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Foolish Bungling Incompetents?
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

FBI agents overseas 'critically important' In an effort to attack terrorism, drug trafficking, organized crime and other threats at their roots, an unprecedented number of FBI agents are now working overseas, and FBI Director Robert Mueller says they are "critically important" to preventing more terrorist attacks.....( Knight Ridder, 1 Sep 02) Terrorism's Toll on the F.B.I. OVER the years, F.B.I. directors have shifted resources to confront the scourge at hand. In the 1970's, Clarence M. Kelley veered away from the fight against Communism and took on organized crime. A decade later, William H. Webster put the emphasis on counterintelligence. William S. Sessions ended his tumultuous tenure with a push against violent crime.....( New York Times, 1 Sep 02) http://www.cicentre.com/ Bond,james Bond..."There's something from every film and it will be the greatest collection of original 007 objects, images and costumes ever assembled, exploring the science and the art of the Bond films." --Nicola Osmond Evans, a spokesman for the Science Museum in London about their upcoming "Bond, James Bond Exhibition", which opens next month Spies in the Boardroom? ...In late July CCBN.com, a Web-based communications firm that handles investor relations, filed suit against the Canadian information services giant Thomson Corp. Seeking treble damages, the suit accuses Thomson of using its two CCBN board seats to steal confidential information--including pricing data and competitive analysis--that helped it create a rival service, and of hiring people who had confidentiality agreements with CCBN....( Forbe, 1 Sep 02) Spy Sarasota aims gadgets at counter-surveillance market Standing in a busy aisle at the International Security Conference Expo in Orlando, Roy Winkelmann is clutching a 4-ounce device he has just purchased called a "Zap Checker." It is a highly sensitive handheld counter-surveillance meter that detects wireless video or audio bugs as far away as 40 feet....( Herald Tribune, 1 Sep 02) Gone and now forgotten Never mind if a country - a member of the NATO Alliance - is now led by a Communist-era secret police agent.....(Budapest Sun, 30 Aug 02) http://www.cicentre.com/ Bring back SMERSH.

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Ohio,copperhead row.Michael K Allen eat your dirty heart out.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

Federal judge bars new pornography 08/31/02 Chris Seper Plain Dealer Reporter A federal judge yesterday blocked changes that were meant to modernize Ohio's anti-pornography law for the Internet age. Judge Walter Herbert Rice in Dayton said the law was so broad that it was as likely to ban teaching of the Holocaust in schools and prohibit kids from reading National Geographic magazine as it was to protect them from online pornography and the sexual deviants who prowl the Web. The judge, who issued a temporary restraining order earlier this month, permanently barred the state from enforcing the law. Now the state must decide whether to appeal the decision, let legislators amend the law or await a final ruling from the judge later this year. Bret Crow, spokesman for the Ohio attorney general's office, said yesterday his office was still examining the ruling. He didn't know how it would limit Ohio's enforcement. Ohio's decades-old law was rewritten earlier this year to cover such things as online pornographers and sexual predators who target youths. The law made it a felony to distribute material considered "harmful to juveniles" - sex acts, repeated use of foul language, lurid details of violence and the glorifying of criminal activity - via computer, the Internet, newspapers, movies and other similar means. It was challenged by bookstore owners, a state newspaper association, and a sexual advice Web site, which said the definition of "harmful to juveniles" was too vague and that the Internet should not be included. Rice, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio, didn't rule on the Internet challenge but agreed that the definition of "harmful to juveniles" was too broad and covered too many media. Mainstream movies and magazines as well as legitimate historical topics could potentially violate the law, Rice stated. Rice also said Web sites that answer sexual health questions could also be in violation. "Indeed, under Ohio statutes, it would be illegal to show (a juvenile) a copy of a National Geographic in which indigenous women are pictured naked from the waist up," Rice wrote, also noting that prohibitions of extreme violence could endanger the teaching of the Holocaust. The attorney general's office argued during the case that no one would interpret the law that broadly, and warned that Ohio youth would be at greater risk if the law was struck down. But Rice questioned whether the law would be more effective against pornographers than existing legislation. He cited testimony in which Ohio police officers had made scores of arrests by impersonating children online. To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: cseper(a)plaind.com, 216-999-5405

