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Anonymous Downs Government, Music Industry Sites in Largest Attack Ever

admin — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 12:15:44 +0000

Anonymous Downs Government, Music Industry Sites in Largest Attack Ever Russia Today January 21, 2012 Hacktivists with the collective Anonymous are waging an attack on the website for the White House after successfully breaking the sites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA and Motion Picture Association of America. In response to today’s federal raid on the file sharing service Megaupload, hackers with the online collective Anonymous have broken the websites for the FBI, Department of Justice, Universal Music Group, RIAA, Motion Picture Association of America and Warner Music Group. “It was in retaliation for Megaupload, as was the concurrent attack on Justice.org,” Anonymous operative Barrett Brown tells RT on Thursday afternoon. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Only hours before the DoJ and Universal sites went down, news broke that Megaupload, a massive file sharing site with a reported 50 million daily users, was taken down by federal agents. Four people linked to Megaupload were arrested in New Zealand and an international crackdown led agents to serving at least 20 search warrants across the globe. The latest of sites to fall is FBI.gov, which finally broke at around 7:40 pm EST Thursday evening. Less than an hour after the DoJ and Universal sites came down, the website for the RIAA, or Recording Industry Association of America, went offline as well. Shortly before 6 p.m EST, the government’s Copyright.gov site went down as well. Thirty minutes later came the site for BMI, or Broadcast Music, Inc, the licensing organization that represents some of the biggest names in music. Also on Thursday, MPAA.org returned an error as Anonymous hacktivists managed to bring down the website for the Motion Picture Association of America. The group, headed by former senator Chris Dodd, is an adamant supporter of both PIPA and SOPA legislation. Universal Music Group, or UMG, is the largest record company in the United States and under its umbrella are the labels Interscope-Geffen-A&M, the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group and Mercury Records. Brown adds that “more is coming” and Anonymous-aligned hacktivists are pursuing a joint effort with others to “damage campaign raising abilities of remaining Democrats who support SOPA.” Although many members of Congress have just this week changed their stance on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA, the raid on Megaupload Thursday proved that the feds don’t need SOPA or its sister legislation, PIPA, in order to pose a threat to the Web. Brown adds that operatives involved in the project will use an “experimental campaign” and search engine optimization techniques “whereby to forever saddle some of these congressmen with their record on this issue.” Source: Russia Today

Oil Change Reignites Debate over GPS Trackers

admin — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 16:08:18 +0000

Oil Change Reignites Debate over GPS Trackers by Paul Elias Associated Press October 17, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO, California In this undated photo provided by Yasir Afifi, shows a GPS monitoring device he found on his car in Santa Clara. Yasir Afifi,a 20-year-old computer salesman and community college student, took his car in for an oil change earlier this month and his mechanic spotted an odd wire hanging from the undercarriage. The wire was attached to a strange magnetic device that puzzled Afifi and the mechanic. They freed it from the car and posted images of it online, asking for help in identifying it. Two days later, FBI agents arrived at Afifi’s Santa Clara apartment and demanded the return of their property — a global positioning system tracking device now at the center of a raging legal debate over privacy rights. One federal judge wrote that the widespread use of the device was straight out of George Orwell’s novel, “1984″. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines “By holding that this kind of surveillance doesn’t impair an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy, the panel hands the government the power to track the movements of every one of us, every day of our lives,” wrote Alex Kozinski, the chief judge of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in a blistering dissent in which a three-judge panel from his court ruled that search warrants weren’t necessary for GPS tracking. But other federal and state courts have come to the opposite conclusion. Law enforcement advocates for the devices say GPS can eliminate time-consuming stakeouts and old-fashioned “tails” with unmarked police cars. The technology had a starring role in the HBO cops-and-robbers series “The Wire” and police use it to track every type of suspect — from terrorist to thieves stealing copper from air conditioners. That investigators don’t need a warrant to use GPS tracking devices in California troubles privacy advocates, technophiles, criminal defense attorneys and others. The federal appeals court based in Washington D.C. said in August that investigators must obtain a warrant for GPS in tossing out the conviction and life sentence of Antoine Jones, a nightclub owner convicted of operating a cocaine distribution ring. That court concluded that the accumulation of four-weeks worth of data collected from a GPS on Jones’ Jeep amounted to a government “search” that required a search warrant. Judge Douglas Ginsburg said watching Jones’ Jeep for an entire month rather than trailing him on one trip made all the difference between surveilling a suspect on public property and a search needing court approval. “First, unlike one’s movements during a single journey, the whole of one’s movements over the course of a month is not actually exposed to the public because the likelihood anyone will observe all those movements is effectively nil,” Ginsburg wrote. The state high courts of New York, Washington and Oregon have ruled similarly. The Obama administration last month asked the D.C. federal appeals court to change its ruling, calling the decision “vague and unworkable” and arguing that investigators will lose access to a tool they now use “with great frequency.” After the D.C. appeals court decision, the 9th Circuit refused to revisit its opposite ruling. The panel had concluded that agents could have gathered the same information by following Juan Pineda-Moreno, who was convicted of marijuana distribution after a GPS device alerted agents he was leaving a suspected “grow site.” “The only information the agents obtained from the tracking devices was a log of the locations where Pineda-Moreno’s car traveled, information the agents could have obtained by following the car,” Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain wrote for the three-judge panel. Two other federal appeals court have ruled similarly. In his dissent, Chief Judge Kozinski noted that GPS technology is far different from tailing a suspect on a public road, which requires the active participation of investigators. “The devices create a permanent electronic record that can be compared, contrasted and coordinated to deduce all manner of private information about individuals,” Kozinksi wrote. Legal scholars predict the U.S. Supreme Court will ultimately resolve the issue since so many courts disagree. George Washington University law professor Orin Kerr said the issue boils down to public vs. private. As long as the GPS devices are attached to vehicles on public roads, Kerr believes the U.S. Supreme Court will decide no warrant is needed. To decide otherwise, he said, would ignore a long line of previous 4th Amendment decisions allowing for warrantless searches as long as they’re conducted on public property. “The historic line is that public surveillance is not covered by the 4th Amendment,” Kerr said. All of which makes Afifi’s lawyer pessimistic that he has much of a chance to file a successful lawsuit challenging the FBI’s actions. Afifi is represented by Zahra Billoo of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the country’s largest Islamic civil rights group. Afifi declined comment after spending last week fielding myriad media inquiries after wired.com posted the story of his routine oil change and it went viral on the Internet. Still, Billoo hopes the discovered GPS tracking device will help publicize in dramatic fashion the issue of racial profiling the lawyer says Arab-Americans routinely encounter. She said Afifi was targeted because of his extensive ties to the Middle East, which include supporting two brothers who live in Egypt and making frequent overseas trips. His father was a well-known Islamic-American community leader who died last year in Egypt. “Yasir hasn’t done anything to warrant that kind of surveillance,” Billoo said. “This was a blatant example of profiling.” Source: Associated Press Photo: AP .

