Thursday 30th November 2006: -

• Full text of Iranian President Ahmadinejad's letter to the American people - "In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful. O, Almighty God, bestow upon humanity the perfect human being promised to all by You, and make us among his followers. Noble Americans, Were we not faced with the activities of the US administration in this part of the world and the negative ramifications of those activities on the daily lives of our peoples, coupled with the many wars and calamities caused by the US administration as well as the tragic consequences of US interference in other countries; Were the American people not God-fearing, truth-loving, and justice-seeking, while the US administration actively conceals the truth and impedes any objective portrayal of current realities;..."

• Study drugs: the new coffee? - With exam week on the frontier and study time mounting for University of Wisconsin students, some will be relying on more than soda and coffee to get them through long nights at the library. UW students are among the growing population of young adults using prescription attention deficit disorder medications to aid in all-night study sessions, regardless of whether they have a prescription.

Wednesday 29th November 2006: -

• WITH REGARDS TO OUR HEADLINES WHICH WE WORK HARD AT UP-DATING ON A DAILY BASIS; PLEASE BEAR WITH US OVER THE NEXT COUPLE OF DAYS AS OUR TEAM IS CURRENTLY VERY BUSY ORGANISING AN UPCOMING 9/11 TRUTH EVENT (SEE ABOVE) WHICH WILL TAKE UP MUCH OF OUR TIME.  Webmaster, cremationofcare.com

• Apology over Royal phones tap plot - The News of the World has publicly apologised to members of the royal family for invading their privacy after a senior journalist admitted a plot to hack into personal phone calls. The unreserved apology from the paper's editor Andy Coulson and its royal correspondent Clive Goodman came as an Old Bailey court heard details of a phone tapping operation targeting both royals and celebrities. One of the public figures whose voicemail was intercepted - MP Simon Hughes - immediately condemned the practise as "completely unacceptable".

• Your "smellprint" is just as unique as your fingerprint - Your fingerprint may not be the only unique thing about you, for a new study has found that your odour is also just as distinctive. The study was conducted by a team of researchers led by Dustin Penn from the Konrad Lorenz Institute for Ethology in Vienna, Austria, who now suggest that the "smellprint" of an individual may be as unique as the fingerprint.

• Death by Dust: The frightening link between the 9-11 toxic cloud and cancer - It was October 6, 2004, three years after Ernie Vallebuona's three-month stint as a rescue and recovery worker at ground zero in the wake of the 9-11 terrorist attacks, and he was hunched over and trembling, racked by a pain like nothing he had experienced in his 40 years of sound health. He had just returned to his Rockland County home after finishing the midnight-to-8 a.m. shift in the NYPD vice unit, where he'd reported to work for the last six years. Vallebuona had bought some fish from a street vendor near his office, on the Lower East Side. And as he drove the 35 miles from Manhattan to New City, he chalked up a searing stomachache to food poisoning. Maybe the vendor had filleted that fish with a dirty machete?

• Depleted Uranium Situation Worsens, by Doug Rokke - The delivery of at least one hundred GBU-28 "bunker buster" bombs containing depleted-uranium warheads by the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination, with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout the Middle East. Israeli tank gunners are also using depleted-uranium tank rounds, as photographs verify. Today, US, British, and now Israeli military personnel are using illegal uranium munitions—America and the United Kingdom's own "dirty bombs"—while US Army, US Department of Energy, US Department of Defense (DOD), and UK Ministry of Defence officials deny that there are any adverse health or environmental effects as a consequence of the manufacture, testing, or use of uranium munitions, so that they may avoid liability for the willful and illegal dispersal of a radioactive toxic material—depleted uranium (DU).

• Big Brother comes home: Panasonic launch two home network cameras for added home security - Panasonic has launched two home network cameras that will allow consumers to monitor their homes whilst they are away. The BL-C1 (wired) and BL-C20 (wireless) have built-in network web servers which enable consumers to connect directly to a personalised network from a PC or mobile phone.

• RIAA Legal Ruling Could Shut Down The Internet: U.S. government supports legal case that would criminalize making any files available on the world wide web - A landmark legal case on behalf of the Recording Industry Association of America and other global trade organizations seeks to criminalize all Internet file sharing of any kind as copyright infringement, effectively shutting down the world wide web - and their argument is supported by the U.S. government. Ray Beckerman, a lawyer representing clients in cases against the RIAA, recently took part in a conference call organized by DefectiveByDesign.org, an organization which opposes DRM Technology, content restricting programs embedded into software that blocks users access to music, movies, software and other forms of digital data.

• Mobile Biometrics from Motorola Help Catch Convicted Murderer - For law enforcement, catching criminals has always been a top priority. Now, thanks to new technologies and specifically biometrics, catching criminals and closing cases is faster and more frequent. Harris County Sheriffs Office (HSCO) demonstrated this benefit when the biometric solutions they use from Motorola (News - Alert) helped in catching a murderer felon who would have otherwise gone unidentified at the time of the incident. A recent news release explains that the officers had entered a home to serve an arrest warrant to a wanted suspect in an unrelated case, who was not in the home at the time. When looking to ID those at the home, all of which did not have proper identification on them, the officers used Motorola's Mobile Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), a hand held device that captures fingerprints of suspects and the Printrak Biometric Identification Solution (BIS) to fingerprint the men and check them against a database of fingerprints taken at prior crime scenes. In doing so, they were able to positively identify one of the men as a murder felon.

• GOP lawmaker alleges Bush wants to merge U.S. with Mexico, Canada - A veteran Republican lawmakers is accusing President Bush of pushing a behind-the-scenes agenda that will result in the United States being merged with Mexico and Canada. State Sen. Karen Johnson, R-Mesa, said she believes the Security and Prosperity Partnership, being run out of the White House and the U.S. Department of Commerce, is little more than a secret plan to end U.S. sovereignty by 2010. And she said Congress is being kept in the dark until the point that it becomes a done deal. Johnson, who will head the Senate Education Committee this coming session, said the signs already are there, from an "inland port'' in Kansas City and construction of a superhighway corridor through Texas to the lack of any real action in building a wall between the U.S. and Mexico.

• Samples of Di’s driver belonged to a suicide victim - Officials investigating the tragic death of Diana, Princess of Wales, have reportedly uncovered the identity of the suicide victim whose blood was mixed up with samples taken from her driver Henri Paul. It is now known that the blood, previously thought to be Paul's and which was used to prove the chauffeur was three times over the legal drink-driving limit, belonged to somebody else. Forensic pathologist Professor Dominique Lecomte faces an investigation over the mix-up after it emerged in September (06) that she confused the identity numbers of the bodies, reports Contactmusic.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive)

• A FRIEND IN NEED: DAVID ICKE SERIOUSLY NEEDS YOUR HELP FOR THIS FINAL PUSH - "Next week David Icke goes to court in the United States to secure the survival of everything he has built and worked for over more than 20 years of effort against all the odds. There are forces, of course, who wish to destroy it, and him, and bring an end to all that he communicates and has already produced to wake up a slumbering world sleepwalking into the global Nazi state. Virtually everything he has ever earned has gone into paying massive legal bills over the last 9 months to meet this challenge to everything he has done and everything that he stands for. People have no idea of the challenges he and his family have been facing, while still continuing to communicate the information that the world so desperately needs to hear. Next week will decide the outcome and we need some serious financial support for the legal costs this will incur. If we don't get that support, the work of David Icke is basically over. Thank-you for your help"

• Children killed in US raid in Iraq - Five girls and a baby have been killed in a US raid on a house in the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the US military has told Al Jazeera. The US military said two armed men had opened fire from the roof of a house on a US patrol disarming a roadside bomb, prompting the soldiers to reply with tank fire on Tuesday. Following the pre-dawn barrage, US troops carried out "an extensive search of the house and found one male and five females, ages ranging from infant to teenaged, dead", the statement said.

Tuesday 28th November 2006: -

• EU nations 'knew about CIA jails' - Many EU member states were aware of secret CIA jails and transfers of terror suspects, a European Parliament draft report has said. The report follows months of investigation by a special committee of MEPs led by an Italian, Claudio Fava. "Many governments co-operated passively or actively (with the CIA)," said Mr Fava, quoted by the AFP news agency. He accused top EU officials including foreign policy chief Javier Solana of failing to give full details to MEPs. The report echoed allegations made in June by the Council of Europe - Europe's leading human rights watchdog - that European states were complicit in illegal CIA operations as part of the US-led "war on terror".

• More radiation found in spy case - Traces of polonium-210 radiation have been found at two more central London addresses, police probing ex-Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko's death say. One address, in Down Street, reportedly houses the offices of his friend, exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky. The other location, in Grosvenor Street, is the headquarters of security and risk management company Erinys. Traces of the substance have already been found at a sushi restaurant, hotel and Mr Litvinenko's north London home.

• Jailed cleric Abu Hamza loses appeal - Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical Muslim cleric who was jailed for seven years after being found guilty on a string of race-hate and terrorism-related charges, has lost his appeal against conviction. Three senior Court of Appeal judges - including the Lord Chief Justice - ruled that any risk to the fairness of his trial, resulting from the adverse media publicity which followed the 9/11 attacks and changed world environment, had been successfully dealt with by the trial judge. They formally refused Mr Hamza's lawyers permission to appeal to the House of Lords, Britain's top court - although he could still try to persuade the Law Lords to take the case directly.

• WHY AREN'T I JUMPING UP AND DOWN WITH EXCITEMENT?: Blair vows nothing will hamper spy murder hunt - Tony Blair vowed today that "no diplomatic or political barrier" would be allowed to hamper the police investigation into the death of Alexander Litvinenko, the former Russian spy who died of radiation poisoning last week. Speaking in Copenhagen, before he travelled to Riga for a Nato summit, the Prime Minister described the case as "very serious". If necessary, he said that he would take up the matter with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. "I have not spoken to President Putin but I will do so at any time that is appropriate," said Mr Blair."There is no diplomatic or political barrier in the way of (the) investigation going wherever it needs to go."

• Princess Diana's Death Report May Be Revealed By December - It was revealed on Monday that Princess Diana's death report could be published as early as Christmas. Met Commissioner Lord Stevens has submitted a draft copy of the final report to Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss - the judge appointed to oversee the inquest into the deaths of Diana and her lover Dodi Fayed killed in the Paris car crash in 1997 - and is in current discussion with Scotland Yard police about making the report public at a press conference next month. Lord Stevens' report dismisses many of the conspiracy theories put forward by Dodi's father Mohammed Fayed, and the Harrods' boss is now considering taking legal action to prevent the report from being made public.

• Illegal aliens murder 12 Americans daily: Death toll in 2006 far overshadows total U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq, Afghanistan – While the military "quagmire" in Iraq was said to tip the scales of power in the U.S. midterm elections, most Americans have no idea more of their fellow citizens – men, women and children – were murdered this year by illegal aliens than the combined death toll of U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan since those military campaigns began. Though no federal statistics are kept on murders or any other crimes committed by illegal aliens, a number of groups have produced estimates based on data collected from prisons, news reports and independent research.

• Feeling A Draft - When Gen. John Abizaid, the 4-star who runs Central Command, tells 60 Minutes he has “not precluded the notion of more troops coming into Iraq,” there’s a lot of heartburn in the Pentagon about how hard it would be to find fresh troops to meet the demand. Abizaid himself admitted as much recently when he told the Senate Armed Services committee “ we can put in 20,000 more Americans tomorrow...but when you look at the ability to sustain that commitment it’s simply not something we have right now with the size of the Army and the Marine Corps.” Fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with an active duty army of 600,000 is like fighting World War II with "the tiniest army we've had since 1939," retired General Barry McCarffrey said in a speech to the Military Officers Association.

• Truth is hard to find behind doublespeak - The government's annual accounting of hunger in the U.S. reported no hunger in its last outing. Instead, it found "food insecurity." Likewise, no one is even considering retreating from Iraq. "Redeploying" the heck out of there is, however, an option. In Washington, words are a moving target that conceal at least as much as they reveal. Doublespeak runs through the discourse on Iraq, terrorism and domestic matters to a point at which it's hard to tell what is going on.

• UK Police Adorn Nazi Chic: Uniforms begin to befit fascist policies abolishing freedom of speech - British police have been photographed wearing bizarre Nazi-like insignia on their uniforms as the attire of Tony Blair's enforcers begins to compliment the totalitarian society the Prime Minister is creating by openly abolishing freedom of speech and freedom of assembly under draconian crime and terror laws. The image was sent to us by a protester who joined around 200 others to march against the presence of the British National Party in Blackpool England on Saturday. Many consider the BNP to be a neo-Nazi front organization but some demonstrators probably left the event more worried about the similar direction in which UK police are heading, as exemplified by their changing uniforms.

• Palestinians shot dead in West Bank - A Palestinian fighter and a woman have been killed in an Israeli military operation near Jenin in the northern West Bank. Abd al-Raziq Nassir, a local leader in the Popular Resistance Committees, died during an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers in Kabatiyeh. The woman, a neighbour, was killed as she tried to help, sources said. Palestinian fighters fired two rockets towards the Gaza Strip after the Israeli operation on Monday.

• Biometric System Yet To Be Used To Ease Traffic Problems - The Road Transport Department has yet to use the biometric system to detect traffic offences and car thefts, Deputy Transport Minister Datuk Seri Tengku Azlan Abu Bakar said. However, he said, a proposal could be submitted to the Transport Ministry for RTD to adopt the system in future to overcome such problems. "The biometric system is the RTD's approach to upgrade quality in the issuing of driving licences in an effort to overcome the 'guaranteed' licence by driving institutes" he added in is reply to Datuk Ruslie Ajirol (BN-Libaran) in the Dewan Rakyat Tuesday.

• Cashless society creeps in at the edges - Walking from the Tube the other day I noticed that the parking meters in Great Pulteney Street are adorned with stickers, informing motorists that they will shortly no longer be able to pay with cash. Since early October it's been possible to park and pay by phone, as part of an experiment being run by Westminster Council, but the removal of the cash option seems to be a new and, I think a rather divisive change. People may welcome technology in these kinds of situations when they find they haven't got any coins, say, but the same people will resent the removal of old ways when they have the cash. In other words, people tend to react badly to change accompanied by the removal of choice.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• MasterCard testing new technologies for consumer spending - When detective Dick Tracy radioed to police with his futuristic wristwatch, the image became a cultural icon in cartoons and movies. If Art Kranzley has his way, a high-tech wristwatch may be more than a cartoon fantasy in coming years. Wristwatches, cell phones and key chains are some of the gadgets that Kranzley and other executives at MasterCard Inc. are evaluating as potential tools for consumers to load credit or debit card information. People would then use the gadgets to buy a cup of coffee, a hamburger, concert tickets or countless other items.

• Slain woman's family: 'We just want to see the truth': Mourners gather at service for Kathryn Johnston - Friends and family who gathered at an East Point funeral home Tuesday for the funeral of Kathryn Johnston said they just want to know the truth about the drug raid that led to the elderly woman's death. "When this occurred, we were shocked that this could be real," said Johnston's niece, JoAnne Trawick. "I've always believed from the beginning that this was a mistake." Commenting on revelations that the informant narcotics officers say led them to the Johnston's house is accusing the officers of asking him to lie about his role, Trawick said, "I hope he is telling the truth.

Monday 27th November 2006: -

• Heathrow kicks off 'fingerprint fast-track' security checks - The Telegraph reveals that the UK government is plotting fingerprinting of air passengers as a matter of routine, to check the identity of departing passengers and to tighten up border controls for incoming. Which, given the firmness of the regime's plans for ID cards, is scarcely news in the long term - but in the interim, turkeys are apparently being asked to volunteer for Christmas, now.

