Mass. Governor Stands by Comments About Wiretapping Mosques As Muslim Groups Demand Apology
Romney made the remarks Wednesday during a speech in Washington at
the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. He referred to the
state’s 120 colleges and universities and speculated about students who
are from countries that sponsor terrorism, asking "Do we know where they
are, are we tracking them?"
He also spoke about gathering intelligence at mosques "that may be teaching doctrines of hate and terror."
"Are we monitoring that? Are we wiretapping?" he asked. "Are we
following what’s going on? Are we seeing who’s coming in, who’s coming
out? Are we eavesdropping, carrying out surveillance on those
individuals from places that sponsor domestic terror?"
ABC News (online), September 16, 2005
House adds sexual orientation to ‘hate crimes’
In what is being characterized as an unexpected move, the U.S. House
of Representatives today approved an amendment to a child-safety bill
that adds "sexual orientation" to the federal "hate crimes" statute.
Source: WorldNetDaily, September 14, 2005
Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan
The Pentagon has drafted a revised doctrine for the use of nuclear
weapons that envisions commanders requesting presidential approval to
use them to preempt an attack by a nation or a terrorist group using
weapons of mass destruction. The draft also includes the option of using
nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological
or chemical weapons.
The document, written by the Pentagon’s Joint Chiefs staff but not
yet finally approved by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, would
update rules and procedures governing use of nuclear weapons to reflect a
preemption strategy first announced by the Bush White House in December
2002. The strategy was outlined in more detail at the time in
classified national
security directives.
Source: The Washington Post (online), September 11, 2005
Experts fear brave new world of ‘geoslaves’
To injured mountaineers and lost backpackers, nifty technology using
global information systems holds the promise of being a lifesaver.
And America’s legal system has found the technology provides ways to
punish drunken drivers or nonviolent offenders like Martha Stewart, who
are sentenced to home confinement with an ankle bracelet monitoring
their whereabouts rather than time in a prison cell costing taxpayers
$60,000 a year to operate.
But academics and lawyers warn there’s a real danger to privacy as the technology becomes cheaper and easier to obtain.
Source: Knox Studio (online), September 1, 2005
FBI to Do Prisoner ‘Threat Assessment’
FBI agents nationwide have been ordered to conduct "threat
assessments" of inmates who may have become radicalized in prison and
could commit extremist violence upon their release, according to an FBI
letter obtained by The Associated Press.
"The primary goal of these efforts is to assess and disrupt the
recruitment and conversion of inmates to radicalized ideologies which
advocate violence," according to a letter from the acting assistant
chief of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, Randy D. Parsons.
Source: My Way, August 31, 2005
ATF, Virginia Police Accused of ‘Persecuting’ Gun Shows
The federal agency that regulates U.S. gun dealers stands accused,
along with at least three Virginia law enforcement agencies, of trying
to shut down legal gun shows through alleged intimidation of gun buyers
and sellers. The law enforcement organizations also allegedly broke the
law by sharing gun buyers’ information with members of the public.
Source: Cybercast News Service, August 23, 2005
Terror threat sharpens focus on urban spy cameras
The striking images of London subway
bombers captured by the city’s extensive video surveillance system, and a
rising sense that similar attacks could happen in the United States, is
stirring renewed interest in expanding police camera surveillance of
America’s public places.
Source: Sun Herald (online), August 10, 2005
Officials Test Radio Tags at Canada Border
Security officials gathered Monday at a Canadian border crossing to
mark the first test of a radio frequency identification system to be
used by foreign visitors.
If successful, radio "tags" carried by travelers will be part of the
standard registration process for those entering the United States.
Source: Newsday.com, August 9, 2005
Lawmakers Consider Stamps on Bullets
Lawmakers in California now have two bills on the table that could aid in the search for gun-firing assailants.
Forensics investigators currently have the ability to match the
unique signature on every bullet to the gun it was fired from. The
problem then becomes, for detectives and law enforcement, finding the
gun itself and the person who fired it.
Source: Fox News (online), August 3, 2005
A Hacker Games the Hotel
A vulnerability in many hotel television infrared systems can allow a
hacker to obtain guests’ names and their room numbers from the billing
system.
It can also let someone read the e-mail of guests who use web mail
through the TV, putting business travelers at risk of corporate
espionage. And it can allow an intruder to add or delete charges on a
hotel guest’s bill or watch pornographic films and other premium content
on their hotel TV without paying for it.
