Newswires: Surveillance / CCTV

Wikipedia doesn’t have all the answers

Mary Wakefield writes in the Independent: The Human Genetics Commission has reported that police are routinely arresting people to collect DNA for their exciting new database – as if somehow the more hi-tech information they gather the less crime there’ll be. I suspect the opposite may be true. This week I had my first experience of [...] more >>

Virtual Borders. Talk and Discussion at Library House, 2nd Dec, 7pm

Talk and discussion by London NoBorders@Library House, 52 Knatchbull road (entrance on Burton rd, behind Minet library) SE5 9QY. , 2 December 2009, 7pm While the migration regime is fortifying itself and setting up rings of defence around European wealth, inner control is tightening to keep public order, at a time where the nation state already seems to be a dead corpse. This talk and discussion will explore how the idea of "controlling a nation state's" outer borders and inner control are connected. It will also introduce into the idea of the planned demonstrations on Saturday 23rd January 2010. There will be two demonstrations on that day in London: One will be at St. Pancras, where the UK (e-)border agency put up their controls in the middle of London. The second one will be at Piccadilly Circus where, while commuters, tourists and clubbers stare at the never-ending stream of commercials at ground level, they themselves are under constant observation by security and police in their cosy CCTV headquarters below ground. Live is to short to be controlled! more >>

Innocent Until Sampled

According to the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion column: Matthew Zarb-Cousin, a Labour candidate for Thorpe Bay in Southend, wrote recently on Labourlist.org that “a database, where swabs of DNA are taken at birth—and of people coming into the country—is not only fair but also vital…. the only logical objection I could possibly have to it is [...] more >>

Modern Post Office - Fingerprinting Minorities

A trial of this surveillance technology is taking place in 17 Post Offices, if successful then it will form part of the model for attempting to enrol all citizens onto the Identity Register. more >>

HMIC report - FITwatch press release

FITwatch welcomes Her Majesty’s Inspector of Constabulary's criticisms of public order policing but warns much more must be done.FITwatch is pleased HM Chief Inspector Denis O’Connor has taken on board many of our concerns in his damning report ‘Adapting to Protest: Strengthening the British model of policing’. The moves by HMIC to ensure that policing is lawful, consistent and accountable are to be welcomed. However, the recommendations may be insufficient to change a culture of policing that has become overly reliant on surveillance and intelligence.FITwatch activist Val Swain said: ‘HMIC’s report is a strong criticism of current policing and rightly so. However HMIC’s recommendations simply to clarify the legal framework for the use of overt photography by FITs and other police units will not be enough to bring about the culture change that is needed. If Mr O’Connor wants a return to ‘traditional’ British policing, there has to be a move away from the current intelligence-led approach." FITwatch also welcomes HMIC’s recommendation to review the status of the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) to ensure transparency and accountability. Presently ACPO is wholly unaccountable, setting the legislative agenda and implementing intelligence-lead policing through three ‘domestic extremism’ units (1) run by Anton Setchell. The domestic extremism units hold personal data on thousands of people involved in political protest. There are also fears that this 'intelligence' is disseminated to private companies through the National Extremism Tactical Co-ordination Unit (NETCU) which works closely to support businesses that are the focus of protesters concerns. These secretive, shadowy units operate outside of the structure of the British police and are a law unto themselves. FITwatch hope during the course of the review ACPO come clean about the extent of these units operations and the data that they hold. Val Swain said: ‘While we welcome this first step, we need to go much further than HMIC’s recommendations. What we need is an actual change in the culture of public order policing. The way that the police behave in relation to protest, public order situations, and indeed the public generally, must differ from what has gone before. The relentless photographing and filming of protesters, the tracking of their cars, the abuse of police powers to gather their personal details must stop. FITwatch will carry on campaigning until it does.’Notes (1) The domestic terrorism units under ACPO control are: NETCU (national extremism tactical co-ordination unit); NPOIU (national public order intelligence unit) and NDET (national domestic extremism team)Fitwatch:Over two years we have highlighted excessive surveillance tactics, including overt photography, used by the Forward Intelligence Teams (FITs) to prevent legitimate political protest.FITwatch has also obtained evidence of an image database of protesters, operated by the Public Order Intelligence Unit (CO11) based at New Scotland Yard. They had initially denied that they ran their own protester database, but taking the stand at a recent trial of FITwatch activists, Superintendent Hartshorn, a senior officer at CO11, admitted that CO11 held a database containing the name and photographic image of people they had noted attending political protests. more >>

