A not so secret society…
November 28, 2008
Indonesia refuses to hand virus samples to WHO…
November 28, 2008
Indonesia’s Decision to Withhold Influenza A Virus (H5N1) Samples
This controversy began toward the end of 2006, when Indonesia decided not to share influenza A virus (H5N1) samples with WHO for risk assessment (e.g., surveillance) or risk management (e.g., vaccine development) purposes. Indonesia’s decision reportedly stemmed from its reaction to an Australian company’s development of an avian influenza vaccine derived from a virus strain that Indonesia provided to WHO (3). WHO’s acknowledgment that patents had been sought on modified versions of influenza (H5N1) samples shared through the Global Influenza Surveillance Network (GISN) without the consent of the countries that supplied the samples reinforced Indonesia’s discontent. Indonesia argued that this incident exposed inequities in the global influenza surveillance system. Developing countries provided information and virus samples to the WHO-operated system; pharmaceutical companies in industrialized countries then obtained free access to such samples, exploited them, and patented the resulting products, which the developing countries could not afford. Avian influenza’s spread and fears about pandemic influenza heightened this perceived inequity; experts argued that developing countries would have little access to vaccine for pandemic influenza without major changes in global vaccine production (4,5).
Rest of detail here >
ACLU: Revealing RNC document leaked
November 28, 2008
ACLU PRESS RELEASE (ACLU Minnesota)
The American Civil Liberties Union recently came across a revealing RNC Homeland Security Document. This official document was uncovered by the website Wikileaks, which according to its website “We help you safely get the truth out”. This document outlines the planning leading up to the Republican National Convention and how security forces would be working together during the RNC. Many federal, state and local organizations were mentioned in this document, a number of which the ACLU did not know were involved. A number of these agencies are military based, which may directly conflict with Federal law that prohibits the military from engaging in domestic intelligence gathering.
The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), is one of the organizations that is mentioned in the report that is particular cause for concern. NGA provides mapping tools and imagery intelligence that are obtained from the United State’s military spy satellites which are controlled by the National Reconnaissance Office. In other words during the RNC, these top spying tools could have been utilized to gather intelligence on the homes of activists and media workers who were a part of the demonstrations. That information could have then been relayed to local officials.
A second agency that was involved in the planning is the Pentagon’s Northern Command, NORTHCOM. Having NORTHCOMM at the table, assisting in the planning is troubling because it could mean that the military was involved in the crowd control strategies and dealing with potential civil unrest. According to a report in Army Times, it said that an active military unit has been deployed by NORTHCOM in the United States. This deployment marks the first time an active unit has been given a dedicated assignment within U.S. Borders.
Furthermore it appears that the FBI may have been using a station faking technology that would allow them to locate an individual through their cell phone. The ACLU is concerned with how this technology is used and if there was proper judicial oversight. In the USA Patriot ACT, this process for obtaining a track was made easier, and could allow for little to no judicial oversight. This tracking via cell phones could have been used during the RNC without the knowledge of even the phone companies.
“These behaviors are a radical departure from separation of civilian law enforcement and military authority, and could, quite possibly, represent a violation of law,” said Teresa Nelson, ACLU of Minnesota. The ACLU-MN will continue to investigate and will use their findings in future lawsuits against law enforcement officials.
First appeared as a ACLU Minnesota. Thanks to the ACLU for covering this document. Copyright remains with the aforementioned. Contact aclu-mn.org for reprint rights.
Source documents
Colbert roasts Bush
November 20, 2008
Wonderful…
UK military targets domestic opinion leaders
November 20, 2008
Read and digest, if you have the attention span (which most Coincidence Theorists seem not to have ;) ) Link to the full leaked MOD document at bottom of article.
The policy states that while the entire UK population is usually considered the “principal target”, among the “overlapping sub-sets across the spectrum of UK society”, the “most influential target” is “the limited group of people who hold disproportionate influence on the direction of government and public thinking and policy development”. This group includes “politicians and statesmen, members of ‘think-tanks’ and professional bodies, special political advisers, newspaper columnists, academics, analysts and journalists (who are increasingly voicing opinions on current affairs issues)”.
The policy dissects the UK forth estate with cynical realism, declaring that tabloids are for
- “People [who] will buy a newspaper that will make them feel safe in their own opinions”
while “the more ‘intellectual’ papers, [the broadsheets], merely”
- “inform readers who had already established their own opinion on matters”.
