Whatever..

BBC NEWS - Bush wants 'facts' on Iraqi WMD: "US President George W Bush has said he wants to 'know the facts' about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction."

"On Friday, Mr Bush reiterated his view that ousted Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein had been a "danger"."

So now the man who twisted and cherry-picked Iraq intel to justify a war no one really wanted now blames Intelligence Agencies for leading him astray.. Whatever. People knew it was all BS before.

Update: "President Bush announced Monday he would form an independent panel to help uncover "all the facts" about U.S. intelligence on Iraqi weapons, even as Democratic critics questioned whether the panel would be impartial and complained its findings wouldn't be out until after the presidential election."

UpdateUK: "The British government said Monday it was prepared to follow the U.S. lead and investigate the intelligence on which Prime Minister Tony Blair based his decision to join the United States in going to war with Iraq."

Hmmm. This is starting to look like an Ouroboros...

Bruce Schneier comments on Darth Ashcroft's America...

CNet: "Combined with the government's power to designate foreign prisoners of war as 'enemy combatants' in order to ignore international treaties regulating their incarceration, and their power to indefinitely detain U.S. citizens without charge or access to an attorney, the United States is looking more and more like a police state."

What can we say? Bruce - you rock. :)

Saddamy

ABCNEWS: "ABCNEWS has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein's regime and were given oil contracts as a result. "

"According to a copy obtained by ABCNEWS, some 270 prominent individuals, political parties or corporations in 47 countries were on a list of those given Iraq oil contracts instantly worth millions of dollars... The single biggest set of contracts were given to the Russian government and Russian political figures, more than 1.3 billion barrels in all — including 92 million barrels to individual officials in the office of President Vladimir Putin. Another 1 million barrels were contracted to the Russian ambassador to Baghdad, 137 million barrels of oil were given to the Russian Communist Party, and 5 million barrels were contracted to the Russian Orthodox Church. Also on the list are the names of prominent journalists, two Iraqi-Americans, and a French priest who organized a meeting between the pope and Tariq Aziz, Saddam's deputy prime minister. "

"According to the document, France was the second-largest beneficiary, with tens of millions of barrels awarded to Patrick Maugein, a close political associate and financial backer of French President Jacques Chirac."


Lesson: it really IS about oil. To all sides...

McDonald's -- are you listening? New market opportunity...

BBC NEWS- Mauritania's 'wife-fattening' farm: "Obesity is so revered among Mauritania's white Moor Arab population that the young girls are sometimes force-fed to obtain a weight the government has described as 'life-threatening'."

PSA - Close IE and step away from your computer...

Techworld.com: "Following the exposure of a vulnerability in Windows XP earlier this week, “http-equiv” of Malware has revealed that Explorer 6 users (and possibly users of earlier versions) could be fooled into downloading what look like safe files but are, in fact, whatever the author wishes them to be - including executables.

A demonstration of the hole is currently on security company Secunia’s website. It demonstrates that if you click on a link, and select “Open”, it purports to be downloading a pdf file whereas in fact it is an HTML executable file. However, what is more worrying is that this hole could easily be combined with another Explorer spoofing problem discovered in December.

The previous spoofing problem allowed Explorer users to think they were visiting one site when in fact they were visiting somewhere entirely different. The implications are not only troublesome, but Microsoft’s failure to include a fix for the problem in its January patches has led many to believe it cannot be prevented.

If the same is true for this spoofing issue, then it will only be a matter of time before someone who thinks they are visiting one website and downloading one file will in fact be visiting somewhere entirely different and downloading whatever that site’s owner decides."


Note: Here's a link to a simple fix. (no, seriously...)

God wants us to spy on US citizens

SFGate: "The Bush administration issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation introduced in Congress that would scale back key parts of the anti-terrorism Patriot Act. In a letter to Senate leaders, Attorney General John Ashcroft said the changes contemplated by the Security and Freedom Ensured Act, or SAFE, would 'undermine our ongoing campaign to detect and prevent catastrophic terrorist attacks.'

If the bill reaches President Bush's desk in its current form, Ashcroft said, 'the president's senior advisers will recommend that it be vetoed.'

