with over
27 years experience in the Marines and author of Soldiers Of The Sea, a
definitive history of the Marine Corps, wrote: Our army that now remains
in Vietnam is in a state approaching collapse, with individual units
avoiding or having refused combat, murdering their officers and
noncommissioned officers...

Heinl cited a New York Times article which quoted an enlisted man saying,
The American garrisons on the larger bases are virtually disarmed. The
lifers have taken our weapons away...there have also been quite a few
frag incidents in the battalion.

Frag incidents or fragging was soldier slang in Vietnam for the
killing of strict, unpopular and aggressive officers and NCO's. The word
apparently originated from enlisted men using fragmentation grenades to
off commanders.

Heinl wrote, Bounties, raised by common subscription in amounts running
anywhere from $50 to $1,000, have been widely reported put on the heads
of leaders who the privates and SP4s want to rub out.

Shortly after the costly assault on Hamburger Hill in mid-1969, the GI
underground newspaper in Vietnam, GI Says, publicly offered a $10,000
bounty on Lieutenant Colonel Weldon Hunnicutt, the officer who ordered
and led the attack.

The Pentagon has now disclosed that fraggings in 1970 (209 killings)
have more than doubled those of the previous year (96 killings). Word of
the deaths of officers will bring cheers at troop movies or in bivouacs
of certain units.

Congressional hearings on fraggings held in 1973 estimated that roughly
3% of officer and non-com deaths in Vietnam between 1961 and 1972 were a
result of fraggings. But these figures were only for killings committed
with grenades, and didn't include officer deaths from automatic weapons
fire, handguns and knifings(!). The Army's Judge Advocate General's Corps
estimated that only 10% of fragging attempts resulted in anyone going to
trial.

In the Americal Division, plagued by poor morale, fraggings during 1971
were estimated to be running around one a week. War equipment was
sabotaged and destroyed. By 1972 roughly 300 anti-war and anti-military
newspapers, with names like Harass the Brass, All

[CTRL] U.S. Forces in Argentina for Peacekeeping Exercise

2001-08-27 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 13:10:01 -0400
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject:  U.S. Forces in Argentina for Peacekeeping Exercise

NEWS RELEASE from the United States Department of Defense

No. 387-01
(703)695-0192(media)
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 21, 2001
(703)697-5737(public/industry)

U. S. FORCES IN ARGENTINA FOR PEACEKEEPING EXERCISE
 The Department of Defense announced today that U.S. special
operations forces assigned to the 7th Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, NC
and Special Operations Command-South, Roosevelt Roads, Puerto Rico, will
participate in Cabanas 2001, a joint multinational peacekeeping exercise
in Salta, Argentina, from Aug. 22 through Sept. 11, 2001.
 Cabanas 2001, sponsored by the headquarters, United States
Southern Command, Miami, Fla., and hosted by Argentina will involve about
400 U.S. airmen, sailors and soldiers.  More than 700 military personnel
from the host nation, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and
Uruguay will participate, while Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela will send
observers.
 This exercise is the largest joint and combined service exercise
held in the region and it focuses on a variety of U.N. peacekeeping tasks
including: tactical troop movements, food distribution, identification and
marking of mines, civil-military, security and police operations.
 For more information on this exercise, contact George Grimes, U.S.
Special Operations Command, Public Affairs Office, at (813) 828-4600 or
Major Eduardo Villavicencio, U.S. Southern Command Public Affairs Office at
(305) 437-1213.  A Combined, Joint Information Bureau for this exercise is
operational and can be reached at 011-54-387-421-8229.
 -END-

-- News Releases: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/releases.html
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] The Pledge of Allegiance

2001-08-18 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

The Pledge of Allegiance

by Jello Biafra

I pledge defiance to the flag
Of the United Snakes of Captivity
And to the republic for which it stands
I dip it in kerosene and stick it up the ass of you know who...and light it!
One nation under God - or else.
One nation under psychopathic Pentagon gangsters whose idea of national
security is concentration camps for people who dare to use the drugs that
the CIA brings in and the government supplies themselves.  One nation under
Wall Street - If the cops and the government are all crooks, then I might
as well be one too.
One nation of sedated tabloid robots who actually believe what they see on
t.v., even on MTV, and when asked what they think about it they reply I
don't care.
One nation drowning in its own garbage Indivisible from the Fall of Rome
With liberty and justice for all - who can afford it.  Burn baby burn!
Burn baby burn!
Old glory.
The yankee swastika.
Burn baby burn!
Burn baby burn!
Whenever I see you, I see red!
Whenever I see you, I see red!
If the communist countries can do it, why can't we?
Throw the bastards out and try some real democracy.
Run not by rich people.
Not by military people.
Not by son's of Senator's sons of Senator's sons of Senator's sons Have you
noticed how the more they give people back their freedom over there, the
more they take it away over here?  So now, before it's too late to even
talk about stuff like this Be a patriot, a good patriot The one that cares
more about their country than forcing people to worship a flag.
And take the swastika
The yankee swastika
And let it burn burn burn baby burn!

A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A
DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

Archives Available at:
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Om

[CTRL] WHO IS GUILTY? MILOSEVIC OR NATO?

2001-08-17 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

  http://emperors-clothes.com/articles/goff/goff.htm

WHO IS GUILTY? MILOSEVIC OR NATO?
by Stan Goff

[Stan Goff is a Retired U.S. Special Forces Master Sargent, an
author, Organizer for the North Carolina Alliance for Democracy
and a member of the International Committee to Defend Slobodan
Milosevic. (ICDSM)]

What do you call someone who pays officials to break the law,
threatens people with violence if they don't do what he demands,
spreads outrageous lies to impugn people's reputations, and
participates in a plot to illegally take an unwilling person out
of the country in captivity?

Guilty of bribery, extortion, slander and kidnapping.

What do you call a government which does precisely those things?

The United States in Yugoslavia.

Let's get something straight here. The International Tribunal at
the Hague is no more an impartial judiciary (1) than Geraldo Rivera
is a neurosurgeon, and Slobodan Milosevic is no war criminal. These
are just simply facts, and the thing that--even at 50--still amazes
my ass is the sheep-like, gullible, we-just-fell-off-the-turnip-truck
acceptance of the capitalist media's horse-manure by comfortable
fellow Americans.

United States military troops are occupying the Balkans, many of
them with relatives who might read this, and very few people seem
the least bit inclined to find out what's really going on there.
So they listen to CNN, read the 'New York Times' or the 'News and
Observer,' watch PBS, or listen to NPR, brought to you by... name
your favorite agribusiness or weapons contractor... and believe
them.

I've got a news flash for you, folks. The media lie. They lie early
and often, and they keep on telling the same lies over and over,
apparently in the well-founded hope that we will simply and finally
equate repetition with accuracy. (2)

Slobodan Milosevic is no war criminal. Nor was he a dictator. (3)

Until the US started a massive campaign of extortion, bribery and
election rigging in Serbia, he won his elections fair and square--unlike
the current de facto President of the United States. Nor did
Milosevic ever lead the non-existent movement for Greater Serbia.
Nor do Serbs collectively share any blame for whatever
flavor-of-the-day atrocity is being invented by the IMF, the State
Department, NATO Headquarters in Brussels, or that fake Tribunal.

Serbs are as fractious and pluralistic as any group, especially
about politics, deeply split even today between nationalists and
socialists. What they are not, contrary to the recent resurgence
of Serb-bashing, is self-pitying and paranoid. They are one of the
most stoic, and tolerant, people in Europe.

The distortions that underwrite this latest violation of Yugoslav
and International law--the veritable kidnapping of a former head
of state--would make Joseph Goebbels blush. Crimes were invented
to fit the punishment of the Serbs. Allegations were reported as
facts, then referenced later as if they really were facts. The
mounting evidence of a giant hoax in almost every case has been
completely ignored by capitalist media. The effect--intended I
think--is to create an impression so overwhelming of Serbian guilt
that to question it is to be regarded as a miscreant holocaust
denier. Guilt by analogy. Milosevic equals Hitler, therefore
defending Serbians equals defending Nazis (a huge irony here, since
Serbs were tenacious and fearless fighters against the Third Reich).
There's only one little rub. The Holocaust has been well documented
by the physical evidence. The Serbians' guilt, and that of Milosevic,
has not.

But skepticism, fact-checking, and logic have become forbidden
foreign languages in the United States, especially our (laugh track
here) free press.

The overwhelming evidence is that there was never any coordinated
campaign of genocide or ethnic cleansing by Serbs, no massacres at
either Racak or Srebrenica, and never any such thing as Serbian
rape camps. The Kosovo violence was initiated by Albanian
heroin-gangsters, who named themselves the Kosovo Liberation Army
once they started to get weapons and training from German and US
Intelligence. The mass exodus out of Kosovo was not triggered by
Serb violence, but by NATO bombing. The reports of 100,000 Kosovar
Albanians killed has yet to be corroborated with bodies, and is
being quietly scaled ever downward as the bodies fail to appear.
Racak was shown to be staged. The bodies from the Srebrenica
massacre were never located either, and in fact many of the
missing later turned up alive and accounted for in Bosnian Muslim
combat units outside Srebrenica. The US and the pseudo-Tribunal
have an answer for the missing evidence, those tens of thousands
of corpses, that is.!  R!  ight under the noses of US surveillance
satellites--and I have seen imagery from them that can spot a
motorcycle and rider--the crafty Serbs, undetected, moved thousands
of decomposing bodies to other locations... still to be discovered.
(4)

Right!

The break-up of

[CTRL] Our leaders are wrong. Globalisation is not delivering for the poor

2001-08-17 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

radman pull quote:

If we are to confront the real threat of anarchy, let us begin
with anarcho-capitalists inside the cordon sanitaire, rather than the victims
outside.

---
Our leaders are wrong. Globalisation is not delivering for the poor

Special report: globalisation - http://www.guardian.co.uk/globalisation/

Alan Simpson
Wednesday August 15, 2001
The Guardian

You have to take a deep breath before deciding to publicly fall out with a
national leader, a cautious chancellor and an economics nobel
laureate all at the same time. But the fact that Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and
Amartya Sen share a consensus of confusion about globalisation, does not make
their infatuation sensible, equitable or sustainable.

A widening chasm divides public protesters from free trade fantasists. With or
without the permission of world leaders, a mixed bag of
political challenges and ethical alternatives is beginning to force its way
into public debate. The pace is being set by those who have
decided they cannot go any further down the path of neo-liberalism that
corporations, the World Trade Organisation and compliant
politicians would have us believe is the road to salvation.

Over the last year, some 3m people in over 20 countries have protested against
globalisation. Tony Blair may have lavished praise on
Brazil's privatisation programme, but his view is not shared by the Brazilian
population, caught in the middle of a colossal energy crisis.
American energy giant AES has threatened to block a #2bn investment programme
unless Brazil deregulates energy prices, while the
government has announced surcharges of up to 200% on electricity consumers.

Nor did the prime minister see fit to mention that in neighbouring Colombia
workers have been so ecstatic about the privatisation
programme imposed as a condition of US aid that they have retaken control of
the major supplier of water, electricity and
telecommunications in Cali, the country's second city.

In New York, it might be understandable for Gordon Brown to enthuse about a
possible $350bn gain from a fully open trading and
commercial relationship between Europe and America. American executives - many
of whom represented corporations queuing up for the
guaranteed profit stream from privatised public services - loved it. None would
have read the devastating critique by Allyson Pollock and her
colleagues from University College London, showing that privatised markets in
public services cost us more, deliver less, bequeath huge
debts and generally walk off with the public's assets.

That wouldn't have bothered the chancellor's audience. But Amartya Sen would
have cared, and it is within the contradictions of his
analysis that we find the most hopeful seeds for a counter-thesis to
globalisation.

Sen's great achievement is to have written an economics for the poor. He has
never given up on the politics and economics of
redistribution. The trouble is that his approach has not moved on from
economics as it was, nor caught up with climate changes that will
rewrite economics as it will become.

None of the protesters in Genoa would disagree with Amartya Sen's comments here
last month that even though the world is
incomparably richer than ever before, ours is a world of extraordinary
deprivation and of staggering inequality. The problems begin with the
reasons for this, and whether globalisation makes it worse.

Sen accuses the opponents of globalisation of wanting to deny the poor access
to the great advantages of contemporary technology. But
it was the pharmaceutical companies, not free-trade protesters, that ganged up
to prevent Southern Africa from manufacturing its own
anti-Aids drugs.

Not one of the most exciting technological advances is being offered freely to
the poor. All demand the protectionism of patents and the
payment of royalties. In its most grotesque form, this even charges the poor
for access to the parts of their own biodiversity that have been
patented.

To some extent, Amartya Sen's faith in the malleability of the market economy
hinges on longstanding economic views about the
significance of the nation state in international trade. Theories of
comparative advantage - in which all countries gain by focusing on
production and trade in goods they have a relative cost advantage in - depended
on assumptions about capitalism that are long past their
sell-by date.

 From Adam Smith through to Keynes, there was a reasonable presumption that
capital was essentially national in character, rooted in the
ownership of land and production of goods. Capitalist entrepreneurs were
assumed to play largely within national rules.

The second half of the 20th century saw a transformation in capitalism itself.
Its shift from productive capital to finance capital went along
with its loss of interest in the nation state. Land could not move offshore,
but money could. Capital demanded to be bribed to come and
exploit your labour rather than pay

[CTRL] Military Revolution

2001-08-16 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Military Revolution
Red Herring (08/01/01) No. 101, P. 47; Williams, Mark; Madden,
Andrew P.

New Mexico's Sandia National Laboratories is one of the few
companies bold enough to try to influence the military's way
of viewing warfare, with its development of a small,
highly-maneuverable wheeled vehicle able to clear a room
without causing casualties. Researchers involved in military
affairs have been working on a revolution in military
affairs--dubbed RMA--for the last decade in an effort to both
improve and decrease the size of technology utilized by
America's armed forces. The RMA has been officially endorsed
by the Pentagon and hinges on the system of systems and the
continued effort to shrink the size of needed military
equipment. Adoption of the RMA ultimately lends itself to
better communication with defense contractors, which develop
military systems exactly as they are specified. U.S.
technology significantly outweighed that of allies and other
nations at the time of the Gulf War; however, such technology
forces hostile countries to resort to guerilla or
terrorist-style actions. Even though the Pentagon has endorsed
improvements in military technology, the Army, Navy, and Air
Force are concerned that ranks will disintegrate, since they
will have to work together and forgo their long-running
competitions. Another problem continues to be budget; even
though the current president supports increased military
funding, the Armed Forces would still need to expand by at
least $50 billion annually. Advocates of new military
technology estimate by 2040, the entire force will be composed
of small special forces and a greater reliance on
tele-operations. (www.redherring.com/)

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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Dracula raises the stakes in human cloning

2001-08-15 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

radman pull quote:

Our government is also led by life-draining ghouls who deify monsters at
the expense of ordinary people, evil zombies who are cruel to the poor
and homeless, valuing war and the military over peace and goodwill.

But we don't call them vampires. We call them Republicans.


 From The Memphis Business Journal
http://memphis.bcentral.com/memphis/stories/2001/08/13/editorial3.html
-
Guest Comment

Dracula raises the stakes in human cloning

Imagine that Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park dreams are reality. We
can take DNA from long-departed life forms and breed them in labs,
cloning new versions of creatures that have not walked the earth for
centuries.

Once the technology could be applied to humans, who would we bring
back to life? Winston Churchill? Gandhi? Benjamin Franklin? Martin
Luther King Jr.?

How many thousands of candidates could you list before it would occur
to you to resurrect Dracula?

The Romanian daily newspaper Libertatea reported recently that several
California and Florida businessmen plan to clone Dracula by
disinterring the body of Vlad the Impaler, who inspired Bram Stoker's
novel.

It's not clear why these alleged businessmen want to bring back a
vampire; maybe they want to groom an army of Hollywood agents or
insurance salesmen.

Vlad was a nasty one. According to Dracula: Prince of Many Faces: His
Life and Times by Radu R. Florescu and Raymond T. McNally, Vlad
killed between 40,000 and 100,000 people. Once, he invited beggars and
old, sick and poor people to a banquet. He asked them, Would you like
to be without cares, lacking nothing in this world?

They said yes, so Vlad had the castle boarded up and set it on fire.
Nobody made it out alive -- and that was the end of their problems, as
he promised.

Vlad's execution of choice was impalement. He liked to impale many
people at once, and nothing was too brutal -- he had people skinned
and boiled alive.

Why bring this charmer back to life?

Libertatea reported the group has approached the Scottish research
center at Roslin, where Dolly the cloned sheep was produced, to find
out whether cloning the count is possible.

The businessmen told the newspaper the cloning plan will solve once
and for all the mystery of Dracula. How they will profit from that, I
can't imagine. A book tour? TV appearances? What if, halfway through
an interview, Vlad reaches across the desk and impales Rosie O'Donnell
with her own microphone? Why, that would be terrible!

Putting aside those pesky ethical issues surrounding cloning, what
possible business purpose can this have? It's not like Romania is
planning a Dracula theme park!

This just in: Romania is planning a Dracula theme park!

Vlad's hometown of Sighisoara wants to open Dracula Land to increase
jobs, business and money for our town, bartender Dorel Baltres told
Reuters. Baltres works at the Prince Dracula Inn, where a recent
conference of historians met to reconcile Vlad's bloodsucking image
with his Romanian legend as a national hero who battled the Ottoman
Empire.

