insanegoodreviews.com

Mid March 2010 Newsletter

“When are people gonna say enough is enough?”
- anonymous

In this issue:

* US government rescinds ‘leave internet alone’ policy
* Scary Stuff – US military spied on Planned Parenthood, civilian phone
calls
* Breaking News! ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan
* Good News – Whistleblower Site Back After Microsoft Withdraws
Complaint
* You Could Now Be Arrested, In America, Just For Mentioning Europe’s
Problems Over Dinner
* Bad News – Air travellers to pay for security equipment with fee hikes
* Spy chips hidden in 2.5 MILLION dustbins: 60pc rise in electronic bugs
as council snoopers plan pay-as-you-throw tax
* Food for thought – Don’t like giving out SSN’s? Fox Business News says
“make up an SSN”
* Police State – 11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners
* Horror Stories – ‘I’m an IT worker not an assassin’
* The District of Criminals – Ron Paul on the Totalitarian ID Card
* ID cards: the first year report
* Hot Tips – Is America Becoming A Police State?
* Advisory – Lawmakers Punt Patriot Act to Obama
* Brits, Who Already Pay 17.5 percent VAT, Face New Tax On Food
* The Love Police: How To Escape A Terror STOP!
* Dumbing Down – Internet access is ‘a fundamental right’
* Dumb signs – Dad Branded A Paedophile Over Pic Of Son
* Dumb facts – Flipping Off Cops Is Legal, Not Advised
* Dumb criminal acts – The DNA of a Police State
* Cannon Fodder – Hundreds more town hall staff to get police-style
powers
* Oz Corner: Ex-pats rate Oz the best place to raise kids, UK
scores ‘poorly’
* Bug Bites: Spy chips hidden in 2.5 million dustbins: 60pc
rise in electronic bugs as council snoopers plan pay-as-you-throw tax
* Red Hot Product
* Shamrock’s Missive
* Quotes
* Tid Bits – Pak lawmakers refuse body scan, cut short visit to US
* Bits n bobs – Paypal freezes Cryptome
* Disturbing facts – Two Dubai Suspects Traveled to U.S.
* Letters to the Editor
* Quote of the month!
* PT Shamrock’s Exclusive Member’s Site!

*** US government rescinds ‘leave internet alone’ policy
- Kieren McCarthy, The Register

The US government’s policy of leaving the Internet alone is over,
according to Obama’s top official at the Department of Commerce.

Instead, an “Internet Policy 3.0″ approach will see policy discussions
between government agencies, foreign governments, and key Internet
constituencies, according to Assistant Secretary Larry Strickling,
with those discussions covering issues such as privacy, child
protection, cybersecurity, copyright protection, and Internet
governance.

The outcomes of such discussions will be “flexible” but may result in
recommendations for legislation or regulation, Strickling said in a
speech at the Media Institute in Washington this week.

The new approach is a far cry from a US government that consciously
decided not to intrude into the internet’s functioning and growth and
in so doing allowed an academic network to turn into a global
communications phenomenon.

Strickling referred to these roots arguing that it was “the right
policy for the United States in the early stages of the Internet, and
the right message to send to the rest of the world.” But, he
continued, “that was then and this is now. As we at NTIA approach a
wide range of Internet policy issues, we take the view that we are now
in the third generation of Internet policy making.”

Outlining three decades of internet evolution – from transition to
commercialization, from the garage to Main Street, and now, starting
in 2010, the “Policy 3.0″ approach – Strickling argued that with the
internet is now a social network as well a business network. “We must
take rules more seriously.”

He cited a number of examples where this new approach was needed: end
users worried about credit card transactions, content providers who
want to prevent their copyright, companies concerned about hacking,
network neutrality, and foreign governments worried about Internet
governance systems.

The decision to effectively end the policy that made the internet what
it is today is part of a wider global trend of governments looking to
impose rules on use of the network by its citizens.

In the UK, the Digital Economy Bill currently making its way through
Parliament has been the subject of significant controversy for
advocating strict rules on copyright infringement and threatening to
ban people from the internet if they are found to do so. The bill
includes a wide variety of other measures, including giving regulator
Ofcom a wider remit, forcing ISPs to monitor their customers’
behavior, and allowing the government to take over the dot-uk
registry.

