28th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Lords defeat Blair over terror bill - The government was tonight defeated in the Lords over its controversial terror bill as peers voted to reject a clause creating a new offence of "glorifying" terrorism. The bill will now go back to the House of Commons in a battle of wills between the two houses which is referred to as "parliamentary pingpong". Charles Clarke, the home secretary, immediately hit back, saying: "I am disappointed that the Lords have chosen to ignore the clear and repeated signal from the Commons that glorification of terrorism is unacceptable.

• Iraq makes terror 'more likely' - People across the world overwhelmingly believe the war in Iraq has increased the likelihood of terrorist attacks worldwide, a poll for the BBC reveals. Some 60% of people in 35 countries surveyed believe this is the case, against just 12% who think terrorist attacks have become less likely. In most countries, more people think removing Saddam Hussein was a mistake than think it was the right decision.

• Bush Admits Bin Laden's Help Ensured Election Win: “I thought it was going to help,” said Bush - According to a soon to be released book written by Bill Sammon, Senior White House Correspondent for the Washington Examiner, Bush attributes his 2004 victory over John Kerry in part to a Osama bin Laden videotape released on the eve of the election. “I thought it was going to help,” Bush decided. “I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush.”

• Vodafone shows phone with face recognition - Vodafone KK, the Japanese unit of UK-based Vodafone, today unveiled a handset from Sharp that includes a number of cutting-edge features such as a VGA (video graphics array) resolution screen and a face-recognition security system... The security system uses a small camera positioned under the main display and replaces the PIN-code or fingerprint authentication found in some other phones. It is based on technology from Oki and is capable of authenticating within one second whether the face of the person trying to use the phone matches that of the pre-registered owner.

• MALAYSIA: Biometric cards for vehicle owners - Biometric cards with the owners' thumbprint will replace paper-based vehicle registration cards by the end of the year. This is to stop the increasing number of car thefts and forgeries. Once implemented, owners will get the chip-based biometric cards when they renew their road tax. The biometric card, the size of a credit card, will carry details and the thumbprints of the owners aside from information on the vehicle.

• Parky to interview Tony Blair - Michael Parkinson has revealed he will be interviewing Tony Blair on the new series of his chat show. The Prime Minister will be quizzed by the nations favourite interviewer alongside actor Kevin Spacey and American pop diva Christina Aguilera. It is the first time Parkinson has interviewed the PM and he says he is really looking forward to it.

27th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• MI6 knew of 21/7 bomb suspect - THE intelligence services are preparing to make a robust defence of the decisions they took in the months before the July 7 suicide bombings and the July 21 failed terrorist attack. A leaked “top secret” document published in The Sunday Times yesterday indicated that there was intelligence on one of the July 21 suspected bombers. One of them was reported to have been subjected to a short-term intelligence operation. It has already been admitted that MI5 had two of the July 7 bombers under surveillance a year before the suicide attacks in London that killed 52 people last year. Neither of the two, Mohammad Sidique Khan and Shehzad Tanweer, was judged to be a serious threat at that stage, and MI5 felt that it was unjustified to commit extensive resources to a lengthy surveillance operation.

• 8pm TONIGHT ON UK CHANNEL 4: Dispatches: Stealing Freedom - Political commentator Peter Hitchens takes a look at how the recent avalanche of security legislation has affected the civil liberties of ordinary people in Britain. The result, Hitchens explains, is that we are sleepwalking into a Big Brother state. Travelling across Britain, Hitchens meets ordinary people who have suffered needlessly because of new legislation and increased police powers. The programme also contains interviews with the Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, Lord Carlisle, an independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, and Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty.

• PM defends civil liberties stance - Prime Minister Tony Blair has defended his stance on civil liberties and accused his critics of "a refusal to understand the modern world". Critics of measures such as identity cards, anti-social behaviour legislation and the outlawing of the glorification of terror failed to take account of the rapidly-changing nature of modern crime, he suggested. Traditional court procedures and attitudes to civil liberties were designed for a very different world, said Mr Blair.

• New election laws to be unveiled - Britain said it would introduce new laws this week to combat postal vote fraud in a bid to allay fears that the UK electoral system is open to abuse and rigging. Elections Minister Harriet Harman will say on Monday the government would introduce 14 new measures to tackle fraud, with the main aim of making voting by post more secure.

• Clooney hits out at 'traitor' tag - Actor George Clooney has attacked the press in the United States for describing him as a "traitor." Clooney - known as a prominent critic of the Bush government - told the BBC that he had been "nailed" in the American media following his vocal opposition to ongoing conflict in Iraq. He has previously claimed that one magazine even published a front cover of him with the word "traitor" across it. The actor is currently in two Oscar-nominated films, Good Night, And Good Luck and Syriana, which both have a political message. "I've been nailed in the American press as a traitor to my country because I said we should ask questions before we went to war," he told the BBC.

26th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Mobile tracking devices on trial - Your mobile phone is a beacon - a radio transmitter in a box. Therefore it is possible to trace the signal and work out where it is. There are now several web companies which will track your friends' and family's phones for you, so you always know where they are. But just how safe is it to make location details available online? There are several reasons why you may want to track someone. You may be a company wanting to keep tabs on employees during work hours, or a parent wanting to check up on a child's whereabouts.

• MI5 rebels expose Tube bomb cover-up - MI5 is facing an internal revolt by officers alarmed about intelligence failures and the lack of resources to fight Islamic terrorism. To illustrate their concern, agents have leaked more topsecret documents to The Sunday Times because they want a public inquiry into the “missed intelligence” leading up to the July attacks in London. They believe ministers have withheld information from the public about what the security services knew about the suspects before the bombing of July 7 and the abortive attacks of July 21.

• DIANA DEATH TESTS WERE BOGUS: Shock claim at secret inquiry (not really!) - THE inquiry into the death of Princess Diana has been told blood tests from her driver were either faked or came from another dead man. The top-secret Stevens inquiry into her death has been told carbon monoxide (CO) levels apparently found in Henri Paul's blood must have come from a suicide victim killed by inhaling exhaust fumes. We can reveal scientists' claims that only a man killed by CO poisoning would have the 20.7 per cent levels found in Paul's blood.

• Ancient Sun Temple Uncovered in Cairo - Archaeologists discovered a pharaonic sun temple with large statues believed to be of King Ramses II under an outdoor marketplace in Cairo, Egypt's antiquities chief said Sunday. The partially uncovered site is the largest sun temple ever found in the capital's Aim Shams and Matariya districts, where the ancient city of Heliopolis — the center of pharaonic sun worship — was located, Zahi Hawass told The Associated Press.

• 7/7 - has the Blair something to hide? - TWO north west MP have demanded an inquiry into the 7/7 London underground terror attacks. Liberal Democrat Euro-MP Sajjad Karim said that the Government's reluctance to respond to widespread demand for a public enquiry into London's July bombings was likely to raise more serious questions about its approach to the 'War on Terror'. "This Government has been all too keen to underline the importance of 'leaving no stone unturned' in the so-called 'War on Terror' when justifying the intolerable suspension of civil liberties it has sanctioned in the name of national security," said Mr Karim.

• Cartoons could affect global stability ‘more than 9/11’ - ONE of Europe’s most high- profile Muslim scholars has warned that the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Muham med could have a greater long-term impact on global stability than 9/11. Professor Tariq Ramadan, who sat on the Muslim task force chaired by Tony Blair after the July 7 London bombings last year, said the fear generated by the cartoons had uncovered “problems that need to be met”.

• Official: Smart cameras, armed guards to protect WTC site - Some day, at the new and rebuilt World Trade Center site, visitors might submit to an iris scan or an analysis of their thumb print to get into buildings, while smart cameras try to match their faces to a photo database of known terrorists. Well-paid, armed guards would be on patrol while sensors test the air for lethal gases.

• Backing for 'torture flight' motion - Calls to ensure no Scottish airports are used for so-called torture flights have won backing from Scotland's justice minister Cathy Jamieson who said she sympathised with the aims of a motion on the subject. And she declared at Labour's Scottish annual gathering: "I hope this conference will pass this motion. "We are all on the same side on this."

25th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• SO YOU THOUGHT IT WAS TONY AND GORDON IN CHARGE? WELL, THINK AGAIN, AND MEET THE MEN FROM SERCO WHO REALLY.. RUN BRITAIN - YOU will probably never have heard of Serco, but they almost certainly have heard of you. Serco will be watching if you speed through traffic lights, they will be keeping an eye on you as you fly off on holiday and help monitor your children's school attendance records. Oh, and they'll have emptied your bins, run your sports centre, tidied your park and made sure that Britain's nuclear deterrent is up and running. And in their spare time Serco organises the Queen's flights around the world and makes sure that Greenwich Mean Time is ticking over nicely. Never mind Big Brother ... this is Big Mother, a company that has so many fingers in so many pies it is almost impossible to pin them down. Run by two reclusive multi-millionaires Serco is, literally, everywhere.

• MI5 'failed to pass on Omagh bombing intelligence' - PRESSURE mounted on the British and Irish governments last night to hold an inquiry into the Omagh bomb atrocity after it emerged MI5 withheld vital anti-terrorism intelligence just months before the attack. Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said he had concerns about the handling of intelligence before the August 1998 attack after it was revealed that MI5 kept police in Northern Ireland in the dark about the bomb plot. The Real IRA attack killed 29 people and unborn twins. Authoritative security sources revealed MI5 had a tip-off in April 1998 that a bomb attack was being planned in Omagh or Londonderry.

• MI6 payouts over secret LSD tests - Three UK ex-servicemen have been given compensation after they were given LSD without their consent in the 1950s. The men volunteered to be "guinea pigs" at the government research base Porton Down after being told scientists wanted to find a cure for the common cold. But they were given the hallucinogen in mind control tests, and some volunteers had terrifying hallucinations.

24th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Whitehall branded internet 'Villain of the Year' - The British Government has been named "Villain of the Year" by a group of the world's largest internet companies after pushing through laws across Europe that will force firms to store more information on their customers' web and telephone use. At an awards ceremony in London last night, the Internet Service Provider Association said the Government had used its presidency of the European Union in 2005 to push through EU-wide data retention laws that will force ISPs and telecoms companies "to retain more data for longer without proper impact assessment".

