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Pentagon to deploy 20,000 uniformed troops inside US by 2011 to prepare for "catastrophes"

Spencer S. Hsu and Ann Scott Tyson
MSNBC
Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:54 UTC

The U.S. military expects to have 20,000 uniformed troops inside the United States by 2011 trained to help state and local officials respond to a nuclear terrorist attack or other domestic catastrophe, according to Pentagon officials.

John Markoff
NYTimes
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:19 UTC

© Jodi Hilton fo the New York Times
About 100 students at M.I.T. are trading privacy for a smartphone that tracks their calls, messages and movements.

Jaya Narain
Daily Mail
Sun, 30 Nov 2008 23:01 UTC

A soldier who served his country in Iraq and Afghanistan was allegedly attacked and violently beaten by police officers in the street.

Lance Corporal Mark Aspinall, 24, was thrown to the ground by three uniformed police officers after enjoying a night out with friends. The sickening attack - caught on CCTV - shocked a Crown Court judge who branded it an 'appalling' attack.

But astonishingly Lance Corporal Aspinall was the one hauled before the courts and convicted of assaulting the police. He was sentenced to 200 hours community service and even ordered to pay compensation to the police officers.

Louise Gray
Telegraph
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 19:16 UTC

Stephen Hockman QC is proposing a body similar to the International Court of Justice in The Hague to be the supreme legal authority on issues regarding the environment.

The first role of the new body would be to enforce international agreements on cutting greenhouse gas emissions set to be agreed next year.

But the court would also fine countries or companies that fail to protect endangered species or degrade the natural environment and enforce the "right to a healthy environment".

Canadian agency spying on Mohawks

Joe Friesen
Globe & Mail
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 19:05 UTC

Canadian spies are trying to recruit informants on a Quebec Mohawk reserve, telling their targets they're probing the national security threat posed by radical native groups and gathering intelligence on the murky, lucrative trade in contraband tobacco and online gambling.

Benedict Brogan, James Chapman and Stephen Wright
The Daily Mail
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 18:09 UTC

MPs demanded protection from a 'police state' last night after the heavy-handed arrest of a Tory frontbencher shocked Westminster.

Extraordinary details of four simultaneous raids on immigration spokesman Damian Green's homes and offices raised urgent questions about the independence of Parliament.

The Oxford-educated father of two girls, who denies any wrongdoing, was fingerprinted and required to give a DNA sample before being released on bail after nine hours.

Police seized his mobile phone, his BlackBerry, bank statements, computers containing confidential details of constituents, and were only prevented from carrying off legal documents by his wife, a barrister. Officers even leafed through the couple's love letters.

The tactics of Scotland Yard investigating a series of leaks that had no bearing on national security and served only to embarrass Labour were compared to those used in Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe.

Treated Like a Terrorist by the DMV

Dave Lindorff
Alter Net
Fri, 28 Nov 2008 11:01 UTC

The author tries to renew his drivers license and runs afoul of the catch-a-terrorist system in the DMV.

Amanda Gefter and Tom Simonite
New Scientist
Sat, 29 Nov 2008 01:05 UTC

In today's technological world we leave electronic traces wherever we go, whether shopping online or on the high street, at work or at play. That data is the raw material for a new industry of number crunchers trying to explain and influence human behaviour, as Stephen Baker explains in his new book "The Numerati".

In the book, Baker meets the maths whizzes at the bleeding edge of this new way of doing business, politics, and even matchmaking.

You might be surprised at some of the things Baker's "numerati" want to know and can already find out about you. Read on for some examples taken from the book.

Mountains of facts

Databases know more about you than you realise. A Carnegie Mellon University study recently showed that simply by knowing gender, birth date and postal zip code, 87% of people in the United States could be pinpointed by name.

'Sci-Fi Film' CCTV Predicts Crime

Sky News
Thu, 27 Nov 2008 14:42 UTC

CCTVs are taking a step closer to the science fiction idea of the Minority Report with a predictive system being installed in a British city for the first time.

The CCTV system has gone up in sites across Portsmouth and it will reportedly help predict crimes before they actually happen.

The city's council has set up the network of "intelligent" cameras that can alert an operator to suspicious behaviour.

The system is able to spot "unusual" incidents like somebody loitering or a vehicle travelling too fast.

It then alerts CCTV operators so they in turn can assess the situation and decide what action - if any - needs to be taken.

The system is being set up to watch quiet areas like car parks, stairwells or corridors in buildings and streets at night-time.

News.com.au
Wed, 26 Nov 2008 16:16 UTC

A private intelligence company has been engaged by police to secretly monitor internet and email use by activist and protest groups, a report says.

The company was hired to monitor and report on the internet activities of anti-war campaigners, animal rights activists, environmental campaigners, and other protest groups, Fairfax Media reported.

It was hired by Victorian Police, the Australian Federal Police and the federal Attorney-General's department.

The Melbourne-based firm has for the past five years monitored websites, online chat rooms, social networking sites, email lists and bulletin boards, the report said.

It has gathered intelligence on planned protests and other activities, and many of those on the watch list have broken no laws, the report said.

Comment: Further evidence that the increasing using of surveillance and monitoring is targeted at civilians and has nothing to do with the fake 'terror' threat.

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