New Years Eve: Sunday 31st December 2006: -

• After a sinister year, it's down to us to protect our freedoms: In 2007, we should demand that MPs of all parties fight to restore the liberties which have been stolen by this government - An article in the New Scientist has reported that a rhesus monkey named Murph and a bottlenose dolphin called Natua, which lives in a harbour in Florida, have both exhibited a fascinating ability when doing reward-based tests. As well as being able to understand when they answered right or wrong, they learned to signal when they didn't know something and so avoid the disappointment of being wrong. Like Mastermind contestants, they elected to 'pass'. Knowing what you don't know is a type of abstract thought process called metacognition. A pigeon doesn't know what it doesn't know, but Murph and Natua do and that means they are both very intelligent and have a basic requirement for consciousness. It occurred to me that during 2006, most of us have been exhibiting precisely the opposite to Murph and Natua's talent. We don't know what we know. Or, rather, we chose not to know the incontestable and unequivocal truth about the character of this government. Certainly, we know about the sale of peerages, the scandal over the manipulation of legal advice and intelligence before the Iraq war, the constant move to centralise power and authority at the expense of ordinary people and the associated contempt for parliamentary scrutiny.

• Restore habeas rights - Earlier this month, a federal judge tossed out the case of Guantanamo Bay detainee Salim Ahmed Hamdan, citing the Military Commissions Act that Congress approved last September. This ghastly law gives the president unlimited authority to interrogate and detain captured enemy combatants and strips detainees of habeas corpus rights. Senate Democrats should use their newfound power to repeal this tyrannical law. It has done such grave damage to the Constitution and to this nation's credibility on human rights issues that it rivals the Alien and Sedition Acts as a low point of American democracy. In the wake of the Nov. 7 elections which shifted control of Congress to the Democrats, lawmakers should waste no time in revisiting this retrograde law, which violates the most sacred American values and runs the Constitution through a paper shredder.

• AUSTRALIA: Big Brother to keep eye on New Year's Eve trouble spots - A SOPHISTICATED closed-circuit television TV surveillance centre will be operating over New Year's Eve to monitor revellers in The Rocks for the first time - 10 years after a study identified it as a notorious December 31 crime hot spot. Planning Minister Frank Sartor predicts more than 100,000 people will crowd into the historic district tonight and said the remote security camera system will have 14 cameras set up at key points. "Rangers and police can also be quickly dispatched to specific locations to deal with any incidents caught on camera," Mr Sartor said. A 1997 study by the NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research identified George Street in The Rocks as one of Sydney's top five "hot spots" for robberies and assaults. An assault occurred almost every day in the area. At least 23 per cent of the attacks occurred near a pub.

• Pesticide effects database released - The Eureka-based Californians for Alternatives to Toxics has unveiled on its Web site an assembled database of hundreds of scientific studies and research documents related to the harmful effects of pesticides and herbicides on amphibians and reptiles. CAT Executive Director Patty Clary said the database project began about six years ago when a CAT member in the Southern Humboldt County area alerted the group that swimming holes in several local rivers and creeks were no longer populated by frogs where frogs had always been observed. “This was a very frightening situation,” Clary said.

• Reopen 9/11 investigation, local group says - A Burlington group has gathered nearly enough signatures on a petition to put a ballot question before voters on Town Meeting Day urging a new investigation of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001. Spokesman Marc Estrin, a Burlington writer and musician, said the group has been meeting for several months and has more than 1,200 of the roughly 1,350 signatures needed to place the matter on the ballot. The question would advise the Vermont congressional delegation to demand a new 9/11 investigation.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com) 

  

• Radio tagging of ads raises privacy issues - Stores in central Tokyo are set to beam news of special offers, menus and coupons to passers-by in a trial run of a radio-tagging system. The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project, which launches in the glitzy Ginza district n ext month, sends shoppers information from nearby shops via a network of radio-frequency identification tags, infrared and wireless transmitters, according to the project's Web site. Shoppers can either rent a prototype reader or get messages on their cell phones. The tags and transmitters identify a reader or phone's location and match it to information provided by shops. RFID uses a tiny computer chip to store data, which are transmitted wirelessly by a tiny antenna to a receiver - in this case, the reader or the phone. The technology has raised concerns about the erosion of privacy in society.

• Madrid bomb ends plan for talks - A car bomb exploded at Madrid's international airport yesterday and Spain's government, blaming the Basque group ETA, ended plans for peace talks with the separatists. The blast left two people missing - Ecuadorans who were believed to have been sleeping in their parked car - and 26 injured, most with damage to their ears from the shock wave. Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero said the government would halt talks with ETA, a Basque acronym "Basque Homeland and Liberty", which had agreed to stop attacks in a cease-fire declaration in March that was seen as the greatest hope of a peaceful end to a conflict that has raged for a decade.

Saturday 30th December 2006: -

• Scarlett, author of the Iraq war dossier, is knighted - John Scarlett, who took responsibility for the error-ridden dossier that justified the war in Iraq, is knighted in today's New Year's Honours list. The award will enrage peace campaigners, who have accused the veteran spymaster of saving Tony Blair's skin over the flawed case for the invasion. The news came as a British soldier was killed by a roadside bomb in Basra yesterday, the 127th to die since the invasion in 2003. Sir John, the head of MI6, played a key role in the Hutton Inquiry hearings into the death of the weapons expert David Kelly, three years ago. He steadfastly defended the dossier, which contained the notorious claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes. And he dismissed accusations he had bowed to pressure to "sex up" the document's conclusions.