• Taser Used To Break Up School Fight - A Taser gun was used on two high school students Friday morning to break up a fight, authorities said. Two 16-year-old students at Middle Creek High School refused to break up a fight even after the principal stepped in, authorities said. The school resource officer, who is assigned to the school by the Cary Police Department, then used a Taser to stop the fight, authorities said. The officer "dry stunned" the boys, which means he didn't shoot the gun but pressed it directly against them, authorities said. Both boys are in jail.

• Forgot your passwords? Try using your heart: New biometric devices promise better ways to eyeball your identity - Have trouble recalling your passwords or PIN codes? Try using your heart. That's the suggestion from Tel Aviv-based Aladdin Knowledge Systems, which this week showed off a prototype security system that identifies users based on their heartbeats.

• U.S. technology has been used to block, censor Net for years - Internet users in Yemen can't get to beer.com because of technology from a couple of U.S. companies. Surely this is a human rights violation, keeping innocent civilians from a website devoted to beer and women. Why, the Yemeni Netizens — all 150,000 of them — are also blocked from getting to gayegypt.com. They're denied spikybras.com! Which, by the way, ya gotta check out — it's hilarious, and no more racy than an I Dream of Jeannie episode.

• Australians are happy to queue: Few customers are switching to the self-checkout aisle, reports Rachel Gibson - IT'S LATE afternoon on a weekday in a suburban variety store. Frazzled parents with laden trolleys jostle with bored schoolchildren as the line inches towards the checkout. Over in the self-checkout aisle, a store attendant, primed to assist customers to serve themselves, waits idle. When it comes to shopping, it seems, Australians prefer to queue. Self-checkout, widely used in Britain and America, has failed to make a big impact here. At Coles, which introduced the scan-pay-and-go technology in two Victorian stores in May 2004 and now has them at three locations (Chadstone, Caroline Springs, and BiLo in Fountain Gate), only 18 to 20 per cent of customers use it.

• Astronomers spot weird near-Earth explosion: Fundamentalism ruled out - A mysterious new kind of cosmic explosion has been spotted by scientists, according to NASA. The baffling blast was detected about 440m light years away in the constellation Aries, on 18 February. Investigators using NASA's space-based Swift Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope say the signal is similar to a gamma-ray burst. However, the phenomenon is much closer and, at over half an hour, lasted 100 times longer than a typical gamma-ray burst.

• Livingstone suspended for "Nazi" jibe - Feisty London Mayor Ken Livingstone was suspended for a month on Friday for comparing a Jewish reporter to a concentration camp guard, a verdict the mayor said struck "at the heart of democracy". A three-person panel which hears complaints against local authorities ruled in a case brought by a Jewish group that Livingstone, 60, had brought his office into disrepute.

• Morrissey: I was quizzed by the FBI - SINGER Morrissey says he was quizzed by the FBI and Special Branch over his outspoken criticism of the US and British governments. The former Smiths frontman, who has previously branded American President George Bush a terrorist and denounced the war in Iraq, said the experience showed neither country was a democratic society.

• Chinese slap ban on TV cartoons - Cartoons that blend live-action actors with animation are to be banned from TV in China. Shows such as Teletubbies and the film Who Framed Roger Rabbit? could be affected by the decision taken by the country's main TV and film regulator. The move is aimed at promoting Chinese animators and apparently curbing the use of foreign cartoons. China's State Administration of Radio Film and Television said people who flout the ban will be punished.

23rd FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Scots pupils to get ID number in bid to boost safety - EVERY state school pupil in Scotland is to be issued with an identity number to allow them to be traced if they go missing. The scheme is being introduced by the Scottish Executive for primary and secondary schools as part of child protection measures following the murder of a pupil. Five-year-old Danielle Reid was killed by her mother's partner three years ago. Her body was placed in a suitcase which was thrown into the Caledonian Canal at Inverness. Her mother had withdrawn her from school and lied to teachers, telling them the family had moved to Manchester.   (COMMENTARY: I guess that if her name was '173784032' rather than 'Danielle', it might not have happened!)

• ID cards have already cost taxpayers £32m - Ministers have admitted spending £32 million on preparing for the introduction of ID cards before Parliament has even been approved. The figures issued by Charles Clarke, the Home Secretary, in a Commons written answer, also show that spending soared in the second half of last year from £25,000 a day to £63,000 a day.

• Eye scans: A high-tech hall pass? - The brushed aluminum box on the brick wall glows purple, a rim of light around an unblinking HAL-like eye. You peek in and stare for a second, and the steel doors click open. A soothing female voice says: "Identification is completed." Freehold Borough School District installed the iris-scanning devices in its three schools last month. It and a district down the road in New Egypt are the first U.S. school systems to study what happens when adults are asked to eye-scan to get in the door each day. Privacy and safety experts — as well as locals — are divided over the use of such technologies. But as more school districts make safety a priority after 9/11*, many say such biometric devices could become standard issue.  (*COMMENTARY: Problem > Reaction > Solution... just as it was intended, this is why the bugger needs exposing so badly! - Not that 9/11 had anything to do with stealing children from schools... just a chilling effect to make citizens feel insecure.  See our '9/11 archive' for more info.)

• CHENEY'S BAD SHOT & PRIORITIES vs IMPORTANCE - The Cheney shooting incident has burned up the Internet for weeks. The prima donas of "mainstream media," cable and talk radio have all weighed in on the issue with each side (elephants and jack asses) countering all sorts of charges and speculation. This spit swapping has accomplished nothing that I can see because Dick Cheney is a man who can't be touched and is accountable to no one. Considering his key role in orchestrating a chain of events on 9/11 has gone untouched by any level of law enforcement, I would venture to say he feels pretty confident that nothing will ever come of this shooting.   (COMMENTARY: Whilst feelings on this are mixed amongst research circles, we feel that this episode (i.e. The One Where Cheney Shot His Lawyer Mate) has an aura of importance surrounding it, in that it shows that certain government officials are essentially 'above the law'.  It shows that thanks to the fact that power has been centralised to the degree that it has, goons like Cheney can cover up a crime in plain view and the right people wont ask them the wrong questions.  Scroll down and see our 'Sin City' sketch from 10th February for more concept info.)

• Bush Says Ports Deal Not a Security Threat - President Bush sought Thursday to calm an uproar over a state-owned company in the United Arab Emirates taking over significant operations at six major U.S. ports, saying "people don't need to worry about security." Under secret conditions of the agreement with the administration, the company promised to cooperate with U.S. investigations as a condition of the $6.8 billion deal, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

• PLAYED OFF LIKE CHESS-PIECES!: Shrine attack leaves Iraq gripped by civil war fear -  The bloody trail of revenge attacks in Iraq, evident throughout the country, makes one thing clear: Iraqi Shiites, reeling in the aftermath of an attack on their Golden Mosque shrine in Samarra, can take no more. Sunni mosques have been torched in apparent retaliation for the explosion that destroyed a large part of the mosque, the revered Shiite shrine of Imam Ali al-Mahdi and Hassan al-Askari. Bullet riddled corpses have been dumped at the roadside.

• NO IMPERIAL ENTANGLEMENTS!: Why the switch to metric could be olympic task - BRITAIN must convert all road signs to metric in time for the 2012 Olympics or risk being seen as a backward nation clinging to an awkward and outmoded measurement system, according to a report published today. More than 40 years after Britain began the conversion from imperial measurement, the UK Metric Association is urging the Government to set a deadline for changing half a million speed and distance signs. The association argues that the switch to metric road signs would yield safety benefits - such as reducing confusion among foreign visitors — and encourage British people to “think metric”.

• Village Voice Hit Piece Attacks 9/11 Skeptics - A new hit piece is doing the rounds that seeks to portray the 9/11 truth movement as an almost evangelical orthodoxy with ties to Neo-Nazi organizations. Jarrett Murphy's 'The Seekers' article in the Village Voice newspaper is a smarmy attempt to scoff at alternative explanations behind 9/11.

• Straw denies UK rendition flights - Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has denied any knowledge of "extraordinary rendition" flights through Britain. The National Air Traffic Service has said there were 200 flights through British airspace by CIA planes associated with rendition in the past five years. Mr Straw insisted Britain had no knowledge of any such flights.

22nd FEBRUARY 2006: -

• New Taser Shotgun 'Will Truly Cause Incapacitation': Taser Hopes To Release Product In 2007 - The nation's largest stun-gun maker has a new way to deliver a jolt of electricity to the human body: a 12-gauge shotgun. Taser International is developing X-REP. That stands for Extended Range Electro-Muscular Projectile. It's a shotgun shell designed to combine the blunt-force trauma of a fast-moving baseball with the electrical current of a stun gun.

• Hospital to radio-tag surgery patients: RFID bracelets improve patient safety in Birmingham NHS trust - The UK’s first electronic patient tagging pilot is being expanded to cover all patients admitted for ear, nose and throat (ENT) or thoracic surgery. Once in place, all patients on five wards at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital (BHH) will be fitted with radio frequency identification (RFID) bracelets, which will be linked to a digital photograph and the electronic medical records for their visit.

• Token fine for Diana paparazzi - A Paris appeals court fined three photographers 1 euro each for invasion of privacy for taking pictures of Britain's Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed the night of their fatal 1997 car crash, officials said Wednesday. The appeals court fined them the symbolic 1 euro ($1.19) sum in a ruling on Friday, which was not announced until Wednesday. Jacques Langevin, Christian Martinez and Fabrice Chassery were acquitted of the invasion of privacy charge in 2003 after judges said a crashed vehicle on a public highway is not a private area. But France's highest court disagreed in a ruling last April and sent the case to the Paris appeals court for review.

• Policemen face criminal charges over Brazilian's shooting - British police officers, involved in the killing of an innocent Brazilian in an anti-terrorist operation here in July last, are facing criminal charges over allegations that they tampered with evidence after the shooting incident. The officials, who oversaw the anti-terrorist operation, will be charged by Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) officials with attempting to pervert the course of justice by disguising the fact that they had mistaken 27-year-old Jean Charles De Menezes for a terrorism suspect, the 'independent' reported today.

• Neocon architect says: 'Pull it down' - NEOCONSERVATISM has failed the United States and needs to be replaced by a more realistic foreign policy agenda, according to one of its prime architects. Francis Fukuyama, who wrote the best-selling book The End of History and was a member of the neoconservative project, now says that, both as a political symbol and a body of thought, it has "evolved into something I can no longer support". He says it should be discarded on to history's pile of discredited ideologies.

