Americans Selling ID Papers to Illegal Immigrants
Asked by a federal judge why she sold her birth certificate, Rosie Medellin said she needed a few bucks and did not really think it through. Bobby Joe Flores said he sold his ID documents to buy drugs. Margarita Moya and her son did it to raise money for medicine for a loved one. Their documents were destined for illegal immigrants. In all, seven defendants pleaded guilty in Corpus Christi this past week to charges of selling their birth certificates and Social Security cards for $100 each. Seven other defendants pleaded guilty to buying or reselling those documents as part of a ring that sold documents to illegal immigrants seeking jobs in Dodge City, Kan. The federal government's attention has been on stolen or fabricated identity documents, and officials say they know little about people who sell their own legitimate documents. Defense attorneys said prosecution for selling an ID may be something new. "I've been practicing criminal law for years and this is the first I've seen in our Southern District," said Grant Jones, who represents a roofer with sporadic employment. "If they've [the government] been aware in the past, they've now decided to enforce the law." However, Jones said his client told him that document selling was a well-known way to earn a quick buck. Prosecutors declined to talk about the case until a sentencing hearing in May before U.S. District Judge Hayden Head Jr. in Corpus Christi. The defendants face anywhere from probation to five years in prison. Jones considers it just a twist on the more familiar cases of identity theft.
| Digital Penetration
Hallowell runs the Transportation Security Administration's research lab. Four years ago, she volunteered to be scanned by a backscatter X-ray machine, which sees through clothing. She was wearing a skirt and blazer. But in the picture, she's as good as nude. Now it's your turn. Last week, TSA began using backscatters at airports to screen passengers for weapons. The first machine is up and running in Phoenix. The next ones will be in New York and Los Angeles. The machines have been modified with a "privacy algorithm" to clean up what they show. But even the tempered images tell you more than you need to know about the endowments of the people seated next to you. Are you up for this? Are you ready to get naked for your country? This is no joke. The government needs to look under your clothes. Ceramic knives, plastic guns, and liquid explosives have made metal detectors obsolete. Carry-on bags are X-rayed, so the safest place to hide a weapon is on your body. Puffer machines can detect explosives on you, but only if you're sloppy. Backscatters are different. They can scan your whole surface, locating and identifying anything of unusual density—not just metals, which have high atomic numbers, but drugs and explosives, which have low ones. Why isn't this technology in lots of airports already? One reason is fear of radiation. That's a needless worry. You get less radiation from a scan than from sitting on a plane for two minutes. If that's too much for you, don't fly. The main stumbling block has been privacy. The ACLU and the Electronic Privacy Information Center have fought backscatters at every turn, calling them a "virtual strip search." It's a curious phrase. The purpose of a strip-search is the search. Stripping is just a means. Virtual inspections achieve the same end by other means. They don't extend the practice of strip-searching. They abolish it.
| Pentagon report sees spy methods for small targets
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sensing devices smaller than a shirt button. Databases that could track car bombers to their sources. Constant surveillance of tens of thousands of kilometers to pick out moving targets as small as a man. Welcome to the U.S. military tool kit of the 21st century envisioned by the Pentagon's top outside science advisors. In the first volume of a sweeping look at futuristic technologies released on Wednesday, the Defense Science Board called for new investment priorities to meet post-September 11 security challenges. William Schneider, the board's chairman, said a key finding was a need to track individuals, objects and activities -- much smaller targets than the Cold War's regiments, battalions and naval battle groups. "It's really an appeal to capture and put into military systems the know-how that's already available in the market place," Schneider said in a telephone interview. The board's 126-page report said an "over-overarching strategic vision has not yet emerged and operational concepts are still relatively immature" for the new methods it envisions. But a task force put together by the board identified four "critical" capabilities for success in the U.S.-declared global war on terrorism.
| Lawmakers And Lawyers Challenge Bush Administration Military Commissions
In the face of multiple legal and legislative challenges, President George W. Bush this week issued an executive order to allow cases against prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, to move forward to trials by military tribunals. The challenges are to the constitutionality of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 (MCA), which Bush signed into law last October. The first three cases to be tried under the law involve an Australian, a Yemeni, and a Canadian, all held at Guantanamo. The Australian, David Hicks, is expected to be formally charged by the military by the end of next week, along with Omar Khadr, a Canadian accused of killing a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier during a firefight in Afghanistan, and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni accused of supporting al-Qaida operatives. Authorities drafted charges -- including murder, conspiracy and providing material support for terrorism -- against the three on Feb. 2. Once formal charges are filed, a timetable requires preliminary hearings within 30 days and the start of a jury trial within 120 days at Guantanamo, where nearly 400 men are still held on suspicion of links to al-Qaida or the Taliban.