No wonder the businessmen are from Florida and California. They're
probably Disney execs.

Dracula tourists visiting Romania buy T-shirts, postcards, paintings
and ceramic figures, Reuters says. Imagine putting a handsome Vlad
the Impaler ceramic in your cabinet and waking up to find all your
Precious Moments figurines are bleeding from the neck and looking at
you with the raw hunger of the walking undead.

What kind of attractions are these entrepreneurs planning? Instead of
Cinderella's Castle, Vlad's Castle, where dreams come true, if you are
Charles Manson? Instead of a Hall of Presidents, a Hall of Monsters,
with animatronic statues of such horrible, shambling, bloodthirsty
creatures as Hannibal Lecter, Jeffrey Dahmer, Freddy Krueger and Janet
Reno?

Shudder.

The Romanian government is promoting the Dracula theme park,
negotiating deals with foreign investors. This capitalistic approach
shows how much post-Ceausescu Romania resembles America. Our
government is also led by life-draining ghouls who deify monsters at
the expense of ordinary people, evil zombies who are cruel to the poor
and homeless, valuing war and the military over peace and goodwill.

But we don't call them vampires. We call them Republicans.


CONTACT Michael Miller, associate editor at sister publication South
Florida Business Journal, at [EMAIL PROTECTED]

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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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That being said, CTRLgives

[CTRL] How motorists can evade the devices

2001-08-15 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,2-2001281700,00.html

TUESDAY AUGUST 14 2001

How motorists can evade the devices
BY ROBIN YOUNG

DRIVERS are being offered an increasingly complex armoury of devices and
information to help them to avoid being caught by speed cameras.

Devices such as the Geodesy warning system, made by Morpheos, a British
company, use the satellite Global Positioning System (GPS) to locate all
4,300 fixed speed cameras in Britain.

Geodesy, powered from a vehicle's cigarette lighter socket, sits on the
dashboard and bleeps and flashes when the vehicle nears the speed control
points for the cameras.

The system can be updated daily from the Internet via a modem and will load
information about new cameras spotted by users so that they can be verified
and added to the database.

About 6,000 motorists have bought the system in the past year, at £380 each.
Martin Birch, co-director of Morpheous, said a new version of the device was
under development. A rival detector, made by Origin, which also manufactures
units that make use of GPS technology, is expected to go on sale next month.

Tim Rock, Origin's director, said that he hoped to sell 5,000 a year in
Britain, initially at £350.

GPS systems cannot detect handheld or mobile cameras. However, radar
speed-trap detectors capable of doing so have been legal since 1998, when a
motorist successfully argued before the Queen's Bench Division that radio
emissions from police radar speed guns did not constitute messages under
the Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1949, and could, therefore, be intercepted
without licence.

The Government has the situation under review, but police have accepted
manufacturers' arguments that radar detectors are a good thing if they make
motorists slow down, even if it means that they do not receive a ticket.

Manufacturers of both GPS systems and of radar detectors such as the £349
Snooper S5 or £545 Valentine 1, claim that their products are not only
legal, but safety devices, because they encourage motorists to slow down
at accident blackspots.

More contentious is equipment such as the £289 Snooper SLD 920 Laser
Blinder, which claims to offer motorists protection against all UK laser
speed guns by temporarily stopping them from obtaining a reading.

It is possible that a device this effective could be perceived as
interfering with the ability of a police officer to carry out his job, says
one website, which offers the system for sale, so we cannot recommend its
use in the UK.

Steve Warren, who reviews such equipment on his website ukspeedtraps.co.uk
said that laser jammers may not be legal, but that he had tested the Blinder
on the four main laser guns used in the United Kingdom and found that it
worked.

A number of websites give details and reviews of equipment available, and
www.SpeedCamerasUK.com   provides the locations of more than 500 speed
cameras across Britain. The information on the website is updated weekly.

A typical entry describes the position of the camera, often with a warning
such as hidden until the last moment by a bridge.

However, other drivers avoid being caught by speed cameras without recourse
to expensive equipment or regular Internet updates  by not breaking the
speed limit.

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] COMPUTER TERRORISM A RISING THREAT

2001-08-15 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

COMPUTER TERRORISM A RISING THREAT;

Scenarios include city black outs, nuclear disasters

Marilyn Geewax Washington Bureau Copyright 2001 Dayton Newspapers, Inc.

WASHINGTON - Most people think America hasn't been the target of a major
attack since Pearl Harbor 60 years ago.

Yet every day, foreigners invade U.S. computers and Internet servers,
causing economic damage that last year totaled about $17 billion and may be
higher this year.

So far, these attacks are no Pearl Harbor - but just wait. Pentagon experts
say cyber-terrorists may be able to black out cities, shut down financial
markets, even trigger disasters at nuclear power plants.

Indeed, one computer expert said the Code Red worms that continued to
slow the Internet last week may have been intended to announce to the world
that China can now harm the United States at will.

Despite recent frenzied efforts to protect U.S. networks, most analysts
think the nation will remain highly vulnerable, because computer-controlled
systems are designed to be accessible via the Internet, and the U.S. agency
leading the battle against cyber-terrorism has been criticized as ineffective.

Scenarios like these, the experts say, are plausible:

Using source code stolen from the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory in
Washington, hackers disable Global Positioning System satellites, which the
government plans to make the primary national navigation source for
commercial aviation. Banking, communications, and Internet enterprises
relying on the GPS timing signal are disrupted.

A terrorist manipulates the control system of a gasoline pipeline to create
a hammering effect, leading to a leak and an explosion in a major city.
When ambulances and fire trucks try to respond, they are thwarted because
the system that controls traffic lights has been scrambled and streets are
snarled with cars.

A terrorist hacks into a nuclear power plant's central computer, where he
gains control of the generating process and triggers a disastrous meltdown.
Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., cited this possibility when he introduced a bill
allowing U.S. companies to sell powerful encryption software overseas.

The General Accounting Office, Congress' watchdog agency, reported this
spring that terrorists or hostile foreign states could launch
computer-based attacks on critical systems to severely damage or disrupt
national defense or other critical operations or steal sensitive data.

Such attacks would exploit weaknesses in computer software or the
increasingly complex web of wires and routers that supports the Internet.

The GAO said likely targets include the nation's communications system,
banks and financial markets, water supplies, transportation systems,
pipelines, emergency services and electric power sources.

Today, the right command sent over a network to a power generating
station's control computer could be just as effective as a backpack full of
explosives, and the perpetrator would be harder to identify and apprehend,
concluded the President's Commission on Critical Infrastructure Protection.

Military experts and industry analysts say that so far, cyber-attacks
mostly have caused economic harm, as in the case of a Welsh teenager who
stole 26,000 credit card numbers from nine e-commerce Web sites this
spring, causing $3 million in damage.

But it may be just a matter of time - and not much time - before political
terrorists start replacing thieves and thrill-seeking hackers.

Indeed, one computer expert, Gary Sevounts, who tracks the Code Red worm
for Hewlett-Packard Co. at its Atlanta office, said this mysterious program
may be the nation's first act of cyber-terrorism. The worm was designed to
attack the White House's Web site and to leave a message: Hacked by Chinese.

If his suspicions are borne out, Sevounts said, I think this is only the
beginning, because the ability to cripple another nation from the safety
of home is one of the ultimate tools of terror.

Threats to the nation's computer-based infrastructure can come from
domestic sources as well, said Micheal Erbschloe, vice president of
Computer Economics Inc. of Carlsbad, Calif., and author of a new book,
Information Warfare . But the growing number of foreign-launched attacks is
worrisome.

The Department of Defense already is the target of continual invasions.
We're talking about 250,000 intrusion attempts a year on DOD computers
alone, he said. Most of them are domestic and not damaging, but we've had
too many incidents of things coming from outside the country to ignore it.

Because the United States is the focus of hatred for many terrorist groups,
the country's sophisticated computer systems make an especially attractive
target for individuals wanting to make a global statement.

In a few years, the preferred choice of terrorists is not going to be
blowing themselves up in a car bomb, Erbschloe said. What we see (with
cyber-terrorism) is that it's becoming more organized as time goes by, and
it's

[CTRL] License plate cameras raise privacy concerns

2001-08-14 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.sunspot.net/news/printedition/bal-ca.plates00aug12.story?coll=bal-pe-carroll


Originally published August 12, 2001

License plate cameras raise privacy concerns

Baltimore, Washington among airports using surveillance system

By Eric Rosenberg
Hearst Newspapers

WASHINGTON - Major airports around the country are installing increasingly
sophisticated camera systems in garages and parking lots to record the
license plates of vehicles, raising concerns among privacy rights groups
that a vast database could be tapped by law enforcement or sold to
marketers.

Several types of license plate recording systems already are in use across
the country at most airports, including those in the Washington, D.C.-area
and in Denver, Baltimore, San Francisco, San Diego, Phoenix and Louisville,
Ky.

One of the most common types in use for several years takes a picture of the
tag number when a motorist leaves a garage and matches it against a manifest
of numbers manually entered into a computer by garage attendants. Other
versions have a camera trained on the rear tag and an attendant at the booth
keys in the plate when the driver exits. The effect is the same as a picture
in that there is a documented record pegged to the license plate.

More advanced model

But a more advanced variant will soon be installed at Washington Dulles
International Airport and is planned for other major airports. It records an
image of the license plate when a vehicle enters a garage, matches it to a
time-stamped ticket the driver receives at the same time, and takes a
picture of the license plate upon exiting.

The idea behind these so-called license plate recognition and license plate
inventory systems is to make sure that, for example, a driver whose car has
been in the garage for three nights doesn't swap his ticket for one that
says fewer days have elapsed. The system also deters parking attendants from
pocketing money in what is a predominantly cash-oriented business.

But privacy concerns arise because in the process of protecting revenue,
airport managers are collecting huge amounts of data that can be used to
track the movements of individuals.

Sarah Andrews, research director of the Electronic Privacy Information
Center (EPIC), a privacy rights advocacy group based here, said the system
raises significant problems, especially if it is going to be networked to
other cameras or the information sold to commercial companies to get a
broader profile of you and your habits.

Chris Hoofnagle, EPIC's legislative counsel, added that the collection of
personally identifiable data such as license plate numbers raises privacy
worries because it could easily become available to law enforcement agencies
with a subpoena.

We see in a lot of different areas that when some entity collects personal
information, the police learn of the database and often ask for the data to
be archived, Hoofnagle said.

Once you put any information in the hands of a third party, you lose your
reasonable expectation of privacy to it. The police can walk in to those
parking lots and get that information and have some ability to track
people, he said.

Ari Schwartz, an analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology, a
privacy rights group here, said the camera system is emblematic of the
increasing use of surveillance and intrusion in everyday life.

He mentioned cameras that snap pictures of red-light runners and so-called
facial recognition cameras, used in Tampa, Fla., to scan faces and
automatically compare them with criminal mug shots in a police database.

In each of these cases, where camera technology is introduced, we say it's
just for use in a certain type of situation. But as we collect more and more
information, we create more databases and eventually come back and use this
information for other purposes, Schwartz said.

If the information is not being collected at all, we don't have to worry
about what it's being used for down the line, Schwartz added.
Motorists have choice

Richard Diamond, a spokesman for Rep. Dick Armey, the House Republican
majority leader from Texas who has led the fight against red light cameras,
said that the license plate cameras were less of a privacy concern. A key
difference, he argued, is that motorists have a choice of whether or not to
use an airport parking facility and therefore to expose themselves to being
documented.

A chief privacy concern is what happens to the archived license plate data
and how frequently it is purged from an airport's databases. The less
frequently a database is purged, the more it can be used to discern an
individual's habits, in this case, the dates and times of travel to and from
an airport.

According to Joe Survance, a vice president with Ascom USA of Atlanta, one
of the largest manufactures of the camera equipment, each airport has
different standards on when to purge the data.

At some, including Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and Dulles

[CTRL] CIA critic Ralph McGehee resurfaces

2001-08-12 Thread radtimes

-Caveat Lector-

-Original Message-
From: An Metet [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Saturday, August 11, 2001 2:10 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: CIA critic Ralph McGehee resurfaces

TO SPYNEWS MOderator

Its reassuring to know that Ralph McGehee is still around. Ralph used to be
quite active on the internet but little has been heard from him in the past
year. An outspoken critic of the CIA through his books, the CIABASE and
message
boards, Mr McGehee has been subjected to increasing harrassment by Federal
and State authorities. Ralph's popular CIABASE website has also been
permanently
shutdown :-(

Return-path: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Full-name: Ralphwmcgehee
Message-ID: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Fri, 10 Aug 2001 06:42:05 EDT
Subject: A Threat to National Security?
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
X-Mailer: AOL 5.0 for Windows sub 140

I moved to Florida in July 2000. Immediately the harassment I experienced
in Herndon transferred here. A major difference is that the FBI here openly
advises I am a threat to National Security -- because, I assume, I tell
unclassified truths to the American people.

In 1990 the CIA officially advised me in writing that I may use any
information in the public domain -- making the FBI's actions against me
false if not illegal as I have never and will never expose secret persons or
information.

Harassment here has grown to such a degree that I fear staged incidents
to arrest me for something -- anything.

I base my actions on what is in the best interests of the United States.
This may be difficult to believe given my negative commentary, but I
participated
in and watched CIA operations in Vietnam and other countries nearly destroy
the US/us.

The CIA said I was an analyst with few peers and awarded me its Career
Intelligence Medal. I use this ability and those experiences to inform about
the CIA's many opportunities and deficiencies.

Anyone wishing to know more may find details via a Google search under my
name -- Ralph McGehee

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[CTRL] Robots beat humans in trading battle

2001-08-12 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

 From BBC News,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1481000/1481339.stm
-
Wednesday, 8 August, 2001, 19:35 GMT 20:35 UK

Robots beat humans in trading battle

Not bad at trading pork bellies, either

In the first ever test of its kind, a team of robots has beaten humans in
simulated financial trading.

Computer giant IBM pitted robotic trading agents, known as bots, against
humans in trading commodities such as pork bellies and gold.

The bots made 7% more cash than the humans, according to a report in New
Scientist magazine.

Researchers say the successful experiment presages increased use of
artificial intelligence in financial markets, where computerised trading
already plays an important role.

But since none of the humans were investment professionals, traders will
argue that it is too early to consider replacing them with machines.

Battle of the bots

In IBM's test, six bots and six people traded against each other - half were
buyers and half sellers.

Buyers were given an upper spending limit, while sellers had a minimum sale
price. Their goal was to maximise their profit at the end of trading.

The situation was designed to mimic the kind of market where buyers and
sellers have a fixed amount of time to trade in a single commodity.

Although the tasks performed by the bots were extremely simple, Jeffrey
Kephart, from IBM's research centre in New York, said that this was the
first step to automating many of the basic trading decisions made in
financial markets.

We see agents being down there in the frenzy of the trading pit while
humans are elevated to a more managerial role, he said.

IBM has invested heavily in the development of artificial intelligence.

The firm was behind Deep Blue, the chess computer that took on - and beat -
grandmaster Gary Kasparov.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] He Still Dares Call It Treason


-Caveat Lector-

He Still Dares Call It Treason

http://www.democrats.com/view.cfm?id=4018

by Monica Friedlander

What happened here is not the sunlight of democracy, but the dark and
ominous shadows of
totalitarianism. -- Vincent Bugliosi

What unfolded on August 2 under the elegant, gilded dome of the landmark
historic Grand Lake Theater in Oakland, California was one of the harshest,
no-holds-barred indictments of the U.S. Supreme Court ever made. Famed
prosecutor and writer Vincent Bugliosi blasted the Bush v Gore ruling,
calling it the worst crime in U.S. history - in effect, the theft of the
Presidency.
The talk was part of promotional tour for his book, The Betrayal of
America, in which he charges that (in)Justices Rehnquist, Scalia, Thomas,
O'Connor, and Kennedy betrayed everything they ever believed in to take the
election away from the American people and into their own hands based on an
inapplicable constitutional principle.
I will stake my prosecutorial reputation on the fact that within the pages
of this book I prove beyond reasonable doubt that these five Justices
deliberately set out to hand the election to George Bush, Bugliosi says.
The evidence against them is absolutely overwhelming. Like typical
criminals on the run, they left their dirty fingerprints everywhere.
These formidable charges, involving a ruling that changed the course of
history, made by a nationally respected prosecutor, and in front of a full
and vociferous house, unfolded with virtually no media coverage. This
omission is in keeping with the media's move-on-the-election-is-over
mentality, which Bugliosi likened to Nazi war criminals saying 'the war is
over. Let's get on with our lives.'
Bugliosi announced during the talk that Congressman John Conyers of
Michigan asked that None Dare Call It Treasonthe article on which
Betrayal of America was based, be entered into the Congressional record,
thus bringing the charges against the felonious five, as Bugliosi calls
them, into the permanent annals of Congress.
Bugliosi praised those in the audience who by supporting his cause are
finding themselves in the front lines, in the trenches, fighting a noble
war and added, I salute you for it.
He also asked the audience to help get his message out. He said that in his
long and successful career he never had so much trouble getting invited to
speak on the air as he does now, even though his book has been on the New
York Times bestseller list for weeks.
The stage for Bugliosi's talk was set by a few other speakers, who largely
reinforced his message while adding their own take and call to action.
Medea Benjamin of Global Exchange discussed her role as observer of the
vote recount in Florida last December. She described shocking accounts of
delaying tactics used by the Republicans to run out the clock on Al Gore,
and cases of African American voters turned away from the polls because
they could not produce two pieces of identification.
Another powerful plea was made by Riva Enteen, vice president of the
National Lawyers Guild (NLG), which is considering using Bugliosi's book as
a legal foundation for asking the House to initiate impeachment proceedings
against the Supreme Court Justices.  Enteen said that the NLG has been
receiving some 100 responses a day since their call for support went out,
including an inquiry from the AFL-CIO.
What has changed in the last couple of months is not whether there will be
an impeachment campaign, she said. There IS an impeachment campaigning
going on.  It is only the role that the National Lawyers Guild will play in
it.
She asked everyone to join her and the NLG in going after these five
despicable traitors.
Bugliosi followed, and like the passionate, skilled and persuasive
prosecutor that he is, laid out his convincing case: that the Bush v. Gore
ruling was not based on the law, meaning that the court knowingly and
deliberately nullified the votes of 51 million and stole the election for
George Bush.
He concluded nothing could possibly be more serious in its enormous
ramifications. It was the biggest and most serious crime in American
history. And in a fair and just world, the five Justices responsible for
that decision belong behind prison bars.
Bugliosi made his case point by point as if his audience was a jury.