The threat comes a week after Bush, in his State of the Union address, called for Congress to reauthorize the Patriot Act before it expires in 2005. The law, passed shortly after the 2001 terror attacks, expanded the government's wiretap and other surveillance authority, removed barriers between FBI and CIA information-sharing, and provided more tools for terror finance investigations.

Civil liberties groups and some lawmakers, including Republicans, believe the act goes too far and endangers the privacy of innocent citizens."

Carrion baggage...

New Scientist: "The catastrophic decline of griffon vultures in south Asia is being caused not by a mysterious disease, as had been thought, but a common painkiller given to sick cattle."

RIAA raises gun, aims at remaining foot, pulls trigger...

A typical 'he gets it' story by Alex over at BW on the real effects of the recent round of RIAA 'John Doe' lawsuits. "

"Big Music's Worst Move Yet - The RIAA's newest legal assault on file swappers is pushing them to encrypted networks, where the damage could become catastrophic "

Solid, liquid, gas, plasma and.. fermionic condensate?!

MSNBC: "WASHINGTON - Scientists say they have created a new form of matter and predict it could help lead to the next generation of superconductors for use in power distribution, more efficient trains and countless other applications."

M$ refuses to kill puppies today.

News.com: "Microsoft hops on the RFID bandwagon - Microsoft has been testing the new RFID software with KiMs, a Danish snack food company, since December 2003. KiMs, which was already using Axapta, is using the new software to monitor pallets or cartons of finished goods as they move out of production and into a third-party warehouse. The company said that the new software provides much greater knowledge of the exact location of products at various points in its supply chain."

..including in people's homes. (rolling eyes)

Just like in that exploding whale video!

eTaiwanNews: "Sperm whale explodes in Tainan City - Blood and guts of 17-meter long 50-ton mammal splatter sidewalks, automobiles parked nearby" "A dead sperm whale being transported through Tainan City on its way to a research station suddenly exploded yesterday, splattering cars and shops with blood and guts."

Ew.

Those crafty Danes...

Wired News: "COPENHAGEN -- A Danish biotech company has developed a genetically modified flower that could help detect land mines and it hopes to have a prototype ready for use within a few years."

"The genetically modified weed has been coded to change color when its roots come in contact with nitrogen dioxide evaporating from explosives buried in soil."

LA federal judge rules part of Patriot Act unconstitutional

AP via SFGate: "LA federal judge rules part of Patriot Act unconstitutional" "A federal judge has ruled that a portion of the USA Patriot Act which bars giving expert advice or assistance to groups designated as foreign terrorist organizations is unconstitutional and the government may not enforce it."

"The case before the court involved five groups and two U.S. citizens seeking to provide support for lawful, nonviolent activities on behalf of Kurdish refugees in Turkey.

The Humanitarian Law Project, which brought the suit, said the plaintiffs were threatened with 15 years in prison if they advised groups on seeking a peaceful resolution of the Kurds' campaign for self-determination in Turkey.

The judge's ruling said the law, as written, does not differentiate between impermissible advice on violence and encouraging the use of peaceful, non-violent means to achieve goals. "

Retroactive abortion - the next debate?

Scotsman.com: "[UK] Government adviser: killing children with defects acceptable - A government adviser on genetics has sparked fury by suggesting it might be acceptable to destroy children with "defects" soon after they are born.

John Harris, a member of the Human Genetics Commission, told a meeting at Westminster he did not see any distinction between aborting a fully grown unborn baby at 40 weeks and killing a child after it had been born. "

Yet still more database fun...

Washington Times: "A giant corporation that owns major hotels, mortgage lenders, real-estate companies and tax-accounting services is getting into other business. Yours.

The Cendant Corp. wants to compile a massive database of its customers. The database would include more than 200 pieces of personal information, including credit-card numbers, e-mail addresses, driver's license numbers and financial information such as income and mortgage balances. The data would be collected from all of the corporation's businesses and put into one place to 'determine customer buying patterns and behavior,' according to a draft proposal obtained by The Washington Times. "

" The Privacy Act of 1974 prevents the federal government from gathering information on citizens, but it doesn't stop it from looking at the information gathered by the private sector. Such information also has been used by:

* The Drug Enforcement Agency, which has subpoenaed grocery-store customer databases in looking for large purchases of plastic bags to target drug dealers.