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US Soldiers ‘Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies’

admin — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:40:10 +0000

US Soldiers ‘Killed Afghan Civilians for Sport and Collected Fingers as Trophies’ by Chris McGreal UK Guardian September 9, 2010 Andrew Holmes, Michael Wagnon, Jeremy Morlock and Adam Winfield are four of the five Stryker soldiers who face murder charges. Soldiers face charges over secret ‘kill team’ which allegedly murdered at random and collected fingers as trophies of war Twelve American soldiers face charges over a secret “kill team” that allegedly blew up and shot Afghan civilians at random and collected their fingers as trophies. Five of the soldiers are charged with murdering three Afghan men who were allegedly killed for sport in separate attacks this year. Seven others are accused of covering up the killings and assaulting a recruit who exposed the murders when he reported other abuses, including members of the unit smoking hashish stolen from civilians. In one of the most serious accusations of war crimes to emerge from the Afghan conflict, the killings are alleged to have been carried out by members of a Stryker infantry brigade based in Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines According to investigators and legal documents, discussion of killing Afghan civilians began after the arrival of Staff Sergeant Calvin Gibbs at forward operating base Ramrod last November. Other soldiers told the army’s criminal investigation command that Gibbs boasted of the things he got away with while serving in Iraq and said how easy it would be to “toss a grenade at someone and kill them”. One soldier said he believed Gibbs was “feeling out the platoon”. Investigators said Gibbs, 25, hatched a plan with another soldier, Jeremy Morlock, 22, and other members of the unit to form a “kill team”. While on patrol over the following months they allegedly killed at least three Afghan civilians. According to the charge sheet, the first target was Gul Mudin, who was killed “by means of throwing a fragmentary grenade at him and shooting him with a rifle”, when the patrol entered the village of La Mohammed Kalay in January. Morlock and another soldier, Andrew Holmes, were on guard at the edge of a poppy field when Mudin emerged and stopped on the other side of a wall from the soldiers. Gibbs allegedly handed Morlock a grenade who armed it and dropped it over the wall next to the Afghan and dived for cover. Holmes, 19, then allegedly fired over the wall. Later in the day, Morlock is alleged to have told Holmes that the killing was for fun and threatened him if he told anyone. The second victim, Marach Agha, was shot and killed the following month. Gibbs is alleged to have shot him and placed a Kalashnikov next to the body to justify the killing. In May Mullah Adadhdad was killed after being shot and attacked with a grenade. The Army Times reported that a least one of the soldiers collected the fingers of the victims as souvenirs and that some of them posed for photographs with the bodies. Five soldiers – Gibbs, Morlock, Holmes, Michael Wagnon and Adam Winfield – are accused of murder and aggravated assault among other charges. All of the soldiers have denied the charges. They face the death penalty or life in prison if convicted. The killings came to light in May after the army began investigating a brutal assault on a soldier who told superiors that members of his unit were smoking hashish. The Army Times reported that members of the unit regularly smoked the drug on duty and sometimes stole it from civilians. The soldier, who was straight out of basic training and has not been named, said he witnessed the smoking of hashish and drinking of smuggled alcohol but initially did not report it out of loyalty to his comrades. But when he returned from an assignment at an army headquarters and discovered soldiers using the shipping container in which he was billeted to smoke hashish he reported it. Two days later members of his platoon, including Gibbs and Morlock, accused him of “snitching”, gave him a beating and told him to keep his mouth shut. The soldier reported the beating and threats to his officers and then told investigators what he knew of the “kill team”. Following the arrest of the original five accused in June, seven other soldiers were charged last month with attempting to cover up the killings and violent assault on the soldier who reported the smoking of hashish. The charges will be considered by a military grand jury later this month which will decide if there is enough evidence for a court martial. Army investigators say Morlock has admitted his involvement in the killings and given details about the role of others including Gibbs. But his lawyer, Michael Waddington, is seeking to have that confession suppressed because he says his client was interviewed while under the influence of prescription drugs taken for battlefield injuries and that he was also suffering from traumatic brain injury. “Our position is that his statements were incoherent, and taken while he was under a cocktail of drugs that shouldn’t have been mixed,” Waddington told the Seattle Times. Source: UK Guardian .