1.  The Justices in effect confessed to the crime, he said, by stating in
the decision that the ruling only pertains to Bush v. Gore, not to other
cases. This is the first time in the 210-year history of the court that
the court limited its ruling to the case before it, Bugliosi said. If
that ruling was based on the law, there's no way under the moon why they
would have said it does not apply to other cases.
He quoted Scalia writing in 1996 that the Supreme Court of the United
States does not sit to announce unique dispositions. Its principal function
is to establish legal precedent, to set forth principles of law that every
court in America must follow.
But not apparently in Bush v.

[CTRL] Sounding Out Snipers


-Caveat Lector-

Sounding Out Snipers
Scientific American (07/01) Vol. 285, No. 1, P. 33

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is preparing law
enforcement agencies for urban warfare by commissioning
prototypes of specialized technologies. BBN Technologies, a
division of Verizon, has designed a sniper-detection device
that will allow soldiers to track the direction of a bullet
back to a hidden enemy, which can then be transmitted to a
Global Positioning System. The new battlefield technology will
use microphones and a helmet-mounted compass, and the device
can also be mounted on trucks, airplanes, streetlights, and
buildings. BBN's technology tracks snipers at long distance by
picking up the acoustic vibrations from the muzzle blast and
the supersonic crack of the bullet. The technology is also
able to detect the trajectory, caliber, and speed of the
bullet. (www.sciam.com/)

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Thin Blue Lies: Police and the Art of Propaganda


-Caveat Lector-

Thin Blue Lies: Police and the Art of Propaganda

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11277

Tim Wise, AlterNet
August 3, 2001

Image is everything, or so the commercial says. In an age of public
relations, how one is portrayed can be every bit as important as the
substance of one's actions. Thus, it should come as no surprise that along
with politicians, entertainers and corporate executives, even police
departments have joined the p.r. game.
With one after another discovery of police misconduct around the country
from high-visibility cases of brutality, to racial profiling, to corruption
involving bribes and the planting of evidence, the recent headlines have
been anything but flattering. Since the beating of Rodney King, the
American masses have been made more aware than ever that Officer Friendly
is not often there to get your cat out of the tree. Sometimes his
intentions are far more pernicious than that.
And so it is no shock to see police across the nation cranking up their own
propaganda mills so as to counter the trend of bad press. In the wake of
scandal, how better to get the public on your side than to portray yourself
as under siege? How better to gain sympathy than to remind the citizens how
crucial you ostensibly are to their own safety? A little crime scare can go
a long way.
Case in point: recent headlines from Cincinnati and Nashville. In the
former, the police have been trying for months to excuse their
well-documented overreactions to perceived danger. Since the mid-1990's
officers there have killed 16 black men, many under highly suspicious
circumstances, including Timothy Thomas, shot in the back this past April
while running away from arrest on minor traffic violations.
Ever since the rebellion that was triggered by the Thomas shooting, police
have been working overtime to portray the rioters as terrorists with no
legitimate grievances against the cops.
Keith Fangman, head of the local Fraternal Order of Police, called a press
conference immediately after the April shooting to display pictures of all
the police in Cincinnati who have been killed in the line of duty.
Stretching back many years, their photos hung behind Fangman's podium like
a Wall of Fame, and Fangman made sure to point out that many of these
officers were killed by black men, just like Tim Thomas. The
none-too-subliminal message was plain: you can't be too careful, especially
with those people running loose.
Now, three months after the city's upheaval, Fangman is back, proclaiming
that the recent rise in violent crime in Cincinnati has been due to the
reluctance of officers to aggressively police high-crime areas for fear of
being labeled racist. In other words, the calls for equitable treatment by
the city's black residents have made cops afraid to do their jobs, with the
attendant result that citizens are now less safe.
Fangman would like the public to think this is what happens when you don't
support local law enforcement and give them carte blanche to crack heads,
apply chokeholds and shoot those who make the mistake of reaching to adjust
their seatbelt during traffic stops. The implicit message essentially boils
down to this: black people are too irrational to differentiate real racism
from valid policing, so cops can't take the chance, and shouldn't be
expected to do their jobs. That this work slowdown by white officers is a
kind of insubordination that would get black people fired from any position
in the nation seems to escape mention. That Cincinnati's blacks are quite
capable of differentiating legitimate law enforcement from racist
brutalization, as evidenced by the community's acceptance of the latest
shooting, which was made necessary by the suspect's firing on the officer
first, also seems not to phase Fangman and his bunch.
Yet the Mayor's response to the refusal of Cincinnati's finest to do their
jobs has been laughable. Acts of kindness to police officers, Charlie
Lukens says, would be appropriate at this time. In other words, there
will be no insistence that the police do what they are paid to do, and do
it equitably. Instead there is only a plea for Cincinnatians to hug cops
and thank them for their selfless actions. Apparently the FOP spin-mill is
working.
So too in Nashville, Tennessee, my hometown, and the site of at least a
half dozen scandals and questionable incidents involving police in recent
years.
First there were allegations that white officers physically assaulted Latinos:
allegations still being investigated by the Justice Department. Then
another officer was found to be moonlighting as owner of an adult club for
swingers.  This was followed by an officer who sexually assaulted a woman
who had called him for help. Then there was the cop with a record of
domestic violence. Then there were multiple shootings of blacks, including
at least one in the back of the head. And to cap it all off: the decision
by police not to shoot a white officer, even though that

[CTRL] Capitalizing on the Anti-Capitalist Movement


-Caveat Lector-

Capitalizing on the Anti-Capitalist Movement

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11295

by Alicia Rebensdorf, AlterNet
August 7, 2001

An angry mob gathered around a train station, passing out photocopied
flyers and shouting protests against an unjust company. Scrappy stickers
were slapped on billboards, directing passers-by to a crudely designed
website. The company they were railing against was a frequent target of
grassroots activism: Nike. And the group running this guerilla-style
anti-advertising campaign? None other than Nike itself.
It's been over a decade since Nike's beloved swoosh first came under attack
by labor activists. Organizations like Adbusters, Global Exchange and
NikeWatch have waged high profile campaigns to make that curving icon
associated with slave labor as firmly as with Michael Jordan. Activists
have manipulated logos, performed street theater and marred billboards in
order to jam the Nike brand.
Nike's recent soccer ads in Australia, however, have appropriated both the
techniques and the language used against them. The campaign involved
posting billboards that boasted The Most Offensive Boots We've Ever Made,
pseudo-marring them with stickers that read Not Fair Mr. Technology, and
even creating a fake grassroots protest group called Fans Fighting for
Fairer Football (F.F.F.F). Although this fuzzy people-power group had
banded together for a single cause that they believed was fair and just,
they were not activists fighting for fair working conditions; these were
actorvists arguing that Nike shoes gave their wearers an unfair advantage.
How clever! How hip! That Nike, they sure can co-opt their critics with
irreverent cool!
It took hard work to link the words 'Nike' and 'sweatshop' in the public
mind, says Kalle Lasn, director of Adbusters. But now, he says, without
significantly changing its labor practices, Nike gets a chance to mock its
critics, with the public laughing along.
Though Nike may pass their latest stunt off lightly, like it is, to quote
their other advertising campaign, just play (tee-hee, you're it!) -- this
is no game of tag. Instead, it's another chapter in the age-old story of
corporate marketers co-opting a cultural movement. But this is
commodification with a twist, because, essentially, Nike is trying to
capitalize on the anti-capitalism movement.
Anarchy, after all, is sooo in. Black Bloc protesters strut their stuff on
the nightly news, with their drums, explosions, and black hoods framing
attractive, twenty-something faceshell, it's better than MTV and reality
television put together! And you couldn't ask for better demographics.
Demonstrations in Seattle, Quebec and most recently Genoa have been a hit
with the 18 to 35 year olds; the audience the police are shooting at is
precisely the one corporate advertisers are shooting for.
While extreme in its co-optation of protesting techniques, Nike is hardly
the only company jumping on the anti-corporate bandwagon. Apple, IBM and
the Gap have all played with protest-chic. Apple has imposed their Think
Different slogan onto billboards of Cesar Chavez, Malcolm X, and, most
recently, young, red-flag waving militants. The Gap has seized on the
graffiti aesthetic by dressing their windows in fake black spray paint that
reads Freedom and We the People. They've even hung anarchist flags
alongside their sweatshop-produced low-riding jeans.
Meanwhile, IBM has made a more literal move to the streets. Their recent
Linux campaign involved spraying stencils of Peace, Love and the Linux
Penguin logo on city sidewalks. They have gotten flak for their graffiti
Chicago fined them several thousand dollars and San Francisco officials
decried it as vandalism, but that can only reinforce their hip,
anti-establishment image. It's only a matter of time before Old Navy begins
peddling gas mask patterned handkerchiefs (you've got to get this look!)
and the Home Shopping Network makes the Black Bloc's monochromatic look
available to you, 24 hours a day, in your choice of ebony, sable or raven.
An exaggeration? Perhaps, but not without precedent. The corporate machine
has proved itself capable of folding the prickliest of cultures into its
embrace.  Punk. Afro-centricism. Civil Rights. Virginia Slims straddled the
Cosmo crowd while it spouted the feminist slogan You've come a long way,
baby. Benetton appropriated anti-racist imagery to hippify its brand and
the Pillsbury Dough Boy rapped, proving even biscuits can benefit from
hip-hop's trendiness. Companies continually pan a movement, commodify its
cool, strip its substance and use it to enhance their own logo.
Nike  Co. would like to think the current protest movement's
anti-corporate bent is but a pesky inconvenience. But co-opting this
dissent may be bit more difficult because, in part, it's a reaction to the
very commodification past political movements have fallen victim to. Naomi
Klein, author of the anti-corporate manifesto No Logo, sees this

[CTRL] Torture U.S.A.


-Caveat Lector-

Torture U.S.A.

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=11270

Amnesty International
August 1, 2001

'Electricity speaks every language known to man. No translation necessary.
Everybody is afraid of electricity, and rightfully so.'

Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment are
prohibited in all circumstances in international law. Yet every day in
countries all over the world people are being tortured and ill-treated.
Much of the equipment used to inflict extreme pain and suffering has been
around for years and continues to be sold on the international market with
minimal restrictions. However, increasingly torturers are using weapons
which exploit the latest technological developments, most notably
high-voltage electro-shock stun weapons and chemical crowd control devices,
such as pepper gas weapons. These weapons are being produced in ever
greater numbers and their use and proliferation is spiralling out of control.
The U.S. has been at the epicentre of this new technology. Despite
professing to oppose torture, the U.S. authorities have permitted these new
devices to be marketed and sold to law enforcement agencies in other
countries with a minimum of public scrutiny, with no proper impartial
testing, and without regulation of design and use.
  Stun weapons spreading
In the 1970s only two companies, one in the U.S. and one in the United
Kingdom (UK) , were known to be marketing high-voltage electro-shock stun
weapons. However, in the last two years Amnesty International, with
assistance from the UK-based Omega Foundation, has discovered more than 150
companies which produce this sort of equipment. This has increased
enormously the availability of such weapons to security forces that
practice torture.
Companies which have produced or offered to supply electro-shock stun
weapons in the last two years are known to have been operating in at least
22 countries, including Germany (30 companies), Taiwan (19), France (14),
South Korea (13), China (12), South Africa (nine), Israel (eight), Mexico
(six), Poland (four), Russia (four), Brazil (three), Spain (three) and the
Czech Republic (two).
The range of electro-shock stun devices now available around the world has
expanded throughout the 1990s and companies offering to supply them have
sprung up in Austria, Canada, Indonesia, Kuwait, Lebanon, Lithuania,
Macedonia, the Philippines, Romania and Turkey. However, by far and away
the largest producer and supplier of electro-shock stun weapons is the
U.S..  Between 1999 and 2000, at least 97 U.S. companies were involved in
this trade.
The U.S. government has allowed companies to export modern high-voltage
electro-shock weapons to countries where electro-shock torture has been
reported. For example, high-voltage electro-shock stun shields have been
exported to Turkey, stun guns have been exported to Indonesia, and Saudi
Arabia has received electro-shock batons and shields, and dart-firing taser
guns.
Regrettably, the U.S. Commerce Department has not yet published meaningful
export data for electro-shock weapons. However, what information is
available is a clear indictment of the U.S.'s failure to ensure that such
weapons were not being exported in situations where they could be used for
human right abuses. For example, records under the export control commodity
number A985 for the period 1997 to February 2000 show that export licences
approved for Saudi Arabia for optical sighting devices, stun guns and
shock batons were valued at some U.S. $3.2 million. This was despite the
fact that the U.S. State Department's Report on Human Rights Practices
stated that, in 1999, Saudi Arabian security forces continued to abuse
detainees and prisoners. Likewise, such exports to Venezuela received
licences worth approximately U.S.$3.7 million despite the U.S. State
Department citing cases of electro-shock torture and excessive use of force
against protesters. Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mexico and Bulgaria were among other
recipients of export licence for large quantities of such weapons whose
security forces were found to practice torture and ill-treatment.
The failure of the U.S. authorities to take into account the human rights
record of the recipient country when considering applications for export
licences for this sort of equipment clearly increases the risk of torture.
In September 1997 Mohammed Naguib Abu-Higazi was reportedly arrested by a
State Security Intelligence (SSI) officer in Alexandria, Egypt, and accused
of belonging to al-Gama'a al-Islamiya (Islamic Group). While held at the
SSI office in Faraana, Alexandria, he was stripped of his clothes and given
electric shocks from a cylinder shaped stick with a spiral metal wire. He
was also reportedly deprived of food for three days, kept blindfolded
throughout the entire nine-day detention period and threatened with sexual
assault. Between 1997 and March 2000, the U.S. approved the export to Egypt
of

[CTRL] Jam in the Echelon works


-Caveat Lector-

Jam in the Echelon works

http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/news/print_news.cfm?NewsID=1387

by Sandra Van Dijk and Wendy Brewer
Friday, August 03 2001

Internet activists have planned a day of chaos set for 21 October in a bid
to block the infamous computer surveillance network Echelon.

'Jam Echelon Day', a protest against government eves dropping, has been
organised by several groups of internet hackers including Cipherwar.com and
the Hacktivists.

We are encouraging all persons who utilise any form of global
communications to inform their circle of friends [about] Echelon. Along with
this we are urging the inclusion of as many 'trigger words' within those
communications as possible, says the Cipherwar website.

This is not an attack, said a member of Cipherwar, who prefers to be known
as 'Scully'. This is an educational campaign designed to raise awareness of
Echelon.

The Echelon system is said to monitor emails, telephone calls and other
forms of electronic communication for so-called trigger words such as
'bomb', 'hacker' and 'terrorism'. By encouraging people to send out messages
containing as many of these words as possible, there are over 1,500 listed
on Cipherwar website, the activists hope to overload the surveillance
system.

But even the projects organisers doubt its success.

While the goal of jamming up Echelon is an unattainable one, is it not
better to signal displeasure at being monitored than passively allow it to
happen? asked Scully.

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Feds Arrest 100 for Child Porn


-Caveat Lector-

   http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Child-Porn-Indictments.html

   AUG 08, 2001

FEDS ARREST 100 FOR CHILD PORN

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

  WASHINGTON (AP) -- One hundred people have been arrested as part of an
  undercover sting investigation into the largest known commercial child
  pornography business ever uncovered, federal officials said Wednesday.

  The two-year investigation began with Landslide Productions Inc., a Fort
  Worth, Texas, company owned by Thomas and Janice Reedy. Authorities said
  the company was at the center of an international child pornography
  business that distributed lewd pictures of children having sex to
  subscribers over the Internet.

  The Reedys were charged in an 89-count federal indictment with conspiracy
  to distribute and possession of child pornography.

  Landslide grossed as much as $1.4 million in one month alone, the profits
  coming from monthly fees viewers paid to access child pornography Web
  sites, authorities said. Called Operation Avalanche, the undercover
  operation was based on intelligence developed from the Landslide
  investigation and encompassed 30 federally funded task forces formed to
  combat Internet crimes against children.

