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UK becoming a ‘police state’, UN warns

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Counter-terrorism laws are rapidly turning the United Kingdom into a police state, a United Nations independent expert warned today and added that targeting Muslims through religious profiling was counterproductive.

Asma Jahangir, the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, was particularly concerned about the new stop and search rules allowing the police to to stop and search an individual without having to show ‘reasonable grounds’ for the action, which the British police themselves have deemed unnecessary.

Such laws are widely believed to target the UK’s Muslim population and “undermine the human rights of all,” Ms. Jahangir said in a statement issued in London after wrapping up an 11-day visit to the country.

“A discriminatory application of stop-and-search powers and religious profiling may ultimately prove to be counterproductive,” she said, but added.

While she understood that States were obliged to adopt measures to thwart terrorism, Ms. Jahangir also noted that she has heard allegations of abuses of counter-terrorism laws, particularly of the provisions which criminalize the failure to disclose information about terrorist acts.

Home Office figures show that although more than 1100 people have arrested on the suspicion of terrorism, only 40 of them have ever been convicted of terrorism related offences.

Civil liberties groups told Ms. Jahangir that, given the media circus that attracts arrests carried out under terrorism legislation, terrorism legislation has blighted the lives of more than a thousand innocent individuals and their families.

Opposition politicians and rights groups also expressed concern to the Special Rapporteur about the mammoth DNA database that the government was building, which now includes genetic records of eight percent of all Britons.

During her visit to the UK, Ms. Jahangir met with Prime Minister Tony Blair, senior Government officials, politicians, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics, while she also toured a school, a prison and an immigration removal centre.

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Anger at Blair’s ’secret deal’ to sign new EU constitution

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

The Daily Mail

Tony Blair has been engulfed in a row over Europe after it became clear he is under huge pressure to sign a “son of constitution” treaty next week.

A leaked letter by current EU president Angela Merkel revealed that a deal is being drafted to revive almost all the controversial elements of the flopped European Constitution.

The disclosure sparked demands for a UK referendum on the new treaty - and angry claims that EU leaders were trying to smuggle in a massive new extension of Brussels power “by the back”.

Today Downing Street, which has already made plain that Mr Blair will not sanction a referendum, played down the fears and insisted that the final shape of the deal was unclear.

But the Merkel letter, which was leaked in Brussels, made plain that there is already broad agreement that “much of the substance” of the defunct constitution should be resurrected.

Writing to fellow leaders as part of the pre-summit exchange of views, she said it had been agreed to drop the term ” constitution” to appease those who thought the EU was taking on the trappings of a state. But that was seen as “a major concession” - and most countries wanted “as much of the substance of the Constitutional Treaty as possible” to be saved. The implication was that the constitution would be revived in all but name, but this time without voters getting a choice.

Tory Europe spokesman Mark Francois said: “This is all being done in secret behind the back of the British people and the Parliament. If any further powers are given away, there must, absolutely must, be a referendum”.

The constitution was controversial because it proposed scrapping national vetoes in dozens of areas, including policing and justice; the creation of a permanent elected president and foreign minister, and a legally binding Charter of Fundamental Rights that would increase trade union influence.

It was abandoned after being rejected in referendums in France and Holland. Britain had promised a referendum but Mr Blair says the new document will be just “an amending treaty” and need not be put to a vote.

He is expected to demand an opt-out from the Charter of Fundamental Rights and No 10 insisted that nothing had been agreed yet. “This document is a private report and we should not read too much into it at this stage” said a spokesman.

However, German officials were yesterday boasting that the new deal would give the European Union a “single legal personality”.

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Judge Orders FBI to Turn Over Thousands of Patriot Act Abuse Documents

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

By Ryan Singel
Wired

Just one day after a news that an internal audit found that FBI agents abused a Patriot Act power more than 1000 times, a federal judge ordered the agency Friday to begin turning over thousands of pages of documents related to the agency’s use of a powerful, but extremely secretive investigative tool that can pry into telephone and internet records.

The order for monthly document releases commencing July 5 came in response to a government sunshine request by a civil liberties group, which sued in April over the FBI’s foot-dragging on its broad request.

The April request from the Electronic Frontier Foundation asked the FBI to turn over documents related to its misuse of National Security Letters, self-issued subpoenas that don’t need a judge’s approval and which can get financial, phone and internet records. Recipients of the letters are forbidden by law from ever telling anyone other than their lawyer that they received the request. Though initially warned initially to use this power sparingly, FBI agents issued more than 47,000 in 2005, more than half of which targeted Americans. Information obtained from the requests, which need only be certified by the agency to be “relevant” to an investigation, are dumped into a data-mining warehouse for perpetuity.

An Inspector General report in March found rampant errors in the small sample of NSLs examined and systemic underreporting of the powers usage to Congress. The report also found that agents issued more than 700 “expedited” letters, some containing materially false sworn statements. These letters had no legal basis and essentially asked companies to turn over data by pretending there was an emergency in order to get the data necessary to get a proper NSL. One former FBI agent says its clear the FBI violated the law.

Now the Justice Department must turn over 2,500 pages of documents a month to the EFF, including information on cozy surveillance contracts between the FBI and telephone companies and information on how data captured by NSLs were put into the FBI’s massive data mining warehouse.

