Surveillance, Civil Liberties & Human Rights News
By LARA JAKES JORDAN | Nearly 40 years ago, the FBI was roundly criticized for investigating Americans without evidence they had broken any laws. Now, critics fear the FBI may be gearing up to do it again.
Tentative Justice Department guidelines, to be released later this summer, would let agents investigate people whose backgrounds — and potentially their race or ethnicity — match the traits of terrorists.
Such profiling faintly ...
UN official says Gitmo trials unfair
Thursday, July 3rd, 2008
AP | U.S. prosecution of terror suspects at its Guantanamo Bay detention facility fall short of international standards for fair trials, a U.N. rights official said Monday.
U.N. envoy Philip Alston said the tribunals are flawed because of detainees' limited access to defense attorneys at the remote U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba, as well as rules that allow hearsay and coerced evidence to be presented in court.
"It would violate international ...
Top airline bosses launch assault on airport ID card plan
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
By John Lettice | The bosses of the UK's major airlines have attacked plans to force airport workers to enrol in the national ID card scheme, claiming that "the UK aviation industry is being used for political purposes on a project which has questionable public support."* If anything the move, they say, could reduce security by adding a "false sense of security to our ...
UK government fined for violation of right to privacy
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
THE EUROPEAN Court of Human Rights has ordered the British government to pay €7,500 in costs and expenses to the UK human rights organisation Liberty for violating its right to privacy by intercepting its telecommunications.
Liberty took the case along with the Irish Council for Civil Liberties (ICCL) and British-Irish Rights Watch over the interception of telephone, fax, e-mail and data between these organisations over a seven-year period, from 1991 to ...
Groups Sue U.S. for Data On Tracking By Cellphone
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
By Ellen Nakashima | Two civil liberties groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government yesterday, seeking records related to the government's use of cellphones as tracking devices.
The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation sued the government in federal court in Washington under the Freedom of Information Act. Last November, the ACLU ...
From triumph to torture: John Pilger on Mohammed Omer’s treatment by Israel
Wednesday, July 2nd, 2008
By John Pilger | Two weeks ago, I presented a young Palestinian, Mohammed Omer, with the 2008 Martha Gellhorn Prize for Journalism. Awarded in memory of the great US war correspondent, the prize goes to journalists who expose establishment propaganda, or "official drivel", as Gellhorn called it. Mohammed shares the prize of £5,000 with Dahr Jamail. At 24, he is the youngest winner. His citation reads: ...
Nine held in ID card demo
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
NINE protesters were arrested in Edinburgh yesterday following a demonstration at government plans to introduce ID cards.
The arrests, all in connection with breach of the peace offences, were made at the Barcelo Carlton Hotel.
The North Bridge hotel was the venue for a discussion on the scheme between Meg Hillier, the Home Office minister for identity, and business and local-authority representatives.
All those arrested were members of NO2ID, an anti-ID ...
Brussels To Sign Away Your Private Details To US
Tuesday, July 1st, 2008
The Times | American authorities will be able to obtain greater access to private information such as credit card transactions, internet browsing habits and travel histories of people in Britain under a deal being finalised by European Union officials.
An internal report leaked to The New York Times yesterday said the EU was on the verge of agreeing to give US law enforcement and security agencies information about all EU ...
CCTV doesn’t keep us safe, yet the cameras are everywhere
Friday, June 27th, 2008
By Bruce Schneier | Pervasive security cameras don't substantially reduce crime. There are exceptions, of course, and that's what gets the press. Most famously, CCTV cameras helped catch James Bulger's murderers in 1993. And earlier this year, they helped convict Steve Wright of murdering five women in the Ipswich area. But these are the well-publicised exceptions. Overall, CCTV cameras aren't very effective.
This fact has been demonstrated again ...
Police chiefs against universal DNA database
Friday, June 27th, 2008
The majority of police chiefs are against a universal DNA database for the people of Britain.
At a meeting during the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) annual conference, 61 per cent of police chiefs voted against the idea of putting all UK residents on the national database.
Only 38 per cent of those present at the vote supported a universal database with one per cent unsure.
The national DNA database is a ...
NY judge: NSA can refuse to discuss wiretapping
Friday, June 27th, 2008
WASHINGTON (AP) | The National Security Agency does not need to tell lawyers for Guantanamo Bay detainees whether their phones were tapped as part of the Bush administration's domestic surveillance program, a federal judge in New York ruled Wednesday.
The NSA has refused to say whether it listened in on the conversations of the lawyers who are advising detainees being held at the U.S. naval facility ...
Five Myths About the New Wiretapping Law
Friday, June 27th, 2008
By Patrick Radden Keefe | Sometime today, the Senate is likely to approve the most comprehensive overhaul of American surveillance law since the Watergate era. Unless you're a government lawyer, a legal scholar, a masochist, or an insomniac, chances are you haven't read the 114-page bill. Don't beat yourself up: Neither have most of the 293 House members who voted for it last week. ...
Government rejects calls for greater debate on data sharing
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
By Tom Young | The government has rejected a call from the Joint Human Rights Committee that any legislation that permits greater data sharing between Whitehall departments should be open to debate in parliament.
The committee's contention is that any such moves should be considered as primary legislation, which is subject to scrutiny by parliament and open to amendments. Secondary legislation simply amends existing acts and does not ...
Richard Dowden: If the people want power, they must fight for it
Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
While it was always a possibility that the Zimbabwean opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, would pull out of Friday's second round of the presidential election, when I met him in Harare three weeks ago it seemed unlikely. Then he was in a defiant mood, calling on Robert Mugabe to retire to ensure a peaceful transition and the establishment of a broad-based government. Having won a majority in the first round of ...
Congress wrestles over spying bill
Monday, June 23rd, 2008
By Gail Russell Chaddock | Washington - Congress is on the verge of ending a year-long struggle with the White House over a contentious intelligence surveillance bill.
In one of the toughest votes of the 110th Congress, the House on Friday backed a compromise that expands the government's capacity to eavesdrop without a warrant. The Senate this week is expected to do the same.
Most House Democrats did not back the ...















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