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Such trends may be relatively innocuous, but the increasing state interest in what the images might reveal is less so. Specifically, what if brain imaging could predict future behaviour, or indicate guilt or innocence of a crime? There are claims, for example, that it could reveal potential 'psychopathy', that the brains of men convicted of brutal murders show significantly abnormal patterns.The real problem is that if those in power are psychopaths, they're not going to be pushing technologies that could be used to incriminate them. They would do the exact opposite.
In the current legislative climate, where there have been attempts to introduce pre-emptive detention for 'psychopaths' who have not yet been convicted of any crime, such claims need to be addressed critically. They are and will be resisted by the judiciary, but recent developments suggest that this may be a frail defence against an increasingly authoritarian state.
Baghdad bomb kills 22Notice that a "Baghdad bomb" killed at least 22 Iraqi civilians today, and that "car and roadside bombings occur almost daily". In reading this account, you could be forgiven for coming away with the impression that "Baghdad bombs" have a life of their own and need no help from any human agency to wreak their bloody carnage. Perhaps the problem is that there is never any reliable claim of responsibility for these attacks, and journalists and commentators are just mystified as Iraqi civilians about what kind of "Iraqi insurgent group" would deliberately kill their own neighbors - the very support base that they rely on to resist the American occupation.
At least 22 people were killed and 28 wounded when a car bomb exploded in a busy outdoor market in the Iraqi city of Baghdad today.
Iraqi police said the bomb exploded at 4.45pm local time in Dora, a south-west district of the city. It is believed the attack was aimed at a police patrol but missed its target.
The injured were taken to hospital where a source said the death toll could be much higher. Dora is one of the most dangerous parts of Baghdad, with car and roadside bombings occurring daily since a Sunni-dominated insurgency began in the summer of 2003.
Comment: Remember the Judy Miller case at the New York Times? Miller had been used by the neo-cons, and she is herself a neo-con, to funnel out fake info about Saddam and his weapons of mass invisibility. She was becoming a disgrace when her antics became public. Then, last summer, she was resurrected as a hero for refusing to give her sources in the Valerie Plame leak case.
She heroically did her time until "Scooter" Libby admitted that he was her source.
Here we have a case of Israeli spying on the US, something that goes on regularly and consistently. We see the attempt to pull the same switcheroo in a way to white wash Israel's spying on the US.
The Bush regime will attempt to use the case to clamp down yet again on the rights of US citizens while those interested in the freedom of information will be maneuvered into supporting the spies!