In New Zealand, a similar measure to the UK’s cut-off provision has
been proposed by revising the Copyright Act to allow a tribunal to
fine those found guilty of infringing copyright online as well as
suspend their Internet accounts for up to six months. And in Italy
this week, three Google executives were sentenced to jail for allowing
a video that was subsequently pulled down to be posted onto its
YouTube video site.

Internationally, the Internet Governance Forum, set up by under a
United Nations banner to deal with global governance issues, is due
to end its experimental run this year and become an acknowledged
institution. However, there are signs that governments are
increasingly dominating the IGF, with civil society and the Internet
community sidelined in the decision-making process.

In this broader context, the US government’s newly stated policy is
more in line with the traditional laissez-faire internet approach.
Internet Policy 3.0 also offers a more global perspective than the
isolationist approach taken by the previous Bush administration.

In explicitly stating that foreign governments will be a part of the
upcoming discussions, Strickling recognizes the United States’ unique
position as the country that gives final approval for changes made to
the internet’s “root zone.” Currently the global Internet is
dependent on an address book whose contents are changed through a
contract that the US government has granted to the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Number (ICANN), based in Los
Angeles.

ICANN recently adjusted its own agreement with the US government to
give it more autonomy and now reports to the global Internet community
through a series of reviews. Strickling sits on the panel of one of
those reviews.

Overall, this new approach could enable the US government to regain
the loss of some of its direct influence through recommendations made
in policy reports. But internet old hands will still decry the loss
of a policy that made the network what it is today.
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Scary Stuff

US military spied on Planned Parenthood, civilian phone calls
- John Byrne, Raw Story

United States military intelligence spied on Planned Parenthood and
other domestic groups as part of US security preparations for the 2002
winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, according to a recently
declassified military document obtained by a civil liberties group
Thursday.

The document, drafted by a Pentagon Deputy Inspector General whose
name is redacted, was included in more than 800 pages released to the
Electronic Frontier Foundation as part of a Freedom of Information Act
Request. They include reports from the Pentagon’s Intelligence
Oversight Board that were submitted to the Defense Secretary from 2001
to 2007.

Referring to an incident where military intelligence personnel
distributed information about FBI spying on the 2002 Olympics, the
inspector general’s office tersely remarked that an “intelligence
oversight violation occurred.”

“The document…  contained US Persons data in referring to an
reporting on organizations (Planned Parenthood, the white supremacist
group National Alliance) and their involvement in protests and
literature distribution,” the inspector’s office wrote. “Also noted
was the report contained a large section labeled “GENERAL CRIMINAL
ACTIVITY.” Collection and dissemination of US Persons information by
military intelligence assets is not allowed unless this information
constitutes “Foreign Intelligence.”

“The inclusion of these two sections in this intelligence product is
clearly outside the purview of military intelligence assets and should
be handled through law enforcement or Anti-Terrorism/Force Protection
channels,” the inspector’s office added. “An inquiry into the
circumstances of this violation was conducted and the result will be
forwarded via separate correspondence.”

Electronic Frontier Foundation also notes that military intelligence
spied on the anti-war group Alaskans for Peace and Justice in 2005
(pages 122-137), and that NORAD had “procedural problems” relating to
spying on “US Persons” (pp. 257-258).

Despite a clear violation of military protocol and probable violation
of US law, such reports are rarely made public. These documents were
only made public under the Freedom of Information Act and were not
scheduled for release.

“Intelligence oversight reporting is rarely disclosed to the public,”
EFF’s Nate Cardozo noted in a posting about the documents on Thursday.

“Much of the reported improper activity consisted of intelligence
gathering on so-called “U.S. Persons,” including citizens, permanent
residents and U.S.-based organizations,” Cardozo added. “Although
Defense agencies are generally prohibited from collecting such
information (except as part of foreign intelligence or
counter-intelligence activity), it is apparent from the unredacted
reports released to EFF that some DoD components have had chronic
difficulty complying with that prohibition.”

Wired’s Kim Zetter notes that the documents provide no context or
background about how or why the Pentagon spied on Planned Parenthood
and other groups.

“The reports provide little context for the information that’s
disclosed, leaving the public to wonder about the nature and extent of
the information and surveillance revealed in them,” Zetter wrote.
“Pertaining to the Planned Parenthood members, for example, the
oversight report provides no explanation about how the information was
collected. Nor does it indicate why the information was collected.”