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Message de �lodie
by sophie.l＠rencontre-club.com 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

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Gore Techs.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

Gore talks tech, re-invention Former vice president addresses technology and government officials at Innovative Government Forum [Posted Aug. 27] http://www.fcw.com/ Jebs choice for child care? A wife and child beating advocate. Bush family values -- He's the best man for the job DCF leader: It's OK to spank by Carol Marbin Miller, Lesley Clark and Peter Wallsten The man named Thursday by Gov. Jeb Bush to head Florida's notoriously inept child welfare agency is an evangelical Christian who views spanking that causes ''bruises or welts'' as acceptable punishment. The revelation did not come to Bush's attention until hours after the governor introduced Jerry Regier, a former Oklahoma Cabinet secretary and aide to Bush's father, as the new chief of the state's Department of Children and Families. Regier, 57, was named less than 48 hours after the resignation of DCF Secretary Kathleen A. Kearney. He takes over an agency that has been embroiled in scandal since 5-year-old Rilya Wilson disappeared. http://booknotes.weblogs.com/2002/08/16

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CIA WTF.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

CIA no big deal in India anymore CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA TIMES NEWS NETWORK [ SATURDAY, AUGUST 31, 2002 11:57:38 PM ] WASHINGTON: India is in the grip of the CIA! So what, did you say? Precisely. The once-dreaded three-letter acronym, not long ago a byword for sinister shenanigans, hardly creates a ripple in India these days. How else do you account for the fact that several South Asia hands in the US administration who have visited India in recent times come from the CIA, and there is nary a squeak in New Delhi? The latest visitor to New Delhi who has CIA pedigree is Lisa Curtis, advisor to Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Christina Rocca. Curtis, a former CIA analyst who has dealt extensively with South Asia, held talks with Hurriyat leaders last week in a bid to persuade them to take part in the Assembly election. Although a former CIA staffer, Curtis is a political appointee in the state department brought in as aide to Ms Rocca, who herself was a CIA operative before she moved to the Hill to work with Senator Sam Brownback, who propelled her into the administration. Another familiar South Asia hand who came from the Agency was Bruce Riedel, former Senior Director and adviser to the President on South Asia in the Clinton administration. Riedel went out with the Democratic administration and is now on a sabbatical at King's College, England. One reason why the CIA has lost is menacing overtones is perhaps because its actions of late have tended to be supportive of India, probably recognising greater dangers. After all, former US ambassador to India Daniel P Moynihan, records that the CIA bankrolled even Mrs Gandhi's Congress Party against the Communists in Kerala, despite her perpetual rant about foreign hands and destabilisation. While Curtis has been working on the Hurriyat, Riedel played a key role in the landmark change of US policy that resulted in Washington backing India during the Kargil flare-up. Such reassuring gestures and change in attitude is perhaps what emboldened Home Minister L K Advani to step into the portals of the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, during his visit here in January. Subsequent to the visit, Indian officials say, there has been plenty of cooperation between the two sides, including in the law enforcement front. One result of that was evident earlier this week, when the American FBI -- which now has an office in New Delhi -- and the Indian CBI staged an unprecedented joint sting operation to net an Indian software engineer who was trying to peddle source code purloined from a US company over the Internet. Such a joint action, let alone three CIA analysts coming to India, would have been unthinkable a decade or two back. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=20800121 CIA track record 50 years back? Noticed as early as 1950,the new york herald tribune reported listed five events that the 'company' failed to predict.The North Korean attack that year,the fall of Checkoslovakia,the Tito-Soviet split and the Communist victory in China. p34-'Oyster,the story of ASIS.'Toohey-Pinwell.89.

