Sunday 30th April 2006: -

• 'Fit CCTV in taxis' call - Taxi bosses have pledged to help firms fit closed circuit television in their cars to safeguard cabbies and customers. If follows the brutal killing of taxi driver Mahmood Ahmed, 36, who was stabbed to death and dumped in a lonely rural lane. "This terrible killing has just brought it home how vulnerable taxi drivers are. We feel that CCTV should be compulsory in cabs "We want to see safety levels increased dramatically and to do that we need CCTV and also the backing of Bradford Council which provides the licences.

• SOON YOU’LL BE ABLE TO LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE BANKING: Hitachi launches biometric ID to stop cashpoint fraud - REVOLUTIONARY biometric scanners that check veins in customers’ fingers are on their way to cash points in Europe. This week Japanese electronics giant Hitachi will announce a deal with a European banking group to trial the scanners, signalling that bionic finger indentification will be coming soon to a cash machine near you. The revolutionary system will not herald the end of personal identification numbers (PINs) but they will scan customers’ fingers as final proof of their identity, The Business has learned.

• Japan Working To Scan Passengers Face - In an experiment that will have some glamorizing over such a technological advancement in security and others feeling their civil liberties are being violated, Japan has gone ahead and approved a plan to implement Facial characteristic capturing Surveillance cameras in their Subway stations. Following a revamp in Japan’s anti-terrorism and anticrime policy, over the course of two to three weeks, a ticket station located in one of the terminals will be closed down and will be replaced by a newly designed biometric camera.

• ON THIS DAY 1973: Nixon takes rap for Watergate scandal - President Richard Nixon has taken full responsibility for the Watergate scandal but has denied any personal involvement. In a speech broadcast to the American people tonight he vowed to get to the bottom of the matter, saying: "There will be no whitewash at the Whitehouse." Earlier today he accepted the resignations of four of his closest aides, including Attorney General Richard G Kleindienst. Resignations were also accepted from chief White House advisers, H R Haldeman and John D Ehrlichman and counsel to the president, John W Dean III.

Saturday 29th April 2006: -

• Malaysia to set up DNA database - Solving crimes in Malaysia will soon enter the fast lanes as the government is planning to set up a national database to hold DNA of criminals, with a proposal to later cover all nationals. Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow said the database would be incorporated under the proposed DNA Identification Act, now in the final stages of drafting. "The database will enable police to identify criminals quickly and accurately," he told the New Straits Times.

• Macedonia denies 'CIA abduction' - Macedonia's interior minister has denied claims that US agents abducted a German man in his country and flew him to Afghanistan for interrogation. Ljubomir Mihajlovski told a visiting team of European members of parliament that the claim was "just speculation". The MEPs are following up a report - released on Wednesday - that the CIA used the EU to run hundreds of flights taking terror suspects for questioning. German citizen Khalid al-Masri is suing the CIA for alleged wrongful jailing.

• “A functioning police state needs no police.”: Three-year-old boy 'anti-social' - A three-year-old has been accused of anti-social behaviour for playing football with friends outside his home. Michelle Mann, 24, of Willow Park, Wythenshawe, Manchester, was told "playing ball games close to someone else's home" breached the tenancy. Willow Park Housing Trust landlords said in a letter that she could be evicted, if her son Ben continued.

Friday 28th April 2006: -

• New security camera has insect-like eye - Security cameras fitted with artificial compound eyes based on those of flies have been developed by scientists to improve surveillance. The synthetic eyes will enable CCTV cameras to give an unprecedented panoramic view of an area and detect movement with unprecedented speed, say researchers. According to a study published in the US journal Science today by Luke Lee and his team at the University of California, Berkeley, the eyes are likely to find their first use in surveillance cameras, but Professor Lee says that the lenses might also be used in mobile phones.

• ID Card database to be used as population register: Personal data to be shared without consent - The Government announced last week that data from the National Identity Register (NIR) will also be used as an adult population register for a range of novel data sharing functions. The Office of National Statistics had promoted a separate adult population register as part of the Citizen Information Project (CIP) for these functions, but the announcement states that the CIP project has been wound up and its functions incorporated into the wider use of NIR data. The announcement also changes many undertakings given to Parliament when it considered the ID Card legislation.

• Adding fluoride to water may pose health risks - Scary news travels fast. Within weeks after the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences released a study citing adverse health effects of fluoride in water supplies, the Hightstown Board of Health introduced a draft recommendation to the Borough Council supporting a ban on water fluoridation. Dylan Ross, an alternate Board of Health member, told the Hightstown council "there is a possibility we might be poisoning people." Hightstown adds 1 part per million (ppm) of fluoride to its public water supplies. Hightstown is not the only town in New Jersey that should be concerned. Other New Jersey towns fluoridate their drinking water and could be putting the public's health at risk.

• Powerful New Film Expertly Exposes Phony Drug War & Police State: A Scanner Darkly set to shake collective unconsciousness through viral popular culture shot in the arm - A new film set for release later this year chronicles how power interests exploit the drug war in order to create unthinking armies of drone servants and erect police state measures to prevent the people from ever glimpsing the dark truth behind a highly mechanized surveillance panopticon.

Thursday 27th April 2006: -

• ANGER AS SCOTLAND FACES BIG BROTHER I.D. CARDS - SCOTS could be issued with ID cards storing details of every aspect of their lives under plans being considered by the Scottish Executive. Hundreds of thousands of Scots have already been issued with the Citizens' National Entitlement Card - a microchipped card that carries the holder's name and photo. The cards are used to access free bus or coach travel, but there are plans to link them to a central database. This would give the Executive access to such details as people's travel movements, gym visits and reading habits. There are fears that the system could be expanded to include other information such as NHS records and benefits payments.

• New York Police Start Random Search at City's Public Schools - New York city police began random sweeps of public schools Wednesday as part of Mayor Michael Bloomberg's crackdown on school violence, but the main items seized during the first day of searches were dozens of cell phones. Cell phones have been banned from city schools for nearly 20 years, but now police plan on confiscating them along with other electronic devices from students during random searches. Officers using mobile metal detectors are planning to show up unannounced at schools around the city and scan the students.

• BBC mulls database of kids: Blue Peter's got your number - Still plotting ways to root out Blue Peter benefits cheats, puritanical BBC producers are chewing over plans for an intelligence database that petty officials can use to keep an eye on pesky kids. Producers of Blue Peter, the hit children's TV magazine show, have been considering options to prevent imposters from buying the privileges conferred to Blue Peter badge winners (such as free entry to tourist attractions), since discovering the badges were being sold on eBay. A BBC spokeswoman said the original idea, for a Blue Peter ID card to be given to badge winners, might not be easy to do in practice. A card might require participating tourist attractions to invest in scanners that could read the cards and distinguish between genuine Blue Peter badges and those from the other side of the tracks. Alternatives being considered include a card with a hologram, "or some sort of database they can check", she said.   (COMMENTARY: There goes another symbol of childhood innocence, corrupted by the New World Order agenda... Blue Peter is playing ball... what's next... how to snitch on your neighbours using only sticky-back plastic?  (Sorry to our non-UK based visitors, who are probably starching their heads right about now!  I'm just talking about how a popular kids TV show is selling us up the river by acclimatising the kids to carrying ID cards to prove that they are 'good little citizens'))

• Getting off the UK DNA database: ACPO explains how - The UK is something of a DNA record kleptocracy, with a national DNA database now well in excess of three million records, and with new sampling opportunities available to the police on remarkably easy terms. These days it's ever so easy to get onto the UK database, but how do you get off? What's that you say? You don't? Well, up to a point - but it's not strictly true to say that once you're on the database you absolutely can't get off again. It's just very, very hard and it's going to take you a long, long time. Fortunately, would-be escapees now have the benefit of some guidance from the Association of Chief Police Officers.

• Judge creates own Da Vinci code - The judge who presided over the failed Da Vinci Code plagiarism case at London's High Court hid his own secret code in his written judgement. Seemingly random italicised letters were included in the 71-page judgement given by Mr Justice Peter Smith, which apparently spell out a message. Mr Justice Smith said he would confirm the code if someone broke it. "I can't discuss the judgement, but I don't see why a judgement should not be a matter of fun," he said.

• Sagem Défense Sécurité Provides Finnish Police With Biometric System - Sagem Défense Sécurité signed a contract on April 6 with the Finnish police to supply a new-generation AFIS (Automated Fingerprint Identification System). With this contract, which was open to international bids, the Finnish police renew its confidence in Sagem Défense Sécurité by replacing its current system with one that contains the latest technological advances. Apart from the standard AFIS police services (i.e. identifying criminals with latents, palmprints and fingerprints), the new system can also be used when issuing visas, passports and asylum ID.

• Secret CIA flights: the number soars - THE CIA has operated more than 1000 secret flights over European Union territory in the past five years, some to transfer terrorism suspects, an investigation by the European Parliament has found. The figure is significantly higher than previously thought. Sometimes the aircraft picked up suspects who had been kidnapped to take them to countries that use torture, the investigators said. The operation used the same US agents and the same aircraft over and over, investigators said, although they could not say how many flights involved the transport of suspects.

Wednesday 26th April 2006: -

• Experts rule out houses near pylons - Homes should not be built near overhead power lines because of possible links with childhood leukaemia, Government-appointed experts are expected to conclude. They are likely to recommend a change in planning guidelines so that new homes cannot be built either within 230ft of power lines or in a location that exposes inhabitants to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) of a certain strength. A report by Dr Gerald Draper, of the Oxford childhood cancer research group, published two years ago, suggested that children under 15 living near high-voltage power cables may have double the risk of getting leukaemia. The seven-year study was commissioned by the Department of Health.

• Over 1000 illegal CIA flights in Europe, MEPs say - The CIA has conducted more than 1,000 undeclared flights over European territory since 2001, and governments knew it, a European Parliament interim report suggests. A temporary parliament committee investigating alleged CIA activities in Europe on Wednesday (26 April) presented its mid-term findings, backing up earlier allegations that the CIA had carried out clandestine operations in Europe in the context of "the war on terror." "The CIA has, on several occasions, clearly been responsible for kidnapping and illegally detaining alleged terrorists on the territory of member states, as well as for extraordinary renditions," Socialist MEP and the committee's rapporteur, Claudio Fava, told reporters in Brussels.

• Bank discriminates against disabled teen - BARCLAY'S Bank today admitted discriminating against an Ipswich teenager with Down's Syndrome after refusing her an account and branding her mentally incompetent. Wendy Rusher took her daughter Charlotte to Barclay's Princes Street branch to set up a joint account. However, the pair left empty-handed after they felt Charlotte was insulted and told she could not set up an account in her name. In a case labelled appalling by the Down's Syndrome Association, the bank has now apologised and offered to allow the 18-year-old an account. But, Mrs Rusher, of Felixstowe Road, said: “It's sad that discrimination like this is alive and well. They can shove their offer of an account now. It's not so much that they just wouldn't let her have an account, but more the attitude towards Charlotte. “Staff said the bank had policies and it would not be possible to open a joint account as my daughter was 'mentally incompetent'.