21st FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Electronic surveillance enters EU statute books - EU legislation allowing telecoms and internet data surveillance by security agencies will enter into force by August 2007. Europe’s justice ministers have given final approval to controversial rules forcing telephone operators and internet service providers to store data. Information such as call logs, numbers called, email or web addresses can then be accessed by law enforcers investigating terrorism or serious crime. Surveillance of the content of calls or emails is not covered by the EU directive and remains under the scope of national security laws.

• Shop regrets 'hoodie' humiliation - A supermarket has apologised to a 58-year-old teaching assistant who was asked by an over-zealous security guard to remove her hooded top. Kay Parncutt was challenged over the "hoodie" - clothing often linked with thugs - at a Tesco store in Swindon. She said: "I told him 'no, my hair's a mess'. He didn't think it was very funny, but I did. But I did oblige."Tesco said: "Although our security guard's intention was good, it seems as if he was a little over-zealous." Mrs Parncutt, a teaching assistant at Longleaze School in Wooton Bassett said: "I couldn't believe he was talking to me. I'm supposed to look like a nasty thug?" Hooded tops have been banned from some shopping centres and schools because they conceal the face and have been associated with crime and anti-social behaviour.    (COMMENTARY: This has nothing to do with security and everything to do with ushering in a police state via incrementalism and acclimatisation.  If this kind of confrontation ever happens to you in a store, refuse to remove your hood and let the real 'thugs' drag you out if need be.  If you suffer injury, take the buggers to court and your story to the press.  This kind of bully tactic needs standing up to.)

• Actors detained in security check - The stars of 'The Road to Guantanamo' were detained by London police after returning from the Berlin Film Festival where the film won an award. The six actors who portray British inmates at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention camp were stopped by police Thursday at London`s Luton airport under the British Terrorism Act, the BBC reported Tuesday. One of the actors, Rizwan Ahmed, said he was verbally abused by police, who took his cell phone and asked if he was going to make any more political films.

• U.K. e-passports start their travels: The United Kingdom's first e-passports, which feature personal information stored on a chip, have been issued - According to the U.K.'s Home Office, e-passports are now being issued by the Foreign Office in Washington, D.C. Offices in the U.K. itself are expected to start issuing them to applicants for new passports and renewals, starting in April. In the early stages of the changeover, some people will receive a new biometric passport while others will receive a passport with existing digital identification. The switch is expected to be complete at summer's end.

• BIS Calls For Global Currency: Nazi bankrollers want elimination of national sovereignty for world cashless control grid - The scandal-ridden and highly secretive Bank For International Settlements, considered to be the world's top central banking policy, has released a policy paper that calls for the end of national currencies in favor of a global model of currency formats. The BIS is a branch of the of the Bretton-Woods International Financial architecture and closely allied with the Bilderberg Group. It is controlled by an inner elite that represents all the world's major central banking institutions. John Maynard Keynes, perhaps the most influential economist of all time, wanted it closed down as it was used to launder money for the Nazis in World War II.

• I confessed to escape Guantanamo torture - A British student secretly released after more than two years in America's notorious Guantanamo Bay terror suspect prison told last night how he had been barred from returning to the UK. And, as Jamal "Tony" Kiyemba spoke of the systematic torture he suffered at the hands of his captors, The Mail on Sunday has learned that Home Secretary Charles Clarke personally intervened to keep him out of Britain on "national security grounds".

• Biometrics, ID cards, tagging, DNA kits being pushed on kids: By Steve Watson for Prisonplanet.com - "A Reader has alerted us to the following website and stalls all around the country that are actively pushing biometrics, ID cards and "do it yourself" DNA kits on children".

20th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Holocaust denier Irving is jailed - British historian David Irving has been found guilty in Vienna of denying the Holocaust of European Jewry and sentenced to three years in prison. He had pleaded guilty to the charge, based on a speech and interview he gave in Austria in 1989.

• Intura Adds Biometric Fingerprint Security to New Vision Release - Intura Solutions, LP, a leading supplier of point-of-sale and management software for restaurants operating delivery and quick service concepts, today announced the addition of biometric fingerprint security to Intura Vision. The new fingerprint authentication method was launched along with a new release of Intura Vision on February 19th and 20th at the North American Pizza & Ice Cream Show held in Columbus, Ohio.

• UK radiation jump blamed on Iraq shells - RADIATION detectors in Britain recorded a fourfold increase in uranium levels in the atmosphere after the “shock and awe” bombing campaign against Iraq, according to a report. Environmental scientists who uncovered the figures through freedom of information laws say it is evidence that depleted uranium from the shells was carried by wind currents to Britain. Government officials, however, say the sharp rise in uranium detected by radiation monitors in Berkshire was a coincidence and probably came from local sources.

• Police criticised over child DNA - A "postcode lottery" exists over whether police keep innocent children's DNA on file, a Tory MP has claimed. Police can retain DNA samples from 10 to 18-year-olds whether they have committed a crime or not.  But there are big differences across England and Wales - Durham police had 830 samples per 100,000 children compared with 52 on Merseyside. MP Grant Shapps said ministers should admit they were building a national DNA database or erase the records.

• Google preps privacy defences - Google is preparing a robust defence of its refusal to give the US Department of Justice (DoJ) access to its search logs. The company has now published its response (PDF) to the DoJ's subpoena. The document suggests that the government request is not only unnecessary but would also damage Google's business.

• 'The Americans are breaking international law... it is a society heading towards Animal Farm': Archbishop Sentamu on Guantanamo - The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has launched a passionate attack on President George Bush, saying his administration's refusal to close the notorious Guantanamo Bay camp reflected "a society that is heading towards George Orwell's Animal Farm". Dr Sentamu, the Church of England's second in command, urged the UN Human Rights Commission (UNHRC) to take legal action against the US - through the US courts or the International Court of Justice at The Hague - should it fail to respond to a report, by five UN inspectors, advising that Camp Delta at Guantanamo Bay should be shut immediately because prisoners there are being tortured.

19th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Smoke ban officers to follow offenders home - TEAMS of council enforcers are to be given the power to trail people who flaunt the ban on smoking in public places, including following them to their cars and homes. Critics fear the move raises the prospect of local authorities using the officers as revenue raisers to boost their coffers. Similar charges have been levelled against the armies of private traffic wardens, dubbed “the blue meanies”, who now patrol Scotland’s streets. However, supporters insist the hardline policy is essential to protect people from the effects of passive smoking.

• Retirement age 'should reach 85' - The age of retirement should be raised to 85 by 2050 because of trends in life expectancy, a US biologist has said. Shripad Tuljapurkar of Stanford University says anti-ageing advances could raise life expectancy by a year each year over the next two decades. That will put a strain on economies around the world if current retirement ages are maintained, he warned.

TWO NEW ITEMS ADDED TODAY!

• China's stifling of Web detailed U.S. firms often cooperate, experts reveal to Congress - Keeping Chinese citizens from sensitive online information about such subjects as democracy, Taiwan and the Dalai Lama is a full-time job for the Beijing government. An army of Internet police removes objectionable postings on message boards. Automated filters block access to thousands of Web sites. Then there's the role of private businesses. Companies, including several U.S. technology giants, censor their Chinese Web sites and turn over e-mail records of dissidents, fearing that doing otherwise will jeopardize their business licenses and get their employees thrown in jail.

• Diebold machines get state approval: Electronic voting systems can be used for the 2006 elections but firm ordered to eradicate security flaws - After almost three years, Diebold Election Systems won approval Friday to sell its latest voting machines in California, despite findings by computer scientists that the software inside is probably illegal and has security holes found in earlier Diebold products. The scientists advised Secretary of State Bruce McPherson this week that those risks were ``manageable'' and could be ``mitigated'' by tightening security around Diebold's voting machines.

• Children 'wrongly given' Ritalin - THOUSANDS of Scottish children, some as young as six, are wrongly being labelled hyperactive and given controversial drugs to stop anxious parents thinking they are to blame for unruly behaviour, a leading academic has warned. Dr Gwynedd Lloyd says doctors are wrongly diagnosing ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) when many youngsters are just behaving badly as a normal part of growing up.

• Sorry, Tony. The ID cards vote was the easy part - The ID card scheme is too complex to be introduced by 2008 - MPs voted to approve the Government's controversial national identity card scheme last week, to the relief of Tony Blair, if not of civil liberty campaigners and rebel backbenchers. But now comes the hard bit. How will the scheme work? Or more to the point, can it work?    (COMMENTARY: Security-wise, it won't work, nor is it meant to.  All it does is keep us that much more under the thumb of the totalitarian globalists, until the time comes that we 'will' all accept an implantable microchip under the skin... by then the New World Order agenda will be near completion)

• 40% Muslims want Islamic law in Britain: poll - A survey revealed on Sunday that some 40 percent British Muslims want sharia law, the Islamic law, introduced into Muslim predominant areas in the country. The Islamic law is used in large parts of the Middle East, including Iran and Saudi Arabia, and is enforced by religious police. Special courts can hand down harsh punishments which can include stoning and amputation.

18th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• 'ATM' licences to revolutionise system - It's like something from a Star Wars movie - the live scanning unit tests your eyes, scans your fingerprints, signature, takes a "mug shot" and e-mails your details to a central data base to have your new driver's licence issued within a month. The live scanning units (new electronic processing machines dubbed Robocop by some traffic officers) are being rolled out at municipal offices across South Africa and are expected to revolutionise the way in which drivers' licences are renewed or issued.

• CANADA ID CARD: Day puts national ID card back on the agenda - The new federal minister of public safety, Stockwell Day, is suggesting that a national identification card is inevitable for Canadians. Day suggested in an interview with The Canadian Press that a government-issued national ID card, which Britain could begin to phase in by next year, is likely forthcoming for Canadians.

• HOW 'INCREMENTALISM' WORKS: New Fingerprint Biometric Safe Introduced - Artemis Solutions Group unveils a home or small business safe which uses fingerprint biometric technology to grant access to its contents. Intelligent Biometric Solutions and its parent company Artemis Solutions Group today announced the availability of a new home safe which uses fingerprint biometric technology as its opening mechanism.

• AND MORE INCREMENTALISM: Washington to be first state to use live scan fingerprint technology - Washington racing officials will be able to expedite the finger-printing process for license applicants when they introduce live scan fingerprint technology for Emerald Downs's meet, which begins April 21. Live scan technology transmits fingerprints directly to the FBI's national criminal database via the Internet, giving the commission same-day feedback on criminal records of license applicants. The new process replaces the ink pad method of fingerprinting and eliminates the need to mail fingerprint cards to the FBI database, which usually takes from four to six weeks to complete.

