Some Arab- and Muslim-Americans say new Justice Department guidelines that boost the FBI's power to investigate suspected terrorists could target innocent people.

The revised guidelines going into effect Monday will allow agents to use undercover sources to gather information, interview people without identifying themselves and spy on suspects without evidence of wrongdoing.

Critics say the rules will allow for abuses, including more racial and religious profiling.

WHEN I first stuck my head above the parapet to say I didn't believe what we were being told about global warming, I had no idea what the consequences would be. I am a scientist and I have to follow the directions of science, but when I see that the truth is being covered up I have to voice my opinions.

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.

Never before has a president pardoned himself or his subordinates for crimes he authorized. The closest thing to this in U.S. history thus far has been Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's sentence. Bush is widely expected to follow that commutation with a pardon. Not only did Libby work for the White House, but he was convicted of obstruction of justice in an investigation that was headed to the president.

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.

A passenger focus group conducted for TSA by New York City business consulting firm Blue Lime found that "unquestioning compliance has diminished." Passengers say they are more afraid of missing their flight than they are of an airplane being attacked, the 73-page Blue Lime report found.

Council staff are said to have spied on the young parents at night as part of a plan to see if they were fit
to look after their baby, who was sleeping in another room.

The mother and father were forced to cite the Human Rights Act, which protects the right to a private life, before the social services team backed down and agreed to switch off the surveillance camera while they were in bed together.

The authorities may lawfully conduct searches and electronic surveillance against United States citizens in foreign countries without a warrant, a federal appeals court panel said on Monday, bolstering the government’s power to investigate terrorism by ruling that a key constitutional protection afforded to Americans does not apply overseas.

The words go to the essence of what is just and unjust. Of what is acceptable and unacceptable. The slogan, "no taxation without representation" was the rallying cry that led to America's war for independence from Great Britain. Its spirit was behind the Boston Tea Party and the list of grievances in the Declaration of Independence. It is just plain wrong to tax citizens in a democracy and disregard their collective will.

Former Congresswoman and presidential candidate Cynthia McKinney has been prevented from leaving the country after she planned to give a speech in Damascus Syria at a Conference being held to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

"...a funny thing happened to me while at the Atlanta airport on my way to the Conference: I was not allowed to exit the country,” writes McKinney.

There's a possibility of something similar (but not as severe) happening in the U.S. - we'd rather at least mention it than not.
The parallel to the German war reparations is the derivatives area today.
Don't shoot the messenger, we didn't invent the facts below.

Judge Wickham upheld the argument of Dr. Töben’s defence barrister Ben Watson that the German authorities had not given sufficient detail in their warrant as to the exact nature of Dr. Töben’s “crime” – a deficiency which proved impossible to rectify, perhaps because of the vagueness of the very concept of ‘Holocaust’ in the German law, which itself does not specify what may or may not be “denied” and does not even mention the supposedly “obvious” method of industrial mass murder by gassing.

A survey by the First Amendment Center in the US has reached the shocking conclusion that most American citizens don’t know the five basic freedoms enshrined in the constitution.

An ad this week in the alternative newspaper The Alibi asks "people who hang out with crooks" to do part-time work for the police.

It reads in part: "Make some extra cash! Drug use and criminal record OK."

The American surveillance society is one of the worst in the world. According to Privacy International and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, we are among the nine most “endemic” surveillance societies. The U.S. is supposed to be the beacon of liberty, the example to all the world of what a society of liberty under law ought to look like. But we have become an embarrassment.

Police are to be armed with 10,000 Taser stun guns as part of a drive to tackle violent crime.

Iraq's defense minister Abdul Qadir Muhammed Jassim threatened to declare a state of emergency if Iraq's parliament refused to sign an accord allowing US troops to stay in the country for three more years.

His rhetoric was eerily in tune with Bush Administration officials' comments on domestic security and Iran, echoing language used by the Administration to bolster support for the Iraq war.

It has been a grim pleasure to expose the hypocrisy of the corporate governance establishment, who have bankrupted our Canadian company and reduced the share price of the American one from $21, when I left, to a miraculous two cents (yes, two cents). They have vaporised $2 billion of public shareholder value; fine titles in several countries have deteriorated; and for their infamies, the protectors of the public interest have cheerfully trousered more than $200m.

By making such “defamation of religion” a crime under international law, nations would be able to seek extradition and trial abroad of persons who make statements critical or offensive to one or all faiths anywhere in the world.

As tragic as Columbine was, Holder’s reaction to stifle free speech on the internet is nonetheless disturbing. Combine his zeal for what he may consider “reasonable regulations” along with his advocacy for a federal hate crime law(H/T to National Review), and internet users may find themselves in a world of legal woe after the Obama administration takes over in January.

The task of the historian is to investigate, confront, challenge and, if necessary, correct society's collective memory. In this process, the state ought to have no role whatever, none at all. Certainly not in the UK, which delights in presenting itself as a bastion of academic freedom.

Deibert, who also co-authored the book Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering, said optional filtering schemes in Canada and the UK had major transparency and accountability problems that may be duplicated, if not exacerbated, in Australia.

In Canada, for example, filtering of access to child pornography is left in the hands of private ISPs. Deibert said this lack of civilian oversight meant there was no measure of redress for sites that had been improperly blocked.

German prosecutors have withdrawn their appeal against a British court's refusal last month to extradite the controversial historian, who was detained at Heathrow airport on a European arrest warrant for denying the extent of Adolf Hitler's crimes against the Jews. Dr Toben's solicitor Kevin Lowry-Mullins said early today that he had signed a consent order with the German Government to end the action against his client.

An effort by the New York Police Department to get broader latitude to eavesdrop on terrorism suspects has run into sharp resistance from the Justice Department in a bitter struggle that has left the police commissioner and the attorney general accusing each other of putting the public at risk.