• Police want power to crack down on offensive demo chants and slogans - Present curbs are too light, Met chief to tell Goldsmith, Rights groups say officers would be 'censors in chief' - Police are to demand new powers to arrest protesters for causing offence through the words they chant and the slogans on their placards and even headbands. The country's biggest force, the Metropolitan police, is to lobby the attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, because officers believe that large sections of the population have become increasingly politicised, and there is a growing sense that the current restrictions on demonstrations are too light. Trouble at recent protests involving Islamic extremists has galvanised the Met's assistant commissioner, Tarique Ghaffur, into planning a crackdown. His proposals are due to be sent to Lord Goldsmith, who is reviewing how effective the current laws are in tackling extremists.

• Last man out of Twin Towers to speak in Skipton - THE last man to emerge from the collapsed North Twin Tower on 9/11 is coming to speak in Skipton this week. William Rodriguez will be speaking at The Narrowboat Pub, Skipton on Thursday. Mr Rodriguez, from New Jersey, was employed as a maintenance worker at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, when it was attacked and destroyed.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

  

• Beyond "Bobby": Exposing the continuing conspiracy and cover-up of the RFK assassination - With the film Bobby, director-writer Emilio Estevez captures a snapshot of 1968 America, and the many hopes and dreams lifted and crushed on the night Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated. But the real story that still begs to be told begins where Bobby leaves off: with the assassination itself. For it is only through investigation of the assassination and its cover-up, the murder’s direct connection to the other 1960s assassinations (JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and others), and its relevance to subsequent (and also directly connected) wars and political crimes (Nixon/Watergate, Iran-Contra, and both Bush administrations) -- that the soul of the American Empire is truly revealed.

• Online video 'eroding TV viewing' - The online video boom is starting to eat into TV viewing time, an ICM survey of 2,070 people for the BBC suggests. Some 43% of Britons who watch video from the internet or on a mobile device at least once a week said they watched less normal TV as a result. And online and mobile viewing is rising - three quarters of users said they now watched more than they did a year ago. But online video viewers are still in the minority, with just 9% of the population saying they do it regularly.

• Disneyland brings in biometric ticketing - It may have needed a dose of creativity to create the endless fairy tales and wondrous fantasies for kids and adults alike, but when it comes to the adoption of technology and IT security, Disneyland takes a strictly pragmatic approach. The world-renowned theme park and entertainment resort implements technology only if it is able to derive real business value, said David Shek, senior analyst of IT security, Hong Kong Disneyland, in an interview with ZDNet Asia. In town this week as a speaker at the Secure IT conference, Shek oversees IT security at Hong Kong Disneyland and is responsible for the company's IT security policies and strategy.

Sunday 26th November 2006: -

• Privacy warning over PM's card plan - PRIVACY groups have warned that a new single smartcard to be issued to 17 million Australians to replace cards such as those used for Medicare could result in increased identity theft and fraud. Consumers have been told the proposed Access Card is a fraud risk because it would include a digitised photograph, signature and personal number displayed on the card as well as encoded on a microchip. Privacy advocates say the Federal Government has ignored several key recommendations of the Consumer and Privacy Taskforce, set up to investigate privacy and security concerns.

• Minister slams Putin's 'attacks' on democracy - Tensions between Britain and Russia burst into the open today when a leading Cabinet minister voiced criticism of President Putin's "huge attacks" on liberty and democracy. Peter Hain, the outspoken Northern Ireland Secretary, indicated that relations with Moscow had hit a low as he exhorted the Russian leader to return to democratic processes. His comments come as the Government has been treading carefully with Russia amid claims that the Kremlin ordered the poisoning of former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko in London.

• DNA of suspects' families to be held on police files - Relatives of suspects in criminal investigations are to face having DNA tests and their confidential medical records released to the authorities if they refuse to co-operate with the police. Internal government guidelines on the use of the DNA database seen by The Independent on Sunday instruct the police to ask for medical files belonging to the relatives of criminals so their blood and tissue samples can be tested for DNA. The secret document, prepared for police forces by the Home Office, reveal that families of suspects, and those with similar genes, are being targeted by investigators.

• Controversial diagnoses split up two families - That Saturday morning, Cindy Becvar was in the shower, getting ready to take her daughter to the Long Island Performing Arts Center to pose for dance recital pictures. Her husband, Greg Becvar, was about to take their son to his baseball picnic in the ballfield behind their North Babylon house. Then the doorbell rang. It was a caseworker from Suffolk County Child Protective Services. Greg asked what she wanted and she asked to come inside. He called his wife downstairs. At that point, Cindy Becvar said, "Things got really hairy." "Some days I like my job, some days I don't. Today I don't because I'm taking your kids," the caseworker told her, Cindy recalled. "She goes, 'We have a report that you're hurting your children. You're making your kids sick,' is what she said. 'We have a report that you're making your son sick.'"

• Democrats Blame Iraqis for U.S. Induced Misery - Steny Hoyer, nicknamed “boy wonder,” is speaking tough to the besieged Iraqis. Hoyer, as incoming House Majority Leader, wants the Iraqis to understand they only have themselves to blame for all the murder and misery in their country. “In the days ahead, the Iraqis must make the tough decisions and accept responsibility for their future,” said Hoyer during the weekly Democratic radio address. “And the Iraqis must know: Our commitment, while great, is not unending.” “Once in power, Hoyer said, the Democrats hope to work with Republicans and the Bush administration to change direction in Iraq war plans,” reports ABC News.

• Visa to introduce 'wave and pay' system in Britain - Visa announced on Thursday that it would be introducing a "wave and pay" system in Britain from the next year. Items that can be brought in such a manner are typically low-cost ones like a pint of beer or a newspaper. Visa UK said the contactless system, which allows consumers to pay by simply tapping their cards on a card reader, would be in place by the end of 2007. The main aim of the system is to reduce waiting times for payments on small items to go through or even having to tap in the PIN numbers on each transaction.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Fluoride And Babies Don't Mix, Says ADA - Most cities in Tennessee add fluoride to their water systems. Experts have debated for and against the practice. A new recommendation has put fluoride back in the spotlight, with babies in the center of the debate. Julie Pusser prepares her 10-month-old's formula only with bottled water. "It's all ready, I don't have to boil it, sterilize it and it stays at the room temperature," she said. According to the American Dental Association's website, Julie Pusser is doing the right thing for little Jacquline. The ADA now recommends parents not mix baby formula with fluoridated city water.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Londoners tested as Litvinenko poison fears grow - A "HUGE amount" of radioactive poison was used to kill Alexander Litvinenko, a source close to the investigation into his death revealed last night, increasing fears other people could have been contaminated by Polonium-210. As health chiefs offered medical checks to concerned Londoners, it was also revealed that an aerosol-style spray was most likely used to administer the dose, potentially spreading the poison. Yesterday, the Health Protection Agency urged members of the public who may have come into contact with the dissident to come forward for tests. Britain's top doctor has also issued guidance to GPs on spotting possible radioactive contamination in their patients.

• Rumsfeld okayed abuses says former U.S. general - Outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld authorized the mistreatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, the prison's former U.S. commander said in an interview on Saturday. Former U.S. Army Brigadier General Janis Karpinski told Spain's El Pais newspaper she had seen a letter apparently signed by Rumsfeld which allowed civilian contractors to use techniques such as sleep deprivation during interrogation. Karpinski, who ran the prison until early 2004, said she saw a memorandum signed by Rumsfeld detailing the use of harsh interrogation methods.

• Wyoming law requires count and recount by machine - America's least populous state might seem like the perfect place to count votes the old-fashioned way - by hand. But many voters were surprised to learn following this month's general election that in Wyoming, computers count every vote and a hand recount is not an option allowed by state law. Secretary of State Joe Meyer said recounting ballots by hand is not done "unless a ballot has been physically damaged or otherwise can't be run through a counter." In some Wyoming counties, voters don't fill out ballots at all, but instead use touch-screen computers.

Saturday 25th November 2006: -

• Rare radioactive substance killed former Russian spy: British government - A rare radioactive substance killed a former Russian spy turned Kremlin critic, the British government said Friday. In a dramatic statement written before he died, the man called Russian President Vladimir Putin "barbaric and ruthless" and blamed him personally for the poisoning. Putin, in Finland, offered his condolences for the death of Alexander Litvinenko and denied any involvement. He called the release of the deathbed statement a "political provocation" by his opponents.

• Bomb suspect tells of 'torture' - A defendant in an Old Bailey terror trial broke down in the witness box as he was questioned about claims he was tortured by Pakistani security forces. Salahuddin Amin said he was forced to make a confession about sending co-defendant Omar Khyam the formula for an explosive device. He said his interrogators threatened to "drill another hole in his backside".

• Ex-employee says FAA warned before 9/11 - From 1995 to 2001, Bogdan Dzakovic served as a team leader on the Federal Aviation Administration's Red Team. Set up by Congress to help the FAA think like terrorists, the elite squad tested airport security systems. In the years leading up to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Dzakovic says, the team was able to breach security about 90% of the time, sneaking bombs and submachine guns past airport screeners. Expensive new bomb detection machines consistently failed, he says. The team repeatedly warned the FAA of the potential for security breaches and hijackings but was told to cover up its findings, Dzakovic says.

• US helicopter fires on Iraqi funeral party-ministry - A U.S. helicopter fired on a funeral party in Baghdad, one of dozens taking place after Thursday's devastating bombings in Sadr City, in response to ritual shooting, the Iraqi Interior Ministry said. A ministry official said two people were wounded in Friday's air strike, which came after mourners fired into the air.

• British troops were 'supplied with defective ammunition' - The Ministry of Defence has admitted supplying defective ammunition to soldiers in Afghanistan. The Daily Telegraph reports today that a platoon from the 3Bn The Parachute Regiment refused to go on patrol until the problem was resolved. The MoD has confirmed British troops were forced to borrow ammunition off American and Canadian troops as they battled the Taliban.

• Archbishop attacks Labour's 'spider's web' of terror laws - The Archbishop of York warned that Labour's obsession with creating new laws to combat terror was creating a "legal spiders web" from which society may not be able to escape. In an impassioned maiden speech in the House of Lords, Dr John Sentamu said that he feared institutions and individuals may "never escape" from a raft of recent Big Brother-style legislation. Ugandan-born Dr Sentamu, the second most senior figure in the Church of England, warned that "unlimited power" can corrupt political leaders.

Friday 24th November 2006: -

• Poisoned Litvinenko Blames Kremlin in Last Interview Before Death - In his last interview the poisoned former Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko said that the hit on him had been ordered from the Kremlin, The Times daily reported on Friday. “I want to survive, just to show them,” Alexander Litvinenko said in an exclusive interview given just hours before he died. The former Russian security officer suggested that he knew he may not win his struggle against the lethal chemicals destroying his vital organs. But he said the campaign for truth would go on with or without him.

• CNN: Kevin Barrett of University of Wisconsin 911 Inside Job - Kevin Barrett gets some notice by CNN. Truly, anyone doing some investigating will find that 9/11 was an inside job. You can find the transcript of the show here as well.  See the following video: -

• Study Finds Bleeding Problem with Antidepressants - Some patients who are new users of antidepressants such as Paxil and Prozac and other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors may run a risk of abnormal bleeding, researchers said. The problem may develop because serotonin appears to play a role in blood clotting and manipulating its levels may lead to abnormal uterine and gastrointestinal bleeding, said the report from the Utrecht Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences in the Netherlands. The study, which ran from 1992 to 2000, looked at 64,000 patients recently been put on the depressants, of whom 196 suffered abnormal bleeding. The patients were classified as to whether the drugs worked at high, medium or low levels as far as serotonin was involved.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Biometric scanning used by millions - More than 3.3 million consumers now use biometric technology to pay for their purchases at several USA retailers, reports Parade Magazine. One prominent church founder shares his thoughts on the biblical implications of such technology. Customers at several retailers can now literally pay by touch”, says the magazine in its November 12, 2006 issue. „By placing their finger on a scanner at the checkout and entering their home phone number, these tech-savvy shoppers can deduct the cost of a carton of milk directly from a bank account or credit card.” Such futuristic technology, often relegated to scenes in high-tech thrillers or science fiction novels, is available now.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Revealed: how food giants use 'dirty tricks' to target children - Big companies stand accused of selling junk food to children behind their parents' backs with a variety of "underhand" tricks, despite claiming only to use responsible marketing methods. A report yesterday from the consumer organisation Which? found that a dozen multinationals had been using up to 20 different marketing ploys to push unhealthy products. Some companies bypassed parental control by using new technology such as viral marketing campaigns which encourage children to e-mail each other cartoons or spoof adverts with a brand message. Others offered free toys or ran promotional tie-ins with popular children's films.

• Met police to do the beat with head-mounted cameras - Police officers in London have begun to use a camera mounted on their headgear in an effort to tackle anti-social behaviour. Officers in the 19 safer neighbourhood teams in the Haringey area have been issued with eight cameras, each the size of an AA battery, that record video images to a special utility belt. They are activated by a switch on the belt. The equipment, which costs around £1,800 per pack and is funded by Haringey Council's Safer Communities Partnership, will be used to gather images that could be used as evidence in future court proceedings, the Metropolitan Police announced.

• Biometric passports 'could lead to ID theft' - With the advent of biometric passports could come a wave of identity theft and privacy infringement, according to a group of professors in Belgium, reports Expatica News. The RFID technology used in the new passports could expose the holder's personal information and lead to identity theft, the group has said. Biometric passports use an RFID chip which contains the signature, picture, finger-prints and personal details of the holder.

Thursday 23rd November 2006: -

• Excessive fluoride threatens some regions, UN says – A report recently issued by the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) warns that excessive exposure to fluoride in drinking water increases the risk of health problems, ranging from mild dental conditions to crippling skeletal problems, the UN News Centre reported. The report noted that naturally occurring concentrations of fluoride in drinking water can help prevent tooth decay, but the widespread effects of excessive exposure remain largely neglected. Africa, the eastern Mediterranean and South Asia are three regions where unusually elevated concentrations of fluoride are causing concern, the WHO reported.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Couple plan to sue RCMP over 911 reaction - A North Vancouver couple has complained to District of North Vancouver council and said they will sue the North Vancouver RCMP after officers responded to their hang-up 911 call by breaking down their door, making a forceful arrest and jailing them overnight when the couple refused to allow a house-search. The RCMP said, however, that in this case, federal policy commands a home-check, designed to ensure public safety. North Vancouver resident Marget Lieder said that in the early evening of Oct. 25 she was having wine with her partner and a guest when she misdialed the emergency number, meaning to call 411 instead. After promptly hanging up, the police contacted her, saying two officers were dispatched and warned her her home would be searched to confirm she wasn't in danger.

• Big Brother is watching you! - SMOKERS stubbing out cigarettes in the street have been chased by environmental wardens armed with cameras in a city centre litter crackdown. A council team has been scouring the Old Town this week trying to catch litter louts in the act, a drive which has raised more than a few eyebrows. One girl was stopped and quizzed after discarding the end of her sandwich, while another untidy citizen was reprimanded during his music class after being followed by the wardens.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• Child database 'will ruin family privacy' - Parents will be devalued and family privacy shattered by the mass surveillance of all 12 million children in England and Wales, says a report today commissioned by Parliament's Information Commissioner. In what is likely to be a major embarrassment to Tony Blair, it says proposals for a £224 million database containing details of every child will waste millions of pounds, undermine parental authority and actually put children in more danger.

