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Flashback: Operation Mind Control 2007

Tenn Times
Fri, 09 Nov 2007 12:07 EST

On August 19, 1975, an article I wrote was published in Modern People as part of a 26-part series, and soon became a ticking time bomb that would be translated into more than seven languages and would be quoted in several books on mind control, including the classic Operation Mind Control by Walter Bowart, founder of The East Village Other, a radical underground newspaper.

The story of Operation Mind Control and how it was immediately suppressed, bought up and destroyed by the CIA is an astounding story of its own. It disappeared from libraries, book stores and even the publisher's (Dell Publishing) warehouses. Bowart went into seclusion not too long after and would not discuss it. Had he been threatened, shut up? The world would never know.

Bowart called me 1975 or 1976 and I spoke with him at some length, then forgot the matter and went on with other things in my life until, in 1978 I saw the book in a Nashville bookstore and promptly snatched it up - not because I was interviewed for it, but because it was a topic I was intensely interested in for my own research.

In fact, it didn't even dawn on me that this was the book until I was skimming through it on the way back to the car and ran across my own name in the index.

Robert Fredricks
Health Insurance News
Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:39 EST

Understanding Health Reform

The Government's proposed mandatory health insurance has been the headline of most news media and on most American's minds these past months. But, there have been many reports, studies and surveys that show Americans will most likely "not comply" with the mandate of health insurance as reported by the Insurance Research Council.

Most Americans are concerned about how the government office will enforce such a mandate as "regulation is only as good as enforcement." Also reported in the recent studies of the Insurance Research Council is that some people are "simply irresponsible and look to others to buy their insurance."

With the government proposed order of making it mandatory for all Americans to have health insurance, many wonder about the affordability for the insurance. As the nation's unemployment rate rises, more and more people will drop those expenses necessary to "make ends meet."

Michael Geist
MichaelGeist.ca
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 20:09 EST

Crown copyright concerns were raised repeatedly during this summer's copyright consultation as many groups expressed the view that government works should be treated as public domain. The issue generated some surprise from Industry Minister Tony Clement, who asked for examples about why crown copyright was a problem. This morning, the Auditor General provided a helpful example as her office has sent takedown demands to the Globe and Mail and Scribd for posting one chapter from her report (Globe article, Scribd post). The office argues that crown copyright applies and that a written request for permission on a case-by-case basis is required. Leaving aside the fact that this is arguably fair dealing - it is news reporting and consists of one chapter from a much larger report - the very notion that Canadians need advance permission to post a portion of government report runs counter to the Auditor General's own efforts at government transparency and efficiency. The Auditor General should be encouraging broad dissemination of her work, not sending legal demand letters to shut down Internet postings.

Tom Whitehead
The Telegraph
Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:14 EST

Parents have been banned from supervising their children in public playgrounds, because they have not undergone criminal record checks.

Only council-vetted "play rangers" are now allowed to monitor youngsters in two adventure areas in Watford while parents must watch from outside a perimeter fence.

The Watford Borough Council policy has been attacked as insulting and a disgrace by furious relatives who say they are being labelled as potential paedophiles.

It will further fuel concerns over a growing nanny state amid the deepening row over the Government's new national anti-paedophile database.

That will see at least 11 million adults have to be vetted to work with children or vulnerable adults, including parents who give officials lifts to and from social or sports clubs.

Iran Arabic channel taken off air

BBC News
Wed, 04 Nov 2009 02:36 EST

Iran's Arabic language satellite television channel, al-Alam, has been taken off air by two Arab-controlled satellite companies.

The operators of Nilesat and Arabsat cited a breach of contract according to Egypt's MENA news agency, but al-Alam said they had not been given a reason.

Analysts say some Arab governments are worried about the channel's popularity and Iran's growing regional influence.

Saudi Arabia hosted a meeting of Arab information ministers on Tuesday.

The Mail Online
Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:15 EST

© Mail Online
'Ludicrous': Poole Borough Council spied on Jenny Paton, pictured arriving at the tribunal with her partner Tim Joyce yesterday, 21 times in three weeks

A council which used controversial laws to spy on a mother and her family 21 times in three weeks insisted today that its actions only 'minimally' invaded their privacy.

Poole Borough Council had also used Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (Ripa) legislation on two other occasions to determine whether families were living in the right school catchment areas, a landmark hearing was told.