Source: Wired News, July 30, 2005
Steering Wheel Checks Alcohol Consumption
If the car doesn’t start, you are too drunk to drive. That is the
premise behind a $600 sensor that can be installed in a steering wheel
or in gloves and will test a driver’s skin to determine alcohol
consumption.
Source: Las Vegas Sun (online), July 29, 2005
Cheney, GOP battle over detainees
White House says interrogation plan usurps authority
The Bush administration in recent days has been lobbying to block
legislation supported by Republican senators that would bar the U.S.
military from engaging in "cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment" of
detainees, from hiding prisoners from the Red Cross, and from using
interrogation methods not authorized by a new Army field manual.
Source: SFGate, July 23, 2005
Details of US microwave-weapon tests revealed
Volunteers taking part in tests of the Pentagon’s "less-lethal"
microwave weapon were banned from wearing glasses or contact lenses due
to safety fears. The precautions raise concerns about how safe the
Active Denial System (ADS) weapon would be if used in real crowd-control
situations.
The ADS fires a 95-gigahertz microwave beam, which is supposed to heat skin and to cause pain but no physical damage (New Scientist,
27 October 2001, p 26). Little information about its effects has been
released, but details of tests in 2003 and 2004 were revealed after
Edward Hammond, director of the US Sunshine Project – an organisation
campaigning against the use of biological and non-lethal weapons –
requested them under the Freedom of Information Act.
Source: New Scientist (online), July 22, 2005
GAO: TSA data collection violated Privacy Act
The Transportation Security Administration violated privacy
protections by secretly collecting personal information on at least
250,000 people, congressional investigators said Friday.
Source: MSNBC, July 22, 2005
Google’s growth prompts privacy concerns
Google is at once a powerful search engine and a growing e-mail
provider. It runs a blogging service, makes software to speed Web
traffic and has ambitions to become a digital library. And it is
developing a payments service.
Although many Internet users eagerly await each new technology from
Google Inc., its rapid expansion is also prompting concerns that the
company may know too much: what you read, where you surf and travel,
whom you write.
Source: Times Union (online), July 18, 2005
‘Constitution guarantees’ right to be drunk at home
A man arrested at a New Year’s Eve party claims the U.S. Constitution
guarantees the right to be drunk in a private home, and is now suing
the police who arrested him.
Source: WorldNetDaily, July 9, 2005
TSA gathered personal data on fliers
Air travelers who have been concerned about the government collecting
their personal information from airlines now have a second source to
worry about: commercial data brokers.
The federal agency in charge of aviation security revealed that it
bought and is storing commercial data about some passengers — even
though officials said they wouldn’t do it and Congress told them not to.
Source: CNN, June 21, 2005
Your ISP as Net watchdog
The U.S. Department of Justice is quietly shopping around the
explosive idea of requiring Internet service providers to retain records
of their customers’ online activities.
Source: C/Net News, June 16, 2005
Achilles’ heel in ID Act: security at motor-vehicle offices
The Achilles’ heel of a new federal law to regulate driver’s licenses
revolves around security at motor-vehicle offices around the country.
The Real ID Act, which Congress attached to an Iraq war spending bill
that President Bush signed this week, sets up a new national database
of driver’s licenses and requires motorists to provide a birth
certificate and prove citizenship or legal immigration status when they
get driver’s licenses.
Source: Scripps Howard News Service, May 12, 2005
House passes standards for driver’s licenses
Getting or
renewing a driver’s license would take more time and effort under a
security measure approved by the U.S. House of Representatives on
Thursday. The Senate is expected to pass a similar measure next week.
National standards for driver’s licenses will discourage illegal
immigration and make it harder for terrorists to get documents to evade
security, supporters of the bill said. Critics, including some state
officials, said the new requirements would be burdensome and expensive,
won’t enhance security and are a step toward a national ID card.
Source: Centre Daily (online), May 5, 2005
Ad Execs Want to Track Every Move
Marketers are testing new techniques to measure whether advertisers’
messages are getting across, and they are prepared to spend vast sums
and deploy astonishingly complex technologies to do so.
At the Ad:Tech conference in San Francisco last week, advertising
experts contemplated a variety of approaches, ranging from
round-the-clock automated ad tracking to simply reducing the number of
ads per show, that could make it easier for advertisers to reach an
increasingly fragmented viewing public.
Source: Wired News, May 2, 2005
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