Britain: Arrests Are Being Made to Expand DNA Database

Via: Times Online: Police are routinely arresting people simply to record their DNA profiles on the national database, according to a report published today. It also states that three quarters of young black men are on the database. The finding risks stigmatising a whole section of society, the equality watchdog has warned. The revelations will fuel the debate [...] more >>

Don’t take away the modern copper’s toolkit

Sean O’Neill writes in The Times: The same voices that sow alarm over DNA also complain loudly about the spread of the “surveillance society”. They fret about the rising number of CCTV cameras, quoting the guesstimate of 4.2 million cameras as fact. And they stoke up fear over proposals to create a central log of mobile phone [...] more >>

British police 'abusing their powers'

DISPLAYS of force by police in riot gear threaten to undermine the very basis of the 'British model of policing by consent', a major report warned on November 25.The policing of events like the G20 protests in London in April and the demonstrations at Kingsnorth power station in Kent have exposed poor leadership, widely varying tactics and a widespread misunderstanding of the rights of protesters, it said.Denis O'Connor, HM Chief Inspector of Constabulary, said: "British police risk losing the battle for the public's consent if they win public order through tactics that appear to be unfair, aggressive or inconsistent," he said.The Times reported that his findings showed some police forces trained officers in using riot shields to attack people, police abused their powers of stop and search and photographing of demonstrators and they often did not understand the law on the right to protest and the extent of police powers;In the place of political leadership, the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) had developed more and more policy making and operational roles without having to answer to the public in any forum, said Mr O'Connor.The report said Acpo's roles in gathering intelligence on "domestic extremism" was not compatible with its current status as a private limited company."If Acpo is to be responsible for providing operational support and policy for the police service, it must have transparent governance and accountability structures." more >>

Daily News: Bail delayed for sixth time

http://www.dailynews.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5252356 Bail delayed for sixth time Prayer meeting in support of detained Kennedy Road 13 November 19, 2009 Edition 2 SLINDILE MALULEKA THERE is still no decision on whether bail will be granted to the 13 people accused of the murder of two people living in the Kennedy Road informal settlement. Yesterday magistrate B Mbulawa of the Durban Regional Court adjourned the matter to next week for an identity parade to be held, and to give judgment. read more more >>

UK national identity register is ‘up and running’

The BBC reports: The national identity register – the controversial database at the heart of the ID card scheme – is “up and running”, a new watchdog has told MPs. Sir Joseph Pilling said 538 people were on the database when he checked last week; all except one were UK nationals. Sir Joseph, the government’s independent identity commissioner, [...] more >>

Nothing to hide, nothing to fear

Now that it is public that the filth are routinely arresting innocent people in order to add their DNA sample to the national police database, an inquiry will allege. The review of the national DNA database by the government's human genetics commission also raises the possibility that the DNA profiles of three-quarters of young black males, aged 18 to 35, are now on the database, being seen as "an 'alien wedge' of criminality". The human genetics commission report, Nothing to hide, nothing to fear?, says the national DNA database for England and Wales is already the largest in the world, at 5 million profiles and growing, yet has no clear statutory basis or independent oversight. The crime and security bill published last week by the home secretary, Alan Johnson, proposes to keep DNA profiles of people arrested but not convicted of any offence on the database for six years. This follows a landmark European court judgment last December, ruling illegal the current blanket policy of indefinite retention of DNA profiles whether or not the person has been convicted of an offence. It adds that parliament never formally debated the establishment of the DNA database. Its evolution involved a "function creep" from being used to confirm police suspicions to identifying suspects. This resulted in the addition of more and more profiles without being clearly matched by an improvement in convictions. The chairman of the commission, Prof Jonathan Montgomery, said the commission had received evidence from a former pig that it was now the norm to arrest innocent people for everything so that the DNA can be obtained The latest Home Office estimate for the number of innocent people on the DNA database is 980,000 according to the crime and security bill regulatory impact assessment published last Friday. This is a sharp rise compared with the 850,000 estimate of the DNA profiles of those who have been arrested but not charged or convicted published at the time of the European court of human rights ruling last year. more >>