• EPA, Whitman blasted for lies about post 9/11 air quality - A federal judge blasted the Environ mental Protection Agency and its former head Christie Whitman on Feb. 4 for issuing public and repeated statements that Lower Manhattan air was safe to breathe in the days right after 9/11. Safety and health activists have long contended that post-9/11 health and environmental risks were not fully reported. Falling and burning buildings released 2,000 tons of asbestos, lead from 50,000 computers, 424,000 tons of concrete pulverized into dust, cancer-causing PCBs and other toxins.

• Google rips Bush administration's search request - Google called the Bush administration's request for data on Web searches as ``so uninformed as to be nonsensical'' in papers filed in San Jose federal court Friday, arguing that turning over the information would expose its trade secrets and violate the privacy of its users. The 21-page brief filed by the Mountain View search giant angrily dissected the government's claim that the search results would produce useful evidence regarding child pornography.

• Multimedia: Ralph Nader on the Bohemian Grove - Ralph Nader was interviewed on KSRO by Pat Thurston in July 2005, talking about the annual retreat of the Bohemian Grove Society about to take place along the Russian River. In the interview Ralph explains what these rich and powerful men do up in the woods each summer, and why we should care. The interview is available here in four files, mp3 format.

• Boy charged with felony for carrying sugar - A 12-year-old Aurora boy who said he brought powdered sugar to school for a science project this week has been charged with a felony for possessing a look-alike drug, Aurora police have confirmed. The sixth-grade student at Waldo Middle School was also suspended for two weeks from school after showing the bag of powdered sugar to his friends.

17th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Use of 'stop and search' terror law alienating Muslims, warns Yard - The head of Scotland Yard's anti-terrorist branch yesterday admitted that police use of controversial stop and search powers under the terror laws needs to be much more tightly focused. Peter Clarke told a London conference of security experts there had been difficulties with the use of powers under section 44 of the Terrorism Act after warning that anti-terror measures which alienate the Muslim community were fundamentally misguided.

• Abu Ghraib leaked report reveals full extent of abuse - Nearly two years after the first pictures of naked and humiliated Iraqi detainees emerged from Abu Ghraib prison, the full extent of the abuse became known for the first time yesterday with a leaked report from the US army's internal investigation into the scandal. The catalogue of abuse, which was obtained by the online American magazine Salon, could not have arrived at a worse time for the Bush administration, coinciding with yesterday's United Nations report on abuse of detainees at Guantánamo, the release of a video showing British troops beating up Iraqi youths, and lingering anger in the Muslim world over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad.

• Authorities Again Looking Into Murder Of 'God's Banker' As Investigation Leads Right Into The Belly Of The Beast, The Vatican, As Well As Masonic Lodges: The Vatican Bank scandal of the 1980's may open up clues to the death of Pope John Paul I, as well as turning up the 'real culprits' behind the murder of Roberto Calvi, the prominent Italian financier and P2 Masonic Lodge member found hanging from the Blackfriars Bridge in London - The story behind the brutal murder of the man called 'God's Banker' has never been fully resolved or his death adequately explained to the American public, a naïve public kept from the truth about so many things, including corruption in the Vatican.

• Great firewall of China: Hand-wringing by high-tech executives is an insufficient response to collusion with Beijing - OFFICIALS from four of the biggest names in global information access danced on the head of a pin Wednesday as they sought to explain why their firms have played footsie with China on limiting and monitoring Internet access. They were defending the indefensible, as several members of a properly riled House international relations subcommittee let representatives of Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Cisco know. "Sickening collaboration," as Rep. Christopher Smith, R-N.J., acurately described it.

• Driver's license or national ID card? - Motor vehicle agencies must link their databases together, and perhaps implant chips in driver's licenses, as necessary steps to ease the way for a national ID card, the head of a group of motor vehicle officials said Thursday. Technology that may be used for a national ID card could take the form of a chip loaded onto a driver's license, said Linda Lewis-Pickett, chief executive of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators.

16th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Man Charged With Using Taser On Student - DENVER Prosecutors charged a former worker at a Denver middle school with second-degree assault on Wednesday. Shaun Ellis, 24, was accused of using a Taser on one of the students in an after-school program. Investigators said Ellis took a 13-year-old student out of class at Horace Mann Middle School for disciplinary reasons and then assaulted the child with a Taser. The report said the alleged attack happened on Jan. 11.

• Anti-terror chief demands reforms to system - Scotland Yard's top anti-terror official today called for radical changes to the way terrorism is investigated and prosecuted. The deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan police, Peter Clarke, called for a new national structure to police terrorism that goes beyond the current plans to merge a number of forces. Mr Clarke also called for changes to rules on what evidence jurors are allowed to hear in court, and for a tightening of the use of controversial anti-terror stop-and-search powers in order to avoid alienating ethnic minorities.

• Proposed law targets tech-China cooperation - Nearly every U.S. company with a Web site located in China will have to move it elsewhere or its executives would face prison terms of up to a year, according to proposed legislation expected to be introduced this week in the U.S. Congress. A draft version of the bill reviewed by CNET News.com represents the first serious attempt to rewrite the ground rules controlling how U.S. Internet companies may interact with foreign governments. If enacted, it would dramatically change the business practices of corporations with operations in China, Iran, Vietnam and other nations deemed to be overly "Internet-restricting."

• Zambia deports 'satanist' pastors - Two Brazilian pastors of an evangelical church accused of satanism were deported from Zambia at the weekend, an official said on Monday. Carlos Barcelos and Jamir Craveiro of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God (UCKG) were sent back to Brazil on Saturday night after the home affairs ministry said they posed a security threat. The UCKG was banned last year in Zambia for allegedly practising satanism but they were later allowed to operate after the government conceded before the high court that procedure was not followed when banning the sect.

• Call to allow body organ selling - Two US doctors have suggested the sale of organs such as kidneys should be legalised to meet the rising demand. They said bids to increase the donor pool were failing, and a black market in organ sales was booming. Writing in Kidney International the pair said, while it remained a taboo, legalisation should be considered.

• Iraq abuse images aggravate Arab hostility to West (...by design we would add!) - Arabs said on Thursday new images of U.S. troops abusing Iraqi prisoners had eroded their respect for the West and would fuel the fury raging over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad. The photographs made headline news in the Middle East the day after an Australian television station broadcast previously unpublished film and photographs of violations at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib jail.

• BATMAN TO TRACK DOWN BIN LADEN - Superhero Batman will turn his attention to real-life bad guy OSAMA BIN LADEN in an upcoming comic book. The Caped Crusader will take on the might of the al-Qaeda terrorist network in new graphic novel HOLY TERROR, BATMAN! Batman writer FRANK MILLER tells the New York Post, "It is, not to put too fine a point on it, a piece of propaganda. Batman kicks al-Qaeda's a**."

• Peers plan for Terror Bill fight - Conservative and Lib Dem peers are expected to fiercely oppose the creation of an offence of "glorifying" terrorism after it was backed by MPs. The government comfortably won a Commons vote on the issue on Wednesday overturning an earlier Lords vote. Tony Blair's reluctance to compromise has angered Tories and Lib Dems who say a deal was there for the taking.

• Congress accuses Google of collusion - The giants of the internet were hauled before Congress yesterday, accused of colluding with China's secret police and censors to wield a "cyber sledgehammer of repression". In a hearing of the House international relations subcommittee, Yahoo!, Cisco Systems, Microsoft and Google were repeatedly accused of collusion with an oppressive regime, and of selling out the principles of democracy and free speech for profit by bowing to China's demands to censor web content and monitor email.

• China defends internet control - China has defended its internet censorship policies, saying its rules follow international norms and claiming no one has been detained for writing online content, say reports on Wednesday. Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the internet affairs bureau of the state council information office, argued that China was being no different from western nations, whose criticisms smacked of "double standards". Zhengrong said: "Regulating the internet according to law is international practice.

• Britain has new weapon against loitering youths -- Sonic Teenager Deterrent - Shopkeepers in central England have been trying out a new device that emits an uncomfortable high-pitched noise designed to disperse young loiterers outside their stores without bothering adults. Police carrying out the pilot project in Staffordshire say some of those who have tested the "Sonic Teenager Deterrent," nicknamed the mosquito, have talked of buying one of their own. The device which costs 622 pounds (908 euros, 1,081 dollars) "doesn't cause any pain to the hearer," according to Inspector Amanda Davies, quoted by Britain's domestic Press Association news agency.

• The propaganda we pass off as news around the world - A British government-funded fake TV news service allows mild criticism of the US - all the better to support it - A succession of scandals in the US has revealed widespread government funding of PR agencies to produce "fake news". Actors take the place of journalists and the "news" is broadcast as if it were genuine. The same practice has been adopted in Iraq, where newspapers have been paid to insert copy. These stories have raised the usual eyebrows in the UK about the pitiful quality of US democracy. Things are better here, we imply. We have a prime minister who claimed in 2004 that "the values that drive our actions abroad are the same values of progress and justice that drive us at home". Yet in 2002 the government launched a littleknown television propaganda service that seems to mimic the US government's deceptive approach to fake news.

• The politics of fear (or how Tony Blair misled us over the war on terror) - On 28 February 2005, with the Prevention of Terrorism Bill being discussed in Parliament, Tony Blair made the following comment to listeners to Women's Hour: "What they [the security services] say is that you have got to give us powers in between mere surveillance of these people - there are several hundred of them in this country who we believe are engaged in plotting or trying to commit terrorist acts - you have got to give us power in between just surveying them and being sure enough to prosecute them beyond reasonable doubt. There are people out there who are determined to destroy our way of life and there is no point in us being naïve about it. "

• Terror threat: The great deception: As MPs vote today on another security bill, we reveal how the public was misinformed and manipulated over the war on terror - Today, The Independent publishes detailed analysis of how Tony Blair manipulated the serious threat of terrorism facing Britain to suit the Government's political agenda. It argues the Prime Minister has repeatedly misrepresented security intelligence to the British people, pandered to the right-wing media, and scuppered a golden opportunity to achieve a cross-party consensus on terrorism in the wake of the London bombings of 7 July. The revelations come in an extract from the Centre for Policy Studies pamphlet by the journalist Peter Oborne. The Use and Abuse of Terror is an examination of the actions of the Government, the police and security services in the heightened state of alert since 11 September 2001.