* The Internal Revenue Service, which has turned to data-mining companies in looking for individuals living lavishly and buying expensive items while underreporting income. All but one direct-marketing company refused to cooperate with the agency."

Fox, meet Hen-house...

CNN.com : "WASHINGTON (AP) -- Major airlines agreed Thursday to work with the Homeland Security Department on ways to protect traveler privacy, a difficult new problem as the government seeks to use passenger information to keep terrorists off planes."

Er. How bout NOT sending the government entire live databases of airline passenger information for a start?

Confirmed: Water on Mars

Reuters: "DARMSTADT, Germany - The first all-European mission to Mars has confirmed the presence of frozen water on the planet, the project's leader said Friday, as scientists seek to learn if life there ever existed.

'It shows that we may be able to find water in other areas on Mars ... and that is very important for future missions to Mars,' said project leader Michael McKay.

McKay said confirmation of the presence of frozen water came in high-resolution pictures of the planet's south pole beamed back from Mars Express, the mother ship of the Beagle 2 probe that is feared to have crashed on landing on Mars a month ago."

Mmmm.. Martian slushies.

More absurdity...

Wired News:: "Frustrated by America Online's refusal to interfere with its huge network of chat rooms, public health officials are considering legal action to force AOL and certain websites to warn members about outbreaks of sexually transmitted diseases among gay men who use their services."


And in other news, similar lawsuits are being considered against bars, cities with sidewalks, and church socials for a similar lack of warning. (rolling eyes)

Military lawyer condemns military tribunals...

Reuters: "WASHINGTON - The U.S. Marine Corps lawyer assigned to defend an Australian terror suspect being held at the Guantanamo naval base in Cuba Wednesday criticized the military tribunal process and said it will not allow a fair trial.

Maj. Michael Mori, who in November was assigned to be the military attorney for David Hicks -- an Australian held at the U.S. military prison in Cuba -- said the system set up by the Pentagon for trials of non-U.S. citizens captured during what U.S. officials call the war on terror was unfair.

'The military commissions will not provide a full and fair trial,' Mori told a news conference. 'The commission process has been created and controlled by those with a vested interest only in convictions.'"

There's something to be said for eschewing internationalism...

Reuters , UK: "LONDON (Reuters) - British use of cluster bombs in the Iraq war could count as a war crime and justifies further investigation by the International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutor in the Hague, a group of international lawyers say.

Seven academics from Britain, Ireland, France and Canada interviewed eyewitnesses and examined evidence to see if there was a case for referring British conduct to the court, said the pressure group Peacerights, which organised the review.

'There is a considerable amount of evidence of disproportionate use of force causing civilian casualties,' one of the lawyers, Professor Bill Bowring of London Metropolitan University, told a news conference on Tuesday.

'The U.S. cannot be tried before the court because it refuses to sign up to it. The UK did.'"

RIAA alienates millions of music fans by suing 500.

AP: "WASHINGTON - The recording industry on Wednesday sued 532 computer users it said were illegally distributing songs over the Internet, the first lawsuits since a federal appeals court blocked the use of special copyright subpoenas to identify those being targeted."

Police State Preservation Act

ZDNet: "President Bush on Tuesday evening called for the renewal of the USA Patriot Act, the controversial law that has expanded Internet surveillance powers for police and partially expires next year.

Using the pageantry of his third State of the Union speech, Bush set in motion a battle over privacy and security that will continue through the presidential campaign and will likely climax before the law's Dec. 31, 2005, partial expiration date.

'Key provisions of the Patriot Act are set to expire next year,' Bush said. 'The terrorist threat will not expire on that schedule. Our law enforcement needs this vital legislation to protect our citizens--you need to renew the Patriot Act.'"

Study used census information for terror profile

Washington Times: "U.S. census information provided by millions of Americans was used in a government study to profile airline passengers as terrorist risks.

The NASA study highlights concerns among civil-liberties advocates that the government is gathering private information and even using its own data — contrary to repeated official assurances from the Census Bureau — to develop a data-mining system to prescreen all airline passengers.

Mr. Steinhardt, who sits on the Census Advisory Committee, said releasing information on households and individuals is "a major breach of trust."