| U.S. Court Allows CIA Kidnapping and Torture
Imagine the following. You are on vacation in a foreign country, walking along the street and admiring the sights, when a gang of unidentified men grab you, throw you in the back of a truck, blindfold you, cut your clothes away, put you in a jumpsuit, handcuff you, and finally administer a drug which causes you to lose consciousness. You wake up in a small prison cell, where you are denied access to your government, your lawyer, and your family. You wait for weeks without being charged. Eventually, you are blindfolded (again), taken to an airfield and flown to an unknown location in an undisclosed country. Here you are kept for months, still cut-off from all contact with the outside world, as you are systematically interrogated, beaten, and drugged. Finally, when your captors decide that they are finished with their games, you are flown to yet another country, and dumped at the side of the road. You are left with nothing more than your passport and a return airplane ticket to your home country. This tale of horrors is essentially what happened to Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen abducted by operatives of the United States Central Intelligence Agency in Macedonia in 2003. And according to a recent U.S. federal court decision, all of it -- the kidnapping, the beating, the forced administration of drugs -- is perfectly acceptable. On March 2, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals issued its ruling in the case of El-Masri v. United States of America. In his case, Mr. El-Masri argued that he had been the victim of a CIA program known as "extraordinary rendition," or, in less diplomatic terms, government-sponsored kidnapping.
| Children of 11 to be fingerprinted
CHILDREN aged 11 to 16 are to have their fingerprints taken and stored on a secret database, internal Whitehall documents reveal. The leaked Home Office plans show that the mass fingerprinting will start in 2010, with a batch of 295,000 youngsters who apply for passports. The Home Office expects 545,000 children aged 11 and over to have their prints taken in 2011, with the figure settling at an annual 495,000 from 2014. Their fingerprints will be held on a database also used by the Immigration and Nationality Directorate to store the fingerprints of hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers. The plans are outlined in a series of “restricted” documents circulating among officials in the Identity and Passport Service. They form part of the programme for the introduction of new biometric passports and ID cards. Opposition politicians and privacy campaigners warn that the plans show ministers are turning Britain into a “surveillance society”. David Davis, the shadow home secretary, said: “This borders on the sinister and it shows the government is trying to end the presumption of innocence. With the fingerprinting of all our children, this government is clearly determined to enforce major changes in the relationship between the citizen and the state in a way never seen before.”
| TAKING THE WARNING OF TOTALITARIAN GOVERNMENT TO LOCAL NEWSPAPERS
"In the United States there is no phenomenon more threatening to popular government than the unwillingness of newspapers to give the facts to their readers." Nelson Antrim Crawford (1888-1963), American writer, editor, author First the good news for those who haven't heard: On March 2, 2007, Comrade Chertoff, who heads up the Department of Fatherland Security (okay, it's "Homeland" Security) announced there will be a two year delay in implementing the "Real ID Act": "WASHINGTON — Under siege from states and angry lawmakers, the White House on Thursday moved back a deadline to implement national driver's license standards that critics say would seriously undermine personal privacy and burden states with a hefty bill. The announcement that states could have an extra 20 months, until the end of 2009, to meet the requirements of the Real ID Act did little to ease criticism of the law from conservative activists, privacy advocates, motor vehicle departments and lawmakers." This is a temporary victory for we the people who have made this happen. But, the Bush Administration will continue trying to strong arm and threaten states who refuse to give up their sovereignty. This delay gives citizens in states like Wyoming and others the time to contact their state reps and senators with the demand that they fix their legislation already passed because they don't address the real issue: states rights and sovereignty. The states don't need to ask Congress to repeal the Act or the state will go along with it, but not as an unfunded mandate. The bottom line is this: Congress has overstepped their legislative authority on this and they know it - which is why they made it "voluntary" with draconian consequences for those who refuse; see my column here. Tell your legislators to see these three court cases as a clear foundation (Tenth Amendment) for their outright refusal to "comply": Marbury v Madison, U.S. v Lopez and Printz/Mack v U.S. We cannot let up on this just because Chertoff, Bush and Gonzalez have suddenly found themselves looking at a massive wall of resistance out there. This wave of resistance and activism by millions of us is how we get the job done in stopping at least one of these critical stepping stones towards totalitarian government using "the war on terrorism" as their justification for nullifying the Bill of Rights and snuffing out states rights. In my last column, I echoed what millions feel: frustration over the continued bashing of Americans who have reasonable questions about 911. That frustration isn't just about 911, it's far more widespread than people realize and one should not make the mistake of underestimating those working to destroy this republic. The Bush Administration and the henchmen who serve him know full well there is massive unrest growing in this country. Back on March 8, 2005, Dr. Edwin Vieira wrote about the massive build up of a police state, not to protect we the people from terrorists, but to protect those who have sold this country to our enemies for piles of cash and to ensure their safety and longevity: "The Establishment is building a domestic police state today for the purpose of deterring, cowing, and if necessary smashing this opposition tomorrow." | 'Safest ever' passport is not fit for purpose
They are the "safest ever", according to the Government. But the Daily Mail has revealed how easily a person’s identity can be stolen from new biometric passports. In just four hours, the Mail hacked into a new biometric passport and stole the details a people trafficker or illegal migrant would need to set up a life in Britain. A shocking security gap allows the personal details and photograph in any electronic passport to be copied from the outside of the envelope in which it is delivered to homes. The passport holder is none the wiser when it arrives because the white envelope has not been tampered with or opened. Using a simple gadget built from parts bought on the Internet, it took the Mail less than four hours to copy the details from one passport. It had been delivered in the normal way by national courier company Secure Mail Services to a young woman in Islington, North London.