• Bomb blast at Madrid airport terminal used by Gibraltar flights - There was a bomb blast early this morning in Madrid airport, in the parking area in the terminal used by Iberia for its Gibraltar flights. There was a previous call warning of the car bomb, with another called later saying that ETA was behind the blast. Spanish police had cordoned off the area before the blast which was said to have prevented serious consequences for passengers and others using Terminal 4. Spanish official sources said that a van had exploded. Madrid was put on alert. Police, ambulances and fire brigade raced to the airport from shortly after 9am. Some injured persons were reported. There was traffic chaos, with access to the airport halted. Passengers were being kept in arriving aircraft, said early reports. Departing flights were also affected. There is a daily flight from Madrid to Gibraltar at noon.

• X-Ray Tests Both Security and Privacy - The modifications made for the TSA "trade off detection for a level of privacy," Richard Mastronardi, a company vice president, told an aviation security conference in November. When the machine is programmed to maximize privacy protection, "you start to lose the ability to see" plastic explosives. Scientists have struggled for four years to build what seemed impossible: an airport X-ray machine that can look through clothing to spot hidden weapons without producing explicit photos of a passenger's body. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) will start testing such a device next month in Phoenix. It is the first new passenger-screening machine deployed since mid-2004.

• identiMetrics’ Finger Scanning ID Platform Selected By Focal Tech’s School Lunch Software System, LunchTime® – identiMetrics, a recognized leader in the development and marketing of biometric finger scanning identification solutions, has been selected by Focal Tech to incorporate their proprietary software, identiFi™, into Focal Tech’s School Lunch Software System, LunchTime® Focal Tech, Inc., School Lunch Software experts, headquartered in State College, PA, has been a leading provider of IT and e-Business software solutions since 2001. Their LunchTime® School Lunch Software System is marketed successfully in schools nationwide. LunchTime® allows for an automatic import of existing student information, is used for Federal and State Reimbursement Tracking reports, allows parents to view all purchases and fund accounts online in real time, and improves lunch line efficiency.

• Execution of a subdued Saddam was quick-witnesses - A subdued Saddam Hussein was led shackled into a hall early on Saturday in Baghdad, a noose was placed around his neck and a guard pulled a lever that swiftly ended his life and a chapter of Iraq's history. Sami al-Askari, a prominent Shi'ite politician close to Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, witnessed the event and told Reuters the process of Saddam's execution lasted about 25 minutes but once he was dropped through a trap door his death was very quick. "One of the guards pulled a lever and he dropped half a meter into a trap door. We heard his neck snap instantly and we even saw a small amount of blood around the rope," Askari told Reuters.

• CNN: Is GOP Rep. 'fueling' Oklahoma City bombing conspiracy theories? - Earlier today, during an interview on CNN, the Republican chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee -- which just released a report rebuking the FBI on its investigation of the 1999 Oklahoma City bombing -- was asked if he was helping to "fuel conspiracy theories." American Morning's Miles O'Brien told outgoing Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, (R-CA) that he had "raised a lot of questions that are just kind of 'out there' in the conspiracy theorist world." O'Brien mentioned different theories relating to Middle East terrorists, Iraqi officials, neo-Nazi bankrobbers, and the alleged John Doe #2. "Doesn't this just add more fuel to those conspiracy theories?" O'Brien wondered. "Well there's nothing wrong to adding to a conspiracy theory when there might be a conspiracy, in fact," Rohrabacher responded.

Friday 29th December 2006: -

• National eye scan database grows - Twenty-six states are participating in an eye-scanning project that helps identify missing children or adults afflicted with memory loss. Nationwide, an effort is under way to image irises of 5 million children into a database over the next few years, the Houston Chronicle said Friday. Sheriff's departments, including the Galveston County (Texas) Sheriff's Department in Texas, in 46 states have committed to the project. The system can scan an eye and match an iris in about five seconds after comparing it with stored images, Biometric Intelligence & Identification President Sean Mullin said. Children with an iris scan in the system cannot be identified unless they are in a county that has the Children's Identification Database Project equipment.   (QUESTION: Ask yourself this... this program is for children, not a database to catalogue everybody.  So what happens when these children become adults?  We are being told that the data will be 'removed' (deleted or moved somewhere else?) but as the noose of the police state tightens and the control grid expands can we honestly say at this stage that the information will not be used ad a building block for the New World Order)

• Child abuse in the information age: In today’s climate, the nature of sex crimes involving children is changing because the nature of childhood itself is changing. Information technology may be the single largest factor to account for this change - In September 2002 the parents of an 11-year-old British girl had a microchip implanted into her arm, as the result of widespread panic following the tragic abduction and murder of two girls in Cambridgeshire. The chip would send a signal via a mobile phone network that could be located at any time. Some object that this surveillance is too extreme, but several years down the line companies have learned to exploit this fear among parents by marketing child-friendly mobile phones outfitted with Global Positioning System (GPS) technology to let parents monitor their children's whereabouts and censor obscene content.

• ID card project branded rudderless - LOCAL campaigners against the government's controversial ID cards scheme say radical changes to identity database plans show that the Home Office has no idea how to implement the multi-billion pound scheme. The government has abandoned plans to build a new computer system for the national identity cards scheme, despite three previous years of announcements that a new "clean" database is essential for ID cards. Instead, sensitive personal identity details will be held on three separate existing databases, adding to fears about security.

• Bradford council leader calls on Government to abort ID card plans - Hopkins The leader of Bradford Council has urged the Government to abort plans to introduce national identity cards and instead divert a significant share of the funding towards improving Yorkshire's transport network. Kris Hopkins said he believed ID cards would prove to be "an enormous waste of money, particularly given the lack of evidence to suggest they will assist in the fight against terrorism or illegal working". He said: "The Home Office has already admitted the scheme will cost at least £5.4bn to set up and administer over the next ten years.