• Chicago to add 70 more surveillance cameras - Chicago Mayor Richard Daley will be traveling to Israel this week as part of his trip to the Middle East. The mayor will look at security in the region hoping to find ways to better protect Chicago from a terrorist attack. Despite terrorist bombings in Jordan last year, in Israel last week, and in Egypt Monday, the mayor is not canceling or postponing his trip to one of the world's most dangerous areas. He is actually visiting Israel to learn about security from the experts, and he is going to Amman, Jordan, which is waging a constant battle of its own against terrorism.

• Texas Training Pamphlet: 'Nice Guys' Who Wear Levis & Travel With Children Likely Terrorists: Says people who use cellphones and e mail should be under suspicion - A Texas Department of Public Safety Criminal Law Enforcement pamphlet gives the public characteristics to identify terrorists that include buying baby formula, beer, wearing Levi jeans, carrying identifying documents like a drivers license and traveling with women or children.

Tuesday 25th April 2006: -

• COKE VS PEPSI... THAT'S CHOICE!: Sugary drinks banned from school canteens (but the aspartame filled poison remains) - SUGAR-FILLED soft drinks will be banned from school canteens in Victoria next year. But Australia's first state-imposed veto on sales of fizzy drinks to children has drawn fire from doctors who want water to be the only drink sold in school canteens across the nation. Victorian Education Minister Lynne Kosky announced yesterday that schools would have the rest of this year to phase out high-kilojoule fizzy drinks and some sugar-added fruit drinks, but artificially sweetened soft drinks such as Coca-Cola Zero would be allowed. She said fatty foods and lollies were also likely to be restricted, but ruled out a similar blanket ban. Those foods may only be allowed in schools on certain days of the week, Ms Kosky said.

• Doubts, fears and the Australian ID card: Concerns about the privacy of individuals are as important as ever and ought not be compromised - Whenever the Federal Government discusses its plans for a "smartcard" - which would allow citizens to electronically access Medicare and other government services - speculation inevitably strays to the possibility that a compulsory national ID card will also be introduced. Is the "smartcard" a way of accustoming people to the notion of a national ID card? The smartcard would have a photo ID and a computer chip allowing bureaucrats to access personal information. It would not be compulsory, but most people over 18 would need one because it is the only way they would have access to government money including Medicare, Austudy, child-care benefits, pensions and pensioner concessions, the family tax benefit, unemployment benefit and maternity payments.

• World Bank accused of deception over malaria funding: Death toll prevention claims 'unfounded' - The World Bank, a leader in the global effort to control malaria, has been accused of deception and medical malpractice by a group of public health doctors for failing to carry out its funding promises and wrongly claiming its programmes have been successful at cutting the death toll from the disease. The serious charges are levelled by Amir Attaran, a professor at the Institute of Population Health and faculty of law of Ottawa University, and colleagues from around the world. Writing in an online publication for the Lancet medical journal, they say the World Bank is unfit to lead global efforts to control the disease, which kills around 1 million people a year - most of them small children.

• Vaccines at birth a possibility - A study has shown that vaccinating newborn babies might be possible. Currently, most immunisations are given to babies at two months of age because they are unable to mount an immune response to the majority of vaccines. But US scientists have found a way to stimulate an immune response in newborns, following the discovery of a type of molecule present at birth. The team, writing in the journal Blood, say infant mortality could be reduced if babies are vaccinated at birth.

• What's behind mysterious booms?: Phenomena produce theories, but no answers - Life can serve up a good mystery every once in a while. Weird things happen that defy explanation, that make us wonder how much we really know about the world. Something of the sort happened in San Diego County shortly before 9 a.m. Tuesday, April 4, and so far no one has come forward with an explanation. Whatever it was, it caused a woman's bed to shake in Lakeside. It created waves in a backyard pool in Carmel Valley. It set off car alarms in Kearny Mesa and rattled windows from Mission Beach to Poway to Vista. At various spots throughout the county, people reported a rumbling sound or a booming noise.

Monday 24th April 2006: -

• Tony Blair's authoritarian populism is indefensible and dangerous: The prime minister's pose as an honest bloke talking common sense masks a frightening disdain for basic freedoms - What a brilliant and charming politician Tony Blair is. When I heard that he planned to debate his stance on democratic freedoms, civil liberties and the war on terror with a journalist I thought he was making a strategic error. A prime minister who cannily refused to debate with other party leaders before the elections, for fear of diminishing his own pre-eminent status, was willing to engage with a writer on a equal basis. It seemed certain that not only would he lose the argument on what is becoming a central division in British politics, but he would reduce his stature in the process. I was wrong.

• Diplomat: US, UK used torture information – Former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, Craig Murray, has told European Parliament that British and US intelligence services had used information related to the "war on terror" obtained from tortured suspects. "Under the UK-US intelligence sharing agreement the US and UK have taken a policy decision that they will get testimonies obtained under torture in third countries. I say that with regret and with certainty," the Brussels-based Dtt-Net.com news agency quoted Murray as telling European lawmakers on Thursday. The European Parliament is investigating allegations that the CIA used European airbases to transfer terror suspects to countries where they could be tortured. The Council of Europe has already concluded that the CIA flights took place with the tacit approval of EU governments.

• HOW MAJOR CORPORATIONS AND GOVERNMENT PLAN TO TRACK YOUR EVERY MOVE WITH RFID' - Imagine a world of no more privacy. Where your every purchase is monitored and recorded in a database, and your every belonging is numbered. Where someone many states away or perhaps in another country has a record of everything you have ever bought, of everything you have ever owned, of every item of clothing in your closet -- every pair of shoes. What's more, these items can even be tracked remotely. Once your every possession is recorded in a database and can be tracked, you can also be tracked and monitored remotely through the things you wear, carry and interact with every day.

• Cheadle Heath Primary School installs a Genie CCTV security camera package to help protect against unwanted incidents - The Cheadle Heath Primary School - part of Stockport Council - provides a quality education for children aged 3-11 and has excellent, modern facilities including an up to date networked computer suite complete with an interactive whiteboard. Other facilities include a Foundation Stage outdoor play area, well stocked library, central hall, large playground and spacious sports field. The DVR (Digital Video Recorder) and Genie CCTV six day/night camera package forms part of the school management system and are remote monitored during normal school times as well as out of hours. They have already proved very successful in reducing unwanted incidents at the school including congregating by local youths, potential vandalism* etc.  (COMMENTARY: *Note this security measure is not for the safety of the young children, it is to keep an eye on them in the traditional Orwellian fashion.)

• The battle for civil liberties: Government on offensive after criticism of 'authoritarian' laws - The Government has been forced on to the offensive over its record on civil liberties. Tony Blair attacked critics yesterday, dismissing the former law lord Lord Steyn as "out of touch" with modern Britain and saying that there would be no let-up in the hardline approach to crime suspects. Then last night the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, published a 14-page critique of an article by the Independent columnist Simon Carr which criticised the Government's record on civil liberties.

Sunday 23rd April 2006: -

• ORDER OUT OF CHAOS: War on terror boosts violence worldwide - Terror attacks and kidnappings worldwide exceeded 10,000 for the first time last year, propelled in part by a surge of violence in Iraq, according to government figures to be released soon. Officials cautioned against reading too much into the overall total. The government last year adopted a new definition of terror and changed its system of counting global attacks, devoting more energy to finding reports of violence against civilians. Yet the numbers are a striking reminder that violence around the globe has increased dramatically in the more than four years of the war on terror.

• U.S. Commando units to fight global terror - U.S. Defense Minister Donald Rumsfeld approved an ambitious program for the war on terror around the world, outside of Afghanistan and Iraq, via the use of commando units, which will immediately respond should the U.S. again come under a terrorist attack. The Washington Post reported that three programs have been approved by Rumsfeld in the last month, to significantly enlarge commando units for special missions in different areas in the world, a role traditionally reserved for the CIA and the State Department.

• Providers identify glitches in the UK state ID card plan: The Government wants to rush through its controversial scheme, but time is against it already, says Andrew Murray-Watson - It promises to be one of the most expensive and complicated procurement processes embarked upon by the government. In the next few weeks the Home Office will invite tenders for work on the flagship national identity card programme. It is set to cost billions of pounds, create the most comprehensive population database the world has seen, and is already being called Labour's "plastic poll tax".

• Tainted blood victims allege official cover-up: Letters reveal that senior civil servants destroyed crucial documents - Survivors of Britain's contaminated blood scandal last night accused the government of a cover-up after doubts emerged about the reasons for the destruction of hundreds of critical documents. Earlier this year victims were told that paperwork had been accidentally destroyed by an inexperienced civil servant. However, letters seen by The Observer reveal that only senior officers, who would have known that the 600 sensitive files should have been stored for at least 25 years, would have been in a position to retain or destroy them. The documents detailed meetings between the blood transfusion service, health boards, government officials and consultants during the Seventies and Eighties and contained critical information about what has become one of the worst disasters in the history of the NHS.

• Blair savages critics over threat to civil liberties - Tony Blair launches an unprecedented assault today on the legal and political establishment, accusing it of being 'out of touch' with the people - and pledges new moves to 'hassle, harry and hound' suspected criminals from Britain. In a passionate public exchange of emails with Observer columnist Henry Porter, the Prime Minister vigorously defends his stance on civil liberties and sketches out a new faultline in British politics over individual freedoms, crossing the traditional divide between right and left.

• Facing up to Gulf War's silent killer - SOME 250,000 of the returning allied forces from the first Gulf War in 1991 (15 per cent) went down with illness that they insist was related to their service in that war. Of these, 10,000 are already dead. Successive governments over the years have refused to recognise the existence of a single condition called Gulf War Syndrome and so the impasse continues. Veterans remain adamant that their illness is a direct result from their service in the Gulf, while officialdom maintains that the sheer breadth and range of symptoms and illness reported by the veterans rules out the possibility of any one single syndrome being responsible.

Saturday 22nd April 2006: -

• CHINA'S CONTROLLED COVERAGE - A lone protester shouted at China's President Hu Jintao as he spoke Thursday on the White House south lawn. The protesters disruption was seen all across the world except in one place: China. Two experts on Chinese affairs discuss the Chinese government's censorship of the media.

• AS IF THE EUROVISION SONG CONTEST ISN'T EVIL ENOUGH!: Finns shocked by Eurovision band - Finland's controversial entry for this year's Eurovision Song Contest - a heavy metal band called Lordi (The Lord) - has upset many Finns. The band members wear scary masks, which they refuse to take off, and the lead singer wields a chain-saw. Their song Hard Rock Hallelujah is a radical departure from the folk songs usually associated with Eurovision. Lordi, influenced by the American hard rock band Kiss and its lead singer Gene Simmons, has not escaped allegations of links with Satanism.

• Lib Dem donor is arrested in Spain on fraud claims: Financier is flown from his luxury villa to a Madrid cell to await extradition after a dispute with his bank - MICHAEL BROWN, the expatriate financier who funded the Liberal Democrats with a record £2.4 million gift, was in a Madrid prison cell last night awaiting extradition on 53 charges including fraud. The flamboyant businessman was arrested on a European warrant. Sources close to Mr Brown said it arose after a financial dispute over an investment made by the former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards. Police went to the political benefactor’s Majorcan villa hours before he was due to throw a spectacular 40th birthday party. After he is extradited Mr Brown will be questioned over alleged dishonesty, forgery, perjury, perverting the course of justice, false accounting and obtaining a passport by deception.

