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海賊行為の計画の`はである違法」

水曜日、2009年8月26日

Brendan Abbott

「版権のインターネットの記述を中断する」計画は不法にフィルムをそして音楽が人権を破ることができるダウンロードし、交換し、かだれが略奪する。

広帯域提供者および消費者権利の昨日グループによって警告された「説得のない強制」は海賊行為を停止する方法だった。

スティーブンTimms、デジタル英本国のための大臣は、ユーザー」広帯域速度だけを切った前の機構をではなかった十分言った。

またインターネットサービスプロバイダーが海賊に対して処置をとるようにすることができる。

2008年7月への年では、6.5百万人のブリトン人は不法に音楽およびフィルムをダウンロードした。

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Equality group takes racist BNP to court over ethnic exclusion

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

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Obama Following Bush’s Footsteps?

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

Jeff Huber 

Those of you still hoping for “change” can forget it. Young Mr. Obama is working the same number that young Mr. Bush pulled on us. In Obama’s address to the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Phoenix, Ariz., on Aug. 17, he made his commitment to war in the Bananastans irrevocable.

It would be wonderful if public servants seeking to associate themselves with the military would cater to the agenda of the Veterans for Peace. For a president of the United States to pander to the VFW is a disgrace. While the VFW is not a pack of latter-day Brownshirts like the American Legion, the two groups possess a common value: they never saw an armed conflict they didn’t like. If they had to serve in a pointless war, everyone else should too. They also never met a Republican politician they didn’t like. Why a Democrat who was elected on a peace platform feels compelled to throw a bone to Pavlov’s dogs of war is inscrutable.

In Phoenix, Obama deflected criticism of his lack of support for the self-defeating Iraq war by drumming up support for his self-defeating conflict in the Bananastans. He continued a tradition established by his predecessor when he told the veterans “Those who attacked America on 9/11 are plotting to do so again.” Are we doomed to hearing presidents evoke 9/11 every time they want to justify overseas adventurism?

“But we must never forget,” Obama reminded the veterans, that the Bananastans conflict “is not a war of choice.” It is a “war of necessity” because “if left unchecked, the Taliban insurgency will mean an even larger safe haven from which al-Qaeda would plot to kill more Americans.” So, according to Obama, the Bananastans crusade is not only “worth fighting,” it is “fundamental to the defense of our people.”

What fundamental horse manure.

We’ve accepted the myth that the 9/11 attacks were made possible by Osama bin Laden’s “sanctuary” in Afghanistan for far too long. 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was operating in the Philippines when he first presented the attack plan to bin Laden in 1996. The six hijackers who controlled the airplanes received their flight training in the U.S. The “muscle hijackers” came from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. That bin Laden was in Afghanistan at the time is a narrative of our “good intelligence” in that part of the world, which, to this day, amounts to beating or bribing locals into telling us what we want to hear or believing the lies that Afghan and Pakistani intelligence agencies feed us.

“We will plan responsibly,” Obama told the veterans, and he boasted of the “new comprehensive strategy” for the Bananastans that he announced in March. The people responsible for Obama’s new comprehensive strategy deserve a session of tar-and-feather therapy.

The strategy, conjured by National Security Adviser James Jones and his team of “chess masters,” is a compendium of wimp-words and hazy goals. We’ll be “promoting a more capable” Afghan government, one that “can eventually function.” We’ll also be “developing” an “increasingly self-reliant” Afghan security force. On top of all that, we’ll be “assisting efforts to enhance civilian control” of Pakistan’s government.

With a strategy like this, who needs enemies? It’s self-defeating. We’ll kinda/sorta try to do things we can’t possibly accomplish. A prolonged occupation of the Bananastans will not “disrupt, dismantle, and defeat al-Qaeda” and its allies. Al-Qaeda and its allies have iPhones. They don’t need to hunker down in the Bananastani Himalayas. They can plan and execute their evildoing at a Club Med getaway if they want to.

 

By June 2009 the Pentagon still hadn’t figured out what measures of effectiveness to use in determining if the new comprehensive strategy is working. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen said that some of those metrics – whatever they turn out to be – will remain classified. That way they won’t have to explain how they know they’re being effective (if they told us, they’d have to kill us). We’ll just have to take their word for it that they’re turning corners and mopping up dead-enders and that victory is at hand even though it will be a long struggle. Gates and Mullen make Cheney and Rumsfeld seem like straight shooters.