• Sheehan, protesters arrested at Bush ranch - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan and four other protesters have been arrested in Texas for blocking a road near President Bush's ranch. A state police spokesman said Sheehan and the others lay or sat in the road for about 20 minutes and refused requests to move. A spokesman for the Texas Department of Public of Safety said the demonstration briefly delayed state troopers who were to serve in escort motorcades for government officials meeting with Bush. A White House spokesman said no top advisors were held up.

• Paroxetine (Paxil or Paxil CR) can more than triple major cardiac birth defects: Roman Bystrianyk, "Paroxetine (Paxil or Paxil CR) can more than triple major cardiac birth defects", Health Sentinel, December 29, 2006 - Paroxetine, known by the brand names Paxil or Paxil CR in the United States, is a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI, antidepressant. Paroxetine was introduced in 1992 by GlaxoSmithKline and has become one of the most prescribed antidepressants on the market. In fact, paroxetine is the third most prescribed antidepressant in the United States and the most prescribed antidepressant in Canada.

• Diocese sued for alleged abuse by priest - A former Marine and Vietnam veteran filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington and a church in the city, accusing them of doing nothing to stop a priest from sexually abusing him and other boys in the 1950s and 60s. The diocese has acknowledged that the Rev. Edward B. Carley, who died in 1998 at age 82, abused a young male parishioner during his time as the assistant pastor at St. Ann's Catholic Church, from 1954 to 1962.

Thursday 28th December 2006: -

• READING ARTICLES LIKE THIS MAKES ME NAUSEOUS... BUT HERE IT IS, PASS THE SICKBAG!: How parents can help find missing kids - When a child goes missing, nothing is more important to authorities than time. Responding to that need, an industry has grown around helping police identify youngsters more quickly if they are abducted, run away or are involved in an accident. Yet police say such newfangled products, some of which sell for up to $60, can be easily replicated by parents with relatively little trouble. "The technology employed by many of these companies is readily accessible to the general public," said Sgt. Stephen Jones of the New Jersey State Police. Those in the child-identification industry say their software can do what traditional wallet-sized ID cards cannot: Send vital information about a missing child -- including a description, photographs, online chat names and favorite Web sites – to authorities. Police can then issue alerts to fellow law enforcement agencies.

• LUCIFER WORSHIPPING FREEMASONS MONITORING CHILDREN FOR THEIR 'SAFETY', ALARM BELLS ARE RINGING!: Masonic lodges refreshing ranks - Only if you looked closely could you recognize that the small, innumerable symbols on Ray Dietz's tie were the Masonic logo. The same symbol -- a G enclosed by a compass and right angle, or square -- adorned his ring. That's about the extent that Dietz, 55, of Ross, boasts that he's a member of the Freemasons, a fraternal organization that long operated behind a veil of secrecy, or so was the perception. THE ARTICLE CONTINUES...Besides the Masonic Village at Sewickley, local Masons have spearheaded a child identification program in which they fingerprint, photograph and videotape children and give parents the identifying information on CDs at no cost. The information can be given to police if the child goes missing. More than 150,000 children have participated, Dietz said.   (RELATED: See our Freemasonry archive)

• Homeland Security apologizes to Muslim woman who was strip searched - The Homeland Security Department has apologized to a Muslim woman who was detained at the Tampa airport and strip searched at a county jail, the Associated Press writes. Safana Jawad, 45, a Spanish citizen who was born in Iraq, was detained on April 11 because authorities thought she might be connected to a suspicious person -- who those authorities have not identified. Jawad was held for two days before being deported to England. The Times says Jawad "had flown to the United States to visit her son, Hany Kubba, 16, who then lived in Clearwater with her ex-husband, Ahmad Maki Kubba." Jawad told the Times that once she was in the local jail, she was subjected not only to a strip search but to a full body cavity search.   (RELATED: See our Police State archive)

• F.D.A. Says Food From Cloned Animals Is Safe: But would you buy a used car from them? - After years of delay, the Food and Drug Administration tentatively concluded today that milk and meat from some cloned farm animals are safe to eat. That finding, hailed by cloning companies and some livestock producers but criticized by consumer groups, could make the United States the first country to allow products from cloned livestock to be sold in grocery stores. Even if the F.D.A.’s assessment is formally approved in a few months, though, it is unlikely that consumers will see steaks or pork chops from cloned animals at the local supermarket with any regularity. Industry officials estimate there are now only about 500 or 600 cloned cows in the United States, out of roughly 44 million beef and dairy cows. There are roughly 200 cloned pigs.

• Big Brother's watching you - BIG brother really is watching you - as I discovered on a short trip to the town centre. It has become a popular phrase following the introduction of reality TV shows such as Big Brother, but on a shopping trip in Ilford, I was constantly watched on no less than eight cameras. As British people are among the most monitored in the world, with a high number of CCTV cameras watching our every move, I put Redbridge CCTV to the test to find out how well they could keep tabs on me in a busy shopping area.

• Biometric security device: Panasonic offers a range of new office products, including the biometric access control and security device - Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd., (India Branch Office) brings its five-city exhibition WORKSPECTRUM 2006 to Delhi this week. Panasonic WORKSPECTRUM 2006 aims at displaying not just the technological innovation and prowess but also the product diversity that the brand has on offer when it comes to redefining workspaces through the best in office automation, communications, security and audio-visual solutions. Leveraging on this unique customer and channel interaction platform, Panasonic also announced the launch and availability of new products in India including the biometric access control and security device—the Iris Recognition Camera System (BM-ET330)—and a revolutionary electronic whiteboard called the Interactive Panaboard (UB-8325).