  ``During an Operation Avalanche search, we found a collection of
  videotapes produced by a suspect depicting the sexual abuse of several
  young girls. One of the girls was only 4 years old,'' said Chief Postal
  Inspector Kenneth C. Weaver.

  He said the suspect had worked as a computer consultant.

  Pornography also was distributed through the mail, Weaver said.

  The Reedys were convicted last year on charges that included sexual
  exploitation of minors and distribution of child pornography. A federal
  judge on Monday sentenced Thomas Reedy, 37, to life in prison and his
  32-year-old wife, Janice, to 14 years in prison.

  Landslide provided a credit card verification service that admitted
  customers into Web sites containing graphic pictures and videos of
  children engaging in sex acts with adults and with each other, the
  government charged.

  Landslide charged customers $29.95 per month for access and netted more
  than $1 million between 1997 and 1999, the government said.

  The Web site had about 250,000 subscribers. Holmes said authorities
  tracked down some of them using electronic and credit card information
  gathered in an investigation conducted by the postal inspection service,
  U.S. Customs Service, the FBI and the Dallas Police Department. It is
  illegal to possess child pornography.

  The porn sites were run by operators in Russia and Indonesia. Warrants
  have been issued for their arrest.

  Authorities said the Reedys kept 40 percent of the profits and gave the
  operators 60 percent.

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[CTRL] Radio journalist assassinated in Costa Rica


-Caveat Lector-

Spanish message follows.

URGENT SOLIDARITY ALERT:  Costa Rica

Source: FIRE, Costa Rica

Radio journalist assassinated in Costa Rica

(July 2001) For the first time in its longtime democratic history, a
journalist was assassinated recently in Costa Rica, most likely in response
to his controversial work as an investigative journalist. On July 7, bullets
silenced forever the voice of journalist Parmenio Medina, also silencing
his right to freedom of expression and the press.

Producer of the 28 year old radio program La Patada, (The Kick in
English) Parmenio used humor and investigative journalism to present
controversial stories on the public life of religious, political and
business leaders in Costa Rica.

He was taken to court four times by some of these leaders, and four times
he won by presenting evidence that affirmed his credibility and right to
free expression. As a matter of fact, he had recently won a fifth case
before his assassination after Radio Monumental where he broadcast his
program had closed it down. He took the case to the constitutional Supreme
Court of Costa Rica and won against one of the biggest commercial radio
stations in the country. His program was reinstalled on Monumental and he
then continued broadcasting his weekly program.

His search for truths that were hardly ever reported by mainstream media
led him to work on the latest case he had uncovered at the time of his
death. The exposure of the problems of Radio María, a two-year old Catholic
radio station headed by the renowned fundamentalist priest, Father Minor
Calvo, who´s radio station had amassed large sums of money, supposedly
donated by believers and followers.

Parmenio further exposed the hypocrisy of the priest who persecuted gays
when the priest himself was found in a park of San José, late at night,
with a young boy. The priest alleged that he was teaching the young man to
drive. It was later proven by Parmenio that the adolescent had a
two-year-old driving license. The scandal was so big that the head of the
Catholic Church in the country had to close down the radio station and send
Minor away in meditation.

Parmenio had already announced that much more was to come, especially
regarding questions of the origins of the millions made by Radio María. But
the journalist was killed five days after this announcement was published
in the weekly university newspaper Periódico Universidad.

Evidence from the scene of the crime which occurred in Parmenio's car right
near his home, the method of his assassination, and the fact that it took
place just a few hours after he had finished producing his program, all
point to the high likelihood that it was carried out by professional
assassins hired by someone else.

He was killed with three gunshots fired at close range: one in the mouth,
to let everyone know that he talked too much; one in the back, to say he
was being watched, and one in the aorta, to say that he had to die for what
he said. Nothing was stolen from his person or the car. A police
investigation is underway to find those responsible for the crime.

Parmenio Medina was born in Colombia in 1939. In 1968 he came to live in
Costa Rica and became a citizen of the country where he raised a family.

Minor of Jesús Calvo.

According to many sources, among them the former dean of the University of
Costa Rica and Coordinator of the Peace and Human Development Program of
the Arias Foundation, Dr. Fernando Durán Allanegui, the Archbishop of the
Catholic Church was slow in removing Minor and closing down the radio in
response to the scandal.

Furthermore, the former university dean stated in a television program in
Channel 15 that as a Catholic, he believes that the Archbishop should resign.

The quest for the truth about Parmenio's assassination led popular
organizations to request that the Ombusdman´s office in the country
organize a protest march which took place on Tuesday, July 17. More than
3,000 people congregated in the Parque Nacional (National Park) in the
center of San José to express their demand for an end to impunity.

Among the posters that marchers carried during the activity, one stated:
Ask Minor, he knows who did it. Another stated that it is time to
separate Church and State while another asked: The Church, the government
and business have freedom of expression because they have media...where are
the public frequencies for the people?

Hear voices about the issue in Spanish at www.fire.or.cr

*

AMARC INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY NETWORK
RESEAU DE SOLIDARITE INTERNATIONALE DE L AMARC
RED DE SOLIDARIDAD INTERNACIONAL DE AMARC

ALERTA DE SOLIDARIDAD URGENTE:  Costa Rica

Source: FIRE, Costa Rica

Duelo Nacional por asesinato de periodista

(Julio 2001) Duro golpe para Democracia y Libertad de Expresión
Costarricense FIRE, San José. El sábado 7 de Julio del 2001 pasará a la
historia como el día en que en Costa Rica, por primera vez, fue

[CTRL] FBI Must Reveal Computer Snooping Technique


-Caveat Lector-

FBI Must Reveal Computer Snooping Technique -Judge

Updated: Tue, Aug 07, 2001

http://news.excite.com/news/r/010807/18/news-crime-surveillance-dc

NEWARK, N.J. (Reuters) - A federal judge on Tuesday ordered the
government to reveal the high-tech computer snooping technique used
by the FBI to gather evidence against an alleged mobster.

In a case that privacy advocates say smacks of Big Brother, U.S.
District Judge Nicholas Politan ruled that the government must reveal
the details of the computer monitoring system it used to gather
evidence against Nicodemo Scarfo Jr., who is charged with running
illegal gambling and loan-sharking operations for the Gambino crime
family.

Scarfo is the son of imprisoned mobster Nicodemo Little Nicky
Scarfo.

The case is believed to be the first in the nation in which federal
agents installed a secret surveillance system in a personal computer
system under search warrant, and the first to be tested in U.S.
courts.

The FBI recorded virtually every keystroke made on Scarfo's computer
at his Belleville, New Jersey, business, including passwords, using a
key logger device.

Whether the system is hardware or software is unknown, prompting a
motion by Scarfo's attorneys to reveal its makeup so they could have
it analyzed and make a case to suppress the evidence it gathered.

Politan ruled that in order to decide the lawfulness of the
government surveillance, he must see a full report on how the device
works, imposing an Aug. 31 deadline.

In this new age of rapidly evolving technology, the court cannot
make a determination as to the lawfulness of the government's search
... without knowing specifically how the search was effectuated, he
wrote.

This requires an understanding of how the key logger device
functions. In most, if not all search and seizure cases, the court
... understands the particular method by which the search is
executed. ... Because of the advanced technology used the court does
not have the benefit of such an understanding.

The government argued that revealing the workings of the system might
jeopardize national security and endanger FBI personnel and those
working with them.

Politan gave the government 10 days to provide additional evidence as
to why revealing the technology would endanger ongoing investigations
and later national security operations.

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[CTRL] Genoa police unit trained by [LAPD]


-Caveat Lector-

Genoa police unit trained by [LAPD]

Tue, 7 Aug 2001

ROME (Reuters) - An elite Italian police unit which carried out a bloody
raid against protesters at a Group of Eight summit in Genoa was trained by
U.S. police chiefs, an Italian newspaper reported Tuesday.

For four months, 70 specially selected officers were trained by two Los
Angeles police sheriffs. A larger number of police also received a
week-long training course from the Americans, according to the Communist
daily Liberazione.

The prime responsibility of the two Los Angeles sheriffs was to train the
men from the special unit in the use of American aluminum batons, an
unidentified policeman who took part in the one-week course was quoted as
saying.

From the start, they openly criticized the way in which Italian police
carry out public order, he said.

Not only is the use of foreign expertise likely to cause consternation,
but the fact the officers came from Los Angeles, a city scarred by mass
riots in 1992 following the police beating of black motorist Rodney King,
also raises serious questions.

In a midnight assault on a school which was acting as a headquarters for
protest groups during the July 20-22 summit, 62 people were injured and 93
arrested. Many were laid out on stretchers with blood-stained faces.

Reporters who entered the school soon afterwards saw blood stains on the
walls and broken teeth scattered on the floor. At least one protester has
since undergone brain surgery.

Allegations of police brutality have flooded in and three top police
officials have been transferred by the interior minister, who has faced
calls for his own resignation.

The Interior Ministry declined to make a comment at this time on the
involvement of the American sheriffs.

As well as brutality, there were also allegations that police sexually
assaulted female protesters. Two weeks after the summit, nearly 50
demonstrators are still in prison. Many say their human and civil rights
have been violated.

The police source told the paper the American sheriffs had said repeatedly
that in Los Angeles all we need is a nucleus of 20 cops to disperse
hundreds of demonstrators because we can fire rubber bullets which wound,
but don't kill.

On the first day of the Genoa summit, a 23-year-old protester who was
attacking a police vehicle was shot and killed by an Italian paramilitary
policeman.

The source also said that the week-long course he had been assigned to was
more like a military boot camp.

We marched, learned how to form shield defenses and how to jump through
fire or out of a moving vehicle, he said.

It was more like a medieval tournament. In the end we were doing purely
military training. There seemed no difference between police officers and
soldiers.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Brazil's Army Defends Spying Activities


-Caveat Lector-

Tuesday, 07-Aug-01

Brazil's Army Defends Spying Activities

http://www.montereyca.com/rc/news/docs/09724822.htm

BRASILIA, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazil's army defended its spying activities on
Tuesday in response to a newspaper report on how it gathered information on
radical social movements, but said it would investigate alleged
``transgressions.''

In a three-page statement, the army said a report alleging that it spied on
social movements it labeled ``adversaries'' included references to spying
practices no longer used by the army, which ruled Brazil from 1964 to 1985.

The report, published last week by daily Folha de Sao Paulo based on a set
of army documents it had obtained, included a document in which the army
allegedly said, ``often it is even necessary to scratch out citizens'
rights'' in order to maintain public order.

Human rights groups were outraged by the report, saying it showed the army
still used practices of the dictatorship.

The army said statements like ``'scratching out citizens rights' and
'eliminate opponents''' were no longer included in any of its documents on
intelligence gathering.

But it added, ``Like any armed force committed to the efficient fulfillment
of its mission, the Brazilian army has an intelligence system to provide the
command with the necessary information to take decisions to fulfill its
constitutional mission.''

The statement said, however, that the army would investigate the documents
to verify whether they include ''transgressions from the norms that govern
army intelligence, allowing for the necessary corrections.''

It said a reported description of the radical Landless Movement (MST), which
groups poor rural workers who illegally occupy unused farmland to make a
living, as an adversary ``may be improper.'' MST leaders were angered by the
report alleging that the army spied on their group.

The army said the description of the MST as an ``adversary'' was improper.
Rather, that applied to those within the MST ''that act on the margin of the
law.''

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Cash Cops patrol US Airports

-Caveat Lector-

From: Permanent Tourist [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, August 06, 2001
Subject: [OPC] Cash Cops patrolling US Airports!

Offshore  Privacy Secrets, August 6th, 2001
Published by Offshore  Privacy Club
http://www.permanenttourist.com

Cash Cops patrol US Airports

It has to be one of the stranger sights at Newark
International Airport. Passengers entering a jet-way
for a flight overseas are suddenly confronted by
uniformed U.S. Customs Service inspectors politely
asking to see passports or airline ticket receipts,
and ultimately getting around to a very personal
question:

How much money are you carrying?

And if the replies to that and a few additional
questions are troubling, the inspector may soon
be crouched on the floor, counting out the
traveler's cash.

Suddenly, a carpet of greenbacks is covering floor
tile as inspectors make little piles amounting to
thousands and thousands of dollars.

It's a rare occurrence, said Rich O'Brien, Customs'
deputy chief inspector at the airport. But when it
happens, it looks like an obviously disconcerted
traveler has been forced into a craps game.

Is this legal? Bet your bottom dollar it is.

In an effort to hit the narcotics trade in the
pocketbook, laws enacted in 1988 require Customs
to interdict the cash proceeds en route to
suppliers overseas. Congress did not make taking
cash out of the U.S. illegal. It doesn't even set
a limit. The government just wants to know if
passengers are carrying over $10,000.

In that case, they are required to fill out
Customs Form 4790, a document shared with the
Internal Revenue Service. Money orders,
securities and traveler's checks count
toward the total.

To make sure the law is being observed Customs
dispatches Buck Stop patrols to jet-ways every
day. Last year, they seized more than $55.9 million
from 1,351 travelers.

Kennedy International in New York, with
$12.7 million, was the top cash cow. Miami was
next with $8.8 million. Newark was third with
$3.5 million or a little more than a dollar for
every outbound traveler on an overseas flight.
So far this year, $2.4 million has been seized
at Newark, including the June 19 haul of more
than $800,000 that filled a suitcase of shoes.

Refunds can be sought. But for about 75 percent of
the seized money, hearings determine that it has
been made illegally, and the U.S. Treasury winds
up  keeping it.

Ignorance of the law costs a traveler a fine, not
a complete forfeiture. Customs inspectors say they
wish more people knew of the reporting requirement.
We're concerned it's a difficult thing for people
to understand, said airport Chief Inspector Bill
Brush.

Customs has airport information kiosks and sometimes
makes gate announcements. But surprise is evident on
the faces of passengers when they come to a
Buck Stop just as they think they're finally
headed for their seats on the plane.

Years ago, operations were conducted by inspectors
in plain clothes in full view of everyone in the
waiting areas around gates. Nowadays, the only
tip-off comes as travelers pass through the jet-way
door and are greeted by a phalanx of uniformed
-- and armed -- inspectors. Any counts are likely
to be made discreetly, at the bottom of a stairwell.

Like their counterparts who screen incoming travelers,
inspectors run though Customs computers the passenger
lists of outgoing flights, to single out those with
criminal records or travel histories that deem them
potential targets.

Flights with the highest numbers of seizures are
those headed for Santo Domingo and Puerto Plata in
the Dominican Republic; Bogotá, Colombia; and Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia.

O'Brien said Newark Airport's two teams inspect about
63 percent of the outbound international flights,
targeting what he called high-risk destinations in
the main-source countries for narcotics: in Central
and South America, the Caribbean, Mexico, eastern
Asia and some flights to north Europe.

During the first quarter, only two-tenths of 1 percent
of the people on those flights, or 2,088 passengers,
were stopped and asked to open their bags, or had
their money counted.

Among luggage, currency has been found tightly rolled
up inside shampoo bottles, in the battery compartments
of stereos, or replacing the felt inside fat marking
pens. Some people hollow out candles, stuff the money
inside, and then melt on a new wax bottom.

There are also the false-bottom bags and bags with
cash lining the sides. To find it, Customs has a
van equipped with an X-ray machine that it brings
to baggage belts under the airport's terminals prior
to an outbound flight.

The personal searches take place as soon as gate
agents begin to allow passengers to board. Inspectors
look for bulging pockets, or for extra girth that
may come from a money belt. Cash has also been found
stuffed in girdles and in bicycle pants worn beneath
flowing sundresses, said inspector Herb Herter, who
has been supervising Buck Stop teams for three of
his 10 years at the airport.

[CTRL] Military control possible if America faced bioterrorism attack


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.armytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-424290.php

Army Times
August 03, 2001

Military control possible if America faced bioterrorism attack

Associated Press

CHICAGO  In an America that guards its civil
liberties, police can't just shut down cities, make
mass arrests and quarantine thousands of people. Or
can they?

Current and former federal officials said Friday that
if there is a terrorist attack with biological
weapons, private rights would quickly be swamped by
the need to protect the public. State borders could
close, vaccines could be rationed or commandeered, the
Army could even take over cities within weeks of a
deadly attack, an American Bar Association panel
predicted.

To an extent, people are going to do what needs to be
done and worry about the legal niceties later, said
Suzanne Spaulding, a former top lawyer for the CIA and
the Senate Intelligence Committee.

The ABA panel, part of the annual meeting of the
400,000-lawyer organization, played out an imaginary
terrorist campaign to infect Americans with the plague
 from the first tips by an FBI informant in New
Mexico to closure of the Minnesota borders and riots
in Cincinnati.

Along the way came word that a rogue Russian scientist
and the Iraqi military were involved. Eventually, the
FBI, CIA, National Centers for Disease Control, the
White House, Pentagon and governors of several states
were also involved  each with broader power than many
people knew they had, participants said.

Under the hypothetical scenario, law enforcement could
do little when a would-be terrorist showed up at a
Santa Fe emergency room with a case of the plague.
The investigation intensified, and the FBI got much
broader authority, when several people died of the
plague after attending a concert in Minneapolis.

Political pressure intensified, with a demand from 20
senators of the opposite political party from the
president that the White House declare a national
state of emergency. Then came word that the terrorists
planned another attack during a street festival in
Cincinnati.

Under this scenario, the FBI could go to a special
court for permission to investigate foreigners, but
could not begin stopping everyone in downtown
Cincinnati resembling a tipster's description of a
suspected terrorist, said Eugene Bowman, deputy
general counsel for the FBI.