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The Facial Recognition Software That Will Put a Name to Every Photo on the Internet

admin — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 17:29:26 +0000

The Facial Recognition Software That Will Put a Name to Every Photo on the Internet Daily Mail September 1, 2010 A software company is developing revolutionary software which provides the ability to identify people from photographs posted on the internet. Face.com has produced technology that can identify individuals on social networking sites and online galleries by comparing their image against a known picture of them. It means detailed profiles of individuals can be built up purely from online photographs and critics have said it could lead to exploitation by employers. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines The software works be creating an algorithim of the face - a measurement of the arrangement of features including the eyes, nose and mouth. The company says it is 90 per cent accurate when scanning typical images which appear on social networking sites. Face.com has previously limited the availability of the software over concerns about invasion of privacy. But it has now released the Photo Finder software to developers building applications allowing people to search for anyone on the internet. Gil Hirsch, chief executive of Face.com, told The Sunday Times: ‘We have launched a service that allows developers to take our facial recognition technology and apply it immediately to their own applications. ‘The technology is already being used by 5,000 developers. You can basically search for people in any photo. ‘You could search for family members on Flickr, in newspapers, or in videos on YouTube - but it would take a lot of processing power.’ The use of facial detection technology has only been used by the UK Border Agency. Google has a tool - Picasa - which allows users to organise their photos by tagging matching faces and Facebook uses Photo Finder. Supporters of the software, including the Red Cross, have said it could be used to track people lost in humanitarian disasters. But there are strong concerns over the accuracy of the technology and its impact on privacy. Simon Davies, director of Privacy International, said: ‘I think this will make many people very uneasy. ‘The regulators have been hugely behind the curve of protecting people’s privacy on the internet. We need to push for much tighter international rules.’ Source: Daily Mail .

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Mexican Police to Patrol NY?

admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 20:31:04 +0000

Mexican Police to Patrol NY? by Jeffrey Smith American Free Press August 29, 2010 NEW YORK, New York In a series of events which has caused wide notice and a storm of protests, the government of Mexico, through its consulate in New York in the United Nations, has announced it will begin patrolling the New York City borough of Staten Island to “safeguard” its nationals there. The actions of Mexico come after a series of incidents the Mexican government terms “bias attacks.” Ironically, these so-called “hate crimes” have been perpetrated by blacks and Asians, indicative of rising tensions between various ethnic groups in the U.S. The Catholic Examiner and NBC New York both reported the Mexican government’s intention to mount surveillance, patrol and police in and around the Staten Island community of Port Richmond, which in recent years has seen a large influx of Mexican illegal immigrants. Since the Examiner’s coverage, however, councilor officials, city hall and the local press have begun to carefully de-emphasize any possible role of Mexican law enforcement or military in efforts to secure the neighborhood. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Mexican officials have set up a neighborhood office and a local phone hot line for their nationals to report “bias incidents”—regardless as to whether they are in the United States legally. New York City police had been monitoring the situation and investigating the reported assaults as local crimes. The actions of the Mexican government have caused Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly to order what many observers say is the most concentrated police mobilization since the World Trade Center disaster. The main street of Port Richmond was swiftly transformed into what the New York Times described as a war zone like atmosphere with over 120 newly assigned officers, high-intensity night lighting, two huge “sky tower” police observation posts, frequent helicopter overflights and 20 police cars to watch the center of the relatively small neighborhood. Several long-term residents described it as a constant hornet’s nest of activity. Both published reports and residents say that reports of fights between Mexicans and other groups began years ago, in the late 1990s or early 2000s. Many charge the present round of incidents started in 2003 with one loss of life in 2006, which might not even be connected to the present series of events. At a major community gathering held at the historic St. Phillips Baptist Church, speakers addressed the current situation in the neighborhood and the borough, while Mexican councilor officials looked on. But while the Richmond anti-violence organization and assorted left-leaning journalists who attended may have been expecting a mea culpa from local residents, what they got instead was a blast of community push-back. Speaker after speaker from the black community told of horrendous conditions the largely illegal immigrants had brought to their community. Speakers described the pattern in communities affected by an influx of illegals. Community residents, many of whom are black first-time homeowners, told of constant disputes, alcohol and drug sales, late night disruptions, trespassing and public urination. Others in the audience, who declined to testify, spoke of men wearing clothes bearing symbols of La Raza, Aztlan and other militant pro-Mexican groups. They also spoke of repeated attempts to summon the state liquor authority’s enforcement agency to deal with the surging illegal liquor sales in the area, with little in the way of a response. Jeff Smith is an New York-based freelance writer. Source: American Free Press .