15th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• New 'Abu Ghraib abuse' images screened (on the heels of both the hate mongering Danish 'Prophet Mohammad' cartoons and the recently released video of UK troops abusing Iraqis... gee how does this work I wonder?) - Previously unpublished images showing US troops apparently abusing detainees at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison in 2003 were broadcast today by an Australian television station.  Still and video images were broadcast on Dateline, a current affairs programme on SBS television, which appeared to show dead bodies and Iraqi prisoners being tortured by US troops.

• MORE POLICE STATE MEASURES FOR THE UK: MPs back ban on glorifying terror - Tony Blair's controversial plan for a new law to stop people "glorifying" terrorism has been backed by MPs. The House of Lords voted last month to remove the measure from the Terrorism Bill, but the Commons has now voted by 315 to 277 to reinstate the plan. Mr Blair said the vote was a "signal of strength" which could outlaw placards glorifying the bombers who attacked London last July.

• The Terrance Yeakey Cover-Up - Terrance Yeakey was the first police officer to arrive at the Murrah Building following the Oklahoma City bombing. Terrance called his wife that morning and cried to her over the phone. He told her repeatedly "It's not true. It's not what they are saying. It didn't happen that way." Apparently, Officer Yeakey saw something he wasn't supposed to. He was harassed for a full year after the bombing and expressed his belief to loved ones that he would be murdered because of what he knew. One evening, Yeakey called his then ex-wife to inform her that he was being followed by what he thought were federal agents and he was going to try and lose them. His patrol car was found abandoned along a dirt road near El Reno, the front seat soaked with blood.   (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' archive for more info into the Oklahoma bombing of 1995)

• Crytographer: mobile phone could crack RFID codes: The security of RFID tags has taken another hit - In the wake of an embarrassing two-hour dismantling of an RFID passport, a crytographer known for his success in the field has suggested that mobile phones could be used to crack RFID tag codings. It would have to be operated by someone who had training in advanced algorithms, of course, insisted Adi Shamir, professor of computer science at the Weizmann Institute.

• TIME FOR ANOTHER MEDIA DISTRACTION?: Cheney, Facing Criticism on Shooting, to Comment for First Time - Vice President Dick Cheney, facing criticism over how he handled the disclosure of a weekend hunting accident, is scheduled to make his first public comments about the incident today in a television interview. Cheney plans to give the interview to the Fox News cable channel at 2 p.m. for broadcast at 6 p.m. Washington time, Jenny Mayfield, a spokeswoman for the vice president, told reporters.

"Watch the hand on the left... pay no attention to the hand on the right!"

(Readers from outside the UK are probably thinking "?????")

• 3 Volunteers to embed RFID chips under skin - In the first instance of its kind, three Americans have volunteered to test RFID chips by having them inserted under their skin. Three people who work at CityWatcher.com, a Cincinnati-based business, are now walking around with radio frequency identification chips inside them. One of those is Sean Darks, the CEO.

14th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Compulsory ID cards for UK citizens within five years: Critics warn UK is "sleepwalking towards a surveillance state" - UK citizens will be forced to register for biometric ID cards when applying for a new passport within two years after MPs voted on Monday night to make the controversial scheme compulsory and to not put the costs under independent scrutiny. In the end Prime Minister Tony Blair's enforced absence from the ID cards vote due to a faulty plane in South Africa didn't matter as the government comfortably defeated a threatened backbench Labour rebellion, albeit with a reduced majority.

• NO2ID: Identity scheme reminscent of Big Brother - Anti-ID card campaign group NO2ID has said it was outraged at the outcome of yesterday's Commons vote, which obliges citizens to apply for an ID card when they renew passports. The group said this was "a convenient loophole", where "90 per cent of people" would, over time, be forced to leave details on a national database and pay for an ID card. National coordinator Phil Booth said: "New Labour's definition of civil liberties seems to have been written by Big Brother - or perhaps Alice through the Looking Glass.

• More Questions Raised About Delay in Reporting Cheney Misfire - The more than 18-hour delay in news emerging that the vice president of the United States had shot a man, sending him to an intensive care unit with his wounds, grew even more curious Monday with word from the White House that President Bush had been informed of the incident Saturday but not immediately about Dick Cheney's role. Earlier, E&P had learned that the official confirmation of the shooting came about only after a local reporter in Corpus Christi, Texas, received a tip from the owner of the property where the shooting occurred and called Vice President Cheney's office for confirmation.

• The top two Republicans in Congress caught in an outright lie - A Republican staffer has named Frist and Hastert as the two lawmakers that added the vaccine makers liability protection to the defense bill - after the committee had met several times that day, and Dems even asked Alaska Senator Ted Stevens if the language was in the bill, and he told them no.

• Satanic 333 Skyscrapers Look Down on Useless Feeders and Slaves - President George W. Bush recently gave a speech about the 2002 alleged terror plot on the “Library Tower” skyscraper in Los Angeles. This appears to be a good point to begin. The name has been changed now for several years, it is now called the U.S. Bank Tower. The address is numbered 633. It was designed by I.M. Pei the architect responsible for the Louvre Pyramid made famous by the Da Vinci Code and other odd buildings that will be noted in this article.

• Biometric scans for passports from April: ID card vote paves way for detailed national database - The final Commons votes last night cleared the way for the first national identity card scheme in Britain for 50 years. Parliament's approval of ID card legislation signals the start of a procurement process for the largest public sector computer project in Europe, which carries a minimum official price tag of £5.8bn in running costs over the next 10 years. A debate launched in 1995 by the former Tory leader Michael Howard, when he was home secretary, is set to become law. It will eventually mean that 38 million British citizens over the age of 16 and resident foreign nationals who have lived here for more than three months will have their details registered on a powerful national identity database.

AND YOU KNOW WHAT'S COMING NEXT, AFTER THE BIOMETRIC I.D. CARD...

THAT'S RIGHT FOLKS... THE FIRST BATCH OF COMPULSORY IMPLANTABLE MICROCHIPS WILL BE SHOVED DOWN YOUR THROAT (THOUGH THE PREFERRED PLACEMENT WILL BE THE HAND OR FOREHEAD ACCORDING TO THE BOOK OF REVELATIONS) FASTER THAN YOU CAN SAY "GET THAT HYPODERMIC NEEDLE AWAY FROM MY KIDS!".

• Card fraudsters move on as chip and pin takes over - Cunning criminals will find new ways of getting hold of credit cards despite the introduction of chip and pin technology, a criminologist who carried out a two-year study into the subject said on Tuesday. Researcher Emily Finch said reliance on personal identity numbers to protect cards and bank accounts rather than human vigilance created new opportunities for fraudsters. "Chip and pin changes the nature of fraud but it gives us a false sense of security," said Finch, of the University of East Anglia. "Criminals exploit this trust in new technology and find new ways to beat it."

13th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Blair Survives First Vote on ID Cards With Reduced Majority - U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair won the first of several votes set in Parliament on his national identity card plan, surviving a rebellion by lawmakers from his own Labour Party. Lawmakers in the House of Commons voted 310-279 to reject an amendment to the legislation by the House of Lords that would have made the cards optional. The Commons has yet to vote on another Lords amendment to force the government to produce full audited costs for the project.

• Porton Down compromise angers veterans - The Ministry of Defence today reached a settlement with the family of an RAF serviceman who underwent lethal nerve gas tests at Porton Down more than 50 years ago. Leading Aircraftsman Ronald Maddison, from Consett, County Durham, died aged 20 after having droplets of sarin dabbed on to his arm at Porton Down chemical warfare testing facility on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, in 1953.

• PRINT ROW: CLUBBERS are being asked for fingerprints when they enter nightspots in a scheme to cut violent crime - A database of name, date of birth, photo, and a scan of the right index finger will be checked so known trouble-makers can be banned in seconds. Civil rights groups have voiced concerns and one club owner admitted it "sounded like Big Brother." But police sergeant Jackie Gold defended the £6,000 trial in Yeovil, Somerset, saying: "There are no negatives. This will have a significant impact on crime."

• Hunter 'very stable' after Cheney shooting mistake - A hunting companion of Dick Cheney was doing well in hospital on Monday after the U.S. vice-president accidentally sprayed him with shotgun pellets during a weekend quail shoot in south Texas. Harry Whittington "rested well" overnight in the trauma intensive-care unit of Christus Spohn Hospital (Memorial), hospital administrator Peter Banko said in a morning news conference. He said Whittington, a 78-year-old lawyer from Austin, was in "very stable" condition. Cheney – who was carrying a 28-gauge shotgun – sprayed Whittington with shots late Saturday afternoon at the Armstrong Ranch.   (COMMENTARY: Dozy bugger!)

• Opus Dei tackles "Da Vinci Code" image problem By Claudia Parsons - Portrayed in the best-selling novel "The Da Vinci Code" as a secretive cult willing to murder to defend a fictional 2,000-year-old Catholic cover-up, Opus Dei is promoting its softer side before the movie of the book arrives in May. Published in March 2003, Dan Brown's "The Da Vinci Code" is one of the most popular books in publishing history with more than 40 million copies in print worldwide in 44 languages.

• The Lowdown on Sweet? - A study conducted at an Italian cancer research center, above, has rekindled the debate on aspartame. Aspartame is sold under the brand names Nutra-Sweet and Equal and is found in such popular products as Diet Coke, Diet Pepsi, Diet Snapple and Sugar Free Kool-Aid. Hundreds of millions of people consume it worldwide. And Dr. Soffritti's study concluded that aspartame may cause the dreaded "c" word: cancer.

• CIA chief sacked for opposing torture - The CIA’s top counter-terrorism official was fired last week because he opposed detaining Al-Qaeda suspects in secret prisons abroad, sending them to other countries for interrogation and using forms of torture such as “water boarding”, intelligence sources have claimed. Robert Grenier, head of the CIA counter-terrorism centre, was relieved of his post after a year in the job. One intelligence official said he was “not quite as aggressive as he might have been” in pursuing Al-Qaeda leaders and networks.

• Security cameras at GHS? - Security cameras in the student center could become a daily reality for Greenwich High School (GHS) students if the Board of Education has its way. At a Feb. 2 work session, board members said they supported a proposal by Superintendent of Schools Larry Leverett to expand an existing program and install new cameras inside the student center and outside the school as part of an overall effort to improve school security and cut down on fights and vandalism.