• It's Time to Re-Open the Investigation of RFK and JFK Assassinations - Planning to write a film script about the case, Shane O’Sullivan, an independent researcher, investigated the assassination of RFK. But, O’Sullivan found much more than he had hoped. On Monday night, the BBC broadcast O’Sullivan’s report on their high-profile programme, "Newsnight." O’Sullivan’s findings shocked many people. Working through an exhaustive analysis of videotapes made at the Ambassador Hotel on the night of RFK’s assassination, O’Sullivan identified three figures as former agents of the CIA. Two of the agents O’Sullivan identified could be seen moving away from the hotel pantry shortly after the shooting of RFK.

• Private spies track extremists across world - IT SAYS its members brought about the conviction of radical Egyptian-born cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri, uncovered insurgent tactics in Iraq and are now working to provide intelligence from North Korea. The organisation is not the US Central Intelligence Agency or Britain's MI6 but Vigil, a shadowy network of retired spies, senior military personnel, anti-terrorism specialists and banking experts. The group's director Dominic Whiteman said he set up Vigil with two other businessmen last year to act as an conduit between retired spies who were still party to good, raw intelligence, and the police and security services.

• Blair is wildly exaggerating the threat posed by terrorism: Craving a monstrous enemy, the prime minister has vastly overstated this supposed threat to world security - What is it about a desert that drives men mad? On Monday morning the prime minister stood on the Afghan sand and said: "Here in this extraordinary piece of desert is where the fate of world security in the early 21st century is going to be decided." Tony Blair was talking to soldiers he had sent to fight the toughest guerrillas on earth for control of southern Afghanistan. He told them: "Your defeat [of the Taliban] is not just on behalf of the people of Afghanistan but the people of Britain ... We have got to stay for as long as it takes."

• RFID accelerates safety checks: Flybe tags life vests and safety manuals - Low-cost airline Flybe is considering attaching radio frequency identification (RFID) tags to onboard safety equipment such as life jackets to speed up the turnaround times of its planes. The budget carrier has conducted limited trials of the technology on the ground, involving staff using handheld readers to confirm the presence of life jackets and other equipment. The results proved that the technology worked and achieved sufficient read rates. The company is now creating a businesses case for using RFID on its planes.

• Your Credit Card Info As You Walk Around Town! - The thieves no longer have to physically ‘pick your pocket’ to steal your wallet’s credit card and personal information. The new RFID technology used in the plastic cards (not all cards use RFID yet) may be transmitting that financial & personal info right now from your pocket or purse. Millions of today’s new credit cards and IDs, including the new US Government’s e-passports are RFID. As Wikipedia tells us: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) is an automatic identification method, relying on storing and remotely retrieving data using devices called RFID tags or transponders. An RFID tag is an object that can be attached to or incorporated into a product, animal, or person for the purpose of identification using radio waves. Chip-based RFID tags contain silicon chips and antennas.

Wednesday 22nd November 2006: -

• Suspect Nation - The man who crossed swords with Tony Blair on civil liberties sets out to discover just how far the state is prepared to go to monitor the nation's movements in Suspect Nation. From CCTV cameras to internet searches and Oyster cards to iris scans, Observer columnist Henry Porter asks: How is information being collected? What is it being used for? And could new identity technology actually put at risk the very people it seeks to protect? (ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: Thanks to Narinder of multi-illusion.com for recording this)

• Crowds mark 43rd anniversary of JFK assassination at museum - Today's 43rd anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy has been marked by visitors to the museum in Dallas where investigators say the fatal bullet was fired. Hundreds stopped by the Sixth Floor Museum that overlooks Dealey Plaza. Investigators determined Lee Harvey Oswald fired out a window of what was the Texas School Book Depository as the Kennedy motorcade passed below.   (COMMENTARY: Don't get me started on the Kennedy 'Lone Nutter' and 'Magic Bullet' theory... what is there to say on the back of 43 years of pulling apart the official fraud?  We have a small but interesting JFK Assassination archive if you want to check it out.)

• Report: UCLA cop had previous violent encounters, won award - The UCLA campus policeman who was videotaped shocking a student with a Taser stun gun also shot and wounded a homeless man three years ago and once was suspended for using his nightstick to choke someone outside a fraternity, it was reported Tuesday. Terrence Duren remained on duty this week. Duren, 43, has been with the University of California, Los Angeles, police for 18 years. He was named officer of the year in 2001. "In this line of business, you have to have a thick skin," he told the Los Angeles Times. "I am proud of my service as a cop." "I have nothing to hide," he said.

• Agency in fresh denial over spy poisoning - Russian former security agent Alexander Litvinenko was still seriously ill in intensive care tonight as his country's foreign intelligence agency issued a fresh denial of involvement in his apparent poisoning. University College Hospital in London said Mr Litvinenko's condition had deteriorated slightly from yesterday, while friends also said he looked worse.

• SEEMS A LITTLE AMBITIOUS BUT HERE IS THE REPORT: One in 12 schools 'inadequate' - One in 12 schools in England and Wales is "inadequate", the annual Ofsted report has found. The education watchdog finds 13 per cent of secondary schools and seven per cent of primaries are inadequate, and highlights the gap between the best and worst provision as a major cause for concern. Chief inspector of schools Christine Gilbert demanded "swift" action, saying this gap was "unacceptable", particularly because of the major impact education had on children's life chances.

• Newly disclosed documents show U.S. Defense Department tracked anti-Iraq war activities - An anti-terrorist database used by the Defense Department in an effort to prevent attacks on military installations included intelligence tips about antiwar planning meetings held at churches, libraries, college campuses and other locations, newly disclosed documents show. One tip in the database in February 2005, for instance, noted that "a church service for peace" would be held in the New York City area the next month. Another entry noted that antiwar protesters would be holding "nonviolence training" sessions at unidentified churches in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

• Global Hawk Spy Drone Makes First Official Air Combat Command Flight Across USA - On yesterday morning's FOX & Friends Steve Doocy, Gretchen Carlson and Brian Kilmeade announced that a Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) had flown across the United States. "It's the first time anywhere in the United States that one of these big things has flown on an official air combat command mission," Steve Doocy noted. Brian Kilmeade followed up: "Well, you know what? I love it. They gotta be listening in, listening to the right people. If they're listening in at my house, they're gonna be bored to tears." Doocy jumped in to say that he "wasn't sure" that the drone could listen in, but "they can certainly see what's going on in your back yard. ... I don't think you have anything to worry about as long as you're not doing anything against the law."

• Questions surround fatal shooting of woman, 92: 3 Atlanta officers wounded after breaking down her door to serve warrant - There are more questions than answers this morning in a northwest Atlanta neighborhood where a 92-year-old woman was killed in a shootout with police on Tuesday night. Three officers were wounded in the shooting. State Rep. "Able" Mable Thomas (D-Atlanta) on Wednesday called Kathryn Johnston's death "unfortunate" and said a number of upset neighbors and other residents called to say neither Johnston nor her Neal Street home were in any way connected to illegal drug activity, as police suggested. Police investigate the scene on Neal Street in northwest Atlanta where a 92-year-old woman was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. Three officers were shot serving a warrant at her house. Thomas said neighbors who have contacted her described Johnston as a "good neighbor" and "law abiding."

• Drink-drivers may be tested by cars: Next step is skin test for alcohol... 1,000 deaths from drink every month - Convicted drink-drivers in America may soon have to fit a device that requires them to pass an in-car breath test before the engine will start and disables the ignition if it detects alcohol. The scheme has been in force in New Mexico for first-time and repeat offenders over the past year, during which time there has been an 11.3 per cent decrease in alcohol-linked road deaths. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) called this week for similar changes in traffic laws in America’s other 49 states, some of which already use the so-called ignition interlocks, but only for drivers with multiple convictions. But these devices can be easily circumvented by the driver getting a sober friend to blow into the tube instead.

Tuesday 21st November 2006: -

• ID card centre to be set up in the city - A passport centre which people fear will help pave the way for the government's controversial ID cards to be introduced looks likely to be opened up in Norwich. The Home Office wants to set up an “interview and administration” centre - one of 69 across Britain - at St Crispin's House in Duke Street. Government private finance initiative (PFI) contractor Mapeley Abi Provider Ltd has applied for planning permission to use part of the building for short interviews for people applying for a first passport, arguing it is needed to stamp out fraud.

• GP database 'not confidential' - Four out of five GPs think that confidentiality would be at risk if they place patient records on a new national database, a survey indicates. As a result, almost half are threatening to defy government instructions to put files into the new NHS computer system that will store information on 50 million patients. The survey by Medix, an online health research group, in today’s Guardian showed that doctors feared that the records would be vulnerable to hackers, bribery and blackmail.

• Study of Gulf War syndrome criticized - The British Ministry of Defense is being criticized for a study showing Gulf Warf veterans didn`t suffer adverse effects from vaccines they received. The Royal British Legion says the research funded by the government 'effectively tells veterans nothing of value,' The London Telegraph reports. The 9-year research program looked into the practice of giving the troops whooping cough vaccine to speed up the effects of anthrax vaccine. Two years ago doubts about the move emerged when the Ministry of Defense revealed that tests on mice given the vaccine combination produced serious side effects such as weight loss.

• To catch crooks in cyberspace, FBI goes global - On Aug. 16, 2005, a CNN television news bulletin alerted viewers that computers at the network's New York and Atlanta offices were infected with a new virus called Zotob. Soon, U.S. companies from coast to coast were hit. Halfway around the world, two young computer hackers in Turkey and Morocco got spooked by the ensuing media coverage, but mocked the ability of authorities to track them down. "They can't find me," wrote Atilla Ekici, a 23-year-old Turk, in an email to his accomplice, a 19-year-old Moroccan called Farid Essebar. "Ha, ha, ha," replied Mr. Essebar. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, however, was already hot on their trail. The 98-year-old FBI, which has traditionally focused on domestic crime, is extending its reach beyond U.S. borders and boosting cooperation with other law-enforcement agencies in pursuit of cybercriminals, much as the agency has done in tracking down terrorists overseas.

• Big Brother? Maybe just a 'chip' off the old block - Microchips implanted in humans, doorways, ceilings, floors, garbage, food and clothing may soon make privacy a thing of the past, one author of the book "Spychips" said in a lecture at Essex County College Nov. 13. According to Liz McIntyre, radio frequency identification is an automatic data-capture technology that uses tiny tracking chips affixed to products. The bugs have antennas that vary in size from a fingernail to a sheet of paper, McIntyre said. Chips will be implanted in everything, from doorways and pets to currency, computers, and even human beings, McIntyre said. They will be transmitting signals to hidden databases, telling whoever is on the other end the person's whereabouts.

Monday 20th November 2006: -

• Did the CIA kill Bobby Kennedy?: In 1968, Robert Kennedy seemed likely to follow his brother, John, into the White House. Then, on June 6, he was assassinated - apparently by a lone gunman. But Shane O'Sullivan says he has evidence implicating three CIA agents in the murder - At first, it seems an open-and-shut case. On June 5 1968, Robert Kennedy wins the California Democratic primary and is set to challenge Richard Nixon for the White House. After midnight, he finishes his victory speech at the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles and is shaking hands with kitchen staff in a crowded pantry when 24-year-old Palestinian Sirhan Sirhan steps down from a tray-stacker with a "sick, villainous smile" on his face and starts firing at Kennedy with an eight-shot revolver.   (RELATED: Shane O'Sullivan's investigation will be shown tonight on Newsnight, BBC2, 10.30pm - UP-DATE: For a short period only you can view the Newsnight broadcast here)

• A MESSAGE FROM JOHN CONNER OF THERESISTANCEMANIFESTO.COM - JOHN CONNER (UNAUTHORIZED) BOOK SIGNING. FRIDAY DECEMBER 15. BARNES AND NOBLE IN ENCINITAS, CA. 8:00 P.M. IN THE STARBUCKS. BE THERE AT 8:00 SHARP BECAUSE HE'LL PROBABLY GET THROWN OUT...AND DON'T CALL B&N AND ASK THEM ABOUT IT, BECAUSE ITS UNAUTHORIZED. AND DON'T ASK THE CLERKS WHERE THE JOHN CONNER BOOK SIGNING IS BECAUSE THEY'LL HAVE NO IDEA. NO BOOKS WILL BE SOLD...YOU MUST BRING YOUR OWN BOOK. FREE MANIFESTOS TO THE FIRST 20 PEOPLE. Apparently there are laws against doing business inside another business without permission so we will not be conducting business by selling manifestos. B&N doesn't carry the book. Stop on by, meet John, meet others in The Resistance in the San Diego area. He'll give a short speech about the NWO, and have a Q & A. BRING SIGNS AND BANNERS ABOUT 9/11 TRUTH AND THE NWO IF YOU LIKE, AND WE CAN HANG THEM UP ALL OVER THE BOOKSTORE AND HAVE SOME FUN. If you haven't seen the college campus crashing videos then check the site.

• Be good, cameras are rolling - When Hillsborough Tax Collector Doug Belden made drunken advances toward several women in a Tampa bar, he almost certainly didn't realize that cameras were documenting his every move. He should have. With each passing year, more and more cameras record every aspect of our daily lives, from the most mundane activities to the most shameless behavior. These days, whether you notice or not, cameras capture your image multiple times each day - in the parking lot at Wal-Mart, in the aisles of the grocery store, at traffic intersections, in the fast food drive-through, at the mall.   (RELATED: See our Total Global Surveillance archive)

• New England families sue over mercury in childhood vaccines - A New Hampshire lawyer is representing 85 New England families that claim a mercury-based compound in vaccines caused autism and other disabilities in their children. Michael Noonan said thimerosal, used for decades as a preservative in childhood vaccines, is a neurotoxin that damaged thousands of children. Studies that have tracked thousands of children have found no association between autism and thimerosal. That hasn't dissuaded critics, who claim the studies are flawed.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• UCLA tasing was an abuse of power - Students hold signs at a protest rally before marching to the University of California, Los Angeles Police Department on the Westwood campus Friday, Nov. 17. Tuesday's incident at the University of California, Los Angeles involving a student getting repeatedly tasered by police was completely unacceptable. UCLA student Mustafa Tabatabainejad was in the campus library after 11 p.m. It is procedure for the school's campus police to randomly check IDs at night. Tabatabainejad had failed to produce his ID when police officers first asked him to leave. Students who witnessed the incident said Tabatabainejad was gathering his belongings to leave when the police officers grabbed him by the arm. Tabatabainejad told them to get off him, and then the police tasered him. Tabatabainejad, a student of Iranian decent, could be heard screaming and afterward yelling, "Here's your Patriot Act; here's your-abuse of power!"

• Study says more shoppers reach for debit, check cards: But 30% still use credit, few pay cash - Cash, credit or debit? When it comes to paying for your Christmas gifts, chances are you will choose the latter. According to a survey of shoppers conducted earlier this month by the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation, 39.1 percent of holiday shoppers will swipe a debit or check card --spending money in an account -- when paying for stocking stuffers. Still, 30.5 percent will spend on credit and use credit cards. And for the first time in two years, fewer consumers are paying with cash -- 24.3 percent. The rest resort to writing checks.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Ritalin not right for children - Children with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), are not "Ritalin deficient," so why are they given this addictive drug with serious side effects to suppress symptoms instead of looking for what is causing the symptoms? Hidden food allergies have proved to be culprits, especially wheat and sugar. Environmental sensitivities, such as perfume and pollens, "set off" susceptible children.