Nor could the FBI order the downtown area cordoned off
and every building searched, Bowman said. Agents would
need warrants based on better specifics than those
offered in the hypothetical terrorist attack.

But local police could do what the FBI couldn't, so
long as it was based on the need to protect public
health, said Terry O'Brien, legal consultant to a
national notification network tracking infectious
diseases.

The idea is to prevent the epidemic, not to catch
and punish a wrongdoer, O'Brien said.

The president could declare martial law and federalize
state National Guards, said Michael Wermuth, head of a
group advising the government on how well it is
preparing for nuclear, chemical or biological
terrorism.

The attorney general and the defense secretary could
also invoke a federal law that lets them call in
soldiers to keep order if police or other law
enforcement could not, Wermuth said.

The military can be engaged directly in arrests,
search and seizure and intelligence collection for law
enforcement purposes, Wermuth said.
There's very raw authority to use the military to do
any number of things that (look) like law enforcement,
or to assist public health authorities by (enforcing)
quarantines.

The government also would have the legal power to
force people to be immunized, although as a practical
matter it would probably prove impossible, O'Brien
said.

What are you going to do, go into somebody's home and
tie them up? On the other hand, the government could
take control of vaccine supplies, even if it meant
overriding state governors bent on hoarding their
in-state stockpiles, the panelists said.

The hypothetical exercise ended short of the president
declaring nationwide martial law, and without the
arrest or trial of the terrorists.

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Evicted by the US military, the Inuit prepare to fight Star Wars


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.independent.co.uk/story.jsp?story=87494

Evicted by the US military, the Inuit prepare to fight Star Wars

By Steve Boggan on MV Arctic Sunrise, Qaanaaq, Greenland
07 August 2001

The sign that greets arrivals at Thule airport in Greenland says: Air Force
Space Command's 12th Space Warning Squadron. Latitude 76 degrees 32N,
Longitude 68 degrees 42W. In simple terms, this is the last place on earth
you can land in a passenger jet.

As the sign says, it is the home of a United States space command squadron,
a group of men and women whose job involves providing America with advance
warning of airborne attack. If President George Bush gets his way, it will
be one of two bases outside the US  the other is at Fylingdales, North
Yorkshire  that will be key to his plans for ballistic missile defence, aka
Son of Star Wars.

Because of its remote location, some 800 miles north of the Arctic Circle,
President Bush could be forgiven for believing this would be the less
troublesome of the two foreign stations he needs permission to use if his
system is to work. But he would be wrong.

This base and, more importantly, a tiny community of Inuit people evicted to
make way for it, are about to find themselves at the centre of American
foreign policy making. As Andy Warhol might have put it, these hunters in
their 650-strong community at Qaanaaq, the northernmost municipality on the
planet, are about to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Theirs is a story of enforced eviction, a nuclear plane crash, environmental
pollution and national betrayal. And, after nearly 50 years of being
ignored, they view President Bush's Star Wars proposals  that will see the
1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia torn up, and which China has
already predicted will result in a new nuclear arms race  as their last
chance to have the world sit up and take notice.

The Americans first became interested in Thule  also known as Pituffik  in
1946 when it became obvious the new threat to its interests would come from
the Soviet Union. Inuit tribesmen remember the day they arrived.

It was in April 1946, said Aron Qaavigaq, then a 12-year-old living off
the traditional Dundas mountain hunting grounds on the north-western edges
of Greenland.

We saw a plane coming out of Canada. It circled and went away. Then, in
July, a huge black plane came. We saw it coming lower and lower to the sea
and it landed on it, throwing out an anchor like a boat. Many people were
amazed to see that. They came ashore and gave us apples and told us a ship
was on its way.

Within months, 36 ships had arrived, an airstrip was laid, and a weather
station built with the permission of the Kingdom of Denmark, of which
Greenland is a part. The Inuit continued to hunt for seals, walruses,
whales, narwhals, foxes and birds until, between 1951 and 1953,
militarisation of the base began.

Finally, in May 1953, the 27 families that made up the Inuit community were
told to leave to make way for American surface-to-air missile batteries.
They were given between 48 hours and two weeks to get out.

Mr Qaavigaq said: We were told there were houses waiting for us in Qaanaaq
[100 miles away], but those of us who didn't go voluntarily would not get
one. We had no choice; we had to go. There were seven of us. I remember my
mother and father were crying. We were young and very excited to be going
somewhere new. But they kept crying, so we knew there was something wrong.

Everyone packed what they could on their dogsleds and set off north across
the ice. After a while, my father stopped and looked back. He and my mother
were crying again.

In all, more than 150 people were forcibly evicted. And, when they arrived
at Qaanaaq, the houses they were promised had not been built. For three
months, they had only tents in which to live.

They were treated appallingly, said Christian Harlang, a Danish human
rights lawyer, who has taken up their case. Most were given just 48 hours
to leave with their elderly and their children.

For decades, the Danish government lied about them, claiming they had moved
voluntarily. At school, we were taught that Denmark did not mistreat
Greenland the way the French and the British mistreated their colonies, yet
all the time these people were suffering.

But things were to get worse. Uusaqqak Qujaakitsoq, vice-president of the
Inuit Circumpolar Conference, and Axel Lund Olsen, deputy mayor of Qaanaaq,
said the new hunting-grounds were not so good.

It was too far to travel back to the old grounds (and, even then, permits
were required from the Danes) and, as the next generations came along, many
turned their backs on the hunting way of life.

Today, unemployment in Qaanaaq is high, feelings of resentment are growing
and alcoholism is becoming a serious problem.

One of the reasons hunting has become so difficult, they say, is that the
area has become polluted  not least because of an incident on 21 January
1968 when an American B-52

[CTRL] US Study Due On CIA Venture Capital Firm In-Q-Tel


-Caveat Lector-

The Not-So-Secret Report
US Study Due On CIA Venture Capital Firm In-Q-Tel
Reuters

Business Executives for National Security said it would release on
Tuesday a congressionally required study of the CIA's venture capital
firm In-Q-Tel, started in 1999 to encourage development of
private-sector technologies for use in the intelligence world... The
study of In-Q-Tel's strategy, structure, technologies and legal
foundation was a result of a congressional requirement in the
intelligence funding bill for fiscal 2000.

http://news.findlaw.com/business/s/20010807/techciadc.html

Read The Report on the CIA's Venture Capital Firm [PDF]
http://news.findlaw.com/cnn/docs/inqtel/inqtel80701rpt.pdf

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sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] FBI wants PC surveillance method kept quiet


-Caveat Lector-

08/07/2001

FBI wants PC surveillance method kept quiet

www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-08-07-fbi-surveillance-trial.htm

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - The Justice Department claims that revealing details
about how it bugged the computer of an accused bookie could threaten
national security.

Disclosing material about the key logger system the FBI installed on the
computer of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. would hurt ongoing investigations of
foreign intelligence agents and endanger the lives of U.S. agents, according
to court documents filed by the government.

The Justice Department claims the system must remain secret to keep hostile
intelligence officers from employing counter-surveillance tactics to thwart
law enforcement.

The case is being watched by privacy experts concerned over the government
use of spy technology.

Lawyers for Scarfo, the son of a jailed mob boss, say they need the
information to determine if the intrusion violated his constitutional
rights. If it did, none of the evidence from the computer could be used at
his trial.

U.S. District Judge Nicholas H. Politan has not said when he would rule on
the motion. At a hearing last week, the judge said the matter should not
delay the Sept. 11 trial date for Scarfo, 36, and Frank Paolercio, 32, who
are accused of loansharking and running a gambling racket.

Scarfo's father, Nicodemo Little Nicky Scarfo, is serving a life term for
running the Philadelphia-Atlantic City mob in the 1980s.

Politan has barred attorneys in the case from talking to reporters.

In an affidavit filed Friday, Donald Kerr, the assistant director of the FBI
lab, said that there are only a limited number of effective techniques
available to the FBI to cope with encrypted data, one of which is the 'key
logger system.' If criminals learn how the logger works, they can
circumvent it, he said.

Scarfo used software called PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - to encode gambling
records, authorities maintain. PGP is a strong, free encryption program that
can be used for e-mail or individual files.

FBI agents installed the key logger system on Scarfo's computer after
getting a search warrant allowing them to break into his Essex County
business and look for a password that would unlock files they believed
contained records of the illegal enterprise.

The system, which recorded every keystroke, eventually captured the password
they needed. A three-count indictment was returned in June 2000 against
Scarfo and Paolercio.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] We created a monster

2001-08-06 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

THE GLOBE AND MAIL   Tuesday, July 31, 2001

 We created a monster

Albanian terrorists, armed by the West to fight in Kosovo,
are destroying Macedonia,
says Canada's former ambassador to Yugoslavia JAMES BISSETT

When Canadian pilots joined in the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in March 1999,
we were told by Lloyd Axworthy and Art Eggleton that the intervention in
Kosovo was necessary to prevent the violence there from spreading and
de-stabilizing the Balkans. Yet we now know that long before the bombing it
was NATO countries themselves that were inciting violence in Kosovo and
attempting to de-stabilize that Serbian province. Moreover despite the
bombing the violence has spread -in Kosovo itself, in southern Serbia,
and more recently in Macedonia.

Media reports have revealed that as early as 1998, the central intelligence
agency assisted by the British Special Armed Services were arming and
training Kosovo Liberation Army members in Albania to foment armed rebellion
in Kosovo. The KLA terrorists were sent back into Kosovo to assassinate
Serbian mayors, ambush Serbian policemen and do everything possible to
incite murder and chaos. The hope was that with Kosovo in flames NATO could
intervene and in so doing, not only overthrow Slobodan Milosevic the Serbian
strong man, but more importantly, provide the aging and increasingly
irrelevant military organization with a reason for its continued existence.

After bombing Yugoslavia into submission, NATO then stood by and
submissively allowed the KLA to murder, pillage and burn. The KLA was given
a free hand to do as they wished. Almost all of the non-Albanian population
was ethnically cleansed from Kosovo under the watchful eyes of 40,000 NATO
troops.  Moreover, in defiance of United Nations resolution 1244 which
brought an end to the fighting, NATO adamantly refused to disarm the KLA
fighters. Instead, NATO converted this ragtag band of terrorists into the
Kosovo Protection Force- allegedly to maintain peace and order in Kosovo.

To add insult to injury NATO appointed an alleged war criminal, Agim Ceku,
as commander of this force. Agim Ceku is an Albanian Kosovar who led the
Croatian army in operation storm which ethnically cleansed all of the
Serbian population from their ancestral lands in Croatia. Some news reports
have suggested that there is a sealed indictment against Ceku held by the
war crimes tribunal in the Hague but not acted upon because to do so would
embarrass his NATO bosses. On june10 of this year the London Times reported
that in early march, Agim Ceku ordered 800 KLA reservists from Kosovo to
enter Macedonia to help their fellow Albanians in their rebellion against
the government there.

Few Albanian nationalists in the Balkans had forgotten that under the
fascist and Nazi regimes of the 1940's, Albania was given control of Kosovo,
parts of Macedonia and northern Greece. Those latent dreams of Greater
Albania have been given new life by NATO's policy of encouraging and
actively supporting the Albanians of Kosovo to use violence and force to
achieve their political goals. It appears our NATO leaders did not realize
[or did not care] that by supporting Albanian extremists the scourge of
Albanian racism would be unleashed in the Balkans. Now in Macedonia the
broader consequences of NATO's ill-considered intervention in that
troubled region of Europe is becoming more evident.

The KLA learned early in the Yugoslavian campaign that NATO countries are
unwilling to risk the lives of their soldiers to resolve Balkan problems.
It is one thing to bomb targets in Yugoslavia from 15,000 feet with little
or no risk to its pilots. It is quite another thing to become involved
in armed conflict on the ground against a well-armed and determined enemy.
Confirmation of this was evident when the KLA went into to southern Serbia.
NATO was not prepared to intervene militarily to halt that aggression. It
was only when NATO was able to strike a deal with the new democratic powers
in Serbia to have Serbian troops restore order in that region that the KLA
were stopped.

Thwarted, at least temporarily, in southern Serbia, the KLA then turned its
attention to Macedonia and in March started a new military campaign in that
country. Their tactics were the same as those used successfully in Kosovo,
i.e. assassination, ambush, and intimidation of the local population. Again
as in Kosovo the KLA is armed and equipped by western powers. The Macedonian
authorities in order to put down the armed rebellion have used the same
tactics as employed by the Serbian forces in Kosovo; shelling of villages
occupied by KLA fighters with consequent civilian casualties and refugees.

Unlike Kosovo, however, NATO authorities are unable to react to the
Macedonian crisis as they did two years earlier in Kosovo because obviously
bombing Macedonia is not the answer. Macedonia is not headed by a Slobodan
Milosevic and its record of dealing with its Albanian

[CTRL] US role in Indonesian massacres revealed in error

2001-08-06 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-200126,00.html

MONDAY JULY 30 2001

US role in Indonesian massacres revealed in error

FROM MICHAEL EVANS IN WASHINGTON

THE American Government is trying to claw back copies of a book that reveals
US links to Sixties anti-communist death squads in Indonesia. Copies of the
declassified history were prematurely distributed to libraries around the
world. It contains details of how the US Embassy in Indonesia supplied names
of members of the Communist PKI party which backed President Sukarno, the
founding father of the republic, to the Indonesian security forces. Those
forces massacred more than 100,000 people. As a result of the revolt backed
by the United States, which funded a secret army, inspired anti-communist
group
called Kap-Gestapu, President Sukarno was overthrown in 1967 and replaced by
the dictator President Suharto. The late President Sukarno's daughter,
Megawati Sukarnoputri, became Indonesia's new leader last week after
President Abdurrahman Wahid was voted out of office. Aware of the
embarrassment that publication of the history of America's covert support for
the late President Sukarno's enemies could now prove to be, the State
Department, the CIA and other agencies decided to delay releasing the book.
However, the Government Printing Office (GPO) had begun distributing copies
before the State Department had reached the decision. Not only were libraries
around the world stocking up with microfiche copies, but the National
Security Archive, a private Washington-based group specialising in publishing
declassified documents, put a copy on its website. A spokesman at the
National Security Archive said that the CIA, as well as officials at the
State Department, were now trying to suppress publication, even though
documents included in the book had been officially declassified in 1998. A
spokesman for the CIA told The Washington Post: 'The notion that the CIA has
unilaterally blocked the release is simply not the case. We work closely with
the State Department on these matters. All of us are intent on complying with
the law, while at the same time protecting classified information that, if
disclosed, could be damaging to us.' A GPO spokesman said that it was trying
to get back the books on orders from the State Department's Bureau of
Diplomatic Security. A State Department official said that preparations had
begun earlier in the year for release of the history and the printing office
had mistakenly begun distributing it before an 'internal process' of review
was completed. Among the revelations in the history is a cable in August 1966
from Marshall Green, the American Ambassador in Indonesia. In the cable he
reported that a list of top Communist leaders prepared by the embassy 'is
apparently being used by Indonesian security authorities who seem to lack
even the simplest overt information on PKI leadership at the time'.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Why do Republicans Trash the 1960's?

2001-08-02 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Why do Republicans Trash the 1960's?

July 30, 2001
by Michael S. Reilly

As an amateur historian I've
always been intrigued by the 1960's and the people who
represented this decade. I
wasn't alive back then but have a well-established appreciation
for the intellectual works,
causes, music, figures and ideas of the era. While romanticized
by some, this period has also
been slandered by others; namely, the Republican Party.
Given that the most
well-renowned themes of the 1960's were peace and love; live and
let live; smiling on one's
brother and so forth, one might find it difficult to understand how
such ideals could come under
fire. But the Republicans are admittedly quite adept at
finding ways to condemn
concepts such as compassion, tolerance and understanding
under the guise of promoting
morals and decency.

It goes without saying that the
GOP has no shortage of targets to rail against and assign
blame to for all of society's
ills, but members of the leftist movements of the 1960's are
particularly despised. The lack
of personal responsibility that allegedly trademarked the
era is a common complaint from
conservatives. According to Republican dogma, great
damage to our society was
caused by if it feels good, do it dirty hippie lowlives with no
work ethic, whose insidious
influence perpetuated a decline in marriage and a rise in
promiscuity/unwanted pregnancy,
drug use, and anti-American sentiment that undermined
our values and caused us to
lose the war in Vietnam. Various icons of the era such as
Charles Manson and Ira Einhorn
who went bad are held up by the right wing as
examples of the supposed
poisonous nature of this movement. In short, Republicans have
attempted for decades to
convince people that the gentle free love mindset of the 1960's
was a failed, immoral disaster.

As far as causing damage to our
society goes, I think the disgusting abuses of power and
public disillusionment that
occurred during the Nixon years as well as the massive
unemployment, homelessness and
deficits spawned by the Reagan administration caused
much more harm to America than
kids toking up in a VW bus, chanting mantras and
doing their own thing. Though
they'll never admit it, I'm sure that Republicans secretly
agree, which explains their
constant need to point fingers in all other directions to turn the
spotlight away from their sins.
Make no mistake, the lectures of Republican arbiters of
morality who rail against
hippies are based purely on a self-serving agenda, and not due to
any integrity or ethical
standards. Let's tackle the issues to examine the actual reasons for
the never-ending quest by the
right wing to discredit and condemn the hippies of the
1960's.