12th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Bilderberg Brown says ID cards are vital - ID cards are vital to protect the UK from a repeat of the July 7 terror attacks, Chancellor Gordon Brown said as the Government faces a vital vote on the issue. He rejected claims that the scheme was "unBritish" and said that proper safeguards would be in place to ensure civil liberties were protected. Ministers have accepted a number of changes to the cards but still face a battle to persuade MPs in the Commons on Monday to overturn defeats inflicted by the House of Lords.    (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' and/or 'London Bombing' archives for more background info and perspective commentary)

• Hey, Kids: Spying Is Fun! - Using cartoons, games and kid-friendly websites, the federal intelligence community is seeking to win the hearts and minds of America's children. Move over, McGruff. The trench-coated canine mascot of the National Crime Prevention Council has some youthful competition in the battle for the hearts and minds of America's children. Now in virtual training on the website of the National Security Agency are the CryptoKids, the code-makers and code-breakers of America's future.

• FUTURE P.M. PUSHES POLICE STATE FOR THE UK: Wake up to terror threat, says Gordon Brown - Chancellor Gordon Brown said the UK must "wake up" to the complexity and global scale of the terror threat. He was speaking on the eve of a major speech in which he will announce a raft of new security measures. Plans for an integrated electronic border system will be unveiled as well as a proposal to extend the time terror suspects can be held without trial.

• Electronic scanner helps catch criminals - Police no longer need an ink pad to get a person's fingerprints. And before long, they might never need to worry about wet wipes either. A new tool - the Integrated Biometric Identification System, or IBIS - is a portable fingerprint scanner now helping police officers and sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino and Riverside counties identify people faster and more efficiently. The handheld device, manufactured by Identix in Minnetonka, Minn., electronically scans a person's photograph and thumbprints, then transmits that data via a wireless modem through cell phone towers to the Cal-ID fingerprint database maintained by law-enforcement agencies in the Inland Empire.

• Banks fail to promote alternatives to chip and pinBack to Credit Cards - Consumer groups have hit out at Banks and shops who they say should do more to promote the alternatives to chip and pin because many elderly and disabled people struggle to use the cards. The Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB) claim it has received more than 100 calls during the past few weeks from people worried about the changeover to chip and pin cards, whilst at the same time the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) maintains it has seen a sharp increase in calls to its helpline during the past few days.

• Asda fined for trying to make workers quit union - The US-owned Asda Wal-Mart supermarket group has been ordered to pay £850,000 for breaking new trade union laws by offering illegal inducements to workers to quit the GMB union. Some 340 drivers and warehouse men at a Washington, Durham, distribution depot were offered a 10% pay rise if they left the union. The members rejected the offer and later took a 5% pay offer. A tribunal in Newcastle ruled yesterday that the company had breached legislation introduced in 2004. The company was ordered to pay every worker at the depot £2,500 in compensation.

• Only on Fox: Cable channel aired photos of aliens attacking Library Tower - In a February 9 speech, President Bush disclosed details of what he described as a foiled Al Qaeda plot to fly a commercial plane into the tallest building in Los Angeles. Shortly after his speech concluded, Fox News aired numerous images from the 1996 film Independence Day (Twentieth Century Fox) showing the reported target of the attack -- the Library Tower, now known as the U.S. Bank Tower -- being destroyed by alien invaders.    (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' archive for more background info)

• Is Bush The Lifetime President? - Those confident in the fact that President Bush will leave office in January 2009 after his second term ends would be wary to check out images posted on the Huffington Post website. During a National Guard ceremony gala on Thursday night, Bush was presented with a life-size marble pedestal of his own head and shoulders. Look closely at the inscription on the statue reads 2001-BLANK, indicating that the date when Bush will leave office isn't yet known, despite the fact that the 22nd Amendment to the US Constitution only allows incumbents to occupy the office of President for a maximum of two terms.

11th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• SURPRISE SURPRISE: 'White House knew of Katrina levee breach' - Twenty-eight government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, reported that New Orleans levees were breached August 29, the day Hurricane Katrina roared ashore, documents released on Thursday show. A timeline of e-mails, situation updates and weather reports, pieced together by Senate Democrats, indicates the Bush administration knew as early as 8:30 a.m. EST about levee failures that would ultimately lead to massive flooding of the city and its surrounding parishes.   (RELATED: See our 'Problem > Reaction > Solution' archive for more background info)

• Microchip implanted in brain may offer hope to people who are paralyzed - A microchip implanted onto the surface of the human brain called the BrainGate, developed by Brown University and a company called Cyberkinetics, offers hope for those who are paralyzed. “BrainGate is a device that senses, analyzes and transmits data from the brain of people with paralysis to the outside world so they can communicate or move or be more independent,” says John Donoghue of Cyberkinetics and Brown University. “What happens is we try to take the signals from the movement area of the brain, and that carries activities patterns on movements from the brain to the outside world. And now it goes into a cart and then the cart processes these signals and basically it turns it into a control signal that's very much like a mouse cursor. Now the thoughts control the computer cursor up, down, left and right, so with that type of technology you can control all sorts of devices like a telephone, a TV, maybe even an arm.”

10th FEBRUARY 2006: -

Hang on a minute... I've seen that Phoenix bugger somewhere before haven't I?

• TWO U.S. COMPANY EMPLOYEES INJECTED WITH RFID MICROCHIPS - Cincinnati video surveillance company CityWatcher.com now requires employees to use VeriChip human implantable microchips to enter a secure data center, Network Administrator Khary Williams told Liz McIntyre by phone yesterday. McIntyre, co-author of "Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID," contacted CityWatcher after it announced it had integrated the VeriChip VeriGuard product into its access control system.

PERSPECTIVE: ONE ASPECT OF WHY WE ARE ALLOWED TO GET AWAY WITH EXPOSING THE NEW WORLD ORDER...

(i.e. WHY WE HAVEN'T BEEN 'TAKEN OUT' FOR DOING WHAT WE ARE DOING)

STOP PLAYING ALONG WITH IT AND IT ALL COMES DOWN...

• Movie planned for Diana murder book - A book which claims Diana, Princess of Wales was murdered by the security services is to be made into a film, it has been reported. A UK production company has bought the rights to Princess Diana: The Hidden Evidence by Jon King and John Beveridge, according to Screendaily.com. The book claims Diana was killed in an assassination plot by MI6 and the CIA.   (COMMENTARY: Let me guess... it'll be a bloody comedy with Will Ferrell as Prince Charles and Jessica Simpson as Diana... I digress, but don't be so sure!)

• ADHD drugs warning - DRUGS used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder may be required to carry the most serious type of warning on their labels after health regulators found the medications might cause heart attacks and strokes. A US Food and Drug Administration advisory panel is investigating whether ADHD drugs, including Ritalin, were linked to the deaths of 25 people, including 19 children, between 1999 and2003. The drugs were also associated with 54 cases of cardiovascular episodes including heart attacks, strokes and serious heartbeat disturbances.

• EFF issues Google Desktop warning: Configure it carefully, or forget it - Google has released a revamped version of its desktop search tool which introduces the ability to search the contents of one computer from another. Previous versions of the tool indexed files on user's PCs, but using the optional "Search Across Computers" facility in Google Desktop 3 temporarily stores text copies of searchable items on Google's own servers for up to 30 days.

• Police State High School - It has been said that fascism will take root in the United States through incrementalism. Meaning, the government will get progressively invasive, step by step. This way, people get used to the changes and don't remember it ever being different. This is no more apparent than in our school systems. The ICU has documented many incidences of fourth amendment violating random drug searches in our schools. Recently, when I was a guest at my girlfriend's high school dance, I quickly realized how much the rush to fascism has sped up.

• Pharaonic tomb find stuns Egypt - Archaeologists have discovered an intact, ancient Egyptian tomb in the Valley of the Kings, the first since King Tutankhamun's was found in 1922. A team led by the University of Memphis found the previously unknown tomb complete with unopened sarcophagi and five undisturbed mummies. The archaeologists have not yet been able to identify them.

09th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• The Terrorists of Tiny Town: Homeland security keeping our country safe from kindergarteners (hey, they could be Al Qaeda...) - WHILE ATTORNEY GENERAL Alberto Gonzalez assures the U.S. Senate that the Bush Administration’s domestic eavesdropping program is a vital “early warning system” for terrorists, another homeland security measure strikes at a local elementary school.

• Google's newest search tool raises privacy concerns - Internet search giant Google, which raised eyebrows when it fought the Department of Justice's attempts to monitor personal search queries, today unveils a new desktop search tool that accesses more private records than ever — of those who choose to use it. Google Desktop 3, the latest version of software that helps users find files on personal computers, has a new feature that can track data from multiple PCs. To do that, it copies personal text files to Google servers, which eventually route them back to the PCs. Previous versions merely indexed files, without storing copies at Google.

• Taser victim was trying to get life back together - Two people have died in Southwest Florida after taser guns were used on them, fueling the debate over their use. The mother of one of those who died speaks out for the very first time. Tracy Shippy was tasered by Lee County sheriff's deputies after she thrashed around a Hallmark store in Page Field Commons, swinging a piece of metal. Minutes after she was tasered, Tracy Shippy died.

• US plans massive data sweep: Little-known data-collection system could troll news, blogs, even e-mails. Will it go too far? - The US government is developing a massive computer system that can collect huge amounts of data and, by linking far-flung information from blogs and e-mail to government records and intelligence reports, search for patterns of terrorist activity. The system - parts of which are operational, parts of which are still under development - is already credited with helping to foil some plots. It is the federal government's latest attempt to use broad data-collection and powerful analysis in the fight against terrorism. But by delving deeply into the digital minutiae of American life, the program is also raising concerns that the government is intruding too deeply into citizens' privacy.

• Researchers find animal antibiotics in vegetables - Antibiotics given to livestock can end up in vegetables and pose a health threat to consumers, according to a study looking at the use of animal manure as a fertilizer. The University of Minnesota study will add to the level of public concern about the food the eat. It also serves as a warning to food processors that they need to be vigilant when sourcing their vegetables.

• Yahoo accused in jailing of 2nd China Internet user - Yahoo Inc. provided evidence to Chinese authorities that led to the imprisonment of an Internet writer, lawyers and activists said on Thursday, the second such case involving the U.S. Internet giant. The company cooperated with Chinese police in a case that led to the 2003 arrest of Li Zhi, who was charged with subverting state power and sentenced to eight years in prison after trying to join the dissident China Democracy Party, writer Liu Xiaobo said.