Letter by the imprisoned comrade P. Masouras

Letter by the imprisoned comrade P. Masouras(accused for participation in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.)http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1107547On Wednesday September 23 and at 8.15 as I was leaving my house in Galatsi on my way to the gym, I was arrested by 25 persons of the anti-terrorist squad. In a matter of seconds I found myself on the sidewalk, hands cuffed behind my back, while at the same time they were informing their senior officers that “everything went well” and that they “have me”. I was taken to the 12th floor of Police Headquarters (note: anti-terrorist division). The next day I am informed that at the same time with me another two friends of mine have also been arrested. In the meantime the show has already started. Without any sleep for 48 hours and physically exhausted, with my face to the wall and then a long questionnaire following, while at the same time some police officer goes from office to office announcing in a delirium of pleasure that what is happening is called war. After that comes the interest for my career, the friendly chat, the bravado and the humane approach to the misguided youth that followed the wrong path in his life while they self appointed themselves to straighten me out and to make me see reason, not for them as they said but for my own good, to help myself, speaking to them about situations and persons that I know nothing about. Later I was informed from an officer that I was the stupid asshole of the 12th floor because the others as he said had “snitched on me” and “cleared themselves” and that if I didn’t speak I would go down for things other people have done, so I was yet again called upon to answer about situations unknown to me. The guard shifts started: “good” cops with a sensitive touch and childhood traumas, as they said, that recognized injustice and wanted to help. On the other hand the “tough” commandos wearing full-face masks, “stern” appliers of the law and representatives of morality, acting in an absolute way leading to physical and mental exhaustion, as a means of revenge as they said because “I kept my mouth shut”. That I refuse the charges against me does not mean that I would ever refuse my political “identity” and “origin”. I would never hide my dignity under the carpet of incarceration, overlooking the fact that I am a political entity which also takes its position against the values and institutions of this society by the means of critical revolutionary thought and practice. I am an anarchist and I am on the side of revolution and at the same time of myself. The reason why at the present my two friends and I find ourselves in prison is crystal clear. Even the most naïve mind can perceive that fixed situations due to the elections play a role in the present condition, situations moving in the service of political and communication interests.The hyperbole surrounding the situation, the armed to the teeth EKAM escorts (note: Special Forces Police) and the role of those despicable snitches the journalists in combination with the political condition of these days was enough to create a feeling of order and safety to the average Greek in face of the elections, so he can move sleepwalking in the role of the active citizen towards the voting poll in order to deposit yet again in someone else’s hands his share of responsibilities for his being. It is well known nowadays that public opinion has no opinion, so someone has to take on the role of shaping it. The tone of these days was mostly set by the lowlifes of the media and their all-devouring thirst for “maniacs in Galatsi” and “monsters in Chalandri”, for serial bombers who have ties with “renown” revolutionary organizations from which they take orders to accomplish missions. About guns and bullets found at my house until money that was suddenly a product of robberies because it was well hidden-next time I’ ll leave it outside the front door. Society is not divided into classes but only into choices and consciousnesses. So let as learn from pain and pleasure, from blood and the street. We were born to exist as a whole in our inapprehensible uniqueness, inapprehensible because we can stand the pain, unpredictable because we were taught on the streets, ruthless because we will move against everyone, because we will learn to meticulously tie steel on our skin and paint the cement with revolutionary blood. We execute morality as a prologue for destruction, we whisper with rage biting the words: WAR ATTACK because there is only beauty and strength, but some cowards in order to balance came up with justice. Wherever there are barbed wires, let there be bloodied hands that rip them apart, wherever there is cement let there be cries full of rage that tears it down, wherever there are bars let there be souls like corrosives that destroy them, wherever we are buried alive let us bury with us morality.We owe it to ourselves to bite on our shackles even if it is that we die biting. Because we are nothing more then our own choices. For honour, dignity, revolution. FREEDOM FOR THE COMRADES: V. PALLIS- Y. DIMITRAKIS- Y. VOUTSIS-VOGIATZIS- P. GEORGIADIS- I. NIKOLAOUIMMEDIATE RELEASE OF MY FELLOW ACCUSED H. HATZIMICHELAKIS- M. YIOSPAS Panayiotis Masouras Avlona Prisons21/10/2009  more >>

