Musings, perspectives, rants

A friend sent me a link to this article:

Federal agents visit student

In the so-called land of the free, you're being monitored.  If you read something the government doesn't like then you're suspect.  The poor student was doing research about communism and that deserved investigation by federal agents?  Professors have now held off offering research papers about terrorism - you can see why.  It's ludicrous.  Pretty soon no-one will be able to study anything controversial for fear of being arrested for subversion or some ludicrous reason.

Postscript (3 Jan 06): - Apparently the student concerned was lying.  I just found another independent source which stated the following:

"There were too many  inconsistencies and he threw up roadblocks every time I tried to pin him down and have him give me an independent means to confirm something ... plus, he  embellished the story," making it more and more complicated and making it harder  and harder to confirm information.  Mr Nicodemus spoke with his  editors, and we suspected that the student was lying. We decided to hold the  story so we could do some more checking.  The next day, as the student's story  began to ravel, the student admitted to his professors that he had made the  whole thing up. He ducked our reporter's attempts to reach him. "

Still, it is a cautionary tale on both sides - not to believe everything you read, but also to be aware of what can happen.  It is enough that Bush authorised the monitoring of phone calls and emails of Americans contacting anyone overseas.  That, in itself, is an outrage, and one of my online contacts stopped contacting me a while ago, fearing this would happen.

Big Brother is in action in the UK too.  I read recently of cameras filming, monitoring and keeping a database of, every car on the road.  Let me see  if I can find the link...  Ah, here we go:

Britain first country to monitor every car journey

"Using a network of cameras that can automatically read every passing number plate, the plan is to build a huge database of vehicle movements so that the police and security services can analyse any journey a driver has made over several years."

Now tell me.  What is the justification of monitoring one car's journeys over several years???  Tracking criminals?  I ask you.  Bullshit.

Here's the rest of the article:

The network will incorporate thousands of existing CCTV cameras which 
are being converted to read number plates automatically night and day 
to provide 24/7 coverage of all motorways and main roads, as well as 
towns, cities, ports and petrol-station forecourts.

By next March a central database installed alongside the Police 
National Computer in Hendon, north London, will store the details of 
35 million number-plate "reads" per day. These will include time, 
date and precise location, with camera sites monitored by global 
positioning satellites.

Already there are plans to extend the database by increasing the 
storage period to five years and by linking thousands of additional 
cameras so that details of up to 100 million number plates can be fed 
each day into the central databank.

Senior police officers have described the surveillance network as 
possibly the biggest advance in the technology of crime detection and 
prevention since the introduction of DNA fingerprinting.

But others concerned about civil liberties will be worried that the 
movements of millions of law-abiding people will soon be routinely 
recorded and kept on a central computer database for years.

The new national data centre of vehicle movements will form the basis 
of a sophisticated surveillance tool that lies at the heart of an 
operation designed to drive criminals off the road.

In the process, the data centre will provide unrivalled opportunities 
to gather intelligence data on the movements and associations of 
organised gangs and terrorist suspects whenever they use cars, vans 
or motorcycles.

The scheme is being orchestrated by the Association of Chief Police 
Officers (Acpo) and has the full backing of ministers who have 
sanctioned the spending of £24m this year on equipment.

More than 50 local authorities have signed agreements to allow the 
police to convert thousands of existing traffic cameras so they can 
read number plates automatically. The data will then be transmitted 
to Hendon via a secure police communications network.

Chief constables are also on the verge of brokering agreements with 
the Highways Agency, supermarkets and petrol station owners to 
incorporate their own CCTV cameras into the network. In addition to 
cross-checking each number plate against stolen and suspect vehicles 
held on the Police National Computer, the national data centre will 
also check whether each vehicle is lawfully licensed, insured and has 
a valid MoT test certificate.

"Every time you make a car journey already, you'll be on CCTV 
somewhere. The difference is that, in future, the car's index plates 
will be read as well," said Frank Whiteley, Chief Constable of 
Hertfordshire and chairman of the Acpo steering committee on 
automatic number plate recognition (ANPR).

"What the data centre should be able to tell you is where a vehicle 
was in the past and where it is now, whether it was or wasn't at a 
particular location, and the routes taken to and from those crime 
scenes. Particularly important are associated vehicles," Mr Whiteley 
said.

