Miami Police Shot Woman Protester, then laugh about it

What kind of mentality do these "defenders of the people" have ?
The lady is not the enemy !
The other protesters are not the enemy !
Funny that the ones they protect are the real enemy.

Comments:
1) They are a uniform not a human being.
2) All uniforms are the same person.
3) They take off the uniform, have a home, in your town.
4) When they have an unfortunate accident, you did not see, hear, know - anything. You were daydreaming or something.

The word "TERRORISM" needs to be DEFANGED!!! Let's start by all claiming to be terrorists, on the basis that we've all surely "terrorized" insects, our parents, siblings & such! Let's all "TERRORIZE" the so-called public officials, with our calls of outrage, who aim to strip us of the very freedoms, which they CLAIM to be protecting! Just say it- TERRORIST! He's a TERRORIST, she's a TERRORIST, I'm a TERRORIST & so how'd like to be a TERRORIST, too?!? TERROR TERROR TERROR!!!

Call out the instigators
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now

Lock up the streets and houses
Because there's something in the air
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together now

Hand out the arms and ammo
We're going to blast our way through here
We've got to get together sooner or later
Because the revolution's here, and you know it's right
And you know that it's right

We have got to get it together
We have got to get it together

Sibelgate: Stop Islamic conquest blog: Kosova in 2008

Kosovo in 2008

An article appeared at GlobalResearch.ca yesterday by Professor Michel Chossudovsky entitled The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule.

The first half of the page at the link is the new article from February 4th, the second half is a reprint of a 1999 article of the professor's on Kosovo; I reproduce only the first part of the February 4th article, with some comments, cleaning up a few punctuation and formatting issues.

While the European Union and the US have acknowledged that they would be "opposed" to a " unilateral" declaration of independence of Kosovo, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia is already de facto. It is part of a US-NATO military agenda. It is the culmination of the 1999 NATO led invasion. It responds to US-NATO strategic objectives.

Moreover, the "compromise" Ahtisaari Proposal under the helm of the former Finnish Prime Minister to establish a "multi-ethnic" Kosovar State has little to do with "national sovereignty" or "independence". It is a copy and paste replicate of the structures imposed on Bosnia-Herzegovina under the 1995 Dayton agreements. It essentially sustains the authority of the military occupation. Under proposed blueprint, all the major decisions pertaining to public spending, social programs, monetary and trading arrangements would remain in the hands of the NATO-UN occupation administration.

The re-election of a "pro-Western" president Boris Tadic in the Serbian elections is likely to "legitimize" Kosovo's de facto secession. Boris Tadic's Democratic Party takes its orders from Washington. In 2000, it actively participated in the ousting of Slobodan Milosevic from the Serbian presidency. Moreover, Boris Tadic as Serbian president, is also the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces. He is unlikely to act without consulting Washington and Brussels in the event of a unilateral declaration of independence.

Since the 1999 NATO invasion, Kosovo has become a territory under foreign military rule. Kosovo remains under UN administration, In practice, however, it is under NATO military jurisdiction. Secession from Serbia would reinforce the control of the NATO-UN occupation authority.

The civilian government of the province is headed by Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, former leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (Ushtria Çlirimtare e Kosovës or UÇK in Albanian). Known for its extensive links to Albanian and European crime syndicates, the KLA was supported from the outset in the mid-1990s by the CIA and Germany's intelligence agency, the Bundes Nachrichten Dienst (BND). In the course of the 1999 war, the KLA was supported directly by NATO.

The links between the KLA and organized crime are known to readers of my blog.

Albanian mafia groups have gotten a good foothold in the crime world by trafficking women for use as sex-slaves (forced prostitution); these groups also traffic weapons and narcotics.

It is not surprising that a group traffics in more than one illegal commodity -- whatever one is smuggling, the routes often are the same, the corrupt government officials often are the same....