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Government Using Google Earth to Loot Destitute Americans

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 17:21:27 +0000

Government Using Google Earth to Loot Destitute Americans by Paul Joseph Watson Prison Planet August 16, 2010 State utilizing aerial imaging technology to enforce petty ordinances and loot destitute citizens of whatever income they have left after having had trillions in wealth stolen and transferred to foreign banks Aerial imaging technology is being used by the government to spy on Americans in an effort to collect revenue and enforce ordinances on swimming pools without safety certificates, junk cars being stored without permission, unlicensed porches, and a myriad of other petty transgressions that the state is feeding off in complete violation of the Fourth Amendment to suck citizens dry of whatever income they have left after being looted of trillions of dollars in wealth that the state has transferred to foreign banks. The fact that technology such as Google Earth and Google Street View, which provides clear and often intrusive images of private property, is being used by authorities to spy on Americans without warrants is an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. In Riverhead, New York, authorities used Google Earth to “help identify about 250 Riverhead homes where residents failed to get building permits certifying their swimming pools complied with safety regulations,” according to an Associated Press investigation. The report lists a number of other uses state officials are utilizing the technology for, including checking if a homeowner has brush growing too close to his home, keeping junk cars on their lot in violation of ordinances, as well as finding illegal porches and decks that property owners have dared to build without the government’s permission. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Over in Greece, the government uses the technology to find undeclared swimming pools, so that they can then slap the owners with higher “wealth taxes”. “Federal contracting records reviewed by Consumer Watchdog show that the FBI has spent more than $600,000 on Google Earth since 2007. The Drug Enforcement Administration, meanwhile, has spent more than $67,000,” states the report. Despite the fact that the Associated Press article attempts to justify the use of the technology by claiming it aids in preventing drownings, fighting wildfires, and aiding emergency response to hurricanes and earthquakes, everyone quoted in the report slams the actions as a violation of privacy and the Fourth Amendment. “I think it’s a great intrusion on people’s privacy; they should use it on the politicians’ backyards,” said Flanders resident Walter Casey. “We live in an environment where we are told that if it’s on camera, if you have a video record, that will make us safer,” Lieberman said. “That may be appealing, but it is an unproven assertion. There’s no evidence of that. Yet we see millions, if not billions, of post-9/11 money has gone to law enforcement for installing cameras in every conceivable nook and cranny,” added the New York Civil Liberties Union’s Donna Lieberman. Patently, the primary motivation behind using aerial imagery to spy on Americans has nothing to do with fighting crime. While every effort should be made to utilize such technology to secure America’s borders from the virtual state of collapse that they are now undergoing, instead government is obsessed with shaking down already destitute Americans for having the temerity to avoid some petty regulation like not having a 4 foot fence around their swimming pool or daring to keep an old car in their backyard without the state’s permission. This is exclusively about feeding on the population and generating revenue to fill gaps in state budgets during an economic depression. It is completely unconstitutional and has no place in a free country. Google, a company that was founded by CIA seed money and is nothing less than a front for the CIA, the NSA and the military-industrial complex, is already facing nine lawsuits in the United States alone and inquiries in 38 states for illegally collecting people’s emails, web surfing history, and other information from private wi-fi networks during its Street View photographing operations. The company also faces criminal charges in countries like Germany, Spain and Australia for violating basic privacy laws. Google is now working directly with the CIA to create a leviathan database of human activity that purports to be able to “predict the future” by scouring Twitter accounts, blogs and websites for real time information. It’s hardly surprising that the criminal, vampiric government is working with a company headed up by a CEO who thinks that privacy doesn’t matter, and a company that has already broken innumerable privacy laws in its pursuit to achieve Big Brother super-status. Recall this ultra-creepy Pennsylvania Department of Revenue commercial which received a massive backlash after it depicted authorities using sophisticated aerial imaging technology to locate people who supposedly owed the state back taxes. The voice-over ominously announces, “Because Tom, we do know who you are,” as the shot zooms in on a crystal clear image of a house. In reality of course, the biggest thieves and criminals are the government bureaucrats themselves, who have conspired to steal trillions of dollars from Americans that is being sent to offshore banks as citizens are forced to pick up the tab through higher taxes, soaring living costs, and crippling austerity measures. The ad tells us everything we need to know about the motivation behind government using aerial imagery to spy on Americans – it’s about oppression, intimidation, looting, and Big Brother on steroids – and goes way beyond anything even George Orwell warned about in his book 1984. Source: Prison Planet .

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Venezuela: The Human Wrongs of Hugo Chavez

