From Tommy Franks, a doomsday scenario

St. Petersburg Times

The doomsday scenario was laid out by Gen. Tommy Franks, the recently retired head of CentCom, in of all places the December edition of Cigar Aficionado magazine.

"What is the worst thing that can happen in our country?" Franks asked rhetorically. "Two steps. The first step would be a nexus between weapons of mass destruction . . . and terrorism." The second step would be "the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we've seen for a couple of hundred years in this grand experiment that we call democracy."

Franks suggested that a "massive casualty-producing event" might cause "our population to question our own Constitution and begin to militarize our country."

For those tapped into the alternative media world of the Internet, the quotes bounced around faster than a Paris Hilton sex video. Franks, a four-star general, was warning of a future he sees as possible if not likely. Our economy might survive another terrorist assault, so might our mass culture - it'll take more than a nuclear device to shut up Jessica Simpson - but the prognosis for the Constitution is bleak.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman repeated the alarm in a recent column when he said that virulent terrorism "is the most serious threat to open societies, because one more 9/11 and we'll really see an erosion of our civil liberties."

We ain't seen nothing yet, according to the experts. If terrorism's sting is felt again, fascism may be its aftermath.

These pundits and prognosticators are saying out loud what anyone who has been following the government's actions since 9/11 already senses.

Consider how far down this road we've already moved: The passage of the USA Patriot Act has given the government extraordinary powers to spy on Americans without cause. The FBI has been unleashed to surveil Americans engaged in antiwar protests. Immigrants have been secretly detained and deported by the hundreds. And two Americans have been imprisoned indefinitely and without charge as "enemy combatants." (Only last week did the Defense Department agree to grant one of those, Yaser Esam Hamdi, access to a lawyer.) To all this, the courts and Congress have barely blinked.

In Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, we are holding more than 600 prisoners from 42 countries who are being refused prisoner of war status or any other formal legal designation. The Bush administration believes these prisoners should have no access to American courts to challenge the legitimacy of their detention and the president alone, as commander in chief, has the power to decide each man's fate. The Justice Department will argue this in two cases before the U.S. Supreme Court this term.

In essence, the administration is asserting something unprecedented - that the kinds of emergency powers that might flow to the military on the battlefield should be available in the "war on terrorism."

But combating terrorism is not the same as prosecuting a traditional war. As the administration itself has explained, with terrorism there is no discrete enemy, place of battle or anticipated end to hostilities. Emergency powers take on a very different sheen when the emergency is permanent and everywhere.

Egypt has slouched toward totalitarianism in this way. Since 1981, the country has used fighting terrorism as a justification to repeatedly renew emergency laws that allow the government to hold suspects without charge and try civilians in military courts - with the U.S. State Department objecting the whole way. Conveniently, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has also used the laws to thwart prodemocracy efforts and dispatch political enemies.

It was the Nine Years' War in Aldous Huxley's Brave New World that facilitated the seizure of power by the world reformers who then took control of nearly all human and social development. In 1984, George Orwell described Oceania as in a constant state of war with a changeable enemy who "always represented absolute evil." These inventors of the great dystopias understood the way governments use war and its associative fear and instability to consolidate power. Despotism thrives on insecurity. Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs puts safety right behind food, water and sleep. Humans naturally crave stability and are willing to sacrifice values such as liberty in its pursuit.

Within the current government there are those who would exploit this weakness. Before it was leaked to the Center for Public Integrity, a bill dubbed the Patriot Act II was in development at the Justice Department. The draft would have allowed for the stripping of American citizenship and the secret detention of citizens; and popular conjecture had it that Attorney General John Ashcroft was just waiting for another terror attack to roll the bill out. In that moment of national panic, a malleable Congress wouldn't resist.

So, will another major terrorist attack on American soil lead, as Franks warns, to the end of freedom and democracy? There aren't many hopeful signs to the contrary.

USDA creating national livestock ID system

By Teresa Bjork

The U.S. livestock industry is moving forward with plans to create a national animal identification system (ID) that can track livestock movements from birth to slaughter, a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) official said last week.