Prime Minister of Kosovo Hashim Thaci, who now heads the Democratic Party of Kosovo was known in the 1990s to be part of a crime syndicate, involved in drug trafficking and prostitution. During the Clinton administration, he was a protégé of Madeleine Albright. In the 1990s, Thaci founded the so-called "Drenica-Group", a criminal syndicate based in Kosovo, with links to the Albanian, Macedonian and Italian mafias. These links to criminal syndicates have been acknowledged both by Interpol and the US Congress.

In 1997, the KLA was recognized by the U.S. as a terrorist organization linked to the drug trade. President Clinton's special envoy to the Balkans, Robert Gelbard, described the KLA as, "without any questions, a terrorist group".

I have previously documented all of this -- instead of providing links to past posts, I encourage you to do an internet search, including searching among government documents and Congressional testimony, and find the evidence yourself.

In the late 90's, the Clinton Administration was conducting the foreign policy initiatives in the Balkans that tied us in to organized crime and Islamic extremist terrorists, so the Republicans were good at documenting it for a while, and their talking points can still be found online.

At some point, the Republicans got on board with supporting the KLA, and now we are supposed to believe the KLA & their political heirs are freedom fighters, even though these people have extensive ties to al Qaeda and to heroin-traffickers.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo is integrated by former members of a terrorist organization. It has maintained its links to organized crime. In fact, a large part of the political spectrum in Kosovo is dominated by former KLA members. Kosovo's previous prime minister Ramush Haradinaj and head of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, elected in 2004, is also a former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army. In addition to his links to organized crime, Hadadinaj was also indicted in 2005 for war crimes by the The Hague ICTY Tribunal.

The NATO occupation of Kosovo responds to US foreign policy objectives. It secures a heavily militarized US zone of influence in Southern Europe. It ensures the militarization of strategic pipeline routes and transport corridors which link Western Europe to the Black Sea. It also protects the multibillion dollar heroin trade, which uses Kosovo and Albania as transit locations for the transshipment of Afghan produced heroin into Western Europe.


Camp Bondsteel

See Paul Stuart, Camp Bondsteel and America’s plans to control Caspian oil, WSWS.org, April 2002, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/oil-a29.shtml)

Kosovo is home to one of America's largest military bases, Camp Bondsteel.

Bondsteel was built on contract to the Pentagon by Halliburton, through its engineering subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR). Camp Bondsteel is considered to be "the largest and most expensive army base since Vietnam." with more than 6000 US troops.

"Camp Bondsteel, the biggest 'from scratch' foreign US military base since the Vietnam War (...) It is located close to vital oil pipelines and energy corridors presently under construction, such as the US sponsored Trans-Balkan oil pipeline. As a result defence contractors—in particular Halliburton Oil subsidiary Brown & Root Services—are making a fortune.

In June 1999, in the immediate aftermath of the bombing of Yugoslavia, US forces seized 1,000 acres of farmland in southeast Kosovo at Uresevic, near the Macedonian border, and began the construction of a camp.

Camp Bondsteel is known as the 'grand dame' in a network of US bases running both sides of the border between Kosovo and Macedonia. In less than three years it has been transformed from an encampment of tents to a self sufficient, high tech base-camp housing nearly 7,000 troops—three quarters of all the US troops stationed in Kosovo.

There are 25 kilometres of roads and over 300 buildings at Camp Bondsteel, surrounded by 14 kilometres of earth and concrete barriers, 84 kilometres of concertina wire and 11 watch towers. It is so big that it has downtown, midtown and uptown districts, retail outlets, 24-hour sports halls, a chapel, library and the best-equipped hospital anywhere in Europe. At present there are 55 Black Hawk and Apache helicopters based at Bondsteel and although it has no aircraft landing strip the location was chosen for its capacity to expand. There are suggestions that it could replace the US airforce base at Aviano in Italy.

(See Paul Stuart, Camp Bondsteel and America’s plans to control Caspian oil, WSWS.org, April 2002, http://www.wsws.org/articles/2002/apr2002/oil-a29.shtml)

Camp Bondsteel was not the outgrowth of a humanitarian or "Just War" on behalf of Kosovar Albanians. The construction of Camp Bondsteel had been envisaged well in advance of the bombings and invasion of Kosovo in 1999.