Wednesday 27th December 2006: -

• BRAINWASHING OF THE YOUTH: Pupils’ photo ID card idea sparks anger - CALLS to introduce photo identity cards to Scotland's secondary schools have sparked a row over civil liberties. The Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association insists a voluntary card scheme would help defeat bullies who steal and use pupils' free-meal cards. But Glasgow MSP Patrick Harvie has criticised the SSTA's proposals claiming the cards would do nothing to address the causes of bullying but teach young people an ID card-culture is "normal".

• High School To Start Random Breathalyzer Tests - Los Gatos High School plans to join a growing number of high schools that perform random breath alcohol tests on students at dances and other events. Principal Doug Ramezane said he would institute the new policy after winter break because several students were found to be under the influence of alcohol at football games, the school's Coronation Ball and even during class this year. "It isn't OK that any of these kids are doing it," Ramezane said. "It probably isn't going to eliminate the problem completely, but we want to minimize alcohol and drug use."   (RELATED: See our Police State archive)

• Kansas Students Speak Out Against Tasers in Schools: Where grade-school hallways are patrolled by cops, some officers tote controversial electro-shock weapons that have left kids terrified and, in one town, saying enough is enough - Even before a police officer shocked a 15-year-old special-education student with a Taser in the assistant principal’s office last month, youth at Witchita high schools were organizing against the controversial weapons. The police officers who act as security guards in Wichita’s middle and high schools began carrying Tasers – gun-shaped electro-shock weapons – at the beginning of this school year. Student activists from across the district say they are angry the weapons were introduced without their input and scared because of news reports about people dying after police shocked them with Tasers.

• Justice rolls out OneDOJ, a massive law enforcement database - The Justice Department is building a massive database that allows state and local police officers around the country to search millions of case files from the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and other federal law enforcement agencies, The Washington Post reports. "OneDOJ," as the system is known, holds approximately 1 million case records and will triple in size over the next three years, Justice officials said. The files include investigative reports, criminal-history information, details of offenses, and the names, addresses and other information of criminal suspects or targets, officials said.

• Plan to retain all DNA samples - Labour leaders have announced controversial proposals to allow the police to keep the DNA of all crime suspects - even if they are later proved innocent. The party wants to make fighting crime a key part of its manifesto for next year's Holyrood elections. And Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson argued that giving police the power to retain DNA samples and fingerprints of all suspects would help catch more criminals and protect the public.

• US ex-President Gerald Ford dies - Last month he became the longest-living US president when he reached 93 years and 122 days, passing the record held by Ronald Reagan. Mr Ford was never elected president. He took office after Richard Nixon resigned over the Watergate scandal in 1974 but lost to Jimmy Carter in 1976.

• Military Commissions Act rooted in Nazi torture - On June 12, 1942 the chief of the Nazi Security Police (the branch of the Waffen SS that included the Gestapo) ordered the use of “third degree” interrogation methods against “Communists, Marxists, Jehovah's Witnesses, saboteurs, terrorists, members of resistance movements ... [and] anti-social elements.” The order permitted the use of those methods where preliminary investigation revealed that the prisoner could give information on important facts such as subversive activities but not to extort confessions of the prisoner's own crimes.

• Pentagon to build military courts at camp - Although the Pentagon estimates that no more than 80 of the 400 or so terrorism detainees currently held at Guantanamo Bay will ever be brought to trial, it is moving forward with a proposal to build a $125 million legal complex. Air Force Col. Morris Davis, chief prosecutor of the suspected al-Qaida and Taliban supporters, says he expects to file charges against 10 to 20 prisoners soon after new rules for trying detainees are presented to Defense Secretary Robert Gates in mid-January. The Supreme Court in June found the Bush administration's military tribunal system unconstitutional, and Congress passed the Military Commission Act in September to replace it. But less than 20 percent of the prisoners held at the U.S. naval facility are expected to faces charges under the new commissions. "At the end of the day, I think the total will be about 75, give or take a few," Davis said.

• 1995 Oklahoma bombing probe flayed: Congressional report criticizes FBI on lingering questions - The FBI failed to fully investigate information suggesting other suspects may have helped Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, allowing questions to linger more than a decade after the deadly attack, a congressional inquiry concludes. The House International Relations investigative subcommittee will release the findings of its two-year-review as early as Wednesday, declaring there is no conclusive evidence of a foreign connection to the attack but that far too many questions remain.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

Boxing Day: Tuesday 26th December 2006: -

• U.S. military deaths in Iraq pass 9/11 toll - The deaths of six more American soldiers in Iraq pushed the U.S. death toll to at least 2,978 -- five more than the number killed in the September 11 attacks -- as bombs killed more than 20 people in Baghdad on Tuesday. At least 89 U.S. soldiers have died so far this month, making it the deadliest this year after October's toll of 106, and adding pressure on President George W. Bush to find a strategy to extricate 135,000 U.S. troops from the messy war. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have died since the invasion in 2003 to topple Saddam Hussein, which Bush said was an integral part of the "war on terror" following the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. U.S. officials say 2,973 people were killed in those attacks, excluding the 19 hijackers.

• Saddam loses death sentence appeal - An Iraqi appeals court on Tuesday upheld a ruling that Saddam Hussein should hang for crimes against humanity, Iraq's national security adviser told Reuters. Under the statute governing the Iraqi High Tribunal, the death sentence must be carried out within the next 30 days. The former Iraqi leader and two former aides were sentenced to death in November for crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ites from the town of Dujail after he escaped assassination there in 1982. "The court just upheld the verdict and sentence," Iraq's national security adviser Mowaffaq al-Rubaie told Reuters.

