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VIDEO: How to make a candidate disappear

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

The fix was in

US elections are rigged long before the voting results are falsified.

The news media helps the process along by making (or trying to make) legitimate candidates disappear.

In the 2008 campaign for president, the candidate the news media is trying to trivialize and marginalize Ron Paul.

In 1992, the “disappeared” candidate was Democrat Larry Agran.

The good news is that the Internet has made this kind of chicanery, much more difficult.

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9/11 Truth: Science Behind the Theory

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Stephen Demetriou

There has been peer-reviewed scientific research in the past couple of years that has provided significant support to the arguments of the 911 Truth Movement. First though, as there is a vocal minority [1] that resorts to the misleading charge that the movement’s cause is in pursuit of a far-fetched conspiracy, and it’s membership,[2] (and here,[3]) is comprised of nothing but conspiracy theorists, consider what a conspiracy theory actually is. When two or more individuals sit down and contrive to plot out some action, you have what is properly called a conspiracy. The investigators who set about to discover the plot and with the available evidence explain it, are indeed conspiracy theorists formulating a conspiracy theory. This is true in detective work; it is true in prosecutorial work.

The official hypothesis of the events of 9/11, that 19 amateur pilots penetrated the most heavily surveiled and fortified real estate on the planet, with no interference for a period of up to 90 minutes, and then crashed those planes into three separate buildings is itself a conspiracy theory. The official telling of the tale, as by the 9/11 Commission, the NIST and FEMA studies, and then popularly supported by a PBS NOVA episode, a History Channel documentary, and the Popular Mechanic’s report is a well-distributed, albeit faulty, explanation of a terrorist conspiracy and its effects, by the official conspiracy theorists and their supporters. In that telling, after the planes crashed, fire weakened steel members of the Twin Towers leading to the total disintegration of two 110-story steel framed buildings into seven-floor piles of rubble. This is the basic structure of the official conspiracy theory.

The 911 Truth Movement is presenting an alternative conspiracy theory, which we believe makes better use of evidence held in common with other observers and researchers but ignored in the official accounts:

Flowing, molten steel in the basements of the three buildings, for at least 100 days after the event…

Explosives residue signatures in micro-spheres of iron-rich particles from millimeter size down to micron size found in multiple dust samples from around the site…

The lack of a sufficient fuel source to thermodynamically explain the temperatures necessary to form molten iron…

Sulfidation of steel columns, as is indicative of the explosive residues that are found in fire investigations [4] where explosives are suspected.

The official investigations have not examined all of these observed phenomena and have offered no explanation to how and why they are found. Their conclusions do not include this evidence, and in my opinion forces their conspiracy theory to be thought of as incomplete. The official theory leaves out of its explanation significant observed phenomena, as if they simply didn’t happen. In the cases where the phenomena are mentioned, it is unexplained, or said to require more investigation, with which we agree. The truth movement suggests that the use of this observable evidence leads in a very natural way to consider explosives in the destruction of the towers, and more investigation is needed with this in mind.

Scientific analysis is being done on samples of World Trade Center steel and dust recovered from the site. Through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and x-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (X-EDS) samples of WTC steel and iron-rich dust samples collected from the surrounding destruction zone show some surprising results.

The presence of spherules of iron in multiple dust samples is indicative of molten iron widely dispersed. This is important because the official NIST investigators acknowledged there is no evidence to support that the steel columns in any way melted. They said in a 2006 Factsheet: “In no instance did NIST report that steel in the WTC towers melted due to the fires. The melting point of steel is about 1,500 degrees Celsius (2,800 degrees Fahrenheit). Normal building fires and hydrocarbon (e.g., jet fuel) fires generate temperatures up to about 1,100 degrees Celsius (2,000 degrees Fahrenheit). NIST reported maximum upper layer air temperatures of about 1,000 degrees Celsius (1,800 degrees Fahrenheit) in the WTC towers (for example, see NCSTAR 1, Figure 6-36).”