The plans to build Camp Bondsteel under a lucrative multibillion dollar DoD contract with Halliburton's Texas based subsidiary KBR were formulated while Dick Cheney was Halliburton's CEO.

Construction of Camp Bondsteel was initiated shortly after the 1999 invasion under the Clinton administration. Construction was completed during the Bush administration, after Dick Cheney had resigned his position as Halliburton's CEO:

The US and NATO had advanced plans to bomb Yugoslavia before 1999, and many European political leaders now believe that the US deliberately used the bombing of Yugoslavia to establish camp Bondsteel in Kosovo.. According to Colonel Robert L. McCure, "Engineering planning for operations in Kosovo began months before the first bomb was dropped." (See Lenora Foerstel, Global Research, January 2008)

One of the objectives underlying Camp Bondsteel was to protect the Albanian-Macedonian-Bulgarian Oil pipeline project (AMBO), which was to channel Caspian sea oil from the Bulgarian Black Sea port of Burgas to the Adriatic.

This AMBO project is also well-documented, although I have not yet addressed it here.

Coincidentally, two years prior to the invasion, in 1997, a senior executive of Brown & Root Energy, a subsidiary of Halliburton, Edward L. (Ted) Ferguson had been appointed to head AMBO. The feasibility plans for the AMBO pipeline were also undertaken by Halliburton's engineering company, Kellog, Brown & Root Ltd.

The AMBO agreement for the 917-km long oil pipeline from Burgas to Valona, Albania, was signed in 2004.

Criminalization of the State

The KLA was set up as a paramilitary group in the mid 1990s. It was a US-NATO sponsored insurgency. The objective was to destabilize and ultimately break up Yugoslavia. The KLA had extensive links to Al Qaeda, which was also involved in military training. Mujahideen mercenaries from a number of countries integrated the ranks of the KLA, which was involved in terrorist activities as well as political assassinations.

In this context, what are the implications of the "Ahtisaari Plan." which envisages the formation of a separate multi-ethnic Kosovar State?

The proposed Kosovar political setup is integrated by criminal elements. Western politicians are fully aware of the nature of the Kosovar political project, of which they are the architects. . .

We are not, however, dealing with the usual links of individual Western politicians to criminal syndicates. The relationship is far more sophisticated. Both the EU and the US are using criminal organizations and criminalized political parties in Kosovo to reach their military and foreign policy goals. The latter in turn support the interests of the oil companies and defense contractors, not to mention the multibillion dollar heroin trade out of Afghanistan.

At the institutional level, the US administration, the EU, NATO and the UN are actually promoting the criminalization of the Kosovar State, which they control. In broad terms we are also dealing with the criminalization of US foreign policy. These criminal organizations and parties are created to ultimately serve US interests in Southern Europe.

Ring any bells?



The last paragraph that I will quote from Professor Chossudovsky's article:

Kosovo independence would formally transform Kosovo into an independent mafia state, controlled by the Western military alliance. The territory of Kosovo would remain under US-NATO military jurisdiction.

The Western Powers, especially the United States, have dismantled a lawfully-recognized nation and member of the UN, Yugoslavia. In the power-vacuum created, Islamic extremists and organized crime have moved in. The Balkans are now a hub and transshipment point for narcotics, weapons, slaves and extremist terror.

This policy began under the Clinton Administration, and has continued full-force under the Bush Administration; American foreign policy in the Balkans works at a cross-purpose to what we would expect in a War on Terror, or in a War on Drugs, and this is a pattern of behavior that goes all the way to Afghanistan: American troops are in harm's way, fighting a war that they are not allowed to win, while heroin trafficking has become a $1,000,000,000,000-a-year industry under their watchful eyes; meanwhile, we are being given every excuse imaginable why that narcotics-trafficking, which benefits Al Qaeda and kills Europeans and Americans, cannot be stopped.

This is everything the Sibel Edmonds case is about.

American foreign policy has been hijacked by The Shadow Realm, and now serves the interests of Big Narcotics, which in many ways coincide with the interests of Big Terror -- it is as if the fire marshall were ordering that a fire be extinguished with gasoline.