Obama told the VFW that “military power alone will not win this war,” but military power, as flaccid as it has become, is more effective than the other forms of power in the American arsenal. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is as adept at diplomacy as John Bolton was. Whenever she opens her mouth it’s all anyone can do to keep another war from breaking out. Whatever economic efforts we can afford to make in the Bananastans will amount to handing out bribes like the ones we handed out in Iraq, and our information operations there involve, at best, a gentlemanly exchange of mendacities with the host countries.

“By moving forward in Iraq,” Obama told the VFW, “we’re able to refocus on the war against al-Qaeda and its extremist allies in Afghanistan and Pakistan.” Candidate Obama pledged to “get the job done” in Afghanistan when his opponents attacked him for having voted against the surge in Iraq. He would have been better off to refute claims of the strategy’s success. Today, more than two-and-a-half years after the surge commenced, counterinsurgency expert John A. Nagl says “the insurgency is not over” and Pentagon correspondent Thomas E. Ricks says we’re “at about the midpoint of the conflict now.”

Bush was probably too dim to realize he was talking gibberish about Iraq, but Obama is too smart to believe the bull jargon he’s handing us about the Bananastans. Obama has to realize that there is no strategy for Afghanistan and that the organized but senseless violence his generals are conducting there will not further “the security and safety of the American people.”

At this point, Obama cannot escape the Bananastan trap without gnawing off a political foot. He needs to sack his National Security Council and everyone in the Department of Defense who wears a bird or a star in their collar or whose title contains the word “secretary.” Then he needs to tell the nation that he was wrong about escalating the war in Afghanistan, and then he needs to bring our troops home.

I doubt that he has the political baby-makers to do that.

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Obama Approves Torture Team

Monday, August 24th, 2009

The White House has confirmed that U.S. President Barack Obama has approved the creation of an elite team of interrogators to question key terrorism suspects.

White House spokesman Bill Burton said the team will be headquartered at the FBI and will bring together all “different elements” involved in interrogations. He said the team’s operation will be consistent with U.S. Army Field Manual regulations.

The Washington Post quotes senior administration officials as saying President Obama approved the so-called High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group last week. According to The Post, the group will be made up of experts from several intelligence and law enforcement agencies, and will be overseen by the National Security Council, giving the White House direct oversight of it.  

President Obama already has banned severe interrogation measures such as waterboarding, or simulated drowning, which were permitted under the previous administration of President George W. Bush. Consistent with the Army Field Manual, banned techniques also include playing loud music and depriving prisoners of sleep.  

Separately, The New York Times reports that the Justice Department ethics office is recommending reopening some prisoner abuse cases from the Bush administration, which could expose CIA employees and contractors to criminal prosecution.

A White House spokesman said the decision on whether to reopen the cases is solely up to Attorney General Eric Holder.

The developments come Monday, as a report by the CIA’s internal investigator is to be released, providing details of the controversial Bush-era interrogation techniques.

Sources who have seen the report say CIA interrogators brandished a gun at one prisoner, Abd al Rahim al-Nashiri, the man accused of masterminding an attack on the USS Cole, and also held a power drill near his body, turning it on and off.

In another case, a gunshot was fired in a room next door, to make a suspect believe another detainee had been killed. Threatening a prisoner with imminent death is illegal under U.S. law.

Sources who have seen the report say it suggests that the harsh techniques did not lead to useful information.

The investigation was completed in 2004. The American Civil Liberties Union fought for the results to be made public.

Some information for this report was provided by AP.

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China releases rights activist

Monday, August 24th, 2009

Ananth Krishnan

BEIJING: Chinese authorities on Sunday unexpectedly released on bail the well-known human rights lawyer Xu Zhiyong, a move seen by scholars and activists in Beijing as a rare victory for public activism.

Mr. Xu, who was arrested outside his home on July 29, is known in China for taking on sensitive human rights cases. He had been accused of tax evasion and kept in detention since July 29. His arrest was seen by many activists here as part of a wider crackdown launched by authorities on non-governmental organisations in the lead-up to the People’s Republic of China’s sixtieth anniversary on October 1.

