Unlawful Anti-Terror Powers Planned For Use During 2012 Olympics 'Police are planning to use an anti-terror law deemed unlawful by the European Court of Human Rights across the country during the London Olympics, The Times has learnt.Senior officers are considering using Section 44 of the Terrorism Act 2000 at every Underground and railway station nationwide. Privacy campaigners criticised the proposal yesterday. The powers would enable police to stop and search members of the public without any suspicion that they were involved in terrorism. The Times understands that this would be the first time that the powers would have been used across such a wide area. Police said that Section 44, which must be granted by the Home Secretary for a designated area, would be used only in the event of an escalated terror threat. Officers are being trained to use behavioural profiling to spot suspicious characters during stop- and-search operations.' Tories Plan £200 Levy for All Defendants Convicted in Courts 'Every defendant convicted in a criminal court would have to pay a levy of £200 under plans being put forward by the Conservatives, The Times has learnt. Dominic Grieve, the Shadow Justice Secretary, said that a levy or a fixed fee could raise £80 million a year towards the costs of bringing criminals to court.' Weather Modification And Barky's Jokes About 'Snowmageddon' 'President Barack Obama reportedly 'joked' about a major snowstorm that has taken the lives of several, caused multiple accidents and massive power outages. Was it a Freudian slip, or 'Barkism,' that this was a manmade snowstorm? I honestly don't know, though I think it's something to consider. What I do know is that weather modification is not science fiction, but has been with us since at least the 1960s, when the Ho Chi Minh Trail was flooded out by US forces during the Vietnam War. Nowadays I think it would be safe to say that the majority of clouds we see here in the US (and likely throughout the world) are made by craft spraying trails that proliferate across the sky. If 'we're' making the clouds, then it stands to reason that we're also creating whatever precipitation that falls due to those clouds, does it not? If that's the case, then the American people have just been attacked.' Kill the Messenger? 'The Obama administration has apparently come up with a creative way to deal with the increasingly bleak news regarding the economic position of the United States in the world. It proposes to eliminate the office in the Bureau of Labor Statistics that collects and publishes the comparative data on employment, unemployment, manufacturing productivity and labor costs, among other things. You can find it right there on page 11 among the various programs that it has marked for termination. Through this voluntary act of blinding, the Obama gang will manage to save all of two million dollars a year, which in Pentagon parlance hardly qualifies as “budget dust.” Lost will be a ready reckoning of how the country is measuring up on the world economic front, which might well be the intended purpose of the program’s elimination.' Hillary to China: Vote for Iran Sanctions, or Face Gulf Conflagration and Oil Cutoff German Foreign Minister Backs Idea of European Army 'Germany supports the creation of a European army in the long term so that the EU can be a "global player," Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle told the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. "The long-term goal is the establishment of a European army under full parliamentary control. The European Union must live up to its political role as a global player. It must be able to manage crises independently. It must be able to respond quickly, flexibly and to take a united stand," he said. "We want strong European crisis management. This is not intended to replace other security structures. More Europe is not a strategy directed against anyone. No one has any reason to fear Europe, but everyone should be able to depend on Europe," he added.' Ken Lewis: If I’m Going Down, Hank Paulson and Ben Bernanke Are Coming Down With Me 'No WAY is Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis going to be the only one to answer for the acquisition of crappy Merrill Lynch and its crappy bonuses, "a person close to Lewis's defense team" (who may or may not be Ken Lewis himself) tells Charlie Gasparino today on the Daily Beast. NO WAY will he be a scapegoat, alone, for the people who twisted his arm to go through with the Merrill deal by telling him he would be fired if he didn't. "If this thing goes to trial you can expect both Paulson and Bernanke to be on the witness list." If he's going down, he's bringing them down, too. Bringing them down to Chinatown. Order in the court! European Emergency Number 112 Now Works in all EU Member States 'People can now reach emergency services from anywhere in the EU, simply by dialling 112, the single European emergency number. Now that 112 can be called from any phone in Bulgaria, it has achieved complete availability just before the Christmas period when thousands of people travel between EU Member States to visit family, hit the slopes or look for winter sun. It also crowns the combined efforts of the European Commission and EU Member States to make 112 fully available everywhere so that Europeans will always have a lifeline in the EU.' Yemen and The Militarization of Strategic Waterways 'Among Washington's strategic objectives is the militarization of major sea ways. This strategic waterway links the Mediterranean to South Asia and the Far East, through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. It is a major transit route for oil tankers. A large share of China's industrial exports to Western Europe transits through this strategic waterway. Maritime trade from East and Southern Africa to Western Europe also transits within proximity of Socotra (Suqutra), through the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. (see map below). A military base in Socotra could be used to oversee the movement of vessels including war ships in an out of the Gulf of Aden.' US Rejects EU Diplomacy over Iran Nuclear Program 'Leading US senators Joseph Lieberman and John Kerry inveigh against a top EU official for supporting further diplomatic talks with Iran over its nuclear program. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, the two US officials criticized the European Union Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashto who threw her lot with more dialogue over Iran's nuclear program. The two went on to claim that Iran has been 'explicitly dishonest' over its uranium enrichment and thus does not deserve further dialogue, or diplomacy for that matter.' Egypt to Seal Sea Border with Gaza 'Egypt is to close its sea border to the Gaza-bound supplies as it reinforces the restrictions against the passage of sustenance into the strip. Cairo has ordered a port to be built at its maritime border with the Gaza Strip, a security official was quoted by AFP as saying. The security boats there would then "prevent all future attempts to smuggle Palestinian contraband," he added. The surveillance multiplies the restrictions Cairo has placed along the terrestrial border at a time when the coastal sliver of 1.5-million population continues to suffer from an all-out Israeli-imposed blockade which has deprived it of its basic necessities for almost three years.' Germany Bending the Law to Catch Tax Evaders 'Despites Switzerland's warnings against supporting criminals, Germany has dispatched tax investigators to neighboring France to buy stolen data on tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts. Tax authorities would acquire the controversial data following a payoff on the weekend in France, German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported on Sunday, citing Focus magazine.'
Monday, 8 February 2010
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