If caught, these guys are going to plead that they are serving the interests of Big Oil -- which can be a legitimate foreign policy objective, assuming it is done with wisdom and within the bounds of international law.

But, of course, the Bush Administration long ago stopped worrying about abiding by international law, or any other law for that matter -- the Bush Administration's morality is about as good as the Clinton Administration's was: Can we get away with it?

I leave you now to read the rest of Professor Chossudovsky's article, The Criminalization of the State: "Independent Kosovo", a Territory under US-NATO Military Rule, at the link provided, as I begin a label that I should have begun long ago: The Balkans.

Posted by Yankee Doodle at 3:45 AM

torturegate: BBC: CIA admits waterboarding inmates

If they are inmates they should be afforded the right to due process! Also, it was Abu Zubaydah who's tapes were destroyed ... or are there more tapes ??

CIA admits waterboarding inmates

The CIA says it used waterboarding on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed

The CIA has for the first time publicly admitted using the controversial method of "waterboarding" on terror suspects.

CIA director Michael Hayden told Congress however that it had only been used on three people, and not at all for the past five years.

He said the technique had been used on high-profile al-Qaeda detainees including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Waterboarding is an interrogation technique in which the detainee is put in fear of drowning.

Mr Hayden was speaking as National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell presented his annual threat assessment.

We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time Michael Hayden CIA director

Some critics describe the procedure as torture and Congress has been debating banning its use by the CIA.

President Bush has threatened to veto such a bill.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is accused of masterminding the 11 September attacks on the United States.

The two other men Mr Hayden said the CIA had also used waterboarding against are also top al-Qaeda suspects, Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri.

Catastrophe fears

He told Congress: "We used it against these three detainees because of the circumstances at the time.

Michael Hayden (R) spoke as Mike McConnell reported to Congress

"There was the belief that additional catastrophic attacks against the homeland were inevitable. And we had limited knowledge about al-Qaeda and its workings.

"Those two realities have changed."

In his report, National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell focussed attention on al-Qaeda and its leadership based in the border area between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"Al-Qaeda remains the pre-eminent threat against the United States, both here at home and abroad," he said.

His report said al-Qaeda enjoyed many of the same benefits from its bases in the border areas as it had when it was in Afghanistan proper, and was able to:

• use the region as a staging area for attacks outside
• maintain a group of skilled operators able to direct operations around the world
• pass on morale-boosting messages from Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri
• improve its ability to attack the US itself.

Despite this, Mr McConnell praised the Pakistani authorities, saying they had done more to "neutralise" terrorists than any of the US's other partners - despite more than 860 members of their security forces being killed by bombs in 2007.

And although al-Qaeda had suffered some reverses, he said, it remained active and dangerous in Iraq, in North Africa, in the Arabian peninsula, Lebanon, East Africa, Pakistan and South- East Asia.

Other worries outlined by Mr McConnell included:

• Russia, China and oil producers using their wealth to advance political goals
• nuclear proliferation, especially Iran and North Korea
• computer system vulnerabilities.

"The threats we face are global, complex and dangerous," he wrote.

"We must have the tools to enable the detection and disruption of terrorist plots and other threats."

CIA 'SECRET WAR'

KEY STORIES

Water-boarding 'would be torture'

Agent defends 'water-boarding'

Inquiry into destroyed CIA tapes

CIA rejects secret jails report

CIA jails in Europe 'confirmed'

Italy CIA kidnap trial adjourned

BACKGROUND AND ANALYSIS

Water-boarding
Paul Reynolds examines the practice and legality of simulated drowning

Q&A: Water-boarding

Credibility test for CIA

Tales of torture

Q&A: Secret jails claims

HAVE YOUR SAY

Interrogation tapes: Your reaction

IMPEACHMENT TOOLKIT: cyrano2 Torturing Syntax: Spin vs Propaganda

Torturing Syntax: Spin vs Propaganda

Published by cyrano2 at 10:50 pm under George W. Bush, Human Rights, Inhumanity, Torture, War Crimes, War on Terror, Wholesale Terror, Wholesale Terrorism

Cyrano’s Journal Online and its semi-autonomous subsections (Thomas Paine’s Corner, The Greanville Journal, CJO Avenger, and VoxPop) would be delighted to periodically email you links to the most recent material and timeless classics available on our diverse and comprehensive site. If you would like to subscribe, type “CJO subscription” in the subject line and send your email to JMiller@bestcyrano.org

By Will Patching

1/28/08

The US President justifies torture by claiming he is facing a “struggle for civilization”. I say he has already lost it.