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 16:16:46 +0000

Venezuela: The Human Wrongs of Hugo Chavez by John R. Thomson & Norman Pino De Lion Hacer August 16, 2010 Desperate to silence opposition, Chavez harasses key sector leaders to intimidate by example. Hugo Chavez’s regime has come under increasing scrutiny because of blatant violations of basic human rights and an almost total absence of the rule of law, fundamental principles of any democratic society. A comprehensive 300-page March report by the Inter-American Human Rights Commission (IACHR) enraged President Chavez, who dismissed the accusations as a plot to undermine the Bolivarian revolution, termed the report “pure excrement” and accused the commission of being at the “empire’s service”. The report cited persistent threats and violations of human rights — political participation, freedom of thought and expression, right to life, personal security, and personal integrity and liberty. A key section of the report states “one of the principles that define the rule of law is the separation of public powers, and the independence of the branches of government as an essential element in democracy”. The report also notes “the exercise of rights and freedoms in a democratic system requires a legal and institutional order in which laws prevail over the will of rulers, in which there is judicial review of constitutionality and legality of acts of state, that is, presupposes respect for the rule of law”. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Far from improving after such serious warnings from the IACHR and the on-going protest of numerous local human rights activists and organizations, the situation continues to deteriorate rapidly. Even a slight criticism of the regime can lead to farcical accusations, with harassment, loss of job, arrest and indictment. Depending on the President’s mercurial mood, the unjustly charged offender may hear his prison term ‘’suggested’’ during Mr. Chavez’s weekly “Aló Presidente” television program. Retired senior military officer and former Defense Minister Raul Baduel expressed concern about the government’s behavior, was harassed, indicted and finally condemned to seven years and 11 months in prison, to discourage his fellows taking the same path. It didn’t matter that he led the operation to reinstate Hugo Chavez after his brief separation from power in April 2002. Disappointed pro-Chavez National Assembly member Wilmer Azuaje spoke out about repeated corruption allegations against Chavez family members and was swiftly stripped of his duties without minimal legal procedures established in the Constitution. He was later falsely accused of attacking a police officer, convicted and subsequently placed under house arrest. Such actions are intended to discourage dissidents in different sectors of society from actively resisting the government’s autocratic onslaught. In short, the regime has adopted an “intimidation by example” approach to try to quell dissent, selecting well-known individuals from the country’s major institutions as examples. Oswaldo Álvarez Paz, former presidential candidate, ex-governor of Zulia state and a longtime member of the former National Congress, was jailed in March for almost two months, accused of conspiracy — a baseless charge later dismissed — and other specious crimes including spreading false information and creating social unrest. He had given a television interview concerning a Spanish judge’s indictment of several Spanish ETA terrorists living in Venezuela, and their alleged ties to the Venezuelan government and the FARC Colombian narco-terrorist group. Released following a well-coordinated effort to gain the support of foreign governments and human rights organizations, Mr. Alvarez Paz cannot leave the country without judicial authorization. While awaiting a trial that could last for months, he was again attacked by Mr. Chavez, who said he should be jailed again because of his ‘’defiant attitude’’. In fact, his first words following his recent release were to call attention to the plight of political prisoners. Guillermo Zuloaga, president of the only television channel not yet controlled or suppressed by the regime and a frequent critic of the government, was prevented in March by Immigration authorities from leaving the country on a short holiday to the nearby Caribbean island of Bonaire. He was arrested by the deputy head of army intelligence and accused of absurd crimes, including insulting the President, a charge that can legally be made only by the President himself. Mr. Zuloaga told us ‘’the problem is they can keep the investigation open for six months or more, ultimately deciding: a) I am innocent or not guilty; b) there are enough facts to support the accusation and go to trial; or c) my case should be kept open – and I should remain in limbo. I did not build Globovision to fight Hugo Chavez, but he unfortunately declared as far back as 2001 that when media criticize the government, they are enemies of the state. They decided to harass me, forcefully entering and seizing the contents of my Caracas home not once but twice.” Two weeks ago, after Mr. Chavez complained on television that Mr. Zuloaga remained free despite having accused him of deaths committed in April 2002, a judge quickly ordered his detention for hoarding automobiles [although Mr. Zuloaga has several automobile agencies], which forced the accused to flee to the United States and seek justice from the Inter-American Human Rights Commission. Diego Arria is a former UN Ambassador and chairman of the Security Council and ex-governor of Caracas. His rural estate was confiscated and burglarized by government hooligans, in retaliation for his criticizing regime policies. When he protested the seizure of his property, President Chavez ordered the National Assembly to open an investigation into his activities, publicly taunted Mr. Arria and effectively admitted the issue was a personal vendetta, saying, “If you want it back, you will have to knock me down”. Mr. Arria brought his case to several international organizations and embarked