The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) will publish within the next few months a proposed rule to establish a national livestock ID system, said Dr. John Wiemers, national ID coordinator for USDA-APHIS, at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s annual meeting Dec. 3.

“We’ve been talking about animal ID and tracking animals for 20 years,” Wiemers told Farm Bureau members. “Just recently, in the last two to three years, it (animal ID) has become more of a ‘have-to’ kind of thing as we’re faced with foreign animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease, that are knocking at our doorstep.”

...

http://www.ifbf.org/publication/spokesman/story.asp?number=21999&type=News

Joint Task Force Told Face to Face, Blackout was a Military Test

Oliver J. Midelson

At an under publicized public comment meeting, which was publicly 'announced' by a Department of Energy news release, Michael Kane outlined his report, published at Global Free Press, stating that the August 14th blackout was part and parcel to a multi-faceted military test. The Task Force was very attentive, attempting to take notes as fast as Michael spoke.

...

The first point Michael made was that the Task Force Interim Report failed to address the possibility of Electro Magnetic Pulses causing the blackout. He noted that it is known HAARP was turned on at 4pm on August 14th, just 11 minutes before the blackout occurred. He stated the Air Force should be contacted and required to turn over all documentation pertaining to what HAARP was used for on that day.

Michael detailed the aerial aerosol spray operation he witnessed the night of the blackout, as well as referencing the proximity of the Determined Promise '03 national military drills announced just one day after the blackout. He also mentioned he received a report that the Canadian border was militarized at 1pm on August 14th, just three hours before the blackout, in the Mohawk River Valley region. Why?

...

http://www.prisonplanet.com/120803blackout.html

SHOCK VIDEO: WHO SHOT NEW 9/11 TAPES?

Did Al Qaeda shoot recently released footage of 9/11 WTC attack – or was it someone else?
by Justin Raimondo

I shivered, a little, as I watched Lisa Meyers' report on NBC the other night:

"New and threatening messages have been received from Al Qaeda. There's a videotape aimed at American and Saudi Arabian rulers and another that includes what appears to be well-produced footage of the 9/11 attacks – raising still other questions."

This new 9/11 footage sure does raise a lot of other questions, first and foremost: who shot the video? It was posted on what is described as "a known Al-Qaeda website" last Wednesday, although it was taken down after a few days. Aside from the usual militaristic gymnastics by jihadi commandos, Meyers reports:

"The tape also contains what U.S. counterterror experts say may be never-before-broadcast video of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on New York's World Trade Center shot from across the East River in Brooklyn. The FBI says it is familiar with the video, which was provided by a friendly bystander. But that raises the question – how did a tape that was not widely circulated end up on a known Al Qaeda site?"

It's sinister to contemplate. Video believed to have been in U.S. government hands somehow pops up on a website alleged to be an Al Qaeda mouthpiece, and U.S. government officials hold it up as a reason to cower in fear before the threat of another major terrorist attack on American soil. Meanwhile, the President avers that Iraq is the central arena in his "war on terrorism," and his supporters claim that we're battling them in the streets of Baghdad so we don't have to fight them in the streets of Boise – or whatever alliterative cliche first comes to mind.

The idea that Al Qaeda had additional agents in the area, who knew the attack was coming, would certainly explain the unflinching steadiness of the camera's eye as it recorded the terror of that moment. But instead of inventing additional elements and players, it's always best to stick with what we already know. So who else just happened to be videotaping the World Trade Center attack that day?

Hours after the terrorists struck, five people were arrested in New Jersey as they taped the WTC from their vantage point across the Hudson River in New Jersey. A witness identified only as "Maria" by ABC News said she saw:

"Three young men kneeling on the roof of a white van in the parking lot of her apartment building. 'They seemed to be taking a movie,' Maria said. The men were taking video or photos of themselves with the World Trade Center burning in the background, she said.

"What struck Maria were the expressions on the men's faces. 'They were like happy, you know … They didn't look shocked to me. I thought it was very strange,' she said."