1. Personal Responsibility.

This is a favorite catch phrase
of the Republicans and like any mindless advertising slogan
it means absolutely nothing.
This is a party that cannot boast of a single member - up to
and including their figurehead
president - who has ever taken personal responsibility for
anything in their lives.
Republicans who commit adultery or father children out of wedlock
are routinely ignored by their
own party amidst their fervor to point fingers at Democrats
for the same thing. Republicans
who commit crimes are continually excused or protected
amidst a smear campaign against
those who exposed them (the phrase youthful
indiscretion is a favorite so
long as it applies to wealthy white conservatives) as meanwhile
they attempt to dredge up
whatever dirt they can on Democrats.

Even mistakes made in the
course of Republican leadership, such as bad policy decisions
or economic plans, are
inevitably laid at the doorstep of any Democrats they can find like
an unwanted baby dumped on a
church stoop. This last effort has resulted in the infamous
Republican claim that the

[CTRL] Blueprints For Colombian War

2001-08-02 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Left Coast
by Alexander Cockburn
http://www.antiwar.com/cockburn/cockburn-col.html
Antiwar.com

Alexander Cockburn
August 2, 2000

Blueprints For Colombian War

As we all know, the war in Colombia isn't about drugs.
It's about the annihilation of popular uprisings by
the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) and
the ELN (National Liberation Army), guerilla groups or
Indian peasants fending off the ravages of oil
companies, cattle barons and mining firms. A good
old-fashioned counterinsurgency war, designed to clear
the way for American corporations to set up shop in
Colombia, with cocaine as the scare tactic. Two recent
Defense Department-commissioned reports outline in
chilling terms the same strategy of ongoing military
intervention under the cover of the drug war. Both
urge the Bush administration to drop the pretext of
counter-narcotics and get on with the business of
wiping out the insurgents.

Last year the US Air Force commissioned the RAND
Corporation to prepare a review of the situation in
Colombia. In early June the Santa Monica-based RAND
think tank (progenitor of many a blood-sodden scenario
in the Vietnam era) submitted its 130-page report,
called The Colombian Labyrinth: The Synergy of Drugs
and Insurgency and Its Implications for Regional
Stability. The other report is a paper written by
Gabriel Marcella, titled Plan Colombia: the Strategic
and Operational Imperatives. Marcella is a former
chief adviser to the Commander-in-Chief of the US
Southern Command who now teaches on national security
matters at the US Army War College.

Together, the two reports reach the same conclusion:
the US needs to step up its military involvement in
Colombia and quit forfeiting options by limiting its
operations to counter-narcotics raids. Along the way,
both reports make a number of astonishing admissions
about the paramilitaries and their links to the drug
trade, about human rights abuses by the US-trained
Colombian military and about the irrationality of crop
fumigation.

RAND argues that the drug war approach is on the brink
of not only failing, but of prompting a wider conflict
that might require the insertion of US troops. If the
Pastrana administration falters, either in its
counter-narcotics or counterinsurgency approach, the
US would be confronted with an unpalatable choice. It
could escalate its commitment to include perhaps an
operational role for US forces in Colombia, or scale
it down, which would involve some significant costs,
including a serious loss of credibility and
degradation of the US's ability to muster regional
support for its counter-narcotics and political
objectives.

The RAND study draws heavily from a December 2000
report by the World Bank, titled Violence in Colombia:
Building Sustainable Peace and Social Capital, which
concluded that the quid pro quo for Colombia getting
any future large infusions of international financial
aid will depend on their successful suppression of the
FARC and other rebel groups. Another World Bank memo
describes the FARC's fundraising strategy as a
loot-seeking assault on primary commodities:
cattle ranches on the eastern plains, commercial
agriculture in Urab?, oil in Magaldena, gold mines in
Antioquia and the coca fields of Putumayo. RAND cites
a former CIA analyst as saying that the FARC has
invested its taxes on these industries into a
strategic financial reserve, which will enable them
to sustain an escalation of the conflict. While the
FARC peasant army has doubled over the past decade, it
still only numbers about 7,000 fighters ? 2,000 fewer
than the paramilitary death squads.

Both RAND and the World Bank point to the horrifying
level of social intolerance killings, which for men
aged 14-44 reached a level of 394 deaths per 100,000
last year. In all, Colombia endures 30,000 annual
murders, double the number for the entire United
States in 1998. Slightly more than 23,000 murders have
been linked to illegal armed organizations since
1988. The implication is that the FARC is responsible
for these killings and one has to dig deep into the
RAND analysis to discover otherwise. In fact,
according to statistics compiled by the Colombian
government, about 3,500 people were killed by the
guerrillas and 19,652 by paramilitaries and private
justice groups.

The leader of the AUC (United Self-Defense Groups of
Colombia), the central command for the 19 paramilitary
fronts, is a sadistic scoundrel named Carlos
Casta?o, who supervises a killing program right off
the pages of the CIA's Phoenix Program's operations
manual. The RAND report details how Casta?o's AUC
routinely executes suspected guerrilla sympathizers
in order to instill fear and compel support among the
local population. When that strategy fails to
deliver, the AUC simply launches an all-out attack on
the villages and slaughters the inhabitants. RAND
dispassionately notes that the AUC justifies these
atrocities, in language that even Bob Kerrey might
admire, as a

[CTRL] Federal government behind facial ID technology

2001-08-01 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Federal government behind facial ID technology
--
A company that touts its controversial facial
identification system as a powerful tool for security
and crime fighting has received millions of dollars in
federal funding to develop its surveillance technology
for military and intelligence uses. (08/01/01)
http://www.dallasnews.com/national/432858_privacy_01nat..html

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Truly Embedded Chips

2001-08-01 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

 From Yahoo! Asia News,
http://asia.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/newsbytes/article.html?
s=asia/headlines/010801/technology/newsbytes/Truly_Embedded_Chips.html
-
Wednesday, August 1 1:58 AM SGT

Truly Embedded Chips

WASHINGTON, D.C., U.S.A., 2001 JULY 31 (NB) -- By Gary Arlen, Washington
Techway.

What if the body piercing and tattoo explosion of the past decade was
actually orchestrated by the media-medical-industrial complex? Their grand
long-term plan, let's say, is to implant subcutaneous microprocessors for a
variety of health, entertainment and communications purposes.

By acclimating a generation of prospective customers to such skin-altering
conditions, the companies are seeding the market for their future offerings.

This is the stuff of science fiction, but serious medical researchers are
now developing chips with tiny doses of medication that can be dispensed
automatically - without the patient having to measure a dose or remember to
take it at a specific time. Talk about embedded software!

The recent attention to bioinformatics rekindles the imagination about where
such a blend of bioscience and info-technology may take us. On the other
hand, last month's alliance between The Adrenaline Group of Washington and
The BioMedical Sciences Group of Baltimore is a reminder of what an early
stage that process is now navigating. Adrenaline and BMSG will provide a due
diligence service for investors and biotech companies, offering independent
analysis of ventures into bioinformatics, which they define as the art and
science of using computational tools to find answers to biological
questions.

In other words, they're looking at near-term projects, such as genome and
molecular biology research as well as individualized medicine. Their
collaborative effort will help scientists and IT professionals use data
mining, knowledge management and process management to investigate
biological frontiers.

Vital stepping stones, but not as wondrous (or delirious) as the future
potential applications of bio-info-tech. Looking further ahead, when the
implanted chips are programmed with elecommunications capability, they could
open new connectivity and entertainment options.

Presuming that the first chips are merely receive-only, they would become
the ultimate pagers: delivering a notification or internal ping directly
to human neurons. Eventually, entertainment providers will begin to exploit
this capability, sending music or visceral experiences directly into the
body through chips. Some programming may be tied to video shows, giving you
the mosh-pit experience while watching MTV or feeling the polar freeze
during a Discovery documentary about Antarctica.

More probably, porn merchants will be the first to capitalize on such
in-body experiences, so that watching a Playboy Channel show could also
trigger the appropriate internal response among chip-equipped viewers.

Later, the implanted microprocessors will be upgraded to two-way capacity,
transmitting internal data back into the appropriate network through a
wireless feed. The medical monitoring opportunities are immense, but so are
the tracking capabilities. It's the ultimate loss of personal privacy when
your body is sending signals about where you are and what you're doing.

Several other routes toward this bio-info-tech connection are already being
followed. Predictive Networks of Cambridge, Mass., is developing biometric
systems, used to identify ways in which individuals interact with computers
and media devices. Predictive Networks is monitoring personal usage patterns
(how an individual uses specific keys and buttons, including the speed and
pressure of finger contact) to identify and categorize customers.

Although it's a major leap from such tracking of external behaviors to
inserting a microprocessor under the skin, the eventual outcome could be the
same: data gathering and response based on physical connection and response.

Bio-info-tech appears to be a promising sector for the region - possibly
even a cross-river opportunity that would combine the bio-medical resources
in Maryland with the infotech strengths of Virginia.

Gary Arlen is president of Arlen Communications in Bethesda.

Reported by Washington Techway, http://www.washtech.com/washtechway

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
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That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always,

[CTRL] IAF Seeks Permanent Training Base In USA

2001-08-01 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Jane's Defence Weekly - August 1, 2001

IAF Seeks Permanent Training Base In USA

The Israeli Ministry of Defence has submitted a request to the US Department
of Defense (DoD) to allow the Israel Air Force (IAF) to deploy combat
aircraft in the USA for regular flight training.

The IAF has outlined plans to send the aircraft to a US Air Force (USAF)
base by 2002 as part of a programme to improve IAF training levels and raise
combat readiness. IAF officers say the size of Israel does not allow for
realistic combat exercises and limits their ability to train for long-range
air strikes.

Commander in Chief of the IAF Maj Gen Dan Halutz said the aircraft would be
based permanently in the USA and that IAF pilots would be continually
rotated for training missions. Gen Halutz said that the proposed IAF
deployment and training programme would include combat manoeuvres with the
USAF.

The IAF commander noted that co-operation between the two air forces has
increased over the last year. In March-April this year, six IAF F-16
multirole fighters participated in the USAF's annual 'Red Flag' air combat
exercise run by the Air Warfare Center and the 44th Combat Training Squadron
at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada. Israel had not participated in the
exercise since 1998.

The final decision on the deployment, however, rests with the DoD. A
spokesman from the USAF's Office of International Affairs said: The Israeli
Ministry of Defense has requested that the DoD consider the feasibility and
potential cost of allowing the IAF to station a detachment of fighter
aircraft at a USAF base in the United States. Israel's objective is to
provide training opportunities that are not available in Israel and increase
opportunities for joint training with the USAF. This request is currently
under review by the Office of the Secretary of Defense. If the review is
favourable, the US Air Force will then begin the staffing process to see if
there is a suitable location for the IAF detachment. No final decision to
station IAF aircraft in the US has been made by either the DoD or the
Israeli MoD.

The IAF has, in the interim, invested more than $50 million in upgrading
combat readiness of its aircraft, the result of which, say senior IAF
officers, is that the air force is on a higher level of combat readiness
than at any time during the last decade.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] CIA role may grow in preventing US terror attacks

2001-07-31 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

CIA role may grow in preventing US terror attacks

http://www.brecorder.com/story/00/200107/20010731/200107310509.shtml

...WASHINGTON : A US intelligence review is exploring possible new roles
for the CIA and other spy agencies in the domestic arena to protect the
United States from terrorist attack, a senior intelligence official said. US
intelligence agencies operate overseas and are generally prohibited from
having a hand in domestic affairs to ensure a taboo against spying on
Americans is not broken. It is not clear yet what new role they might take
on.
...We know that we're going to increasingly be a target in this country
and we also know that intelligence is going to have a role to play in trying
to protect the homeland, protect the continental US a senior intelligence
official familiar with the review told Reuters.
...The official said that nobody has worked through the mechanics of
how all of that would work, but said it was expected that one of the
things coming out of this review would be some recommendations on how to
think differently about the intelligence role in homeland defence.
...President George W. Bush in May ordered a comprehensive review,
giving CIA Director George Tenet a broad mandate to challenge the status
quo and explore new and innovative techniques, systems, practices and
processes for foreign intelligence collection, analysis and distribution.
...The review is assessing programs with an eye to being ready to meet
future needs by 2015 and could recommend restructuring, the official and
intelligence analysts said in recent interviews.
...It is being conducted by a panel of government insiders led by Joan
Dempsey, deputy director of central intelligence for community management,
and a group of outside experts led by Brent Scowcroft, a former White House
national security adviser.
...CIA ROLE QUESTIONED: The United States has been trying to develop a
large-scale emergency plan to deal with any biological, chemical or nuclear
attack on US soil. Vice President Dick Cheney is leading a review of
America's ability to cope with such an attack.
...The Central Intelligence Agency is generally forbidden to spy on
Americans, but can under certain circumstances collect intelligence
information on US citizens if they are believed to be involved in espionage
or terrorist activities.
...The FBI is responsible for handling criminal activity inside US
borders and conducted by Americans.
...The review was not expected to recommend changing laws that limit the
role of US intelligence agencies relative to Americans. We wouldn't talk
about changing any of that, the intelligence official said on condition of
anonymity.
...But when does homeland defence transition from being (about)
criminal activity to being (about) a national security threat? Those are the
kinds of issues that I would expect to be coming out of this review, the
official said.
...The review is looking at how to combat threats emerging from diverse
directions since the Soviet Union dissolved.
...It reflects this ongoing concern that we are now 11 years after the
end of the Cold War and we still haven't seen tremendous response to that
alteration in terms of what the intelligence community does, said Mark
Lowenthal, senior principal at SRA International Inc, a consulting firm.
...NEW ESPIONAGE TECHNIQUES: The review also is looking at developing
new espionage techniques for collecting foreign secrets.
...It is increasingly true that our capabilities are extremely well
known and we have to develop capabilities that aren't well known, the US
intelligence official said.
...The National Security Agency (NSA), which eavesdrops on
communications worldwide using spy satellites and listening posts, is an
acknowledged problem child - struggling to keep pace with technological
advances from sophisticated encryption to hard-to-tap fibre optics.
...The NSA problem is really the most serious, Gregory Treverton, a
senior consultant at RAND and former vice chairman of the National
Intelligence Council, said.
...NSA must operate differently as it becomes harder to capture signals
using traditional methods, and rely more on using people who will risk
their lives to put objects with ears close to the targeted signal,
Treverton said.
...The understandable culture of secrecy is a huge obstacle, he said.
...For example In-Q-Tel, a CIA-sponsored venture capital firm that seeks
to bring private-sector technological innovations to the intelligence world,
has been faced with finding software it likes only to discover that a
foreigner was involved in writing it, which threatens its secrecy, Treverton
said.
...In intelligence analysis, where resources are stretched to cope with
the huge volume of incoming information, one solution is to buy outside
expertise, the intelligence official said.

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DECLARATION

[CTRL] Hacking activity at all-time high

2001-07-31 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Hacking activity at all-time high

By John Leyden, The Register, 7/30/2001
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/20714.html

Hacking activity is at an all-time high, according to stats compiled by
The Honeynet Project.
It bases this conclusion on the number of attacks perpetrated against a
network of servers, set up by the organisation specifically to collect
data on hacking attempts.
The intrusion detection system placed on the Honeynet's servers
generated 157 alerts during May 2000 but this figure had escalated by a
factor of almost nine to 1,398 alerts by February 2001. The Honeynet's
firewall showed a doubling of alerts from 103 to 206 per month between
May 2000 and February 2001.
Much of what the project discovered chimes in with the increasing
incidents of corporate Web site defacement and other hacking attacks but
it also throws up some interesting insights in the techniques used by
black hat hackers.
Some black hats have streamlined their scanning process to merely look
for a specific service, the Honeynet Project said on a report on its
work, which is available here. If they find the service, they launch
the exploit without even first determining if the system is vulnerable,
or even the correct system.
This aggressive approach allows black hats to scan and exploit more
systems in less time, said the report, which added the tactic of
focusing on exploiting a single vulnerability is used by many s'kiddies.
These numbers indicate black hat activity has continued to grow, most
likely the result of more aggressive, automated scanning tools and their
growing availability.
Between April and December 2000, seven default installations of Red Hat
6.2 servers were attacked within three days of connecting to the
Internet. From this the people behind the project concluded that the
life expectancy of a default installation of Red Hat 6.2 server to be
less then 72 hours. Scary stuff.
By contrast a default Windows 98 installation with shares enabled,
typical of that found in many homes, was compromised in just 24 hours.
The most popular attack method used by hackers were buffer attacks
associated with rpc.statd service on Intel machine and the most popular
scanning tool was found to be Syn-Fin.
The Honeynet Project maintained a closely monitored eight IP network
linked up to the net using an ISDN connection, such as a small business
might use. Within this network of honeypot machines, which are designed
to lure unsuspecting hackers inside, three systems (running either
Solaris Sparc, NT, Windows 98 or Red Hat Linux) were generally running
at most times.
The people behind the project collected and archived every attack on
this network for an eleven month period, between April 2000 and February
2001 but its results were only published this week. They admit that
their findings are specific to their network and that more research,
especially on using data to predict attacks, is needed.
The Honeynet Project reckons that enterprise users will see far more
attacks than those thrown against the project's machines.
Remember, the Honeynet used to collect this information had no
production systems of value, nor was it advertised to lure attackers. If
your organisation has any value, or is advertised in any way, you are
most likely exposed to even greater threat.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
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Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Pursuit of Truth Handcuffs Crime Fight in Oregon

2001-07-30 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

July 29, 2001

Pursuit of Truth Handcuffs Crime Fight in Oregon

Ethics: Undercover operations have ceased as ruling threatens punishment
for law enforcement deceit.