Iraq Inquiry: The First Big Lie

Sir John Chilcot was just ten minutes in to the first public session of the Iraq Inquiry when he told the first big lie - and a lie which, when examined, exposes the entire charade. "My colleagues and I come to this inquiry with an open mind." That is demonstrably untrue. Three of the five members - Rod Lyne, Martin Gilbert and Lawrence Freedman - are prominent proponents of the Iraq war. By contrast, nobody on the committee was in public against the invasion of Iraq. How can it be fine to pack the committee with supporters of the invasion, when anyone against the invasion was excluded? Let us look at that committee: Sir John Chilcot Member of the Butler Inquiry which whitewashed the fabrication of evidence of Iraqi WMD. The fact is that, beyond doubt, the FCO and SIS knew there were no Iraqi WMD. In the early 1990's I had headed the FCO Section of the Embargo Surveillance Centre, tasked with monitoring and preventing Iraqi attempts at weapons procurement. In 2002 I was on a course for newly appointed Ambassadors alongside Bill Patey, who was Head of the FCO Department dealing with Iraq. Bill is a fellow Dundee University graduate and is one of the witnesses before the Iraq Inquiry this morning. I suggested to him that the stories we were spreading about Iraqi WMD could not be true. He laughed and said "Of course not Craig, it's bollocks". I had too many other conversations to mention over the next few months, with FCO colleagues who knew the WMD scare to be false. Yet Chilcot was party to a Butler Inquiry conclusion that the Iraqi WMD scare was an "Honest mistake". That a man involved on a notorious whitewash is assuring us that this will not be one, is bullshit. Bill Patey (or "Sir William", as they call him) is a witness before the committee this morning. Doubtless between Sir John and he, they will manage to steer round the fact he knew there were no WMD. Funny thing is that, just as with Sir Michael Wood and his view on the legality of torture intelligence, Bill Patey is also an extremely nice man. When you unleash the evil of aggressive war, the corruption of your own body politic is one of the consequences. Sir Roderick Lyne Last time I actually spoke to him we were both Ambassadors and on a British frigate moored on the Neva in St Petersburg. Colleagues may have many words to describe Rod Lyne, some of them complimentary, but "open-minded" is not one of them. If the Committee were to feel that the Iraq War was a war crime, then Rod Lyne would be accusing himself. As Ambassador to Moscow he was active in trying to mitigate Russian opposition to the War. He personally outlined to the Russian foreign minister the lies on Iraqi WMD. There was never the slightest private indication that Lyne had any misgivings about the war. From Uzbekistan we always copied Moscow in on our reporting telegrams, for obvious reasons. Lyne responded to my telegrams protesting at the CIA's use of intelligence from the Uzbek torture chambers, by requesting not to be sent such telegrams. Somewhat off topic but amusingly, he also responded to my telegram warning about Alisher Usmanov and his growing influence in the UK, saying that Moscow had never heard of the man - one of Putin's closes oligarchs. An open mind? Really? Sir Lawrence Freedman Lawrence Freedman is the most appalling choice of all. The patron saint of "Justified" wars of aggression, and exponent of "Wars of Choice" and "Humanitarian Intervention". He is 100% parti pris. Here is part of his evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee on the Constitution on 18 January 2006: The basic idea here is that our armed forces prepared for what we might call wars of necessity, that the country was under an existential threat so if you did not respond to that threat then in some very basic way our vital interests, our way of life, would be threatened, and when you are looking at certain such situations, these are great national occasions. The difficulty we are now facing with wars of choice is that these are discretionary and the government is weighing a number of factors against each other. I mentioned Sierra Leone but Rwanda passed us by, which many people would think was an occasion when it would have been worth getting involved. There was Sudan and a lot of things have been said about Darfur but not much has happened... ...Iraq was a very unusual situation where it was not an ongoing conflict. If we had waited things would not have been that much different in two or three months' time and so, instead of responding either to aggression by somebody else, as with the Falklands, or to developing humanitarian distress, as in the Balkans, we decided that security considerations for the future demanded immediate action." An open mind? Really? Martin Gilbert Very right wing historian whose biography of Churchill focussed on Gilbert's relish for war and was otherwise dull. (Roy Jenkins' Churchill biography is infinitely better). Gilbert is not only rabidly pro-Iraq War, he actually sees Blair as Churchill. Although it can easily be argued that George W Bush and Tony Blair face a far lesser challenge than Roosevelt and Churchill did - that the war on terror is not a third world war - they may well, with the passage of time and the opening of the archives, join the ranks of Roosevelt and Churchill. Their societies are too divided today to deliver a calm judgment, and many of their achievements may be in the future: when Iraq has a stable democracy, with al-Qaeda neutralised, and when Israel and the Palestinian Authority are independent democracies, living side by side in constructive economic cooperation. http://observer.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1379819,00.html An open mind? Really? Baroness Prashar Less known, and my cynical side says she ticked the female and ethnic minority boxes. But a governor of the FCO institution the Ditchley Foundation - of which the Director is Sir Jeremy Greenstock, the UK Ambassador to the UN who presented the lies about Iraqi WMD and was intimately involved in the lead in to war. So very much another cosy foreign policy insider. So, in short, the committee - all appointed by Gordon Brown - have been very obviously picked to provide a complete whitewash. They are people whose attitudes and mindset lead them to accept the war as justified without the need for conscious connivance on their part. But if conscious connivance should be required, they are just the boys for it.  more >>