Even stranger – it turned out the five were Israelis. When law enforcement swooped down on this crew, they found them in possession of $4,700 in cash, box cutters, and multiple foreign passports. Police dogs reacted as if the presence of explosives was indicated, and, as the Bergen County Record reported:

"Sources close to the investigation said they found other evidence linking the men to the bombing plot. 'There are maps of the city in the car with certain places highlighted,' the source said. 'It looked like they're hooked in with this. It looked like they knew what was going to happen when they were at Liberty State Park.'"

These guys were held for three months, much of the time in solitary confinement, and extensively interrogated. One refused to take a lie detector test for weeks, and then failed it. All five had been in the employ of Urban Moving Systems, of Weehawken, New Jersey, the company name on their van's registration.

Police raided the Urban Moving Systems warehouse 48 hours later, and carted away a lot of computer hard drives and other materials. The owner, one Dominik Suter, fled to Israel the next day. A few months later, Suter's name turned up on a list of terrorist suspects circulated by the FBI to European financial institutions.

The apprehended Israelis claimed that they were merely "documenting" the day's events: police confiscated their photographic equipment, and whatever film they had taken. The new film shows the World Trade Center burning from the Brooklyn side of the East River, while the Urban Movers were filming from the vantage point of Liberty State Park, across the Hudson River in New Jersey. But whomever had foreknowledge of the attack on the World Trade Center could have taken that film – and Al Qaeda operatives are not the only possible suspects.

I have written at length about the five arrested Israelis in my new book, The Terror Enigma: 9/11 and the Israeli Connection, and I commend the attention of my readers to this modest little volume if they want to know more. I bring this up, not merely to plug my book, but to point out that we can't begin to understand the strange expropriation of this previously unknown footage outside the context provided by The Terror Enigma.

As I prove in my book, Al Qaeda did not carry out its plans for a major terrorist attack entirely undetected. The Israelis were hot on the trail of the 9/11 hijackers, and must have had some foreknowledge of what happened that fateful day.

Did they shoot the footage we are just now seeing, or was an Al Qaeda film team at the ready the moment the twin towers were hit? Readers of The Terror Enigma will understand how and why the former scenario is just as likely the latter.

As to how, in that case, the video passed into the hands of Al Qaeda's propagandists – it wouldn't be the first time the fruits of Israeli spying operations in the U.S. fell into the hands of America's enemies.

In any case, how this new 9/11 footage, previously known only to the FBI and a "friendly bystander," wound up in Al Qaeda's possession – or in the hands of a website claiming to represent them – is a mystery that the U.S. government seems quite uninterested in unraveling.

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j120803.html

jj nekteri urcite

JAXXE: Průser je v tom, že věřím, že třeba i ti, co zavedení těchhle čipů vymysleli, prosadili a schválili, můžou doopravdy věřit tomu, že to opravdu dělají "pro dobro věci"...

We are under attack constantly. I nearly lost the website in September - only spending 6 hours shouting at Yahoo and wracking up a huge phone bill saved it. Yesterday Prison Planet was taken offline by ICANN (The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) after they were ordered by the UN to close it. Alex managed to get it back online as he explained on his radio show.

People spend half their money going to the football game or drinking beer but don't even have spare change when it comes to supporting freedom.

Donate at http://www.propagandamatrix.com/donate.html

Buy my book at http://www.store.yahoo.com/infowars-shop/pauljoswator.html

Who Bombed Turkey and Why? US-Israeli Oil Interests Provide Clandestine Motive

Sunday, November 23, 2003
By Paul Joseph Watson

Another week, another 'Al-Qaeda' bombing. But why Turkey? Why would radical Muslims target a Muslim-led country that if anything has been a bulwark against the PNAC imperialist expansion? Depends on who your 'radical Muslims' work for.

Let's forgoe the 'Al-Qaeda targets Britain' headlines which screamed at us from the tabloids this past week. The fact that the British embassy was hit matters little to Brits, who only ever take notice of events which are taking place in their own backyard.