In another possible legal violation, military officers listened into
civilian cellphone calls in 2007. Zetter explains:

Another oversight document discusses an incident involving the
interception of civilian cellphone conversations of U.S. persons in
April 2007. During a field exercise at Fort Polk, Louisiana, a
Signals Intelligence noncommissioned officer operating a SIGINT
collection system intercepted the cell phone calls, though the
document doesn’t indicate if they were intercepted on U.S. soil or
outside U.S. borders.

Initial reports indicated that the officer listened to the
conversations for entertainment purposes, and the incident was
reported to the National Security Agency. But the inspector-general
document indicates that the officer never admitted to this and
indicates only that he may have listened to some conversations
“longer than necessary to do his job.”
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*** Breaking News!

ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan
- Wall Street Journal

Lawmakers working to craft a new comprehensive immigration bill have
settled on a way to prevent employers from hiring illegal immigrants:
a national biometric identification card all American workers would
eventually be required to obtain.

.Under the potentially controversial plan still taking shape in the
Senate, all legal U.S. workers, including citizens and immigrants,
would be issued an ID card with embedded information, such as
fingerprints, to tie the card to the worker.

The ID card plan is one of several steps advocates of an immigration
overhaul are taking to address concerns that have defeated similar
bills in the past.

The uphill effort to pass a bill is being led by Sens. Chuck Schumer
(D., N.Y.) and Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), who plan to meet with
President Barack Obama as soon as this week to update him on their
work. An administration official said the White House had no position
on the biometric card.

“It’s the nub of solving the immigration dilemma politically
speaking,” Mr. Schumer said in an interview. The card, he said, would
directly answer concerns that after legislation is signed, another
wave of illegal immigrants would arrive. “If you say they can’t get a
job when they come here, you’ll stop it.”

The biggest objections to the biometric cards may come from privacy
advocates, who fear they would become de facto national ID cards that
enable the government to track citizens.

“It is fundamentally a massive invasion of people’s privacy,” said
Chris Calabrese, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties
Union. “We’re not only talking about fingerprinting every American,
treating ordinary Americans like criminals in order to work. We’re
also talking about a card that would quickly spread from work to
voting to travel to pretty much every aspect of American life that
requires identification.”

Mr. Graham says he respects those concerns but disagrees. “We’ve all
got Social Security cards,” he said. “They’re just easily tampered
with. Make them tamper-proof. That’s all I’m saying.”

U.S. employers now have the option of using an online system called
E-Verify to check whether potential employees are in the U.S.
legally. Many Republicans have pressed to make the system mandatory.
But others, including Mr. Schumer, complain that the existing system
is ineffective.

Last year, White House aides said they expected to push immigration
legislation in 2010. But with health care and unemployment dominating
his attention, the president has given little indication the issue is
a priority.

Rather, Mr. Obama has said he wanted to see bipartisan support in
Congress first. So far, Mr. Graham is the only Republican to voice
interest publicly, and he wants at least one other GOP co-sponsor to
launch the effort.

An immigration overhaul has long proven a complicated political task.
The Latino community is pressing for action and will be angry if it is
put off again. But many Americans oppose any measure that resembles
amnesty for people who came here illegally.

Under the legislation envisioned by Messrs. Graham and Schumer, the
estimated 10.8 million people living illegally in the U.S. would be
offered a path to citizenship, though they would have to register, pay
taxes, pay a fine and wait in line. A guest-worker program would let
a set number of new foreigners come to the U.S. legally to work.

Most European countries require citizens and foreigners to carry ID
cards. The U.K. had been a holdout, but in the early 2000’s it
considered national cards as a way to stop identify fraud, protect
against terrorism and help stop illegal foreign workers. Amid worries
about the cost and complaints that the cards infringe on personal
privacy, the government said it would make them voluntary for British
citizens. They are required for foreign workers and students, and so
far about 130,000 cards have been issued.

Mr. Schumer first suggested a biometric-based employer-verification
system last summer. Since then, the idea has gained currency and is
now a centerpiece of the legislation being developed, aides said.

A person familiar with the legislative planning said the biometric
data would likely be either fingerprints or a scan of the veins in the
top of the hand. It would be required of all workers, including
teenagers, but would be phased in, with current workers needing to
obtain the card only when they next changed jobs, the person said.

