Norbert\'s Bookmarks for a Better World

http://www.betterworldlinks.org/

Letter reveals Campbell proposed 11 changes to Iraq dossier

JASON BEATTIE CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

ALASTAIR Campbell recommended 11 separate changes to the intelligence dossier on Iraq, a leaked letter to the Commons committee investigating the controversy has revealed.

The letter, from Mr Campbell to the foreign affairs select committee, will be seized on as evidence that the Prime Minister’s press chief played a key role in finalising the wording of the document published last September. It reveals that Mr Campbell raised a series of substantial questions about the dossier, which led to some of the claims about the threat posed by Saddam Hussein being re-worded.

However, the letter appears to exonerate him from the crucial allegation that he ordered inserted into the document the claim that Iraq’s missiles could be ready within 45 minutes.

There is also evidence that in four instances, recommendations made by Downing Street were rejected by the security services.

The absence of the 45-minute claim and the fact that all the changes recommended by Mr Campbell were approved by the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Services (JIC), John Scarlett, are likely to be used by Labour MPs on the committee to clear him.

The committee launched the inquiry following allegations made by Andrew Gilligan, a BBC journalist, that No 10 deliberately \"sexed up\" the dossier in order to exaggerate the menace posed by Saddam and his weapons of mass destruction.

The allegations - vehemently denied by No 10 - have provoked the most bitter dispute between the government and the BBC in living memory and prompted Mr Campbell to make an extraordinary appearance on television last week to defend his reputation.

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/politics.cfm?id=724382003

Slováky stojí neústupnost desítky milionů korun

USA přiškrtily pomoc neposlušným

Spojené státy zastavily vojenskou pomoc pro 35 států, které se odmítly zavázat, že nebudou mezinárodnímu trestnímu tribunálu vydávat Američany. \"Těší nás, že mnoho zemí nepodlehlo americkému tlaku,\" komentoval rozhodnutí mluvčí Evropské komise Diego Ojeda s tím, že americké odpovědi lituje.

Spojené státy se obávají, že by žaloby k trestnímu soudu mohly být zneužity k politicky motivovaným útokům proti americkým vojákům z mírových misí. Chtěly jim proto zajistit imunitu prostřednictvím dvoustranných smluv.

\"Americké obavy jsou možná normální. USA by mohly být kvůli své přítomnosti ve světě postiženy ve větší míře než ostatní země. Zakládající smlouva ICC ale poskytuje záruky, že se to nestane,\" dodal mluvčí Evropské komise.

ICC vznikl jako tribunál pro válečné zločiny, genocidu a zločiny proti lidskosti, které nejsou schopny nebo ochotny stíhat země, jejichž občan zločin spáchal. Vláda Billa Clintona smlouvu o ICC podepsala, prezident George Bush ale podpis zrušil.

Státy Evropské unie se loni dohodly, že sice mohou uzavřít dohodu s USA, ale jen s výhradami. Ty vylučují princip naprosté beztrestnosti a stanoví, že imunitu lze poskytnout jen osobám s diplomatickým statusem.

Mezi padesátkou států, které už dohodu s Washingtonem uzavřely, chybí i několik kandidátů na vstup do NATO - Bulharsko, Estonsko, Lotyšsko, Litvu, Slovensko a Slovinsko. USA je potrestaly zastavením vojenské pomoci.

Podle slovenského ministra obrany Ivana Šimka budou programy pozastaveny nejdéle do vstupu země do NATO. Opatření se totiž netýká členských států. Ministr odmítl upřesnit, na jaké projekty měly být desítky milionů korun použity.

\"Americký prezident si vytvořil zvláštní kritéria přátelství. Stačilo, že Slovensko jen jednou zaváhalo podpořit americké zájmy, aby se dočkalo tvrdé odpovědi z Washingtonu,\" komentuje dění slovenský deník Pravda.

\"Ještě nedávno nám vzkazoval, že Američané nezapomenou na pomoc Slovenska v irácké válce. Vděčnost vyprchala jediným slovenským \'zaváháním\',\" dodal komentátor.

http://zpravy.idnes.cz/zahranicni.asp?r=zahranicni&c=A030703_125445_zahranicni_jan

Anthrax link to US Army trainer

July 3 2003

The man described by US Attorney-General, John Ashcroft, as a \"person of interest\" in an inquiry into the anthrax postal attacks in 2001 trained US special forces in biological warfare before the Iraq war, The New York Times reported yesterday.

Steven Hatfill helped set up a mobile bioweapons laboratory that was used to teach troops what to look for in Iraq, the newspaper said, citing unnamed government officials and experts.