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Backround checks are more important than education...
by Adam Shostack 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/2229196.stm > Thousands of teachers will not be able to take classes at the start > of the new term because character checks on them will not have been > completed, the government has admitted. [...] > Leicestershire was one of the first areas of the country to be > affected by the vetting backlog as pupils returned to school last > Thursday, with schools being told to turn away teachers who had not > yet been checked. -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume

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Net censors strike Brothels while police cop DNA powers.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/01/1030508160640.html Prostitution websites in Victoria will no longer be able to entice customers with full-body images of naked women or explicit menus of available services, under regulations that take effect today. Criminals forced to give DNA samples Police are set to order nearly 4000 convicted criminals to provide DNA samples within 28 days or face arrest under state laws that take effect today. Full report Your say! Should people be forced to provide DNA? ALSO http://www.melbourne.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=32718&group=webcast

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US Army interest in au tech.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

There's electronic ballistics at Metalstorm of course now,PermoDrives are go. http://www.permo-drive.com.au/ PD News Vol 3 No 2 PD News Vol 3 No 2 26 Jul 02: United States Army enlists Permo-Drive for war on fuel. With 246 thousand tactical vehicles, the US Army has the largest truck fleet in the world. New Vice President 19 Jul 02: CEO Max Bosotti has announced the appointment of Paul Chandler as Vice President, Permo-Drive Technologies Ltd. USA Interest 13 Jun 02: The Permo-Drive Team recently visited North America.

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Palladium Busters.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

COLLUSION CLAIMS ACCC probing 'hard-core cartels' Australia's competition watchdog was investigating about 25 cases of alleged anti-competitive "hard-core cartel" activity, a conference was told today. Full report According to ACCC chairperson,Alan Fels,Sony's regional coding is fair game for cracking. http://theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/02/1030508179933.html "...Professor Fels said hard-core collusion, which could involve secret price fixing, bid rigging, market sharing and agreed restrictions on output, was flourishing internationally ""He used his speech to an Australian Institute of Criminology conference to continue his push for jail terms for executives involved in such illegal collusion. Prof Fels said it was unfair that people who cheated the social security or tax systems of tens of thousands of dollars could be jailed, yet senior executives who colluded to cause tens of millions of dollars of loss to the community did not face a prison term." "The law must not be blind to the colour of the collar," he said. Prof Fels said such offences could currently incur fines of up to $500,000 for an individual, or $10 million for a company, but there were no criminal sanctions. "Hard-core cartels are secret, they are difficult to detect, they allow the firms involved to corrupt the competitive process ... and enable those who engage in collusion to line their pockets with higher profits," he said. Prof Fels said that in the six years to 2001, the ACCC received 2,426 complaints about cartels and 400 investigations were conducted. The commission currently was investigating 20 to 25 cases that could potentially involve hard-core cartels. In a submission to a review of the Trade Practices Act by former High Court judge Sir Daryl Dawson, the ACCC has argued for jail penalties for executives found guilty of anti-competitive behaviour. It argues for new seven-year prison terms for executives caught organising illegal cartels, and maximum fines worth 10 per cent of company turnover. Business groups have attacked Prof Fels' move, and called for his powers to be curtailed. END. The US may be too far gone for an ACCC to work,it may need the Mongo alternative.

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Mongo's with matches,cruel but fair.
by Matthew X 02 Sep '02

02 Sep '02

Calif. Forest Fire Forces Evacuation AP/Steven K. Doi [26K] AZUSA, Calif. (AP) A wildfire spread rapidly across 10,000 acres of national forest Sunday, sending thousands of holiday campers fleeing. The fire was burning in the Azusa Canyon area of the Angeles National Forest about 30 miles east of Los Angeles. About 8,000 campers were told to evacuate campgrounds. ``This was a holiday weekend and the canyon was full of people,'' state Department of Forestry dispatcher James Arthur said. About 11,420 acres of brush were aflame across California. In El Dorado County east of Sacramento, a fire destroyed one house and threatened about 100 others. It had consumed 770 acres Sunday and was 30 percent contained. A 15-year-old boy was in the county's juvenile hall in connection with the fire. A second boy, also 15, was questioned then released to his family, sheriff's Lt. Kevin House said. One boy was playing with matches when the fire started Saturday between the cities of El Dorado Hills and Rescue, House said. In San Bernardino County, a 554-acre fire was 61 percent contained Sunday. Investigators were trying to determine whether a burned body and an incendiary device were connected to the blaze that started Thursday. The device was discovered Sunday morning, said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Ruth Wenstrom. She had no further details. Nationwide, the National Interagency Fire Center reported 17 large active fires Sunday that were burning 660,000 acres. On the Net: National Interagency Fire Center: http://www.nifc.gov/ Summers slippin away kids,get out in the woods! There is no greenhouse over Ameica!

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