Police arrest innocent people to get their details on the DNA database

The Human Genetics Commission has accused police of arresting people purely to get their details on the police DNA database.Speaking on radio 4’s Today programme this morning, Prof Jonathon Montgomery from the Human Genetics Commission said that they had received evidence that police were deliberately making arrests in order to obtain DNA samples. He said that the evidence had originated “from a convincing source – a retired senior police officer.”The former head of ACPO, Chris Fox, also speaking on the programme, admitted he was ‘uncomfortable’ with the retention of DNA, but defended the police’s rights to collect data on the population. “The police have always held data on innocent people”, said Chris Fox. “It is the first chain of the intelligence route…the point about intelligence is that it’s weeded – thrown away when it is found to be no good. The DNA database isn’t.”Those of us with less faith in the ‘weeding’ ability of the National Public Order Intelligence Unit may find this distinction a little weak. more >>

Keeping a Low Profile

The Times leader writer comments on the Human Genetics Commission report on the National DNA database: There should be a clear and independent appeals procedure for unconvicted people who want their DNA removed. All police officers, those most likely to come into contact with suspects, should have their DNA collected as a condition of employment. And, [...] more >>

Google Books Settlement 2.0: Evaluating Privacy

This is the fourth in a series of posts about the proposed Google Book Search settlement. We have now examined the chief promised benefit (increased public access) of the proposed Google Books settlement, as well as one of the chief potential drawbacks (impaired competition). Another down-side to the proposed settlement is its lack of adequate protections for reader privacy. And although EFF has repeatedly written about the privacy problem and outlined specific steps that could be taken to address it, as have the ACLU, CDT, EPIC, library associations, and academic authors, the revised Settlement 2.0 still does nothing new to address the serious privacy concerns raised by the Google Book Search services. [Note: EFF represents a groups of authors and publishers who have filed an objection to the proposed settlement on privacy grounds, arguing that the lack of reader privacy protections is also a threat to the interests of authors and publishers, particularly of books on controversial or sensitive topics. This post, however, will focus on the interests of readers, rather than authors and publishers.] The Reader Privacy Problem The products and services envisioned by the proposed settlement will give Google not only an unprecedented abililty to track our reading habits, but to do so at an unprecedented level of granularity. Because the books will be accessed on Google's servers, Google will not only know what books readers search for and access, but will also know which pages they read, how long they stayed on each page, what book they read before, and which books they access next. This is a level of reader surveillance that no library or bookstore has ever had. Readers who feel surveilled will be chilled in their freedom of inquiry. As Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas observed in 1953, “Once the government can demand of a publisher the names of the purchasers of his publications . . . [f]ear of criticism goes with every person into the bookstall . . . [and] inquiry will be discouraged.” Or as Author Michael Chabon put it: "If there is no privacy of thought — which includes implicitly the right to read what one wants, without the approval, consent or knowledge of others — then there is no privacy, period." And it's not just Google that might want records about your reading habits. A core concern EFF has with the proposed settlement is that under it Google need not insist on a warrant before turning over this sensitive reader information to governmental authorities or private third parties. This is hardly a hypothetical risk: between 2001 and 2005, libraries were contacted by law enforcement seeking information on patrons at least 200 times. And in 2006 alone, AOL received almost 1,000 requests each month for information in civil and criminal cases. This lack of protections for reader privacy stands in sharp contrast to the privacy protections that librarians and bookstores have been fighting for in connection with physical books for decades. Nearly every state has laws protecting the privacy of library patrons. Yet when Google scans books it got from libraries, privacy protections could be left behind at the digital threshold if Google doesn't stand up for them. Google's Privacy Policy for Book Search Google has announced a privacy policy for Google Books. While it addresses some of the privacy concerns EFF and others had raised, it does not go nearly far enough. As we've previously explained, the privacy policy can be changed at any time, is not an enforceable obligation tied to the proposed settlement agreement, and:

