"The course of history shows that as a government grows, liberty decreases."-Thomas Jefferson
(Blog)
Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Giving Birth to the Unexpected: Responding to the Challenge of Terror
Though natural, the cry for revenge and the call for the unleashing of the first war of this century, prolonged or not, seems more connected to social and psychological processes of finding a way to release deep emotional anguish, a sense of powerlessness, and our collective loss than it does as a plan of action seeking to redress the injustice, promote change and prevent it from ever happening again.
posted by Amanda Polson on 10/30/2001 01:06:31 PM
Monday, October 29, 2001
Anti-Terror Tools Include High-Tech
WASHINGTON (AP) - The government's pursuit of terrorists is relying heavily on sophisticated technology, from software that automatically translates foreign communications on the Internet to a device that secretly captures every keystroke a suspect makes on his computer.
President Bush signed new anti-terrorism legislation Friday that enabled law enforcement to rely on these tools more freely, and the Justice Department immediately sent instructions to prosecutors.
posted by Darin D on 10/29/2001 10:31:28 PM
Novel Security Measures
A local man was kept off a recent flight because of a book he was carrying.
posted by Darin D on 10/29/2001 05:13:09 PM
Homeland Insecurity
A Sacramento journalist is taken into custody by police and forced to destroy photos by an over-zealous National Guardsman. Apparently, the terrorists are indeed causing instability
posted by Darin D on 10/29/2001 05:04:37 PM
Sunday, October 28, 2001
Action Center: Peace
"On July 11, 2001 Congressman Kucinich introduced H.R. 2459, a bill to create a Cabinet-level Department of Peace which embodies a broad-based approach to peaceful, non-violent conflict resolution at both domestic and international levels. The Department of Peace would serve to promote non-violence as an organizing principle in our society, and help to create the conditions for a more peaceful world."
posted by Kali Durga on 10/28/2001 06:12:52 PM
Saturday, October 27, 2001
Media Beat: Media And Memory: The Arrest Of A Dictator
"National Public Radio news analyst Daniel Schorr pointed out on Oct. 19 that Pinochet seized control of Chile "after the CIA had organized a campaign to destabilize the democratically elected but left-leaning Salvador Allende." And Schorr identified another key orchestrator of the 1973 coup -- Henry Kissinger, who coordinated foreign policy for President Nixon."
www.fair.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/27/2001 11:59:57 AM
What's Wrong with the News?
"Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media."
www.fair.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/27/2001 11:53:31 AM
Thursday, October 25, 2001
The Aftermath of Terror
Many are the commentaries on the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre, the global response, the bombing of Afghanistan. Of them all, the most trenchant comes not from a columnist but from a political figure, Fidel Castro, the president of Cuba.
<...>
This man who has steadfastly resisted the power of American hegemony for a period of forty years understands fully that building a more just world is indeed a project of building. The long work of struggle and liberation, of creating a more equitable and democratic world order, is not something that can be accomplished through dramatic video clips on television. Terror destabilizes, not constructs; and instability creates vacuums, filled, far more often than not, by those with fascistic agendas, whether that fascism is sponsored by religious fundamentalism or multinational capitalism
posted by Darin D on 10/25/2001 11:03:57 AM
Wednesday, October 24, 2001
Ted Rall Online - Bombing Without Thinking
"Beware collateral damage, for today's hey-nothing-personal victims give rise to tomorrow's terrorists. As this goes to press, a bestiary of bombs-a few 500-pounders here, some "bunker busters" there-is falling on Afghan cities. Gulf War mythology of ordinance IQ notwithstanding, 21st century bombing is hardly a precision art. Smart or dumb, some bombs will always go off-course. And bombs hit things that then blow up, killing people who weren't themselves targets. Sometimes civilians hang out where they shouldn't. And sometimes information about bombing targets is just plain wrong or out-of-date."
posted by Darin D on 10/24/2001 02:49:16 AM
Tuesday, October 23, 2001
THE NEW GREAT GAME:
"A few years ago, the giant country struck oil in the eastern portion of the Caspian Sea. Geologists estimate that sitting beneath the wind-blown steppes of Kazakhstan are 50 billion barrels of oil-by far the biggest untapped reserves in the world. (Saudi Arabia, currently the world's largest oil producer, is believed to have about 30 billion barrels remaining.) Kazakhstan's Soviet-subsidized economy collapsed immediately after independence in 1991."