“See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.”
— George W Bush, May 24, 2005

Almost thirty years ago I joined Britain’s Royal Air Force. My induction into the military way of life included Escape and Evasion training (similar to US forces’ SERE – Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape). In theory, by undergoing some relatively minor hardships during training, I would be better prepared in the event I was shot down over enemy territory.

“Hardships” in this case included going hungry while trying to survive off the land for a few days, having to make a tent and sleeping bag from a parachute, sleep deprivation, avoidance of capture by “hostile” forces – which all inductees failed to achieve – and then simulated interrogation techniques involving a great deal of shouting by said hostiles, but no actual physical abuse.

I have no fond recollections of this mildly traumatic training and cannot claim to have endured anything like the punishment suffered by people who have experienced the real thing. However, recent media spin brought back vivid memories of a film we aspiring officers were shown to help us understand what we may have to face if we were captured by unfriendly forces…

“We do not torture.”— George W Bush, November 11, 2005

The film was a military documentary about British and American servicemen who were captured during the Korean War and contained scenes unambiguously described as “torture.”

Interestingly, torture, as defined in this film, included scenes depicting techniques that are now apparently standard US practice for the treatment of detainees suspected of terrorist activities: extreme sleep deprivation, withholding of food and drink, regular hosing down with cold water, beatings, being forced to stand in stress positions, and of course, the most controversial technique – “waterboarding.”

Unfortunately no one will ever get to see the real life CIA videos showing patriotic US agents performing this medieval form of cruel and unusual punishment on suspected “Islamofascists.” The recordings were destroyed – rather fortuitously for the current US administration.

“I can tell you two things: one, that we abide by the law of the United States; we do not torture. And two, we will try to do everything we can to protect us within the law.”
— George W Bush, December 6, 2005

So try to picture this instead:

A man is strapped to a table, lying on his back, and a wet towel is tied over his face, covering his nose and mouth. His head is forced down and water is poured onto the cloth as he gasps for air, suffocating him and bringing him to the point of drowning. All the while questions are being bellowed into his ears and his belly slapped and punched to make his breathing more laboured. The man is in agony: his lungs are burning and he is gagging and spluttering as water chokes his windpipe.

“…this government does not torture… we adhere to the international convention of torture, whether it be here at home or abroad.” — George W Bush, December 15, 2005

Such forced suffocation and inhalation of water brings on intense primal fear as the victim is convinced death is imminent. Mentally he is crushed. The process is repeated before he fully recovers.

Potential injuries include broken bones and dislocated joints due to vigorous struggling against restraints, lung damage, heart attack from extreme tachycardia, brain damage from lack of oxygen, and, if over zealously applied, death from actual drowning.
According to Bush, the CIA agents involved in this hideous practice were all “…highly-trained professionals” using “…an alternative set of procedures” which were “…safe and lawful and necessary.”

“I want to be absolutely clear with our people, and the world: The United States does not torture.”— George W Bush, September 6, 2006

Why use waterboarding? Well, if you want to torture somebody it is very effective – much more so than immersing someone’s head under water as it brings about the gag reflex almost immediately – it is, literally, terrifying. To hold out for just a few minutes would be impossible for most ordinary folk, and, in many cases, there are no physical symptoms.

However, even for those lucky enough to escape with no permanent physical damage, the psychological effects can last for years after the procedure. Panic attacks, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and aquaphobia are all likely outcomes. Some victims are unable to shower for years after the event, others cringe when it rains.