But why are “microspheres” of iron significant? Surface tension naturally determines the spherical shape of a liquid suspended in air. Given that spherical-shaped iron particles are found in the dust, and molten iron is subject to surface tension, it is easy to suggest that the spheres were once in a molten form suspended in air. No other phenomenon can plausibly explain that particular shape in this circumstance. An analysis [5] by the United States Geological Service (USGS) found iron-rich spheres in dust produced during the destruction of the towers. See also this.[6]

Analysis of the spheres using X-EDS methods, the same methods used by materials scientists [7] in their analysis in arson investigations, found iron-aluminum-sulfur combinations in the spheres, which is consistent with the use of sulfur-enhanced thermite, or thermate. Steven Jones, a PhD physicist formerly of Brigham Young University, says of the composition:[8] “Given the mix of trace metals present in anomalously high concentrations in the WTC dust such as zinc, copper and manganese and barium, the formation of iron-aluminum-rich spherules, I have argued that significant aluminothermic reactions occurred, with likely ingredients to include powders of aluminum, iron oxide, copper oxide, zinc nitrate, sulfur, and potassium permanganate. We are learning more by studying the iron-rich spheres found in the WTC dust.”

Another supportive finding for the truth movement’s suggestion explosives were used in the destruction of the buildings is the observation of flowing molten steel in the basements of WTC 1, 2, and 7. (WTC 7 is a special [9] case, having dropped straight down into its own footprint at near free fall speed, as did the others, after not being hit by a plane, and suffering considerably less damage to its structure than its neighbors WTC 4 [10] and 5. The hulking steel frames of these buildings survived without collapse, and required demolition even after sustaining heavy damage and intense, engulfing fires.) Many [11] people involved saw the flowing steel in the basements while in the recovery effort and the clean up. It persisted for at least 100 days. The heat signature was recorded by satellite-based thermography [12], (and here [13]). What sort of temperatures are needed to create molten steel, and how would such a thing happen in not one, but three, generalized locations?

As mentioned above, iron melts at about 1500C. Not only does iron require a large heat source to become molten, the source must be sufficiently hot, for a long enough period, to overcome the thermal conductive properties of iron. Iron conducts heat energy quite well, efficiently drawing heat away from the area being heated to cooler parts. An energy source must continue to add energy to the metal as the heat is conducted away from the concentration of heat for the iron to melt. The amount of heat necessary to melt a quantity of iron to a molten flow must either be hot enough for a protracted and steady heating, or the heat source must be very intense, with excess heat sufficient to easily overcome the iron’s conductive properties and melt the iron.

This type of energy is neither explained by any of the official investigations, nor supported by the observed event of destruction under the assumption the official explanation is correct. In this line of reasoning, gravity caused the disintegration of the buildings, after fire damaged the supports. It would have to follow that gravity somehow contained the energy [14] to spontaneously generate enough heat to melt iron in three separate collapse events, and under different circumstances in one of those three collapses. Or, if the molten iron is to be explained by residual fires that persisted after the collapses, what would the thermodynamic properties be of the fuel burned in those fires to generate temperatures hot enough to create Dante-esque [15] scenes of flowing, molten metal? Hydrocarbon fires: jet fuel, office materials, carpets, plastics, nylon burn under the most ideal, highly ventilated conditions at about 650C. Air temperatures under blast-ventilation conditions can attain 1100C, but this is difficult to sustain, especially under a smoldering pile of rubble, or in the extremely smoky, sooty, dispersed fires seen before the complete destruction.

The intensity of the molten pools were such that according to the US Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, “Approximately three million gallons of water were hosed on site in the fire-fighting efforts, and 1 million gallons fell as rainwater, between 9/11 and 9/21…” and all this water still failed to extinguish the basement fires. This was simply the ten-day window in which they looked. The spraying down of the pile persisted for months.