Mr. Xu, whose detention has attracted international attention, was unexpectedly granted bail on Sunday. As the granting of bail is usually rare in such cases in China, Mr. Xu’s release most likely received sanction from higher authorities.

Mr. Xu founded a legal aid group called Gongmeng, or the Open Constitution Initiative, which has taken on sensitive legal cases in China. The organisation first came to prominence in 2003 when it took up the case of Sun Zhigang, a 27-year-old graduate student who was beaten to death in a Guangzhou detention centre after being picked up for not having the right identification papers. This case received a lot of attention in China, and in its aftermath the government amended custody laws.

Most recently, Gongmeng took up the cases of the victims of milk poisoning. Last year, more then 3 lakh children were sickened after consuming milk tainted with the chemical melamine. Gongmeng is currently representing the parents of victims who are seeking compensation.

But work at the centre has come to a standstill since its Beijing offices were raided last month on tax evasion charges. Authorities said the centre was not properly registered as an NGO, and fined the group 1.4 million Yuan. But human rights activists said the timing of the move suggested a wider crackdown on NGOs which handle sensitive issues in anticipation of the politically significant anniversary on October 1.

“The organisation’s activists say they now hope they can carry on with their work representing the parents of those affected by the milk powder scandal. After Mr. Xu’s arrest, we have not been able to operate normally,” Tian Qizhuang, Gongmeng’s executive director, told The Hindu. “This case has taken up all our energies.”

Mr. Tian said the organisation had on August 10 tried to pay the tax bureau the outstanding charges, but the payment was refused as officials said they needed the signature of Mr. Xu, who was then being held in detention.

Mr. Tian said it was “impossible” for organisations like Gongmeng to register themselves with the government as NGOs as doing so required sanction from government authorities. Consequently, he said, the group’s legal aid centre was functioning under the umbrella of the privately owned Gongmeng group.

The larger fate of Mr. Xu and his organisation is still unresolved.

Mr. Xu still faces trial. It is also unclear if there were any conditions he had to agree to secure his release, and if Gongmeng will continue taking on the kinds of sensitive cases it has in the past.

For now though, Mr. Xu’s release is seen by activists and scholars in Beijing as a rare victory for public activism.

“His release is a victory for all those who seek to promote public interest,” Zhou Xiaozheng, a professor of law at Renmin University in Beijing told the Global Times newspaper. “It’s a huge step of progress for promoting the rule of law in the country.”

(Bao BeiBei contributed to reporting.)

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UK ID cards will be useless in Europe

Saturday, August 22nd, 2009

David Neal |

ACCORDING TO the UK’s Identity Minister, the Government’s ID cards won’t be worth the paper they’ll be printed on.

Despite the fact that the cards are almost in UK citizens’ wallets there is still a lot of work needed to raise awareness about them and their uses, particularly outside the British Isles.

In an interview with the Oldham Evening Chronicle, Lord Brett said that if holders leave the country and try to use the cards as some form of ID they will be met with blank faces and, we presume, Gallic shrugs.

Lord Brett said, “When we do launch it, we want to make sure all our ducks are in a row, it is not just marketing and selling the card to people who want to have it but to make sure first of all that all the countries in Europe will accept it and understand it as a travel document.” He added that unless this was the case there would be “no day one” for the cards.

Further damning the roll out, Brett said that the Police did not have the right to demand to see them, despite government claims that they will have a use in the fight against terrorism.

Brett also revealed the numbers of people who had already signed up to willingly receive the cards. In a display of underwhelming public support, 8,000 people have added their names to the list. Brett added, “It says what it does on the tin, it is your identity card, it is entirely voluntary.”

Meanwhile, millions of UK citizens have wisely chosen not to tear up their passports and driving licenses just yet, if ever.

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Ex-Employees Label Blackwater Chief Super-Villian

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Blackwater ― I mean, “Xe” ― is back in the news, more than six months after the mercenary firm was kicked out of Iraq by the Iraqi government for using “excessive force.” Baghdad gave Blackwater the boot for the company’s apparent role in the killings of 17 civilians in Baghdad’s Nisoor Square on Sept. 16, 2007. In that incident, Blackwater guards reportedly opened fire on a crowd after coming under attack.