| I Am Not a State Secret
ON NEW YEAR'S EVE in 2003, I was seized at the border of Serbia and Macedonia by Macedonian police who mistakenly believed that I was traveling on a false German passport. I was detained incommunicado for more than three weeks. Then I was handed over to the American Central Intelligence Agency and was stripped, severely beaten, shackled, dressed in a diaper, injected with drugs, chained to the floor of a plane and flown to Afghanistan, where I was imprisoned in a foul dungeon for more than four months. Long after the American government realized that I was an entirely innocent man, I was blindfolded, put back on a plane, flown to Europe and left on a hilltop in Albania — without any explanation or apology for the nightmare that I had endured. My story is well known. It has been described in literally hundreds of newspaper articles and television news programs — many of them relying on sources within the U.S. government. It has been the subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies, including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in my own country of Germany are pursuing indictments against 13 CIA agents and contractors for their role in my kidnapping, abuse and detention. Although I never could have imagined it, and certainly never wished it, I have become the public face of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program. Why, then, does the American government insist that my ordeal is a state secret? This is something beyond my comprehension. In December 2005, with the help of the American Civil Liberties Union, I sued former CIA Director George Tenet along with other CIA agents and contractors for their roles in my kidnapping, mistreatment and arbitrary detention. Above all, what I want from the lawsuit is a public acknowledgment from the U.S. government that I was innocent, a mistaken victim of its rendition program, and an apology for what I was forced to endure. Without this vindication, it has been impossible for me to return to a normal life.
| State makes big fuss over local couple's vegetable oil car fuel
DECATUR - David and Eileen Wetzel don't get going in the morning quite as early as they used to. So David Wetzel, 79, was surprised to hear a knock on the door at their eastside home while he was still getting dressed. Two men in suits were standing on his porch. "They showed me their badges and said they were from the Illinois Department of Revenue," Wetzel said. "I said, 'Come in.' Maybe I shouldn't have." Gary May introduced himself as a special agent. The other man, John Egan, was introduced as his colleague. May gave the Wetzels his card, stating that he is the senior agent in the bureau of criminal investigations. "I was afraid," Eileen Wetzel said. "I came out of the bathroom. I thought: Good God, we paid our taxes. The check didn't bounce." The agents informed the Wetzels that they were interested in their car, a 1986 Volkswagen Golf, that David Wetzel converted to run primarily from vegetable oil but also partly on diesel.
| Canada will stay top U.S. oil supplier for 20 years
CALGARY -Canada - which in 2005 replaced Saudi Arabia as the single-largest supplier of energy to the U.S. - will continue that position over at least the next two decades, thanks to the multi-billion dollar oilsands developments in Alberta. "The projects in Fort McMurray and Athabasca will ensure that Canada remains in the top spot until 2030," Guy Caruso, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, said Monday on the sidelines of an industry conference in Calgary. According to EIA estimates, Canadian exports to the U.S. will reach 2.6 million barrels per day by 2030, compared with current levels of just over one million bpd. | Mossad kidnaps Iranian ex-official
A former Iranian Defense Ministry official, who was reported missing in Turkey last month, has reportedly been kidnapped by Israeli secret services. Alireza Askari, 63, was then taken to the United States by the Israeli spy agency Mossad, informed sources said. Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had earlier said that Iran will send a team of diplomats to Turkey to find out how the former deputy defense minister mysteriously disappeared while on a private trip to Istanbul. According to informed sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media, Turkey's secret services also helped the Israeli spy agency in kidnapping the former Iranian defense official. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini has said that Tehran hopes the sensitive issue would be resolved through diplomatic channels. The Riyadh-based Saudi newspaper Al-Watan first reported the disappearance of the former Iranian official last month.
| Pair involved in cow's death reject working on farm
BELLEFONTE -- Two young Bellefonte men entered Centre County court Thursday thinking they were going to be sentenced to two years' probation for taking part in the shooting of a $3,500 Scottish Highland steer. They walked out as recruits for the U.S. Navy. Chris Jabco and Eric Smith, both 19, previously pleaded guilty to criminal conspiracy to commit cruelty to animals and two summary violations. According to court records, they spent Sept. 17 drinking, then drove across the Spring Township countryside with another man in search of deer to poach. Instead, the records state, they shot and killed the steer -- whose owners considered it a family pet -- along Weaver Hill Road. They had entered their pleas and struck a deal that prosecutors would recommend a sentence of two years probation and at least five hours of community service. But Judge Bradley P. Lunsford had other ideas. Their actions, he said, were too serious an offense to warrant merely probation, saying they had "crossed that line of decency." He noted the pain they caused the cow's owner. They'd been drinking heavily, and driving around with a loaded rifle looking for something to kill. Their actions, he said, "were premeditated, senseless and your motivations were evil." "Probation does not adequately address the severity of what you've done," Lunsford told the defendants. Instead, the judge offered them three choices:
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