• Operators want RFID in phones: Mobile phones could have moved a step closer to being used as credit cards, car keys and concert tickets, after operators around the world said they would work together on the technology - The GSM Association (GSMA), which represents operators serving more than 40 percent of the world's phone users, said on Monday that it was pushing for a global standard on near field communications (NFC). The short-range wireless technology would be based on having a radio frequency identification (RFID) chip embedded in the handset, along with some sort of NFC software. As for cost, a GSMA spokesperson told ZDNet UK on Monday that "we don't have a figure for it but we reckon it's a relatively modest cost to add it to the handset".

• Group calls on China to disclose details about its use of executed prisoners’ organs - A human rights group urged China on Sunday to disclose details surrounding its practice of removing body organs from executed prisoners for use in transplants after a health official spoke recently of the practice. Little information about China’s transplant business is publicly available, and critics contend it is profit-driven with little regard for medical ethics. China has long defended the practice as legal.   (RELATED: See our Chinas Sale of Human Organs archive)

Sunday 19th November 2006: -

• DIANA DRIVER 'NOT DRUNK', BELIEVE DETECTIVES - The driver of the car in which DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES died may not have been drunk, according to British detectives investigating the 1997 smash. HENRI PAUL, who was at the wheel of the Mercedes Benz when it crashed inside a Paris, France tunnel, killing him, Diana and her lover DODI FAYED, was originally said to have been heavily intoxicated at the time. However, an interim report claims it would "not be safe" to conclude he was drunk, and states there is no conclusive evidence to suggest he was an habitual heavy drinker. The report shatters a verdict handed down by judge HERVE STEPAN, who concluded that the princess and Fayed were killed "because the driver of the vehicle was drunk". It comes just weeks after French forensic pathologists reportedly admitted to mistaking Fayed's body with Paul's.   (RELATED: See our popular Diana Assassination archive)

• Surveillance is really getting under my skin: This unique human chip implant was supposed to protect me - but it just makes me more vulnerable - The most shocking part of Britain's frantic rush towards a fully fledged surveillance society is not so much the threat to personal liberty, although that is important; it is the lack of security in the systems that are confidently held up to be the solution to the problems of 21st-century crime and terrorism. While each of us is required to give more and more information about ourselves to the government's various centralised databases, and submit to increasing surveillance in our daily lives, almost no one seems to consider the risk to us if these systems are breached.

• VIDEO: Infowars' Kevin Smith On Fox News "Mancow" Show - Segment from Fox News' pilot "Mancow" show in which Infowars' Kevin Smith debates a ground zero fireman on the 9/11 inside job. Despite a deliberate attempt to ridicule and distract Kevin, most viewers felt he did a stand up job in exposing 9/11 truth under difficult circumstances.

• Green tax urged for drink cartons - NEW green taxes on products such as drink cartons, plastic cameras, razors and batteries should be imposed to reduce household waste, according to a report by an influential think tank, writes David Cracknell. “Environment taxes” would help cover the costs of recycling and discourage manufacturers from using unnecessary materials. The proposals come after ministers urged supermarkets to cut down on packaging. The report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) and the Green Alliance recommends that Britain follows Sweden, Denmark and Belgium in targeting environmental taxes at “disposable” household products.

• Gonzales Blasts Surveillance Critics: Attorney GeneralGonzales Takes Up Attack on Ruling Against Warrantless Surveillance - AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. Nov 18, 2006 (AP)— Attorney General Alberto Gonzales contended Saturday that some critics of the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program were defining freedom in a way that poses a "grave threat" to U.S. security. Gonzales was the second administration official in two days to attack a federal judge's ruling last August that the program was unconstitutional. Vice President Dick Cheney on Friday called the ruling "an indefensible act of judicial overreaching."

• Iraq is a 'disaster' admits Blair - Tony Blair admitted that British intervention in Iraq has been a disaster last night - sending shockwaves through Westminster. In his frankest admission about the war to date, Mr Blair admitted that Western forces have been powerless to stop the descent into violence.   (COMMENTARY: Pardon my French, but 'disaster' my arse.  Everything is going exactly as planned by P2OG - get Iraq divided into sections battling for power, alienate the population and create a pretext for a permanent military presence.  Divide and rule basically, similar to what we saw in N-Ireland in the 70's, 80's and 90's.)

• Homeland Security aide gets 5 years in prison for online sex talk - A 56-year-old former Homeland Security press aide was sentenced to five years in prison today for sexually preying on a sheriff's detective posing as a 14-year-old girl on the Internet. Brian J. Doyle will also serve 10 years probation and register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He who resigned from the department shortly after his April 4th arrest.

Saturday 18th November 2006: -

• Dutch Muslims condemn burqa ban - Muslims in the Netherlands have criticised a government proposal to ban Muslim women from wearing the burqa or veil in public places. Dutch Muslim groups say a ban would make the country's one million Muslims feel victimised and alienated. The Dutch cabinet said burqas - a full body covering that also obscures the face - disturb public order and safety.   (COMMENTARY: It is important to bear in mind that that the whole 'Ban the Burqa' debate has been twisted to remove the real implication. The New World Order's police state agenda dictates that every person living under it must not be allowed to withhold their identity. As mind warping as religions can be, it is the individuals free choice to allow their religion to dictate to them how to dress. If my religion says that I have to wear a bin bag over the top half of my body because I shouldn't be allowed to display my masculine (I wish!) bodily features, I can choose to say no.  In my own country (UK) with all of the hype over 'those long bearded Muslims are gonna get us!', many people I know are salivating over the prospect of stripping Muslims of their freedom of religious expression (mostly out of ignorant resentment).  Yet they don't see the fundamental crux of the issue.  This is the spin that we have to see through.)

• Bill to impose care on mental patients to be resurrected - An "unacceptable gap" in mental health legislation which leaves patients and the public at risk will be closed by a Bill which extends compulsion and will prevent the most seriously disordered from slipping through the net, the Government said yesterday. The day after an inquiry into the killing of Denis Finegan - who was stabbed to death while cycling through Richmond Park in south-west London, by John Barrett, a mental patient - found serious failings in his care, the Health minister Rosie Winterton said there had to be a balance between the rights of patients and the need to protect the public. "We want to improve the safety of both patients and the public," she said. "This Bill will help ensure that people with serious mental health problems receive the treatment they need to protect them and others from harm."

• British RFID Passports Cracked - Three million Britons have been issued with the new hi-tech passport, designed to frustrate terrorists and fraudsters. So why did Steve Boggan and a friendly computer expert find it so easy to break the security codes? Six months ago, with the help of a rather scary computer expert, I deconstructed the life of an airline passenger simply by using information garnered from a boarding-pass stub he had thrown into a dustbin on the Heathrow Express. By using his British Airways frequent-flyer number and buying a ticket in his name on the airline's website, we were able to access his personal data, passport number, date of birth and nationality. Based on this information, using publicly available databases, we found out where he lived, his profession, all his academic qualifications and even how much his house was worth.

• WW-P dining system goes cashless - But not all give credit where it's due - A new cashless dining system in the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district is proving to be more of a burden than a blessing for many students. While district Food Service Manager Doreen Pierson says the new system keeps cafeteria lines moving, since students no longer have to fumble for cash and cashiers don't have to count out change, some students at High School South have a decidedly different take on the new dining option. "Most people don't carry cash nowadays, so it's much easier for them to use the system," Ms. Pierson said, adding that lunch sales have actually increased in High School North as a result of the new system.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Civil rights groups ask to end warrantless surveillance program - DETROIT Eight civil rights groups and other organizations want to reinstate a court ruling declaring the Bush administration's warrantless surveillance program illegal. They filed a friend-of-the-court brief today with a federal appeals court. The groups argue that warrantless surveillance has historically infringed upon civil rights organizations' free-speech rights. The federal government is appealing an August ruling by U-S District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit. She said the surveillance program is unconstitutional because it violates the separation of powers and the rights to free speech and privacy.

Friday 17th November 2006: -

FURTHER TO YESTERDAYS UCLA TASER POSTING: -

• Americans To Be Tortured For Refusing To Show ID?: Student shocked, tortured for defending constitutional rights - A horror video that wouldn't look out of place in Maoist China or Nazi Germany shows a student being repeatedly shot with a stun gun by UCLA police for the crime of not showing his ID. As similar cases begin to pile up how long will it be before Americans are routinely tortured for noncompliance and refusing to have their 4th amendment violated?

• (RELATED BREAKING ARTICLES: Lawyer: Student hit by Taser thought officer was racial profiling *** Shock and Anger at UCLA *** UCLA student stunned by Taser plans suit *** Statement from UCLA Acting Chancellor Norman Abrams About Incident at Powell Library)

• OUR OWN E-MAIL TO UCLA - (Office of Media Relations: media@support.ucla.edu): -
  
  To whom it may concern.
  
  As you are likely aware, the incident at the Powell library has gained much public attention recently and no doubt you have been contacted from far afield from individuals who wish to express their concern that this matter be properly investigated.
  
  I would like to add my name to this list of concerned persons. I am not a citizen of the USA myself, I live in the UK.
  
  One of the things that has always attracted me to your great country is your own Bill of Rights and Constitution. To see this (i.e. the Fourth Amendment) violated in such a brutal manner upsets me greatly and I would like to encourage you to ensure that this matter is not dropped without the appropriate process and application of justice.
  
  I will leave the matter in your good hands and I have every confidence in you and your capacity to deal with the situation accordingly.
  
  Yours faithfully
  Joseph Skelton, UK

• TO OUR READERS: If you wish to contact UCLA and express your concern as we have done, you can do so via e-mail to media@support.ucla.edu or by telephone on 310-825-4321.  Remember to be calm, clear and professionally polite.

THE REST OF TODAY'S HEADLINES: -

• Security alert as police lose a briefcase full of dummy bombs on train - A major security alert has been sparked after police lost a briefcase full of imitation bombs. An officer left the case containing around 15 mock-up explosive devices on a train. He was returning home after using the "bombs" in a presentation to security staff and police. Among the items are believed to be mock-ups of the device that caused the Lockerbie air disaster in 1988 and of those used by the Animal Liberation Front. One source said: "They are very realistic. If the briefcase went through an x-ray machine you would see fuses and what looks like explosives. "This could cause a massive security panic and chaos if one of these was found on the Tube or someone smuggled one onto a plane.".

• BLAIR FACED CHEEK - INSPECTOR Idiot of the Met police was on duty in Whitehall for Queen's Speech day. He ordered two constables to search Peter Murray, 48, an award winning male nurse, for shouting "boo" at Tony Blair's limousine. They also took his name, abusing their powers under Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000. It is now an offence to be rude about the Prime Minister in public. Tshirts with the slogan "B******s to Blair" can land you in jail. I don't know who's more stupid, the politicians who make the laws, or the police who enforce them with such dumb enthusiasm.   (RELATED: See our Eroding the Freedom of Speech archive)

• Blair renews battle for 90-day detention of terror suspects - Tony Blair faces a triple rebellion by MPs and peers over the crime and terror legislation that formed the centrepiece of his final Queen's Speech. Mr Blair declared that fresh measures to tighten anti-terror legislation would be published by Christmas. They will open the door to a Bill in the new year that could extend the 28-day cap on the time police can hold suspects without charge. Mr Blair suffered the first Commons defeat of his premiership when attempts to set a 90-day limit were voted down in the Commons in November last year after 49 Labour MPs defied the Government.

• Police terror bill shock - BUCKS taxpayers could be facing a rise in council tax and a cut in police resources after officials warned the Government may leave them to pick up a £7million bill for anti-terror searches in the town. The ongoing woods searches, which on Monday, police announced would be moving away from King's Wood in Totteridge to Booker Common, have already cost £5.2million. With the operation expected to continue for several more weeks the amount will increase further. Now there are fears frontline officers could be laid off to save money.

• Big Brother Is Watching Stuttgart Students - Tiffany England has seven kids in the Stuttgart School District. And she's happy that the school board agreed unanimously to put cameras district-wide. “I think they would do real well. I mean it would help not only the children, but parents and everybody else,” says England. The decision came down Tuesday night to increase surveillance and protection for the 2,000 students in the district. Superintendent Laura Bednar says safety is the issue. “We acknowledge that we're living in a day and age unfortunately where we have situations occur that none of us can be fully prepared for and it's unfortunate that our schools are a target.”

• Recall demand after cloning of new biometric passports - The government was facing demands to recall 3m micro-chipped biometric passports last night after a Guardian investigation which found that they could be electronically attacked and cloned with a £174 microchip reader. Biometric data was transferred to a PC after gaining access to the chips in three passports. The findings are likely to put pressure on John Reid, the home secretary, to rethink plans for ID cards. The Identity and Passport Service has spent £60m on new passport production lines for the £66 documents, which were introduced in March.

• Ex-councillor to be sentenced for vote fraud - A former Democratic Unionist councillor will be sentenced in a court in the North today after admitting fraud during the 2005 elections. Sentencing was delayed last month after former Coleraine mayor Dessie Stewart punched a press photographer on his way in to court in Antrim. He will appear at Newry Crown Court after admitting in September four counts of pretending to be someone else in order to cast postal votes and two of fraudulently stopping free exercise of a proxy vote. Stewart resigned from the DUP last month and has also stepped down from the council. A by-election will now take place in the Skerries ward where he had held a seat since 1989. The electoral fraud charges against Stewart related to the Westminster and local government elections which took place on the same day in May 2005.

• NAUGHTY KIDS NEED DISCIPLINE NOT DRUGS - I SEEM to have stirred up a hornet's nest by doubting the existence of so-called Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). One reader, who claims two children with ADHD, accuses me of "hurtful, unhelpful comments". Another points out that children today sorely lack discipline. And I hear from South Wales of a family whose "very modest" demand is for a three bedroom council house because one of their two sons might have the disorder. This is obviously a very divisive issue. It is also a hidden scandal.

• Mother chooses to skip flu shot for her and son - It's the beginning of the influenza season, and despite the annual warnings from public health officials, I won't be getting a flu shot. Nor will I haul my doctor-phobic toddler into the pediatrician's office for one. I know the flu virus can cause complications in vulnerable populations with chronic conditions, and we're both considered high risk. I'm pregnant, and for the first time this year, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also suggests that healthy but germ-spreading children ages 2 through 5 receive flu shots.

• Pentagon Changes Listing of Homosexuality as Mental Illness - Pentagon guidelines that classified homosexuality as a mental disorder now put it among a list of conditions or "circumstances" that range from bed-wetting to fear of flying. The new rules are related to the military's retirement practices. The change does not affect the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that prohibits officials from inquiring about the sex lives of service members and requires discharges of those who openly acknowledge being gay.

Thursday 16th November 2006: -

• Five-step check for nano safety - A team of experts has drawn up five "grand challenges" in order to evaluate the safety of nanotechnology. The field's potential could be compromised unless the scientific community can implement a programme of systematic risk research, they warn. Writing in Nature journal, the team says that fears about nanotechnology's possible dangers may be exaggerated, but not necessarily unfounded.

• UCLA Police Taser Student For Not Showing ID - A cell phone captured video of a 23-year-old student being administered multiple Taser shocks by UCLA police on Tuesday. The UCLA student was hit with the Taser shocks multiple times while he was in the Powell Library Computer Lab. Another student recorded the incident on a camera phone. On the video, Mostafa Tabatabainejad can be heard screaming during the incident, which took place at about 11:30 p.m., the Daily Bruin reported. According to the paper, Tabatabainejad did not show ID to community service officers who were conducting a random check. UCLA police said Tabatabainejad was released by police after he was cited for obstruction/delay of a peace officer in the performance of duty.

• Blair eyes legacy with crime laws - Britain’s Prime Minister Tony Blair unveiled a raft of proposals yesterday to tackle crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, seeking in his last months in office to reverse some of the damage done to his legacy by Iraq. Accused by opponents of being a lame-duck leader of a government that has run out of steam, Blair presented plans to give police greater powers to tackle offences ranging from low-level nuisance behaviour to international organised crime. Blair also promised new laws to fight terrorism, if a review exposes gaps.