A war for oil?
(Thanks to Dbirchall for the link)
posted by Death Angel on 10/23/2001 11:25:35 PM
Truth In The Packaging Of War News
"SAN FRANCISCO -- Most of the American press goes to war by asking the Department of Defense (news - web sites) for permission to tag along with the people doing the fighting. The bosses at the Pentagon (news - web sites) then tell hat-in-hand delegations of editors and television executives, "Don't call us, we'll call you."
In other words, since the war in Vietnam ended badly for all concerned, the military has used and abused newspapers and television to show and tell the American people stories that range from "carefully controlled" to plain old "making it up." Most news outlets operate under the thumb of an operation that should be called PNN, the Pentagon News Network. We report what we're told because we are not being allowed to cover what is actually happening."
posted by Darin D on 10/23/2001 12:18:52 PM
Sunday, October 21, 2001
Shield of Dreams
"As desirable as even a limited shield might be in an uncertain world, physicists and independent defense analysts who have carefully studied the problem of missile defense argue that the President's plan is deeply flawed, more a product of wishful thinking than sound scientific analysis. "The proponents of missile defense are for the most part totally nontechnical. Or they are defense contractors," says Richard Garwin, a physicist who, with Edward Teller, helped create the world's first hydrogen bomb 50 years ago. "The top levels of the Defense Department are political and managerial, not technical.""
www.discover.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/21/2001 08:39:12 PM
Online NewsHour Forum: American Foreign Policy -- March 12, 1998
""In these and many other cases, the criterion that distinguishes friend from enemy is obedience, not crime.""
Noam Chomsky debates former CIA director James Woolsey on U.S. foreign policy trends.
www.pbs.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/21/2001 06:34:12 PM
Why This War Will Not Work
Nobody can argue with the aim of the war. Justice for the 6,000 dead in New York must be done and seen to be done and destroying bin Laden and al-Qaeda is an integral part of that. And, if civilians have to die, then too bad, civilians always die in war. But this war, as it is being fought, will not make the world a better, safer place. It will make it far more dangerous.
posted by Darin D on 10/21/2001 04:55:25 PM
Guardian Unlimited Observer | International | Hacker cries foul over FBI snooping
"The world's most infamous computer hacker, out of jail and eking a living as an actor in a television drama, has denounced the new Patriot Act - which would allow FBI and police to snoop on emails and monitor US internet activity in their efforts to counter terrorism."
www.observer.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/21/2001 04:49:54 PM
Privacy is Just So Suspicious
The antiterrorism legislation passed by the House and Senate greatly expands the ability of the FBI to enter our homes and search them secretly. It allows agents to tap any public pay phone if they think one day it might be used by a suspected terrorist. Who cares if innocent people have their homes searched or their conversations intercepted by the FBI? If they're not guilty . . .?
posted by Darin D on 10/21/2001 12:21:03 PM
Saturday, October 20, 2001
Marijuana Use Does Not Seem to Cause Irreversible Cognitive Deficits
WESTPORT, CT (Reuters Health) Oct 16 - Cognitive impairment associated with heavy marijuana use is apparently reversible with abstinence, according to a report in the October issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry. Another paper in the journal indicates that marijuana withdrawal symptoms in habitual users are similar to those seen with nicotine withdrawal. The lead author of the first report, Dr. Harrison G. Pope, Jr., from McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts, told Reuters Health, "It appears that cognitive impairment from marijuana use is temporary and related to the amount of marijuana that has been recently smoked rather than permanent and related to an entire lifetime consumption."
Dr. Pope and colleagues collected data on three groups of marijuana users. One group consisted of 63 users who had smoked marijuana at least 5000 times in their lives and were daily marijuana users. In the second group, there were 45 former marijuana users who had smoked marijuana at least 5000 times but had used it less than 12 times in the past 3 months. The third group was made up of 72 controls who had not smoked marijuana more than 50 times. The subjects abstained from marijuana for 28 days, during which the researchers administered neuropsychological tests that assessed general intellectual function, abstract ability, sustained attention, verbal fluency and the ability to learn and recall verbal and visuospatial data. Tests were given at baseline, and on days 1, 7, and 28. Heavy marijuana users had significantly lower scores on word recall lists at baseline and on the day 1 and day 7 tests compared with controls. However, by day 28 there were no significant differences between the groups in any of the tests, with no significant difference in cumulative lifetime marijuana use and test scores, Dr. Pope's group found. "People who are regular heavy marijuana smokers will exhibit some impairment that lasts days, and possibly even a couple of weeks after they stop smoking, that's the bad news. The good news is that if they abstain from marijuana for longer than 4 weeks, then the residual effects seem to disappear," Dr. Pope said.