• Project to tag Tokyo neighborhood with RFID: Will blanket Ginza shopping district - A location-based services trial that will see a famous Tokyo neighborhood blanketed with around 10,000 RFID (radio frequency identification) tags and other beacons got its start earlier this month. The Tokyo Ubiquitous Network Project seeks to install RFID, infrared and wireless transmitters throughout Tokyo's Ginza area, which is the most famous shopping area in the capital. The tags and transmitters will provide location-related information to people carrying prototype readers developed for the trial, said Ken Sakamura, a professor at The University of Tokyo and the leader of the project. The system works by matching a unique code sent out by each beacon with data stored on a server on the Internet. The data is obtained automatically by the terminal, which communicates back to the server via a wireless LAN connection and requests the data relevant to the beacon that is being picked up. Sakamura envisages the system will be able to provide users with basic navigation and information about the shops and stores in the area in at least four languages: Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean. For example, bringing the terminal close to an RFID tag on a street lamp will pinpoint the user's location and the system will be able to guide them to the nearest railway station while walking past a radio beacon in front of a shop might bring up details of current special offers or a menu for a restaurant.    (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• VeriChip Corporation Signs 3-year, $750,000 Distribution Contract: iChip Corporation to distribute the full VeriChip product line in South Africa - Applied Digital Solutions, Inc. and its subsidiary, VeriChip Corporation ("VeriChip"), announced today that iChip Corporation has acquired the distribution rights for all VeriChip radio frequency identification (RFID) products in South Africa, including VeriMed for patient identification, Roam Alert for wander prevention, HUGS for infant protection, and ToolHound. The three-year agreement is valued at US$750,000 and represents the first international deployment for the patient identification and medical information system.

• Big Brother Eyes Your Car - In Britain, you won’t drive without being watched from the air. Cameras everywhere. You are going over the speed limit, you are watched immediately. You are driving without a license, you are caught. That’s the way it will be in Big Brother’s Overview, according to Mary Jordan of the Washington Post Foreign Service. Millions of vehicles will come under the surveillance eyes. Not one wheel will miss the eye scan. License plates are read. They are put into a national detail bank. Within a second or two, vehicles will be tabbed and marked. Is the car stolen? Is it wheeling cocaine? Is it on its way from a crime scene? It will all be marked and scrolled.

• AUSTRALIA: Your data private?: Access all areas is on the cards - The Minister for Human Services, Joe Hockey, wants to convince Australians that the most complex and expensive IT project in Australian history - his proposed Access Card - is all about our convenience. It will, Hockey boasts, replace 17 other cards: for example the Medicare card, veterans' gold card and pensioner concession card. Sounds great, but most people don't have 17 cards. They have just one: their Medicare card. For most of us this means replacing our Medicare card with a supercharged version chock-full of personal information.

Christmas Day: Monday 25th December 2006: -

...from the team behind cremationofcare.com

• Worship God, not technology, Pope says on Christmas - Pope Benedict said in his Christmas message on Monday that mankind, which has reached other planets and worships technology, cannot live without God or turn its back on the hungry. It was shameful that in "this age of plenty and unbridled consumerism" many remained deaf to the "heart-rending cry" of those dying of hunger, thirst, disease, poverty, war and terrorism. In his "Urbi et Orbi" (to the city and the world) message, he made a heartfelt appeal for peace and justice in the Middle East, an end to the "brutal violence" in Iraq and a solution to fratricidal conflicts in Darfur and other parts of Africa.

• James Brown dies aged 73 - James Brown, the dynamic, pompadoured "Godfather of Soul", whose rasping vocals and revolutionary rhythms made him a founder of rap, funk and disco, died today in Atlanta, aged 73. Brown, whose career spanned six decades, was taken to hospital yesterday with pneumonia, said his agent, Frank Copsidas, and died with longtime friend Charles Bobbit at his side. Brown’s music was a major influence on modern music, and his work has been sampled by rap artists from the 1980s to this day, his famous 1960s and 1970s break beats becoming the basis of hip hop.

• I WONDER IF THIS RITUAL (A COUPLE OF DAYS AGO) HAS ANY CONNECTION TO THE FUNDAMENTAL CONCEPT OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST BEING CELEBRATED TODAY: Druids - and a wizard - celebrate solstice at Stonehenge - Pagans and druids assembled in the early morning mist for a celebration of the winter solstice at Stonehenge yesterday. Many were dressed in flowing robes in white or earth colours while one man came dressed as a wizard. A pagan wedding ceremony was conducted amid the stones. Experts are divided as to whether the prehistoric stone monument was put up to mark the winter solstice or or the summer solstice, which usually draws a bigger crowd.   (RELATED: See our archive Illuminati Symbolism: The Sun of God for background info)

• £1,000 fine for failing to update identity cards - A draconian regime of fines, which would hit families at times of marriage and death, is being drawn up by ministers to enforce the Identity Card scheme. Millions of people, from struggling students to newly-wed women and bereaved relatives, will face a system of penalties, netting more than £40 million for the Treasury. People would be fined up to £1,000 for failing to return a dead relative's ID card, while women who marry will have to pay at least £30 for a new card if they want to use their married name, risking a £1,000 fine if they do not comply.

• Can antidepressants make some people suicidal? - Can antidepressants really drive some people to commit suicide? That is a question the Food and Drug Administration has had to wrestle with for nearly two decades. For most of that time, the agency has insisted that SSRI-type antidepressants such as Prozac or Paxil are lifesavers that prevent suicide. When someone taking one of these medications considered or committed suicide, this tragedy was frequently explained as the result of the underlying illness, not the medicine. After years of denying any link, however, a panel of experts assembled by the FDA has recommended a warning be added to the official label. It will alert physicians and patients that the risk of suicide is almost twice as high among young adults taking such medicines.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

Christmas Eve: Sunday 24th December 2006: -

• Department of Homeland Security violated privacy - The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) admitted it violated the Privacy Act two years ago by obtaining more commercial data about US airline passengers than it had announced it would. Seventeen months ago, the government accountability office (GAO), Congress' auditing arm, reached the same conclusion -- the department's transportation security administration (TSA) "did not fully disclose to the public its use of personal information in its fall 2004 privacy notices as required by the Privacy Act."