“The United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it and I will not authorize it.” — George W Bush, September 6, 2006

Words cannot convey the true horror of this barbaric, sub-human treatment. Not that our docile western media hounds try. Lazily, they swallow and regurgitate the US government’s approved euphemisms – “simulated drowning”, “partial drowning” and, that classic dissembler, “harsh interrogation techniques” – thereby disguising the dreadful reality with mealy-mouthed spin.

Such collusion by our media has successfully moderated public opinion, stifling our awareness of the true evil involved in this vile act. As media interest subsides their very successful attempts at spin demonstrate the power of avoiding the emotive truth conveyed by the word that describes such treatment for what it is: torture.

“As I’ve said before, the United States does not torture. It’s against our laws and it’s against our values.”— George W Bush, October 17, 2006

Spin has morphed into propaganda.

For George Bush and his government to continue to deny that waterboarding is “torture” is not just an egregious abuse of media spin. It is an outright lie. This technique was clearly labeled as torture during my military training and has been accepted as such by the US military since World War Two. The appalling actions of a rabid terrorist group on 9/11 do not change that fact.

Allowing ourselves to be lulled into a cosy debate about the legitimacy of this technique – and then pretend it is anything other than torture – is to defy modern western moral standards.

John Sifton of Human Rights Watch had this to say about waterboarding: “The person believes they are being killed, and as such, it really amounts to a mock execution, which is illegal under international law.”

“This government does not torture people. We stick to US law and our international obligations.” — George W Bush, October 5, 2007

American exceptionalism gives rise to the audacious belief that US policies and practices are superior to those promoted by other countries and encourages the US government to thumb its nose at world institutions such as the UN and the International Court of Justice: it needs to be exposed as the deluded, outdated racist myth it is.

American citizens should impeach George W Bush

and force him to face criminal charges.

***
This article is copyright Will Patching and appears at www.willpatching.com. Will is the author of The Free World Petition which can be viewed at www.petitiononline.com/Patching/petition.html

Home Sec in anti-terror plan to control entire web

'I will remove illegal material from internet'

(85 comments have been posted already .. to read them, just go to the link!)

By Lewis Page → More by this author

Published Thursday 17th January 2008 14:37 GMT

Find out how your peers are dealing with Virtualization

UK Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has decided to mount a push against cyber terror, in which the internet itself will somehow be modified to prevent people using it for terrorist purposes.

Today, Ms Smith addressed an international conference on radicalisation and political violence. Much of the speech was about engagement with the Muslim community, preventing the use of schools and prisons for jihadi propaganda etc. There was also some suggestion that "dirty bombs" are jolly dangerous, and that this shows how serious the domestic terror threat is*.

However, the Home Secretary also reiterated the Brown government's promise of technical measures against web terror:

The internet is a key tool for the propagandists for violent extremism... Let me be clear. The internet is not a no-go area for Government.

We are already working closely with the communications industry to take action against paedophiles... we should also take action against those who groom vulnerable people for the purposes of violent extremism... I will be talking to industry... about how best to do this.

Where there is illegal material on the net, I want it removed.

The government's moves still appear to be focused more on perception than action. Yesterday, UK media outlets - for instance the Times, the BBC and the Daily Mail - obligingly rehashed the old, not-very-terrifying case of Younes Tsouli (aka "Terrorist 007") the most fearsome web terror mastermind yet snared, despite the complete absence of any new revelations. Only a cynic would suspect that Home Office briefers were behind the sudden news-free flood of web terror ink.

Today, Ms Smith followed in the less-than-illustrious footsteps of EC vice-president Franco Frattini and indeed her political master Gordon Brown.

Frattini memorably said last year that: "It should simply not be possible to leave people free to instruct other people on the internet on how to make a bomb." He reportedly planned to prevent this by unspecified actions at the level of European ISPs.

Brown went down a similar route in November, saying: "The Home Secretary is inviting the largest global technology and internet companies to work together to ensure that our best technical expertise is galvanised to counter online incitement to hatred." This turned out - thus far, anyway - to be no more than political posturing for the technically challenged, however.

UK internet service provider group ISPA confirmed to the Reg today that it still hadn't heard anything from the government regarding the web terror crackdown. It had asked for a meeting following the Brown speech, but so far has heard nothing.