Mother-of-three Jenny Paton had applied for a school in Poole which was 'educational gold dust', Ben Hooper, counsel for the district's borough council, said.

Ms Paton, 40, had branded the authority 'ludicrous and completely outrageous' as she took the authority to court for its use of Ripa legislation.

In the second day's evidence before the Investigatory Powers Tribunal in central London, Mr Hooper told the panel: 'It was minimally invasive of privacy.'

Daniel Silva
mb.com.ph
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:13 EST

Madrid - The new ''smart meters'' utilities are installing in homes around the world to reduce energy use raise fresh privacy issues because of the wealth of information about consumer habits they reveal, experts said Friday.

The devices send data on household energy consumption directly to utilities on a regular basis, allowing the firms to manage demand more efficiently and advise households when it is cheaper to turn on appliances.

But privacy experts gathered in Madrid for a three-day conference which wraps up Friday warned that the meters can also reveal intimate details about customers' habits such as when they eat, what time they go to sleep or how much television they watch.

With cars expected to be fuelled increasingly by electricity in the coming years, the new meters could soon be used to gather information on consumer behaviour beyond the home, they added.

Martin Beckford and Graeme Paton
The Daily Telegraph
Sat, 07 Nov 2009 13:07 EST

© Getty
The long-delayed £224 project will make England?s 11million young people safer by providing a single register that can be used by all child protection professionals

Every child in England will have their personal details stored on a controversial database despite fears over security and privacy.

Ministers are pressing ahead with the introduction of ContactPoint to every local authority in the country after claiming that a pilot project has proved a success.

They say the long-delayed £224 project will make England's 11million young people safer by providing a single register that can be used by all child protection professionals.

But there are concerns that the sensitive data could fall into the wrong hands, after an official review concluded that it could never be completely secure.

It is also feared that police or council workers will use it to search for evidence of crime or pry into family arrangements, rather than safeguarding children.

The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats are both committed to scrapping ContactPoint, should they win the general election.

Rebecca Thompson
Computer Weekly
Thu, 29 Oct 2009 06:21 EDT

Over 90,000 innocent people have been added to the DNA database since the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against the practice

The figures, which were obtained by the Liberal Democrats, showed 433,752 DNA profiles had been added to the database since the ECHR ruling on 5 December 2008, equalling 1,480 per day. In the same period, only 611 profiles were removed.

There are now nearly 5.5 million DNA profiles on the database relating to 4.8 million people. The government estimated in 2008 that 20% of people on the database are innocent - meaning records of one million innocent people may be held on it.

The Home Office recently dropped proposals to keep the DNA of innocent people for 12 years, but privacy campaigners want it to go further.

Adam Smith
Halesowen News
Thu, 05 Nov 2009 06:18 EST

Children in Halesowen are having their fingerprints taken for a new £23k biometric school dinner scheme.

Windsor High School has insisted the biometric 'kiddyprinting' is not out of the ordinary but parents have complained the measure is another sign of a 'Big Brother' society.

The cashless school dinner system allows parents and the school to check children are eating healthy meals and prevents them spending their dinner money at the local chip shop.

The new system cost £23,000 to install but the school received a Government grant to cover half the costs. Concerned parent Heloise Morgan has demanded all evidence of her child's fingerprint be destroyed.

She said: "Where is it all going to end? If we have come to the stage when children think it is normal to give their fingerprints to get school dinners then the world surely has gone mad."

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"The free press is the mother of all our liberties and of our progress under liberty" Adlai E. Stevenson

"There is no more important struggle for American democracy than ensuring a diverse, independent and free media. Free Press is at the heart of that struggle." Bill Moyers

"This is, in theory, still a free country, but our politically correct, censorious times are such that many of us tremble to give vent to perfectly acceptable views for fear of condemnation. Freedom of speech is thereby imperiled, big questions go undebated, and great lies become accepted, unequivocally as great truths." Simon Heffer in The Daily Mail, 7 June 2000

"The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure." Thomas Jefferson to Lafayette, 1823

"A cantankerous press, an obstinate press, a ubiquitous press, must be suffered by those in authority in order to preserve the right of the people to know.": Murray I. Gurfein

One of the shrewdest ways for human predators to conquer their stronger victims is to steadily convince them with propaganda that they're still free. N.A. Scott