This type of energy is not explained by gravity, or by residual hydrocarbon fires, and is unusual in light of the amount of water dumped on the fires. It is, however, plausibly explained by the use of high-energy explosives [16], capable of igniting exothermic reactions [17] in materials in the rubble that are both hot enough to melt iron and are self-sustaining for a period of time. Thermate-like explosives contain their own source of oxygen [18] and cannot be put out with water. The observable, scientific evidence suggests a strong possibility explosives [19] were involved in the destruction of the World Trade Center towers. The 9/11 Truth movement believes the evidence is strong enough to warrant a well-funded, independent, impartial investigation designed to include this hypothesis in its analysis.

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US signs deal for long-term occupation of Iraq

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

By Jerry White

President Bush and the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki signed an agreement Monday paving the way for the long-term occupation of the Middle Eastern country and its transformation into a semi-colonial protectorate of the US.

The “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship” outlines plans for the establishment of permanent US military bases in Iraq to suppress internal opposition to the US-installed regime and protect US economic and political interests throughout the region. It also provides for preferential treatment for US energy conglomerates and investors to exploit Iraq’s newly opened up oil resources.

The new agreement—signed during a secret videoconference between Bush and Maliki—without the slightest democratic pretenses in each country—exposes the repeated lies, peddled by the White House ever since the April 2003 invasion, that the US had no intention to set up permanent military bases or carry out an long-term occupation of Iraq.

The declaration calls for the current United Nations mandate—which has provided a legal fig leaf for the US occupation—to be extended one more year and thereafter to be replaced by a bilateral economic and security pact between the two countries.

The full details of the pact—including the size of the US occupying force—are to be worked out by July 31, 2008 and are scheduled to take effect in early 2009, i.e., after Bush leaves office. Although the agreement will commit US troops to remain in the country for years, if not decades, the White House insists that it will not rise to the level of a formal treaty, requiring congressional approval.

Maliki signed the declaration without any serious parliamentary debate. Sunni Arab and Shia politicians immediately denounced it, saying the agreement would lead to “US interference for years to come.” The Association of Muslim Scholars, a Sunni group, said the Iraqi signatories of the declaration would be looked on as “collaborators with the occupier.”

Under the proposed formula, Iraqi officials told the Associated Press, Iraqi forces will take charge of internal security, and US troops will relocate to bases outside the cities. They foresee at least 50,000 American troops remaining in the country indefinitely. The White House says the bilateral agreement will not contain timetables for the withdrawal of troops.

White House deputy national security advisor Lieutenant-General Douglas Lute said the declaration signaled that the US “will protect our interests in Iraq, alongside our Iraqi partners, and that we consider Iraq a key strategic partner, able to increasingly contribute to regional stability.”

US forces will protect the interests of American energy companies once the country’s vast oil wealth—the second largest proven oil reserves in the world—are opened up to international and in particular US investment. This is only possible by intensifying US military repression of the Iraqi people and crushing popular opposition to the US-installed regime and the American occupation.

At the same time permanent US bases are being set up to project American military power throughout the Middle East and provide US forces increased capabilities to launch attacks against Iran, Syria and other countries.

Debka-Net-Weekly, a web site associated with Israeli military intelligence, said the US has plans to remove 100,000 troops by the end of 2009, leaving behind 50,000-70,000 in 20 huge land and air bases. “These bases,” the site wrote, “are under construction; they will be secured by broad swathes of space, fortified with weaponry and remote-controlled electronic devices.” US troops will be responsible for protecting Iraq’s borders from “external threats,” Debka reported, adding, “US air strength and special forces in these bases will have rapid deployment capabilities for reaching points outside Iraq at need.”

The US launched the Iraq war to establish unchallenged domination of the Middle East and fend off the growing inroads into the energy-rich region by its economic rivals, such as China and Russia. The economic advantages of occupying Iraq are spelled out in one of the principles outlined in the new US-Iraqi declaration, which calls for “facilitating and encouraging the flow of foreign investment to Iraq, especially American investments, to contribute to the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq.”