on a tour to Brussels, Geneva, Madrid, Paris and The Hague to meet government leaders and senior officials of the International Labor Organization, the UN Human Rights Council and the Council of Europe’s Parliament. Judge Maria de Lourdes Afiuni was sentenced to prison for paroling banker Eligio Cedeño, who had been jailed for nearly three years without a trial. Her decision infuriated President Chavez, who suggested on ‘’Aló Presidente’’ she should be sentenced to 30 years prison. Despite the IACHR issuing a protection order in favor of the judge,the highest Venezuelan court upheld the prison orders and dismissed defense allegations that her life was at risk at the prison facility where she is being held. Ignoring the IACHR seems to be part of a “tradition,” according to Judge Afiuni’s attorney, adding, “the case is historic because this is the first time a judge is imprisoned for complying with a legal mandate.” Hugo Chavez rebuffed the IACHR’s decision saying, “the commission is an instrument of imperialism and our sacred sovereignty must be respected”. Nine Caracas police officers have been condemned to exceptional prison sentences in a case stretching back eight years, when on April 11, 2002 one million Venezuelans marched peacefully to express their displeasure with the regime and to seek the President’s resignation. After the demonstration, three police commissioners and six officers were arrested and tried as scapegoats for the death of three of 19 victims. After years of delay, the Criminal Appeals Chamber of the Supreme Court abruptly ratified all sentences of up to 30 years in prison. According to Jose Luis Tamayo, an attorney representing the policemen, it is “impossible” the court could have read, analyzed and weighed all the issues presented by the defense in 15 days, a presentation consisting of more than eight thousand pages. The decision automatically bars the convicted men from seeking election to the National Assembly in polls scheduled for September 26, which clearly is why the ruling was suddenly and precipitously announced. Rocío San Miguel heads Control Ciudadano, a domestic NGO. An attorney, she follows military affairs closely and recently exposed the registration of several high-ranking military officers in the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela [PSUV], which is explicitly prohibited by the Constitution. The government’s response has been to denigrate her publicly, and remove from the National Electoral Council website the PSUV records she used to prove her allegations. While the government’s intimidation by example plan continues; basic human decency is regularly violated throughout society. Two examples underscore the sad state of human rights in Venezuela. According to the Observatorio Venezolano de Prisiones, an NGO dedicated to just treatment for prison inmates, some 38,000 prisoners are held in facilities designed to hold 12,500. Even worse, almost 68 percent are awaiting sentencing or simply to be told whether or not they are guilty. Inmates are crowded in cells several times their capacity, with some forced to sleep on stairs and in aisles. Feeling forgotten and as a last resort to gain government attention, 15,000 prisoners launched a hunger strike on May 17. Unable to further punish the already ill-treated prisoners, the authorities simply ignored the strike, but reacted violently against relatives protesting outside prisons across the country. The hunger strike ended in late May, when officials made hollow promises to better prison conditions. The prisoner plight is one of the most serious violations of basic human rights in Venezuela. It is a flagrant injustice that mocks the country’s Constitution under the close guidance of Hugo Chavez and which he has consistently flouted in recent years. [Created in 1999, the so-called ‘’Bolivarian Constitution’’ is the 26th in 200 years, numbers 350 articles and follows the 1961 Constitution which served the then relatively peaceful Venezuela longer than any in its history.] The Military Hospital in Caracas is the scene of one of the most tragic examples of the Chavez regime’s disregard for human dignity. Practically alone, farmer and biologist Franklin Brito launched a hunger strike last year to protest the government’s 2005 invasion and plundering of his property in Bolivar state, which was later expropriated without a just compensatory payment. Beginning his fast in mid-2009 in front of the Caracas office of the Organization of American States in protest at the seizure of his land, Mr. Brito suspended his hunger strike on December 4 when advised the expropriation had been annulled. When authorities failed to return clear title to his property, Franklin Brito resumed his strike, only to be taken forcefully to the Military Hospital, where attempts were made to declare him insane. Since being hospitalized in December, Mr. Brito has defied efforts to force-feed him and fought to resume his hunger strike. The government finally allowed the Red Cross to visit him and he has since resumed drinking water. His condition remains grave. These are a few cases representative of what thousands endure in today’s Venezuela. The manifold human rights violations are condoned by a government that cares about nothing more than maintaining itself in power. The human wrongs perpetrated by Hugo Chavez’s regime are the cruelest aspect of his despotic presidency. The next article in this series will explore the many faceted Cuba-Venezuela relationship, including the Castro regime’s role in suppressing human rights. * John R. Thomson is a longtime journalist and former diplomat in the Reagan administration who focuses on politics and geopolitics in emerging markets. A frequent visitor to Venezuela, he recently visited the country for two weeks. Norman Pino De Lion is a former career Foreign Service officer, who served as Venezuela’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia and the Netherlands. His commentaries appear in El Universal newspaper, as well as on Analitica.com website. The Spanish version of this article is available here. Source: Hacer .