• as noted above, fails to commit to a "come back with a warrant" standard before disclosing reader information to the government;
• fails to require Google to delete logging information about users within 30 days, or any other reasonably short period of time;
• allows (albeit upon opt-in consent) Google to aggregate the information it learns about readers with other information it knows about readers from other sources, including its other services and its DoubleClick product that places cookie-traced advertising on millions of non-Google websites across the Internet;
• fails to ensure that readers will always be able to use anonymity services like the Tor network, proxy servers and anonymous VPN providers to access Google Books;
• does not offer registered users who purchase texts any equivalent of a "hiding books under their bed" to protect against parents, family members or other local users who might scrutinize their reading (we have suggested several ways that Google might implement a feature like this, and hope that Google will eventually do so);
• does not allow purchasers to cover their reading tracks by anonymously transferring or giving purchases to accounts that do not have Google Checkout or other identifying features (we've also discussed technical methods for this with Google and believe they are seriously considering it);
• fails to provide a robust, easy-to-read notice of and link to the Google Books privacy provisions on the Google Books pages themselves, rather than tucked away in a privacy policy;
• fails to promise to annually publish online, in a conspicuous and easily accessible area of its website, the type and number of requests it receives for information about Google Book Search users from government entities or third parties; and
• fails to require Google to store information about readers, who must be in the U.S. under the terms of the settlement, in the U.S. so that they will be protected by U.S. privacy laws.

Data matching: a threat to privacy?

James Welch, Legal Director of Liberty, writes on the Guardian Comment is Free web site about data sharing across government departments: The concerns about data matching and mining are most acute when the government holds a lot of sensitive information on a single database. This was one of Liberty’s many concerns when the government announced last [...] more >>