The timing of the attack obviously coincided with the height of the protests against Bush's visit to London. Why would George Bush's arch enemies provide a distraction that would reduce media coverage of the protests against him significantly and allow him to grandstand with Tony Blair in a wallowing of fake sympathy?

The actors and dramatics that make up the US government-created 'Al-Qaeda' hoodwink most of the world into believing the theatre that a highly organized terrorist group called 'Al-Qaeda' exists. Evidence relentlessly highlighted by this website proves that all the so-called 'Al-Qaeda ringleaders' who are arrested either turn out to be already arrested, already dead, still on the loose, or were working for the US government from the start.

The only terrorist groups out there who are not controlled by the US government are loosely affiliated zealots and their copy-cats.

The bombing in Istanbul was confirmed to have been the work of Al-Qaeda after somebody sent an E mail to a Turkish news agency taking responsibility for the bombing on behalf of Al-Qaeda. I could have sent that E mail, anybody could have sent it. It's amazing how Al-Qaeda suddenly started claiming responsibility for things only after September 11. Remember, bin Laden himself, in-between meeting CIA agents and having more kidney dialysis, refused to 'take the credit' for 9/11 in an interview with a Pakistani newspaper shortly after the event.

The mainstream media are content to accept fat lookalike videos, faked audio tapes and anonymous E mails as proof of responsibility for these crimes. I prefer to actually look at hard evidence and motive.

Turkey's refusal to allow US troops into the country before the Iraq war delayed the bombing by weeks. They are also partly responsible for the tribal skirmishes for control which are killing US troops on a daily basis.

Turkey had a huge presence at the May 2003 Bilderberg meeting in an attempt to grovel out of their Iraq obstinance but still received a slap on the wrist from the global elite. They were warned to co-operate with the agenda or face the consequences.

After the war (officially) ended Turkey continued to complain and demanded that the Mosul-Haifa oil pipeline to Israel be scrapped in favor of transporting the oil to the Turkish port of Ceyhan. The Turks even went so far as to suggest that the Mosul-Haifa pipeline could threaten peaceful relations between Turkey and Israel.

Was the Istanbul bombing an Israeli warning not to interfere with its oil agenda? Was the bombing carried out by the Mossad 'Al-Qaeda' groups that Israel has been caught manufacturing in the past?

Who benefits? The motive and consequences of the Istanbul bombings strongly suggest that it was another staged terrorist attack on the part of Israeli/US government spooks in order to bury media coverage of the Bush protests and cowtow Turkey into getting back into line behind the Middle East gameplan.

// posted by Paul @ 10:21 PM

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/blog

PETVAL --- --- 16:59:43 8.12.2003

no takze nakonec si to vlastne preji zakaznici, diky wal-marte ;)

Wal-Mart: od čarového kódu ke chlebu s mikroprocesorem

Jiří Hlavenka 5.12. 2003

Firma plánuje vybavit všechno své prodávané zboží mikročipem komunikujícím na rozhlasové frekvenci.

Wal-Mart je dnes světovou jedničkou v retailu (nákupních řetězcích) s takovým náskokem, růstem a profitem, že k němu ostatní obři (Carrefour, Tesco, Aldi atd.) jen zdvořile vzhlížejí. Firma dobyla Ameriku, kde dotlačila u nás kdysi známější K-Mart až do bankrotu; o další, mimoamerické trhy se firma dosud příliš nezajímala, u nás nepůsobí vůbec. Wal-Mart, i když vždy nebýval takovým obrem, byl vždycky silně inovativním retailerem ? vzpomeňme například na to, že to byla právě před dvaceti lety tato firma, která důsledně trvala na zavedení čarového kódu (tehdy docela novinky) u všech dodavatelů svého zboží. Kdo neměl barcode, měl do Wal-Martu dveře zavřené, a tehdy bylo mnoho povyku z toho, k čemu výrobní firmy tento pouhý prodejce nutí. Firma byla rovněž vždy pověstná soustředěním na zákazníka ? na rozdíl od konkurence to nebylo jen marketingovou frází, která se dobře vyjímá na letácích, ale skutečně jakousi firemní posedlostí. Čarové kódy do toho dobře zapadají ? firma říká ?stlačíme náklady, abychom mohli stlačit ceny?; proto je nyní tam, kde je, neboť konkurenti obvykle stlačují náklady, aby více vydělali.