According to affidavits filed in federal court on Monday, the company’s founder Erik Prince and his staff were engaged in a fantastic litany of crimes, almost too fantastic to be believed. At the top of the list: Prince and his proteges “murdered, or had murdered, one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities” regarding the Nisoor Square killings. The affidavits, part of a civil lawsuit stemming from Blackwater’s alleged abuses in Iraq, were signed by “John Doe #1″ and “John Doe #2,” both of whom claim to be current or former Blackwater employees. John Doe #2 wrote that he “fear[s] violence against me in retaliation for submitting this declaration.”

The affidavits also allege that Blackwater illegally smuggled weapons into Iraq, sometimes in bags of dog food ― an allegation we’ve heard before. More broadly, “Prince intentionally deployed to Iraq certain men who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. … Going to Iraq to shoot and kill Iraqis was viewed as a sport or game,” according to the statements.The Nation broke the story of the new accusations, calling them “devastating.” Blackwater had re-branded itself as “Xe” earlier this year, in a bid to shed its bad image.

Blackwater’s got loads of legal troubles. Five employees await trial in the U.S. on charges stemming from the Nisoor shootings. The company has also faced accusations from crew members aboard its warship McArthur, which was outfitted to fight pirates but has yet to win a contract. Three McArthur crewmen reported harassment, reprisals and physical abuse at the hands of drunken superiors.

Iraqis, in particular, are adamant that Blackwater face justice. “Iraqis might think at least a little differently of America if the killers are put in prison,” said Iraqis Farid Walid, who was wounded in the Nisoor Square incident.

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Scientology founder made up qualifications

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Jean Antonique

London, UK - Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard made up his qualifications along with his religion, as shown by secret documents released to the Times.

Hubbard bought a sham college and then awarded himself a PhD from it, according to files released by the National Archives after a request by the paper under the Freedom of Information Act.

Back in 1968, Scientologists threatened to sue the British government for libel, after it banned followers from entering the country. To defend itself, the government started gathering evidence that Hubbard was a fake.

In a signed statement amongst the documents, one of Hubbard’s collaborators wrote: “The position is L Ron Hubbard [and others] acquired premises somewhere in Los Angeles which they had registered as a university called Sequoia and immediately awarded each other doctorates.”

Whitehall officials followed up on this with the British Consulate in Los Angeles. They were told: “[Sequoia] is a ‘will of the wisp’ organisation which has no premises and does not really exist. It has not and never had any authority whatsoever to issue diplomas or degrees and the dean is sought by the authorities ‘for questioning’.”

The Scientologists, who number Tom Cruise amongst their numbers, have some pretty groovy beliefs. Apparently, we’re all aliens who have lived before on other planets, and paying Hubbard’s crew loads and loads of money will bring liberation.

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Home Office shrugs off ID card hack demo

Friday, August 7th, 2009

A researcher who claims to have cloned a UK identity card has had his offers to demonstrate the security breach turned down by the Home Office.

Adam Laurie said he had made repeated approaches to the government department since December to show how he had managed to clone and modify the chip on an ID card belonging to a foreign student. However, those approaches were rebuffed, Laurie and Steve Boggan, the investigative journalist working with the researcher, told ZDNet UK.

“There has been no invitation or request from the Home Office to demonstrate the flaws in this technology,” said Boggan. “We have suggested a demonstration [to the Home Office].”

However, the Home Office said it had asked Laurie to provide the cloned card to it a “couple of weeks ago”, but as he had not done so, the hacking claim was unsubstantiated.

Laurie claimed the ID card was cloned and the personal details on the chip changed, in an article by Boggan in the Daily Mail on Wednesday.

“This story is rubbish,” the Home Office said in a statement. “We are satisfied the personal data on the chip cannot be changed or modified and there is no evidence this has happened.”

However, Laurie said on Friday he had not been approached by the Home Office and that it was “bizarre” the government department would claim to have requested to see evidence from him. “The Home Office has never been in direct contact with me,” he said. “If they can produce documentary evidence or a paper trail of an invitation, I’d be interested to see it.”

The researcher added that he would be more than happy to demonstrate the cloning and modification technology to UK government officials.