Wednesday 15th November 2006: -

• Extremely premature babies should be left to die, says report - Babies born before or at 22 weeks should not be routinely resuscitated or receive intensive care, a report recommended today. The research, drawn up to address the increasing number of extremely premature babies being born in the UK, said it was "extremely rare" for babies born before 22 weeks to survive.

• UK survey at odds with Government over terror - Claims by MI5 and the Government that large numbers of young Muslims support terrorism are countered in a new survey that shows less than 1 per cent of the Islamic community sympathise with the actions of the 7/7 London bombers. The findings are published in the wake of a speech made by Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director-general of MI5, in which she said that opinion polls indicated that over 100,000 of British citizens consider the July attacks were justified. The new survey: Muslim views: Foreign policy and its effects, was carried out across the Muslim community in October and concludes that there is almost no support for terrorism amongst the Muslim community with just 1 per cent of those surveyed supporting the 7/7 London bombings.   (COMMENTARY: The fact that the people in most communities are waking up to the lies and disinformation surrounding evens like 7/7 may have something to do with this.  We have gone to great lengths here in the UK to spread the truth behind the government-run London bombings last year and this issue actually unites the otherwise 'segregated' communities.  RELATED: See our 7/7 London Bombings archive for background info.)

• Singapore: Did you say 'bomb'? - A 65-year-old Australian man was fined S$10,000 ($6,423) by a Singapore court for uttering the word "bomb" on a flight to Indonesia, The Straits Times reported on Wednesday. Riccardo Paulin, a retiree, pleaded guilty on Tuesday to having asked a flight attendant "Where do you keep the bomb?" on a flight operated by Singapore regional carrier SilkAir to the Indonesian city of Surabaya, the newspaper said. The newspaper said he made the remark after trying to find space in the overhead lockers. Paulin was charged under the United Nations anti-terrorism regulations, which carry a maximum fine of S$100,000 or up to five years in jail or both.

• Ex-lay preacher accused of '10 years of abuse' - A Londonderry court heard claims yesterday that a former lay preacher subjected two sisters to a litany of sexual abuses starting when they were six years old. James Doherty (72), from Milltown View in the Waterside, denies 25 charges ranging from gross indecency to anal rape against two sisters who attended the same church as him. He faces 21 charges relating to the younger sister, now 36, dating back to 1976.   (RELATED: See our The Elites Abuse of Children archive)

• John Conner Visits San Diego State University - It is good to see good guys like John Conner over in the US doing pretty much the same as we are doing here in the UK with our own 9/11 truth movement.  Our hat's go off to you John!  See Conner's excellent USA based website theresistancemanifesto.com   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Administration: Detainees Have No Rights: In Court Filings, Justice Department Says Guantanamo Detainees May Not Challenge Detention - The Bush administration said Monday that Guantanamo Bay prisoners have no right to challenge their detentions in civilian courts and that lawsuits by hundreds of detainees should be dismissed. In court documents filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, the Justice Department defended the military's authority to arrest people overseas and detain them indefinitely without access to courts.

• Workers put on leave because of Social Security mismatches - Seven workers at a San Jose manufacturing plant were placed on unpaid leave in what could be the first example of a U.S. company following a pending homeland security proposal to prevent the employment of illegal immigrants. Cintas, a Cincinnati-based uniform maker with 30,000 employees in five states, said the workers were taken off the job Monday after they failed to furnish valid Social Security numbers, which are usually needed to prove eligibility to work in the United States.

• Track sex offenders 'from space' - Children's charity Barnardo's is calling on the government to use lie detector tests and satellite tracking to monitor sex offenders. It claims pilot studies in the UK have shown promising results. One such trial found up to 80% of cases showed lie detector tests revealed new information about the offenders' intentions or behaviour. Barnardo's says this helps probation staff assess the risks they pose when they are released from jail better.

• Leading member of Muslim extremist group working at the Home Office - A leading member of an extremist Islamic group is working as a senior official at the Home Office, it has emerged. Abid Javaid is a 'senior executive officer' in the IT department at the scandal-hit Immigration and Nationality Directorate which processes tens of thousands of asylum and visa applications every year. But he is also an activist in the fundamentalist Islamic group Hizb-ut Tahrir which believes in a worldwide Islamic state under Shariah law. This is despite Tony Blair calling for the group to be banned last year.

• Trafficking now 'worse than African slavery' - Human trafficking, including women forced to become prostitutes or minors forced to do child labor, is worse now than the trade in African slaves of past centuries, a top Vatican official said on Tuesday. "This trafficking in human beings has intensified, persons put into slavery because they depend on certain criminals who take possession of these human beings," said Cardinal Renato Martino, former longtime Vatican envoy to the United Nations and current head of the Holy See's office concerned with migrant and itinerant peoples. "It's worse than the slavery of those whose slaves who were taken from Africa and brought to other countries," Martino told a news conference to present Pope Benedict XVI's annual message dealing with the problems of migrants.

• Praise for company's firm stand after Wikipedia made fully available again in China - The Chinese version of Wikipedia (http://zh.wikipedia.org), which had been censored since October 2005, was unblocked by the authorities around 13 November 2006. This decision follows the reopening a month earlier of the English version of the collaborative online encyclopaedia. Reporters Without Borders again congratulates the managers of Wikipedia, who have always refused to go in for self-censorship and called on other Internet giants present in China to follow their example.

• New UN Children’s Book Promotes Global Warming Fears to Kids – A new United Nations children’s book promoting fears of catastrophic manmade global warming is being promoted at the UN Climate Change Conference in Kenya. The book's main character, a young boy, is featured getting so worried about a coming manmade climate disaster that he yells “I don’t want to hear anymore!” The new children’s book, entitled “Tore and the Town on Thin Ice” is published by the United Nations Environment Programme and blames “rich countries” for creating a climate catastrophe and urges children to join environmental groups.

Tuesday 14th November 2006: -

• Blair 'faces new rebellion over anti-terror legislation' - Tony Blair has been warned that he faces renewed dissent over planned anti-terror laws as research showed the Government faced record levels of rebellion from its backbenchers last year. Labour MPs defied the whip in more than a quarter of votes during the last session of Parliament, academics at Nottingham University said. More than half of the rebellions, and the four defeats inflicted, were over Home Office Bills, leading to warnings that the Government could face problems with legislation in a Queen's Speech expected to focus on crime and anti-terror measures.

• The Nursery Rhyme Police: Parents to take lessons in reading and singing - Parents could be forced to go to special classes to learn to sing their children nursery rhymes, a minister said. Those who fail to read stories or sing to their youngsters threaten their children's future and the state must put them right, Children's Minister Beverley Hughes said. Their children's well-being is at risk 'unless we act', she declared.

• Plutonium Found in Iran Waste Facility - International Atomic Energy experts have found unexplained plutonium and highly enriched uranium traces in a nuclear waste facility in Iran and have asked Tehran for an explanation, an IAEA report said Tuesday. The report, prepared for next week's meeting of the 35-nation IAEA, also faulted Tehran for not cooperating with the agency's attempts to investigate suspicious aspects of Iran's nuclear program that have lead to fears it might be interested in developing nuclear arms. And it said it could not confirm Iranian claims that its nuclear activities were exclusively nonmilitary unless Tehran increased its openness.

• Rumsfeld faces German legal test - A lawyers' group has asked Germany to sue former US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over alleged prisoner abuse in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. The complaint was filed by the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of a Saudi man held in Cuba and 11 Iraqis held in Baghdad. German law allows the pursuit of cases originating anywhere in the world. State prosecutors have yet to decide whether to pursue the case. An earlier request for a case in 2004 was dropped.

• Payments for prison 'cold turkey' - Nearly 200 prisoners and former inmates forced to stop taking drugs by going "cold turkey" are to receive payments. The unspecified settlement followed claims the practice amounted to assault and a breach of human rights. The claimants had been using heroin and other opiates and were understood to have been receiving alternative treatment before going to prison. The Home Office said it "reluctantly" decided to settle out of court to "minimise costs to the taxpayer".

• I've designed my baby - Angela Donovan hates hospitals. Years of trudging in and out of specialist units and children's wings have left her with a deep dread of that distinctive smell, the endless corridors and stricken faces. Indeed, when she gives birth to her second child later next month, the 30-year-old has chosen to be at home with just her husband and a midwife. But despite her relaxed approach to the impending arrival, this is no ordinary baby. For she is expecting the first child in Britain specially selected to be born free from an inherited form of eye cancer.

• Flu shot linked to rare side-effect: study - In extremely rare cases, getting vaccinated against the flu can trigger a potentially debilitating neurological disorder known as Guillain-Barre syndrome, say Canadian researchers, although they stress their finding should not make people shy away from getting their shots. "It is very, very small," Dr. David Juurlink, lead author of the study by the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), said Monday of the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS). "It's roughly for every million people vaccinated, we're talking about one or two extra cases of Guillain-Barre syndrome that would not have happened otherwise."   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Anti-fluoride group vows to boycott bills for fluoridated water - An anti-fluoride group in Wodonga say members will not pay their water bills if fluoride is added to the city's water supplies. The Victorian Government plans to add fluoride to Wodonga and Wangaratta water supplies early next year. Marilyn Edgar from the Wodonga Anti-Fluoride group says a 5,000 signature petition has been ignored by the Government. She says if the fluoride is added they will have no choice but to suspend payment of their water bills.

• Barrett Leaving UW - Controversial instructor Kevin Barrett told 27 News he is not returning to teach at UW-Madison in the spring semester. Barrett had been paid $8,000 to teach a one semester, introduction to Islam course, which is not being offered next January. "The semester by semester lecturing jobs are fairly hard to come by," Barrett said. "There was no appropriate course to apply for."

• Britain kills EU attempt to regulate net video clips - The British government is set to fight off proposed European rules that would make it responsible for overseeing taste and decency in video clips on sites such as YouTube and MySpace. Under a clause in the European media regulation directive TV Without Frontiers, national governments would be responsible for regulating the internet for the first time. Britain's media watchdog, Ofcom, backed by the culture secretary, Tessa Jowell, argued that the plan was unworkable and would stifle creativity and investment in new media across Europe.

Monday 13th November 2006: -

• Hiring a car can now mean leaving a fingerprint - And check-out staff are scanning the customers as well as the shopping. Biometrics are entering every day life. Getting your fingerprints taken would once have meant only one thing. You were helping the police with their inquiries. Now such "biometric" identification is entering the mainstream of every day life. If you want to hire a car at Stansted Airport, you now need to give a fingerprint. The scheme being tested by Essex police and car hire firms, is not voluntary. Every car rental customer must take part.

• EXCITED?... WELL, NOT REALLY!: Diana report ready - DETECTIVES looking into the death of Princess Diana have completed a report for Lord Stevens, the former Met Police chief presiding over the investigation. This interim report runs to 500,000 words and includes more than 100 interviews with witnesses. They include staff working in the Ritz Hotel, Paris, on August 31, 1997 – the night Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed died – the paparazzi, as well as the medics who tried to save the couple after the horrific car crash in the Pont de l’Alma tunnel in Paris.   (RELATED: See our Diana Assassination archive)

• Foster care has 'failed' children - A TEENAGER was returned to a foster family even though care officials knew the adolescent had been repeatedly sexually abused by a family member, a scathing report into Tasmanian foster care has found. The case was one of seven of alleged abuse of children in foster or "out of home" care studied by Tasmania's outgoing Commissioner for Children.

• Most Americans Surprised, Concerned that 90 Percent of Flu Shots Contain the Toxin Mercury - As health officials step up their effort to vaccinate Americans against the flu, a new survey suggests serious concerns over the toxin mercury, an ingredient in over 90 percent of this season's flu shot supply. PutChildrenFirst.org, a parent-led organization advocating vaccine safety, commissioned a survey of over 9,000 Americans to learn their plans for getting flu shots, their knowledge of its ingredients, and who they hold responsible for making sure vaccines are safe. The survey revealed that the overwhelming majority of Americans were unaware that most flu shots contain mercury and that they would refuse a shot with mercury.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• William Rodriguez Supports Venezuela's National Assembly resolution on 9/11: 9/11 Hero supports Venezuela's National Assembly resolution on 9/11 - William Rodriguez, last man out of the North Tower on September the 11th and leader of the Hispanic victims and survivors in NY made a public statement today regarding the news of the Venezuelan National Assembly calling for an explanation of what really happened on 9/11 and the call that the government could be behind the attacks. "We have worked non-stop with the officials of Venezuela to bring the truth to them. I am glad that our efforts are having the support of world leaders and we are continuing to bring the real experiences to other world leaders as well," Rodriguez said.

• Courtroom TV could be a step nearer - Proposals that could lead to television cameras being installed in courts could soon be set out by the Lord Chancellor, Lord Falconer, head of the judiciary. A five-week pilot was started in Nov 2004 in the Court of Appeal in the Royal Courts of Justice in London and the consultation process was completed in the summer of 2005. "Lord Falconer has always said he wants to make a decision on this issue," a spokesman at the Department of Constitutional Affairs said on Monday.

• No Fluoride for Infants, Say Dentists - To prevent tooth damage, the American Dental Association (ADA) warned its members that fluoridated water should not be mixed into concentrated formula or foods intended for babies one year and younger, in a November 9th ADA e-mail alert. "But who will alert parents," asks lawyer Paul Beeber, President, New York State Coalition Opposed to Fluoridation (NYSCOF). Two-thirds of U.S. public water suppliers add fluoride chemicals, based on a disproved theory that fluoride ingestion prevents cavities. Bottled water with added fluoride is now sold with specific instructions to mix into formula.

• No, We Don't Take Cash - Have you seen the new Visa check card commercial that shows lunchtime in the fast-moving deli? A clockwork-operation comes to a crashing halt when some schlub pays for his lunch with actual cash -- horrors! -- instead of a Visa check card. Now, more than most, I'd say, I like to move quickly through checkout lines. A checkout line at a lunch place or a convenience store is not a place for unspooling your personal narrative, not a place to pay with change, not a place to try to return a half-eaten muffin, not a place to -- mid-checkout -- realize you forgot milk, walk to the cooler, get milk and come back to the same place in line, and it's not a place to hold everyone up while you play King of Commerce.   (RELATED: You can see the disturbing advertisement in question here / See also our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Big Brother's watching Canadians ... and they don't like it - Almost half of Canadians find anti-terrorism laws in the post-9/11 world intrusive, according to a new international Queen's University survey. When compared to other countries, Americans were even more concerned than Canadians about these new national security laws, with 57 per cent saying they were invading their privacy.

• Patients denied access to cancer drug - THOUSANDS of lung cancer patients in England were today denied access to the world's first once-a-day pill to treat the disease - because it is too expensive. The decision by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) comes five months after the Scottish Medicines Consortium (SMC) approved the drug Tarceva for use by patients north of the border with an advanced form of the most common type of lung cancer.

• Human rights expert questions anti-terrorism laws - The President of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission has warned that the rights of suspects are being eroded in the age of terrorism. John von Doussa QC says he's worried that evidence obtained by coercion or even torture could be used in terrorism trials. He says anti-terror legislation gives greater weight to national security interests than it does to a defendant's right to a fair hearing.

• Use of drugs to treat hyperactive children soars fourfold in ten years - Prescriptions for so-called 'chemical cosh' drugs to treat hyperactive children have risen fourfold since 1997, official figures reveal. The trend has alarmed experts because Ritalin-type drugs have been linked to sudden deaths in the U.S. and Britain and its use has been under review in this country. Department of Health figures show GPs wrote a record 384,000 prescriptions for Ritalin and related drugs last year - nearly 7,400 a week.