The card requirement also would be phased in among employers,
beginning with industries that typically rely on illegal-immigrant
labor.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce doesn’t have a position on the proposal,
but it is concerned that employers would find it expensive and
complicated to properly check the biometrics.

Mr. Schumer said employers would be able to buy a scanner to check the
IDs for as much as $800. Small employers, he said, could take their
applicants to a government office to like the Department of Motor
Vehicles and have their hands scanned there.
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Good News

Whistleblower Site Back After Microsoft Withdraws Complaint
- Ryan Singel

Cryptome, the secret-document-spilling site, is back online Thursday,
after Microsoft withdrew a copyright complaint that shuttered the site
the day before. Microsoft’s efforts to suppress a document about how
to subpoena online user data backfired, leading instead to widespread
attention to (and republication of) the document it tried to suppress.

Microsoft did not apologize in its Thursday statement, and defended
its use of copyright law to keep its law enforcement manual private.

Like all service providers, Microsoft must respond to lawful requests
from law enforcement agencies to provide information related to
criminal investigations. We take our responsibility to protect our
customers privacy very seriously, so have specific guidelines that we
use when responding to law enforcement requests. In this case, we did
not ask that this site be taken down, only that Microsoft copyrighted
content be removed.  We are requesting to have the site restored and
are no longer seeking the document’s removal.

Cryptome’s proprietor John Young published the 22-page document
earlier this week. leading Microsoft to take legal action Tuesday.
The document, which contains no trade secrets, advises law enforcement
how to file subpoenas outlines what data Microsoft keeps on
users of its online services such as Xbox Live and Hotmail, and
explains how to parse the resulting user data.

Cryptome’s hosting provider, Network Solutions, chose to shutter the
entire site and lock down the domain name, even before the Thursday
deadline for Young to remove the document. Under the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, a U.S.-based host is immune to liability if
it makes sure the allegedly offending content is taken down during the
time that a counter-claim is being considered in court.

Similar manuals from other large service providers such as Yahoo and
Facebook have also been leaked and published online recently. Yahoo
also tried unsuccessfully to use the DMCA to suppress its document.
However, there is a clear news value to publishing such documents,
even if they’re copyrighted.

Microsoft took nearly 24 hours to respond to an inquiry for comment,
losing the opportunity to quickly leapfrog to the forefront of
transparency by understanding that such documents need not, and
should not, be hidden from users (with the possible exception of the
law enforcement hotline number).

Cox Communications, which runs the nation’s third largest ISP, has
long made its law enforcement subpoena page, including prices
public.

But Microsoft, Google, Facebook and Yahoo do not follow that example,
even though all of them want their users to trust them with their most
sensitive data and communications. Nor do any of them publish the
most basic statistics on how often law enforcement comes knocking with
subpoenas and warrants.

In fact, the simplest lesson here is that none of the pixels published
over this incident would have been necessary if Microsoft had just
published this document in the first place, which few people would
have ever bothered to go read. Instead, these companies prefer to
worry about the sensitivities of corporate-ass-covering lawyers and
law enforcement agencies instead of putting their users and
transparency first.
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*** You Could Now Be Arrested, In America, Just For Mentioning
Europe’s Problems Over Dinner
- Vincent Fernando, Business Insider

You know a company/country/continent is in trouble when authorities
start cracking down on short bets against it.

That’s why it’s so disturbing how much heat European currency and
sovereign debt speculators are getting these days.

Even the U.S. has climbed aboard the bandwagon now.

Reports of a U.S. Justice Department investigation into Soros Fund
Management, SAC, and Greenlight Capital short positions against the
euro broke last week.

Yet now the speculator clamp down is evolving into something
completely terrifying. Apparently, it could now be considered
collusion if you simply share economic opinions over dinner:

WSJ:

The Journal article disclosed that the big euro bets were emerging
amid gatherings including an “idea dinner” involving a number of hedge
funds including SAC, Greenlight and Soros, where a trader argued that
the euro is likely to fall to “parity,” or equal to, against the
dollar on an exchange basis. The euro currently trades at $1.3609.
One of the questions investigators are likely to examine is whether
such information-sharing constitutes collusion, the people say.

At one such gathering, a dinner on Feb. 8 at a Manhattan restaurant,
an SAC portfolio manager said he believed the euro could fall to a
level equal to that of the dollar and urged other traders to “short,”
or bet against, the euro as his firm had, according to people at the
dinner. The size of the bets against the euro is unclear.