• THE SCHMUCK OF THE IRISH: Bono receives honorary knighthood - Irish rock star and rights campaigner Bono has been awarded an honorary knighthood, the British Embassy in Dublin said on Saturday. "Her Majesty The Queen has appointed Bono to be an honorary Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire in recognition of his services to the music industry and for his humanitarian work," the embassy said in a statement. Fellow Irish rocker Bob Geldof, also a high-profile rights campaigner, received the same award in 1986. Honorary knighthoods are awarded to non-British nationals. A statement on the U2 Web site (www.u2.com) said Bono was "very flattered to be honoured, particularly if the honour ... opens doors for his long standing campaigning work against extreme poverty in Africa."

• 2001 Anthrax Attacks on U.S. Congress Were Inside Job - The perpetrator of the 2001 anthrax attack on Congress likely was a government scientist employed at the Army's Ft. Detrick, Md., bioterrorism lab having access to a "moonsuit" that made it possible to safely process and manufacture super-weapons-grade anthrax, a bioterrorism authority says. Although only a "handful" of scientists had the ability to perpetrate the crime, the culprit, or culprits, among them may never be identified as the FBI ordered the destruction of the anthrax culture collection at Ames, Ia., from which the Ft. Detrick lab got its pathogens, the authority said.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive for more background info)

• FBI Releases John Lennon Surveillance Documents - The final pages of US government documents detailing John Lennon's left-wing activities in the early 1970s have been released following a 25 year legal battle. Historian Jon Wiener first asked for the Federal Bureau Of Investigation (FBI) surveillance report on Lennon in 1981, just months after the former Beatle was murdered in December 1980, to aid his book Come Together: John Lennon In His Time.

• TREADING ON OLD GROUND AGAIN YET THEY CALL IT AN 'EXCLUSIVE' STORY: Found: The mystery white Fiat Uno driver in Diana death crash - The father of a man who was driving a white Fiat Uno in Paris the night Princess Diana was killed has sensationally admitted his son had the car painted red just hours after the fatal crash and revealed his suspicions that his son was involved. Le Van Thanh was questioned by French detectives in 1997 after forensic experts established the white paint on his car matched that found on the wreckage of the Mercedes Diana was travelling in.

Friday 22nd December 2006: -

• Australia: City under terror watch - UNMANNED closed-circuit television camera spy planes and trucks with hidden cameras are among options canvassed in a top secret report into security coverage in Adelaide. The report, considered by a top-level State Government and Adelaide City Council committee, is part of Premier Mike Rann's post-London bombing plan to improve CCTV coverage in the city centre. One Capital City Committee member, who wished to remain anonymous, said the report included options for "more coverage and different ways of surveillance, like trucks and unmanned planes and so on". "It was an enormous report and the dollars being talked about to fund it was amazing," the committee member said. "You'd think we were terrorist target No. 1."   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• George Orwell Was Right: Spy Cameras See Britons' Every Move - It's Saturday night in Middlesbrough, England, and drunken university students are celebrating the start of the school year, known as Freshers' Week. One picks up a traffic cone and runs down the street. Suddenly, a disembodied voice booms out from above: ``You in the black jacket! Yes, you! Put it back!'' The confused student obeys as his friends look bewildered. ``People are shocked when they hear the cameras talk, but when they see everyone else looking at them, they feel a twinge of conscience and comply,'' said Mike Clark, a spokesman for Middlesbrough Council who recounted the incident. The city has placed speakers in its cameras, allowing operators to chastise miscreants who drop coffee cups, ride bicycles too fast or fight outside bars. Almost 70 years after George Orwell created the all-seeing dictator Big Brother in the novel ``1984,'' Britons are being watched as never before. About 4.2 million spy cameras film each citizen 300 times a day, and police have built the world's largest DNA database. Prime Minister Tony Blair said all Britons should carry biometric identification cards to help fight the war on terror.

• North American Union leader says merger just crisis away: Leading intellectual force behind effort toward EU-style unity looks at future - Robert Pastor, a leading intellectual force in the move to create an EU-style North American Community, told WND he believes a new 9/11 crisis could be the catalyst to merge the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pastor, a professor at American University, says that in such a case the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP – launched in 2005 by the heads of the three countries at a summit in Waco, Texas – could be developed into a continental union, complete with a new currency, the amero, that would replace the U.S. dollar just as the euro has replaced the national currencies of Europe.

• US Digital Fingerprint Identification Systems Market to reach US$160 Million by 2010 - Systems for automatic identification of fingerprints are gaining momentum in US these days, and it’s expected that their sales will touch a mark of US$ 160 Million annually by the year 2010, indicate the govt. market researcher INPUT. On 5 December 2006, Motorola announced that it has won a contract by the govt. agencies of Norway. As part of the contract, Motorola will be in charge of providing 800 stations for biometric screening. According to INPUT, the governmental agencies of US will gradually move from mutual processing of fingerprint cards to the use of digital methods for automated identification of fingerprints. “This changeover marks the commencement of a true lifecycle oriented approach to public safety and justice automated fingerprint-identification systems (AFIS) that will include very few long term overhauls, more technological upgrades and refreshes every three-five years”, as per Chris Dixon – senior industry analyst at INPUT. The Norwegian identification system can identify people through an assortment of biometric data, plus the iris & face characteristics and through AFIS.