• 'Chip and bin' gets minister's approval - The Government has defended the fitting of computer chips to wheelie bins, saying the Shipley company which makes them is saving taxpayers money. Environment Minister Ben Bradshaw said using the devices can also boost recycling which will save local authorities in the long term. The Microchip technology supplied by PM OnBoard has so far been taken on by about 30 local authorities but Bradford Council decided not to sign up amid fears taxpayers could perceive it as a means to spy on them.

Sunday 12th November 2006: -

• Keep an eye on house with video surveillance - Whether you want to check on your children in the family room from the kitchen - or on your home from the office - there is a video surveillance system just for you. "A consumer thinking about buying a video camera system should start out by answering a few simple questions," said Jeff Hoover, the president of Audio Advisors in West Palm Beach, a company that designs and installs electronics. Among those questions are whether the cameras will be mounted indoors or out; whether they will need to pan, tilt or zoom; and whether they will be used only in daylight or will need to be effective at night as well.

• Depleted Uranium behind the surge in Cancer rates in Iraq - In 1991, Washington and its Persian Gulf War allies used armor-piercing shells made of depleted uranium -- the first time such weapons had been used in military conflicts -- as the Iraqis retreated from Kuwait. Up till now, the battlefield remains a radioactive toxic wasteland -- and depleted uranium munitions remain a mystery despite many studies and many attempts by scientists to fully discover its secrets. In military applications, when alloyed, Depleted Uranium [DU] is ideal for use in armor penetrators. These solid metal projectiles have the speed, mass and physical properties to perform exceptionally well against armored targets. DU provides a substantial performance advantage, well above other competing materials. This allows DU penetrators to defeat an armored target at a significantly greater distance. Also, DU's density and physical properties make it ideal for use as armor plate. DU has been used in weapon systems for many years in both applications.

• Sir Elton: Ban organised religion - Sir Elton John has said he would like to see all organised religion banned and accused it of trying to "turn hatred towards gay people". Organised religion lacked compassion and turned people into "hateful lemmings", he told the Observer.

• City may buy surveillance equipment for GSHS: Incidents at school prompt Gulf Shores officials to develop plan to strengthen security measures - Police may soon be able to watch video surveillance of Gulf Shores High School via the Internet, if the City Council purchases more than $25,000 worth of equipment to enhance safety on the campus. City Council members discussed the issue at last week's work session, as Gulf Shores High Principal Eddie Tyler laid out a plan to add 16 cameras and a keyless entry system. The surveillance system also includes a new feature that would allow police and administrators to access the cameras via the Internet.

• UK's Brown backs stronger anti-terrorism powers - British Finance Minister Gordon Brown, favourite to succeed Tony Blair as Prime Minister, has supported police calls to extend a 28-day maximum limit on holding terrorist suspects without trial. Saying that fighting terrorism should be a prime minister's "first priority", Mr Brown also backed police demands to allow intercept evidence to be used in court to help secure convictions against terrorists.

• UPDATE: Elementary Student Threatened With Psychiatric Evaluation After Visiting 9/11 Websites - The fifth grade student who was recently disciplined for accessing 9/11 websites at school, such as Infowars.com, may now be forced to undergo psychiatric evaluation. 10 year-old Mark was not punished, the discipline report shows, for breaking school rules or being "off task," but rather because his principal says the webpages in his cache were "inappropriate." Sites listed in the report include '9/11 Cover-Up', 'Alex Jones' Martial Law' and 'NY 9/11 Truth', among others.

• Insurer seeks personal details on mental health form: Experts question plan by Blue Cross - The state's largest health insurer wants mental health patients to begin routinely filling out forms that include detailed questions about their sleep patterns, sex lives, and suicidal thoughts. The questionnaire, designed to gauge a patient's state of mind, is part of an effort by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to measure the quality of mental health treatment its members receive. About 100,000 Blue Cross subscribers will receive the form, which was described in a mailing last week to psychiatrists and other mental health counselors.

• Archbishop 'failed to act' on sex abuse - THE Anglican Primate of Australia, Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, has been accused of failing to act on evidence of child sexual abuse by the victim of a pedophile priest who was jailed this week. The Queensland man, who was sexually abused over three years as a teenager by the priest, claimed Archbishop Aspinall did not tell police about an incriminating letter he was sent in 2002 -- just four months after he was appointed head of the Brisbane diocese. On Thursday, Robert Francis Sharwood, 62, was sentenced in the Brisbane District Court to two years and nine months' jail, suspended after he served a year.   (RELATED: See our The Elites Abuse of Children archive)

• The Video Pelosi and AIPAC Don’t Want You to See - Please note: this video contains images of women and children killed by the Israeli state with U.S. weapons in Beit Hanoun, the Gaza Strip, in violation of the Arms Export Control Act (specifically, Ttitle 22, Chapter 39, Subchapter III § 2778 c). “My wife recorded this for my blog a couple of days ago. Since then, she won’t even look at the news,” writes Sabbah. On November 2, the IOF “transferred the males of Beit Hanoun aged between 16-45 in a convoy of large trucks to unknown destinations…. Security sources reported that the Israeli occupation forces called the men through loudspeakers, and gathered them in front of An-Nassr mosque in the north of Beit Hanoun,” according to Aljazeera (English translation here). In response, unarmed Palestinian women confronted the IOF and 12 were shot, two fatally. So, the next time Nancy Pelosi gets up before AIPAC and declares Israel is simply protecting itself, please email her a link to this video.

• Venezuela Officially Says 9/11 was "Self Inflicted": Venezuela's president continued his criticism of President Bush after the pro-Chávez legislature declared that the 9/11 attacks were `self-inflicted.' - When Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chávez called President Bush ''the devil'' in a U.N. speech in September, many thought his ''anti-imperialist'' rhetoric had reached rock bottom. But fresh depths have since been plumbed. The Venezuelan government, to judge from recent events, officially regards Bush as a genocidal Nazi who arranged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to justify aggression against other nations.

• Eye in the sky has worked in other Canadian communities - While bar owners and the city try to grapple with a recent wave of violent incidents in the downtown entertainment district in recent months, one of the possible solutions could be soon peeking from a pole near you. Halifax Regional Police are looking at various closed-circuit television cameras to set up a surveillance network in the downtown. The idea seems to be soundly supported by downtown business owners, bar operators and even Halifax Regional Police Chief Frank Beazley. But no decision has yet been made on what type of video surveillance cameras could be used, how they'll be used or who will monitor them.

• ASIO steps up surveillance of activists - The October release of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation’s (ASIO) annual report reveals that it is concentrating in great detail on protest actions, even small ones. While monitoring “politically motivated violence” is one of ASIO’s jobs, something it uses to justify its extraordinary eavesdropping and surveillance powers, what is surprising is its application of this definition to small-sized protests. Also making interesting reading is the release of details of which protests it has covered. “Protests spanning three days in connection with the Forbes Global CEO Conference in Sydney saw protestors push down security fences, force the closure of several ANZ Bank branches and engage in several confrontations with police”, the report notes. In August 2005, Forbes Magazine editor-in-chief Steve Forbes hosted 350 of the most powerful CEOs in the world. Protests were held at the Sydney Opera House. The report added that, “ASIO also worked with overseas liaison partners in connection with transnational trends in violent protest activity”. This presumably is a reference to Britain’s MI5 and Special Branch, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI).

• District to teachers: Get fingerprinted or else - Fifty-two teachers in the Phoenix Union High School District were told not to come to work this week and stay away until they have valid fingerprint clearance cards, as required by state law. The move is costing the district $25,000 a week in substitute costs, and as many as a half dozen teachers are missing from each of the district's 11 high schools. At Cesar Chavez High, both the band director and choir teacher are out because of expired fingerprint cards, and holiday concerts are coming up. The teachers won't be back anytime soon. Background checks can take three to five weeks to complete.

Saturday 11th November 2006: -

• 'BE AFRAID... BE VERY AFRAID (JUST TRUST ME)': Too many terrorist plots to name, say MI5 - MI5 is now tracking so many suspected terrorists that it has run out of codenames for them. The revelation about the security service's workload comes after a stark warning from Eliza Manningham-Buller, the agency's director-general, about the terrorist threat to Britain. On Thursday night, Dame Eliza said her officers are aware of more than 1,600 people in Britain who could pose a terrorist threat, and fear that up to 30 credible terrorist plots are under way.

• Hate Mongering BNP victory prompts 'law change' - Britain's racial and religious hatred laws have come under scrutiny following BNP leader Nick Griffin's trial victory. A court cleared the far-right leader, for the second time this year, over a speech in which he called Islam a "wicked, vicious faith". Mr Griffin was found not guilty of inciting racial hatred during secretly filmed speeches in 2004. Two senior ministers said the comments had upset most Britons and British Muslims needed reassurance that the laws would protect them.   (COMMENTARY: Hmm I wonder if the BNP are playing a convenient part in bringing about the police state.  Of course they are.  I am often falsely and hysterically accused of being a Holocaust denying anti-Semitic racist for talking openly about how a comparatively few people control the world, how 9/11 was an inside job and so on.  Anyone who doesn't 'go along quietly' with the unrolling Big Brother system and who doesn't deny its existence will often be labeled (or at least perceived) as being an 'extremist' with 'dangerous' ideas, by those who haven't done their homework.  Yes, so lets use the laws that we brought about to go after REAL racists like Nick Griffin and his entourage to crack down on those people too, because they are 'dangerous'.  Obviously the BNP (whether they know it or not) are playing a convenient part in bringing about a police state in the UK that suffers no dissent with their promotion of friction and division.  This can be rightly described as Problem > Reaction > Solution.  Create the problem (hatred and fear), get the reaction ("something must be done!"), offer the solution (tougher hate/thought crime laws).  People local to me go along with it because they are sick of living in segregated communities like Bradford and Keighley, yet they don't realise the craftily conceived manipulation that they are being subjected too.  Great, the Burqa has been banned... but so has the Hoodie and so has my freedom of speech to object to fascism... Damn, I never saw that coming!)

• Vietnam Sentences 3 Convicted Terrorists: Vietnam Issues Light Sentences to Three Vietnamese-Americans Convicted of Terrorism - Vietnam defused a political storm Friday by issuing light sentences to three Vietnamese-Americans convicted of terrorism, preventing the closely watched case from clouding President Bush's visit next week. The defendants had been held since September 2005 without charges after being accused of plotting to take over radio airwaves in their native country to call for an uprising to overthrow the communist government.

• Biometric ID cards coming for Canadian airport workers - The federal government will introduce biometric ID cards for workers at 29 major airports by the end of the year, Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon said Friday. The cards are aimed at improving airport security by allowing scanners to check two unique human characteristics — fingerprints and iris patterns. The government is moving on a two-year-old test, which began operational trials at airports in Vancouver and Kelowna, B.C., in October 2004.

• Flashing fingers, elementary students have new way to get lunch - It takes more than a lunch lady to run today's public school cafeteria. It takes a logistics expert. Take Rome's West End Elementary, where two classrooms of students charge into the lunchroom every five minutes, load their trays up with corn dogs, steak nuggets and fresh fruit, and then pile into cashier Lydia Galego's line. Galego, though, has a new tool to help her handle the lunch rush. As each student quietly files up to her computer, they press an index finger up to a reader and then trot off to their tables. Their names flash across Galego's touch-screen computer monitor and each of their prepaid accounts are automatically debited $1.10.

• Dirty water kills 5,000 children a day: Sanitation the key to saving millions of lives, UN urges governments to ensure supplies for all - Nearly two million children a year die for want of clean water and proper sanitation while the world's poor often pay more for their water than people in Britain or the US, according to a major new report. The United Nations Development Programme, in its annual Human Development report, argues that 1.1 billion people do not have safe water and 2.6 billion suffer from inadequate sewerage. This is not because of water scarcity but poverty, inequality and government failure.

• MI5 Dame: Brit Intelligence Busy Creating Terror Events - Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller, director general of MI5, wants Brits to be afraid. “There are up to 30 alleged ‘mass casualty’ terror plots in operation in Britain, as well as hundreds of young British Muslims on a path to radicalization,” reports the Independent. “Describing the scale of the home-grown terrorist problem, she said MI5 and the police were tackling 200 groups or networks totalling more than 1,600 identified individuals in the UK who were ‘actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts,’” never mind that such terrorist acts rarely come to fruition, usually instead sputtering out into absurd allegations of liquid bombs and other fantastical plots nipped in the bud, or so we are expected to believe, that is after we suspend credibility, again for the umpteenth time.

• Saginaw man TASERed at City Council meeting: Man refused to remove hat, struggled with police - Saginaw's City Council meeting featured a shocking incident Monday night. A Saginaw Valley State University student was TASERed after he became unruly after being asked to take off his baseball cap. There is a new rule at Saginaw City Council meetings. Men are required to take their hats off. Evidently, they are pretty serious about this new rule. The man was wearing a Los Angeles Dodgers hat. Officer Doug Stacer of the Saginaw Police Department asked him to remove the hat. The man raised his voice and did not remove the hat.

Friday 10th November 2006: -

• Blair 'one of two ministers who knew of cash-for-honours' - Tony Blair is one of only two cabinet ministers who knew the party agreed to accept secret loans from rich supporters, Scotland Yard's "cash for honours" inquiry is to be told. The only other minister who knew was Ian McCartney, the former Labour chairman, who gave "party authority" to the system of loans but strongly denies knowing who made them. There is growing alarm in Labour circles that Mr Blair could become the main focus of the Metropolitan Police inquiry, amid speculation that a Downing Street staff member is proving "extremely helpful" to the investigation.

• Citibank first bank in the world to introduce biometric credit card - Singaporeans will be among the first in the world to use a biometric credit card. Citibank - the world's largest credit card issuer - has chosen to launch its biometric credit cards in Singapore. With the biometric payment system, card users do not even need to carry their cards with them. The biometric system is expected to revolutionalise the way people shop and make payments. Shoppers no longer need to present their credit card and sign for payment.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Time to stand up to the database state - Are your readers waking up to the surveillance society? Recent media coverage reveals just the tip of the iceberg; the database state that threatens us all. Plans just revealed include intimate questions on your personal life in the next census. Fail to answer, and you'll be fined £1,000. Under similar threats, most UK properties will have every detail catalogued by a tax inspector visiting with a camera. There are plans for wide-ranging databases on all our children, not just those at risk. And Big Brother Blair would like everyone's DNA to be held on a criminal database. The Government presses on with plans to make everyone over 16 report to an interrogation centre to be fingerprinted like a criminal, answer personal questions based on detailed background checks, then be charged for the issue of an ID card.

• MySQL's Mickos shares 'database in the sky' vision - Marten Mickos, the CEO of open-source database provider MySQL, called on people to help the company create "a database in the sky," the equivalent of a Google search engine for structured data. Mickos spoke at the Web 2.0 Summit on Thursday where he described his vision for how databases around the world could be connected to help people find information. For example, he said that people interested in weather information should be able to collect data from databases of several weather stations around the world.