“The way I work is through responsible disclosure,” said Laurie. “The only reason we went public is that the Home Office had refused repeated approaches from us and we want to make sure they make the cards secure.”

Security experts have long questioned the viability of the prospective UK ID cards and David Blunkett, the architect of the scheme, admitted in April there had been a “massive drop” in public confidence in ID cards.

The chip that was modified uses the technology that will be used in cards for UK citizens, according to Laurie. Criminals could forge or obtain physical plastic cards and then insert modified chips on them, he warned.

To clone the chip, Laurie said he used a generally available USB radio frequency identification reader, the Omnikey 5321 Reader, in combination with his own RFIDIOt code. These were used to read the chip on the foreign student’s card and to then transfer the personal information onto a PC.

A hacker could use a suitably equipped mobile phone, such as the Nokia 6131, to read the information, the researcher said. However, it is easier to use a modified RFIDIOt tool to download data from the card onto a PC, he added.

Laurie said he successfully managed to download all of the data from the chip, except for the fingerprint information. He later created replacement fingerprint data from scratch using a biometric file standard called CBEFF.

“We weren’t able to produce a direct clone of the card, but it didn’t matter, as we were later able to add fingerprint details,” Laurie said.

Personal data is stored on the card using the ICAO9303 passport standard, Laurie said. The data is segregated into files called ‘data groups’. While there are 16 potential data group fields, not all of them are used, Laurie said.

Four of the fields important to the breach are Data Group 1 (DG1), which contains information in the machine readable zone (MRZ) on a passport; DG2, which contains the facial image; DG3, which contains the fingerprint image; and DG14, which contains the digital certificate used for active authentication.

DG14 contains active authentication cryptographic safeguards, which are meant, in part, to ensure that the card has not been tampered with.

However, when a card is presented to a reader, the card itself tells the reader whether it should check for a digital certificate. This makes the safeguards ineffectual, as removing the data group removes the check, said Laurie.

“If the file is not present on the card, the reader doesn’t ask for it,” said Laurie “The card dictates to the reader what security checks to do, and since I control the card, I can tell it to do no security checks.”

The digital certificate also guarantees the authenticity of the other data groups on the card. Each file has a cryptographic signature or checksum that is checked against the digital certificate. The idea is that if any of the files are tampered with, the cryptographic signature will no longer be valid.

However, Laurie said he had circumvented this measure by simply replacing the digital certificate and checksums with his own. This works because the ICAO public key directory used by the government, which is supposed to authenticate the digital certificates centrally, has had no government input yet, he said.

Laurie uploaded the modified files onto an NXP JCOP card, which is a programmable contactless smartcard. He then tested whether it would work using a Golden Reader tool validated by ICAO.

Laurie said it had taken him 12 minutes to read the original card, but that he and fellow security researchers Jeroen van Beek and Peter Guttman had then done additional work.

“This demonstrates the technology is not a universal panacea,” said Laurie.

Tom Espiner ZDNet.co.uk

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Government allows staff to abuse privacy laws

Friday, August 7th, 2009

Councils are failing to prosecute staff caught using a sensitive government database to snoop on celebrities and members of the public, disclosures under the Freedom of Information Act have revealed. 

Computer Weekly has established that staff from at least 34 local authorities have misused the Department of Work and Pensions’ (DWP) Customer Information System (CIS) database to look up personal details of the public.

The database, which holds 92 million records on the population, underpins the government’s ID card programme. It stores sensitive data such as ethnicity, relationship history and whether someone is being investigated for fraud.

Nine staff have been quietly sacked from their local authority jobs for abusing the database, nine have been given official warnings, two have been suspended, four resigned and six had their database access privileges removed, Freedom of Information requests lodged by Computer Weekly have revealed.

But none of the local authorities have chosen to bring prosecutions against their staff for abusing their access to the CIS database.

Abuse of access rights 

The revelation has promoted accusations that local authorities and the DWP are trying to keep the breaches quiet.

Phil Booth, national organiser for campaign group No2ID, said, “They are reluctant to prosecute because that will give the wrong message that the database is insecure from the inside.”

“These are the people we are supposed to be able to trust,” he said.

“It is the job of the keepers of the National Identity Register to keep external hackers out. The problem is insider access by people already authorised.”