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Smile! Aerial Images Being Used to Enforce Laws

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 15:32:39 +0000

Smile! Aerial Images Being Used to Enforce Laws Associated Press August 16, 2010 RIVERHEAD, N.Y. On New York’s Long Island, it’s used to prevent drownings. In Greece, it’s a tool to help solve a financial crisis. Municipalities update property assessment rolls and other government data with it. Some in law enforcement use it to supplement reconnaissance of crime suspects. High-tech eyes in the sky — from satellite imagery to sophisticated aerial photography that maps entire communities — are being employed in creative new ways by government officials, a trend that civil libertarians and others fear are eroding privacy rights. ”As technology advances, we have to revisit questions about what is and what is not private information,” said Gregory Nojeim, senior counsel at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology. Online services like Google and Bing give users very detailed images of practically any location on the planet. Though some images are months old, they make it possible for someone sitting in a living room in Brooklyn to look in on folks in Dublin or Prague, or even down the street in Flatbush. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Sean Walter, an attorney and first-term town supervisor in Riverhead, N.Y., insists he is a staunch defender of privacy rights and the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure. But Walter supported using Google Earth images to help identify about 250 Riverhead homes where residents failed to get building permits certifying their swimming pools complied with safety regulations. All but about 10 eventually came to town hall. Walter said the focus was safety, not filling town coffers with permit money, which averaged about $150 depending on the size of the pool. A 4-foot fence is required, gates have to be self-closing and padlocked. All pools must have an alarm that sounds when sensors are activated indicating someone is in the pool. ”We have a town employee who is a personal friend of mine whose son was found face-down in a swimming pool,” Walter said. ”He’s OK, but I don’t want to be the supervisor that attends the funeral of a child that drowns in a swimming pool.” Lillie Coney, associate director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., fears that while Walter’s focus was safety, other municipalities may use the images to check for other transgressions. ”It’s only a matter of time,” Coney said. ”There are lots of ordinances where this can be used. In California, where they deal with brush fires, could a satellite image show if a homeowner has brush growing too close to his home? What if someone has junk cars on their lot in violation of ordinances?” Riverhead resident Tony Villar said the town’s action ”could be considered Big Brother looking down at you.” ”But at the same time, if the government can listen to your telephone conversations in the name of terrorism,” he said. Standing outside the Riverhead Public Library, Walter Casey of Flanders agreed. ”I think it’s a great intrusion on people’s privacy; they should use it on the politicians’ backyards.” The New York Civil Liberties Union’s Donna Lieberman said there are ways to enforce requirements ”without this sort of engaging in Big Brother on high. Technically, it may be lawful, but in the gut it does not feel like a free society kind of operation.” In Greece, officials are struggling with a debt crisis and have sought to catch tax-evaders by using satellite photos to spot undeclared swimming pools — indicators of taxable wealth. Google spokeswoman Kate Hurowitz said in a statement that Google Earth acquires its information from a broad range of commercial and public sources. ”The same information is available to anyone who buys it from these widely available public sources,” she said. ”Google’s freely available technology has been used for a variety of purposes, ranging from travel planning to scientific research to emergency response, rescue and relief in natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake.” At least nine lawsuits seeking class-action status have been filed in the United States, contending that Google collected fragments of e-mails, Web-surfing data and other information from unencrypted wireless networks as it photographed neighborhoods for its ”Street View” feature. Google is also facing investigations or inquiries in 38 states as well as in several countries, including Germany, Spain and Australia. The Mountain View, Calif., company said in May it had inadvertently collected the data from public Wi-Fi networks in more than 30 countries, but maintains it never used the data and hasn’t broken any laws. Google Earth posts updates about every two weeks on selected images from its providers, with images ranging from a few weeks to a few years old. For big cities like Chicago, tracking illegal pools, porches and decks through Google Earth requires frequent imaging updates, so the Chicago buildings department uses it as a reference tool on a case-by-case scenario, said spokesman Bill McCaffrey. ”We’re not opposed to adopting new technology, but until it advances where we can get photos of more recent updates, we don’t have any plans to implement it,” he said. Smaller towns such as Champaign and Naperville, Ill. opted to use satellite images as reference only. ”Mostly it’s so we can see that we’re going to the right building when we go to do inspections,” said Ann Michalsen, lead inspector for code enforcement in Naperville. It’s also important for police officers to know they have the right destination when executing search warrants, said Joe Pollini, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. ”Most departments would use it as a preliminary step, but they would also use active surveillance with their own aircraft,” he said. The nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog is seeking to determine the extent of the FBI and Drug Enforcement Administration’s use of Google Earth in its investigations, spokesman John M. Simpson said last week. Federal contracting records reviewed by Consumer Watchdog show that the FBI has spent more than $600,000 on Google Earth since 2007. The Drug Enforcement Administration, meanwhile, has spent more than $67,000. Simpson has called on Congress to investigate how U.S. law enforcement and intelligence communities are using Google technologies. The group says it has concerns that data could be used for racial profiling. The New York Police Department’s Real Time Crime Center uses satellite imaging and computerized mapping systems to identify geographic patterns of crimes and to pinpoint possible addresses where suspects might flee — information relayed to investigators on the street. The NYPD also has two major security initiatives where a network of public and private cameras will eventually link and be searchable. The NYCLU has filed lawsuits in opposition. ”We live in an environment where we are told that if it’s on camera, if you have a video record, that will make us safer,” Lieberman said. ”That may be appealing, but it is an unproven assertion. There’s no evidence of that. Yet we see millions, if not billions, of post-9/11 money has gone to law enforcement for installing cameras in every conceivable nook and cranny.” Associated Press writers Serena Dai in Chicago and Colleen Long in New York and researcher Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report. Source: Associated Press .

Los Zetas Drug Cartel Seizes 2 U.S. Ranches in Texas

admin — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:39:20 +0000

Los Zetas Drug Cartel Seizes 2 U.S. Ranches in Texas by Kimberly Dvorak San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner June 25, 2010 Drug smugglers walking north into America from Mexico In what could be deemed an act of war against the sovereign borders of the United States, Mexican drug cartels have seized control of at least two American ranches inside the U.S. territory near Laredo, Texas. Two sources inside the Laredo Police Department confirmed the incident is unfolding and they would continue to coordinate with U.S. Border Patrol today. “We consider this an act of war,” said one police officer on the ground near the scene. There is a news blackout of this incident at this time and the sources inside Laredo PD spoke on the condition of anonymity. Word broke late last night that Laredo police have requested help from the federal government regarding the incursion by the Los Zetas. It appears that the ranch owners have escaped without incident but their ranches remain in the hands of the blood thirsty cartels. (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines Laredo Border Patrol is conducting aerial surveillance over the ranches to determine the best way to regain control of the U.S. ranches, according to the Laredo Police department. The approximate location of the U.S. ranches are10 miles northwest of I-35 off Mines Road and Minerales Annex Road. Just off 1472 (Mines road) near Santa Isabel Creek north of the city of Laredo, Texas. The Los Zetas drug cartel is an offshoot of the elite Mexican military trained in special ops. The mercenary organization is said to include members of corrupt Mexican Federales, politicians as well as drug traffickers. The group was once part of the Gulf cartel, but has since splintered and now directly competes with the Gulf cartel for premium drug smuggling routes in the Texas region. The new leader of Los Zetas is Heriberto “El Lazca” Lazcano and is considered the most violent paramilitary group in Mexico by the DEA. Recently the drug organization has kidnapped tourists, infiltrated local municipalities and continues to smuggle narcotics into a very hungry U.S. market. The violence south of the border continues to spin out of control and has left Nuevo Laredo, Mexico on virtual lockdown with businesses refusing to open the doors. Last week a particularly violent attack by the Los Zetas included the use of grenades and resulted in a dozen deaths and 21 injuries. The hostile takeover of the ranches has met with silence with local and national media; however sources say they could be waiting to report the stories once the ranches are back in U.S. control. This journalist questions if this was a Middle Eastern terrorist attack if the media would sit on their hands. Stay tuned for updates reports throughout the weekend. Source: San Diego County Political Buzz Examiner .