The report shows that the UK government has learned little from earlier scandals such as Operation Mass Appeal, where MI6 planted stories prior to the invasion of Iraq to boost support for the war[1]. In the United States such domestic propaganda operations are illegal and while there have been a number of violations, there has also been a number of subsequent investigations into those violations.
“Public support from the UK audience enhances a commander’s freedom of action, making him less vulnerable to external interference and overly restrictive Rules of Engagement (ROE).
Information that is likely to require comment or response by a Government Minister will require ministerial approval before release, e.g. significant collateral damage, multiple UK casualties and incidents of military fratricide.
[...]
Critical to this is the maintenance of political and popular support for HMG’s strategic objectives and any military activity in support of it. The MOD, working with other government Departments (OGDs), achieves this through the Information Strategy (Info Strategy), a dynamic and coordinated matrix of themes and messages targeted at specific audiences, using all communications channels.
[...]
National Broadcast Media. For the purposes of this publication, the broadcast media is divided into television and radio:
Television. In the UK television remains the main platform for news consumption. Digitised technology has radically altered TV newsgathering (known as Electronic News-Gathering (ENG)). An individual journalist can broadcast, via satellite, direct from a JOA, with no dependency on the military communication infrastructure. Beyond this, news documentaries and dramas make a significant impact on the longer term perception of the military and their actions in the minds of the wider public. In order to gain a lead in the eternal competition for ratings, increasingly TV news is as much about comment and entertainment as it is about comprehensive reporting. Satellite TV News channels are gaining increasing importance among the audiences in non-Western countries where the appetite for news in relentless. The acceptance of presented television pictures can give TV journalists news excessive power to influence both public and political opinion.
National Print Media. Unlike broadcast media in the UK, the print media are not obliged by law to be unbiased. All national print media have agendas, including a political stance. For the purposes of this publication, the print media is divided into national broadsheet and tabloid (red top). Research has shown that in the print media, there is a marked contrast between the readership and writers of the tabloids as opposed to the broadsheets.
- “People will buy a newspaper that will make them feel safe in their own opinions”,
and that the more ‘intellectual’ papers, [the broadsheets], merely
- “inform readers who had already established their own opinion on matters”.
Tabloid journalists often appear to be more subjective in their articles. In broad terms therefore:
a. Broadsheet Newspapers. In the UK, the broadsheet press is less widely read than the tabloids but are more likely to influence principal decision-makers and opinion formers. For this reason, their content will include considerable commentary as well as factual news reporting. b. Tabloid Newspapers. The tabloid press is widely read by a significant majority of the UK population. Dramatic headlines and short, pithy pieces are more likely to affect wider perceptions than the longer, considered pieces in the broadsheets.
[...]
UK Regional Media. Regional media is an excellent means of making connections between the wider population and individual Service personnel. The effect on the local population of a ‘home town story’, whether in local print, radio or TV, concerning the single member of a unit deployed on operations whose parents live locally cannot be underestimated. On occasions, these stories can have more impact on a local community than the national coverage of a distant war being fought for complex reasons.”
http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/UK_military_targets_domestic_opinion_leaders
British National Party (BNP) membership and contacts list
November 19, 2008
http://www.wikileaks.org/leak/bnp-membership-list.txt
The above link is to a copy of the British National Party (BNP) membership and contacts list., not hosted by wordpress.com. 12,801 individuals are represented. It Contains contact details and notes on selected party members and (possibly) other individuals. The list has been independently verified by Wikileaks staff as predominantly containing current or ex-BNP members, however other individuals who have donated to the BNP or who have had other contact (not necessarily supportive) with the BNP or one of its fronts may also be represented.
According to AFP, BNP spokesman Simon Darby stated (18 Nov 2008):
“Someone out of malevolence or treachery has published it,” — “It’s a very sinister thing for someone to have done. It’s because we are regarded as a particularly strong threat in the forthcoming European elections in June.”
See British National Party membership and contacts list, spread sheet, 2007-2008 for an excel file.
Read this book…
November 17, 2008
Jacqui Smith…
November 17, 2008
” I believe there is a demand, now, for cards – and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait that long “
MMkay Jacqui, whatever you say.
The BBCs Amazing evolving ID Card stories…
November 17, 2008
On the 6th of November the BBC announced to an astonished world that “People ‘can’t wait for ID cards’. Breathlessly repeating the words of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith’s speech that morning, Auntie reported: “I believe there is a demand, now, for cards – and as I go round the country I regularly have people coming up to me and saying they don’t want to wait that long.”