Local authorities are required to sign a Memorandum of Understanding that permits them to access the “restricted data” on the CIS. It contains the threat of criminal prosecution of staff who abuse their access rights.

“DWP will consider prosecuting individuals for misuse of information held on CIS. DWP will support your local authority to ensure appropriate disciplinary or prosecution action is taken in serious cases,” it states.

The Memorandum of Understanding gives the DWP rights to withdraw CIS access from local authorities when “any individual user is suspected of misusing the system”.

Data and the law 

But many of the councils told Computer Weekly that their decision not to prosecute staff who have used the CIS database to snoop on members of the public was taken in consultation with the DWP.

Peter Sommer, an expert witness in computer crime cases and visiting professor at the London School of Economics, said the breaches have raised concerns that the law might be too weak.

The Computer Misuse Act could be used to prosecute someone for unauthorised access to a database, he said, but not for looking at information they should not see on a database they are authorised to use.

The Memorandum of Understanding between local authorities and the DWP says that requirements to keep data on the CIS database confidential are “underpinned by legislation” in the Data Protection Act 1998, the Social Security Administration Act 1992 and the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

“[This] binds DWP and your local authority to handle customers’ personal information in confidence… Your local authority has an explicit responsibility for the security of the information and is accountable for the actions of users with access to the CIS,” it says.

The Social Security Administration Act 1992 could be used to send people to prison for snooping on social security databases they were otherwise authorised to access, but only if it were proven they had disclosed their findings to others, say experts.

In at least one instance, a council worker passed on information to a family member. The worker was given a warning.

A DWP spokesman said, “It is the duty of local authorities to consider and enforce what is appropriate, including legal action against their employees.”

National Identity Scheme

A Home Office spokesman said the CIS breaches should not reflect badly on the National Identity Scheme, which is still in development. The CIS might be pegged as the biographical store for the Identity Scheme, he said, but Home Office data would be stored separately from data held by the DWP and protected by “strict access controls”.

“IPS [Identity and Passport Service] will make the systems supporting the National Identity Scheme as secure as possible, building on an excellent track record with the current passport database,” he said.

Mark Ballard

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Blackwater accused of murder in ‘crusade to eliminate Muslims’

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

A series of allegations including murder, weapons smuggling and the deliberate slaughter of civilians have been levelled against the founder of Blackwater, the security company being investigated for shooting deaths in Iraq. The accusations, including a claim that the company founder Erik Prince either murdered or had killed former employees co-operating with federal investigators, are contained in sworn affidavits lodged at a Virginia court on Monday night. The company was the most prominent of an army of private security companies employed by the Pentagon and State Department to protect military convoys and guard US diplomats in Iraq, The Times reminds.

The accusations against Mr Prince are being made by two former employees, including a former Marine, who have sworn them anonymously as John Doe No 1 and John Doe No 2, because they said they feared for their lives if their identities were revealed.

In one of the statements, John Doe 2, who worked for Blackwater for four years, alleged that Mr Prince “views himself as a Christian crusader tasked with eliminating Muslims and the Islamic faith from the globe” and that his companies “encouraged and rewarded the destruction of Iraqi life”.
They claimed that Mr Prince and other executives destroyed incriminating videos, e-mails and documents and hid their criminal behaviour from the US State Department.

John Doe 2 claimed in his affidavit that ― based on information he said was provided to him by former colleagues ― “it appears that Mr Prince and his employees murdered or had murdered one or more persons who have provided information, or who were planning to provide information, to the federal authorities about the ongoing criminal conduct”.

The affidavits are part of a motion lodged by lawyers representing 60 Iraqi civilians who are suing Blackwater for alleged crimes. The five civilian suits were consolidated before a judge in northern Virginia. The motion was in response to a request by Blackwater to dismiss the case. Blackwater, which lost its multimillion-dollar State Department contract in May, denies the claims and is contesting the lawsuits. No criminal charges have been filed against Mr Prince.