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‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ Page Briefly Vanishes Due to Facebook Glitch

admin — Fri, 21 May 2010 19:16:50 +0000

‘Everybody Draw Mohammed’ Page Briefly Vanishes Due to Facebook Glitch by Joshua Rhett Miller Fox News May 21, 2010 The original “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” Facebook page — with more than 80,000 followers — vanished briefly from the website Thursday, causing some users to accuse the social networking giant of censorship before the controversial page reappeared on the site. The original “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” Facebook page — with more than 80,000 followers — vanished briefly from the website Thursday, causing some users to accuse the social networking giant of censorship before the controversial page reappeared on the site. Facebook officials said a “small technical issue” prevented users from accessing the page for a “very short period” of time. “Once alerted to the problem, we resolved it as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement to FoxNews.com. “We want Facebook to be a place where people can openly discuss issues and express their views, while respecting the rights and feelings of others.” (Article continues below) Shop Earthhope Magazines The creator of a sister page dedicated to the campaign, meanwhile, said she has received roughly 1,500 images of the Prophet Muhammad via e-mail or through her page, which had nearly 9,000 followers as of early Thursday, the unofficial day for the “Draw Muhammad” protest. Mimi Sulpovar said she’s received numerous death threats since she started the page on April 22 to protest what she calls the “manifestation of gradual silencing and subjugation” of free speech rights in the name of political correctness. “There are death threats, but none of them are specific,” she said. “Nobody knows where I live or how to find me.” Sulpovar said she will consider reporting the threats to local law enforcement authorities if they become more detailed. “It’s generalized, like ‘We’re going to find you and kill you’ sort of thing,” she said. “At this point, it’s like throwing death threats to the moon.” Sulpovar said traffic to her page had increased so much that she was having trouble moderating the comments. “I can’t keep up anymore,” she said. “The activity on the site now is crazy.” The brief disappearance of the original page Thursday morning led users to create a “back up” group page. While some users of the new page posted images of Muhammad as a caped superhero and atop a camel named “George Clooney,” others took out their anger at Facebook, accusing it of censorship. “It’s pathetic that Facebook have taken the other page down!” one posting read. “We need to do something REALLY epic now to show them that censoring our freedom of speech is UNACCEPTABLE!” Other users said they weren’t surprised that it was gone, given the “messages of hate” found there. “I am so very disappointed in Facebook, but I am not surprised given the messages of hate that appeared on both sides on this wall,” one posting read. “Perhaps if we try to keep it clean this time, the page can survive?” The online campaign that began as a cartoonist’s call to action against censorship — an open invitation to submit caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad — also led to a court order in Pakistan to temporarily block parts of the website, and a call for a boycott of Facebook to protest what Muslims believe is blasphemy. A company spokeswoman told FoxNews.com on Wednesday that Facebook was “disappointed” by a Pakistani court’s decision to block some of the pages. “We are very disappointed with the Pakistani Courts’ decision to block Facebook without warning, and suspect our users there feel the same way,” the statement read. “We are analyzing the situation and the legal considerations, and will take appropriate action, which may include making this content inaccessible to users in Pakistan.” “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” began last month as the brainchild of a Seattle-based cartoonist named Molly Norris, who said she was appalled by Comedy Central’s decision to censor an episode of “South Park” that depicted Muhammad in a bear costume. As a way to protest the network’s decision — which came after an Islamic extremist website warned of retaliation against the show’s creators, Matt Stone and Trey Parker — Norris declared May 20 “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!” — and her efforts quickly went viral, spawning several Facebook pages with thousands of followers dedicated to the event. They also prompted a “protest” movement by thousands of other Facebook users opposed to it. As of early Thursday, more than 82,000 Facebook users associated themselves to the original page dedicated to the event, and Sulpovar’s page was “liked” by more than 9,000 users. More than 96,000 users, meanwhile, have joined a Facebook page opposing it. “We tried our level best to have a healthy discussion on this page about this controversial topic with other non-muslims on this page, but some of them were bent upon abusing Islam and Our beloved Prophet (SAW),” one posting read on the AGAINST ‘Everybody Draw Mohammed Day’ Facebook page. “So we are now banning anyone who is abusing our prophet on this page and in future anyone who will abuse on [this] page will be shown zero tolerance.” Other members of the group against the campaign asked users to boycott Facebook on Thursday and to post a graphic in their status update urging others to do the same. One posting read, “IF THESE PAGES ARE NOT BANNED, WE WILL BOYCOTT FACEBOOK!!!” Source: Fox News .

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