In the second report, Dr. Alan J. Budney from the University of Vermont in Burlington and colleagues studied withdrawal effects in 12 daily marijuana smokers. "Comparing our results to studies of nicotine withdrawal, it looks like the magnitude of the severity of withdrawal is similar," Dr. Budney said in an interview with Reuters Health. "So as people try to quit smoking marijuana, one can expect them to have problems with withdrawal."
The researchers had the subjects smoke marijuana as usual for 5 days, then abstain for 3 days, smoke again for 5 days and abstain for another 3 days. Craving for marijuana, decreased appetite, sleep difficulty, and weight loss were more common in abstaining periods. Aggression, anger, irritability, restlessness, and strange dreams were also significantly increased during abstinence, the researchers found. "This highlights the issue that when you treat marijuana-dependent folk, they are going to complain about withdrawal — it is real. If you consider tobacco withdrawal real, you should consider marijuana withdrawal real," Dr. Budney stressed.
Arch Gen Psychiatry 2001;58:909-915,917-924.
posted by Darin D on 10/20/2001 08:03:28 PM
Spiralling in control
It's an alchemist's dream come true. Researchers in Germany have transformed a coil of pure iron into an identically shaped twist of the compound iron silicide using gas alone.
posted by Darin D on 10/20/2001 12:19:04 PM
Thursday, October 18, 2001
Salon.com Technology | The Media Borg wants you
"AOL Time Warner, Microsoft/MSNBC/MSN, Disney/ABC, Viacom/CBS/MTV, etc. In the interests of amassing the greatest numbers of consumers at the lowest cost, these info-giants have learned to stamp out their content products with mind-numbing uniformity and a relentless aversion to controversy. Just as McDonald's fries taste the same in Bakersfield as they do in Bangor, so do these corporate news products, whether it's a Gannett paper in Phoenix or a CBS affiliate in Buffalo."
www.salon.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/18/2001 08:32:04 PM
Salon.com Technology | Censorship High
"A 17-year-old takes a stand against a school Web-filtering system that screens out Planned Parenthood but not the Christian Coalition."
www.salon.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/18/2001 08:30:02 PM
terrorism and drug prohibition This impressive collection supports the amazingly lucid idea that winning the War on Terrorism would be expedited by doing away with the draconian, militarized U.S. War on Drugs. Since September 11th, mass media has been filled with government officials ominously chanting that for there to be safety in America, we might have to give up some degree of freedom. Recently, seemingly without the comprehension of most U.S. citizens, some of the most basic freedoms that have defined the American vision since 1776 were stripped away by legislation. I find it ironic that restoring prior constitutional freedoms in this nation would potentially have a much greater effect...
www.cfdp.ca/terror.htm
posted by Death Angel on 10/18/2001 08:24:06 PM
ACLU Asks Ashcroft for Details on Widespread Detention
WASHINGTON - October 17 - Saying that unprecedented government secrecy is raising questions about the fairness of the government's investigation into the terrorist attacks, the American Civil Liberties Union today asked the Justice Department to release to the American public additional information about the more than 700 people held in detention since September 11.
posted by Darin D on 10/18/2001 11:58:03 AM
Wednesday, October 17, 2001
Guardian Unlimited | World dispatch | America's tragedy makes protest taboo
"Steve Morgan, as a journalist, is facing the same charges as the activists. His wife, Heather, said yesterday: "I think it's interesting that the Taliban seem able to release Yvonne Ridley who was arrested by them doing her job, but the United States still won't let Steve go although he was also just doing his job."
www.guardian.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/17/2001 01:24:29 PM
Sobran Column -- Too Late?