In a statement released to CNN, the company said that it would respond “to the anonymous unsubstantiated and offensive assertions put forward by the plaintiffs” in a brief to be filed on August 17. It added: “It is obvious that plaintiffs have chosen to slander Mr Prince rather than raise legal arguments or actual facts that will be considered by a court of law. We are happy to engage them there.
“We question the judgment of anyone who relies upon and [reiterates] anonymous declarations.” Five Blackwater guards who pleaded not guilty to manslaughter charges are awaiting trial over a shooting incident in Nisour Square, Baghdad, on September 16, 2007, which left 17 Iraqis dead. A sixth guard pleaded guilty.

The John Doe 2 affidavit alleged that Mr Prince intentionally deployed like-minded men to Iraq “who shared his vision of Christian supremacy, knowing and wanting these men to take every available opportunity to murder Iraqis. Many of these men used call signs based on the Knights of the Templar, the warriors who fought the Crusades”. It stated that Blackwater employees consistently used racist and derogatory terms. The separate 72-page motion, which cites the affidavits, also accused Blackwater guards of boasting of kills, taking mind-altering drugs, steroids and using child prostitutes. Mr Prince is accused of smuggling illegal weapons into Iraq on his private aircraft. He is accused of allowing his guards to use illegal exploding bullets “to inflict maximum damage on Iraqis”. He is also accused of racketeering and tax evasion. The former Marine alleged that numerous incidents of excessive force were videotaped, watched at the end of the day, and then erased.

FOCUS News Agency

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Biometrics system for foreign students

Thursday, August 6th, 2009

A parliamentary committee has echoed universities’ concerns over the robustness of the biometrics system that will be used for visa applications by students.

The Home Affairs Committee looked at the role of the National Biometric Identity Service (NBIS) in student visa applications as part of a report into migration processes.

UK universities can guarantee that foreign students applying for visas will attend under the sponsorship management system, which is part of the NBIS. Under the scheme, students must submit their fingerprints and other identifying characteristics at biometric collection points overseas for holding in the NBIS database.

However, as approximately eight per cent of university funding comes from those foreign students, and because many government IT projects have failed, universities are concerned that the enrolment of students will depend on the untested NBIS, the committee said.

“Given the unfortunate propensity of previous large-scale Home Office IT systems to fail, we fully sympathise with the nervousness felt by universities about a sponsorship management system which relies entirely on a Home Office IT project,” said the report, released on Saturday. “The consequences for the reputation, functioning and finances of UK businesses and educational establishments of any failure of the system at peak times of the year, are potentially dramatic.”

A spokesperson for the UK Border Agency (UKBA) told silicon.com sister site ZDNet UK on Wednesday that while the part of the NBIS that deals with the sponsorship management system will be launched in the autumn, the majority of the system is already running.

“Much of our IT system is already in place and is working well,” said the spokesperson. “The final part of the system, which will be used by colleges and universities, will go live in autumn of this year. We have been working with colleges for nearly a year to develop the system and we have a robust and independently verified testing plan.”

In addition, the UKBA does not have enough collection points overseas, the Home Affairs Committee said in its report, citing incidences of people having to travel to different countries to give their fingerprints. This has slowed the visa application process, said the committee.

“The requirement for applicants to provide biometrics in person for visas and the inevitable delays associated with this process seems to be causing disproportionate delays and expense to applicants,” said the report. “The challenge with providing biometrics is especially acute for migrants in certain parts of the world where biometric collection centres are few and far between, such as certain African countries.”

The committee added there were insufficient numbers of biometric collection centres in most countries aside from the US, and recommended the government should establish more biometric capture points, including the provision of mobile biometric-collection centres, “as a matter of urgency”.

The UKBA spokesperson added that while the agency had no plans to increase the number of biometric collection points, it was working to improve the application process.

“Visa applications can be lodged at 250 places worldwide,” said the spokesperson. “We are continually seeking ways to make biometric collection more accessible to our customers and have agreements in place with many foreign governments to use already established collection points. Where people need to travel urgently we can and have made special arrangements to facilitate their journeys.”

The seven-year NBIS contract was awarded to IBM in April.

Original article: MPs show lack of faith in biometrics IT system from ZDNet UK

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Ministers call for torture inquiry

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Parliament’s Joint Human Rights Committee has called for an independent inquiry into allegations that the British Government was complicit in acts of torturing terror suspects.

The cross-party group of MPs and peers examined details of several cases where it was alleged individuals detained as terror suspects were mistreated by Britain’s allies abroad.

