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11/30/2002



Facecrime :.

Frequent Cryptogon contributor, TR, reminds us to re-read 1984, by George Orwell, just in case it has been a while. TR also sent along an interesting piece on a real world implementation of facecrime technology:


Teradata, Schrader's organization, is also heavily involved in creating integrated government databases. Now your facecrimes can be linked in with all the other information the Ministry of Homeland Security and the Information Awareness Office keep on you. If you look displeased during certain government announcements (capture of a terrorist, for example), that information will be recorded and integrated into a government database. Your facecrime will be part of your Homeland Security profile.


11/29/2002



Regimented Work :.

If we're living in an advanced society, how come we work more than 40 hours a week when most so-called primitive societies have work days of between 2 and 5 hours?!

How come we have resigned ourselves to the 9-to-5 clockwork grind and the hierarchy of work when less than two hundred years ago our ancestors fought tooth and nail against the introduction of factory work and wage slavery?!

This article makes the case that regimented work :

* is not natural or necessary

* means that our society is really the primitive slave society

* was resisted by ordinary people who rightly saw it as the theft of their freedom and humanity

* can be replaced by voluntary cooperatives and similar structures

* can be largely superceded by a merging of work and play in to "creative activity for its own sake"


Research Credit: JH





Eugene, Oregon Doesn't Want the Patriot Act :.

I can't wait until I move there. Do I have any readers from Eugene?

The Eugene City Council passed a resolution Monday night opposing the USA Patriot Act. Congress passed the legislation shortly after September 11th in hopes of cracking down on terrorism.

Eugene Councilors agreed to pass a resolution after listening to dozens speak out on the controversial anti-terrorism law during a public forum at the Eugene City Hall. Alexander Gonzales said, "If we grow up thinking that it's ok to profile, it's ok to subject people to searches, then what is ok?" Dawn Peebles said, "Now, ordinary citizens are fearful that the government can come into their homes without honoring the Bill of Rights."

Almost 2000 people had signed a petition asking the Eugene City Council to pass the Lane County Bill of Rights Defense Committee's Proposed Resolution.





Cops, Cops and More Cops :.

Arguing that this city faces a far more perilous world than once imagined, New York's police commissioner wants to toss aside a decades-old federal court decree governing the limits on police spying and surveillance of its own citizenry.

City officials argue that officers need more elbow room to photograph, tape and infiltrate political and social organizations to uproot terror networks. But civil libertarians warn of a return to the unsavory days of old, when New York's police department acquired a reputation for police "black bag" break-ins and spying on political dissidents.


11/28/2002



Cannon Fodder: U.S. Military Personnel :.

This article is longer than most I've posted on this site, but I strongly encourage all of you to read it. Unfortunately, this type of reporting isn't available from mainstream U.S. sources, and when you read it, you'll see why:

Wilson, who four years ago was in superb health and in charge of one of the most potent weapons in the US armoury, can barely drive a car. She has lost a third of her body weight and suffers such agonising cramps every day that she is forced to curl up in a foetal position for hours at a time. She has stiff joints, chronic fatigue, anaemia, difficulty with simple sums, memory loss, blackouts, permanent abdominal pain and, according to her medical report, �loss of cognitive function�.





Millions About to Get Smallpox Vaccine :.

Up to 10 million US health workers, police officers and firefighters are to be vaccinated against smallpox, according to a Bush administration official.

Half a million health workers will be vaccinated in the next few weeks against the possibility of a bioterror attack, according to the report.

President Bush is expected to announce shortly the plan to carry out a rolling smallpox vaccination programme, CNN television news reported yesterday.

The department of health and human services has asked all 50 states to submit a mass vaccination plan by December 1, for use in an actual smallpox attack.

Although there is no evidence of any plans for a smallpox attack, the first stage of the mass vaccination is said to be planned to start within a few weeks, targeting 500,000 health workers.





Bush Administration Orders Vaccine Records Sealed :.

Attorneys for the Bush Administration asked a federal court on Monday to order that documents on hundreds of cases of autism allegedly caused by childhood vaccines be kept from the public.

Department of Justice lawyers asked a special master in the US Court of Federal Claims to seal the documents, arguing that allowing their automatic disclosure would take away the right of federal agencies to decide when and how the material should be released.

Attorneys for the families of hundreds of autistic children charged that the government was trying to keep the information out of civil courts, where juries might be convinced to award large judgments against vaccine manufacturers.

The court is currently hearing approximately 1,000 claims brought by the families of autistic children. The suits charge that the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, which until recently included a mercury-containing preservative known as thimerosal, can cause neurological damage leading to autism.





Wanted Man to Find the Truth? :.

Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony. From investigatee to investigator:

In late 2001, the Brazilian government canceled an invitation for Kissinger to speak in Sao Paulo because it could no longer guarantee his immunity. Earlier this year, a London court agreed to hear an application for Kissinger's imprisonment on war crimes charges while he was briefly in the United Kingdom. It is known that there are many countries to which he cannot travel at all, and it is also known that he takes legal advice before traveling anywhere. Does the Bush administration feel proud of appointing a man who is wanted in so many places, and wanted furthermore for his association with terrorism and crimes against humanity? Or does it hope to limit the scope of the inquiry to those areas where Kissinger has clients?