The real irony of the situation is that Osama bin Laden is essentially demanding that we live by our own original principles. Not that he knows or cares a whit for constitutional government, the counsel of the Founding Fathers, and suchlike infidel malarkey; but his demand for American withdrawal from the Middle East would never have been necessary if we had retained the modest “republican form of government” that was bequeathed to us. Instead the United States has become a global empire.
posted by Darin D on 10/17/2001 01:09:15 AM
Overthrow.com
America's new wall of homeland security is creating a big demand for cells to hold suspects and illegal aliens who might be rounded up.
Stocks of private companies that build and operate prisons for governments have zoomed as high as 300 percent in anticipation of internment camps and new prisons.
<..>
Private prison investors are also jubilant about an expected U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would bar any inmate from suing a privately run prison for civil rights violations.
posted by Darin D on 10/17/2001 12:50:45 AM
Tuesday, October 16, 2001
Drug Law Timeline
"Significant Events in the History of our Drug Laws"
www.druglibrary.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/16/2001 08:45:09 PM
October 8, 2001: How the Senate Anti-Terrorism Bill Would Convert Dissent into Broadly Defined "Terrorism"
"Under Section 803 of the USA Act, a person commits the crime of domestic terrorism if within the U.S. they engage in activity that involves acts dangerous to human life that violate the laws of the United States or any State and appear to be intended to: (i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion, or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.
The Administration has not adequately explained why this new crime should be created or why the definitions in existing anti-terrorism laws are insufficient."
www.aclu.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/16/2001 06:52:30 PM
ACLU Press Release: 10-10-01 -- "Trust Us, We're the Government," ACLU Looks at Domestic Surveillance And the Need to Watch the Watchers in Times of Crisis
"The Bush Administration's defense of its new, and frighteningly broad, anti-terrorism bill is also being couched in exactly these terms. Unfortunately, history has also shown us that, more often that not, these expansions of domestic surveillance powers are used to violate the freedoms guaranteed to the American public by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights."
A must read.
www.aclu.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/16/2001 06:47:48 PM
September 20, 2001: Ten Points Statement: In Defense of Freedom at a Time of National Crisis
www.aclu.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/16/2001 06:44:45 PM
October 10, 2001: Wiretapping Provisions of Anti-Terrorism Legislation
"On September 19, only eight days after the tragic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, the Bush Administration unveiled its proposed Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), legislation that included many changes to the nation's current surveillance laws. The chart below compares the changes proposed by the ATA, the latest versions of that proposal passed by the House and Senate, and a now-abandoned compromise bill that was passed by the House Judiciary Committee. Also included are capsule ACLU comments on those changes."
www.aclu.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/16/2001 06:43:02 PM
Casual Drug Use Does Not Affect Employment
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - A controversial new study finds that casual illicit drug use has no effect on employment status and suggests that employer-based treatment programs should focus on chronic ``problem'' drug users rather than all users.
posted by Darin D on 10/16/2001 11:27:50 AM
Saturday, October 13, 2001
CBS News | Secret Germ Warfare Experiments? | Wed, 20 Sep 2000 19:30:07 EDT
"And, as CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports in an exclusive investigation, thousands of U.S. sailors may have been unaware that they were exposed during secret germ-warfare experiments."
cbsnews.cbs.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/13/2001 07:30:35 PM
Caucasuswatch.com -- Country Facts-- Index "Before understanding events transpiring in the Caucasus, it is necessary to understand the countries involved. This section is designed to give those unfamiliar with the Caucasus region an overview of the populations, governments, militaries, and other infastructural elements of the societies involved."
Waging war for oil.
www.caucasuswatch.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/13/2001 04:35:32 PM
Caucasuswatch.com Oil and Pipeline Conflict
"Once again the big picture isn't so difficult to discern - after all, it hasn't changed in years. The United States wants to establish secure pipelines to bring Caspian Sea oil and gas to the West. Russia wants control of these resources itself."
www.caucasuswatch.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/13/2001 04:26:05 PM
Friday, October 12, 2001
United States War Crimes During the Persian Gulf War "U.S. invasion of Panama took 10 times as many lives as Iraq's invasion of Kuwait"
www.twf.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 07:13:19 PM
Declassified Documents Point To US War Crimes In Iraq "Moreover, say critics, the United States itself has a long track record of violating international law. Washington's undermining of Iraq's water treatment and sanitation facilities in violation of the Geneva Convention is just one of many recent transgressions, including the bombing of Yugoslavia, Sudan, Afghanistan, and the continued bombing of Iraq."