The autopsy obtained by WITN News says Smith was tased four times by deputies. About a half hour later, Smith stopped breathing in the hospital emergency room and later was pronounced dead.

The TV report mentioned that he was tazered twice of those four times while in shackles and hand cuffs.

None the less the hospital rules his cause of death as "natural."

Some of those closest to the frustrating delays many travelers experience at U.S. airports are hoping President George W. Bush plans more expansive steps than he took last year to combat the holiday crunch.

The chairman of Muslim charity Interpal has expressed outrage at newspaper reports that the US is putting pressure on UK ministers to blacklist it.

Are you frustrated at the loss of freedom and responsibility in America, while the growth of government and taxes continues unabated? Do you want to live in strong communities where your rights are respected, and people exercise responsibility for themselves and in their dealings with each other?

If you answered "yes" to those questions, then the Free State Project has a solution for you.

Privacy advocates across Canada have been struggling to prevent the Ontario provincial government from passing legislation that will see radio identifiers and biometric data inserted into future Ontarian drivers licenses. In spite of their efforts to raise the government’s awareness of the privacy dangers accompanying the proposed licenses, it appears as though their work may been in vain: Bill 85 is now in its final reading, and is widely expected to be passed on November 17th, or shortly thereafter, when the reading continues.

The government, projecting a comprehensive internet filter, originally assured internet users that they could legally receive banned content by contacting their providers and circumventing such restrictions. Now the government says they can't. All illegal content, which should include everything from pornography to political and religious speech violating Australia's hate laws, will be forbidden. It will be illegal to create or receive communication which the government disapproves.

The proposed regulation "would allow state and local law enforcement agencies to collect intelligence on individuals and organizations even if the information is unrelated to any criminal matter," Maddow explained. She added, "Even if they weren't already watching you -- they soon could be."

Historian and ex-Navy man Chalmers Johnson was interviewed for his new book, Nemesis and if you have ever read his book called Blowback, you will definitely want to see this. If you are new to Johnson's analysis, here is a chance to get acquainted.

Salon.com has published new details about a top secret government database that might be at the heart of the Bush administration’s domestic spying operations. The database is known as “Main Core.” It reportedly collects and stores vast amounts of personal and financial data about millions of Americans. Some former US officials believe that “Main Core” may have been used by the National Security Agency to determine who to spy on in the immediate aftermath of 9/11.

U.S. intelligence officials say they have no credible information about potential terrorist or criminal attacks against a weekend summit in Washington of world leaders to deal with the global financial crisis.

In fact, law enforcement officials said they were more concerned about angry protesters, such as people left jobless by the financial meltdown, than they were about terrorists.

NorthCom’s press release also says that other participants in the exercise include the U.S. Strategic Command’s “Global Lightning 09,” which is a plan to use nuclear weapons in a surprise attack.

The Pentagon’s “Bulwark Defender 09” is also involved in the exercise, and it is a cyberspace protection outfit of the Pentagon.

Remember, even prior to its passage, I called the bailout the greatest looting operation of our time. I did so because the language of the Bailout Act, as originally proposed by the former CEO of Goldman Sachs, er, I mean the Treasury Secretary, requested three things: unitary power, no review, and no limits.
Frankly, it was the most plainly-worded document of theft that I had ever seen, and probably ever will see, in my life (because it was too blatant and such mistakes are rarely made again).

Shawn Nguyen bragged that he could sneak anything past airport security using his top-secret clearance as a federal air marshal. And for months, he smuggled cocaine and drug money onto flights across the country, boasting to an FBI informant that he was "the man with the golden badge."

Michael McGowan used his position as an air marshal to lure a young boy to his hotel room, where he showed him child porn, took pictures of him naked and sexually abused him.

In New York State , seven teens have been accused of a “hate crime” after a 38-year-old immigrant from Ecuador , Marcello Lucero, was attacked and stabbed to death. The assistant district attorney claims that the teens said, “Let's go find some Mexicans to -- -- up.” She accuses them of a “well thought out crime targeting Hispanic males.”

To my Son,

Now that you are a senior and will soon be off to college, there is something I hope you will examine before you make any career decisions. I call it "the Outfit," and to most a job there would be the ultimate in success and career achievement…fixed for life. But it has one drawback, for some there is a moral problem. I think you are smart enough to decide and to learn from the Outfit successes.

Police say county initiative making personal marijuana use in private "the lowest law enforcement priority", which passed overwhelmingly last week, will have no impact on law enforcement practice.

A Pinellas County detention deputy was suspended for using the sound of his stun gun to try and wake up an inmate. According to an internal affairs report, the deputy thought the crackling sound of his Taser would rouse an inmate on July 27. It did not.

Noted linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky discusses how
the Bush administration has converted a global wave of sympathy
for the United States after 9-11 to a wave of hatred for American
arrogance and militancy.

When Barack Obama takes the oath of office on January 20, Americans won't just get a new president; they might finally learn the full extent of George W. Bush's warrantless domestic wiretapping.

A brief history of the Patriot Act, showing the many deceptions brought in by the Bush Administration, including: requesting total secrecy form public input and swapping at the last moment, the original Bill that Congress agreed to sign, with one manipulated by the Administration. The Administration's version of the Bill contained unconstitutional provisions that had been rejected earlier by Congress.

Britain's security agencies and police would be given unprecedented and legally binding powers to ban the media from reporting matters of national security, under proposals being discussed in Whitehall.

On a night like no other when America’s open and democratic virtues were put on worldwide display, an ill-advised policy within the Department of Defense proclaimed to servicemembers and the news media alike: “No you can’t.” What a servicemember and a journalist couldn’t do, the policy drafters ordered, was engage in conversation on a military base