An ISPA spokesman added: "It is important to note that many of these sites are hosted overseas... there is a working takedown procedure but censorship is the remit of the government not of industry."

The industry spokesman added that the government should "bear in mind that the internet is not the only place for this activity".

n the UK, much of the net backbone is actually controlled by just one company, British Telecom. Asked today if the company had been approached by government specifically in its role as an infrastructure provider - rather than a consumer ISP - a spokesman confirmed: "We have had discussions with the Home Office... no measures have been taken."

Many British ISPs do no more than resell BT's wholesale products, and even those offering local-loop-unbundled services are typically dependent on BT for other parts of their networks. If you want to start censoring the UK segment of the internet, BT is the company to talk to.

The company added that any new action "would need to be underpinned by appropriate legislation... sites would need to be monitored by law enforcement or an independent body. It is not our job to police the internet".

It remains very hard to see what the government can really do to prevent the dissemination of bomb-making instructions, propaganda, and such like. BT and the ISPs could block overseas websites, but almost certainly not as fast as they could be put up. Interesting stuff tends to be mirrored very fast, too; and it isn't hard to use relays such as Tor to effectively browse from a point overseas.

No machinery under the UK government's control needs to see anything other than a stream of encrypted traffic in order for a user located in Britain to merrily enter hardcore terrorist chatrooms, download bomb-making instructions, coordinate operations and all the rest.

Of course, real-world terrorists seldom exhibit even the very basic technical competence necessary to do this - or even bother to do a google search on "fuel-air explosion", for God's sake.

So, we've basically got two ways this could go.

One, the Brown cabinet are just grandstanding to technically ignorant voters. They won't do anything, safe in the knowledge that those voters will never realise this.

Or, two, the government actually plans to build a Chinese-style Great Firewall of Blighty which will prevent anyone looking at anything which says "jihadi" or "bomb" or "TATP" (whoops) etc. You'll probably be able to get round it if you know what you're doing, but it will be at the cost of slow, intermittent connections and possible, lengthy terror-powers detention without charge.

Let's hope they're just bullshitting. ®

Bootnote

*The US Nuclear Regulatory Commission says that: "Most [dirty bombs] would not release enough radiation to kill people or cause severe illness... However, depending on the scenario, a [dirty bomb] explosion could create fear and panic. Making prompt, accurate information available to the public could prevent the panic sought by terrorists."

Or, alternatively, you could tell people that the fact of a fool having dirty-bomb plans on his computer means he is a danger to us all.

Related stories

• Lords debate airline liquids ban (30 October 2007)
• Sensible, practical anti-terror tech shocker (20 August 2007)
• Securo-prof claims to invent new, much deadlier dirty bomb (10 August 2007)
• UK planespotters to battle al-Qaeda (18 July 2007)
• Terror-cops get realtime Congestion Charge database link (18 July 2007)
• EC wants to suppress internet bomb-making guides (4 July 2007)
• US Navy looks to achieve spy-fi miracle-dork capability (3 July 2007)
• 'Effete' Europe useless in GWOT, says bin Laden man (3 July 2007)
• Website honours battling Glasgow baggage handler (3 July 2007)
• Beavis and Butthead in London jihad (29 June 2007)
• US dial-a-warrant spy judge: don't trust President, feds (25 June 2007)
• Israeli futurologist predicts terror horror (21 June 2007)
• UK security industry pleads for closer goverment ties (13 June 2007)
• DHS: beware stink-bomb touting terrorists (2 June 2007)
• London dirty-bomb tests start this weekend (18 May 2007)
• Suspect in case that helped sell Iraq war cleared, again (16 May 2007)
• George Bush fingered as terrorist by US feds ... (14 March 2007)
• Torture and '24' - because it hurts us less than the real thing? (23 February 2007)
• Wi-Fi terror menaces Vancouver (22 February 2007)
• Letter bombs: an expert writes (7 February 2007)

Japan Approves Bill on Afghan War commentary

Things that Make One Shake One's head department item

If the world TRULY wanted to win the war against terror, it would absolutely, positively end nuclear proliferation and take every step necessary to abolish nuclear (poison) stockpiling. The politicization of war in the so-called "free world" is fraught with excess and coverup.