By KIM MURPHY, TIMES STAFF WRITER

PORTLAND, Ore. -- If you're a federal agent in Oregon these days, the law
requires you to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the
truth--even when you're working undercover. And that has brought major law
enforcement operations all over the state to a virtual standstill.
I am a drug cop, please sell me some heroin. That's literally what's
required, explains Joshua Marquis, the Clatsop County district attorney.
A sweeping ruling last year by the state Supreme Court mandated that all
lawyers--even government prosecutors overseeing organized crime and
narcotics cases and state investigators conducting consumer fraud and
housing discrimination probes--must abide by the Oregon state bar's
strictures against dishonesty, fraud, deceit and misrepresentation. Under
the court's interpretation, a prosecutor who encourages an undercover
officer or an informant to lie or misrepresent himself could lose his
license to practice law.
Federal Prosecutors Hit Hardest
The provision has been most problematic for federal prosecutors, who
typically have a much more intense day-to-day role in overseeing major
investigations conducted by the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration
to be sure that they comply with complex provisions of federal law.
As a result, the state attorney general's office, the FBI and the DEA have
halted virtually all big undercover operations, and local police agencies
have canceled most covert operations in drug cases that could end up in
federal court.
People in this state are not receiving the protection they're entitled to,
said Philip Donohue, acting special agent in charge of the FBI office in
Portland. This has impacted a substantial amount of the criminal work that
would ordinarily be done within the state of Oregon.
Lawyers for the state bar have met repeatedly in recent months in an attempt
to craft a way around the restriction, perhaps by exempting government
prosecutors. But they have run into deep philosophical divisions over the
role of lawyers in overseeing covert probes--and whether modern law
enforcement is simply relying too heavily on trickery and misrepresentation.
Since no one really wants to halt police undercover work, it sounds like
there should be a very simple solution, said Ed Herden, president of the
state bar and a Portland lawyer. Everyone agrees that lawyers should not
misrepresent themselves as something other than what they are. But [with the
restrictions in place] . . . how do we provide the police with meaningful
advice as to how to act in a legal manner?
The dilemma began with a private attorney who, seeking to gain information
for a civil lawsuit in an insurance case, conducted his own sting operation
and made phone calls in which he represented himself as a doctor.
The Oregon Supreme Court last August found that the lawyer had engaged in
dishonest conduct in violation of state bar rules. The court also ruled that
the ethics code does not contain exceptions for government lawyers
overseeing legal law enforcement operations.
Although the Justice Department always has required its lawyers to abide by
individual states' legal ethics rules, a controversial federal law passed in
1999 known as the McDade law makes it explicit, legally requiring federal
prosecutors to abide by all state bar ethics rules.
Investigations Put on Ice
As a result, the U.S. attorney in Oregon, Mike Mosman, has pulled his
lawyers out of undercover operations. And the FBI has suspended a child
pornography investigation developed by undercover agents and halted the use
of cooperating witnesses in at least two major drug cases, three extortion
cases and a major white-collar crime investigation.
When we try to go after sexual abusers who lure young children in Internet
chat rooms, a very traditional tactic is to pose as a 12-year-old girl,
Mosman explains. In extortion cases, rather than wait for the next raid,
you have the victim phone up the extortionists in a monitored call.
In each case, the lawyer overseeing the investigation is not actually lying.
But the Supreme Court ruling seemed to say that material omissions were as
bad as lying when it came to violating ethics rules, Mosman said.
A Roadblock for Major Drug Cases
Local district attorneys do not have the McDade law holding their feet to
the fire. But most police agencies prefer to have a prosecutor overseeing
complex investigations, and that oversight is mandatory if the case is going
to be tried in federal court.
The federal agencies are now not willing to look at our cases if they
involve any kind of undercover activity, said Lt. Gary Stafford of the
Portland Police Bureau's drug and vice division. That kind of puts a big
roadblock in our way as far as taking down any of the substantial quantity
dealers that

[CTRL] Surveillance camera business is booming

2001-07-30 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Surveillance camera business is booming
--
Digital surveillance systems are growing more powerful,
less expensive and increasingly common in public areas.
Critics warn that people may soon not be able to set
foot outside their homes without being observed by the
police. (07/30/01)
http://www.deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,295013679,00.html

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] FBI Using High-Tech Gadgets

2001-07-29 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

FBI Using High-Tech Gadgets

Sat, Jul 28, 2001
By D. IAN HOPPER, AP Technology Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - By bugging a keyboard or using special software, FBI
agents can remotely capture a computer user's every keystroke.

With a black box, they can intercept e-mail from miles away.

In a van parked outside, they secretly can recreate the pictures on a
computer screen from its electromagnetic energy.

The legal limits for these new investigative tools will get a test Monday
when a federal court in New Jersey examines a mob case in which agents,
without a wiretap order, recorded a suspect's computer keystrokes.

Privacy experts are watching the case of Nicodemo S. Scarfo Jr. with great
interest because it could bring major changes to investigative tactics in
the online age.

It's the idea of secret government surveillance technology being installed
with very little oversight or accountability, David Sobel of the
Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center said. It gets about
as close to the common perception of Big Brother as anything I could really
imagine.

Armed only with a search warrant, the FBI broke into Scarfo's business and
put either a program on his computer or an electronic bug in his keyboard -
officials will not say which - and recorded everything typed by the son of
the jailed former boss of the Philadelphia mob.

The FBI says it needed a password in order to decrypt coded files that
allegedly contained records of illegal gambling and loan-sharking operations.

Scarfo used the software PGP - Pretty Good Privacy - to encode his records.
PGP is a strong, free encryption program that can be used for e-mail or
individual files. The FBI tried to break the encryption without the
password, but failed. So agents surreptitiously bugged the computer to
capture it from Scarfo himself.

Scarfo's lawyer wants a Newark, N.J., federal court to suppress the
evidence and make the FBI say how the bug worked. The lawyer says that
because the FBI recorded everything Scarfo typed, they got private e-mails
that were not part of the investigation.

U.S. Attorney Robert J. Cleary has told the court that the surveillance
device is a highly sensitive law enforcement search and seizure technique
and should not be made public.

Mark Rasch, former head of the Justice Department's computer crimes
section, said that if the device transmitted the captured keystrokes back
to the police via e-mail, or emitted them through radio signals, then it
might be considered a wiretap.

You really need to understand at what point it captured things, and how it
got it back to the government, in order to figure out what the Fourth
Amendment concerns are, Rasch said.

Authorities have to meet a much higher standard for a full wiretap, which
includes filtering out nonrelevant communications and having stronger proof
that a crime is taking place.

The government argues it only needed a search warrant for Scarfo's computer
because the captured keystrokes were not immediately being transmitted on
the phone line or on the Internet, and should not be considered the
products of a wiretap.

There are many tools the FBI can use for secretly capturing computer
information.

Earlier this year, the FBI used a keystroke bug to nab two Russians
suspected of hacking into U.S. Internet companies. The Russians have not
yet gone to trial.

In addition to the keystroke logger, technicians can sneak in a program
that will take intermittent snapshots of the monitor, or install a hidden
camera pointed at the computer.

There is even a system called TEMPEST that detects electromagnetic
emanations from a computer monitor. Agents in a van parked outside can then
reconstruct the desktop.

The FBI also has received widespread attention for a device - formerly
known as Carnivore and now called DCS 1000 - that can follow suspects' Web
browsing, e-mail and instant messages.

If they can find a way to read your mail or peek in your bedroom and find
a way for a judge to authorize them to do it, they will do it, Rasch said.

The Supreme Court recently reined in one high-tech tactic when it ruled
police needed a warrant to use a special heat-sensing device to discover
that a man was growing marijuana in his home.

However the Scarfo case ends, Sobel said, the high-tech crime landscape is
bound to change.

I think it has significant implications for future law enforcement
investigations, he said. This type of investigation is the wave of the
future.
--
On the Net:

PGP: http://www.pgp.com
Federal Bureau of Investigation: http://www.fbi.gov
Electronic Privacy Information Center: http://www.epic.org

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
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[CTRL] World Inc. under siege

2001-07-29 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

World Inc. under siege

Summit mayhem isn't like anything we've seen before

by Vinay Menon, POP CULTURE REPORTER,
Toronto Star,
July 29, 2001

   ACTIVISM has never been so misunderstood.

   From Muggles to Wombles, to the A-17, M-1 and S-26
protests. The fall of the Berlin Wall. The creation of
the Quebec Wall. White Overalls. Black Bloc. Fast
track. Free trade. Structural adjustments. Life
improvement. Death economy.

   To the uninitiated, the frenetic images of the
costumed protesters are equally baffling: Some are
dressed as endangered sea turtles or genetically
modified tomatoes. There are mad cows and sad hawks,
Zapatistas and Sandinistas, giant Uncle Sams and
stylized Grim Reapers.

   This is the anti-globalization movement. Sprawling,
disparate, powerful. A political force unto itself
that, given its international scope and staggering
number of participants, is unprecedented in history.

   And, it would appear, at a significant crossroads.

   We are at a very important juncture, says Antonia
Juhasz, project director for the San Francisco-based
International Forum on Globalization. We are
simultaneously feeling out our strengths and
weaknesses. As such, we are in a place of tremendous
responsibility.

   A responsibility that only grows as world leaders
stop to take wide-eyed notice.

   There is a much more significant phenomenon behind
all this and that's the rise of a civil society, of
non-governmental organizations and activist groups as
players in the game of world politics, explains
Ronald Deibert, a political science professor at the
University of Toronto.

   And this raises some profound questions about the
nature of world politics; first-order questions of
political theory that we used to talk about on a
domestic scale. But now it's global.

   Like previous social movements - anti-nuclear, civil
rights, anti-Vietnam War, women's rights, the
environment, identity politics - anti-globalization
has reached a fork in the proverbial road where
internal considerations are overtaking external
strategies.

   There are definitely some serious issues that the
movement is now grappling with, says David Robbins,
trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians, the
country's largest citizens' watchdog organization.

   Violence is clearly one of them, but I would add to
that issues around race, inclusion and exclusion. And
also issues of gender, in terms of who holds power
within these groups.

   In the last two years, anti-globalization messages
have been distorted through a haze of pepper spray and
rock throwing, rubber bullets and Molotov cocktails,
hurled insults and blasts from water cannons.

   The public is in a sense of confusion right now,
says Robin Wagner-Pacifici, a sociology professor at
Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. I don't sense
that the public is writing off the protesters as a
bunch of troublemakers. But, on the other hand, I
don't think they are completely sympathetic, and that
has to do with the segment of protesters that use
violence.

   Tracing the genesis of the anti-globalization
movement is at best a subjective exercise. Some say it
started in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.
Some say it was the Zapatista uprising in Chiapas,
Mexico, a couple of years later. Maybe it was the fall
of the Berlin Wall.

   But many believe the movement gained flashbulb
momentum in 1996, when it was revealed that a line of
clothing from talk-show host Kathie Lee Gifford was
manufactured in Honduran sweatshops by young women who
toiled in abysmal conditions for below-subsistence
wages.

   At that moment, a confluence of factors
crystallized: distrust of much-publicized (but
nebulous) trade agreements, growing antipathy toward
laissez-faire principles and a gnawing sense that
multinational corporations were dictating the
international  political agenda.

   There are a lot of people suspicious and angry
about the ascendancy of corporate power and how much
influence big business has in the U.S. and around the
world in shaping policy, says Han Shan, program
director for the California-based Ruckus Society.

   In December, the Institute for Policy Studies, a
Washington think-tank, released a study titled Top
200: The Rise Of Corporate Global Power. The report
found that 51 of the 100 largest economies in the
world were corporations.

   Meaning, as a measure of gross domestic product or
annual sales, General Motors is bigger than Denmark.
General Electric is bigger than Portugal. IBM is
bigger than Singapore. Hitachi is bigger than Chile.
Sony is bigger than Pakistan. Nissan is bigger than
New Zealand.

   The study also found that combined sales from the
world's biggest 200 companies is 18 times larger than
the combined annual income of the 24 per cent of the
world's population who live in severe poverty.

   Between 1983 and 1999, profits from the top 200
companies grew by 362 per cent, while the number of
people they employed grew by only 14 per cent.

[CTRL] Activists target U.S. surveillance system

2001-07-26 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Activists target U.S. surveillance system

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1003-200-6687430.html?tag=mn_hd

By CNET News.com Staff
July 26, 2001

A group of Internet activists hopes to bring attention to the controversial
U.S.-led communications spy network Echelon with a Jam Echelon Day. But
privacy experts say the protest as planned will have a minimal effect on the
sophisticated surveillance system.

Organizers of the cyberevent, set for Oct. 21, are encouraging the Internet
community to send out as many e-mail messages as possible containing certain
trigger words they believe the Echelon system is programmed to watch for.
The theory is that if the bulk of monitored e-mails becomes too great,
Echelon will be overworked with intercepting spurious input, and so its
effectiveness will drop.

Though, the organizers concede, they are unlikely to jam the whole system,
they believe it's still worth pressing ahead.

While the goal of jamming Echelon is a lofty, and likely unattainable, one,
is it not better to signal displeasure at being monitored than passively
allow it to happen? asked the coordinator of activist group Cipherwar's Web
site, who prefers to be known by his nickname, Scully.

A list of 1,700 suspicious words have been listed on the Cipherwar site, for
inclusion in e-mail, telephone or fax communications on Jam Echelon Day. The
trigger words include hackers, encryption, espionage, secret service and
Bletchley Park.

But Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, believes that
sprinkling keywords within communications will not have an impact on the
high-tech spy network.

The Echelon system works on a very sophisticated system of word
relationships, rather than strictly on keywords, said Davies. Powerful
artificial-intelligence software is used to judge the relationship between
words, and analyze strings of words.

Davies advises protestors to send a whole series of original keyword
transmissions through e-mail, rather than relying on someone else's
template. They will need to be imaginative and committed to take the
original approach that could feasibly slow the system down, but the most
important thing is to raise awareness about Echelon and the work of national
security agencies.

The existence of Echelon was confirmed by the European Parliament in May. A
lengthy investigation found sufficient evidence to suggest that the spy
system--a U.S.-led venture that has support from the U.K., Canada, Australia
and New Zealand--is used for global industrial espionage, among other
things. According to the report, Echelon has been capable of intercepting
telecommunications messages to and from a particular person, via satellite,
since 1978.

Staff writer Wendy McAuliffe reported from London.

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screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Jam Echelon Day doomed to failure, say experts

2001-07-26 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Jam Echelon Day doomed to failure, say experts

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/story/0,,t269-s2092039,00.html

16:21 Thursday 26th July 2001
Wendy McAuliffe

Activists are planning an international day of protest. Their aim? To jam
Echelon. But privacy experts warn that trigger words will not outsmart the
global surveillance system
A group of Internet activists are hoping to bring attention to the US-led
communications spy network, on 21 October, with a Jam Echelon Day, but
privacy experts are certain that the protests will have a minimal effect on
the sophisticated surveillance system.

Organisers of the cyber-event are encouraging the Internet community to send
out as many email messages as possible, containing certain trigger words,
which the Echelon system is believed to pick up on. If the bulk of monitored
emails becomes too great, the theory is that the Echelon intelligence system
will be overworked with intercepting spurious input, and so its
effectiveness will drop.

But even though the organisers themselves concede that they are unlikely to
be able to jam the whole Echelon system, they believe it is still worth
pressing ahead. While the goal of jamming Echelon is a lofty, and likely,
unattainable one, is it not better to signal displeasure at being monitored,
than passively allow it to happen, said the coordinator at ciperwar.com,
who prefers to be known by his nick-name, 'Scully'.

A list of 1,700 suspicious words have been listed on the Ciperwar Web site,
to be included in email, telephone or fax communications on the Jam Echelon
Day. The trigger words include hackers, encryption, espionage,
secret service, and Bletchley Park. But Simon Davies, director of
Privacy International, believes that sprinkling keywords within
communications will not have an impact on the high-tech spy network.

The Echelon system works on a very sophisticated system of word
relationships, rather than strictly on keywords, said Davies. Powerful
artificial intelligence software is used to judge the relationship between
words, and analyse strings of words.

Davies advises protestors to send a whole series of original keyword
transmissions through email, rather than relying on someone else's template.
They will need to be imaginative and committed to take the original
approach that could feasibly slow the system down, but the most important
thing is to raise awareness about Echelon and the work of national security
agencies.

The existence of Echelon was confirmed by the European Parliament in May. A
lengthy investigation found sufficient evidence to suggest that the spy
system -- a US-led venture that has support from the UK, Canada, Australia
and New Zealand -- is used for global industrial espionage, amongst other
purposes. According to the report, Echelon has been capable of intercepting
telecommunications messages to and from a particular person, via satellite,
since 1978.

They can see you... Find out how and why in ZDNet UK's Surveillance News
Section. http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,,t295,00.html

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DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Video surveillance, digital style

2001-07-26 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Video surveillance, digital style

http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/newse/20010724wo61.htm

By John Jerney

In George Orwell's 1984, Big Brother maintained video and sound surveillance
of practically all citizens within Oceania. Oceania, as you will
recall, was one of the three large powers within Orwell's imagined
totalitarian
world of the future.