Shadow foreign secretary William Hague said: “The Government’s failure to answer growing questions about torture and rendition are damaging the good name of this country.”

He added: “It is particularly disappointing that both the Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary refused to give oral evidence to the committee.

“We agree with the report’s recommendation that the Intelligence and Security Committee should be reformed.”

Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen said: “The committee is absolutely right to call on the Government to allow a full, independent inquiry into all aspects of alleged complicity by the UK in torture, ‘rendition’, illegal detention and other human rights abuses.

“Amnesty has been calling for an inquiry for months and the sense we are getting is that the Government is still trying to brush this issue under the carpet.

A Government spokesman said there was no need to hold an independent inquiry and said there were no new allegations in the committee’s report.

He said: “The Government unreservedly condemns the use of torture as a matter of fundamental principle and works hard with its international partners to eradicate this abhorrent practice worldwide.”

Among the cases referred to the committee was that of Salahuddin Amin, a UK-born terrorist convicted in 2007 of planning to attack numerous targets in the UK, including the Bluewater shopping centre. Amin alleged that he was tortured during his detention in Pakistan between 2004 and 2005 and that British intelligence officials interviewed him several times in between periods of torture.

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Government plans to install CCTV in 20,000 homes

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

Adam Hartley

The UK Government’s Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has announced a controversial new CCTV monitoring scheme, in which thousands of problem families are to be monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Balls claims that the £400 million “sin bin” scheme will put up to 20,000 problem families under 24-hour surveillance in their own homes, to ensure children go to bed and school on time and eat proper meals.

“Private security guards will also be sent round to carry out home checks, while parents will be given help to combat drug and alcohol addiction,” reads a report in the Sunday Express.

Family Intervention Projects

Mr Balls wants every local authority to fund such ‘Family Intervention Projects‘, noting that: “This is pretty tough and non-negotiable support for families to get to the root of the problem.

“There should be Family Intervention Projects in every local authority area because every area has families that need support.”

Pupils and their families will have to sign ‘Home School Agreements’ which set out parents’ duties to make sure their kids attend school.

However, privacy campaigners are already up in arms over the latest government plans to install surveillance tech within people’s homes.

Fear not, just read this on how to avoid being captured on CCTV instead.

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Internet firms condemn “unwarranted” invasion of people’s privacy

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

A proposal to allow Cheltenham listening post GCHQ to monitor any email, phone call or website visit of people in the UK has been condemned by internet firms.

The London Internet Exchange, which represents more than 330 companies, including BT, Virgin and Carphone Warehouse, says the Government’s surveillance proposals are an “unwarranted” invasion of people’s privacy.

The £2 billion project, pioneered by former Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, would allow the Benhall-based intelligence headquarters access to the records of internet providers in an effort to maintain its defences against terrorism.

The firms will be asked to collect and store vast amounts of data, including from social networking sites such as Facebook, although intelligence workers will not be able to view the actual content of emails and phone calls.

But the companies, who would have to co-operate with ministers for the scheme to be implemented, say the Government has misled the public about the extent to which it plans to monitor internet activity.

A private submission from the London Internet Exchange to the Home Office said: “We view the description of the Government’s proposals as maintaining the capability as disingenuous – the volume of data the Government now proposes we should collect and retain will be unprecedented.

“This is a purely political description that serves only to win consent by hiding the extent of the proposed extension of powers for the state.”

The criticism is the latest blow to the scheme. Ms Smith was forced to abandon plans for a giant database of internet records in April following privacy concerns.

She tried to salvage the project by announcing £2 billion of public money would instead be spent on helping internet providers to retain information for up to 12 months.

But the London Internet Exchange said the proposals were unworkable.

It said: “We aren’t aware of any existing equipment (an internet firm) could purchase that would enable it to acquire and retain such a wide range of data.

“In some common cases it would be impossible in principle to obtain the information sought.

A spokesman for GCHQ said: “The Home Office has consulted publicly on its proposals.

“It recognises that this is a complex and sensitive subject with a fine balance to be made between protecting public safety and civil liberties.

“GCHQ is providing technical advice and support to the Home Office and has no plans to monitor all internet use and phone calls in Britain.”

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