And added that the market for fingerprints, photographs and signatures* garnered in post offices and retailers would amount, according to Smith, to “about £200 million a year.” The Beeb neglected to mention that the £200 million a year represented a laundered price hike of up to £40 a throw, but there are a few other things the Beeb neglected to mention – or more properly, stopped mentioning – that day, too.
The report’s revision history, documented by News Sniffer, takes us on an impressive Odyssey from “Smith to unveil airport ID scheme”, through “Shops may take ID Card biometrics” to the final sales-pitch version, cunningly deniabled with quote marks.
Version one was, obviously, a holding piece posted in the early hours, but it included a mild observation from BBC home affairs hack Rory McLean that the plans for airport ID cards “would appear to be a step back from the original plan.” It wasn’t much compared to what the rest of the press was writing that day, but perhaps it’s what you’d call critical analysis at the post-Gilligan BBC.
Some opposing comment from No2ID national coordinator Phil Booth was added around 8.30am, then it remained relatively stable until the fourth version (they start at zero, so that’s “Version 3″) at 11am. Out went Rory, in came the retail angle (“Supermarkets could be asked to take people’s fingerprints as part of the government’s identity card scheme”) and in came Jacqui denying the airport scheme was a retreat.
And a Home Office spokesman insisting that the trial isn’t a “pilot”, because they’re still going to tag all of the airport workers afterwards anyway whatever the outcome, while the Identity & Passport Service “would continue to carry out enrolment at its offices” alongside the new retail partners (an IPS prospectus published on the same day indicates that the majority of enrolments will be carried out by the retail sector).
Then stability reigns, more or less, until 16.02, when Jacqui’s imaginary army of ID Card fans takes the lead slot. The airside workers’ plight has now been seriously downgraded by the Home Secretary’s sales pitch, and apparently it’s “more convenient” and “cheaper” to bin the network of IPS enrolment centres in favour of the private sector. Still no mention of it being more on the price of a card, though, and no mention of binning the centres being a u-turn, either.
Throughout the process, special notice should be taken of the deft use of crossheads. Version one lobbed in “Voluntary System” (no deniability quote marks there…) on the basis that “from 2010 a voluntary system for other people will come into effect.” These other people are the people who will turn into Jacqui’s imaginary army later that day, and the crosshead persists (some kind of bid for subliminal balance?) for several versions after the one where the relevant text is cut (fourth impression, Version 3). Data Security (no quotes, again) makes a comforting appearance for several mid-period versions, too, then is bumped in the stampede for ID cards version by ‘Trusted Environment’, with quote marks.
The final – at time of writing, anyway – version isn’t an entirely uncritical commercial for ID cards, containing as it does (balance, balance…) comment from Phil Booth and the two main opposition parties. But if we’re talking about developing stories in the wonderful world of Web 2.0 reportage here, what one must assume represents a day’s ferreting by the Beeb’s finest (or a day’s being shouted at by Home Office spin doctors) does look very much like a fail.
Rather than following the classic (and largely imaginary) internet news script of developing one story as it breaks, adding detail and analysis until finally (but of course there is no ‘final’ in Web 2.0 hackery) you’re left with a worthwhile and incisive report, the BBC lurches madly from one story to another, first dumping the airport worker line in favour of the supermarket hook, then finally settling on the deranged claims of one madwoman as being what the story was really about. Superficial in three different ways on a single URL in one day – suppose you could call that an achievement. (Thanks to Marcus for pointing us at this one)
MISSED A BROKEN SPINE AND NINE BROKEN RIBS??
November 14, 2008
Throughout the months of the form-filling, multi-agency meetings, best practice compliance, box-ticking and associated politically correct bullshit, didn’t even one individual from any of the various involved agencies but especially Social Services, look at that screaming, damaged little kid and think ‘I may lose my job for this but I’m having that kid out of here now’ ? Presumably not … because that would require some fucking backbone.
Just two days before his death, Baby P was taken to see Dr Zayyat. During the trial at the Old Bailey, jurors were told Dr Zayyat did not spot the fact the child had a broken back and nine broken ribs. Instead, she noted that he was “miserable”and had a cold and sent him home.
Perhaps Dr Zayyat needs a broken spine and nine broken ribs, to realise what mood that kind of injury can put a human being in. Unbelievable.
