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Rights groups oppose ID number
The Irish Examiner 29 Oct 2002
By Carl O'Brien, Political Correspondent

GOVERNMENT plans to make citizens' personal details available to local authorities have been criticised by civil liberties campaigners. The State is considering giving each citizen a unique number from birth as part of a drive to cut down on red-tape and form-filling when accessing the public service.

The central State database is to be established next year and will eventually be expanded so local authorities can access the information. But Liam Herrick of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties said yesterday there are no safeguards to ensure this information would not be abused. "Access to citizens' personal information should be as limited as possible rather than as wide as possible," he said. "We're not up to speed on data protection legislation, which protects people's privacy, when you compare us to European countries. Neither do we have the safeguards to ensure this information is not misused." But according to the Department of Social Welfare the system is solely aimed at cutting down on red tape in the public service and cannot be misused. A spokesperson said it would shorten the length of time spent dealing with departments and agencies and speed up delivery of services. "From now on this number will be of huge benefit. The purpose of it is that people will be able to use it across all departments," a spokesperson said. Mr Herrick said he was concerned at the lack of scrutiny paid to important pieces of legislation which have the potential to impact adversely on citizens' civil liberties.

"One of our real concerns is these things aren't being debated. There's no input from bodies like ourselves, no consultation from a privacy perspective. We've a constitutional right to privacy, but no legislation to protect it." He said the Government still has not implemented important EU data protection measures, and said the Data Protection Commissioner was powerless when it came to certain records. He said the Irish Council for Civil Liberties was particularly alarmed at developments in the area of criminal and judicial co-operation in Europe, such as steps to draw-up an EU-wide arrest warrant. "The EU arrest warrant could effectively mean that we are abolishing our extradition law. The Dáil is barely reading legislation like this," he said. The Government, however, argues it has stepped up its procedures in the scrutiny of EU directives and laws. In the fallout of the defeat of the Nice Treaty last year a special committee was established aimed at ensuring all Brussels-based legislation is inspected in the Oireachtas before it becomes law

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 6:26 PM

 

Unveiled: the blueprint for United States of Europe
By Stephen Castle in Brussels - The Independent
29 October 2002

The blueprint for a new constitution for Europe, unveiled yesterday, paves the way for sweeping changes to the EU but provoked instant British opposition by suggesting the bloc could be renamed "United States of Europe". Published by Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, the former French president who is chairing an inquiry into the future of Europe, the document raises the prospect of a massive overhaul of the EU to accommodate up to 10 new countries due to join in 2004. It lists three possible titles besides the European Union. They are: European Community, the United States of Europe, and United Europe. The outline document also suggests that all Europeans should be given the right to citizenship of the EU as well as their member states.

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 6:22 PM

 

More Porn For Swedes?
STOCKHOLM, Sweden, Sept. 5, 2002
(AP) Ten days ahead of national elections, a member of the Christian Democratic women's federation shocked her conservative party colleagues by calling for more pornography on television. Teres Kirpikli, a 35-year-old mother of three, said she wanted to help boost the Swedish economy by encouraging people to have more children. "I want erotica and porn on television every Saturday and all day. Then people would feel like having more sex," Teres Kirpikli told the Associated Press on Thursday. "I think most people like porn, even though they don't want to admit it."

. . . Read more!


posted by Hal 5:36 PM

 

Russia Raid Gas Said Opium Relative
The mysterious gas Russian forces pumped into a theater to end a hostage crisis was an opiate — a chemical related to morphine, Pentagon officials said Monday.

. . . Read more!


posted by Hal 2:05 PM

 

On the edge of virtual e-nsanity
(Molouk Y. Ba-lsa, ArabNews, 28 October 2002)
First we had the Internet, then we got spam and now we have e-mail spoofing. What is e-mail spoofing? The most basic description is that it is an appropriation of your e-mail address. . . . E-mail spoofing is the forgery of an e-mail header or "From" section on an e-mail so the message seems to have come from someone or somewhere other than the actual source. . . . The e-mail had the header "salam" and was purportedly from Microsoft Inc. More than half the addresses on the recipients’ list belonged to journalists at Arab News. Initial investigations have shown that the individual who sent the mail had some professional training. The person attached a variant of a known virus hours before the fix was available. Although the criminal was creative, unfortunately the virus chosen came with a .exe extension. Frankly, I wouldn’t open a .exe attachment even if it came from my mother. . . . If you do receive an e-mail that you believe is fraudulent, do not hesitate to pick up the telephone and contact the individual involved. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, ran an article on Sept. 3, by Michael Gillespie, titled, "Israeli computer hackers foiled, exposed." . . . The Washington Report story told how the e-mail addresses of dozens of human rights and anti-war activists had been abused by Israeli hackers during the months of July and August. For example, Israeli hackers targeted Stephen "Sami" Mashney, an Anaheim, California, attorney who has publicized the plight of Palestinians. According to Gillespie: "Mashney, who co-manages a popular pro-Palestinian e-mail list hosted by Yahoo! logged onto his Internet accounts on July 31 to find hundreds of e-mail messages from angry Americans. He quickly realized that hackers had appropriated or "spoofed" his e-mail addresses and identity and sent out a message titled "Down With America" in his name. . . . Some of the attacks originated from a West Bank ISP reached on dial-up from an Israeli telephone number. . . . Interestingly, while Internet spoofing is immoral, it’s not illegal in the Kingdom. Just as there are no local laws to prosecute those who might spam you, there is little you or the authorities could do to someone who stole your e-mail address. Where is that legislation we’ve all been waiting for? If it isn’t approved soon we’ll be pushed right over into virtual e-nsanity.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:32 PM

