Britannia Radio

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk

1. Twitter Shines A Spotlight On Secret F.B.I. Subpoenas

The news that federal prosecutors have demanded that the microblogging site Twitter provide the account details of people connected to the WikiLeaks case, including its founder, Julian Assange, isn’t noteworthy because the government’s request was unusual or intrusive. It is noteworthy because it became public. For the Twitter request, the government obtained a secret subpoena from a federal court. Twitter challenged the secrecy, not the subpoena itself, and won the right to inform the people whose records the government was seeking. WikiLeaks says it suspects that other large sites like Google and Facebook have received similar requests and simply went along with the government. This kind of order is far more common than one may think, and in the case of terrorism and espionage investigations the government can issue them without a court order. “It’s a perfect example of how the government can use its broad powers to silence pe ople,” said Nicholas Merrill, who was the first person to file a constitutional challenge against the use of national security letters, authorized by the USA Patriot Act. Until August, he was forbidden to acknowledge the existence of a 2004 letter that the company he founded, the Calyx Internet Access Corporation, received from the F.B.I. One critic of the law, former Senator Russ Feingold, said in a statement that it was long past time for Congress “to rein in the use of national security letters.”
Noam Cohen, The New York Times
Related Links:
* US Justice Department Wants Details Of All WikiLeaks Twitter Followers
KnowledgeEmpire, WL Central
* US Demands Twitter Release Assange Details
Emily Dugan, Independent on Sunday

2. The Quotable Julian Assange: Paris

Here are some more notable quotes from the Paris Match interview with Julian Assange referenced below. Mr. Assange seems to have a firm understanding of the power that the American people have over their own government. Shifts in power don’t happen often in relatively stable societies, and neither do revolutions, but in a nation whose voters still hold some of the cards, growing intolerance to corruption will eventually tip the scales in favor of the people. Julian Assange said: "More and more Americans are angry about the calls to assassinate me, to extradite me. Everything depends on the American people: if they decide that it’s not tolerable to extradite a journalist for espionage, then there will be no extradition....."
KnowledgeEmpire, KE/KIF

3. USA Consumer Product Safety Commission To Launch Public Database Of Complaints

The federal government is poised for the first time to make public thousands of complaints it receives each year about safety problems with various products, from power tools to piggy banks. The compilation of consumer complaints, set to be launched online in March by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has been hailed by consumer advocates as a resource that will revolutionize the way people make buying decisions. But major manufacturing and industry groups have raised concerns about the public database, saying it may be filled with fictitious slams against their brands. Under the new system, a complaint filed by a consumer will be posted for anyone to read within 15 days. Anyone filing a complaint must identify themselves, but that information will not be published and would be disclosed to the manufacturer only with the consumer's permission. The agency, which received about 16,000 consumer complaints in 2009, does not know how many to expect in th e new system, according to spokesman Scott Wolfson. Tenenbaum and the other two Democrats on the CPSC trumpeted the final version of the database as a powerful tool for consumers, while the two Republicans, Anne Northup and Nancy Nord, were opposed.
Lyndsey Layton, The Washington Post

4. UK Disability Cuts Could Breach The Law

Janet Solomons says the loss of the allowance would be devastating for her son
Ministers want to replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) with a new Personal Independence Payment. The government says the changes are designed to streamline the system as well as make cuts of 20%. Disability lawyer Mike Charles told the BBC the moves could be unlawful if they denied individuals the right to quality of life. Mr Charles said: "The human rights act says individuals have a right to family life, have a right to a quality of life, the whole purpose of the DLA is to put them on an equal playing field with everyone else. Any proposal that fails to appreciate those fundamental rights could find it is an infringement of the law. My view is even if its not against the letter of the law, it is against the spirit of the law." His opinion is backed up by other specialist disability lawyers. Charities including Disability Alliance claim the proposals are not about simplifying the system but are about removing 380,000 claimants fro m it.
BBC News

5. UK Home Office Dishonestly Concealed Detested Identity Cards Report

In a story covered very well in a witty post by our friends over at TechEye, it has emerged that the Home Office hid the parlous state of its Identity Card Scheme from the public - it withheld publication of a report by the project's oversight board in the run up to the 2010 general election (when, you'll remember, some sort of card remained Labour policy). Disgracefully, the Home Office only slipped out the final report of the Independent Scheme Advisory Panel (ISAP) this week, more than a year after it was written, after the scheme had finally bitten the dust under the Coalition. The suppression of this report is absolutely disgraceful. It follows a pattern of recent behaviour from government agencies, who withhold information harmful to their reputation despite the clear obligation on them to be open with public data – after all, we pay for their activities and for these reports, and such reports are about aspects of the way we all live and will be governed in the future. This not only reveals a dishonest approach to information – it also reveals typical administrative incompetence with large, intrusive databases. Government departments constantly want more power over us, but are constantly too incompetent to use it.
Alex Deane, Big Brother Watch

READ THE NEWS ON ONE CLICK
http://www.theoneclickgroup.co.uk