Wal-Mart byl také jeden z prvních řetězců, který akceptoval elektronickou (internetovou) komerci jako příležitost, nikoli jako hrozbu a nepřátelskou technologii. Firma jako jedna z prvních zřídila na Internetu ?otisk? svého obchodu s podrobnými informacemi k nabízenému zboží a dnes přes Internet rovněž prodává těm, kteří nechtějí do supermarketu přijet osobně. Wal-Mart si dnes toto časné spřátelení s Internetem chválí a uvádí, že jeho virtuální supermarket navštíví ročně desítky miliónů zákazníků a velké množství si nechává zasílat akční nabídky e-mailem ? pro firmu to samozřejmě není významný komerční kanál, ale velevýznamný kanál marketingový, kterým opět o něco lépe slouží svým zákazníkům. Nyní ale Wal-Mart plánuje opět cosi velkého, zřejmě tak revolučního, jako byly čarové kódy před dvaceti lety: vybavit povinně všechno své zboží mikročipy komunikujícími na dálku na rádiových (rozhlasových) frekvencích.

Mimochodem: vztah řetězců k e-komerci, jak jej známe například z České republiky, si vůbec zaslouží pár vět. Jeden řetězec vedle druhého zatím Internet okázale ignoruje; někde nalezneme pár základních stránek typu ?kdo jsme ? co děláme?, jinde jsou naskenované letáky z akcí, ale to je vše. Přes Internet neprodává žádný z nich, a rovněž využití Internetu ke komunikaci se zákazníky je mizerné.

Lze pochopit, proč supermarkety nezřídily své e-obchody. Není to jejich zaměření, nejsou takto vystavěny ? nemají ani zázemí na posílání zboží zákazníkům poštou, a hygienické předpisy brání nebo velmi komplikují zasílání některého potravinářského zboží (zmražené, rychle se kazící, s nutností opatrného zacházení atd.). Smysl supermarketu je v tom, že zákazník přijede a ve velké prodejně bloudí tak dlouho, dokud nemá plný košík věcí, které nakoupit nechtěl, a teprve pak je milostivě propuštěn k pokladně. Supermarket je vytvořen tak, aby zákazník ve snaze najít levné rohlíky musel projít mnoho dlouhých nákupních uliček s atraktivně vypadajícím drahým zbožím; supermarket dovádí k dokonalosti tzv. impulzivní nakupování, tedy nákup zboží bez předchozího záměru a z náhlého popudu ?protože to vidím a je to po ruce ? může se hodit?. To na Internetu nevytvoříte: nelze vytvořit obchod, který by po zadání slova ?chléb? do vyhledávacího políčka uživateli řekl ? jo tak ty chceš chleba? Nejdřív musíš projít tady těmi čtyřmi stránkami, kde tě seznámím s nabídkou automobilového příslušenství, umělých květin, ratanového nábytku a mikulášských sladkostí.

Supermarket se této rafinované pasti na zákazníky vzdát nechce a proto nemá svou podobu na Internetu ? ale proč české řetězce nevyužívají webových stránek alespoň k ?pasivnímu? marketingu, k prezentaci sortimentu a zasílání akčních nabídek, už je tak jasné není.

Proč Wal-Mart naopak na Internetu prodává a dokonce chce zavést systém ?chytrého zboží? vybaveného mikročipy, když jsme si právě vysvětlili, že to jde proti zájmům obchodu? Rozdíl je pochopitelně v trhu ? zákazník je mnohem náročnější, vyspělejší, konkurence nesrovnatelně ostřejší. Kdyby byl nějaký pražský hypermarket přesazen do USA vedle Wal-Martu, se svým bludištěm, zbožím s neoznačenými cenami, frontami u pokladen, nevalnou nabídkou základního potravinářského zboží, krátkou otvírací dobou a předraženými výběhovými typy nepotravinářského zboží, byl by zákazníkům jen pro smích.