www.rense.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 07:12:03 PM
The Gulf War Brought Out the Worst in Us "The Geneva Conventions are clear on these matters: "Civilians shall not be the object of attack." The charge to military forces in the U.N. Security Council resolution was to expel the Iraqi forces that had invaded Kuwait. To do that, we dropped 88,000 tons of bombs over Iraq, one of the most concentrated attacks on an entire society in modern warfare. Those bombs killed civilians--both directly and over time through the destruction of the country's power grid, food, water treatment and sewage systems. Some of that bombing of civilians was targeted, some indiscriminate; both are war crimes under the Geneva Conventions."
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 07:09:57 PM
Declassified documents point to US war crimes in Iraq (by Stephen Gowans) - Media Monitors Network "The United States is knowingly violating Article 54 of the Geneva Convention which prohibits any country from undermining "objects indispensable to the survival of (another country's) civilian population," including drinking water installations and supplies, says Thomas Nagy, a business professor at George Washington University."
www.mediamonitors.net
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 07:05:36 PM
Terror Bill Limits Gambling, Too "Nor has there been any reliable confirmation that last month's suicide-hijackers, who completed the bloodiest terrorist attack in American history, were habitual gamblers.
But that didn't stop the House Financial Services committee from voting 62-1 on Thursday for an "anti-terrorism" bill that limits Internet gambling."
www.wired.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:57:22 PM
Tell the U In response to the events of September 11, anti-terrorism legislation is currently being drafted by the Bush Administration and the House and Senate. The current White House proposal, the "Anti-terrorism Act of 2001," contains a provision which would lift all restrictions on arms exports and military aid to India and Pakistan. Legislation based on the Administration's proposal could be debated in the House and Senate Judiciary Committees as early as next week.
www.fas.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:51:00 PM
Terror Bill Clears Senate "Attempts to inject privacy safeguards into an anti-terrorism bill have been soundly rejected.
In a series of votes ending at midnight Thursday, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly defeated the last-ditch efforts by Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wisconsin) to limit police surveillance powers."
www.wired.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:47:36 PM
Justice Not War "There exists no universally accepted definition of terrorism. The Bush administration's proposed antiterrorist legislation defines terrorism too broadly and risks conflating political protest with terrorism. Rather, terrorism should be defined as a form of violence that kills or maims civilians and creates an atmosphere of fear and alarm beyond the immediate human and physical damage that such acts may cause. While most acts of terrorism are politically motivated, political grievances do not justify terrorism."
http://fpif.org
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:45:49 PM
Salon.com Technology | U.S. waited 10 months to freeze bin Laden assets "Months before the Sept. 11 attacks, the United Nations and the European Union directed their members to freeze the assets of five lieutenants of Osama bin Laden, including his brother-in-law and financial handler. The U.S. government didn't do it until Friday.
Members of Congress want to know why Treasury officials charged with disrupting the finances of terrorists didn't follow the lead of some of the closest U.S. allies back in January."
www.salon.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:41:50 PM
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Anthrax panic in US "Panic swept through the American media yesterday when it was disclosed that an employee of NBC news had tested positive for anthrax and the New York Times confined all employees to its building after a powdery substance was found."
www.guardian.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:38:41 PM
Ananova - UN warns 100,000 Afghan children will die this winter "The UN is warning over 100,000 Afghan children are likely to die this winter."
www.ananova.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/12/2001 06:37:35 PM
Thursday, October 11, 2001
The Register "Strong cryptography does more good for society than harm and placing backdoors in encryption products to allow law enforcement access to plain text messages would be "worse than futile", encryption guru Phil Zimmermann told The Register today."
www.theregister.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/11/2001 11:35:02 PM
"The Register Anti-terrorism legislation proposed by leaders of the House Judiciary Committee this week omits a Justice Department plan to make computer hacking a federal terrorism offense, punishable by life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
But electronic civil liberties groups continue to warn about the enhanced Internet surveillance powers that would be granted to law enforcement agencies under the proposal."
www.theregister.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/11/2001 11:33:51 PM
The Register "Zero-Knowledge Systems' Freedom Network, an Internet privacy service that many believed would make on-line eavesdropping all but impossible, will cease to exist 22 October, the company announced Thursday."
www.theregister.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/11/2001 11:32:43 PM
Sun Micro CEO Sees More Support for National ID ``Absolute anonymity breeds absolute irresponsibility,'' he said. ``We need a thumbprint Java card in the hand of everybody in the country.''