 

Pupils urged to inform on problem parents
By Helen Hague
(Filed: 14/10/2002)

Pupils as young as 13 are being encouraged to disclose sensitive information about their parents to the Government to help discover why they might be failing at school. Details of problems such as drink and drug abuse, depression, eating disorders and frequent domestic rows would be sought by advisers. The data, gathered without the consent of parents by the Connexions Service, which supplies careers and personal advisers to schools, could be shared with a number of government departments, the police and health authorities. The methods used to collect this data, its storage and future use, is worrying child mental health experts, lawyers and privacy campaigners.

Information is gathered by Connexion staff under orders from the Department for Education and Skills to compile profiles on 13- to 19-year-olds and identify problems over academic performance. Documents seen by The Daily Telegraph say issues to explore include "evidence of suicidal thoughts", "issues around food/weight", "evidence of substance use by parent(s)/carers" and "evidence of living in a criminal environment". Some of the 3,000 advisers in schools, colleges and one-stop advice shops have a background in youth work. Others are trained to NVQ level four, equivalent to the first year at university. To gain a diploma, they attend the equivalent of 17 days' training. Helen Rimington, a member of the Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Act Tribunal, said: "There are areas here where trained doctors, psychiatrists, educational psychologists and counsellors would tread very carefully."

Terri Dowty, from Action for the Rights of Children, said: "The equivalent of about three weeks' training can't possibly equip anyone to provide the level of containment necessary in such situations. It has frightening overtones of totalitarian regimes." A DES spokesman said all 13- to 19-year olds had access to an adviser. Parental profiles could help advisers to identify the need for intervention from other agencies.

. . . Read more!


posted by A Curmudgeon 5:52 AM

 

Study Finds Anti-Western Bias Among Arabs Just a Myth
Breaking long-held stereotypes about the Arab world and its supposed anti-Western sentiment, France, Canada, and Germany receive among the highest approval ratings, demonstrating that low approval ratings for the United States and the United Kingdom do not stem from those countries’ western values, but more likely from their foreign policies. “What Arabs Think: Values, Beliefs and Concerns” a study of Arab values and political concerns. This new study defines commonalities & differences between Arabs and Americans study finds anti-Western bias among Arabs just a myth.

. . . Read more!


posted by Hal 7:11 PM

 

How the League of Nations ended up as debris
(Robert Fisk, The Independent, 05 October 2002)
So George Bush Jnr is now an expert on the League of Nations, is he? Across America, he's been telling the folks that the United Nations is in danger of becoming no more than the old pre-Second World War organisation. . . . He might find that the League failed the world because of the same cynicism and disregard for morality by the major powers that the United States shows today. . . . The Americans wanted no part of the League. The future superpower, whose influence for peace would have been so beneficial to the world – and whose growing economic and military might could have made Hitler revise his plans – turned its back on the League. . . . Now Bush Jnr implies that the UN will also be debris if it doesn't come to heel and follow America's demand to invade Iraq. He wants to use it for his project of "regime change" – which will change the map of the Middle East, produce a tide of oil wealth for US companies and reduce Israel's enemies to impotence. We are supposed to believe that this is about weapons of mass destruction – and forget that the US sold botulinum toxin, anthrax and vials of West Nile virus to Iraq between 1985 and 1989. For most of that time, Iraq was fighting Iran – a war which the UN had tried to end. . . . For it was the cynicism and arrogance of the major powers that destroyed it – just as America can destroy the UN today.

. . . Read more!


posted by LoZo 5:13 PM

 

TERRORISM AND WAR by Howard Zinn
New book available from Loompanics
Zinn certainly doesn't always get it right, but one point he has nailed is the United States' flawed foreign policy:

Prior to the 1990s, terrorists such as bin Laden and al Qaeda were not necessarily enemies of the US. We were essentially on the same side. In those days, America stood for democracy and liberty, just as it does today. The US and the American way of life, our values, our ideals on freedom -- these things haven't changed. What has changed is our foreign policy. In the 90s, we moved troops to Saudia Arabia and went to war with Iraq. After that, we made enemies with the terrorists. It's a lie to say that the terrorists are attacking us because of our way of life, democratic principles, American values, liberty, or freedom. It's a big fat lie.

"I think there is a simple test of what concerns bin Laden, whether it is our democracy and internal freedom or whether it's our foreign policy. And that simple test is: What side was Osama bin Laden on before 1990? That is, before the United States stationed troops in Saudi Arabia, made war against Iraq, and began its sanctions against Iraq. We were just as democratic and libertarian internally before 1990 as we are today. But Osama bin Laden was not offended by that. He was on our side -- and we were on his side -- in the fight to take control of the government in Afghanistan. The turning point for Osama bin Laden is very clear. It has nothing to do with democracy and liberty. It has to do with U.S. foreign policy. And that turning point came in 1990 and 1991."

"...stop being an intervening military power and to stop dominating the economies of other countries."

. . . Read more!


posted by Hal 7:26 AM