• Babies to be given 25 vaccinations in a year - Babies are to be given 25 vaccinations in a year in a move which sparked fears of 'immunisation overload'. The current 21 will be increased by three of pneumococcal vaccine - against meningitis, blood poisoning and pneumonia - and a booster against Hib, an infection that can cause bacterial meningitis.

• IBM brings hyper-realistic imagery closer with new chip - A highly touted microprocessor designed to provide hyper-realistic imagery in video games is making its first appearance in a computing system made by the chip's leading designer, International Business Machines Corp. IBM announced yesterday that it will incorporate the "Cell" chip into a new line of servers for defence, medical imagery, entertainment and other applications that require sterling graphics and intensive computing.

• Brothers in arms - Israel's secret pact with Pretoria - During the second world war the future South African prime minister John Vorster was interned as a Nazi sympathiser. Three decades later he was being feted in Jerusalem. In the second part of his remarkable special report, Chris McGreal investigates the clandestine alliance between Israel and the apartheid regime, cemented with the ultimate gift of friendship - A-bomb technology.

08th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• "Smart Card" to Replace ID Card in Hua Hin - Khun Sutthipong Pasurat, Chief of Population Registration and the ID Card Office, revealed the new type of ID Card. The "Smart Card" is a multifunction card where all information required by governmental offices and business sectors is installed in the card. This card is not only used as an ID Card but also used for other types of card because a microchip on the card stores information required by law about each individual in the card.

• Election officials fear '06 season of the glitch - More than 30 million Americans will be looking at new and unfamiliar voting machines when they cast their ballots this year, perhaps the most rapid changeover of voting equipment in history. With that change comes an increased risk of errors and confusion, election officials say.  "When you look at disaster stories, it is usually that first time using a new piece of equipment that something is going to fall apart," says Kimball Brace, president of Election Data Services, which maintains data on voting systems across the country.

07th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Surveillance cameras make their way to small towns - With a population of 418 people, Sanborn has no school, no grocery store and no traffic light. But the southwestern Minnesota town has nine surveillance video cameras monitoring all four streets leading into town and preserves the recorded images for two weeks. Sanborn is among a growing number of small towns to include cameras - often common in large cities - in their law enforcement budgets. Such video systems - purchased with federal Homeland Security money in some towns - have upset privacy advocates.

• Antispam group rejects e-mail payment plan - A leading antispam agency has struck back at moves to charge companies a fixed fee to ensure e-mails are delivered, saying it will erode freedoms. On Monday, Richard Cox, chief information officer at antispam organization Spamhaus, said that "an e-mail charge will destroy the spirit of the Internet." "The Internet has become what it is because of freedom of communication. Open discussion is what gives it value. There should be no cost for particular services, and e-mail should be free and accessible to all. This will disenfranchise people," Cox said.

• Afghan police kill four amid rage over cartoons - Afghan police killed four people protesting on Tuesday against cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad which have unleashed waves of rage and soul-searching across the Muslim world and Europe. Fresh unrest erupted in the Middle East, Asia and Africa over the drawings, which were first published in Denmark, then Norway and then several other European countries. Some Muslim leaders urged restraint.

• PRETEXT TO CURB INTERNET FREEDOM: BT concern as child porn traffic spirals - BT released figures today which showed that the number of attempts to access websites hosting child pornography have trebled in the past 18 months. BT reports that it is now blocking 35,000 attempts to access child pornography in Britain every day. And one leading e-commerce figure has described over Internet Service Providers' failure to block access to such sites as "outrageous", and called on other ISPs to follow BT's lead.   (COMMENTARY: Don't get me wrong, people who prey on the young are the scum of the Earth, however we need to watch this convenient pretext as it pertains to the desire to erode free speech and a right to dissent online.  Hate speech, 'Sexcrime', breach of copyright, its all being thrown together to shut the internet down.)

• RECYCLING BIN FINES - PEOPLE who put the wrong type of rubbish in their recycling bins are to be hit with an £80 fine. They will get a football style yellow sticker for a first offence, red for a second and then fined. Councillor Albert Pearce accused Babergh Council in Suffolk of "acting like a police state".

• Cartoons 'part of Zionist plot' - The furious international row over the publication of cartoons satirising the prophet Muhammad intensified today when Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, claimed it was an Israeli conspiracy motivated by anger over Hamas's win in the Palestinian elections. Iran today also announced it was suspending all trade and economic ties with Denmark in protest of the caricatures. The move came after the EU had warned Iran that boycotting Danish goods would place further strain on already frosty relations.

• Torture scenes go mainstream - In the first hit film of the year, screaming, helpless young people are brutalized by power tools and blowtorches wielded by gleeful tormentors. One of TV's most popular cable series ends its third season with the mutilation of a pre-operative transgender woman, and the severing of a plastic surgeon's finger. On the same show, a psychopath treats one of his kidnapped victims to extensive plastic surgery on her face and body -- without anesthesia.

06th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• 9/11 plot terrorist tells court 'I am al-Qaeda' - PROCLAIMING “I am alQaeda”, the only man convicted in the US for his involvement in the September 11 terror attacks yesterday frequently disrupted the opening of a trial to determine if he will be executed. Startling potential jurors and forcing the judge to have him removed from the court, Zacarias Moussaoui yelled that he did not want his defence team to represent him, declaring: “This trial is a circus. They do not represent me. They are Americans.” He added: “I am al-Qaeda. These people are not my lawyer.” Removed three times from the court, he declared: “I want to be heard. For four years I have waited. I will tell the truth I know. I will take the stand.”

• Biometric Authentication is Used in New Online Pay By Touch Product - Leading biometric authentication, loyalty, membership and payment solutions company, Pay By Touch, has launched Pay By Touch Online, a new Internet payment and identification service. According to the company, the new service gives consumers a fast, easy and secure way to identify themselves and make purchases on the Internet. Pay By Touch Online, which debuted today at DEMO 2006, is the only solution that increases security and convenience at the same time. The new service is based on Pay By Touch's patented biometric technology.

• Tasers On Campus - Police officers working in the some of the largest school districts in Northwest Arkansas are carrying tasers every day. Officers in Fayetteville, Rogers and Springdale are carrying the weapons, which fire electrified darts designed to incapacitate a suspect. Police officers describe the Taser as simply another tool in the tool belt to keep order in schools where 17-year-olds can come as large and as strong as grown men.

• Big Brother is watching you on Britain’s roads - Big Brother-style surveillance is growing on Britain’s roads, where police will have the greatest ability in the world to scrutinise, control and record the movements of drivers by the end of the year. Thousands of cameras reading vehicle number plates and comparing data with a central data base will analyse some 35 million pieces of information per day. The data will be transmitted to the police and also MI5, Britain’s domestic intelligence agency, to help in the hunt for suspected criminals or terrorists. It will be kept for two years, but the period may be extended to five years.

• Astronomers shed light on mystery of 'dark matter' - British astronomers have come a step closer to understanding one of the most mysterious substances in the universe - the "dark matter" which acts as a kind of cosmic glue, holding galaxies together. New research into dark matter, believed to make up 23 per cent of the cosmos compared to the 4 per cent of "normal matter" that can be seen and felt, has for the first time pinned down its behaviour and properties, which are essential to anchoring an ordered universe.

05th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• Embassies burn in cartoon protest - Syrians have set fire to the Norwegian and Danish embassies in Damascus in protest at the publication of newspaper cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad. Protesters scaled the Danish site amid chants of "God is great", before moving on to attack the Norwegian mission. Denmark and Norway condemned Syria for failing its international obligations and urged their citizens to leave.   (COMMENTARY: The herd of sheeple become a pack of wolves over a bloody cartoon... oh we could be so dangerous if we knew what we were doing!)

• Galloway 'receives Egypt apology' - Respect MP George Galloway says he has received an apology from the Egyptian president after being detained at Cairo airport for over 12 hours. Mr Galloway went to the Middle East on Friday after being invited to join an event against the war in Iraq. He said he was detained without food and water and only set free on Saturday after the event ended. On Sunday Mr Galloway said President Hosni Mubarak had "apologised on behalf of the Egyptian people".

• Bush's 'Gulf Of Tonkin' Underlines Criminal Desperation For War - This week's revelations that George W. Bush and Tony Blair considered staging a war provocation by painting a US spy plane in UN colors and flying it over Iraq, in the hope that Saddam would order it shot down, illustrates a desperate depth of criminality only rivaled by previous notorious historical examples.  Philippe Sands, a QC and professor of international law at University College, London, unearthed documents that shadow even the Downing Street memo in terms of direct and unequivocal confirmation that the war was deliberate and planned from the very start and that any pretext to garner international support for it would be considered and utilized.

• Revealed: secret plan to keep UK troops permanently in Iraq - BRITAIN is laying secret plans to maintain a permanent military presence in Iraq. Ministers and military officials are in negotiations with their American counterparts over the British contribution to the long-term effort to maintain peace and stability in post-Saddam Iraq once the country is handed over to its newly elected government.

• SHUNNED IN AMERICA: AUSTRALIAN NAT. TELEVISION AIRS 9-11 DOCUMENTARY - Perhaps the most controversial documentary produced about the 9-11 attacks was recently aired on Australia's "TEN" television network and placed second in the ratings. Despite efforts to suppress the information and questions raised in "911 - In Plane Site," an increasing number of military experts and commercial airline pilots are coming forward to support and validate the information contained in the documentary. Many are now calling for a re-opening of the investigation into the September 11 attacks. The 90-minute program was aired nation-wide in Australia and resulted in a much higher than usual response from viewers.

• EARLY SIGNS OF THE WAR ON NEWS GATHERING (WHAT WE DO): Newspapers Fight Back Against Search Engines - An international group of publishers is exploring options, including collective action at either a national or international level, for enforcing copyright and preventing search engines from taking their content for free. A task force of global and European publishers has agreed to examine ways to receive payment from Internet search engines and news aggregators that the group claims are making money by taking someone else's content for free. Led by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, the group of newspaper, magazine and book publishers are hoping to write standards and policies that define the commercial relationship between publishers and search engines, such as Google Inc. and Yahoo Inc., and content aggregators.