Another declares US support for aiding Iraq’s “transition to a market economy,” which includes opening up the nationalized oil industry to the control of ExxonMobil, Chevron and other US energy conglomerates.

Earlier this month the Iraqi government, guided by American legal advisors, cancelled a contract originally signed by the Saddam Hussein government in 1997 with the Russian company Lukoil, for the development of the vast oil field in Iraq’s southern desert. The West Qurna fields—with estimated reserves of 11 billion barrels, the equivalent of the worldwide proven oil reserves of ExxonMobil, America’s largest oil company—will now be opened to international, and in particular, US bidders.

Vladimir Tikhomirov, the chief economist at the Russian bank UralSib, told the New York Times, “From the Russian government perspective, Iraq is seen as occupied and its administration directed by Washington, particularly when it comes to oil. The Russians see the cancellation of the contract in Iraq as part of the US drive to keep control over the major oil fields there.”

The declaration of principles is loaded with Orwellian language aimed at concealing its nakedly imperialist aims. The US—which launched an illegal war and occupation that have resulted in the virtual destruction of an entire society and the deaths of more than one million Iraqis—declares its commitment to “deter foreign aggression.” All those who oppose the occupation are “terrorists” and “outlaws” who must be defeated and “uprooted” from Iraq.

The real face of the American military presence was shown this week when US troops fired on vehicles at roadblocks in Baghdad and north of the Iraqi capital, killing at least five people, including three women and a child, in two separate shootings.

The commitment to a long-term occupation hardly provoked a murmur from the Democratic Party. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Bush for planning to leave office with a “US army tied down in Iraq and stretched to the breaking point, with no clear exit strategy.”

While opposing Bush for failing to efficiently wage the war the Democrats defend the same economic interests as the Republicans and have made it clear they will not end the occupation if they take control of the White House in 2009. In fact the military scenario envisaged in the deal signed by Bush corresponds to the bipartisan plans being worked out between the Bush administration and the Democrats for a “post-surge Iraq.”

Leading Democrats, such as presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, have argued for the reduction of US forces and their redeployment from the cities to “over-the-horizon” positions where they could strike opponents of the US-backed regime, as well as Iran. Clinton in particular has argued that pulling US troops out of the cities would reduce US casualties, thereby making the long-term occupation of Iraq more politically palatable in the US, while still keeping forces available to defend US economic interests.

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YouTube stops account of anti-torture activist

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

YouTube stops account of Egypt anti-torture activist

Cynthia Johnston

CAIRO, Nov 27 (Reuters) - The video-sharing Web site YouTube has suspended the account of a prominent Egyptian anti-torture activist who posted videos of what he said was brutal behaviour by some Egyptian policemen, the activist said.

Wael Abbas said close to 100 images he had sent to YouTube were no longer accessible, including clips depicting purported police brutality, voting irregularities and anti-government demonstrations. YouTube, owned by search engine giant Google Inc <GOOG.O>, did not respond to a written request for comment. A message on Abbas’s YouTube user page, http://youtube.com/user/waelabbas, read: “This account is suspended.”

“They closed it (the account) and they sent me an e-mail saying that it will be suspended because there were lots of complaints about the content, especially the content of torture,” Abbas told Reuters in a telephone interview. Abbas, who won an international journalism award for his work this year, said that of the images he had posted to YouTube, 12 or 13 depicted violence in Egyptian police stations.

Abbas was a key player last year in distributing a clip of an Egyptian bus driver, his hands bound, being sodomised with a stick by a police officer — imagery that sparked an uproar in a country where rights groups say torture is commonplace.

That tape prompted an investigation that led to a rare conviction of two policemen, who were sentenced to three years in prison for torture. Egypt says it opposes torture and prosecutes police against whom it has evidence of misconduct.

YOUTUBE RULES

YouTube regulations state that “graphic or gratuitous violence” is not allowed and warn users not to post such videos. Repeat violators of YouTube guidelines may have their accounts terminated, according to rules posted on the site.