The chairman of Sun Microsystems is calling for electronic identification and tracking of every citizen of the United States.
www.dailynews.yahoo.com
posted by Death Angel on 10/11/2001 11:29:32 PM
Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | FBI: terror attacks in days" A warning of a "very real" threat of more terrorist attacks against the US "over the next several days" was given by the FBI last night in a terse bulletin which put police across the country on high alert and called on Americans to be vigilant, exactly one month after the September 11 suicide hijackings shattered the country's sense of security."
www.guardian.co.uk
posted by Death Angel on 10/11/2001 11:26:22 PM
Tuesday, October 09, 2001
Music biz wants tougher DMCA, CPRM 2 to protect copyright
Last week, the RIAA hosted a secret meeting in Washington DC with the heads of major record labels and technology companies, plus leaders of other trade bodies and even members of the US senate
<...>
In the meantime, the RIAA will be lobbying "our friends in Washington" for tougher laws that target "the hackers and file-sharers themselves",
<...>
Worryingly, legislation designed to protect computer users' privacy are likely to be tackled too. Disney chief Michael Eisner pointed out after Rosen's keynote that "privacy laws are our biggest impediment to us obtaining our objectives".
posted by Darin D on 10/9/2001 11:16:54 PM
The Register
International cryptography expert Professor Ross Anderson has demanded a correction from the The Times for being misquoted on the subject of terrorists' use of email.
<...>
Anderson lambasts The Times for unquestioningly peddling the meme that terrorists communicate using information hidden in pornographic content.
posted by Darin D on 10/9/2001 01:55:27 AM
Wednesday, October 03, 2001
Man arrested in burning of U.S. flag
NOBLESVILLE, Ind. (AP) -- An Indiana man accused of burning an American flag behind his home has been arrested, despite rulings from the U.S. Supreme Court that have said flag-burning is an exercise of free speech.
posted by Darin D on 10/3/2001 12:26:23 AM
Tuesday, October 02, 2001
Some questions answered by Chomsky
<..>
"...it is important not to be intimidated by hysterical ranting and lies and to keep as closely as one can to the course of truth and honesty and concern for the human consequences of what one does, or fails to do."
posted by Darin D on 10/2/2001 03:52:40 AM
Negotiators Back Scaled-Down Bill to Battle Terror
Democratic and Republican negotiators in the House reached agreement today on a bill that would give law enforcement officials expanded authority to wiretap suspected terrorists, share intelligence information about them and monitor their Internet communications.
<...>
In devising a compromise, Congressional officials said, the negotiators were also concerned that the definition of terrorism in the administration proposal was too broad and would allow the authorities to treat crimes more harshly by deeming them acts of terrorism. As a result, the bill lists many crimes like hijacking and destruction of government property as qualifying as terrorist actions only if they were committed with a motive to influence or change the government.
posted by Darin D on 10/2/2001 02:37:32 AM
Bones Offer Testimony of Killings in East Timor
DILI, East Timor — Sofia Egana placed her hand on the smooth brown skull as if to soothe it. The dismembered skeleton, boiled clean of its flesh, lay spread before her on a broad stainless-steel tray.
"Look at the ribs," she said. "These are perimortem fractures. This one must have been kicked many times in the chest."
The fractures were torn and ragged, like snapped twigs.
<..>
A forensic anthropologist working for the United Nations, she is part of a growing corps of anatomical sleuths who travel the world — from Rwanda to Bosnia to El Salvador — following in the footsteps of mass killers.
posted by Darin D on 10/2/2001 02:25:36 AM
Daily Yomiuri On-Line
Shinichi Fujimura, the disgraced archeologist who confessed in November to faking prehistoric stone artifacts discovered at two sites, has since admitted fabricating discoveries at more than 30 digs nationwide, sources at the Japanese Archeological Association said Saturday.
posted by Darin D on 10/2/2001 02:13:35 AM
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