Letter by the imprisoned comrade P. Masouras

Letter by the imprisoned comrade P. Masouras(accused for participation in the Conspiracy of Cells of Fire.) On Wednesday September 23 and at 8.15 as I was leaving my housein Galatsi on my way to the gym, I was arrested by 25 persons of theanti-terrorist squad.In a matter of seconds I found myself on the sidewalk, hands cuffedbehind my back, while at the same time they were informing theirsenior officers that “everything went well” and that they “have me”.I was taken to the 12th floor of Police Headquarters (note: anti-terroristdivision). The next day I am informed that at the sametime with me another two friends of mine have also been arrested.In the meantime the show has already started. Without any sleepfor 48 hours and physically exhausted, with my face to the walland then a long questionnaire following, while at the same timesome police officer goes from office to office announcing in adelirium of pleasure that what is happening is called war.After that comes the interest for my career, the friendly chat,the bravado and the humane approach to the misguided youththat followed the wrong path in his life while they self appointedthemselves to straighten me out and to make me see reason,not for them as they said but for my own good, to help myself,speaking to them about situations and persons that I knownothing about.Later I was informed from an officer that I wasthe stupid asshole of the 12 floor because the others as he said had “snitched on me” and “cleared themselves” and that ifI didnʼt speak I would go down for things other people have done,so I was yet again called upon to answer about situations unknown to me.The guard shifts started: “good” cops with a sensitive touch andchildhood traumas, as they said, that recognized injustice and wanted to help. On the other hand the “tough” commandos wearingfull-face masks, “stern” appliers of the law and representatives ofmorality, acting in an absolute way leading to physical and mental exhaustion, as a means of revenge as they said because “I kept mymouth shut”.That I refuse the charges against me does not mean that I would ever refuse my political “identity” and “origin”. I would never hidemy dignity under the carpet of incarceration, overlooking the factthat I am a political entity which also takes its position against thevalues and institutions of this society by the means of critical revolutionary thought and practice. I am an anarchist and I am on the side of revolution and at the same time of myself.The reason why at the present my two friends and I find ourselvesin prison is crystal clear. Even the most naïve mind can perceivethat fixed situations due to the elections play a role in the presentcondition, situations moving in the service of political andcommunication interests.The hyperbole surrounding the situation, the armed to the teethEKAM escorts (note: Special Forces Police) and the role of thosedespicable snitches the journalists in combination with the political condition of these days was enough to create a feeling of order and safety to the average Greek in face of the elections, so he can move sleepwalking in the role of the active citizen towards the voting poll in order to deposit yet again in someone elseʼs hands his share of responsibilities for his being. It is well known nowadays that public opinion has no opinion, so someone has to take on the role of shaping it.The tone of these days was mostly set by the lowlifes of the media andtheir all-devouring thirst for “maniacs in Galatsi” and “monsters inChalandri”, for serial bombers who have ties with “renown” revolutionaryorganizations from which they take orders to accomplish missions. About guns and bullets found at my house until money that was suddenlya product of robberies because it was well hidden-next time Iʼ ll leave itoutside the front door.Society is not divided into classes but only into choices and consciousnesses.So let as learn from pain and pleasure, from blood and the street. We wereborn to exist as a whole in our inapprehensible uniqueness, inapprehensiblebecause we can stand the pain, unpredictable because we were taught on the streets, ruthless because we will move against everyone, because wewill learn to meticulously tie steel on our skin and paint the cement with revolutionary blood.We execute morality as a prologue for destruction, we whisper with ragebiting the words: WAR ATTACK because there is only beauty and strength,but some cowards in order to balance came up with justice.Wherever there are barbed wires, let there be bloodied hands that rip themapart, wherever there is cement let there be cries full of rage that tears itdown, wherever there are bars let there be souls like corrosives that destroythem, wherever we are buried alive let us bury with us morality.We owe it to ourselves to bite on our shackles even if it is that we die biting.Because we are nothing more then our own choices.For honour, dignity, revolution.FREEDOM FOR THE COMRADES: V. PALLIS- Y. DIMITRAKIS- Y. VOUTSIS-VOGIATZIS- P. GEORGIADIS- I. NIKOLAOUIMMEDIATE RELEASE OF MY FELLOW ACCUSED H. HATZIMICHELAKIS- M. YIOSPASPanayiotis MasourasAvlona Prisons21/10/2009 http://athens.indymedia.org/front.php3?lang=el&article_id=1107547 more >>

denial in Delhi

Rather than do anything to improve the lives of squatters and street hawkers, the Mayor of the Indian capital wants to force them to get "bio-metric, bio-cryptic photo identity cards" and proposes to charge them 400 rupees--or almost $9 each--for the privilege. more >>

VeriChip Buys Steel Vault, Creating Micro-Implant Health Record/Credit Score Empire

Via: Bnet: VeriChip (CHIP), the company that markets a microchip implant that links to your online health records, has acquired Steel Vault (SVUL), a credit monitoring and anti-identity theft company. The combined company will operate under a new name: PositiveID. The all-stock transaction will leave PositiveID in charge of a burgeoning empire of identity, health and microchip [...] more >>

09/25/08 PRESS RELEASE: Rise in Federal Policing, Surveillance and Immigration Enforcement Signals Growth and Adaptation of U.S. Criminal Justice System

US: The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America

The Bush administration’s wiretapping program has come under new scrutiny. Two influential congressional committees have opened probes into allegations US intelligence spied on the phone calls of U.S. military personnel, journalists and aid workers in Iraq. James Bamford discusses the NSA’s domestic sprying, the agency’s failings pre-9/11 and the ties between NSA and the nation’s telecommunications companies. more >>

US: Translator Who Faked Identity Pleads Guilty To Having Secret Data

An Arabic translator who used an assumed identity to get work as a contractor for the U.S. Army in Iraq pleaded guilty yesterday to federal charges of possessing classified national defense documents, including sensitive material about the insurgency that he took from an 82nd Airborne Division intelligence group in 2004. more >>