Video surveillance in 2001 is hardly a new idea. In fact, we've been living
with some form of video surveillance for over 20 years, with cameras becoming
familiar fixtures in banks, stores, office buildings, and more.

So it was hardly a big deal earlier this year when the city of Tampa, Fla.,
used a sophisticated form of digital video surveillance for Super Bowl XXXV.
Following this, who could object to the police installing 36 new cameras in
Ybor City, Tampa's nightlife district, on a permanent basis? I mean, who is
against the idea of police catching more bad guys?

It turns out that the video system used by the Tampa Police, developed by
Visionics Corp., uses sophisticated software to match the face of every
person walking down the street against a database of known criminals.

The system, known as Smart CCTV, forwards any potential matches to a police
officer who then performs a conventional match between the suspect and the
photo in the database.

Of course, Tampa isn't the first city to do this. A similar system has been
operating in England for years. But it is the first time that it has been
publicly deployed in a permanent fashion in a U.S. city, raising serious
concerns about potential abuse and privacy infringements.

Some have argued that this system is not unlike placing a policeman on the
corner and having him or her watch out for known troublemakers. Others have
added that computer software is perhaps even less likely to discriminate,
offering a dispassionate evaluation of the potential criminality of passersby.

So, is there anything wrong with digital video surveillance?

Most everyone wants to live in a world with less crime, especially violent
offenses. But the trade-off almost always means a more pervasive state and,
in the digital world of the Internet, a potentially much more intrusive
state.

The most obvious problem with a system such as the one in Tampa and else
where is the question of where does this stop? For example, the current
system in Tampa focuses on catching individual outlaws.

But what if the system was upgraded to monitor people walking or otherwise
communicating with suspects? In other words, what if you could become a
suspect just by accidentally being associated with one?

More directly, would you want all your associations, even casual ones, to be
viewed and recorded? In the United States there is a right to free
association.
Part of the implied nature of this right is a certain degree of
privacy. What would the value of this right be in a society where all public
associations are digitally recorded?

Furthermore, we hope that the surveillance system does not discriminate in
selecting individuals to check against the database. But how can we know
that this particular system, or any other system, is programmed in such a
fashion? For example, what if the system was programmed to more closely
examine individuals with a certain racial profile, or from a certain region
of the world?

As we have seen with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Carnivore system,
which checks e-mail passing through Internet service providers, law
enforcement
agencies are not exactly thrilled about having their systems examined
through external, independent audit. In other words, there is no telling
whether digital video surveillance is just the high-tech version of
racial profiling.

There is yet another concern with the notion of widespread digital video
surveillance. The Tampa system is currently concentrated around a single
entertainment district. However, what happens when the system is spread
throughout a community? Would anyone reasonably want the state to have a
digital record of their travels throughout an entire day?

Think of it this way. What if you had to be fingerprinted every time you
walked down a street, entered a shop, or got on a train? Would this be
reasonable in a free society? Digital video surveillance is however, in
effect,
a form of virtual fingerprinting.

I fear that these first seemingly natural steps in digital video surveillance
may be the precursor to the acceptance of a more broadly based system
of automated surveillance, and not all organized by the state. Web cams and
home-based video security systems are likely to continue to increase in
popularity.

Likewise, I recently met with a company that is working on sending compressed
video signals over wireless communication links. One of the potential
markets they are targeting is the rental car business, as these companies
have expressed interest in placing small video cameras in the cars they rent
to enable them to monitor how their cars are being

[CTRL] G-8 the World

2001-07-25 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

G-8 the World

http://www.nypress.com/14/30/taki/bunker.cfm

The Bunker
by George Szamuely

The bullshit-meter almost exploded last week as the self-satisfied leaders
of the G-8 countries pontificated about the problem of global poverty.
They had little of interest to say, for very good reason: global poverty
exists because the G-8 leaders, and the financial and business elites they
represent, want it to exist. The purpose of global poverty is to create a
vast pool of cheap labor that the transnational corporations can exploit.
Many Asian and African countries, along with those of East and Central
Europe and the former Soviet Union, compete with one another as to who can
provide the cheapest labor. Corporations shut down their plants in the U.S.
and Europe and set up shop in some part of the world where they can pay
their workers 50 cents an hour. Workers here and in Europe, terrified of
being thrown out of work, respond by settling for low pay.

This state of affairs did not come about by accident. Following the end of
the Cold War, governments of the West pursued a ruthless campaign to
facilitate the work of the corporations. Countries would borrow money from
the Western banks. Inevitably, they would get into trouble with repayment
whether because of the collapse of prices of primary commodities or the
sharp rise in the value of the dollar or the devastation of their currencies
following a speculative attack. Then the IMFeffectively a U.S. government
agency representing the interests of the West's bankers and creditorswould
offer to lend money, but with conditionalities. Countries would have to
pledge to follow the courses set by the IMF: cuts in public spending,
currency devaluation, free trade, price liberalization, deregulation and
privatization. Such programs implied wholesale political transformation.
What the people themselves wanted was of no importance.

Countries would sign letters of intent, promising good behavior. The IMF
would watch sternly to make sure that the promises were kept. The slightest
suggestion of backslidingrefusing to throw the requisite number of people
out of work or maintaining electricity subsidies to keep old people warmand
the IMF would cease disbursing the loan.

Privatization of state enterprises went hand-in-hand with debt repayment.
How else could a country repay its debt other than through sale of its
assets? The buyers would be the banks themselves, or industries they had
ties to. Thus economic control of nations passed into the hands of Western
financial elites. To earn foreign exchange, debtor countries would have to
open themselves up to foreign investment and become exporters of cheap
goods for Western markets. Manufacturing for the national market would
cease. Since so many countries were now manufacturing goods for the same
saturated markets of Europe and America, competition as to who could produce
the cheapest became ever more intense. As a result, export revenues
diminished and debt repayment became that much harder. Instead of rising,
wages declined. Which led to the migration of labor from poor to rich
countries. So, while corporations were moving to areas of the world where
labor was cheap, poor people were streaming to the U.S. and Western Europe
at a rate faster than ever before.

Resistance is hopeless. Denial of IMF accreditation means no loans from
anyone. Moreover, behind the IMF stands the U.S., ready to use bombs or
CIA-sponsored subversion if IMF ministrations do not do the job. Closely
tied to the U.S. government are the so-called nongovernmental organizations
(NGOs), which direct hatred against a recalcitrant country to make sure
public opinion is ready to support harsh measures when needed. The latest
victim of an orchestrated global campaign is Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe.
Mugabe, once a revered figure in fashionable liberal circles, is now the
object of almost hysterical vituperation. His sins are hardly worse than any
other African leader's. He wants the veterans of the guerrilla wars against
the white minority regime of Rhodesia to have some land. Whites own most of
the land in Zimbabwe. The government obviously does not have the money to
buy out the farmers. Mugabe has stubbornly refused to turn his country over
to the control of the international community. Instead of cutting
government spending, to the fury of the IMF, he hands money over to veterans
of the wars against Rhodesia. Let that monstrous creature get out of our
way, Mugabe once said of the IMF. Zimbabwe would not kneel down to pray to
the IMF, he declared, to confess its sins as if it were God. ...[W]e are a
sovereign country, and we must not humiliate ourselves to that extent.

For talk like this, punishment is severe. Mugabe has been cut off from all
loans. Recently the International Crisis Group, a George Soros-funded outfit
treated with hushed reverence in the media, issued a report announcing the
need for a strategy for change not unlike that

[CTRL] Through-Wall Surveillance Radar

2001-07-25 Thread radtimes


-Caveat Lector-

Time Domain Awarded $3 Million U.S. Department of Defense
Contract to Develop Through-Wall Surveillance Radar
Business Wire (07/12/01)

The U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Concept Technology
Demonstrator Program has awarded a $3 million, 15-month
contract to the developer of Ultra Wideband. Huntsville,
Ala.-based Time Domain will develop SoldierVision, a
through-wall surveillance radar for the military. The
low-power radar will be able to penetrate walls, enabling law
enforcement to prepare for what's just around the corner.
SoldierVision, a lightweight hand-held device, is able to see
through walls at a maximum distant of 30 feet. The military
will use the new technology in urban environments as a way to
detect where the enemy is and how many individuals there are
behind an obstruction. (www.businesswire.com/)

A HREF=http://www.ctrl.org/;www.ctrl.org/A
DECLARATION  DISCLAIMER
==
CTRL is a discussion  informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substancenot soap-boxingplease!  These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright fraudsis used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.

Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.

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[CTRL] Big Brother is getting even bigger


-Caveat Lector-

Every move you make

Be afraid. Big Brother is getting even bigger

Official spying is on the march as we bank, pay tax or claim
benefit. But, says Neasa MacErlean, liberty is on the line in the
race to cut crime

Neasa MacErlean
Observer
Sunday June 24, 2001
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4209280,00.html

   You do not have to be paranoid to think Big Brother is watching
you. He is. Many arms of the government, other parts of the
establishment and even your friends, family and neighbours are at it.

   The monitoring of ordinary people has increased dramatically
over the past decade and is set to become far more widespread again
this year.

   Closed-circuit television is spreading rapidly across the roads
network and other public areas; most employers now mount some form of
surveillance on staff, including a watch on emails and telephones;
and a raft of significant changes are tightening the watch on
customers in the financial services sector.

   The Department of Work, the Home Office, the Inland Revenue,
Customs  Excise, the Financial Services Authority, police and the
private sector are all beefing up their anti-fraud and surveillance
activities.

   While fighting fraud is a primary concern for the Government,
some fear that civil liberties may be sacrificed in the process.

   The Financial Services Authority disclosed last March that
'significant control weaknesses' in 15 UK banks had enabled the
former Nigerian President General Sani Abache to launder more than
US$1 billion through Britain.

   The public may find it ironic that wealthy criminals can so
easily find a way through the system when most of us are asked to
show a passport or pension book, utility bills and other proof of
residence just to open a simple savings account.

   Several new initiatives are being used to increase
surveillance. These include:

   . The Social Security Fraud Act, which received royal assent
last month, will give the Department of Work 'powers to require
information from private and public sector organisations about
individuals suspected of benefit fraud'.

   Up to 250,000 requests a year are expected to be made of banks
and utility companies, for instance. As the department explains: 'If
a person was claiming Income Support at a particular address and was
con suming no electricity there, this could indicate that he does
not, in fact, live there and that his claim may be fraudulent.'

   Similar requests could be made to banks to check for benefit
recipients with large amounts on deposit.

   . The Financial Services and Markets Act 2000, due to start In
November, gives new regulatory powers to the FSA to prosecute, fine
and 'name and shame' banks and other institutions which do not
monitor clients and accounts closely enough for suspicious
transactions.

   'There will be a tougher implementation across the whole
industry,' says an FSA spokesman. Several banks are introducing far
more sophis ticated computer systems to monitor customers'
transactions. (See box, opposite.)

   'In the past six months, the FSA has told some banks they will
be prosecuted unless they change their procedures,' says Mark Tantam,
a former Serious Fraud Office barrister who now runs the fraud
management unit at accountant Deloitte and Touche.

   'We will see a lot more disclosures from banks and other
institutions to the National Criminal Intelligence Service [about
suspect transactions and customers] in future. Banks will want to err
on the side of caution.'

   . A new Proceeds of Crime Bill, announced in the Queen's Speech
last week, is expected to make it easier to prosecute negligent bank
staff. 'If the authorities wanted to prosecute staff for turning a
blind eye to suspicious transactions, it would be much easier than
before,' says Steve Lock at Alliance and Leicester, who is its money
laundering reporting officer, a post common to all financial
institutions since 1993.

   The bill will make it clear that laundering covers cash from ta
x evasion as well as the proceeds of drug trafficking and other
crimes.

   . A call for government departments to share far more
information about individuals is expected from the Cabinet Office's
Performance and Innovation Unit later this summer. In a report called
'Privacy and Data Sharing', the unit will discuss the possible use of
tax and benefits records as well as basic information on passport and
driving licence applications and patient registrations with GPs. The
report could provoke an outcry about civil liberties.

   . More money is being put into the NCIS, the police unit which
co-ordinates work against money laundering. Next month, NCIS is
expected to report that 18,000 suspicious transactions were reported
to it in 2000, up nearly 25 per cent on the 14,500 transactions
reported in 1999.

   In the past, NCIS was so understaffed that many reports lay
unexamined for

[CTRL] In the line of fire

-Caveat Lector-

In the line of fire

http://www.consider.net/forum_new.php3?newTemplate=OpenObjectnewTop=200107230010newDisplayURN=200107230010

by Alexander Barley
Monday 23rd July 2001

As the G8 summit met in Genoa, Italian police were poised to counter
protesters. Here is the NS survivor's guide to police in Europe. By
Alexander Barley

Before the recent wave of anti-globalisation demonstrations, riot police
got to hit people mainly at football matches, race riots, and raves. As
Tony Banks declared in a 1995 Commons speech about the mistreatment of
English football fans: If people wave [their British passport] at a
Spanish policeman, a French policeman or a Belgian policeman, the police
will crack their heads open. But now they have a new target.
Ever since Seattle, steadily increasing numbers of riot police have been
deployed at the conferences held by international trade and finance
organisations such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the
G8 and the World Social Forum. In Genoa, between 100,000 and 150,000 people
gathered in the streets outside the G8 summit to protest against American
policies; 20,000 heavily armed Italian police and army troops were waiting
to pounce on any misguided demonstrator who so much as pinged a wire on the
wall around the conference centre.
Over the past 30 years, there has been a creeping militarisation of riot
police, who are now deployed where ordinary officers would once have been
deemed sufficient. The weapons used by paramilitary police forces to deal
with a peacetime conflict are a legacy of the policing in Northern Ireland.
Members of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were allowed to operate with a
level of force far greater than would have been tolerated on the mainland,
to match the degree of force being used against them. They pioneered the
use in Europe of riot control weapons such as plastic and rubber bullets.
All the major European nations have riot squads, either independent of or
formed from within the ranks of normal forces, which can take action
quickly to put down any insurgency - with rubber and plastic bullets, water
cannons and CS gas, as judged necessary. The riot policeman is dressed in
full body armour, heavy boots, plexiglass shield and a large helmet that
completely encases his head and neck - much in the manner of a Renaissance
knight. His long baton and steel-capped boots allow him to attack
aggressively and efficiently. Through a device in his visor, he has
constant radio contact with a central control room, and so his movement can
be coordinated.
Although the technology used by riot squads is very modern, their typical
formation mimics ancient warfare, namely the Macedonian phalanx of 330BC -
a slowly advancing line formation that works as long as the police stay
shoulder to shoulder.
Amnesty International has asked the policemen in Genoa to show restraint.
They must remember, while they are defending one international institution,
that they are themselves covered by the rules of another, the United
Nations. Article 3 of the UN Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officers
states: Law enforcement officials may use force only when strictly
necessary and to the extent required for the performance of their duty. If
anyone hurls objects and attacks property or people, the police should
promptly arrest them, not kick, shoot, hit or blind them. They must resist
the temptation to crack open any heads, British or otherwise.
What follows is a guide to the best and worst police forces around Europe:

France
Members of the French Compagnie Republicain de Securite (CRS) are not noted
for their delicacy, but since there is a riot on average every ten days in
France, the public is used to them breaking up gang battles, race riots,
strikes and demonstrations. The CRS was formed in 1945, with the aim of
maintaining public order and quelling communist initiatives. There are now
15,750 CRS paramilitary riot police in 63 units, armed with the standard
tear gas, rubber bullets and batons. The biggest recent show of force by
the CRS was at last December's EU summit in Nice, where they fought fierce
battles with protesters trying to get near the EU summit conference centre,
beating them back with stun-grenades and tear gas.

Germany
Although there is the paramilitary GSG9 unit, which, rather like the SAS,
deals with terrorism, there is no special riot squad in Germany. Instead,
state police forces are trained to perform this function when needed. Some
German states have special units trained for more physical jobs, and these
often become notorious for abusing their power, so that police from regular
forces have to go in and restrain them. There are a number of federal
police forces, such as the Bundeskriminalamt, which deals with serious
crimes, and the Bundesgrenzschutz, which is responsible for border control.
The Bundeskriminalamt, a very well-armed and highly trained unit, uses
water cannons and batons to break up large-scale protests.

[CTRL] Katherine Graham Was A CIA MOCKINGBIRD Operative


-Caveat Lector-

Missing From Newspaper Obituaries: Katherine Graham Was Exposed As A CIA
MOCKINGBIRD Operative

Not surprisingly, the CIA began a mission in the late 1940s to recruit
American journalists on a wide scale, a mission it dubbed Operation
MOCKINGBIRD [aka The CIA's 'Mighty Wurlitzer'] ...At least 400 journalists
would eventually join the CIA payroll, according to the CIA's testimony
before a stunned Church Committee in 1975... The names of those recruited
reads like a Who's Who of journalism: Philip and Katharine Graham
(Publishers, Washington Post)...In a 1988 speech before CIA officials at
Langley, Virginia, [Graham] stated: 'We live in a dirty and dangerous
world. There are some things that the general public does not need to know
and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take
legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether
to print what it knows.' This quote has since become a classic among CIA
critics for its belittlement of democracy and its admission that there is a
political agenda behind the Post's headlines.
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/L-overclass.html

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