Rights activists said by shutting down Abbas’s account, YouTube was closing a significant portal for information on human rights abuses in Egypt just as Cairo was escalating a crackdown on opposition and independent journalists.

The Internet has emerged in Egypt as a major forum for critics of the Egyptian government.

“The goal is not showing the violence, it is showing police brutality. If his goal was just to focus on violence without any goal, that is a problem. But Wael is showing police brutality in Egypt,” said Gamal Eid, head of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information.

This year, for the first time, an Egyptian court convicted and jailed a blogger over his Internet writings.

A string of court rulings since September has seen at least 12 Egyptian journalists ordered jailed on charges from defaming President Hosni Mubarak to misquoting the minister of justice.

Elijah Zarwan, a prominent blogger and activist in Egypt, said he thought it was unlikely that YouTube had come under official Egyptian pressure, and was more likely reacting to the graphic nature of the videos.

“I suspect they are doing it not under pressure from the Egyptian government but rather because it made American viewers squeamish,” he said. “But to shut them down because some people might find the truth disturbing is unconscionable.” (Writing by Cynthia Johnston)

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Military Recruiting Vans Draw Fire

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Pat Elder

A ninth grader in a suburban Washington DC classroom is delighted to be excused from Algebra class to spend a half hour shooting a life-like 9 MM pistol and lobbing explosive ordinance from an M1A2 Abrams tank simulator. At the same time 3,000 miles away in La Habra, California, a 15 year-old girl is released from English class to squeeze off rounds from a very real looking M-16 rifle. The kids thoroughly enjoy the experience, especially the part about getting out of class.

The two students have experienced the Army’s Adventure Van, a 60-foot, 30-ton 18-wheeler with several interactive exhibits that bring an adrenaline rush and glorify weaponry and combat. The Army’s 19 vans frequent various community events and two thousand schools a year, generating more than 63,000 recruiter leads. In addition to the Adventure Van, the Army has three other 18-wheelers for recruiting purposes. The Aviation Recruiting Van contains an AH 64 Helicopter flight simulator and an interactive air warrior and weapons display.

The American Soldier Adventure Van has an interactive air/land warrior display and a future warrior display. The Army Marksmanship Trainer has an interactive rifle range.

In addition to the fleet of 18-wheelers, the Army has four RockWalls, the popular rock climbing wall for youth. The Army also brings machine gun toting humvees, tanks and other military vehicles on high school campuses to enhance their recruiting efforts. Both the Army and Air Force have their own recruiting motorcycles.

The interactive theatrical weapons simulators provide a mesmerizing experience for many teens, captivated by the awesome accuracy and power of the Army’s killing machines. The banter between adolescent and Army recruiter is empowering for the Maryland teenager as he holds an absolutely frightening replica of the cold, metallic 8.5 pound M-16-A-2. “This is awesome!” The recruiter explains, “The weapon is a 5.56 mm caliber, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed rifle, with a rotating bolt. It is constructed of steel, aluminum and composite plastics.”

Firing the simulator produces a minor kick to the weapon and a small red dot is projected on a bull’s eye target about 20 feet away. The shooter is accurate from left to right on the target, but he’s hitting it a few inches below bull’s eye. His recruiter explains that soldiers shooting the M-16-A-2 must aim high in order to place shots on the desired target, especially at close range. “Cool!” is the reply.

Despite protests by parents and civic groups across the country, the Army defends its right to enter high school campuses with their high-tech mobile cinemas. Kelly Rowe, public affairs officer for the Baltimore Recruiting Battalion, compared the Army Adventure Van to efforts by colleges to recruit students. “I don’t think it’s any different from an athlete who gets 10 letters saying, ‘Come play for us,’ ” Rowe said.

Of course, these military vehicles go beyond the access required by Section 9528 of the No Child Left Behind Act, which states that military recruiters are to have the same access as college and career recruiters.