Wednesday 08th November 2006: -

• Chemical pollution 'responsible for silent pandemic of brain damage' - MILLIONS of children worldwide may have suffered brain damage as a direct result of industrial pollution, scientists said yesterday. An explosive report from researchers in the United States and Denmark talks of a "silent pandemic" of neurodevelopmental disorders caused by toxic chemicals spilling into the environment. They include conditions such as autism, attention deficit disorder, mental retardation and cerebral palsy. The scientists identified 202 industrial chemicals with the potential to damage the human brain, and said they were likely to be the "tip of a very large iceberg". More than 1,000 chemicals are known to be neurotoxic in animals, and are likely to be harmful to humans.   (RELATED: See our Compromised Health archive)

• Meet The New Boss, Same As The Old Boss: Will Democrats repeal and impeach or salute and follow? Mobbed-up establishment sycophant Nancy Pelosi is nobody's savior, as sacrificial lamb Rumsfeld steps down - The Democrats have swept the House and the Senate may well follow but did 7/11 really herald the defeat of the Neo-Con agenda or will establishment sycophants like Nancy Pelosi hijack and misdirect legitimate discontent and shield Bush from impeachment while blocking efforts to repeal legislation he passed?

• 10-Year Old Disciplined for Visiting 9/11 Website: Courageous youth stands up to accusation of viewing 'terrorist' information - A fifth grader named 'Mark' reported to Alex Jones' Infowars TV show by phone that he had been sent home with a disciplinary report for visiting 9/11 Truth websites such as Infowars.com. The 10 year-old Steiner Ranch Elementary student-- in Leander I.S.D. near Austin, Texas-- says that he was browsing such sites during his Computer Lab class period when a fellow student informed on him-- as though he were doing something wrong. "He just ran up to my teacher in front of the whole class, saying 'he's searching terrorist stuff about 9/11'.

• The FCC must stop shutting down microradio stations - On October 27, I went to an informal FCC hearing on media consolidation. It was held at the Oakland Marriott as part of the California NAACP convention. It was informal because only two of the five commissioners—Michael J. Copps and Jonathan S. Adelstein--the Democrats—were present. So it wasn’t an official hearing and wasn’t mentioned on the FCC web site. Media consolidation is an important, often under-the-radar, issue for people who are concerned with preserving and strengthening democracy. The FCC is considering rule changes that will make it even easier for media conglomerates to own multiple media outlets in one market than The Telecommunications Act of 1996 did. And that says a lot. Since the Telecom Act came into effect, Clear Channel Communications, for example, has come to own seven radio stations in San Francisco, and three in San Jose, just 50 miles away.

• New website from our good talk show host friend Jack Blood in the USA - uncoverthenews.com: Check it out, a great resource for breaking news stories and alternative commentary!

• While You Voted, Palestinians Died - No matter who wins the midterm election, be it Democrats or Republicans, the slaughter in Palestine will continue. In fact, it is a safe bet to conclude that the vast majority of the winners, and indeed most of the losers, support the criminal state of Israel, infamous for using U.S. supplied weapons to kill Palestinian school children. Israel’s slaughter, fully supported by the neocons and most of our “representatives” sitting in Congress, is not even a campaign issue. Staunch support for Israel is a given. Pervert preachers may be paraded across the front page of newspapers and websites, but you will not see one photo of critically wounded children ushered into the hospital in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip.

• HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE... YAAAAAY I WON!: Senate in balance as Bush battered - Americans delivered a sharp rebuke to President George Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress, sweeping Democrats into power in the House for the first time in a dozen years and dismantling most if not all of the Republican Senate majority. The battle for Senate seats in Virginia and Montana was going down to the last votes counted today, and Democrats needed to win both to shape a majority and complete their grip on legislative power. A potential Virginia recount could further lengthen the suspense.

• Israeli tank shells 'kill 18 Palestinians in sleep' - Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighbourhood in the northern Gaza Strip early today, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including 10 children, as they slept, health officials said. Palestinian leaders condemned the attack and called for international intervention. Militants vowed revenge, and the military wing of the Palestinians' ruling Hamas group called on Muslims around the world to attack US targets.

• Mercury rising: Rare planetary alignment to occur this week - Astronomers in the Americas, East Asia and Australasia will get a rare daylight treat this week when Mercury passes in a direct line between the Earth and the Sun, a "transit" that will next occur on May 9, 2016. Skygazers will be able to see Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun, creep across the solar disk as a tiny black dot. The whole five-hour transit, from 1912 GMT on Wednesday to 0010 GMT on Thursday, can be visible from the western coast of the United States, Canada, New Zealand, southeastern Australia, and the archipelagoes of the South Pacific.

• The Hutton Inquiry And The Murder Of Dr. David Kelly - I recently located the BBC video from the Hutton Inquiry, the official judicial investigation into the events surrounding the July, 2003, death of Dr. David Kelly, a respected government biological scientist in the U.K., and a leading arms inspector in Iraq prior to the current invasion and occupation. Dr. Kelly was found dead near his home; supposedly a suicide after becoming embroiled in the early debate regarding blatant lying by the Blair government about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. A cursory investigation by the local coroner, apparently with a wink and a nod to London, concluded that Dr. Kelly had killed himself, although the manner in which this happened was not particularly clear. The emerging details pointed so strongly toward a badly botched murder, including or at least followed by official complicity, that a major outcry quickly followed.   (RELATED: See our archive The 'Suicide' of Dr David Kelly)

• IBM Touts Smart Surveillance System - IBM Corp. hopes to capitalize on the enormous growth in video surveillance by selling technology from its research labs that performs real-time analysis on footage captured by security cameras in stores and sensitive locales. Several companies already offer systems that can alert security guards if something unusual appears to be going on - such as someone entering an off-limits room or a jewelry store employee leaving a key in a display case. But IBM contends that it is the first to add advanced search functions that make use of computers' improving ability to recognize video content. For example, the IBM system would let a user search for all instances of a green car passing by a store on a certain day.

• L-1 gets Fla. fingerprint processing under its thumb - Needing help processing more than 70,000 applications annually, the Florida Financial Services Department has tapped L-1 Identity Solutions Inc. to put in place a fingerprint processing network for insurance agents. Terms of the five-year, $22 million contract call for Integrated Biometric Technology LLC, an L-1 Identity Solutions unit, to install an automated applicant processing system to log and administer the fingerprints of insurance agents. The system will be fully operational by January, the company said. By setting up fingerprint processing sites throughout Florida, the company will make accessing the system more convenient for users, as well as lay the foundation for a potential system expansion to handle more than 900,000 applicants statewide. Integrated Biometric Technology’s system handles procurement, fee collection and financial reconciliation and invoice payments. The system also uses Web-based and telephone services to supplement its satellite offices, the company said. Through the system, state officials will be able to generate reports for data analysis in each county.

• Technicians Arrive to Fix Knox Voting Machine Glitch - It will be later today, at the earliest, before we get the final numbers in Knox County because of a voting machine problem. At this hour, more than 2,600 Knox County votes have not been counted. Election officials blame it on a problem with a voting machine used during the early voting cycle at Knoxville's Downtown West site. Technicians from Denver have arrived in Knoxville to figure out the problem, so the final votes can be counted.

• Voting machines malfunction in Dayton - Several voting machines at the Dayton High School polling location malfunctioned, but Lyon County Clerk Nikki Bryan said it hasn’t affected voting. “It hasn’t been a problem,” she said. “They had a problem with a printer and with a screen, but it hasn’t slowed voting at all. Bryan said there were no plans to request an extension of voting hours.

• Voter Fraud Across the Board - Not surprisingly, there's been cases of voter fraud reported across the country today, with more pouring in by the hour. Here's a rundown of the reports gathered so far, with the states appearing in alphabetical. Of note are problems in tight races such as Corker vs. Ford in Tennessee, Stabenow vs. Bouchard in Michigan, and Talent vs. McCaskill in Missouri.

Tuesday 07th November 2006: -

• How can we believe Blair over ID cards? - Still thrashing around for something to call his 'legacy', Tony Blair makes ever more extravagant claims for his wildly expensive scheme to introduce biometric ID cards. Not only will they help in the fight against crime, terrorism and illegal immigration, he says, but they will smash identity fraud and make it easier for everyone to access services. Sounds wonderful in theory. But in practice? Leave aside the frightening implications for civil liberties - and how sinister it is that Mr Blair now wants the police to check all our fingerprints against files on 900,000 unsolved crimes. Can anyone believe that ID cards will be anything like as effective as he makes them out to be?

• HOW THEY STOLE THE MID-TERM ELECTION: by Greg Palast - Here's how the 2006 mid-term election was stolen. Note the past tense. And I'm not kidding. And shoot me for saying this, but it won't be stolen by jerking with the touch-screen machines (though they'll do their nasty part). While progressives panic over the viral spread of suspect computer black boxes, the Karl Rove-bots have been tunneling into the vote vaults through entirely different means.

• Bill would put all warrants in FBI system - Governor Mitt Romney filed legislation yesterday that would require local police departments to put all felony and serious misdemeanor arrest warrants into a national FBI database. This would enable any police department in the state to check quickly whether a suspect has a recent history of troublemaking or violence, the governor's office said. Currently, local police chiefs have discretion over which warrants enter the database, and when. Romney said police must confront suspects often without knowing the full extent of the danger that might be presented. Under the bill, police would have to enter violent crime and narcotics trafficking warrants within 24 hours, and other felonies and serious misdemeanors within 72 hours.

• Researchers propose human-cow hybrid: Grow your own hamburgers? - In an effort to free stem-cell research from its dependence on donated human eggs, medical researchers in the UK have applied for permission to implant human DNA into cows eggs, effectively creating a human-bovine hybrid. Researchers from Newcastle University and Kings College, London, have applied to the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority for a three-year licence, the BBC reports. They want to implant human DNA into bovine oocytes, or eggs, whose nuclei have been removed.

• Blair reveals delayed ID card timetable - From 2008, all non-EU nationals will need a biometric identity card to work or access public services in the UK. However, the date for the cards to be compulsory for British citizens has been put back until 2009 at the earliest. The announcement was made by Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said that modern trends were forcing governments to adapt: "The world is more mobile than ever before, as you know. Capital moves freely across national boundaries. Information is transmitted digitally in an instant. There's tremendous growth in trade. We have large scale movement of people around the world. Indeed there are about 30 million non-European nationals that pass through the UK now every year and that figure's rising the whole time."

• Alex Jones latest documentary film 'Terrorstorm' now available on Amazon - get it here.

• Anger over clubs' fingerprint plan - A CIVIL liberties group has criticised plans to fingerprint pubgoers and clubbers in Nuneaton. Six venues in the town are set to pilot a hi-tech government scheme to help curb trouble and under-age drinking. If the pilot is successful it could be rolled out to other pubs and clubs in Leamington, Rugby and across Warwickshire. Luminar Leisure, the company that runs Nuneaton's Liquid & Envy nightspots and Chicago Rock is expected to start using the system next month. Fingerprint scanners will be installed which will flag up a person's age and any record of causing trouble. The "Big Brother"-style devices will give doorstaff the chance to refuse entry to anyone highlighted.

• U.K. is closer to establishing homeland security ministry - Great Britain’s Finance Minister Gordon Brown told government officials Nov. 2 he wants to set up a single, $3.8 billion budget for fighting terrorism in the United Kingdom, according to British news reports. Brown, who is expected to succeed Prime Minister Tony Blair within a year, indicated he was reviewing government expenditures. It is believed he is considering creating a single homeland security department by combining the budgets of the Home Office, Intelligence Service and Defence Ministry. Brown made the comments in a written ministerial statement to his cabinet. Brown said the spending review would look at “how to harness new technology for security to prevent terrorists and criminals exploiting multiple identities,” according to news reports.

• The Voting Machine Documentary Diebold Didn't Want You to See: And the Princeton, John Hopkins/Rice U. Studies on Machine Vulnerability Diebold Considers 'Unrealistic and Inaccurate' - How very telling it is that Diebold pressured HBO to cancel the airing of this documentary just days before tomorrow's midterm elections. Fortunately, subsidiary of mega-corporation Time Warner did not cave to the guilty psychology of the Diebold or other electronic voting companies pleading to hide just suspicion of the 'fallible' system behind our vote.   See the video below...

Monday 06th November 2006: -

• PROBLEM > REACTION > SOLUTION RHETORIC IN CASE YOU AREN'T YET FAMILIAR WITH IT: Blair Says Identity Cards Will Help Fight Terrorism in the U.K. - U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, seeking to promote the nation's 5.4 billion ($10 billion) pound program to introduce identity cards, said new biometric data collected for the cards will help fight terrorism. Blair used his monthly news conference to explain say ID cards will help counter the cost of identity fraud, which the government estimates costs 1.7 billion pounds a year. ``People say it is an argument about civil liberties, but this is an argument about modernity,'' Blair said at his office in London today. ``We have a modern world that has new and different types of crime. If we do not use new technology to tackle it we will not be able to tackle it properly.'' The U.K. government has faced opposition to the program from civil liberties groups and the Conservative Party, which say the program will be costly and unworkable.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• Saddam verdict may boost Bush's chances - Critics have argued about the validity of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's trial and have questioned the timing of the verdict, which comes ahead of key mid term polls in the United States. The verdict may just prove to be a small shot in the arm for Bush's Republicans. The former Iraqi dictator was convicted on Sunday and sentenced to hang for crimes against humanity in the 1982 killings of 148 people in the Shiite town of Dujail.   (COMMENTARY: Just as we saw in November 2004 when Bin Laden popped up on the eve of the fixed US Presidential election - an event which 'runner-up' John Kerry admitted he felt swayed the results in favour of his political opponent)

• Union Appeals Firing of Bus Driver Who Flipped Off Bush - George Bush was campaigning in the Seattle area with Republican Congressman Dave Reichert on June 16. On the way to a fundraiser at a mansion, the Presidential motorcade passed some school buses that had pulled over, the King County Journal reported. “She paid the ultimate price, and we think that’s pretty tough,” says the local AFSCME leader, who couldn't believe that Bush and Representative Reichert made an issue of it. "I would hope that the both of them would have more important things to discuss."“Students in several Issaquah School District buses crammed their faces against the windows and waved to the President’s motorcade,” the paper said on October 30, relaying a recent story Reichert told on the campaign trail. “Bush waved back.” But then one of the bus drivers gave Bush the finger. Bush saw the gesture, he told Reichert about it, Reichert contacted the school, and the bus driver was canned.

• INDIA: Thumb Power: Biometric ATMs - Chennai based provider of electronic payment systems and services, Financial Software and Systems (FSS), has launched Biometric Any Time Money (ATM) Interface Solution (BAIS). ATMs will be connected to a bank's centralized Electronic Financial Transaction (EFT) switch with biometric support such as fingerprint verification. Biometric support eliminates the need for PIN entry, and authenticates customer transactions by thumb-impressions. A simplified menu on ATMs coupled with possible audio guidance in local language enables easy use for rural masses.

• You are what you eat: So have you any idea what you are? - It's 8pm on a weekday evening and you're traipsing the aisles of your local supermarket. You pile the trolley with all the usual necessities, until you get to the yogurt aisle. You're about to sling the usual multi-pack of children's yogurts into the basket when suddenly you stop. The packaging is bright and emblazoned with children's illustrations, and you know they'll love it, but what's actually in it? It says low fat, but what about its sugar content, and what's E951 when it's at home?

• Blair to take on ID card critics - Tony Blair will use his monthly press conference today to confirm his commitment to the introduction of identity cards and take on opponents of the controversial scheme. The prime minister is expected to counter criticism that the project is too expensive and could infringe civil liberties by saying that it will help authorities to tackle crime, illegal immigration, terrorism and identity fraud. He is also likely to challenge doubts over the success of one of the biggest IT projects in the world by saying that the scheme is on budget and on schedule to be working by 2008.

• Controversy over DNA storage: Man who helped revolutionise forensics speaks out - Controversy surrounds the storing of DNA - the technology he developed that has revolutionised forensic science. The public is being asked whether it is right to store details of non-criminals on the national data base. Sir Alec is understood to be against it. He said there was an increasing danger of "mission creep," as samples taken for one purpose could later be used for another. But officials and victim support groups claim only people who have committed crimes have anything to fear.