• Nepalese Police Keep Protesters from Royal Palace with Tear Gas - Nepalese police fired tear gas and dozens of people were injured, as thousands of pro-democracy protesters tried to approach the royal palace in the heart of Kathmandu. The demonstrations came as leaders of a coalition of political parties rejected King Gyanendra's offer of a partial return to democracy. Nepali police fired tear-gas Saturday to stop pro-democracy demonstrators from pushing through a security cordon near the royal palace.

• White House heckler charged - A woman who heckled Chinese President Hu Jintao on a visit to the White House has been charged with a criminal offence by a US court. Wang Wenyi, 47, could face up to six months in jail for "harassing, intimidating and threatening a foreign official". Wang is a member of the Falun Gong spiritual movement, and entered the White House grounds as a reporter for a pro-Falun Gong newspaper on Thursday 20 April. She then interrupted a welcome ceremony hosted by US President George Bush, calling on President Hu to "stop persecuting Falun Gong". Speaking after being charged, Wang said she was not guilty of any crime. "It is not a crime, but an act of civil disobedience," she said, describing her actions as "an individual act of conscience".

• DIRTY TRICKS AS THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DIGS... ARTICLE TO BE TAKEN WITH A PINCH OF SALT: EX-WIFE: SHEEN IS SEX FIEND - BOND girl Denise Richards has accused ex-husband Charlie Sheen of being a violent druggie with a love of child porn. She makes the allegations in papers filed for a restraining order against the Platoon and Wall Street actor in Los Angeles yesterday. Richards, 35, claims he surfed sick porn sites featuring young girls as well as gay boys and emailed explicit pictures of himself to 30 women. She says he repeatedly threatened to kill her ??" and beat her up in front of their daughters Sam, two and eight-month-old Lola.   (COMMENTARY: This kind of 'Celebrity Scandal' is  just par for the course... Just wait he'll be an anti-Semite next!)

• England 'addicted to sex and TV': England is a nation of "overweight, alcopop-swilling, sex-and-celebrity obsessed television addicts", according to a travel guide - The latest edition of the Rough Guide to England also warns potential visitors that the hearts of many towns "consist of identikit retail zones". But it praises the nation of "animal loving, tea-drinking charity donors who thrive on irony and Radio 4".

Friday 21st April 2006: -

• Database State: The UK's Electronic Prison - Part One: The gathering and holding of information has permeated into every facet of life in Great Britain and no one batters an eyelid. It's time to reveal what's really going to happen in the UK - The UK has lapsed into a database surveillance state, an electronic prison where every aspect of the lives of its citizens is determined by the control and flow of personal information between companies and government departments. Simply in order to own a house, a car, a TV and pay tax we must provide information which is stored forever on electronic databases and very often sold to whomever provides the highest bid.

• Cherie urged to pay back £7,700 hairdresser bill - Cherie Blair was today urged to pay back £7,700 the party spent on her hairstyle during last year’s general election campaign. Ian Gibson, a Labour backbencher, said that he was "astonished" that much-needed election funds were used to settle the £275-a-day bill that the Prime Minister’s wife ran up before May’s poll. The party’s response to the revelations that the Prime Minister’s wife had billed it was unapologetic: A Labour spokesman said last night: "So what? Mrs Blair worked fantastically hard during the election and visited more than 50 constituencies during the campaign and we won the election."

Thursday 20th April 2006: -

• More involved in Oklahoma City bombing?: On 11th anniversary, Rita Cosby talks to Terry Nichols' son, Josh Nichols - Josh Nichols, son of Oklahoma City bomber Terry Nichols, sat down with Rita Cosby for an exclusive interview that airs tonight at 9 p.m. ET. The interview took place in a prison where Josh Nichols is awaiting sentencing for a crime unrelated to the bombing... COSBY: "Do you believe what your dad is ready to say about the Oklahoma City bombing could hurt the U.S. government?" NICHOLS: "I believe it could." COSBY: "And how so?" NICHOLS: "Because he knows what happened that day. He knows what happened in Oklahoma City." COSBY: "And how many others do you believe are involved?" NICHOLS: "I couldn't put a number on it, you know? It could be five, it could be 10, it could be more, but there has to be others involved."

• Yahoo blamed in China activist jailing - Yahoo Inc. helped Chinese police identify an Internet activist who was sentenced to four years in prison for his pro-democracy postings, according to a copy of the verdict obtained by a human rights group. Jiang Lijun, 39, was sentenced for subversive activities on Nov. 18, 2003. He was accused of being the leader of a group of political dissidents and of seeking to use violence to impose democracy, including a plan to disrupt a Communist Party Congress by phoning in a false bomb scare to police, according to the copy, obtained and translated into English by the Dui Hua Foundation, a San Francisco human rights group.

Wednesday 19th April 2006: -

• Skype says text messages censored by China - The internet communications company Skype, which was bought by eBay in September 2005, has revealed that text messages sent to China are censored in compliance with state law. Skype and its partner in China, Tom Online, had been accused of censoring text messages that contained banned terms like 'Falun Gong' and 'Dalai Lama', according to the Financial Times. Niklas Zennstrom, co-founder and chief executive of Skype, addressed the issue with the Financial Times saying: 'Tom had implemented a text filter, which is what everyone else in that market is doing. Those are the regulations.' China is one of Skype's biggest markets along with the US and Germany and Mr Zennstrom indicated that Skype had no option but to comply with the regulations of the host country.

• China 'selling prisoners' organs' - Top British transplant surgeons have accused China of harvesting the organs of thousands of executed prisoners every year to sell for transplants. In a statement, the British Transplantation Society condemned the practice as unacceptable and a breach of human rights. The move comes less than a week after Chinese officials publicly denied the practice took place. In March, China said it would ban the sale of human organs from July.

• Elite gun cops get shoot to kill policy .. for wild animals - WHILE proceeding down the high street, the officer happened upon a large, angry rhinoceros outside Woolies...so he shot it dead. That's how a police report could look if a new booklet on dealing with rampaging wild animals is ever put to the test. And the pamphlet, sent to to the new FBI-style Serious Organised Crime Agency, reveals a fascinating insight into how jungle beasts behave.  Officers will be startled to learn that: MONKEYS have sharp teeth and can bite. WOUNDED lions and tigers (which also have sharp teeth AND claws) are pretty dangerous. BUT elephants and rhinos are worse because they are, er, bigger and heavier. The booklet tells where to shoot animals, with a handy set of illustrations - rhinos "in the heart", monkeys and lions "the head".

• Move to store 'ID card' details for children - A REGISTER of children's details similar to that to be kept under the government's controversial ID card scheme has been recommended by officials. The Citizen Information Project (CIP) said a child population register should also be set up. Under-16s had been exempt from the national identity register. CIP, based within the Office for National Statistics, also said the identity cards scheme should be used to share details such as people's names, addresses and dates of birth across the public sector. The report said details should be securely shared "on the basis that the scheme eventually becomes compulsory".

• HEARD ANY OTHER GOOD JOKES RECENTLY?: Mercury fillings found safe - Two long-awaited, government-funded studies found no evidence that dental fillings containing mercury can cause IQ-lowering brain damage or other neurological problems in children. Children with such fillings were no more likely than other youngsters to suffer such problems, the researchers found.

• Teens at the wheel, and on camera - Edgewood High School senior J.T. Roach knows the power of supervision when he's driving. Just the sight of a police car alongside a highway slows him down, he said, so the prospect of his parents examining video evidence of him behind the wheel will undoubtedly re- focus his attention. American Family Insurance hopes Roach's theory holds true. As part of a three-month pilot program, the insurance giant will offer to install dual- direction video cameras on the rearview mirrors of Edgewood High School students.

• Torture fears of computer hacker - A SELF-TAUGHT British "computer nerd" who brought a vital US naval base to its knees could be subjected to torture and detained indefinitely if a "vengeful" US government extradite him, a court heard. Computer expert Gary McKinnon, 40, of Whittington Road, Wood Green, remotely-controlled 97 US army, naval, airforce, NASA and defence department computers between autumn 2001 and March 2002. At his extradition hearing at Bow Street Magistrates' Court, his lawyer Edmund Lawson, said the US government's request to try him there was unjust.

• Poland marks 63rd anniversary of Ghetto anti-Nazi uprising in Warsaw - Government representatives and religious leaders of Poland's Jewish community on Tuesday paid tribute to Jewish heroes during the 63rd anniversary of the Ghetto uprising in Warsaw. Flanked by hundreds of local residents, they laid flowers and wreaths at the foot of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and then marched to the monument dedicated to the Ghetto Heroes to pay homage to those who took part in the fight-back against the Nazis.

• Waco and the Bipartisan Police State, by Anthony Gregory - Every year around this time, I find it worthwhile to reflect on the siege at Mt. Carmel, just outside of Waco, Texas, which began on February 28, 1993, when an ATF publicity stunt went awry, and ended 51 days later on April 19 with about 80 civilians killed. Waco is still important, because it illustrates the violent nature of the state, the fact that political power flows from the barrel of a gun, and the scary truth that the U.S. government is ultimately no different from all others in this respect. Many people, including many libertarians, would just as soon forget the debacle. But we must remember.

Tuesday 18th April 2006: -

• Exxon Chairman's $400 Million Parachute: Exxon Made Record Profits in 2005 - Soaring gas prices are squeezing most Americans at the pump, but at least one man isn't complaining. Last year, Exxon made the biggest profit of any company ever, $36 billion, and its retiring chairman appears to be reaping the benefits. Exxon is giving Lee Raymond one of the most generous retirement packages in history, nearly $400 million, including pension, stock options and other perks, such as a $1 million consulting deal, two years of home security, personal security, a car and driver, and use of a corporate jet for professional purposes.

• NEW BIOMETRIC FACE AND SIGNATURE SOFTWARE PREVENTS FRAUD, NEW BIOMETRIC FACE AND SIGNATURE SOFTWARE IS KEY TO PREVENTING IDENTITY THEFT: National Identity Security Inc. Launches Suite of Data Authentication Products - Verifying an individual’s identity by matching facial images and signatures against archived biometric information is central to National Identity Security Inc.’s (NIS, www.naidse.com) new suite of software products. The suite includes the National Identity Personal Profile (NIPP Secure™), which authenticates and validates the individual, not the credit card or information used to identify the person. NIPP Secure guarantees a customer’s identity will never be stolen. The identity authentication system protects individuals and companies from identity theft, fraud and data corruption both online and at point-of-sale transactions.

Easter (Ishtar) Monday 17th April 2006: -

• Britain took part in mock Iran invasion: Pentagon planned for Tehran conflict with war game involving UK troops - British officers took part in a US war game aimed at preparing for a possible invasion of Iran, despite repeated claims by the foreign secretary, Jack Straw, that a military strike against Iran is inconceivable. The war game, codenamed Hotspur 2004, took place at the US base of Fort Belvoir in Virginia in July 2004. A Ministry of Defence spokesman played down its significance yesterday. "These paper-based exercises are designed to test officers to the limit in fictitious scenarios. We use invented countries and situations using real maps," he said.