V čem spočívá princip inovace Wal-Martu? Každé zboží bude mít již od výrobce vestavěný mikročip (zřejmě ne všechno, protože z rohlíků by nám to lezlo mezi zuby). Mikročip plní funkci čarového kódu, obsahuje tedy informace o zboží, ale s tím rozdílem, že je sám ?aktivní? ? není potřeba člověka, který chodí se čtečkou a skenuje. Čip komunikuje s počítači umístěnými uvnitř obchodu, ve skladě, u pokladen atd. Pokud zboží dochází, ve skladu pípne skladníkovi na čtečce, co má vzít, kde to má vzít, kolik toho má vzít a kam to má zařadit ? zboží se mu identifikuje daleko snáze a rychleji. Jakmile zákazník překročí s košíkem se zbožím čáru ?virtuální pokladny?, systém okamžitě spočítá, kolik má platit a pokladní jej pouze zkasíruje, bez toho, aby bylo nutné koš vyprázdnit a zboží u pokladny odprezentovat. Další nemalou úsporou, o které se ale mnoho nehovoří, je citelné snížení krádeží jak zákazníky, tak zaměstnanci, neboť čip jej nepropustí mimo zónu bez zaplacení, takže zloděj by musel zboží vyjímat z obalů, aby je mohl někam přepravit, a to je hodně pracné. Odhaduje se, že v obchodech Wal-Martu činí krádeže asi 1-2% ztrát z tržeb (což ale může být 10-20 % z celkového zisku firmy!); pro zajímavost, v České republice jsme lepší, protože u nás se rozkradou celá čtyři procenta. Wal-Mart říká, že zavedením tohoto systému ušetří více než 8 miliard dolarů za rok, i když investice, především jednorázové na zavedení systému, půjdou rovněž do miliard. (Pro úplnost dodejme, že Wal-Mart v tomto není úplným světovým pionýrem, nedávno takto vybavený obchod prezentoval řetězec Metro(-Makro) v Německu. Tam ale šlo jen o ukázku ?co všechno je možné?, firma zatím neuvádí, že by chtěla něco takového zavést standardně a plošně).

Zboží vybavené mikročipem je velmi zajímavou a chytře vypadající odpovědí Wal-Martu (a pokud v tom firma uspěje, budou jistě následovat ostatní) na internetovou komerci. Lidé si díky Internetu zvykli na dříve nezvyklou úroveň komfortu při nákupu: přímočaré nalezení zboží a zjištění spousty dalších informací, porovnání cen a parametrů. Zákazníci se právem cítí, že při návštěvě supermarketu jsou ponecháni na holičkách, a že to není normální stav, protože na Internetu tomu tak není: vidí výrobek, ale neví, jestli je to poslední model, jestli je cena férová, nemají možnost porovnat s jinými výrobky, které v regálu nejsou a podobně. Mnoho zákazníků přechází na Internet právě proto, že zde jsou oni páni situace ? nestojí nervózně s košíkem u zboží, kde se chtějí na něco zeptat, u zboží tyto informace nejsou a prodavač neexistuje. Informační mikročip je pro zákazníka aspoň určitou pomocí, i když ne dokonalou.
V diskuzi je 50 příspěvků, poslední dnes 14:56

http://www.zive.cz/Text/Ar.asp?ARI=113795

D.A.R.P.A. IS FUNDING AN IMPLANTABLE CHIP FAR MORE ADVANCED THAN"DIGITAL ANGEL"! M.M.E.A. - MULTIPLE MICRO ELECTRODE ARRAY

http://www.angelfire.com/d20/philadelphians/MMEA.html

EXPANDED 'PATRIOT ACT' REACH WOULD HIT THE NET, TOO

Posted By: hobie
Date: Friday, 28 November 2003, 6:11 p.m.

In Response To: NOW WE HAVE IRS STARCHAMBERS...WHAT NEXT? (GhostwolfeMoon)

(Thanks, WB, for the pointer to this artcle. :)

This is from AVN.com (which I think is Adult Video Network - a notice on one page says "Sponsored by 'Hustler'".)