At the heart of the project was a covert plan to build a mobile germ plant, real in all its parts but never actually \"plugged in\" to make weapons, it was claimed. To design the unit, the Government turned to Dr Hatfill, then a rising star in the world of biological defence.

According to the report, the officials now say a major reason Dr Hatfill came under suspicion following the anthrax attacks, which left five people dead, was his work on the mobile unit. In any case, investigators found no evidence suggesting that the plant ever made anthrax, the paper said.

Even after the FBI began investigating Dr Hatfill, the Pentagon continued to draw on his expertise.

AFP

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/02/1056825461359.html

Soud v americkém státě Oklahoma odsoudil 36letého muže na doživotí za to, že při zatýkání plivl na policistu. Podle soudce mohl \"útočník\" přenést na policistu i smrtelnou chorobu.

\'Black box\' for cars a surprise

Washington Times July 2 2003

No one disputes that Michelle Zimmermann lost control of her 2002 GMC Yukon as she drove on a two-lane highway in Massachusetts one snowy afternoon last January. Her friend died after the sport utility vehicle slammed into a tree.

Miss Zimmermann said she was driving within the posted 40 mph speed limit, but like millions of other Americans the 33-year-old didn\'t know that her vehicle had a \"black box.\" Monitoring her driving, it recorded the last few seconds before the crash.

Bolstered by data they say indicates Miss Zimmermann was driving well above the speed limit, prosecutors have charged the Beverly, Mass., woman with negligent vehicular homicide. She has pleaded not guilty and faces up to 2½ years in jail if convicted.

An estimated 25 million automobiles in the United States now have event data recorders, a scaled-down version of the devices that monitor cockpit activity in airplanes. Like aviation recorders, automobile black boxes mainly receive attention after an accident.

The devices\' primary function is to monitor various sensors and decide whether to fire air bags. Since the 1998 model year, all new cars from all manufacturers have been required to have air bags and so most such recent-model cars have the devices. But secondary and more recently installed features in many recorders store data from a few seconds before a crash.

Though capabilities vary widely among carmakers, most recorders store only limited information on speed, seat-belt use, physical forces, brakes and other factors. Voices are not recorded.

But the devices are finding its way into courtrooms as evidence in criminal and civil cases, leading some privacy advocates to question how the recorders came to be installed so widely with so little public notice or debate.

\"It\'s like having a government agent driving around in the back seat of your car,\" said Bob Weiner, Miss Zimmermann\'s defense attorney and a former prosecutor. \"I think it\'s a tremendous invasion of privacy.\"

...

http://www.prisonplanet.com/070203satellite.html

Shia cleric challenges Bush plan for Iraq

Jonathan Steele in Baghdad
Wednesday July 2, 2003
The Guardian

Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq\'s leading Shia cleric, has condemned as \"fundamentally unacceptable\" US plans to appoint rather than elect the Iraqis who will begin drafting a new constitution.

His fatwa, published in Baghdad newspapers yesterday, carries enormous moral weight for the majority Shia community which has been excluded from political power for decades. It also complicates the efforts of Paul Bremer, the US-imposed administrator, who intends to name a hand-picked \"governing council\" of about 30 members in a fortnight.

Ayatollah Sistani is seen as a moderate leader who believes that religious leaders should remain aloof from politics.

\"The occupation officials do not enjoy the authority to appoint the members of a council that would write the constitution\", Ayatollah Sistani said in the fatwa. \"There is no guarantee that this council would grant a constitution that accorded with the highest interests of the Iraqi people and would express their national identity, among the pillars of which is the foundation of the pure religion of Islam and noble social virtues,\" he added.

He called for a general election \"so that every eligible Iraqi can choose someone to represent him at the constitutional convention that will write the constitution. Then there must be a public referendum. It is incumbent upon all believers to demand the realisation of this important matter, and to join together in achieving it,\" he said.

...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,989364,00.html

Bureaucrash / About

Welcome to Bureaucrash!

Bureaucrash is an international network of activists of all political persuasions who believe that bloated, sprawling governments and the bureaucrats and politicians who control them ought to be mocked. Mercilessly.

Why? Because when governments grow, our freedom to live our lives as we see fit shrinks. Every time a new law is passed, some bureaucrat squirreled away in a cubicle somewhere gets more power to make decisions for us. And because the vast majority of people have no idea of the lives and freedoms crushed every time the government’s power grows.

We believe that, only by spreading information about this absurd arrangement can the sprawling bureaucracy be leashed and our fundamental freedoms restored.

On this site you’ll find four types of resources to help you do Bureaucrash style activism. Each of these types has a symbol associated it for easy navigation:

http://bureaucrash.com/