• British ID cards advance relentlessly - The creation of compulsory ID cards moved a step forward in Britain after a crucial vote in the Commons. Many people assume that they aren’t worth worrying about as Brits already have photo IDs for a passport and driving licence. Expats living in Thailand have got used to showing local ID here as part of everyday life. But the new British ID card isn’t like any of those. It will be connected to a database called the NIR (National Identity Register) where all your personal details will be stored. This will include a unique number issued to you, and a whole deluge of personal and private facts about the individual - not just your physical features.

• Taser used to get woman to leave mayor's office: Shreveporter insisted on meeting with Hightower, who was said to be out until Monday - Yolanda Shamp was going to wait however long it took Thursday to meet with Shreveport Mayor Keith Hightower. Problem was the mayor wasn’t there, and his office was about to close for the day. Shamp still wanted an audience with Hightower. And she didn't leave her seat on the second floor of Government Plaza until an officer zapped her with a Taser.

• US firms suspected of bilking Iraq funds: Millions missing from program for rebuilding - American contractors swindled hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi funds, but so far there is no way for Iraq's government to recoup the money, according to US investigators and civil attorneys tracking fraud claims against contractors. Courts in the United States are beginning to force contractors to repay reconstruction funds stolen from the American government. But legal roadblocks have prevented Iraq from recovering funds that were seized from the Iraqi government by the US-led coalition and then paid to contractors who failed to do the work. A US law that allows citizens to recover money from dishonest contractors protects only the US government, not foreign governments.

• NYPD flips on surveillance cameras to fight crime and terror - Along a gritty stretch of street in Brooklyn, police this month quietly launched an ambitious plan to combat street crime and terrorism. But instead of cops on the beat, wireless video cameras peer down from lamp posts about 10 metres above the sidewalk. They were the first instalment of a program to place 500 cameras throughout the city at a cost of $9 million US. Hundreds of additional cameras could follow if the city receives $81.5 million in federal grants it has requested to safeguard Lower Manhattan and parts of midtown with a surveillance "ring of steel" modelled after security measures in London's financial district. Officials of the New York Police Department - which considers itself at the forefront of counterterrorism since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks - claim the money would be well-spent, especially since the revelations that al-Qaida members once cased the New York Stock Exchange and other financial institutions.

• School District Considers Drug-Sniffing Dogs - A school district is considering the use of drug-sniffing dogs to do random searches at its middle and high school campuses. The Lake Elsinore Unified School District board will decide whether it will spend $18,000 for drug and bomb-sniffing dogs. The money would pay for 45 random searches throughout the district’s four high schools and four middle schools. Trustees see the dogs as a possible deterrent, since marijuana was found on both the middle and high school campuses. "Personally, I'm tired of expelling kids for all that foolishness," said Trustee Sonja Wilson. Interquest Detection Canines would supply the dogs. The dogs will not be allowed to search students or employees, but will be able to sniff backpacks, student lockers, purses, jackets and other personal items.

Easter (Ishtar) Sunday 16th April 2006: -

• "BELIEVE WHAT WE (i.e. MY ILLUMINATI MASTERS) TELL YOU AS GOSPEL... LITERALLY!": Archbishop rejects mystery mania - Conspiracy theories or the discovery of ancient texts will not weaken the Gospel, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said in his Easter Sunday sermon. The Gospel of Judas and the Da Vinci Code foster a sense of mystery, but the Easter message lives in Christian experience, Dr Rowan Williams said. Many Christians are putting their lives at risk for their faith, he added. Meanwhile, Archbishop Of York Dr John Sentamu has baptised four adults in a pool outside a York church.   (FLASHBACK: Illuminati hierarchy tells Archbishop 'who's the boss' - 'Rowan Williams apologises to Freemasons')

• UK Theme park tags on to ID chip expansion - Alton Towers, one of the country's largest theme parks, is to start tagging visitors with tiny radio frequency identification computer chips that will allow a network of cameras to track their movements throughout the park. Visitors will be given an RFID-enabled wristband on entry to the Staffordshire amusement park. It will allow them to be identified and videoed by cameras as they go on rides and attractions. The technology will help with park security - allowing parents to locate lost children, for example - but its chief publicised purpose will be to create a unique personalised DVD of the visitors' day at the park, which can be purchased on leaving.

• POPE RAGE: Savage attack on the human race's greed, dishonesty, obsession with entertainment and loss of the family - POPE Benedict hit out yesterday at a "senseless cult of Satan" as he scorned the decadence of the modern world. In Rome's traditional Good Friday Way of the Cross service, the hardline pontiff spoke of the "filth around us" and condemned the spread of an "inane apologia of evil". Attacking modern science and defending the family, he added: "We seem to be witnessing a kind of anti-Genesis, a counter-plan, a diabolical pride aimed at eliminating the family... "There's a move to reinvent mankind, to modify the very grammar of life as willed by God."

• Fears mount as police merger plans gain momentum - NORTH Yorkshire has gone out on a limb by supporting the creation of a regional police force amalgamating all four Yorkshire forces into one. The measure has been opposed by the West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Humberside forces but North Yorkshire Police Authority backed Home Secretary Charles Clarke's plan to merge all four current police services to form one large force. Barely had the decision been made than the West Yorkshire force announced it was closing its front desks to the public at 12 stations at towns such as Bingley, Otley and Shipley. The closures will add to fears that small outposts such as Ingleton, Settle and Grassington will be at risk once a new "super force" comes into effect. Even Skipton must be worried as the towns losing their police front desk are of similar size or bigger than Craven's capital.

• USA Officers On School Patrol May Carry Taser Guns - Police officers who patrol the halls in the Fort Worth Independent School District could soon be armed with Taser guns. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, school officials are worried about whether the devices are safe to use on children.

Saturday 15th April 2006: -

• Big Brother should watch and listen on school buses: We monitor what our children do on school buses in Chester County, and we should - Thanks to the video cameras that at least some local school districts have on their buses, misbehaving kids are less likely to misbehave. If something happens even with the cameras, as least we can look at the tape and find out if Billy really did punch Bobby. It’s time to take this idea a step further. It’s time for Chester County school districts to think about not only recording what students do on buses but also what they say. It’s time for school districts to think about unwrapping the sound buttons on their video cameras.

• Fingerprint Technology On Your Personal Computer - Imagine logging on to your computer with nothing more than a fingerprint. If you think it sounds like something out of a James Bond movie -- you're right. The technology does exist and is available to you but how well does it work? In James Bond movies, the bad guy has been seen keeping his secrets safe with a security system that includes a fingerprint scan. But Consumer Reports says this technology is no longer limited to 007.

• 14 war protesters arrested near Bush ranch: Group once again tests county ordinance against roadside camping - Taking turns climbing into small tents, 14 war protesters were arrested Friday near President Bush's ranch, once again challenging a county roadside camping ban. Eleven of them were among the 12 arrested in November in the same ditches where the makeshift antiwar campsite sprang up in August off the winding, two-lane road leading to the ranch.

• Whistleblower reveals extent of AT&T spying role: A former employee recounts how the telco has been reading in your email - Last week, new accounts describing in detail the role that telecommunications giant AT&T has played in providing the government with warrantless information gathered on average citizens. Former technician Mark Klein has come out in support of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuit, which is summed up by the EFF here: "The evidence that we are filing supports our claim that AT&T is diverting Internet traffic into the hands of the NSA wholesale, in violation of federal wiretapping laws and the Fourth Amendment," said EFF Staff Attorney Kevin Bankston. "More than just threatening individuals' privacy, AT&T's apparent choice to give the government secret, direct access to millions of ordinary Americans' Internet communications is a threat to the Constitution itself. We are asking the Court to put a stop to it now."

• Big brother, meet mom and dad: Parents can track kids with cellphones - You can run, kids, but you can’t hide. At least not if your parents outfit you with a trackable cell phone. And as of today, they can. Sprint will announce today a new service to let a parent who pays $10 per month locate up to four Sprint phones used by family members. Finding someone on the system requires only a computer with Internet access or a designated master phone with a screen capable of showing a map.

• OCCULT NUMEROLOGY IN MOVIE RELEASE DATES: Omen 666 Revealed in June - Tying in with Fox's upcoming big-screen remake, Ventura Distribution will be releasing the documentary "Omen 666 Revealed" on, that's right, June 6, 2006 (6/6/06). Does the Devil really produce offspring? After an in-depth look at the history of the Devil and the modern day Church of Satan, "Omen 666 Revealed" exposes the shocking truth that the most evil human beings that ever walked the earth all had major Satanic connections. Satan's children are here among us.  (COMMENTARY: Another film called The Beast along with the remake of The Omen is set to be released on 6/6/6. Apparently The Beast movie deliberately took 666 days to complete - See our Occult section for more information on the elites obsession with symbolism and numerology.)

• Officers conduct random search at Lee High - Students at Robert E. Lee High School were surprised Monday by a random security search by Montgomery police and school officers. "I didn't know what was going on," said Michael Scott, a parent whose son attends Lee. "I had just dropped him off after a doctor's appointment, and there were officers and dogs searching lockers and backpacks and clothing. Some students were patted down." Officials with Montgomery Public Schools said they are conducting the random searches with the Montgomery Police Department as a proactive way of keeping students safe.

Good Friday: 14th April 2006: -

• Quotes: Former generals criticize Rumsfeld - Quotes from the retired generals who are calling for the ouster of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld: --- "We went to war with a flawed plan that didn't account for the hard work to build the peace after we took down the regime. We also served under a secretary of defense who didn't understand leadership, who was abusive, who was arrogant, who didn't build a strong team." - Retired Army Maj. Gen. John Batiste. --- "My sincere view is that the commitment of our forces to this fight was done with a casualness and swagger that are the special province of those who have never had to execute these missions - or bury the results." - Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Gregory Newbold.

• BILDERBERG VS. P2, HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE... WHAT DO YOU MEAN RIGGED?:  Italian poll result set to stand - Romano Prodi looks set to be confirmed as the winner of Italy's general election after the number of contested ballots was drastically lowered. The interior ministry said it had made an error and only 5,000 votes were being checked, instead of about 80,000. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refused to concede to his centre-left rival until all final checks are made. Our correspondent says even if all the contested ballots went to Mr Berlusconi the final result would not change.

• Web Users Urged to Help Chinese Censors - China's official Internet industry association is calling on its members to help the government suppress material deemed subversive or immoral. "Unhealthy information" online has harmed Chinese children and threatens social stability, the Internet Society of China said in a statement. The 5-year-old group is the government-sanctioned association for Internet service providers and Chinese Web sites. "We should run our business in a civilized way," said the statement issued Wednesday and reported by the government's Xinhua News Agency. "We should not produce, disseminate and spread information that harms state security, social stability and information that violates laws and regulations and social morality."

• THE DARK SIDE TO THE DARK CULTURE: Goth Youths Prone to Suicide Attempts and Self-Mutilation - The rate of suicide attempts and self-mutilation-is high among those in the Goth youth subculture, researchers here reported. More than half of 19-year-olds who self-identified as Goth reported self-harming behavior, and nearly half reported a suicide attempt, said Robert Young, a research associate at the University of Glasgow. But whether participation in Goth culture leads to self-destructive behavior or whether adolescents with those tendencies gravitate to Goth is not clear, Young and colleagues said online today in BMJ, formerly the British Medical Journal.