• ID fraud figures 'inflated to play on public fears' - THE Government was accused Thursday of playing on people’s fears by producing hugely inflated figures on the cost of identity fraud. In a report published yesterday, the Home Office said that the annual cost of ID fraud had reached £1.7 billion. However, this figure was undermined by Apacs, the group that represents payment organisations such as banks and credit firms, which said that the cost had been grossly overestimated and that its own figures had been misrepresented. Ministers included in their total the figure of £395 million as the annual cost of money laundering alone. But the Home Office admits that this figure is only “for illustrative purposes” and that “no figures are currently available on the proportion of money laundering that relies on identity fraud”.

04th FEBRUARY 2006: -

• NORAD and U.S. Coast Guard Set for Super Bowl Security – The North American Aerospace Defense Command and the U.S. Coast Guard will contribute to security operations for the Feb. 5 Super Bowl at Ford Field in Detroit, Mich. The aerospace command will fly Operation Noble Eagle air defense protection missions in the Detroit and Windsor, Ont., Canada area, officials said. Windsor is just across the Detroit River from Michigan. And NORAD has military assets from both Canada and the U.S.

• Pentagon to keep civilians under surveillance - U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed on Thursday that civilians in the United States are under surveillance in a program to protect military personnel and bases. The "counter-surveillance" program, in line with the Defense Department's responsibility to protect U.S. forces, is aimed at preventing civilians gathering sensitive information and taking pictures of security installations, Rumsfeld said at the National Press Club.

• Maine Peace Group Under Federal Surveillance - The domestic spying topic we've heard so much about nationally, is now closer to home. The Maine Civil Liberties Union has learned the FBI has a surveillance file for the Maine Coalition for Peace and Justice.

• World Tracker turns anyone into a cellphone spy - Forget those piddly wiretaps. The next frontier in warrant-free surveillance is upon us, and it's open to everyone. A UK service called World Tracker apparently uses cell tower data (or GPS, when available) to track the location of just about any GSM cellphone. Just enter the number you want to track into the service's handy Google Maps-based interface, and you'll be able to zoom in on the device's location, with accuracy somewhere between 50 and 500 meters. The first time you try to track a phone, a text message is sent to the owner, who must reply in order to enable tracking (we'll leave it to you to figure out how to work around this if you need to track a spouse, kid or employee).

• The End of the Internet? - The nation's largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online. Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency.

• Whitehall's £1.7 billion case for ID cards is 'claptrap' - Home Office claims that identity cards would stop credit card scams and other frauds were denounced as "claptrap" yesterday. Ministers said their multi-billion pound identity register scheme would help counter a problem costing the country £1.7 billion a year, up from £1.3 billion four years ago. But critics said ID cards could make identity theft worse, not better, and they also challenged the veracity of the statistics used by the Government to support its case. The £1.7 billion included £395 million for "money laundering" even though a Home Office study concedes that this figure is only "illustrative".

• Zionist Threats And Harrassment Continue - Beginning three days ago, two more so-called 'men' began their tirade on this writer. Like the first person, they informed me that I was a Rense supporter and that makes me an anti-Semite. Me. Of all people, with a Jewish side to our family in which 2.15% survived the camps. That would be two out of 93 human beings. You picked the wrong person, guys.

• Bush to seek $439.3 billion U.S. defense budget - President George W. Bush will ask Congress for $439.3 billion in defense spending for fiscal 2007, a 4.8 per cent increase over the current U.S. military budget, defense and administration officials said on Thursday. The proposed budget for the financial year beginning next October includes $84.2 billion to purchase fighter jets, ships and other new weapons and $73.2 billion for military research and development programs, according to the officials, who asked not to be identified.

• Company Refuses To Pull Aspartame From Parkinson's Drug - It has been almost two weeks since I wrote you this letter. And I called before that. I just want to advise you if aspartame is not removed from Parcopa within two weeks, the information below will go out as a global press release. One victim just went through the agonizing withdrawal from the aspartame in the product. I do not want to see anyone go through what she did, sick taking the drug in the first place, and then the withdrawal process from the aspartame. Aspartame liberates free methyl alcohol. Methanol is classified as a narcotic. The chronic methanol poisoning affects the dopamine system of the brain and causes addiction.

• Tied up in the Rat Lines - It is possible that within a short time a court in the United States will prohibit the publication of the account before us. In the meantime, Haaretz has obtained the testimony given last month by William Gowen, a former intelligence officer in the United States Army, at a federal court in San Francisco. The testimony contains historical and political explosives. It links Giovanni Battista Montini, who later became Pope Paul VI, to the theft of property of Jewish, Serb, Russian, Ukrainian and Roma victims during World War II in Yugoslavia. Many studies and stories have already been written about the thundering silence of Pope Pius XII, who reigned in the Vatican during World War II. Now the former intelligence officer's testimony has revealed that after the war, Montini, who during the war served as the Vatican's deputy secretary of state under the pope, helped hide and launder property that had been stolen from, among others, Jews and was involved in the sheltering and smuggling of Croatian war criminals, such as the leader of the Ustashe movement, Ante Pavelic.

02nd FEBRUARY 2006: -

• The White House memo: Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war - Channel 4 News tonight reveals extraordinary details of George Bush and Tony Blair's pre-war meeting in January 2003 at which they discussed plans to begin military action on March 10th 2003, irrespective of whether the United Nations had passed a new resolution authorising the use of force. Channel 4 News has seen minutes from that meeting, which took place in the White House on 31 January 2003. The two leaders discussed the possibility of securing further UN support, but President Bush made it clear that he had already decided to go to war. The details are contained in a new version of the book 'Lawless World' written by a leading British human rights lawyer, Philippe Sands QC.

• Driver fined for swearing at speed camera - A motorist has been fined £80 for making offensive gestures towards a speed camera as he drove home from work. Simon Thompson, 41, extended his middle finger at the mobile speed camera as he passed it whilst driving safely under the speed limit. Simon, from Colchester in Essex was astonished when half an hour later the two policemen who had been operating the camera knocked on his front door. The officers handed Simon a fixed penalty notice for £80 for making offensive gestures under the Public Order Act.

• BETTER GIVE UP ALL OF YOUR RIGHTS!: More bombings 'must be expected' - There is a "real and present danger" of new terror attacks - including suicide bombings - on British soil, the Government's anti-terror watchdog warned. Lord Carlile of Berriew QC said the public must expect more bombings similar to the July 7 atrocities, which claimed 52 innocent lives. The Liberal Democrat peer was given full access to Home Office files - including intelligence material from the security services - in his role as the independent reviewer of counter-terrorism laws.

• CHIP AND PINCH: ID card fears after biometric passport 'cracked' in 2 hours - PLANS to bring in ID cards could lead to a massive surge in identity fraud, campaigners warned yesterday. Security experts in Holland have exposed a weakness in the technology which allows data to be "skimmed" from a prototype biometric passport just 11 yards away. Within two hours they had access to personal information, including fingerprints, a digital photo of the passport holder and their date of birth. The proposed British compulsory ID card will use similar technology to store biometric information about every adult in the country (no it bloody wont!).

• Babies given drugs untested on the young: Cost of research deters pharmaceutical firms - Around 90% of drugs used to treat newborn babies have not been tested on the young, a report by a House of Lords committee reveals today. Drugs such as morphine, the thyroid drug thyrozine, and some anti-epileptic drugs are used even though they are unlicensed for use on children. Half of all medicines given to children - including some asthma inhalers - have never been tested for this age group.

• MORE ACTION TO BAN ASPARTAME IN NEW MEXICO - In our December 29th column called, “Will N.M. Be First State to Ban Aspartame?” we provided a vivid account of the battle royale going on to exercise state power to remove aspartame from the marketplace in New Mexico. An FDA-approved non-caloric food additive to sweeten foods and beverages whose metabolites include methanol and formaldehyde, aspartame has been the center of a heated controversy for over 25 year regarding not only its safety but in the manner it was approved over the objections of many medical experts. Briefly, the chemical is a neurotoxin associated in medical research with several forms of cancer, migraines, headaches, weight gain and generalized toxicity. You can read more about the 92 nasty effects of aspartame on www.dorway.com.

01st FEBRUARY 2006: -

• AT&T sued over NSA warrantless wiretapping - US telco AT&T is being sued over allegations it helped the National Security Agency (NSA) in its "massive and illegal program" to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications. A class-action lawsuit by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) alleges AT&T collaborated with with ultra-secretive communications agency in intercepting communications without court authorisation. The practice of so-called warrantless wiretapping came to light after the New York Times reported that the president had authorised the agency to intercept communications inside the US.

• British Police Investigate Diana Crash Site: Experts to Create 3-D Model of Tunnel - More than seven years after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, Scotland Yard investigators returned to the tunnel in which she died with the latest laser technology to investigate the crash site again. The laser technology, which was not available in 1997 when Diana, Dodi Fayed and their driver Henry Paul died, investigators scanned the Paris tunnel in which their Mercedes crashed. The operation costs at estimated $3.7 million.

• County, city, 12 officers sued over Taser death: Mother says 9 shocks were wrongful assault - The mother of a man who died after he was shocked nine times with a Taser is suing the Toledo police officers and Lucas County sheriff's deputies involved in the incident. Betty Turner claims in a lawsuit filed yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court that police officers and deputies engaged in misconduct and wrongfully assaulted her son, Jeffrey Turner, causing his death a year ago today.

• Police Remove Sheehan From Bush Speech - Cindy Sheehan finally got her invitation to see President Bush again, but before she set eyes on him at the State of the Union address, Capitol Police removed her from the gallery overlooking the House chamber. The offense: her shirt, bearing an anti-war message and other "unlawful conduct," police said.

• MORE ORWELLIAN DOUBLE-SPEAK AND HITLERIAN RHETORIC: We will not falter in Iraq: Bush - US President George Bush has insisted that America must not falter in Iraq - the "central front" in the war on terror. In his State of the Union address, he said the US will never "surrender to evil" in its bid to spread freedom and democracy around the world. He did not offer any timetable for bringing American troops home from Iraq, but insisted such a decision would be taken by military commanders and not politicians in Washington.

• GOVERNMENT WANTS JURISDICTION OVER ALL FARM ANIMALS! - “Farming is not much fun any more,” are the words we hear from agricultural producers across the nation. While organizations such as the Environmental Working Group are working against agriculture and falsely leading the public to believe government subsidies are making farmers rich, farmers are asking “how can we survive and how much more invasive can the government get?” The government is already using space-based satellites to measure the crops on every farm in the country and now the United States Department of Agriculture has plans to give an Orwellian touch to owning any type of farm animal. Are we permitting fear to take away another freedom?