===

Expanded Patriot Act Reach Would Hit The Net, Too

By: Charles Farrar
11-25-2003

WASHINGTON - A bill approved by Congress last week to extend the reach of the Patriot Act would expand the FBI's business document and transaction power to cyberspace stations like eBay, Internet logs, and Internet service providers, and without requiring a judge's approval.

It's part of the new bill's redefinition of the term "financial institution" and "financial transaction," according to Wired, and allows the FBI to get such records by handing itself a national security letter saying those records are relevant to a terrorism investigation.

"The FBI doesn't need to show probable cause or consult a judge," the magazine said. "What's more, the target institution is issued a gag order and kept from revealing the subpoena's existence to anyone, including the subject of the investigation."

This bill follows a stalled attempt earlier this year by the Justice Department to write and push the so-called "Patriot II" act, but a leak of the draft provoked such an outcry that the department backed away from that proposal, but Wired said the newly passed bill involves one of Patriot II's most controversial aspects.

According to Duke University law professor Chris Schroeder, that shows those who wanted to expand the FBI's powers didn't want to stop despite the hoopla over Patriot II. "They are going to insert these provisions on a stealth basis," Schroeder told Wired. "It's insidious."

He has an ally in the Center for Democracy and Technology's executive director, James X. Dempsey. "On its face, it's a cryptic and seemingly innocuous amendment," he told the magazine. "It wasn't until after it passed both houses that we saw it. The FBI and CIA like to try to graft things like this into intelligence bills."

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=40578

RUSSIAN GENERAL STAFF WARNS AGAINST U.S. MINI NUKES

Posted By: Rosalinda
Date: Friday, 28 November 2003, 6:14 p.m.

In Response To: US DEVELOPING SMALL PRE-EMPTIVE NUKES RUSSIA UPSET COLD WAR RETURNS (Mailbag)

[source: AP wire 26 November 2003]

Col.-Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the first deputy chief of staff
of the Russian General Staff, voiced strong concern
over U.S. plans to develop low-yield nuclear weapons,
saying Moscow might be forced to review its own nuclear doctrine.

General Baluyevsky told reporters Wednesday
that the Pentagon's plans to develop such weapons
would be destabilizing.

A defense bill signed by President Bush on Monday
lifts a decade-old ban on mini-nuke research
and authroizes $15 million
for continued research into nuclear weapons
capable of destroying underground bunkers.

"That causes us concern," Baluyevsy said.

"Should we somehow review our nucelar strategy?
Yes, I believe we should."

http://www.rumormillnews.com/cgi-bin/forum.cgi?read=40579

Intelligence 'Chatter' Sparks Fear of Christmas Attack

By Mark Sage, PA News, in New York

Counter-terrorism officials said today they were increasingly fearful of a Christmas terror attack on America.

Some officers said the level of intelligence “chatter” was similar to that just before the strikes on September 11, 2001.

Many fear that an attack could be launched on a soft target, such as a shopping centre.

“As recently as two weeks ago, the intelligence community was telling the Homeland Security Department that this felt a lot like the summer of 2001,” said Roger Cressey, a former counter-terrorism official with the National Security Council.

He told CNN there was “lots of data, lots of information coming together that paints a very disturbing picture”.

Another strike on US soil is expected to be bigger than recent al Qaida attacks abroad.

However, the lack of specific information means that the official terror warning level will not be raised.

Similar warnings of an attack in October proved to be false.

More information than usual has been posted on web sites in support of al Qaida in recent months, security officials said.

Among them was a video of the two planes hitting the World Trade Centre on September 11 but the specific camera angle has never been seen by the public before.

http://www.news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2263954

Israelis better at manipulating media
By Dr Toine Van Teeffele

As a guide and consultant living in Bethlehem, Palestine, I have regularly coordinated visits for groups of Westerners coming to see Palestinian reality with their own eyes.


Almost always those visitors felt afterwards that what they saw did not correspond with the image of Palestine they had before. Somehow the impact and scope of occupation were never really understood except after experiencing it first hand.