• THE NEXT STEP IN THE GAME OF TOTALITARIAN TIP-TOE: Germany To Add Fingerprints To Passports - Germany’s Cabinet said this week it would propose a new law requiring passports to store two fingerprint images starting in November 2007. Since 2005, Germany has been issuing passports with contactless smart card chips that store a digital photo of the bearer along with biographical information. The European Union has mandated that member states start adding fingerprint data to their passports by 2009, to provide a more reliable way to verify an individual’s identity.

• UK ID cards 'may still fail' - The government's ID card rethink is a step towards common sense--but the controversial plan still risks failure, according to academics. The London School of Economics (LSE) Identity Project has been a leading critic of the ID card project but the team said it welcomes the shift in the government's position. Dr Edgar A Whitley, the LSE team's research coordinator, said the new action plan represents a "total rethink" of the original plans that were proposed by the Home Office.

• More Communities Throw out Fluoridation - Legislators and officials are responding to newly published evidence of fluoride's adverse effects and rejecting fluoridation. This December, Juneau, Alaska and Martin County, Florida voted fluoride out of their drinking water. A Tennessee state legislator urged water companies to stop fluoridation. And the Vermont Department of Health sent a fluoridation warning to all Vermont dentists and pediatricians. December 19, Martin County, Florida commissioners reversed their 2002 fluoridation mandate. Commissioners said fluoride studies raised health doubts, and they werent convinced an oral health problem exists in their county.

• Gates, like Rumsfeld, promotes objectives of world government panel - After the Republicans suffered their election thumping, President Bush replaced Defense Secretary Rumsfeld with former CIA Director Robert Gates. So much for progress. Like Rumsfeld, Gates is a veteran member of the world government promoting Council on Foreign Relations. He supported attacking Iraq despite the fact that Bush's justifications were unsupportable. Gates also previously served on Bush's Iraq Study Group, headed by CFR veterans James Baker and Lee Hamilton. Since the 1940s, every U.S. secretary of Defense, State and Treasury, and hundreds of other high level federal appointees have been council members.

• University of Texas in San Antonio Gets New Beverages Machines With Cashless Card Readers - The University of Texas in San Antonio has introduced 20 new Pepsi machines equipped with cashless card readers in conjunction with the first price increase in two years, according to USTA Today, the college newspaper. After the vending operator notified the college there would be a price increase, the college negotiated to have cashless card readers. The 20 new Pepsi machines at the 1604 Campus accept payment by UTSACard or cash.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Holiday crisis as Bank of Ireland goes cashless - WITH Christmas just around the corner Bank of Ireland (BOI) customers in Britain have been told there’s no money at the inn. Most of the banks’ British branches have switched to cashless facilities just days before the biggest spending bonanza of the year. One family affected by the bank’s decision is the Roe family in Croydon. Mrs Roe said: “I just can’t believe they have done this. It is a major blow. My son Martin went to his BOI branch in Croydon on Monday to withdraw money and he was told he wouldn’t be able to. It’s very wrong. He has loads of money but he just can’t get his hands on it.”

Thursday 21st December 2006: -

• U.S. Marine charged with murder in Haditha deaths - The U.S. military charged a Marine squad leader with 13 counts of murder in the killings last year of unarmed civilians in Haditha, Iraq, one of the man's defense lawyers said on Thursday. The charges handed down against Staff Sgt. Frank Wuterich carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, but do not include premeditated murder, said attorney Mark Zaid.  Wuterich led a squad at the center of the probe into the Nov. 19, 2005, shooting of 24 unarmed men, women and children in the western Iraqi town. It is one of a series of cases in which U.S. service members have been accused, and in some cases convicted, of involvement in killing civilians.

• AP: Pentagon wants $99.7B more for wars - The Pentagon wants the White House to seek an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press. The military's request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year's budget for those wars to about $170 billion. Military planners assembled the proposal at a time when Bush is developing new strategies for Iraq, such as sending thousands of more U.S. troops there, although it was put together before the president said the troop surge was under consideration.

• U.S. study says teens increasingly turning to legal drugs to get high - Teens increasingly are getting high with legal drugs like painkillers and mood stimulants, and they're turning to cough syrup as well, says a government survey released Thursday. The annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, conducted by the University of Michigan, showed mixed results in the country's longtime campaign against teen drug abuse. It found that while fewer teens overall drank alcohol or used illegal drugs in the last year, a small but growing number were popping prescription painkillers like OxyContin and Vicodin and stimulants like Ritalin.

• In Iraq, journalist deaths spike to record in 2006: Majority are murdered; worldwide death toll rises - Violence in Iraq claimed the lives of 32 journalists in 2006, the deadliest year for the press in a single country that the Committee to Protect Journalists has ever recorded. In most cases, such as the killing of Atwar Bahjat, one of the best-known television reporters in the Arab world, insurgents specifically targeted journalists to be murdered, CPJ found in a new analysis. Worldwide, CPJ found 55 journalists were killed in direct connection to their work in 2006, and it is investigating another 27 deaths to determine whether they were work-related. Detailed accounts of each case are posted on CPJ’s Web site. The figures reflect increases from 2005, when 47 journalists were killed in direct relation to their work, while 17 others died in circumstances in which the link to their profession was not clear. CPJ, founded in 1981, compiles and analyzes journalist deaths each year.