• 9/11 conspirator denies wrecking own defence - ZACARIAS Moussaoui, taking the witness stand yesterday in his death penalty trial, argued that he could not get a fair hearing and denied he was trying to sabotage his defence by testifying earlier that he was to have piloted a fifth plane on 11 September, 2001. Moussaoui, 37, who has admitted six counts of conspiracy in connection with the 11 September attacks, testified for the second time in the sentencing trial, even though his lawyers had not wanted him to take the stand. Defence lawyer Gerald Zerkin asked Moussaoui, a French citizen, if he thought he was helping his case when he testified the first time that he planned to pilot a plane into the White House on 11 September.

• US government wants PayPal records - The US government has ordered online auctioneer eBay's payment service PayPal to turn over records that could expose foreign accounts where tax cheats have hidden money, PayPal said last night. The US Internal Revenue Service wants the company to reveal the details of accounts linked to banks or credit cards in 35 countries. A summons issued by US District Court Judge James Ware in San Jose ordered PayPal to hand over records dating back to 1999, when the Internet money-transfer service was launched.

• RFID vulnerable to attacks, researchers say - Researchers say they have proven that effective attacks can be launched against radio frequency identification tags. In tests, standard "Generation 1" RFID tags and readers were unable to function after they were overloaded with data, researchers at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Australia, said in a report published this month. "Vulnerabilities in the newer UHF style of RFID tags have been found and are of concern for anyone trying to implement an RFID system that would have 'mission critical' or human life issues involved in it," warned academics in the SCISSEC research group at the university. Although many companies are testing RFID tagging in their supply chain, the tags are not commonly used in life-critical situations. However, the tags are used by the U.S. military to track supplies.

• Telescope bid to spot alien beams - A new optical telescope designed solely to detect light signals from alien civilisations has opened for work at an observatory in Harvard, US. It will conduct a year-round survey, scanning all of the Milky Way galaxy visible in the Northern Hemisphere. Seti is an exploratory science to scour the cosmos for signatures of technology built by alien beings.

• Military recruiters, confronted by crowd, leave campus job fair: Anti-war protesters at university block doors to building - Four military recruiters hastily fled a job fair Tuesday morning at UC Santa Cruz after a raucous crowd of student protesters blocked an entrance to the building where the Army and National Guard had set up information tables. Members of Students Against War, who organized the counter-recruiting protest, loudly chanted "Don't come back. Don't come back" as the recruiters left the hilltop campus, escorted by several university police officers.

• America’s Secret Police?: Intelligence experts warn that a proposal to merge two Pentagon intelligence units could create an ominous new agency - A threatened turf grab by a controversial Pentagon intelligence unit is causing concern among both privacy experts and some of the Defense Department’s own personnel. An informal panel of senior Pentagon officials has been holding a series of unannounced private meetings during the past several weeks about how to proceed with a possible merger between the Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), a post-9/11 Pentagon creation that has been accused of domestic spying, and the Defense Security Service (DSS), a well-established older agency responsible for inspecting the security arrangements of defense contractors. DSS also maintains millions of confidential files containing the results of background investigations on defense contractors’ employees.

Thursday 13th April 2006: -

• UK Terrorism Act comes into force - The government's controversial Terrorism Act comes into force today, outlawing the glorification of terrorism and paving the way for the detention of terror suspects for 28 days without charge. The bill, introduced in response to the July 7 bombings, was opposed by both the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats, and saw Tony Blair's first Commons defeat since coming to power, when Labour rebels overturned a government clause allowing 90 days detention. The act creates new offences of undertaking terrorism training, preparation of or planning a terrorist act and disseminating terrorist publications.   (COMMENTARY: Did you read that?  "in response to the July 7 bombings"... and who carried that out?  The same 'authorities' getting the new powers.  Problem > Reaction > Solution).  The article continues: Although the Home Office said a new terrorism bill was already being planned before the July 7 attacks, the bombing gave the bill added impetus.

• Climbdown over ministerial powers - A controversial piece of legislation which critics fear would give sweeping powers to ministers to change any law is to be rethought. Ministers wanted powers to scrap red tape but opponents said they could use the same bill to by-pass Parliament and change criminal or constitutional laws. Now Cabinet Office Minister Jim Murphy had confirmed amendments will be brought in limiting the powers. A select committee of MPs will be able to veto ministers' decisions. And the Regulatory Reform Bill will not allow any powers to make constitutional changes.

• RFID turns FIFA World Cup into Big Brother - FIFA officials voiced their concern over the amount of information German organizers are gathering from ticket buyers. Regardless of the outcome of the World Cup soccer tournament in Germany several weeks away, the games already have their place in history: Never before have fans attending an event organized by the FC)dC)ration Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) been required to provide so much information about themselves that can be accessed so quickly. More than 3.5 million tickets will be sold with an embedded RFID (radio frequency identification) chip containing identification information, to be checked against a database as fans pass through entrance gates at all 12 stadiums in June.

• Retired US Military Officer Joins Call for Rumsfeld's Resignation - A retired U.S. Army general who commanded forces in Iraq is calling for the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, echoing the recent criticisms of several other former high-ranking military officers. During a television interview with CNN Wednesday, retired Major General John Batiste said the military needs "a fresh start" in its civilian leadership. General Batiste retired last year after commanding the 1st Infantry Division in Tikrit. He joins several other former high-ranking officers from the Army and Marines who in recent weeks have called on Rumsfeld to step down because of his handling of the U.S.-led war in Iraq. They accuse Rumsfeld and other civilian officials of disregarding the opinions of experienced officers in the days before the 2003 invasion.

Wednesday 12th April 2006: -

• Police plan to keep DNA files of innocent people - SECRET plans to avoid destroying the DNA records of innocent people - including many children - have been passed to Merseyside and Cheshire police. The Daily Post revealed earlier this year that DNA samples had been stored from almost 400 local teenagers who were arrested, but never convicted of an offence. It prompted a furious row, with the Conservatives accusing the government of building a "DNA database by stealth", containing the guilty and innocent side by side. Now chief constables have been issued with new guidance, advising them to reject all requests for DNA to be destroyed other than in "exceptional cases".

• AN EXCELLENT POLICE STATE CONDITIONING PRETEXT: Hoodies may face city shops ban - Youths wearing hooded tops could be banned in parts of Birmingham under new proposals from a political group. City Conservatives' local election manifesto suggests looking at a ban on so-called "hoodies" in shopping and entertainment areas. It would be the first of its kind in a British city tackling anti-social acts. The Liberal Democrat group's leader said personal safety was important but the Labour group said it was unfair to brand all teenagers in the same way.

• US like Nazis in Iraq: UK refusenik - A British Air Force doctor being court-martialled for refusing a posting to Iraq said on Wednesday he believed the United States was the moral equivalent of Nazi Germany. Australian-born Flight Lieutenant Malcolm Kendall-Smith could face an unlimited jail sentence for disobeying an order to go to Iraq last year and four orders to prepare for his deployment. The case is the first of its kind in Britain over the war in Iraq. "As early as 2004 I regarded the United States to be on par with Nazi Germany as regards its activities in the Gulf," Kendall-Smith told the court amid a series of bitter exchanges with prosecutor David Perry. Perry asked: "Are you saying the U.S. is the moral equivalent of the Third Reich?" Kendall-Smith replied: "That's correct."

• German group opposes sale of biometric passport data: Government planned to fund changeover with sale of personal info - A well-respected nonprofit organization promoting IT in the private and public sectors in Germany has criticized a government plan to sell personal data to finance the country's new biometric passports. "The combination of the name and address with biometric information could lead to analysis and surveillance possibilities that are no longer transparent," the Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI) warned Tuesday in a statement.

• Body parts exhibition raises concerns over missing dissidents - Demonstrators are expected to hold a vigil today at the opening of the latest human body parts exhibition in London because of concern over the origins of the human remains from China. Human rights groups fear that some of the remains may be those of dissidents or political prisoners executed by the Chinese authorities. Bodies - the Exhibition opens today at Earl's Court showing 22 corpses and 250 organs and other body parts.

• Autopsy links policeman's death directly to post-Sept. 11 work - The death of a 34-year-old police detective who got sick after working at Ground Zero is the first to be positively linked to cleanup at the World Trade Center. The finding was made by a New Jersey coroner and the autopsy made public by the officer's family and union.

• Judge stops lawyers from seizing tooth caps: Gold dental work will stay in mouths of two men facing drug charges in Washington - Government lawyers tried to confiscate the gold tooth caps known as "grills" from the mouths of two men facing drug charges, saying the dental work qualified as seizable assets. They had the men in a vehicle headed to a dental clinic by the time defense attorneys persuaded a judge to halt the procedure. "I've been doing this for over 30 years, and I have never heard of anything like this," said Richard Troberman, a past president of the Washington Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers. "It sounds like Nazi Germany when they were removing the gold teeth from the bodies, but at least then they waited until they were dead."

Tuesday 11th April 2006: -

• USA: Say no to national ID, senate urged – Voices from the right and left urged state senators yesterday to pull the state out of the National Identification System. A broad range of groups — from the conservative Cato Institute to the liberal American Civil Liberties Union — denounced the system, known as Real ID. House Bill 1582, which passed the House 217-84, would bar the state from participating.

• Prodi hails Italy poll 'victory' - Italy's centre-left leader Romano Prodi says he has won the right to become the country's prime minister following a narrow victory in the general election. Latest results give Mr Prodi's bloc 49.8% against 49.7% for the ruling centre-right in the lower house. An official projection shows a slim majority in the Senate - the upper house - for Mr Prodi's bloc.   (NOTE:  Romano Prodi is a prominent member of the Bilderberg Group who has served on its Steering Committee.  The more things change, the more they stay the same!)

• Claim: 7/7 Bombers Planned To Drown Tens Of Thousands: Group caught attempting to explode bomb under Thames river disappeared - A British political party claims to be in contact with a source, likely to be a police officer, who claims that the night before the 7/7 London Underground bombings, a team of terrorists with a fifth bomb was caught trying to bomb the River Thames and flood the underground, killing tens of thousands of people.

• Ohio Employer Implants Employee Microchip - Cincinnati firm CityWatcher.com, a provider of video surveillance, monitoring, and video storage for government and business, has become the first in the nation to implant microchips under employees' skin as part of its overall security system. At this time, only three CityWatcher.com employees, including CEO and founder Sean Darks, have the chips embedded under the skin of their forearms, which they swipe across a reader in order to gain access to the company's data center.

• Child suspended for not taking Ritalin: Lawsuit raises issues over behavioural drugs - A 12-year-old Quebec boy was suspended from school last week when his mother refused to give him Ritalin after it had been prescribed for him. The suspension caused the parents to file a lawsuit and sparked a debate over the increased use of drugs for treating children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. The family’s lawyer said parents are being bullied by the school board into putting their children on the drug, and that parents should have a right to refuse the controversial treatment for their children. Some ADHD experts believe the drug is being prescribed more than necessary.

• Iraqi official: 'It's civil war' - A senior official in the Iraqi government has for the first time admitted the country is in a state of civil war. Deputy interior minister Hussein Ali Kamal said Iraq had been in "undeclared" civil war for the past year. He told reporters: "Actually Iraq has been in an undeclared civil war for the past 12 months. "On a daily basis Shias, Sunnis, Kurds and Christians are being killed and the only undeclared thing is that a civil war has not been officially announced by the parties involved. Civil war is happening but not on a wide scale."    (COMMENTARY FROM ONE OF OUR FRIENDS IN THE USA: "I don't know if you've seen this or not - but our President and of course Rummy keep denying there is a civil war in Iraq - wonder what they say to this?")