The Air Force and the Navy also have fleets of trucks and vans that visit high schools. The Air Force has a Raptor Trailer, with a miniature replica of the Air Force’s newest fighter aircraft and two video game stations that put children behind the joystick piloting an F-22 fighter that’s coming to the aid of a friendly F-4 under attack by hostile MiG-29s. Five Navy Exhibit Centers include a “Nuclear Power Van,” and an “America’s Sea Power Van.”

Some school districts, like the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Montgomery County, Maryland Public Schools have policies that forbid military vehicles on public school campuses.

If you see a military vehicle at your high school, let your local school officials know of your concerns. These vehicles don’t belong in our schools.

Pat Elder is a member of the Coordinating Committee of the National Network Opposing the Militarization of Youth

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Bush administration forced to turn over spying docs

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Bush administration forced to turn over spying documents by Friday

Declan McCullagh

A federal judge has ordered the Bush administration to divulge documents related to immunizing telecommunications companies from lawsuits, saying they illegally opened their networks to the National Security Agency.

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco gave the Office of the Director of National Intelligence until November 30 (Friday) to turn over documents relating to conversations it had with Congress and telecommunications carriers about how to rewrite wiretapping laws.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation had filed this case to seek faster processing of a Freedom of Information Act request it filed, which could help buttress its ongoing lawsuit against AT&T. There are approximately 250 pages of unclassified material and 65 pages of classified material, which would be redacted, that the administration has identified but said could not be turned over until December 31.

Note that Illston’s order doesn’t deal with the NSA’s wiretapping program itself (how it works, what companies are involved, whether there really is a secret room at AT&T’s 611 Folsom Street location). Instead the documents relate only to conversations and communications about retroactive immunity for companies like AT&T that are accused of violating the law.

Note also that if AT&T and other telecommunications companies followed the law, no retroactive immunity is necessary. Because AT&T and the Bush administration are supporting such a legal shield, you can draw your own conclusions about what’s really going on.

The Friday deadline means that the documents will likely be available in time to influence congressional debate over amending the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Some FISA amendments expire in February 2008, which means that Congress is likely to return to the topic soon.

The House of Representatives rejected retroactive immunity on November 16. The Senate Judiciary Committee seemed to like the idea of immunity, but the debate is expected to resume on the Senate floor next month.

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Europeans could get access to UK ID database

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

By Lewis Page

News emerged yesterday of a mysterious international ID card plan, described by the Tories as “a European-wide identity card project called Project Stork”. The Conservatives suggested in Parliament that Stork was a huge Europe-wide extension to the planned UK National ID card with its associated databases and biometrics.

“How,” asked the shadow Home Sec David Davis, did the government intend to “prevent a repetition of the disaster of the past few weeks when sensitive personal data are held not by one Government but by 27?”

The actual Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith, seemed a trifle puzzled about what exactly Stork might be (”or Stalk,” says the Indy. Ha ha!).

Smith replied:

“If the right hon. Gentleman wants to give me more information about the particular allegation that he is making, I will of course be willing to follow it up… The advantage of a national identity register is that it enables the linking of biometric information, maintained on one database, with biographic data, maintained on another, thereby strengthening the protection for individuals…”

Biometrics as a panacea for database misuse has already been dealt with, so we thought we’d chase down Project Stork.

Contacted by the Reg, a Home Office spokesman said that Project Stork was a “research project” designed to explore the interlinking of national e-government services across - so far - 14 countries. It is apparently meant to achieve “mutual recognition” between setups such as the UK’s Government Gateway portal, used for such purposes as submitting tax returns.

Stork, according to the Home Office, might let a UK citizen use his or her Government Gateway login in France, for such purposes as paying car tax on a French-registered car. The spokesman said that any future link to the UK national ID card scheme was “speculation at this point”.