Why? Lots of causes are at play here, but perhaps none is so important as the influence of the media. I think three main factors have to be considered to understand the impact of the Western media on the popular image of occupied Palestine (the West Bank, East-Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip):

- The work situation and cultural background of Western journalists working in Palestine and Israel
- The presentation of the news about the region, and
- The boundaries of the debate within the media.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/0944B35C-4811-4F44-88EF-F96684DF85F7.htm

Výročí Velikého Orientu Českého

Veliký Orient Český si připomíná výročí svého vzniku. Před deseti lety byly dvě pražské a jedna brněnská lóže vyvázány ze svazku Velikého Orientu Francouzského a založily pod jeho záštitou novu zednářskou obedienci na území České republiky.

Dotek historie

V pozůstalosti po významném brněnském zednáři byly nalezeny doklady o historii brněnské lóže Cestou světla, jejíž vznik se datuje rokem 1926. Členy prvorepublikové lóže byli významné osobnosti brněnského společenského života. Na obrázku vidíte plaketu lóže se znakem.

Přijetí u J. Chiraca

Nejvyšší představitelé Francouzské republiky přijali při příležitosti oslav 275. výročí založení první lóže na francouzském území zástupce zahraničních obediencí. Ti se postupně setkali mj. s prezidentem J. Chiracem, premiérem J. - P. Raffarinem či ministrem zahraničí D. de Villepinem. Celé oslavy vyvrcholily kulturním a společenským programem v Lyonu. Součástí oslav bylo i vydání příležitostné známky a zahájení výstavy o svobodném zednářství v Muzeu krásných umění.

http://www.zednari.cz/aktuality_.htm

Big Brother latest: Now your phone can be used to track you down

Global positioning satellites will soon be able to tell bosses exactly where every employee is. Could this spell the end for slackers?

Jamie Doward, social affairs editor
Sunday December 7, 2003
The Observer

Picture the scene. You are supposed to be attending a sales conference in Crewe when you are woken from your slumbers by the ring tone from your company-issue mobile phone. 'I'm there now,' you lie to your boss from the comfort of your hotel bed, safe in the knowledge that she will never know otherwise.

But, alas, your mobile phone uses a new technology which means your boss can pinpoint your exact location. You are soon picking up your P45 and handing back the phone.

It is the stuff of slackers' nightmares. But 'location-based tracking' - to use the mobile phone industry's terminology - is about to become reality.

Mobile-phone networks will soon be able to pinpoint the precise location of a handset owner to within 10 metres or less. From the middle of next year many phones will carry Global Satellite Positioning chips, while another new technology, known as 'Triangulation', can pinpoint a mobile-phone user's whereabouts by bouncing signals off three phone masts to establish an exact set of co-ordinates.

The concept has already been warmly embraced by a number of firms. 'It's popular with fleet and logistics firms who want to know where their lorries are,' said Julie Ramage of mobile-phone consultancy Analysys.

But the move has sparked huge controversy among civil liberty groups who fear that mobile-phone companies will be able to play Big Brother.

'It's a very worrying development. The scope for the misuse of this technology is enormous,' said Barry Hugill, spokesman for the civil rights group Liberty.

At the heart of the issue is who should be allowed to track a mobile phone. 'If you have a mobile phone, your network operator must know where you are in order to provide a service. The issue is whether they make that information available to third parties,' Ramage said. 'That information cannot just be used by anybody. People have to sign up to have the information shared.'

Some experts are worried that firms might make it a condition of an employee's job specification that they give their consent for their phone to be tracked.

'It's a complex area,' said Hugill. 'If your company issues you with a mobile phone, providing they tell you it can track you it's probably within the law. If your company does it covertly, then our view is that this would be illegal.'

And not everyone is convinced that this 'opt-in' system is foolproof. There have been suggestions that the software has already been hacked into by university students in Scotland who then tracked mobile-phone users across the UK.

Hugill said: 'We all know that information gets passed on and ends up in the wrong hands.'

...

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1101683,00.html