Monday 10th April 2006: -

• SAS soldier faces legal action threat - An SAS soldier who refused to fight in Iraq because he believed that the war was illegal has been threatened with legal action by government lawyers. Ben Griffin, who left the Special Air Service in June last year after spending three months on operations in Baghdad, has been informed that the Government is considering "civil proceedings" against him after he described the war as "illegal" in a Sunday Telegraph interview. Mr Griffin, who served in the Parachute Regiment for seven years before joining the SAS in June 2003, became the first member of the elite force to refuse to fight alongside American troops because of his moral convictions.

• Heads spy on teachers - Teachers are preparing to protest against surveillance cameras and microphones that are being installed in classrooms across the UK. Surveillance firm Classwatch has installed more than 50 CCTV systems with microphones across Hertfordshire alone, said the Times Educational Supplement on Friday.

• Fox Shows Bush Mentioning 9/11 In Most Of His Speeches - Is there a speech lately in the spate of speeches that President Bush has given the last couple of weeks on his position in Iraq where he doesn't mention 9/11? Today on Fox News Live with Bill Hemmer Fox ran another clip of President Bush speaking, again, about 9/11. The president said, "The September 11th attacks affected me. It affected my thinking deeply. The most important job of the government is to protect the people from an attack. And so I say we're going to stay on the offense."

• NO MR BIG IN 7/7 PLOT - THE July 7 bombings in London were carried out on a shoestring and without the help of an al-Qaeda Mr Big, investigators have concluded. The Home Office probe, details of which were leaked yesterday, revealed the bombers used the internet to plan the deadly attacks. Sources said the organisation behind the attacks last summer was a "modest and simple affair".

Sunday 09th April 2006: -

• Report: No al-Qaeda link to UK blasts: The official inquiry into London’s July 7 bombings has found no evidence of direct support from al-Qaeda in carrying out the attacks, a British newspaper has reported - According to The Observer, citing a leaked copy of the inquiry's report, the government account of the attack will describe it as a "simple and inexpensive" plot hatched by four British bombers bent on martyrdom. The report also rejects earlier theories that an al-Qaeda fixer, presumed to be from Pakistan, was instrumental in planning the bombings, the paper reported on Sunday.    (RELATED: See our '7/7 London Bombings' archive documenting the staged attacks.)  

• Never say never again as Sir Sean set for Gulf War Syndrome movie - SIR SEAN CONNERY is considering turning a novel by an Edinburgh author into a Hollywood blockbuster. The former James Bond actor, who earlier this week said he did not want to act again, has been in contact with Ken McClure about bringing his controversial novel The Gulf Conspiracy to the big screen. Connery, who has been an executive producer on such blockbusters as The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Finding Forrester, Entrapment, The Rock and Just Cause, may even take on the behind the scenes role for the new movie. The Gulf Conspiracy is a fictional thriller which centres on the theory that vaccinations were responsible for the development of Gulf War Syndrome.

• AUSTRALIA: ID base to counter terror - THE Federal Government is considering a national law-enforcement identity database as a weapon against home-grown terrorism. Existing criminal databases would be integrated and cross-referenced so potential terrorist activities by an individual in one area would lead to police alerts in other areas. The proposal is being pushed by Liberal backbencher Jason Wood – a former member of the Victorian Police counter-terrorism unit – and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment, Greg Hunt.

• Bulgarians Object Surveillance Street Cameras - A Bulgarian association has called for a protest against placing surveillance cameras at public places. Members of the "Society for New Bulgaria" announced in Pleven that mounting such cameras was a way for the state to meddle with citizens' personal business. A total of 107 cameras had been placed all over Sofia over the past week and the trend of strengthening video surveillance is evident all over the country, the society claims.

• HAS ANYONE IN THE LEEDS AREA LOST A BOOK?: Police plea on macabre book find - Police are trying to locate the owner of a 300-year-old ledger, bound in human skin, found in a Leeds road. Written mainly in French, its macabre covering was said to be a regular sight during the French Revolution. In the 18th and 19th Centuries it was common to bind accounts of murder trials in the killer's skin - known as anthropodermic bibliopegy. The book was discovered in The Headrow and may have been discarded after a burglary, detectives said.

• Citizens must not be force-fed health advice - MILLIONS now living will never die!" That Jehovah's Witnesses slogan of 80 years ago sounds suspiciously like the motto of the Scottish Executive, as it adopts all the methods at its disposal to force us to embrace a healthy lifestyle. The ban on smoking in public places is just two weeks old, and is widely accepted, but already ministers are planning more extreme interventions into areas of personal choice previously regarded as private, in a drive to save us Scots from ourselves and make us live in a healthy manner, whether we want to or not.

• Google's Wi-Fi network in San Francisco raises privacy concerns - Google Inc.'s plan to provide free wireless Internet access throughout the city is raising concerns among privacy advocates worried about the prospect of "Big Brother" monitoring how and where users surf the Web. The Mountain View-based company has proposed to track users' locations and use that data to match them with advertising from neighborhood businesses. Google said it would keep the information for up to 180 days before deleting it. But privacy advocates are worried the information Google collects on wireless Internet surfers could be used by law enforcement agencies and private litigators to place users under surveillance.

• 100 landings on Scots soil by US jets with torture links - AIRCRAFT linked to the CIA's alleged programme of torture flights have landed at Scottish airports more than 100 times in recent years, the government admitted yesterday. Private jets used by CIA front companies and contractors have routinely used runways at Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick, Aberdeen, Inverness and even Wick, the Department of Transport confirmed. The RAF base at Leuchars in Fife has also been used.

• Blair's inner circle and its ferocious grab for power: From forcing through ID cards to the erosion of parliamentary scrutiny, a determined clique is hijacking our democracy - In January the commissioner of the Metropolitan police got into enormous trouble for saying that he couldn't see why the Soham murders had become such a big story. Like every other journalist, I marvelled at his inability to see what makes a story run. But now, as I follow the news, I have developed a blind spot of my own. Piece by piece, month by month, Tony Blair's administration is removing the safeguards that protect all of us from the whims of a government and the intrusions of a powerful state. It is engaged in a ferocious power-grab. Yet this story has not seized the imagination of the media or the public. In our failure to respond, the government must be reading a tacit acceptance that it can do what it chooses, because we either don't notice or don't care.

• Alarm over shopping radio tags - Supermarkets have already brought everything under the sun under one roof, and along the way been accused of denuding the High Street of butcher, baker and candlestick-maker. Now they are introducing a new technology that some say threatens a fundamental invasion of our privacy. We are all familiar with barcodes, those product fingerprints that save cashiers the bother of keying in the code number of everything we buy.

• Debate Flares Over Vaccines and Autism: Activist Groups Spar With CDC Over Claims of Link Between Autism and Thimerosal By Todd Zwillich - Debate over a possible tie between mercury-containing vaccines and autism flared up this week as activist groups launched a campaign accusing federal health agencies and prominent researchers of manipulating scientific findings on the link.

• TITANIC BILL TO SINK PARLIAMENT - The government’s Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill intends to let ministers make up a law, and make it law, without taking it through Parliament first.1 The Bill is now set for its final reading in the House of Commons. And every Labour MP has so far voted for it. 'We were misinformed' says Paul Flynn, Labour MP for Newport. In a recent interview he is the first to break ranks and admit this. 'We accepted it at face value. It hadn’t been properly discussed. It didn’t emerge on the radar. We accepted the assurances that it was a deregulatory Bill, with no malign effects.' He was, he added, very unhappy.

Saturday 08th April 2006: -

• Fury at UK school fingerprinting - A PARENT says he will battle his son's school through the courts over plans to take pupils' fingerprints. Children at Princes Risborough Primary School are required to have their fingerprints scanned in order to borrow books from the library. The biometric data system has been in place for several years, but Neil Mitchell says it is an infringement of his son's privacy rights. Mr Mitchell, 33, of Hunt Road, High Wycombe, said: "My personal permission was not sought.

• Digital Angel Completes RFID Antenna Project at Bonneville Dam - Digital Angel Corporation, an advanced technology company in the field of rapid and accurate identification, location tracking and condition monitoring of high-value assets, announced that its 16-foot by 16-foot RFID (radio frequency identification) antenna designed to electronically track the salmon population in the Columbia River in Oregon will be installed today near the Bonneville Lock and Dam. The antenna, thought to be the world's largest RFID tower, was developed by Digital Angel in conjunction with the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA).

• Uranium’s Effect On DNA Established - The use of depleted uranium in munitions and weaponry is likely to come under intense scrutiny now that new research that found that uranium can bind to human DNA. The finding will likely have far-reaching implications for returned soldiers, civilians living in what were once war-zones and people who might live near uranium mines or processing facilities. Uranium - when manifested as a radioactive metal - has profound and debilitating effects on human DNA. These radioactive effects have been well understood for decades, but there has been considerable debate and little agreement concerning the possible health risks associated with low-grade uranium ore (yellowcake) and depleted uranium.

• Biometric Scanning Offers Vending New Payment Options: Benefits in this emerging type of cashless transaction technology include increased security and confidentiality of personal and financial data - While 2006 is expected to be the year radio frequency identification (RFID) contactless payment technology gains a foothold among vending operators, there are other technologies preparing to compete for a preferred position. Biometric payment technology may well become a popular settlement option. For some time, biometric authentication seemed to be a technology in search of a quality application. The idea of linking personal characteristics (e.g., fingerprint, retina, iris, hand, face, etc.) to a database of settlement sources is beginning to be adopted in grocery stores and retail outlets across the country, and it may impact select vending accounts.

• Secrets of the CIA - 'Ground breaking documentary work and life changing stories that reveal the truth of what the CIA does to promote its budgets and increase its influence globally. Few people will ever learn the dangers and illegal powers that this organization has over the honest and democratic ideals of life in America. The CIA must be exposed and democracy brought to this organization or its abuses will continue to grow and put our country in more danger.'

• Australian man jailed on evidence derived from torture - In what was obviously a political test case for the barrage of “anti-terrorist” laws introduced in Australia since 2002, Jack Thomas, a young Melbourne worker, was sentenced to five years’ jail last week. It was a severe sentence, given the jury had thrown out the only charges against him that he was actually involved in, or intended to carry out, terrorist acts. Thomas, 32, was convicted on two lesser charges—receiving funds from a terrorist organisation and travelling on a false passport. Yet, he was given a non-parole period of two years, so that even with “good behaviour” and allowance for the four months he has already served awaiting trial, he will not be freed before 2008.

• Riya software grows accustomed to your face - Riya's Web site helps users match names with faces. by RiyaThe Silicon Valley startup Riya has unveiled nifty technology that can "recognize" faces in your digital photos - like something you might expect to see in an FBI lab. And that helps organize and tag photos in a fraction of the time it would take to manually enter a label for each one. Riya's free software has only recently become available in "beta" test form. Though the software is buggy and imperfect (often the case with betas), it's a lot of fun watching Riya guess which faces go together.