• Metro steps up security searches - If students think they have been seeing more security officers in and around their schools lately, they would be right. Metro Schools’ office of Safety and Security has stepped up random school searches this year, conducting almost eight times as many as they did last year at this time. Steve Keel, safety and security director, said the district wants to take a hard stance on weapons and drugs in schools.   (RELATED: See our Police State archive)

• UK crime database seen as breaching race laws - RACE watchdogs are to investigate Britain's national DNA database over revelations that about three-quarters of young black men will soon have their profiles stored. Trevor Phillips, the chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, will examine whether the database breaches race relations laws. "This is tantamount to criminalising a generation of young black men," Mr Phillips said. An estimated 135,000 black males aged 15 to 34 will be entered in the crime-fighting database by next April, equivalent to 77 per cent of the young black male population in England and Wales. By contrast, only 22 per cent of young white males, and 6 per cent of the general population, will be on the database.

• CIA prison secrecy on suspects - THE Bush Administration has told a federal judge that terrorism suspects held in secret CIA prisons should not be allowed to reveal details of the "alternative interrogation methods" that their captors used to get them to talk. The Government says in new court filings that those interrogation methods are now among the nation's most sensitive national security secrets and that their release — even to the detainees' own attorneys — "could reasonably be expected to cause extremely grave damage".

Sunday 05th November 2006: -

• Saddam Hussein Sentenced to Death by Hanging for 1982 Killings - Former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death by hanging today for his role in the massacre of 148 Shiite Muslims in the northern Iraqi village of Dujail following an attempt on his life there in 1982. ``Long live the people, down with the traitors,'' Hussein, 69, shouted as the verdict was read out. ``God is great. You are the servants of the occupiers. Long live Iraq.'' Dressed in a dark suit and white shirt, he held a copy of the Koran in his left hand. Chief Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdul-Rahman delivered the verdict about midday in the Baghdad courthouse of the Iraqi Higher Criminal Court. The footage was aired by major international television channels.

• Allow 'active euthanasia' for disabled babies, doctors urge - Doctors are urging health regulators to consider allowing the "active euthanasia" of severely disabled newborn babies. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology has put forward the option of permitting mercy killings of the sickest infants to a review of medical ethics. It says "active euthanasia" should be considered for the overall benefit of families who would otherwise suffer years of emotional and financial suffering.

• Bush faces call for Rumsfeld to quit - President George Bush faces a damaging political firestorm on the eve of the vital mid-term elections after it emerged yesterday that an influential military newspaper is to call for the resignation of his Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld. The call could not come at a worse time for Bush and the Republican party as they brace for a widely predicted defeat in Tuesday's elections that could see the Democrats capture both Houses of Congress. Now it has been revealed that the Military Times Media Group, which publishes the army newspaper The Army Times, is to print an anti-Rumsfeld editorial tomorrow.

• Some parents concerned about fingerprint plan - Has Big Brother come to the cafeteria in Santa Barbara? Some parents are worried about a plan to start fingerprinting kids at three elementary schools in the Hope Elementary School District. Beginning this month, youngsters will press an index finger to a scanner when they buy food at the school cafeterias. The scan will call up the student's name and student I-D, teacher's name and how much the student owes. Some students pay different amounts because they have government food assistance. The district has to submit reports to the state and federal governments in order to be reimbursed for the meals. The superintendent says fingerprint scanning simply speeds up a system that currently relies on pencil-and-paper. But some parents says the idea smacks of George Orwell's "1984."   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• Verdict's timing questioned - After a three-month wait, the judges in Saddam Hussein's first trial for crimes against humanity are scheduled to deliver their verdict today, just two days before U.S. voters go to the polls in closely contested congressional elections. U.S. and Iraqi officials say the timing of the expected guilty verdict and sentencing is sheer coincidence. But Hussein's attorneys and others, including left-leaning bloggers, charge that the date was pushed back to give the Bush administration and Republican candidates a positive headline from Baghdad after a violent month in which more than 100 U.S. troops were killed.

• State Suspends Ban On Mercury-Free Flu Shots For Kids - Parents looking for mercury-free flu shots for their children may have trouble finding them. Only one manufacturer, Sanofi Pasteur, makes flu vaccine for young children and officials say distribution problems have caused a shortage. As a result, the California Department of Health and Human Services said it is waiving a new state law that prevents children under the age of 3 from getting vaccine with the mercury-based preservative called thimerosal.

Saturday 04th November 2006: -

• COMING SOON TO AIRSTRIP ONE: It's Britain in 2016 when cameras and microchips control daily life - BRITAIN is the most monitored society in the Western world, we have once again been reminded. And how. The minute I get out of bed, the microchip in my arm tells my kettle to boil, my bath to run and my electric car to warm up. I start the vehicle with a fingertip - it needs to scan my prints before it will run. And I dare not exceed the speed limit, or the chip in the car will inform a police computer. Welcome to Britain, November 2016. Welcome to an age in which every step you take is watched. Back in November 2006, the Government's Information Commissioner, the man responsible for safeguarding our privacy, voiced concern at the increasingly pervasive "surveillance society all around us".   (RELATED: See our Big Brother main archive)

• Homeland Security Creates Terrorism Score for Travelers - What's your terrorism quotient? U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents will know with a newly announced Automated Targeting System, a data mining system which will use the Treasury's watch list, data provided to it by the airlines, your I-94 form and other data sources to compute your terrorism risk when you cross the border. The data -- which includes all the information you give to an airline such as medical conditions, frequent flier number, special meal requests, home and email addresses, payment information and your travel agent's names -- will be held for up to 40 years. The data can be shared with any government agency or local law enforcement agency for civil or criminal matters, and can even be shared with foreign governments as data to test other data-mining programs, even ones not related to border security.

• They’re watching our every move - Shortly before the cost of a national ID card scheme became public knowledge - think of a new-fangled Abbey mortgage, and multiply a billion-fold - an old argument did the rounds. "If you have done nothing wrong," said representatives of a government that has never once told a fib, "you have nothing to fear." It sounded very reasonable. So reasonable did it sound, in fact, that many of us reached for a very traditional British attitude. This: what are they up to now? Who wants to know, why do they want to know and is there a single thing anyone can do about it? This year's model, the fetching Dr John Reid, Home Secretary, says that our intimate data is required in the fight against terrorism. Again, this seems profoundly reasonable. Still, some of us seem to recall that hooded urban bombers were no excuse when one of Reid's predecessors, the Tory Michael Howard, pushed the self-same scheme. The Home Office never tires. Equally, "biometric" passports, ugly sister to the ID card, were not required until America's government began to demand them from foreigners. For the record, the United States has no plans to impose ID cards on its own citizens. When last I checked, the US still boasted a constitution. Such a nuisance.

• Biometric ID database set for global takeover - A global database to monitor travellers entering and leaving the European Union and the United States is being tested in Britain and America. The project for the US Department of Homeland Security would create a global identity database using biometric identification such as digital fingerprinting. People involved in the trial say it could be extended to include countries such as Canada. Troy Potter, biometrics manager for the US Department of Homeland Security’s border control programme, told The Business: “Early stage discussions about what we should be doing to make biometric information sharing happen are currently taking place between like-minded countries such as Britain and other European Union members.”

Friday 03rd November 2006: -

• Poll: U.S. a threat to world peace - The United States was regarded as a threat to world peace by its neighbors and allies, according to an opinion poll published by the Guardian newspaper on Friday. The poll was carried out by the Guardian in Britain and other leading newspapers in Israel, Canada and Mexico, using professional local opinion polling in each country. According to the poll, in Britain, 69 percent of those questioned believed U.S. policy had made the world less safe since2001. In Canada and Mexico, America's immediate northern and southern neighbors, 62 percent of Canadians and 57 percent of Mexicans said the world had become more dangerous because of U.S. policy.

• World Trade Center janitor William Rodriguez launches website to challenge 9/11 story - http://www.911keymaster.com

• Unmanned Spy Planes To Patrol U.S. Border - The Predator unmanned spy plane, usually seen in the skies above Afghanistan, will soon be deployed over the America-Mexico border, Governor Perry of Texas said yesterday. A squadron of 16 Predator I–Bs will be based in Texas's Ellington Air Force Base starting sometime next year, the governor said. As commander in chief of the Texas Air National Guard, of which the Predators will be a part, Mr. Perry will exercise some control over the deployment of the U.S. Air Force-owned planes.

• Syria switching to euros to combat U.S. sanctions - The U.S.’s sanctions against Syria prompted Damascus to start switching its foreign currency surplus from U.S. dollars to euros, the United Press International reported. A Syrian source told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that Syria has already started to take a series of steps to deal with the U.S. sanctions barring trade between the two countries. Syria's Central Bank Governor Dr. Adib Mayala said on Tuesday that the country "would rid itself of the relationship between the Syrian lira (pound) and the U.S. dollar at the beginning of the upcoming year."

Thursday 02nd November 2006: -

• 'Big Brother' state is reality in Britain says report - Whether you are lying in bed, pushing your supermarket trolley or cruising along the motorway - Big Brother is watching you, according to a report that claims that Britain is the 'most spied upon nation' in the world. Just 22 years after George Orwell predicted that 1984 would mark the fictional arrival of the total surveillance state, Britons are faced with the reality of 'round-the clock surveillance,' according to the report published by Britain's Information Commissioner. 'Two years ago, I warned that we were sleepwalking into a surveillance society, today I fear that we are in fact waking up to a surveillance society that is already all around us,' Commissioner Richard Thomas said. 'This is science, not science fiction,' he added.   (ALSO IN TODAY'S NEWS: Britain: the most spied on nation in the world - RELATED: See our Big Brother main archive)

• Revealed: U.S. Soldier Killed Herself After Objecting to Interrogation Techniques: The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. Now we learn, thanks to a reporter's FOIA request, that one of the first women to die in Iraq shot and killed herself after objecting to harsh "interrogation techniques." - The true stories of how American troops, killed in Iraq, actually died keep spilling out this week. On Tuesday, we explored the case of Kenny Stanton Jr., murdered last month by our allies, the Iraqi police, though the military didn’t make that known at the time. Now we learn that one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq died by her own hand after objecting to interrogation techniques used on prisoners.

• Electronic Vote Machine Security - Professor Avi Rubin demonstrates how electronic vote machines can be compromised. This aired on The Screen Savers with Leo Laporte on TechTV. Video from suddenlyeverythingsucks.com: -

• 1,500 immigrants arrive in Britain daily, report says - Immigration is adding 500 people a day to the British population, new official figures show. While 1,000 leave to live and work abroad - often foreigners returning home - 1,500 are arriving daily. Net immigration is now the highest in the country’s history, but there are also record numbers of British citizens leaving these shores. The figures for 2005, released by the Office for National Statistics, indicate that 565,000 people came to live here for at least 12 months, slightly down on 2004, while 380,000 left.

• De Menezes family 'horrified' by new police shooting - The family of Jean Charles de Menezes reacted with horror today after it emerged that one of the police marksmen involved in his fatal shooting had shot a man during an operation to foil an armed robbery. Weeks after returning to firearms duties, the officer - who cannot be identified - opened fire on a man allegedly taking part in a robbery on a building society in Kent. The incident led to a wave of crisis meetings at Scotland Yard amid claims that the marksman should not have been on the front line so soon after the death of Mr de Menezes, who was mistaken for a suicide bomber at Stockwell Tube station in South London in July last year.

• `Contactless' technology in works to make shopping more convenient: BofA workers test special cards, cell phones, key chains for payment - Credit cards that don't need to be swiped. Key chain devices that transmit payments. Cell phones that zap money to vending machines. Bank of America Corp. employees in Wilmington, Del., in recent weeks have been getting an early look at its experimentation with "contactless" payment devices. Last month, the bank issued special credit cards to about 5,000 MasterCard-using employees and asked for volunteers to try the key-chain devices. Next week, employees will get a chance to test Nokia phones that can make payments.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

Wednesday 01st November 2006: -

• THE STATE STEALING CHILDREN: You can't silence justice - The secrecy surrounding the proceedings of the family courts has long been a blot on the face of English justice. These courts decide some of the most painful issues affecting individuals and their families. They are where households are divided between warring husbands and wives, or where decisions are taken which may involve removing a child from one or both of its parents. The sensitivity of such proceedings has always been used to justify the secrecy in which they are held. Neither Press nor public are allowed into court. The reason invariably given is the need to protect the interests of vulnerable people — particularly children — from the prying gaze of a prurient public. Such an excuse, however, has never held water. It is perfectly possible to report such cases anonymously, thus protecting the privacy of everyone involved.

• PROBLEM > REACTION > SOLUTION: 9/11 response blamed for intrusion on U.S. privacy - Germany and Canada are the best defenders of privacy and Malaysia and China the worst, an international rights group said in a report released Wednesday. Britain was rated as an endemic surveillance society, at no. 33, just above Russia and Singapore on a ranking of 37 nations' privacy protections by London-based Privacy International. The United States did only slightly better, at no. 30, ranked between Israel and Thailand, with few safeguards and widespread surveillance, the group said. Efforts to quash terrorism have eroded individual privacy protections since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, human rights activists have warned. Governments around the world have imposed security and immigration legislation that invades people's private lives, they say.   (RELATED: See our 9/11 archive and our affiliated site 911truthskipton.com)

• Blair says Iraq inquiry possible, but 'not now' - Tony Blair said today that his Government had not ruled out holding an inquiry into its conduct of the invasion of Iraq, only hours after narrowly avoiding defeat on a Commons motion calling for exactly that. MPs last night rejected a cross-party motion calling for an inquiry after an impassioned Commons debate last night which saw the Conservatives and other opposition parties accused of undermining British troops in Iraq. Soon afterwards, however, Des Browne, the Defence Secretary, threw the Government into confusion by telling the BBC that a "retrospective" inquiry would be held sometime in the future. Government spin doctors described that remark as a "slip of the tongue".

• School uses hands-on biometrics: James Brown reports on the palm-vein biometric system being deployed for cashless dinner payments - A Scottish primary school has installed a biometric system that uses the unique position of the veins in the palm of the hand to allow children to buy their school meals. The system, installed at Todholm Primary School in Paisley, maps the pupil’s vein patterns using a near-infrared beam to confirm their identity. The technology is being used by all children that have school dinners, providing anonymity to those entitled to state-subsidised meals and removing the associated social stigma. The biometric reader automatically deducts money from children’s accounts, which are topped up each month by parents or from subsidy funds.   (RELATED: See our Cashless Society Control Grid archive)

• 'Airline plot' brothers walk free from court - Two brothers who had been charged in connection with the alleged plot to blow up transatlantic airliners have walked free, reports suggest. The men were appearing at court in relation to the alleged plot, which brought Britain's air transport network to a near-standstill in August. But the judge today ruled that there was 'insufficient evidence' to charge either Mehran Hussain, 24, or Umair Hussain, 25, and allowed them to walk free, according to media reports.   (RELATED: See our Problem > Reaction > Solution archive)

• Former Agent Says Google and CIA in Partnership - Could Google be a spook? Is Google's quest to manage the world's information leading straight to the CIA? Former CIA clandestine case officer Robert David Steele made some very hot comments on his appearance on the Alex Jones radio show. Steele cites his contacts within the agency with the information that Google and the CIA are involved with one another. Steele said, "I think that Google has made a very important strategic mistake in dealing with the secret elements of the U.S. government - that is a huge mistake and I’m hoping they’ll work their way out of it and basically cut that relationship off.

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