Wednesday 20th December 2006: -

• A GREAT WAY TO CONDITION A GENERATION TO ACCEPT A POLICE STATE: A lockdown and search at Coolidge High School on Thursday afternoon yielded no illegal drugs - "We had a hunch that today would be a good day for a lockdown," explained Tim Hamilton, CHS principal. "We like to do these every now and then to ensure that the students know we remember them and are looking out for their safety." Hamilton said the high school administration worked with the Coolidge Police Department and Pinal County Juvenile Probation Department to set up the lockdown. At 12:45 p.m. on Dec. 14, four officers from those departments joined Hamilton and CHS deans Vance Danzy and Craig Cutshaw to comb the school for illegal materials. Hamilton said the seven members of the search party divided into three teams to expedite the process. It took the three teams about an hour and a half to scour the entire school site. "I'm pleased to announce that we checked every student and every classroom, and no illegal drugs were found," he said.

• LendingTools sees spike in fingerprint scanner sales - LendingTools.com said today it has seen a surge in sales of fingerprint recognition software and scanners. Eric Goering, LendingTools president and chief executive, said his Wichita-based company has placed more than 3,000 fingerprint scanners in the past two months. Goering attributes the increase to a Dec. 31 deadline by the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council requiring banks and correspondent bank processors to bolster their security systems for financial transactions over the Internet.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Big Brother Britain - We are experiencing the chill wind of technology driven authoritarianism and whether we like it or not it’s not going to go away. Increased surveillance of our daily lives is a fact of life; be it the DNA database, the growth of CCTV, the profiling of “would be offenders”, the continued hyping of the terrorist menace and advances in surveillance or security technology ostensibly to get us up to speed for the 2012 London Olympics. Britain’s national DNA database is the largest and most advanced in the world. It’s a detective’s dream. Last year 20,000 people were convicted with the help of DNA evidence. Technicians can now get a DNA profile from an “ear print” left on a glass window and another new technique can identify offenders through a relative’s DNA. But there is a downside. DNA hoarding has grown massively under Mr Blair’s “control freak” administration. Initially DNA samples were only taken from those convicted of serious offences. But now the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows the police to retain DNA samples from anyone who is arrested, irrespective of whether they are charged.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

Tuesday 19th December 2006: -

• ID card plan sparks fears over data security - The computer database behind the government's controversial ID card scheme will be an amalgamation of existing IT networks, rather then one built from scratch, John Reid announced today. But he insisted that this did not amount to a U-turn. Originally, the record system, known as the national identity register, was to have been entirely newly-built, in order to avoid contamination from errors in existing database files on individuals. But, in a 33-page progress report on the timetable for an identity card scheme, the home secretary revealed that instead the database would be compiled from amalgamated information from three separate Whitehall databases.

• William Rodriguez Has Been Invited To Iran - William Rodriguez, the last survivor of the North Tower has been formally invited by the Iranian Government to give a series of presentations about 9/11 in Iran. The reason he was invited, was because they saw his presentation in front of 22,000 Muslims during his recent U.K. tour. The Ministry of Cultural Affairs thought it would be a good idea as a "Peace Mission" to bring Rodriquez to Iran. Rodriquez says that he "feels very honored that he has been tapped to do these series of presentations as a peace initiative, and he feels he will be more protected in these countries than in his own." Given that the Venezuelan Government thought enough of Willie to provide him 5 bodyguards during his stay there, I can see why. The dates are not yet specified, but will be announced in the beginning of March 2007.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Another Man dies after police use Taser: Nude male described as aggressive, combative - Officials with the Lafayette Police Department stand by their use of a Taser gun during a Sunday morning altercation with a nude, and allegedly combative, 29-year-old Carencro man, who would later die at a local hospital from unknown complications. Officials are waiting on an autopsy report to determine the exact cause of Terrill Enard's death. According to Lafayette police Sgt. Mark Francis, police believe Enard was under the influence of some type of unknown substance. Francis said Enard was strong, aggressive, combative and unresponsive.

• Hockey player fired for not signing flag for troops: Some support coach of Saint John Sea Dogs; others defend young Quebecer's freedom of expression - A junior hockey player has been ousted from the Saint John Sea Dogs after he did not sign a Canadian flag that the team was sending to troops in Afghanistan. Dave Bouchard — a 20-year-old from Jonquière, Que., who played left wing on the Quebec Major Junior team — said he thought someone else had already signed his name. But Sea Dogs coach Jacques Beaulieu said he did not accept that explanation and cut him from the team after Saturday's game.

• NYC violated Constitution by jailing protesters - New York City violated the U.S. Constitution for more than two months in 2001 with a policy to detain arrested protesters overnight instead of giving them summonses to appear in court, a U.S. federal jury found on Monday. The suit stemmed from the city's handling of the mass protests and arrests in New York immediately after the 1999 killing by police of unarmed Guinean immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was hit by 19 shots. An eight-person jury in Manhattan federal court found that the city's police department violated the First Amendment right to free speech and the 14th Amendment right to due process between May 1, 2001, and July 13, 2001, by its policy of locking up protesters overnight in city jails. However, the same jury ruled that the 350 protester plaintiffs failed to show that in the two years before 2001 the city followed an unwritten policy of locking up protesters.

Monday 18th December 2006: -

• 'Model pupil' ends up with criminal record for a push in the playground - The police were accused of "invading the classroom" last night after a 14-year-old schoolboy ended up with a criminal record for pushing over a boy he suspected of bullying his younger brother. The boy, a prefect who is described as a "model pupil" by his school, was given a formal reprimand by officers after an investigation. His name and offence have now been placed on the Police National Computer. His reprimand for a "violent crime" will also remain on the separate Criminal Record Bureau (CRB) database, jeopardising his hopes of following in his parents' footsteps and becoming a teacher.

• EU announces plans for European driving license - The European Union parliament last week gave final approval for a pan-European driving license scheme. The current plan is to create a database tracking drivers' history throughout Europe, rather than allowing drivers with a bad record in one country to obtain a new license in a different country. Individual European State governments would have a choice of whether to issue the new forgery-proof licenses for 10 or 15 years. The cre