• I am not a barcode .. I am a free man! - ICAME across a frightening article on my current travels that filled me with gloom and foreboding (any number of permutations possible here, all of which involve Hearts). Saudi Arabia is to trial a new dashboard-mounted satellite-based system that displays the speed limit of the road you are travelling on and the actual speed you are doing. If you are breaking the speed limit you are given a warning to reduce your speed. If you consistently ignore this warning the word "TICKET" then flashes up and a speeding ticket is sent to your home address.

• Film premiere puts novel back to No 1 in USA - A NEW wave of The Da Vinci Code mania is breaking before the release of Hollywood’s screen adaptation of Dan Brown’s novel, starring Tom Hanks. An advertising campaign before the film’s premiere at the Cannes Film Festival has driven the book back to No 1 on American bestseller lists for the first time in two years. The novel’s US publisher has just printed five million copies of a paperback edition, dwarfing the two-million first run of a Harry Potter book.

Friday 07th April 2006: -

• NY detectives found guilty of working as Mafia hitmen - TWO highly-decorated former New York detectives have been convicted of moonlighting as hitmen for the mob in one of the most sensational cases of police corruption in the city's history. Louis Eppolito, 57, and Steven Caracappa, 64, could get life in prison for their roles in eight murders committed between 1986 and 1990, when they were on the payroll of both the police and Luchese crime family underboss Anthony "Gaspipe" Casso. Federal prosecutor Daniel Wenner described the case as "the bloodiest, most violent betrayal of the badge the city has seen".

• Bird Flu Outbreak Coincided With Drill: Foot and Mouth example should set alarm bells ringing if pandemic occurs - Britain's bird flu scare that officials are now warning could spread to other areas of Scotland coincided with an exercise that drilled a response to an avian flu outbreak. The drill included the involvement of Downing Street and the Ministry of Defence. The BBC reports that the exercise was cancelled as soon as the discovery of the H5 virus in the dead swan in Fife was made.

• Disney Phone Service Features GPS Tracking Of Children - The Walt Disney Company unveiled a new wireless phone service Wednesday that allows parents to track their children on a map using Global Positioning System technology, according to Local 6 News. The new "family friendly" service, called Disney Mobile, allows parents decide who their children can call and when, the report said.

• Google aims to track users with wi-fi - Google aims to be able to track its users to within 100-200 feet of their location through new wireless networks in order to serve them with relevant advertising from local businesses. The leading internet search company, which depends on advertising for 99 per cent of its revenues, was selected on Wednesday by San Francisco as its preferred bidder to provide a basic free wi-fi internet service covering the entire city.

• Media broadcasts corporate advertisements as 'news', says report - 'Many television news stations, including some from the nation's largest markets, are continuing to broadcast reports as news without disclosing that the segments were produced by corporations pitching new products, according to a report to be released today by a group that monitors the news media. Television news directors have said that the segments, known as video news releases, are almost never broadcast, but the group assembled television videotape from 69 stations that it said had broadcast fake news segments in the past 10 months.'

• Boy who posed with guns convicted - An Evergreen high school student who posted Internet photos of himself posing with guns was convicted Tuesday on a charge of possession of a handgun by a juvenile. The conviction came despite his parents' testimony that they gave him permission to handle guns in their home without their supervision. Colorado law prohibits possession of a handgun by a juvenile, but permits parents to give them permission to possess guns in their homes, even without supervision. "This is a very difficult case," defense attorney Barrett Weisz said in his closing argument after a trial that began Friday. "We have pictures that raise images of the Columbine massacre. But if we set the specter of Columbine aside," he argued, the boy should be acquitted and sent home. The photos were posted on the popular teen web site myspace.com. The photos showed him posing with a number of rifles and three handguns — a .45 caliber pistol, and .22 and .357 revolvers..

• MIT Builds Batteries with Viruses - Normally, one would associate the word virus with something negative, whether it is a malfunctioning desktop computer or a sickness. However, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have "trained" viruses in a lab to create a miniature battery. By manipulating a few genes within the virus, researchers were able to get the organism to grow and then assemble itself into a functional electronic device. They hope to be able to build a battery that could be as small as a grain of rice.

Thursday 06th April 2006: -

• Spy in sky puts police on track - RACEGOERS at this year's Grand National will be filmed by CCTV cameras fixed to helicopters in an effort to identify thieves. The Spotterscope will be used by police at the race meeting for the first time from today until Saturday. The high-zoom camera can identify a face from a height of more than 800ft. The system, fitted to Merseyside Police's £2.8 million Eurocopter C135, can also identify and check the registration numbers of every car it passes.

• Bush 'ordered leak', ex-aide says - President Bush authorised the leak of secret intelligence to the New York Times to help defend the war in Iraq, a former top White House aide has said. The claim comes from Lewis Libby, the former chief-of-staff to Vice-President Dick Cheney. Mr Libby is facing trial for allegedly obstructing an investigation into a different leak. He is accused of lying to prosecutors investigating who revealed the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame to the press.

• Drink memory loss effect revealed - Every young Aberdonian surveyed on drinking habits said they had suffered memory loss, a study has found. And the research of Scotland's alcohol culture found almost half of the city's 18 to 35-year-olds had experienced the problem in the last week. About 300 people were surveyed in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Falkirk. The majority said drinking was part of their lifestyle.

• FOX News Makes Tom DeLay A Saint And Cynthia McKinney The Criminal - FOX News’ high-tech lynching of Cynthia McKinney continued unabated last night (4/5/06), at least between 9-10 PM ET, during Hannity & Colmes. But Tom DeLay was granted sainthood for having resigned his Congressional seat in the midst of legal troubles and an uncertain re-election. DeLay promptly proved what kind of a stand-up guy he really is by calling McKinney a racist anti-Semite.

• British filmmaker death ruled murder: Coroner's jury decides James Miller, who was fatally shot by IDF soldier in Gaza-Egypt border area while filming documentary, was murdered - A British filmmaker fatally shot in Gaza by an IDF soldier was murdered, a coroner's jury decided Thursday. James Miller, 34, was shot in the neck by an IDF soldier in the Gaza-Egypt border area of Rafah in May 2003 while filming a documentary about the impact of violence on children in the region.

• Night-vision cameras aim to stop graffiti - Graffiti taggers who plaster their destructive artwork on public and private property 125,000 times a year may soon find themselves on Candid Camera thanks to a new high-tech surveillance system capable of zooming in on faces and license plate numbers in the dark. The Department of Streets and Sanitation bought the $40,265 system from Telecom General Contractors Inc. to combat two vexing problems that can create what City Hall calls an "atmosphere of despair" in Chicago neighborhoods: graffiti and fly-dumping.

• 77 TV stations aired 'fake news reports' - A study by a group that monitors the media reveals that, over a ten month span, 77 television stations from all across the nation aired video news releases without informing their viewers even once that the reports were actually sponsored content, RAW STORY has found. One "news report" that aired on three stations relied on a video news release (VNR) produced by a PR firm on behalf of General Motors which was even apparently based on a "false claim."

"Some decent person has put together an entry on Wikipedia for Problem > Reaction > Solution which includes links back to us at cremationofcare.com and our particular video which is hosted on Alex Jones' prisonplanet.com. I would like to commend whoever has put this on and provide a link here."  Joseph Skelton, Webmaster 06th April 2006

Wednesday 05th April 2006: -

• We're teetering on the brink of an elective dictatorship - From time to time I, like many of us, muse on what is wrong with the people who run our country. Are they stupid? Are they naïve? Or are they actually downright wicked? Being a charitable sort, I have always tended to the first two options: and, because I rather like him, I have especially always tended towards them when considering the occasional and usually absurd pronouncements of the Lord High Chancellor of England and Keeper of the Queen's Conscience, Charlie Falconer.

• Government not trusted with citizen data - Less than a quarter of the population trust the government to protect their identity online, whereas most people trust their banks to do so. A survey of 2,000 people polled by YouGov found that 70% trusted banks to protect their online identities, while just 23% trusted the government. The government was, however, ahead of online retailers, which were trusted by just 21% of respondents, and ISPs, who were trusted by just 11%.

• HONG KONG: Spy law a `blow to privacy rights' - In the two months since the High Court rejected the constitutionality of the government's current provisions on eavesdropping and wiretapping, privacy rights advocates and pro-democratic legislators have launched a heavy assault on the government as it tries to quickly push a law through the Legislative Council ahead of its August court- imposed deadline.

• Terror fear over Clash fan's song - A phone salesman was hauled off a London-bound plane by police after his taste in music aroused terrorism fears. Harraj Mann, 23, asked a taxi driver to play The Clash's London Calling through the vehicle's stereo. But the cabbie rang police after he heard the song which includes the line: "War is declared and battle come down" Police said Mr Mann, from Hartlepool, was released without charge after his arrest on board a Bmi plane at Durham Tees Valley Airport. Durham Police said a security check revealed he did not pose a threat.

• DHS Press Secretary Faces Internet Sex Charges - "We will go after child predators, no matter where they live, to protect our innocent children," Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said in a statement. "This investigation shows that the long arm of the law can reach anyone, anywhere, anytime, who tries to harm our youth." A Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official will celebrate his birthday this year from a jail cell. Brian Doyle, Homeland Security's deputy press secretary, was arrested on sex charges resulting from a sting operation conducted out of Florida, Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd disclosed Tuesday.

• Amnesty report claims CIA used private flights to hide terror rendition - Amnesty International has released a report claiming that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) used private aircraft operators and front companies to hide CIA rendition flights and "black site" detention facilities in foreign countries. The report includes a lengthy account drawn upon the only public testimony of detainees held at "black sites," that of three Yemeni nationals who "disappeared" in U.S. custody for more than eighteen months but were never charged with any terrorism-related offences.

• MasterCard brings RFID payments to Australia - MasterCard has announced the first trial of its radio frequency identification (RFID) credit card technology in Australia, which allows card-holders to make small payments without supplying a signature or personal identification number for verification. The credit card company today announced 35,000 Commonwealth Bank customers in New South Wales (NSW) would be issued new credit cards with the RFID PayPass technology. The cards can be used at more than 150 merchants, including 7-Eleven and Subway outlets.

• Sarandon: 'This is 1984' - Movie star Susan Sarandon is terrified US society is mirroring George Orwell's chilling book 1984 - because individual rights are being trampled on. The Thelma & Louise star was stunned by the "fraudulent" 2000 election of George W Bush - and is keen for the country's next election to be closely monitored, according to website The Scoop.

Tuesday 04th April 2006: -

• Former Head Of Star Wars Program Says Cheney Main 9/11 Suspect: Official version of events a conspiracy theory, says drills were cover for attacks - The former head of the Star Wars missile defense program under Presidents Ford and Carter has gone public to say that the official version of 9/11 is a conspiracy theory and his main suspect for the architect of the attack is Vice President Dick Cheney.

• HIJACK FILM FURY: A MOVIE based on a 9/11 jet hijack has sparked outrage in America - A trailer for United 93 - about the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania - shows the passengers' heroic revolt as well as real footage of a plane heading for the Twin Towers. People who saw it stormed out of cinemas, claiming it was too harrowing. Many have vowed to boycott the film when it is released and one cinema has withdrawn the promo after complaints.   (COMMENTARY: Total dis-info and propaganda, as if the official story of 9/11 isn't a 'movie' in and of itself!  You can see the trailer via here.)