The UK official lead on Stork is Dr Mireille Levy, Head of Identity Management Standards at the Home Office Identity and Passport Service (IPS), the organisation currently taking forward ID cards for foreign UK residents and which will take charge of the National ID scheme.

Dr Levy attended the prestigious Ecole normale supérieure, an elite academic hothouse feeding the French civil service, and holds a PhD in mathematics from the Paris University Pierre et Marie Curie. She has lived in the UK for some time, however, working as a topflight government scientist at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory and as head of radio planning at the Home Office.

Dr Levy has also spent time as a “Homeland Security Executive” with the UK-headquartered arms colossus, BAE Systems plc, before taking up her current post at the Home Office IPS. She describes herself on the professional networking site LinkedIn as being employed in “Law Enforcement”.

Sadly Dr Levy was unwilling to speak to the Reg directly, referring all enquiries back to the Home Office press department.

The European Commission release has recently issued some information on Stork:

European ministers, as well as some non-European countries (e.g. Iceland), set themselves the political objective to reach mutual recognition and interoperability of electronic identities by the year 2010 in the Manchester Declaration adopted in November 2005. This declaration, however, also adopts the subsidiarity principle, leaving full autonomy to Member States as to what kind of electronic identity they issue. The STORK project is expected to help bridge the gap between the different eID systems currently in use, leading to a de facto standard for interoperability in eIDs. The deadline for this is 2010, when the EU’s European eID Management Framework comes into force.The UK’s Identity and Passport Service (IPS) is leading the pilot project, in close co-operation with the Government Gateway, the UK’s centralised registration service.

“It is about the eventual pan-European recognition of electronic IDs,” noted an IPS spokesperson. “Neither services nor entitlements will change; rather, the project is currently about looking at methods that already exist and figuring out how to make them recognise each other.”

STORK actually stands for Secure idenTity acrOss boRders acKnowledged*. Back in June, Belgian e-gov official Frank Leyman gave this presentation (pdf) on the scheme, describing it as a “large scale pilot” and saying that ten countries had signed “letters of intent” to participate, including the UK, Belgium, and others such as France, Poland, Estonia and Slovenia. Another five nations were interested but not committed at that stage.

“The consortium is about to be formed,” according to Mr Leyman. Belgians’ “eID” would be based on the Belgian national ID smartcard; other nations such as Slovenia would use “virtual identification” (presumably a login and password like the UK government gateway) and there would also - according to Leyman - be an “Anglo Saxon model”, based on “other identification tools like passports”.

The usefulness of Stork is described thus:

A citizen living in country A will be able with the eID… to make a tax declaration online in country B where s/he is currently working… get automatic and paperless reimbursement of health expenses incurred during holidays in country C… and get pension rights from country D (where s/he was working before for some years)…

One of the participating organisations in STORK is EEMA - “Europe’s leading independent, trade association for e-Business” - headquartered in the UK.

EEMA’s Roger Dean told the Reg that Stork is 50 per cent funded by the EU to the tune of €10m, with participating national governments and businesses expected to cough up another €10m. EEMA’s stance on eID/National ID cards is fairly plain:

ID cards were viewed positively during the Second World War, as a means of protecting citizens against spies. However, there are some serious concerns regarding the introduction of an ID card into the UK… such schemes have been in existence for years in other ‘civilised’ countries, are compulsory, and yet are not perceived as challenging civil rights. Properly implemented it could act for the greater social good… It is also likely that it would facilitate evoting and remote voting. However, one of the main benefits would be in providing proof of identification for ebusiness – an area which simply cannot enjoy its full potential without it… EEMA and a number of its Member organisations look forward to collaborating with the Government in this vital area of identity management.

Dean told the Reg that he himself was broadly in favour of a UK national ID card scheme.

“If you ask me, [UK] ID cards yes or no, I’d say yes,” he said. “Sooner or later everyone will have an identity card in some form… the Belgians are rolling theirs out, the Estonians are fully complete - though there are only two million of them, so that was a comparatively small project.”