In a research note issued to hundreds of hedge-fund clients shortly
after the dinner, the research boutique that hosted the event summed
up the SAC manager’s argument without mentioning his name. [But
attributing it to an unnamed third party source, 'a presenter', which
is standard practice]

One of the most dangerous misconceptions used to restrict economic
freedoms is that opinions have more weight than fundamentals.  Should
we arrest people for threatening ‘economic stability’ if they argue
against a particular stimulus bill or government and then collectively
vote against it?

Because that’s all euro-shorts are doing. Whoever thinks that euro
speculators are pushing the euro to unfairly low levels has an
opportunity to vote against them any day of the week in the currency
markets.  So let’s not forget that a truly viable currency can carry
the weight of open criticism, just like a strong nation or
value-system can. Else traders better brush up on their Orwellian
double speak.
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Bad News

Air travellers to pay for security equipment with fee hikes
- Toronto Star

Ottawa –  Airline passengers are getting hit with fee hikes to pay for
tens of millions in new security equipment at Canadian airports.

Transport Minister John Baird announced Thursday that the security fee
was going up to cover the cost of extra security screeners and
scanners.

Fees now range from $5 to $16, depending on the length of a flight and
its destination.

The cost of the fee on a one-way domestic ticket will rise by $2.58;
for a trans-border ticket it rises $4.37 and $8.91 on an international
ticket.
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*** Spy chips hidden in 2.5 MILLION dustbins: 60pc rise in electronic
bugs as council snoopers plan pay-as-you-throw tax
- UK Daily Mail

The growing threat of a stealth tax on the rubbish we throw away was
exposed by startling figures yesterday.

More than 2.5 million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with
microchips to weigh their contents.

This is an increase of nearly two-thirds in just a year. The bins,
which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for
‘pay-as-you-throw’ rubbish tax schemes.

Stealth tax: 2,629,052 homes have now been given bins with chips Under
such schemes – which are likely to be hugely unpopular – families who
put out more waste will pay higher taxes to their local council.

Disclosure of the rapid spread of chipped bins followed the
announcement this week of the first council to bring in a bin tax.
Bristol City is presenting its scheme as a reward for recyclers, with
cash payments to homes that leave out less rubbish.

The spread of chipped bins marks the revival of a tax idea that the
Government appeared to have abandoned last year.

Gordon Brown promised to ditch bin taxes in the spring of 2008, at a
point when the unpopularity among voters of fortnightly collections,
strict bin rules, and the threat of pay-as-you-throw was at its
height.

In January last year, ministers acknowledged that not one council had
applied to test pay-as-you-throw schemes.

But yesterday, research by the Big Brother Watch campaign group showed
that the use of chipped bins has quietly spread over the past year.

In March 2009, a survey based on Freedom of Information inquiries
showed there were 42 councils which used bins with microchips.  But
the latest check, also based on FOI requests, put the number of
authorities with electronic bins at 68 – one in five of all those that
collect household rubbish.

According to the responses from town halls, 2,629,052 homes have now
been given bins with chips.

Alex Deane of Big Brother Watch, said: ‘The number of local councils
placing microchips in bins is increasing, despite the fact that only
one of them has volunteered to trial the Government’s pay-as-you-throw
scheme.

‘Councils are waiting until the public aren’t watching to begin
surveillance on our waste habits, intruding into people’s private
lives and introducing punitive taxes on what we throw away. The
British public doesn’t want this technology, these fines, or this
intrusion.

‘If local authorities have no intention to monitor our waste then they
should end the surreptitious installation of these bin microchips.’

The campaign group complained that the bins allow councils to examine
household rubbish and sell the information to commercial concerns as
well as to impose taxes.

It also warned that collection of data from chipped bins could show
when households were on holiday, opening the way to abuse by
criminals.

The Local Government Association said that microchips were only put in
bins to improve services to the public, for example by helping the
elderly.

A spokesman said: ‘Microchips simply identify the house to which a bin
belongs, they do not mean councils can analyse what people are
throwing away or issue fines. ‘Putting microchips in people’s bins
can allow councils to provide people with a better service that costs
less.

‘If an elderly resident needs help getting their bin collected and
returned, a microchip quickly flags it up to the refuse collector,
saving time and money.’

However, using a microchip to identify a bin means that technology on
a dustcart can then weigh it and the information can be used to
prepare a tax bill.