The Justice Department told the court that there were more than 100,000 potentially responsive documents and that ten people are working full time on filling the request for documents. Look out for a run on thick, black magic markers in D.C.

THREAT LEVEL can’t wait to see:

1. All records discussing or reporting violations or potential violations of statutes, Attorney General guidelines, and internal FBI policies governing the use of NSLs, including, but not limited to:

A. Correspondence or communications between the FBI and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board concerning violations or potential violations of statutes…

2. Guidelines, memoranda or communications addressing or discussing the integration of NSL data into the FBIís Investigative Data Warehouse; 3. Contracts between the FBI and three telephone companies [...] which were intended to allow the Counterterrorism Division to obtain telephone toll billing data from the communications industry as expeditiously as possible;

4. Any guidance, memoranda or communications discussing the FBI’s legal authority to issue exigent letters to telecommunications companies, and the relationship between such exigent letters and the FBI’s authority to issue NSLs under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act;

5. Any guidance, memoranda or communications discussing the application of the Fourth Amendment to NSLs issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act;

8. Copies of sample or model exigent letters used by the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division;

9. Copies of sample or model NSL approval requests used by the FBIís Counterterrorism Division;

10. Records related to the Counterterrorism Divisionís Electronic Surveillance Operations and Sharing Unit (EOPS).

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Russia launches spy investigation

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

Al Jazeera

Lugovoi has repeatedly denied involvement

Russia’s internal security agency has launched an espionage investigation on the basis of statements by chief suspect in the radioation poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian spy.

The Federal Security Service (FSB) opened the case after assessing evidence from Andrei Lugovoi, Russian news agencies said on Friday.

“After analysis of statements by Russian businessman Andrei Lugovoi, the investigative department of the FSB … has opened a criminal case due to evidence of espionage,” an FSB statement said.

British prosecutors have asked Russia to hand over Lugovoi to face charges over the death of Litvinenko.

Litvinenko, a former FSB agent, died in London last year after being poisoned with polonium-210, a highly radioactive isotope.

Investigation ‘material’

The FSB statement did not state that the investigation related to the death of Litvinenko, and did not name any suspects.

However, it appeared to refer to “material” that Lugovoi said at a news conference last month he will soon present to Russian security services.

Russia has repeatedly refused to hand over Lugovoi to Britain.

Lugovoi denies involvement in the killing and alleges that it was carried out either by Britain’s MI6 intelligence agency, the Russian mafia, or Boris Berezovsky, a former Russian agent who is now an exiled opponent of the Kremlin.

He has suggested that Berezovsky and Litvinenko were working for MI6.

“It is hard to escape the thought that Litvinenko had become an agent who had escaped the control of the special services and they took him out,” Lugovoi said in May.

British suspicion fell on Lugovoi and an associate, Dmitry Kovtun, after it emerged that both met Litvinenko in a London hotel on November 1, the day he fell ill.

The men left traces of the radioactive isotope used in Litvinenko’s killing in various locations as they returned to Russia.

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CCTV cameras can now watch you in the toilet

Saturday, June 16th, 2007

By Mick Meaney
RINF Alternative News

No, it’s not a joke and is possibly the lowest the surveillance society can go.

Unbelievably, at least three British pubs are using CCTV cameras in their loos - and the number is growing as a national chain has plans to install more cameras around the country.

Currently the pubs include two in Croydon, the Ship of Fools and The Skylark, along with The King James, a J D Wetherspoon’s in Hertfordshire.

This is a microcosm of what is happening all over the UK as Britain increasingly becomes a Big Brother state though government propaganda and scare tactics to convince us that we need protecting from terrorism, criminals and … ourselves.

27-year old manager of the Skylark, Kim McKay, said: “Unfortunately, there is a lot of drug use among youngsters today.

“It’s a good idea. I know people think it invades their privacy, but the cameras are situated so we only see what we need to see.

“We have had a lot of comments from regulars. They don’t like it, which is understandable, but they do understand why it’s there.”

However the pub has lowered the height of cubicle doors so that people’s faces can be seen as they come out, resulting in the invasion of privacy at the most inappropriate of levels.

These new measures are tasteless, indecent and lack common moral decency.

A spokesman for J D Wetherspoon had this to say: “There are cameras in the ladies and gents toilets at the pub in Cheshunt and at a number of other pubs.

“They are to keep an eye on any potential vandalism and general behaviour. The reason we do it is just for safety and to stop any problems. Others might disagree with the cameras being placed there but they will be staying. It is up to individual managers if they feel a need for them. It’s not a slur on the town.”

J D Wetherspoons is a nationwide chain of pubs, quiet often reffered to as “McPubs”, because they have no individuality. The fact these CCTV cameras will be used in all Wetherspoons is inevitable, spurring on other businesses to do the same in a game of surveillance catch-up.

One Wetherspoons regular, Ozzy Davies, of Hertfordshire, said: “As a family pub, I would have concerns that a woman struggling to cope with small children in the toilets may leave the door open presumably so she can keep an eye on the kids.

“The manager’s explanation was that it was put there to watch out for acts of vandalism and was not pointed directly at the urinals but there are numerous mirrors where a reflected image could possibly be seen. Even more disturbing was that mine was apparently the only complaint.”

This follows on from the installation of a pub fingerprint network in the UK which costs licensees just £1.50 a day to run, encouraging widespread growth and can be integrated with existing CCTV systems to check the identity of punters.

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