By David W. Dunlap | This is the scale of 1 World Trade Center, the Freedom Tower, which is now beginning to emerge from below ground: the contract for the electronic security system alone is worth $20,407,680. Meeting last week for the first time within sight of ground zero, the commissioners of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey ...

By Richard Down | ALMOST 1,000 local authority CCTV cameras provide surveillance on Merseyside as people go about their everyday lives, the Daily Post has found. Additional CCTV cameras are located on Merseytravel trains and buses, more still monitor customers outside bars, while thousands more fill workplaces across the region. A survey, as part of the Daily Post’s personal data special investigation, found there are 318 cameras owned and run by ...

Councils will be ordered to stop spying on local residents amid Government concerns over the continuing creep of the surveillance state.  By Rosa Prince | Ministers from the Department of Communities and the Home Office have undertaken a thorough review of official surveillance powers, some of which are open to public bodies such local authorities, the NHS and even the Coastguard. The review was triggered by ministers' concerns that ...

Now you see it, now you don't: A proposed $300,000 contract between Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas and a British DNA lab provided for software that would help track down criminals by identifying their relatives. The method, called "familial searching," is rarely used in the United States because of privacy concerns, although California Attorney General Jerry Brown has said he would consider opening the state database to such searches on ...

Identity cards could be handed out to children as young as 14, a home office minister has suggested. The first ID cards are due to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds from 2010 as part of a plan to introduce the controversial scheme in stages. But Meg Hillier said the age range was still "up for grabs" and could be lowered "if they prove popular". She also said the scheme might be ...

By Mark Hookham | Lancashire Police should delete the DNA records of around 4,000 youngsters held on a computer database, the Liberal Democrats have demanded. Delegates at the party's Bournemouth conference overwhelmingly backed a motion to strip out the samples of all under-16s, unless they have been convicted of a violent or sexual offence. Under current laws, samples can be taken and recorded from youngsters who have been arrested for any ...

By Nick Heath | The government has taken another step towards tying up which companies will be in charge of the UK ID cards scheme. The Identity and Passport Service (IPS) has further whittled down the companies shortlisted to deliver parts of the ID card system and passport-application scheme. IBM and Thales are through to the next round of discussions for a £500m ...

By Evan Hill | Though Congress put a damper this summer on legal efforts to prove the Bush administration unlawfully spied on Americans' phone calls and e-mails, flagship litigation in the Northern District of California will still proceed. Chief Judge Vaughn Walker laid out a briefing schedule at a hearing Friday for In re National Security Agency Telecommunications Records Litigation, MDL 06-1791 -- the consolidated suits against the government and numerous ...

By Paul Lewis | The police are to expand a car surveillance operation that will allow them to record and store details of millions of daily journeys for up to five years, the Guardian has learned. A national network of roadside cameras will be able to "read" 50m licence plates a day, enabling officers to reconstruct the journeys of motorists. Police have been encouraged to "fully and ...

A Quebec businessman whose name is one of the many that have erroneously landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's flight passenger watch list has decided to change his name to avoid lengthy security hassles at the airport. Mario Labbé, an executive with a Montreal-based record company, says his Canadian passport triggers a red alert on the computers of U.S. customs agents every time he tries to board a flight ...

By Neil Mackay | THE CIA SENT ITS agents into Uzbekistan torture chambers to observe the abuse of alleged Islamic terrorists, acc-ording to a dissident member of the Uzbek security services who is now seeking political asylum in the UK after fleeing Tashkent. Ikrom Yakubov, a former major in the National Security Service (SNB), accused the CIA of involvement in torture sessions in the central Asian republic in an exclusive interview with the Sunday Herald, during which he made a series of startling claims. These include ...

The National Identity Scheme will produce just 50,000 cards in its first few months – and has yet to define the role or budget of its commissioner. In response to a parliamentary written question from Liberal Democrat shadow home secretary Chris Huhne, home secretary Jacqui Smith said that about 50,000 identity cards will be issued between the scheme's launch for foreign nationals between November and April 2009. "Volumes will rise rapidly ...

By Haider Rizvi | (IPS) -Numerous governments around the world are using anti-terror laws to suppress political dissent and civil liberties, according to a new report released by one of the world’s most respected human rights organisations. Amid calls for increased U.N. scrutiny, in its report, the London-based group Amnesty International raises serious questions and concerns about the impact of the so-called war on terror on human rights and freedom of ...

By Laura Smitherman | The Legislative Black Caucus and civil rights activists criticized yesterday Gov. Martin O'Malley's plan for implementing a new program for collecting DNA samples from crime suspects, accusing the administration of turning its back on hard-fought compromises for safeguards and oversight. O'Malley made the DNA bill one of his priorities this year and worked hard to win passage of the legislation ...

By Oliver Luft | Thailand's Information and Communications Technology Ministry sought court orders yesterday to shut down about 400 websites and advised internet service providers to block 1,200 sites it considers a danger to national security or disturbing social order. ICT minister Mun Patanotai said the department had advised ISPs to immediately block these websites, which it claimed were detected between March and August this year, ...