Tories said they believed there were even more than 2.6million homes
equipped with microchipped bins, numbers of which have been
notoriously hard to track in recent years.

Tory local government spokesman Caroline Spelman said: ‘Labour
Ministers are secretly planning to roll out bin taxes across the
country after the election if Gordon Brown can cling to power.

‘The Government have already forced through bin tax laws and have been
funding the bin technology to collect the taxes.’

A spokesman for the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
said: ‘There are no Government plans to introduce microchips in bins.

‘Any use of microchips is a local authority decision – some councils
use them to monitor levels of waste. This is not about spying on
people or fining them.’

However, in 2008 nearly 100 councils ran investigations into the
contents of their residents’ bins, in some cases to check on what
rubbish they dump and in others to try to obtain information on their
incomes and lifestyles.
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Food for thought

Don’t like giving out SSN’s? Fox Business News says “make up an
SSN”
- tips_and_tricks@yahoogroups.com

In my opinion 9 digits are 9 digits. Assigning them the LABEL “Social
security Number” converts them from 9 digits to a number owned by and
assigned by government. On most forms the words “Social Security
Number” are NOT spelled-out but rather abbreviated. In such cases
“SSN” could mean literally ANYTHING you desire. For example:
safe-secure number, sam sovereign number, sucker stop number, etc.

When you should, shouldn’t give out your Social Security number

CreditCards.com

Your Social Security number is one of the keys to your financial
health. It’s a unique indentifier lenders use to assess your
creditworthiness. It’s also exactly what a would-be thief needs to
apply for a credit card, mortgage, car loan or job in your name.

If you’re like most Americans, it’s also something you give out all
too frequently

“As with so many procedures in the business world, your Social
Security number is something that many companies ask for, so no one
really questions it,” says James Van Dyke, president of Javelin
Strategy & Research, a research firm that tracks financial services
topics. “But giving out your Social Security number is definitely a
practice consumers should think twice about.”

Case in point: A recent Javelin Strategy & Research report — the 2009
ID Fraud Survey — found that, among
<http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/help/10-things-you-should-know-about-identity-theft-6000.php?aid=52aae854> identity theft victims, 38
percent said the perpetrator had obtained their Social Security number
and used it in the crime. “It’s certainly logical to say that you
could eliminate 38 percent of your risk of identity theft by limiting
access to your Social Security number,” says Van Dyke.

‘Your Social Security number, please’ Still, saying it and doing it
are two different things. Many of the forms you encounter during the
day — at doctor’s offices, at the dentist, at your child’s school –
ask for Social Security numbers. Retailers may ask for it, too, when
accepting a check for payment or before issuing check cashing
privileges. Potential employers also need it, and they may even want
a copy of the actual card, says Linda Foley, founder of the San
Diego-based Identity Theft Resource Center

You’ll also be asked for it at your local Department of Motor Vehicles,
car dealerships, pawnshops, drugstores — even at the airport, should
you lose your luggage, she says. In fact, you may be surprised at how
far-reaching this practice is, says Foley.

“A few years ago, we were putting some of my mother’s things into
storage, and they wanted her Social Security number to use as a
passcode,” she says. “It’s that prevalent.”

Just because someone asks for it doesn’t mean you have to comply, says
Michael J. Arata, the author of “Identity Theft For Dummies,”
especially since there are only a handful of organizations that
actually have a valid need for it. For instance, anytime you’re
applying for credit — for a new
<http://www.creditcards.com/balance-transfer.php?aid=52aae854> credit
card, a loan, new telephone or cellular service — the creditor will
need your Social Security number to run a credit check. You’ll also
need to provide it if you are applying for federal or local government
benefits such as Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid, unemployment
insurance or disability. Another example: If you or your children
receive services or aid at the state or local level, such as free or
reduced fee lunch or financial aid. The local motor vehicle
department, thanks to the USA PATRIOT Act, has the legal right to ask
for Social Security numbers, too. In addition, when you complete a
cash transaction totaling more than $10,000 you’ll be required to
provide your number so that transaction can be reported to the
Internal Revenue Service, says ITRC’s Foley.

Medical professionals have their own impetus, says the ITRC’s Foley.
“The reason a doctor or a dentist asks for your Social Security number
is that, should you die while under his or her care, they are required
to put your Social Security number on the death certificate,” says
Foley.