The term "associated vehicles" means analysing convoys of cars, vans 
or trucks to see who is driving alongside a vehicle that is already 
known to be of interest to the police. Criminals, for instance, will 
drive somewhere in a lawful vehicle, steal a car and then drive back 
in convoy to commit further crimes "You're not necessarily interested 
in the stolen vehicle. You're interested in what's moving with the 
stolen vehicle," Mr Whiteley explained.

According to a strategy document drawn up by Acpo, the national data 
centre in Hendon will be at the heart of a surveillance operation 
that should deny criminals the use of the roads.

"The intention is to create a comprehensive ANPR camera and reader 
infrastructure across the country to stop displacement of crime from 
area to area and to allow a comprehensive picture of vehicle 
movements to be captured," the Acpo strategy says.

"This development forms the basis of a 24/7 vehicle movement database 
that will revolutionise arrest, intelligence and crime investigation 
opportunities on a national basis," it says.

Mr Whiteley said MI5 will also use the database. "Clearly there are 
values for this in counter-terrorism," he said.

"The security services will use it for purposes that I frankly don't 
have access to. It's part of public protection. If the security 
services did not have access to this, we'd be negligent." 

I will be away from a computer for a few days so will still be unable to update!

Wishing everyone a stress-free Xmas and an enlightened new year!

Mood: Pissed off

I am fed up with some Americans' erroneous belief that if you don't live in America you have no rights and no freedom of speech.  These brainwashed morons continue to belief the bullshit fed to them by 'authorities'.  How the fuck do they know anything if they've never set foot out of their state, let alone country?  These twats make sweeping generalisations on the rest of the world based on propaganda without any personal experience at all.  Fucking idiots.

Mood: tired

Why you should boycott the following:

Caterpillar, Chevron, Coca-cola, Dow Chemical, Dyncorp, Ford Motor company, KBR, Lockheed Martin, Monsanto, Nestle USA, Philip Morris, Pfizer, SLDE, Wal-mart....

It should be obvious with some of them but check out why here.  There are plenty more there's no doubt but I, for one, have no intention of supporting those companies that also operate here in NZ.  No problem, for example, with Coca-cola - I haven't bought that shit in months.

 The following are common aspects of fascism and yet which country do they appear to describe?