And our friends thought we were being paranoid for dodging the wandering census drones, intent on chasing down folks who didn't send their census forms in... One interesting 'plea' for cooperation: "but we use this data to help determine where social programs and funds are needed.." Er. Howbout you give the money back to the bloody people who earned it?

Digression. At least now we're not in some quasi-government terror trolling database experiment with personal data flying around all willy-nilly. (sigh). Has it come to this?

Study used census information for terror profile

Washington Times:: "U.S. census information provided by millions of Americans was used in a government study to profile airline passengers as terrorist risks.

The NASA study highlights concerns among civil-liberties advocates that the government is gathering private information and even using its own data — contrary to repeated official assurances from the Census Bureau — to develop a data-mining system to prescreen all airline passengers.

Mr. Steinhardt, who sits on the Census Advisory Committee, said releasing information on households and individuals is "a major breach of trust."


And our friends thought we were being paranoid for dodging the wandering census drones, intent on chasing down folks who didn't send their census forms in... One interesting 'plea' for cooperation: "but we use this data to help determine where social programs and funds are needed.." Er. Howbout you give the money back to the bloody people who earned it?

Digression. At least now we're not in some quasi-government terror trolling database experiment with personal data flying around all willy-nilly. (sigh). Has it come to this?

Ahahahaha!

WT: Palestinians easily scale Israel's $1.9 billion security fence

Confidential Passenger Data Used for Air Security Project - EPIC outs NorthWest and NASA via FOIA

washingtonpost.com: "Northwest Airlines provided information on millions of passengers for a secret U.S. government air security project soon after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks, raising fresh concerns among some privacy advocates about the airlines' use of confidential consumer data.

The nation's fourth-largest carrier publicly asserted in September that it 'did not provide that type of information to anyone.' But Northwest acknowledged Friday it had already turned over three months of reservation data to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Ames Research Center by that point."

So what you're saying is that Northwest out-and-out lied. Nice. You know - is it any wonder that people don't trust Big Anything anymore?

Bush kills Hubble in favor of ISS and Moon/Mars

Houston Chronicle: "WASHINGTON -- NASA is canceling all space shuttle servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope, a decision that, in effect, will cause the powerful observatory to slowly degrade and eventually become useless, officials said today."

Preference for Gatherer testing has proven innefective...

Nature: " Ebola spreads from animals to hunters. Future outbreaks may be hard to predict, tests suggest. A genetic analysis of Ebola in central Africa has helped confirm that the disease can spread to people when hunters handle infecetd animal corpses."

Global warming clenches a fiery fist...

CNN.com: "BOSTON, Massachusetts -- The Northeastern United States faced more bitter cold and high winds Thursday, with forecasters warning of 'extremely dangerous' wind chills as low as 45 degrees below zero in eastern Massachusetts."

Al Gore fails to see irony.

Yes, but everyone knew Bush was FOS on the nature of the Iraqi threat and ties to terror.

NY Times: "Saddam Hussein warned his Iraqi supporters to be wary of joining forces with foreign Arab fighters entering Iraq to battle American troops, according to a document found with the former Iraqi leader when he was captured, Bush administration officials said Tuesday.

The document appears to be a directive, written after he lost power, from Mr. Hussein to leaders of the Iraqi resistance, counseling caution against getting too close to Islamic jihadists and other foreign Arabs coming into occupied Iraq, according to American officials. It provides a second piece of evidence challenging the Bush administration contention of close cooperation between Mr. Hussein's government and terrorists from Al Qaeda. C.I.A. interrogators have already elicited from the top Qaeda officials in custody that, before the American-led invasion, Osama bin Laden had rejected entreaties from some of his lieutenants to work jointly with Mr. Hussein."

It's not that Bush hoodwinked anyone. Those against the war were against the war -- either because it was point-by-point obvious BS or because they're just generally anti-war or some combination. But the reality is that most of 'middle America' didn't really care. Not that they were fooled -- we'll stand by our contention that most of America wanted the US to invade Iraq 'just because'...

How bout Universal Space Travel?

Reuters: "Mexico - President Bush said on Tuesday his proposals for a space program that would take man to Mars, criticized by some for its high cost, would be affordable."

Coming soon: Checkpoints

AP: "WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court, in a case watched anxiously by law enforcement agencies across America, held Tuesday that police may set up roadblocks to collect tips about unsolved crimes.