Even so, fulfilling non-credit-related requests — even medical-related
requests — is purely optional, says L. Jean Camp, an associate professor
at Indiana University and the author of “Economics of Identity Theft.”

“The problem is that you have the right to say that you’re not going to
give out your Social Security number, but a business owner has the right
to say he’s not going to do business with you,” says Camp.

“Most companies aren’t being malicious. They’re just being cautious by
giving themselves a way to track you down if you don’t pay a bill.”

Gracefully saying ‘No’ One of the best ways to get out of giving your
Social Security number to someone is to simply overlook it on your
paperwork, says Arata. You may get by without a confrontation. If
you’re questioned, however, ITRC’s Foley suggests being proactive.
“The most basic thing you can do is ask the person or organization why
they need it. One of the most powerful things you can say is, ‘Is
there a law or requirement that I must provide it to you, and can you
tell me what it is?’ You can also ask the person requesting your
Social what will happen if you don’t disclose it,” she says.

Often, as in the case of a school or a charitable organization, they
simply want it to use your number as a unique identifier. In that
case, says Javelin Strategy & Research’s Van Dyke, you’ll need to
start negotiating again. “Say, ‘In order for me to become your
customer, I really need you to find an alternative recordkeeping
method because I know giving out my Social Security number places me
at great risk.’ When you say it like that you may get better
results,” he says.

Even doctor or dentist offices should be willing to forgo your Social
Security number — especially if you have health insurance. And if
they won’t? Ask to give your information directly to the doctor and
have him or her input it into the system for you, says Van Dyke.
ITRC’s Foley says most medical offices may also feel comfortable
without it as long as they have an emergency contact on file –
someone who knows your Social Security number and could provide it in
the event of death.

And what of the worst case scenario — when you absolutely can’t get
out of it, but you still don’t feel comfortable? You can always make
up a number, says Camp, but if you do, make sure you write it down and
don’t inadvertently steal someone else’s identity. “If you go this
route as a last resort, make sure you put zeros in for the two middle
numbers,” she says. “There are no Social Security numbers that have
double zeros in that section.”

<http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/personal-finance/shouldnt-social-security-number/?utm_source=feedburner>
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*** Police State

11 More U.S. Airports Get Body Scanners
- David Kravets

Transportation officials announced Friday 11 more United States
airports will begin receiving full-body imaging machines

“By accelerating the deployment of this technology, we are enhancing
our capability to detect and disrupt threats of terrorism across the
nation,” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a
statement.

Despite concerns of privacy and their effectiveness, the 11 airports
are to get the 150 machines beginning Monday at Boston’s Logan
International Airport, and one at the O’Hare International Airport in
Chicago. In all, 30 U.S. airports will employ the scanning devices.

Fliers declining to submit to the machines that create X-ray-like
virtual images of the body may get intense pat-downs from
Transportation Security Administration authorities. The combined 150
imaging machines are being bought, in part, by $1 billion the
government set aside from its $787 billion federal bailout bill.

The American Civil Liberties Union has decried the scanners as
“virtual strip searchs.” The Electronic Privacy Information Center,
in a Freedom of Information Act request, said the machines are capable
of storing and transmitting images of passengers despite the
government’s claim to the contrary.

A test-image shown to reporters Friday at Logan International “showed
the blurry outline of a female volunteer. None of her clothing was
visible, nor were her genitals, but the broad contours of her chest
and buttocks were. Her face also was blurred,” The Associated Press
said. “The image included the shadow of a cellphone purposely left on
her belt, as well as the metal buttons on her pants. But overall, it
looked like the outline of a ghost.”

The Amsterdam airport where suspected underwear bomber Umar Farouk
Abdulmutallab boarded a Detroit-bound Christmas flight had the
scanning machines. But they were not used to check the Nigerian.

The machines also cannot detect so-called “booty bombs” in which an
explosive is inserted into the body.

By summer, TSA expects the units, made by California-based Rapiscan,
to be deployed at airports in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; San Jose, San
Diego, Los Angeles and Oakland, California; Columbus, Ohio; Charlotte,
North Carolina; Cincinnati; and Kansas City.
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Horror Stories

‘I’m an IT worker not an assassin’
- John Leyden

An Israel-resident British IT worker has reacted with horror to news
that a suspected member of an alleged hit squad used a passport with
his details to enter Dubai, before allegedly participating in the
assassination of a prominent Hamas official.