Dean said that Stork was intended to allow, for instance, a doctor to access health records held by a different country. This did seem to confirm the Tories’ spectre of quite far-flung public officials being able to access the proposed UK databases. However Dean said that the process would be “under the individual’s control”.

Police forces, of course, already share information via organisations such as Interpol. Exactly how much access different enforcement authorities might have to the various Stork-involved databases across Europe wasn’t clear.

According to EEMA, the various participants in Project Stork have now submitted their proposals to the European Commission, and they await a decision “hopefully as soon as January or February” on the scheme moving ahead.

The Home Office, asked about this, said that proposals had indeed been submitted but they didn’t expect any EC decision before next April. Even then, they were at pains to emphasise that “this is purely a research effort”.

When it was pointed out that the Belgians were calling Stork a “large-scale pilot”, the Home Office spokesman said “well, we’re calling it a research project.”

Exact details remain to be established. The spectre of Austrian police officers (for instance) being able to spy on UK health or biometric records seems pretty remote - let alone the idea that, say, the Turkish government would have their own copies of UK databases as the Tories suggest. On the other hand, it isn’t hard to imagine even a quite innocuous implementation of STORK protocols creating some interesting records.

Suppose you did go to France and tax a car using your UK.gov login - forget about ID cards. The French system would need to check with the Brit one that your eID was real, and a record of that check would exist in the relevant logs if nowhere else. A British official wishing to know what you were up to could easily search these files, and say “aha - chummy has just taxed a car in France”, or been to see a doctor in Iceland**, or paid property taxes in Slovakia.

Likewise, our own Home Office might soon - if research next year determines that Stork-type ideas are feasible - have a somewhat better handle on just how many Estonians, Slovakians and Spaniards (etc) are using British government services and/or paying British taxes: and whether or not these people have a) obtained their mandatory foreign-resident ID cards and b) been truthful when submitting their details.

Lots of food for thought here. And it has to be said, those worried about the potential for catastrophic errors, bugs, leaks or backdoors in the government IT networks of the future may not find the compliant, ID-card-loving Belgians’ choice of tech partner reassuring. ®

Update: Since publication the Home Office have been back in touch. They’d like to reassure everyone that there are “no plans” to share usage information between governments (except as necessary to authenticate eIDs). They also say that the UK Government Gateway doesn’t keep any records of transactions “other than temporary ones” (though somebody in the government does - eg the tax people or the DVLA). Finally they say, in answer to whether you could use STORK eID checks to track an individual’s activities is “categorically no.”

So that’s all right then.

*Breaks every rule of Acronym Club, we say. Nobody the Reg spoke to could say who came up with it. Presumably something like Secret Tracking And Law-Enforcement Kommissariat (STALK) didn’t seem cuddly enough.

**Iceland is on board with Stork, though not an EU nation.

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Bet your bottom dollar tensions will follow

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

Bet your bottom dollar tensions will follow - Dollar could drop 90% in value - Bank of England

By J A Blacker, Science Correspondent
RINF Alternative News

The Dollar, if the Bank of England is to be believed, could lose 90% of its 2002 value within three years, one pundit thinks it could be worse and even the US top brass are bracing themselves for a real cropper.

40 Billion of sub prime debt has thus far been written off costing a 30% drop in the value of the Dollar, imagine how it will plummet when all 150 billion is written off, and that is the best possible outcome.

If the Bank of England’s 200 billion sub prime estimate is accurate, 30% v 40 Billion, ? % v 200 Billion?, and the Bank of England could be as much as 100 Billion out, one annalist has calculated the unrecoverable sub prime debt to be written off could be 300 Billion.

What ever you do, ditch the Dirty Dollar fast & buy Euros, Yen or Swiss Dollar - have tin hats at the ready folks because the whole lot is about to tumble as the US dollar is a reserve currency.

http://mparent7777-2.blogspot.com/2007/11/bet-your-bottom-dollar-tensions-will.html

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