In a 6-3 decision, the justices found roadblocks seeking such information do not violate the privacy rights of motorists.

In the partial dissent, Stevens said motorists will be trapped by the checkpoints.

"In contrast to pedestrians, who are free to keep walking when they encounter police officers handing out flyers or seeking information, motorists who confront a roadblock are required to stop, and to remain stopped for as long as the officers choose to detain them," he wrote."

RFID backers caught in attempted smear campaign

Wired News:: "The Grocery Manufacturers of America this week inadvertently sent an internal e-mail to CASPIAN suggesting it was looking for embarrassing information about the group's founder, Katherine Albrecht.

The e-mail, written by a college intern at GMA, reads, 'I don't know what to tell this woman! 'Well, actually we're trying to see if you have a juicy past that we could use against you.''

The intern earlier had asked Albrecht to produce her personal biography, 'as part of an RFID research project,' and became frustrated when Albrecht asked what GMA planned to do with the information, according to GMA spokesman Richard Martin."

CAPPS II - going live anyway

CBSNews: "Precautions in the name of air security are about to taken to a level unimaginable in the United States only a few years ago.

The Washington Post reports the Bush administration is expected to order as soon as next month the first step in setting up databases on all air passengers, to be used to color-code each air traveler according to his or her potential threat level. Passengers coded red would be stopped from boarding; yellow would mean additional screening at security checkpoints; and green would mean an only standard level of scrutiny.

Airlines and airline reservation companies would reportedly be forced to turn over all passenger records to U.S. government officials, who struck out in a trial program was based on voluntary surrender of airline industry data.

Not a single airline agreed to turn over data voluntarily. "

Court Nixes Appeal Over 9-11 Detentions

AP: "WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court refused Monday to consider whether the government properly withheld names and other details about hundreds of foreigners detained in the months after the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

The high court turned down a request to review the secrecy surrounding detainees, nearly all Arabs or Muslims, who were picked up in the United States immediately following the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon."

Insecurity is everywhere. (pun intended)

Ananova: "Burger King customers told: 'You are too fat to have a Whopper'"

Police believe teenage pranksters are hacking into the wireless frequency of a US Burger King drive-through speaker to tell potential customers they are too fat for fast food. Policeman Gerry Scherlink said the pranksters told one customer who had just placed an order: 'You don't need a couple of Whoppers. You are too fat. Pull ahead.'

The offenders are reportedly tapping into the wireless frequency at the restaurant in Troy, Michigan. Police believe the culprits are watching and broadcasting from close range."

Secret courts challenged in not-so-secret courts.

Sun-Sentinel: "Miami federal court has 'secret docket' to keep some cases hidden from public.. A secret docketing system hiding some sensitive Miami federal court cases from public view has been exposed and is being challenged in two higher courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court.

'We don't have secret justice in this country,' said Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The Washington-based journalists watchdog group is asking the appellate courts to open up two Miami federal cases it says were litigated in secret."

Er. Yes, we clearly DO have a secret justice infrastructure in this country. You're soaking in it...

Under the Wire...

Wired News: : "While the nation was distracted last month by images of Saddam Hussein's spider hole and dental exam, President George W. Bush quietly signed into law a new bill that gives the FBI increased surveillance powers and dramatically expands the reach of the USA Patriot Act.

The Intelligence Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2004 grants the FBI unprecedented power to obtain records from financial institutions without requiring permission from a judge. Under the law, the FBI does not need to seek a court order to access such records, nor does it need to prove just cause.

And the law broadens the definition of "financial institution" to include such businesses as insurance companies, travel agencies, real estate agents, stockbrokers, the U.S. Postal Service and even jewelry stores, casinos and car dealerships.

The law also prohibits subpoenaed businesses from revealing to anyone, including customers who may be under investigation, that the government has requested records of their transactions. "

Fingerprinting, photographing foreign visitors gets under way at U.S. airports

Via SFGate: "Authorities began scanning fingerprints and taking photographs of arriving foreigners Monday as part of a new program that Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said will make borders 'open to travelers but closed to terrorists.'"

..no word on how airport employees were able to get the fingerprints of known terrorists into the system for comparison...