• Bush Administration Media Collusion Memos Surface - In a disturbing turn of events for an administration already plagued by sagging poll numbers and waning support for the Iraq war, Friday's revelation that the Bush Administration issued direct guidelines for programming to media outlets is troubling even die-hard conservatives. Late Friday a series of memos between senior Bush Administration officials and management at Viacom, Inc. were leaked calling for the media giant to focus on stories and programming choices that "reinforce the Administration's positions" and to "ignore and/or discredit points of view in opposition to the Bush Administration's foreign policy objectives for the purposes of National Security."

Monday 03rd April 2006: -

• Revealed: victims of UK's cold war torture camp - Photographs of victims of a secret torture programme operated by British authorities during the early days of the cold war are published for the first time today after being concealed for almost 60 years. The pictures show men who had suffered months of starvation, sleep deprivation, beatings and extreme cold at one of a number of interrogation centres run by the War Office in postwar Germany. A few were starved or beaten to death, while British (our emphasis) soldiers are alleged to have tortured some victims with thumb screws and shin screws recovered from a gestapo prison. The men in the photographs are not Nazis, however, but suspected communists, arrested in 1946 because they were thought to support the Soviet Union, an ally 18 months earlier.

• Myspace purges 200,000 questionable profiles - IN A MOVE to make its site safer for US kiddies, the megahost site MySpace.com, has purged more than 200,000 "objectionable" profiles from its site. The site, run by News Corp’s interweb division said that the purged sites included 'hate speech' and 'risqu' material. However, Ross Levinsohn, said that objectionable sites were a problem that’s endemic to the internet – not just MySpace. He said that the purge will mean that the site has just become much safer.

• NO2ID: New ID agency mocks public - By choosing to set up a new government agency to run its National Identity Register (scheme on April 1st (barely 48 hours after the Identity Cards Act 2006 became law) the Home Office is mocking parliament and the British public, say campaign group NO2ID. Phil Booth, NO2ID National Coordinator said: “Charles Clarke started by sneering at the public, saying anyone who opts out of the scheme is ‘foolish'. Now the Home Office shows its contempt for the parliamentary process by having a ‘new agency’ ready to open, and choosing April Fools Day – a Saturday – to do it. This joke agency is going to nationalise you and rent your identity back to you with your passport. What a hoot for Mr Clarke! What fools the public are to resent it!”

• Sexy media a siren call to promiscuity - Sexually charged music, magazines, TV and movies push youngsters into intercourse at an earlier age, perhaps by acting as kind of virtual peer that tells them everyone else is doing it, a study said on Monday. "This is the first time we've shown that the more kids are exposed to sex in media the earlier they have sex," said Jane Brown of the University of North Carolina, chief author of the report.

• Top Scientist Advocates Mass Culling 90% Of Human Population: Fellow professors and scientists applause and roar approval at elite's twisted and genocidal population control agenda - A top scientist gave a speech to the Texas Academy of Science last month in which he advocated the need to exterminate 90% of the population through the airborne ebola virus. Dr. Eric R. Pianka's chilling comments, and their enthusiastic reception again underscore the elite's agenda to enact horrifying measures of population control.

• Blair launches FBI-style crime squad - Tony Blair said today that Britain's new FBI-style crime squad would make "life hell" for the "Mr Bigs" of organised crime. The prime minister said the Serious Organised Crime Agency, which officially starts work today, would "hit hard" against people-trafficking, drugs gangs and major fraud and counterfeiting. Soca is chaired by the former MI5 chief Sir Stephen Lander, and includes other members of the intelligence and security services and around 2,000 agents among its 4,200-plus staff. It will be Britain's first non-police law-enforcement agency.

• Supreme Court won't review Bush's terrorism powers - A divided Supreme Court declined on Monday to decide whether President George W. Bush has the power in the war on terrorism to order American citizens captured in the United States held in military jails without any criminal charges or a trial. By a 6-3 vote, the court sided with the Bush administration and refused to hear an appeal by Jose Padilla, who was confined in a military brig in South Carolina for more than three years after Bush designated him an "enemy combatant."

• Official: Iraq war led to July bombings - The first official recognition that the Iraq war motivated the four London suicide bombers has been made by the government in a major report into the 7 July attacks. Despite attempts by Downing Street to play down suggestions that the conflict has made Britain a target for terrorists, the Home Office inquiry into the deadliest terror attack on British soil has conceded that the bombers were inspired by UK foreign policy, principally the decision to invade Iraq.   (RELATED: See our '7/7 London Bombings' archive documenting the staged attacks.)  

Sunday 02nd April 2006: -

• Knife-scanners planned for all UK - Metal detectors will be used at train stations across the UK to stop people carrying knives. Police have been testing the scheme in London for the past two months, to target people carrying knives on the train and the Underground. They used airport style scanners and sniffer dogs to check passengers. Since the project, called Operation Shield, started, almost 10,000 people have been scanned, 68 knives seized and 100 people arrested.

• DNA kits may help catch out spitters - PEOPLE who spit at Bexley's bus drivers could find they are caught by their DNA. London Central, which operates 160 buses from the Bexleyheath garage, has given all its 420 drivers a DNA testing kit. The kit contains gloves, evidence bag and two sterile swabs. If spat on, the driver can collect the sample and hand it over to police. The sample will then be matched with details contained on the national DNA database. It is hoped that the kits will be an added aid in identifying offenders and pressing charges.   (COMMENTARY: Granted, spitters like all 'yobs' ought to face consequences for their actions, however this is just another excuse to add to the DNA database which is currently under construction in the UK.)

• EXCLUSIVE: ANTI-TERROR SPIES LOSE THREE LAPTOPS - EXCLUSIVE Secrets left at rail station REVEALED - Amazing MI5 blunder with Al-Qaida dossier - BUNGLING MI5 spies have lost THREE secret laptops - two thought to contain vital details about Al-Qaida plans for terror attacks. Security chiefs are desperately worried that the astonishing blunder could lead to information about Osama bin Laden's network falling into the wrong hands. They refused to explain how those two computers went missing. But the third, with sensitive assessments of Northern Ireland security, was stolen when the owner put it down at a London rail station to buy a ticket.   (COMMENTARY: Dozy buggers!)

• Tories' mystery offshore backers lent £5m to bankroll election - The Conservatives relied on secret loans from offshore tax havens to fund their general election campaign, The Independent on Sunday has learned. Most of the £5m loans, which the party has hurriedly paid back to avoid disclosing the identity of the lenders, came from the offshore trusts of wealthy supporters who did not want the arrangements revealed. Only one loan of £25,000 came direct from a foreign national. The rest of the cash came from supporters not domiciled in Britain for tax purposes or those with family in Britain and offshore funds.

• Apology call over terror arrests - A key government adviser on terrorism has called on Staffordshire's most senior police officer to apologise to four men arrested at a county hospital. Police detained the men under the Terrorism Act at Stafford General Hospital but found no evidence of any crime before releasing them. Lord Carlile said the chief constable of Staffordshire should apologise and an independent inquiry should be held.

• Cell phone use raises brain tumor risk - Using a cell phone or mobile phone over a long period raises the risk of malignant brain tumors, according to a new Swedish study published in the International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health. The study found that heavy users of cell phones increased their risk of a malignant brain tumor on the side of the head the phone is used by 240 percent. By heavy users, the authors referred to those who used a cell phone for 2,000 hours or for one hour a day over a period of more than ten years.

• Mobile phone TV begins in Japan - Mobile phone users in Japanese cities can now watch digital TV on compatible mobile phones for the first time. The service is not the world's first, but it has the potential to be the biggest, by reaching more subscribers than in any other country. Finding new phones in Japanese shops has proved difficult as only limited quantities have been produced so far.

• UK Government to Shut Down GSM Networks - Mobile Gazette has learned of a shock move by the British Government - it has decided to take back the part of the radio spectrum currently used for GSM networks in the UK, and will force mobile operators to run a 3G-only service in the future. According to an interview in a secret location with someone claiming to be close to the heart of government (known to us only as "Barry"), the 900MHz and 1800MHz bands are to be taken away from mobile operators from 1st April 2007 and redeployed to other functions. This means that all mobile phone users in the UK will need to switch to a 3G handset before that date.

• Couch potatoes are sick, need drugs - Extreme laziness is a medical condition called motivational deficiency disorder (MoDeD), say Australian researchers. At least that's according to a report in the 1 April issue of the British Medical Journal (BMJ). The condition affects up to one in five Australians and is characterised by overwhelming and debilitating apathy, reports Sydney-based journalist and author Ray Moynihan. In severe cases it can be fatal because the condition reduces the motivation to breathe, his report adds.

• Blair to launch new war on the Lords - Tony Blair is preparing the biggest assault on the powers of the House of Lords for more than 50 years after a series of bruising battles with peers over Labour reforms. The Government plans to change the law to prevent the Upper Chamber blocking legislation that has been passed by the Commons. In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, Lord Falconer, the Lord Chancellor, said the powers of the Lords should be curtailed as part of a wider package of reforms that could include the creation of a mainly-elected Upper Chamber.

Saturday 01st April 2006: -

• New 'British FBI' will have more than 100 officers based abroad - Up to 140 British crime fighters will be based abroad working for Britain's new equivalent of the FBI - the Serious and Organised Crime Agency (Soca) - which officially opens it doors on Monday morning. The unprecedented scale of international collaboration is part of a drive to globalise the fight against organised crime, intercepting people traffickers and drug smugglers in the countries they pass through to reach Britain, the new chief of Soca, Sir Stephen Lander told the Guardian.

• IBM Explores Atomic-Level Computing - Researchers at IBM have developed a new technique for controlling magnetism at its fundamental, atomic level, a breakthrough that IBM claims could lead to new forms of data storage and even to microscopic computers. "We can now position atoms and then measure and control their magnetic interactions within precisely designed structures," said Andreas Heinrich of IBM's Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California. "This will enable us to explore data storage and computation on an entirely new scale," he said.

• Cancer chemical 'in soft drinks' - Worrying levels of the cancer-causing chemical benzene have been found in four soft-drinks available in the UK, the Food Standards Agency says. Benzene was undetectable in most of the 150 drinks tested. Two companies have already withdrawn their drinks from shops and the FSA says the other two should follow suit.

• 'Mind control' over muscle power - Thinking about the way your muscles work could physically boost your strength, research suggests. A Hull University team asked 30 subjects to do biceps curls and found their muscles worked more when they focused on what the muscles were doing. But lower rates of muscle activity were recorded when they simply visualised themselves lifting the weight. The study is being presented at the British Psychological Society conference in Cardiff on Friday.

• Report: Salem police used Taser on a pregnant woman - Salem police used a Taser to subdue a pregnant woman while responding to a domestic disturbance, according to officials. Overall, the Salem police department tells the Statesman-Journal that four people were arrested in the incident. Investigators say the pregnant woman who got tased was 19-year-old Briana Graves. She was taken to a Salem hospital, and later released. The four people arrested were 46-year-old John Graves, 44-year-old Michele Graves, 20-year-old Michael Degroat, and 19-year-old Jessica Peiffer. Police say Michele and John Graves face charges of drug possession and distribution, criminal mistreatment and child neglect.

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