11/27/2002



THE END: War Criminal, Henry Kissinger, to Head Independent 9/11 Investigation :.

Put a fork in it, ladies and gentlemen, it's done:

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush signed legislation creating a new independent commission to investigate the Sept. 11 attacks Wednesday and named former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead the panel.

"Dr. Kissinger will bring broad experience, clear thinking and careful judgment to this important task," Bush said at a signing ceremony in the Roosevelt Room of the White House. "Mr. secretary, thank you for returning to the service of your nation."


From the jacket of The Trial of Henry Kissinger:

His own lonely impunity is rank; it smells to heaven. If it is allowed to persist then we shall shamefully vindicate the ancient philosopher Anacharsis, who maintained that laws were like cobwebs; strong enough to detain only the weak, and too weak to hold the strong. In the name of innumerable victims known and unknown, it is time for justice to take a hand.

With the detention of Augusto Pinochet, and intense international pressure for the arrest of Slobodan Milosevic, the possibility of international law acting against tyrants around the world is emerging as a reality. Yet, as Christopher Hitchens demonstrates in this compact, incendiary book, the West need not look far to find suitable candidates for the dock. The United States is home to an individual whose record of war crimes bears comparison with the worst dictators of recent history. Please stand, ex-Secretary of State and National Security Advisor, Henry A. Kissinger.

Hitchens. . . .investigates Kissinger's involvement in the war in Indochina, mass murder in Bangladesh, planned assassinations in Santiago, Nicosia and Washington DC, and genocide in East Timor. Drawing on first-hand testimony, previously unpublished documentation, and broad sweeps through material released under the Freedom of Information Act, he mounts a devastating indictment of a man whose ambition and ruthlessness have directly resulted in both individual murders and widespread, indiscriminate slaughter.





Is China Going to Attack Taiwan? :.

Military analysts say China could be waiting for the United States to commit much of its remaining military forces to an attack against Iraq before launching an invasion against Taiwan.

"Should the Iraqi war turn sour � if, for instance, Saddam pulls his most loyal troops into Iraq's cities to force a drawn-out, street-to-street fight � the U.S. might be forced to pour additional troops into the battle," said Bryan Preston, a writer and television producer, in the Aug. 20 issue of The National Review Online. "For China, our difficulty would be a golden opportunity to take on Taiwan, provided it could be sure the Bush administration's nuclear threat was a bluff," he said. "What would China do?"

Tom Knowlton, a military analyst writing for Internet-based publication Defense Watch, which is published by Soldiers For The Truth, a group founded by decorated veteran, author and columnist David Hackworth � also says there is at least substantial anecdotal evidence China may be planning such a move � enough that it should give U.S. military planners and the Bush administration pause.


11/26/2002



Stunning: Students Experience Bioterror Vaccination "Exercise" :.

Uh, why are the assault rifles necessary? Hmmm...

Officers with assault rifles and paramedics armed with hypodermic needles invaded Mesa's Westwood High School on Thursday.

The men and women in uniform were part of a daylong drill at the school to see how ready health, emergency and military systems are to deal with a bioterror attack.

But the mock attack also helped provide a day of distraction for Westwood students. Some got breaks from class to participate in the drills. Others stared at the onslaught of TV satellite trucks and emergency vehicles surrounding the gym. Several football players on the way to practice were particularly enthralled with the officers' combat weapons.
[Ya, let's see how enthralled they'll be if they refuse to take the needle during the real deal.]

The bioterrorism training began at 9 a.m. as paramedics and public health nurses began dishing out tetanus shots to students. Slightly more than 3,000 students from Mesa's six high schools, including 500 at Westwood, received the free shots.





The Incredible Irony of the U.S. Devolution into Tyranny :.

To read it in British media is one thing, but to read it in Russian media, now that is really a slapdown. This article is excellent:

We've said it before, and we'll keep on saying it: A country whose leader has the power to imprison any citizen, on his order alone, and hold them indefinitely, in military custody, without access to the courts, without a lawyer, without any charges, their fate determined solely by the leader's arbitrary whim -- that country is a tyranny, not a democracy, not a republic, not a union of free citizens.

Now, it may be that it is still a tyranny in utero, a rough beast slouching toward Bethlehem -- or in this case, Washington -- to be born, and not yet the full-blown monster, fangs bared and back plated with bristling armored scales. But the tyranny has been conceived, it's taken root in the womb, gained definite form and is clawing, tearing its way toward the light.

President George W. Bush openly claims that he now holds this power of arbitrary arrest and imprisonment. His minions defend it with earnest arguments. They have already begun acting on its dictatorial tenets. If this claim is not rejected by the other two branches of government -- an unlikely event, with both branches now held by Bush partisans -- then the fundamental liberty of every American citizen will have been stripped away finally and completely. Henceforth, liberty is not the inalienable right of the citizen, but a privilege granted -- or not -- by an autocratic government.