The Sibel Edmonds "revelations" that nuclear material could fall into the hands of Al Qaeada show without any doubt that criminalizing trafficking of nuclear materials should be declared a WAR CRIME.

With today's climate of paranoia and distrust, it is difficult to work out solutions of any kind -- personal, social or political -- but on the international stage to watch again the energetic efforts of nations to pursue furtherance of the so-called "war on terror" when so much else remains to be done to further peaceful purposes boggles the imagination of any sane person. The press, which provides a so-called "neutral" stance is as much to blame for the heightened waste of resources continues on as the head cheerleader for war on a daily basis. With the current politicization of academia, academics are no true friend of sanity either.

Hiding behind steel edifices and armaments, those in control of nuclear material, continue on their bullying course, acting as those who are nuclear free are the real "terrorists".

Megaterrorism grows out of the US policy "gun" ..

Fakuta's political move is a slap in the face to those Japanese who have resolutely strove to end the nuclear terror and the proliferation of war and perhaps this will destroy his national "consensus".

Japan has a crisis on its hands since the leakage of nuclear fuel following a devasting earthquake. The largest concentration of nuclear energy plants rests in Japan. Rather than focus on solutions to its true energy crisis (and this latest "development" comes on the heels of the failure to produce natural gas at Sakhalin-2 on a 'timely" basis which might have lessened Japan's nuclear dependency), the politicization of terror has taken this short-term, politically-self serving turn. The real fear is what could happen to Japan if it does not move to long-term energy solutions and sustainability.

One can only hope that Japan comes to its senses (the Senate totally disapproved this measure) and strikes out to build an independent political agenda rather than cave into the BuZh administration's energy (fraud) squad some time very soon. Involving itself in unproductive and terrifying American wars is no solution to Japan's pressing demands.

By NORIMITSU ONISHI

Published: January 12, 2008

TOKYO — The Japanese government on Friday pushed through a special law authorizing its navy to resume a refueling mission in the Indian Ocean as part of the American-led military effort in Afghanistan.

In an extremely rare parliamentary move, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda’s governing Liberal Democratic Party used its two-thirds majority in Parliament’s lower house to override a rejection of the law by the opposition-controlled upper house, an action not taken since 1951.

The refueling mission, which was suspended in November after the opposition Democratic Party gained power in the upper house last summer, is expected to resume by the end of the month.

“That our country can participate again in the ‘war against terror’ truly has great significance,” Mr. Fukuda said in a statement.

A Japanese refueling vessel and a destroyer had operated in the Indian Ocean since 2001, supplying 132 million gallons of fuel to warships from the United States, Britain, Pakistan and other countries. Though the mission was not considered militarily significant, it carried political significance for a country whose military activities are severely curtailed by its pacifist Constitution.

The Democratic Party said it would endorse only missions led by the United Nations and said the Liberal Democrats were slavishly following the United States.

In forcing through the legislation, Mr. Fukuda, who took over the leadership from former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in September, risks a backlash from a public that is divided over the mission. The public remains much more concerned about the economy and other issues.

J. Thomas Schieffer, the United States ambassador to Japan, immediately issued a statement welcoming the law.

Mr. Fukuda’s approval ratings have fallen into the 30s because he has been unable to pass other legislation in Parliament since taking over as prime minister.

The Democratic Party, whose approval ratings have surpassed the governing party’s in recent polls, is expected to press with renewed vigor for a dissolution of the lower house of Parliament and a general election.

Yukio Hatoyama, the opposition party’s secretary general, said his party enjoyed a greater popular mandate because it had won in the upper house election last summer.

“The bill that was rejected by the upper house, based on the people’s will, should have been abandoned,” Mr. Hatoyama said, condemning the override.

Mr. Fukuda does not have to call a general election until the fall of 2009. But with the impasse in Parliament, he will probably be forced to do so and seek a popular mandate later this year.