Sending an anonymous love letter or an angry note to your congressman? The U.S. Postal Service will soon know who you are.
Beginning with bulk or commercial mail, the Postal
Service will require “enhanced sender identification” for all
discount-rate mailings, according to the notice published in the Oct. 21
Federal Register. The purpose of identifying senders is to provide a
more efficient tracking system, but more importantly, to “facilitate
investigations into the origin of suspicious mail.” …
Source: Washington Times (online), October 26, 2003
Feds Cramming Privacy Reports
For the first time ever, nearly every government database
is undergoing top-to-bottom scrutiny. Soon good government groups and
even citizens will get a look into how these systems work and what data
they contain.
While many of the agencies running the largest database systems
already have missed the deadline for submitting initial privacy impact
reports, privacy groups and federal agencies’ privacy officers say that
the new process, not the deadline, is what matters.
Source: Wired, October 15, 2003
A former CIA director and a former
deputy national security adviser on Tuesday advocated major changes to
the U.S. intelligence establishment in testimony before the independent
commission studying the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
John M. Deutch, CIA director from 1995-1996, and James B. Steinberg,
deputy national security adviser in the Clinton administration, endorsed
two structural reforms: appointing a director of national intelligence
separate from the CIA, and creating a domestic security service modeled
after Britain’s MI5.
Source: CBS News (online), October 14, 2003
The Internal Revenue Service is exploring ways to share
names, addresses, birth dates, employee records, and other taxpayer
information with law-enforcement agencies, particularly the Immigration
and Naturalization Service, according to legislative aides and senior
tax attorneys.
Aides said any such move, though taken in the name of national
security, could violate the spirit if not the letter of US nondisclosure
laws. These privacy rules were first established in the mid-1970s as
part of an overhaul of the tax code after the Nixon White House used IRS
records to intimidate its enemies.
Source: Boston Globe (online), September 25, 2003
Pentagon accused of mislabeling adverse reactions, won’t share autopsy reports
Since Persian Gulf War II began about 6,000 soldiers have been
shipped home for recovery. Of these, 1,200 were wounded in combat.
Many of the others consider themselves part of an army of “walking
dead” – troops who appear to be so physically and mentally exhausted
that the military has no recourse but to discharge them.
Source: WorldNetDaily, September 16, 2003
Study: Liberal speakers far outnumber conservatives at top universities
A new report has found liberal speakers outnumber conservative voices
at the nation’s top universities’ graduation ceremonies by a wide
margin, confirming to campus critics that students are bombarded with
one-sided political points of view.
Source: WorldNetDaily, September 3, 2003
My partner, James Sanders and I, have recently received
what may be the single most convincing document proving a conscious
government cover-up of the true fate of TWA Flight 800
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 29, 2003
When William the Conqueror established himself on the
throne of England he was left with an expensive exercise. Because he
could not count on the allegiance of conquered peoples, it was necessary
to maintain his military forces in England. This was not popular,
because his troops had burnt houses during his coronation ceremony and
earned an even greater hatred by the English.
This only serves to illustrate that when you desire to rule, you can
expect it is necessary to find some way to enforce that rule upon an
unwilling group of people.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 26, 2003
A commercial airline pilot who has been through the
Transportation Security Agency’s Federal Flight Deck Officer program and
has been “trained” to carry a gun in the cockpit says the agency’s
policies “are designed to discourage pilots from participating in the
program once they do get through training.”
The pilot, who requested anonymity, told WorldNetDaily the TSA has
set “restrictive” guidelines for the carry of guns through airports and
even in cockpits, though other armed federal agents and officers have
far fewer limitations and can access their weapons much more readily.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 27, 2003
Back in 1967, five years after the NEA had become a labor
union, the NEA’s executive secretary, Sam Lambert, made it very clear
that the NEA was determined to become a powerful political machine
rather than merely an organization of teachers devoted to improving
education. He declared:
NEA will become a political power second to no other
special interest group … NEA will organize this profession from top to
bottom into logical operational units that can move swiftly and
effectively and with power unmatched by any other organized group in the
nation.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 20, 2003
It’s risky to use taxpayer ID numbers for noncitizen drivers, agency says.
Complicating the push to give illegal immigrants access to California
driver’s licenses, U.S. officials say a legislative plan to use federal
taxpayer identification numbers to screen noncitizen drivers would pose
a “potential security risk.”
Source: The Sacramento Bee (online), August 22, 2003
A government report that urges the U.S. Postal Service to
create “smart stamps” to track the identity of people who send mail is
eliciting concern from privacy advocates.
The report,
released last month by the President’s Commission on the U.S. Postal
Service, issued numerous recommendations aimed at reforming the
debt-laden agency. One recommendation is that the USPS “aggressively
pursue” the development of a so-called intelligent mail system.
Source: C/Net News, August 12, 2003
A consumer-advocacy group is launching a global boycott
against the world’s largest manufacturer of shaving supplies to protest
the company’s use of customer-tracking technology.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 13, 2003
FDA says no patients under age 18 should be prescribed drug Paxil for major depression because it may increase risk of suicide
Source: NY Times Archive, June 20, 2003
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said today it is
reviewing reports of a possible increased risk of suicidal thinking and
suicide attempts in children and adolescents under the age of 18 treated
with the drug Paxil for major depressive disorder (MDD). Although the
FDA has not completed its evaluation of the new safety data, FDA is
recommending that Paxil not be used in children and adolescents for the
treatment of MDD. There is currently no evidence that Paxil is effective
in children or adolescents with MDD, and Paxil is not currently
approved for use in children and adolescents. Other approved treatment
options are available for depression in children.
Source: FDA Talk Paper, June 19, 2003
Health-care advocates say a General Accounting Office
report that found the federal government could not guarantee patients’
medical privacy is not only accurate, but provides a glimpse of how
helpless health-care consumers are when their privacy is breached.
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 12, 2003
US may adopt Fla. antiterror database
Police in Florida are creating a new counterterrorism
database designed to give law enforcement agencies around the country a
powerful new tool to analyze billions of records about both criminals
and ordinary Americans.
Organizers said the system, the Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information
Exchange, dubbed Matrix, enables investigators to find patterns and
links among people and events faster than ever before, combining police
records with commercially available collections of personal information
about most American adults. It would let authorities, for example,
instantly find the name and address of every brown-haired owner of a red
Ford pickup within a 20-mile radius of a suspicious event.
Source: Boston Globe (Online), August 6, 2003
Congressional investigators say they can’t assure the
public that individuals’ personal data is being adequately protected
from unauthorized reading, alteration or disclosure.
In a survey of 25 federal agencies and departments, the General
Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found a lack of
compliance with the federal Privacy Act of 1974 significant enough to
conclude “the government cannot assure the public that individual
privacy rights are being protected.”
Source: WorldNetDaily, August 1, 2003
A homeschooling couple won a state Supreme Court appeal
against child protective service investigators who tried to launch a
probe after their 2-year-old daughter slipped outside the house for a
few minutes without her clothes on.
Source: WorldNetDaily, July 19, 2003
Passengers who fly Southeast Airlines will be under the
constant eye of digital video cameras providing a live feed and
recordings of their faces and activities for security purposes.
Wired News said the Florida-based charter airline plans to store the
video for up to 10 years and could use face-recognition software to
match faces to names and personal records.
Source: WorldNetDaily, July 19, 2003
|
No comments:
Post a Comment