What we are witnessing is the mutation of a democratic republic into a military autocracy: Bush bases his claim of arbitrary power on the president's constitutional role as commander-in-chief of the U.S. armed forces. Although there is nothing in the constitution that warrants the extension of military command to cover arbitrary rule over the entire citizenry, and certainly nothing that countenances the abrogation of basic rights and liberties on the unchallengeable say-so of an all-powerful leader, the "commander-in-chief" argument nevertheless serves a useful purpose for the autocrat, creating the illusion of a limited and temporary suspension of liberties -- a drastic but necessary "wartime" measure.

But Bush and his officials have already warned us that this "wartime emergency" might never end.





Bush Aide: Inspections Or Not, We'll Attack Iraq :.

George Bush's top security adviser last night admitted the US would attack Iraq even if UN inspectors fail to find weapons.

Dr Richard Perle stunned MPs by insisting a "clean bill of health" from UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix would not halt America's war machine.

Evidence from ONE witness on Saddam Hussein's weapons programme will be enough to trigger a fresh military onslaught, he told an all- party meeting on global security.

Former defence minister and Labour backbencher Peter Kilfoyle said: "America is duping the world into believing it supports these inspections. President Bush intends to go to war even if inspectors find nothing.


Research Credit: pr0spero





Really Big Brother :.

This is one of dozens of similar articles from all over the place:

Consider this an alarm bell. The Defense Department is embarking on a project so invasive of Americans' privacy that it will leave little to the government's imagination. It is designing a domestic computer surveillance system that would give U.S. intelligence agents access to huge databases of personal information on every American, from credit card purchases to medical records. The idea is to scrutinize unrelated information and transactions in an effort to uncover terrorist activity before an attack occurs. But there is no proof that such a system will make us safer. We only know it will lay waste to our privacy.





"I Say if the Boobs Bleep, Wand 'Em" :.

For the most part Americans are nice, cooperative people who don't want to cause trouble. They want to get along and be helpful. So we trip all over ourselves to avoid saying the obvious -- that we're being spied on, Stalinized and slowly robbed of everything that's worth defending -- and trust that America will be more or less the same when we wake up tomorrow.

But tomorrow is yesterday and already America is not the same. Incrementally, we have grown accustomed to invasions of privacy that we wouldn't have tolerated before Sept. 11, 2001. Until then, we knew what the limits of government should be. We knew, for example, that when security inspectors at the New Orleans airport started running their hands over blond women's breasts to make sure their bra underwires weren't really explosive devices that someone was stepping over the line.






Victory: Standing Up to Jingoism at Work :.

People write to me all the time expressing feelings of hopelessness, fear and futility. The problems we face are so great, what can we do, etc.? I've said it many times before: JUST DO SOMETHING, ANYTHING, SINCE MOST PEOPLE DO NOTHING. If everyone just did SOMETHING, the planet would be a different place.

Example: A Cryptogon reader was facing constant pro-war propaganda at work from a person who has a relative in the U.S. Army. Clearly, nobody should have to put up with this type of nonsense at work. She took action, and put an end to inappropriate jingoism in her immediate surroundings.

What have you done lately to make a difference? Send it in!





Switch: I Finally Bought an Apple Macintosh Titanium Powerbook :.

Dear Apple Computer,

Hi. My name is Kevin, and I'm a political dissident.

In my opinion, the new 1Ghz Powerbook is an excellent way to make the End Days more enjoyable. All of the stuff that can be a pain in the hole (or next to impossible) under Linux works just great- right out of the box. Pop in a DVD, burn stuff to DVD-R, rip a CD, burn one, plug in your digital camera, or digital video camera. It all just works. It's fast. OSX is rock solid stable.

But wait, there's more: Open up the terminal and it's Unix underneath. TR, seen here in his natural environment, helped me get up and running with The Fink and the beautiful OroborOSX window manager. (TR pulled off a bootstrap fink install for OSX 10.2 because there's no binary installer for 10.2 yet. *Everyone bow*) With fink, you can run hundreds of Debian apps inside windows you'll swear are a part of Aqua. (If anyone up at 1 Infinite Loop can tell us how to get .bashrc to source in bash when a new terminal spawns, please write me. Once we're in the terminal, bash is up, but we're having to do a . .bashrc, manually, and then the colored text environment variable activates. I figured it out. .term files.) So, far, I'm extremely happy with the machine. Well done, Apple.

-Kevin F


Seriously, if you're a normal person, ignore the above paragraphs and just go try the new Powerbook. Yes! It's excellent for both freaks and normals! Hint: If you get "sticker shock" from the price, do a careful analysis of exactly what you're getting. Consider the fact that you'll be running an incredibly stable and secure operating system. Consider the software bundle. Consider the hardware quality. Consider the fact that Windows notebooks with similar features weigh three to four pounds more! And battery life is top notch at just over 4 hours (so far, in my experience). Anyway, if you're in the market for a really nice system, consider an Apple. You may like what you see. I sure did.




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