1.  Powerful and continuing expressions of nationalism.  From theprominent displays of flags and bunting to the ubiquitous lapel pins, the fervor to show patriotic nationalism, both on the part of the regimeitself and of citizens caught up in its frenzy, was always obvious. Catchy slogans, pride in the military, and demands for unity were common themes in expressing this nationalism.  It was usually coupled with asuspicion of things foreign that often bordered on xenophobia;2.  Disdain for the importance of human rights.  The regimes themselvesviewed human rights as of little value and a hindrance to realizing theobjectives of the ruling elite.  Through clever use of propaganda, thepopulation was brought to accept these human rights abuses bymarginalizing, even demonizing, those being targeted.  When abuse wasegregious, the tactic was to use secrecy, denial, and disinformation;3.  Identification of enemies/scapegoats as a unifying cause.  The mostsignificant common thread among these regimes was the use of scapegoating as a means to divert the people’s attention from other problems, to shift blame for failures, and to channel frustration in controlled directions. The methods of choice -- relentless propaganda and disinformation -- were usually effective.  Often the regimes would incite “spontaneous” actsagainst the target scapegoats, usually communists, socialists, liberals, Jews, ethnic and racial minorities, traditional national enemies, members of other religions, secularists, homosexuals, and “terrorists.”  Activeopponents of these regimes were inevitably labeled as terrorists anddealt with accordingly;4.  The supremacy of the military/avid militarism.  Ruling elites always identified closely with the military and the industrial infrastructurethat supported it.  A disproportionate share of national resources wasallocated to the military, even when domestic needs were acute.  Themilitary was seen as an expression of nationalism, and was used whenever possible to assert national goals, intimidate other nations, and increase the power and prestige of the ruling elite;5.  Rampant sexism.  Beyond the simple fact that the political elite and the national culture were male-dominated, these regimes inevitably viewed women as second-class citizens.  They were adamantly anti-abortion andalso homophobic.  These attitudes were usually codified in Draconian laws that enjoyed strong support by the orthodox religion of the country, thus lending the regime cover for its abuses;6.  A controlled mass media.  Under some of the regimes, the mass mediawere under strict direct control and could be relied upon never to stray from the party line.  Other regimes exercised more subtle power to ensure media orthodoxy.  Methods included the control of licensing and access to resources, economic pressure, appeals to patriotism, and implied threats. The leaders of the mass media were often politically compatible with the power elite.  The result was usually success in keeping the generalpublic unaware of the regimes’ excesses;7.  Obsession with national security.  Inevitably, a national securityapparatus was under direct control of the ruling elite.  It was usuallyan instrument of oppression, operating in secret and beyond anyconstraints.  Its actions were justified under the rubric of protecting“national security,” and questioning its activities was portrayed asunpatriotic or even treasonous;8.  Religion and ruling elite tied together.  Unlike communist regimes,the fascist and protofascist regimes were never proclaimed as godless by their opponents.  In fact, most of the regimes attached themselves to the predominant religion of the country and chose to portray themselves asmilitant defenders of that religion.  The fact that the ruling elite’sbehavior was incompatible with the precepts of the religion was generally swept under the rug.  Propaganda kept up the illusion that the rulingelites were defenders of the faith and opponents of the “godless.”  Aperception was manufactured that opposing the power elite was tantamount to an attack on religion;9.  Power of corporations protected.  Although the personal life ofordinary citizens was under strict control, the ability of largecorporations to operate in relative freedom was not compromised.  Theruling elite saw the corporate structure as a way to not only ensuremilitary production (in developed states), but also as an additionalmeans of social control.  Members of the economic elite were oftenpampered by the political elite to ensure a continued mutuality ofinterests, especially in the repression of “have-not” citizens;10.  Power of labor suppressed or eliminated.  Since organized labor was seen as the one power center that could challenge the political hegemony of the ruling elite and its corporate allies, it was inevitably crushedor made powerless.  The poor formed an underclass, viewed with suspicion or outright contempt. Under some regimes, being poor was considered akin to a vice;11.  Disdain and suppression of intellectuals and the arts. Intellectuals and the inherent freedom of ideas and expression associated with them were anathema to these regimes.  Intellectual and academicfreedom were considered subversive to national security and the patriotic ideal.  Universities were tightly controlled; politically unreliablefaculty harassed or eliminated.  Unorthodox ideas or expressions ofdissent were strongly attacked, silenced, or crushed.  To these regimes, art and literature should serve the national interest or they had noright to exist;12.  Obsession with crime and punishment.  Most of these regimesmaintained Draconian systems of criminal justice with huge prisonpopulations.  The police were often glorified and had almost uncheckedpower, leading to rampant abuse.  “Normal” and political crime were often merged into trumped-up criminal charges and sometimes used againstpolitical opponents of the regime.  Fear, and hatred, of criminals or“traitors” was often promoted among the population as an excuse for more police power;13.  Rampant cronyism and corruption.  Those in business circles andclose to the power elite often used their position to enrich themselves. This corruption worked both ways; the power elite would receive financial gifts and property from the economic elite, who in turn would gain thebenefit of government favoritism.  Members of the power elite were in aposition to obtain vast wealth from other sources as well: for example,by stealing national resources.  With the national security apparatusunder control and the media muzzled, this corruption was largelyunconstrained and not well understood by the general population;14.  Fraudulent elections.  Elections in the form of plebiscites orpublic opinion polls were usually bogus.  When actual elections withcandidates were held, they would usually be perverted by the power elite to get the desired result.  Common methods included maintaining controlof the election machinery, intimidating and disenfranchising oppositionvoters, destroying or disallowing legal votes, and, as a last resort,turning to a judiciary beholden to the power elite;..

From Fascism anyone?

American democracy?  Ha!          

And so, unable to update as I would like.

Due to time constraints, it's been slow-going reading 'The War on Truth', not because it's hard to read (far from it) but because I only have a short time to read it during my lunch hour at work and forget to bring the book home in the weekends.   It's an excellent book - very comprehensive with evidence from many many different sources which contradict the official story surrounding 9/11.

I just read about the time delays in getting fighters up in the air to intercept the planes headed for NYC, Washington, etc.  They were deliberately delayed and sent in the wrong direction.  It would have been easy for them to stop any of the attacks happening if they had been permitted to.  Just as the FBI could have prevented the attacks if they had been permitted to follow up on their investigations but were obstructed from doing so.

The more I read, the more I'm convinced that those at the top in the White House planned for it all to happen or, at the very least, knew it was going to happen and deliberately allowed it to.  They are murderers.