UAE authorities reckon 11 “agents with European passports”
participated in the murder of Mahmoud Al-Mabhouh in his hotel room on
19 January. The suspects used six British and three Irish passports
while two others used French and German travel documents, all of which
are thought to be counterfeit.

Melvyn Mildiner – a British national and IT worker who emigrated to
Israel nine years ago – was among the individuals whose identity was
snatched. Midiner told the Jerusalem Post that he was in bed with
pneumonia at the time of the alleged hit.

Mildiner, 31, said the photo of a suspect issued by Dubai authorities
looks nothing like him.

“First, clearly it isn’t me. It doesn’t look like me,” he said. “The
details are not correct. The date of birth is wrong. I’ve never been
to Dubai. Someone, somewhere decided to use my identity.”

The Daily Mail reports Mildiner was left “angry, upset and scared”
over his “misidentification” as a possible suspect. “I have my
passport. It is in my house, along with the passports of everybody
else in my family, and there’s no Dubai stamps in it because I’ve
never been to Dubai,” he said.

The Mail adds that Mildiner used Twitter to pose queries about iPhone
application related queries on the day of Al-Mabhouh’s murder. This
unnamed Twitter account has since been protected.

Another Brit, Paul Keeley, 42, who has lived in a kibbutz for the last
15 years, said he had not left Israel for the last two years. “When I
first heard about this, I immediately looked to make sure my passport
was still there and it was,” he said.

Michael Barney, 54, a third impersonated Brit, told the Daily Mail
that he’d had a quadruple heart bypass and was therefore hardly spy
material.

The UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office has launched an
investigation, adding “we believe the passports used were fraudulent.”
A spokesman for Ireland’s Department of Foreign Affairs told the BBC
that it was unable to identify any of the three named Irish-passport
holding suspects named by Dubai authorities as “being genuine Irish
citizens”. French authorities say the same thing about the suspect
travelling on French papers while German authorities said the passport
number supplied to them was either incomplete or wrong.

Al-Mabhouh, 49, who flew in from Syria to Dubai to allegedly buy
weapons, was killed by suffocation in a professional hit blamed by
Hamas on Israeli agents. The veteran militant was a founding member
of Hamas’ military wing, and suspected as acting as a conduit for arms
shipments between Iran and Arab militants in Gaza. He had reportedly
survived three previous assassination attempts.

Police in Dubai have released CCTV footage of suspected members of the
hit squad (10 men and one woman), some of who were allegedly wearing
disguises, and all of who stayed in the Gulf only one day before
flying out to destinations in Europe and Asia. CNN has a detailed
description of how Mabhouh’s assassination is reckoned to have taken
place here.

Israeli authorities have not responded to reports pointing the finger
of blame towards Mossad, its feared and highly capable intelligence
agency.

If Israeli agents were indeed responsible for the hit then this would
be far from the first time Mossad agents have used Western passports
on murderous missions, Reuters reports. Israeli agents used forged
Canadian passports to enter Jordan in 1997 in a failed attempt to
poison Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, for example.

British authorities received an assurance from Israel it would not use
forged British travel documents following a diplomatic protest in
1987, the news agency adds.
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*** The District of Criminals

Ron Paul on the Totalitarian ID Card

The US House of Representatives passed a spending bill last week that
contains provisions establishing a national ID card, and the Senate is
poised to approve the measure in the next few days. This week marks
the American public’s last chance to convince their Senators they
don’t want to live in a nation that demands papers from its citizens
as they go about their lives.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UjjTenSDTGM&feature=player_embedded>
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*** ID cards: the first year report
- The Register

Sir Joseph Pilling, the ID commissioner who oversees the ID card
scheme, said he is generally satisfied with progress after the first
year but it was too soon to give it a clean bill of health.

In a 28-page report presented to Parliament yesterday by Home
Secretary Alan Johnson Pilling said: “my initial reaction is to be
reassured rather than alarmed. A lot of work remains to be done and
some tricky issues are not yet resolved.” He said his early
impression was that the Identity and Passport Service was doing “a
pretty good job”.

He said: “More than in most places in Government staff understand why
security needs to be taken seriously.” Pilling has worked for the
Home Office since 1966.

Pilling has previously expressed concerns about the decision to move
from a temporary system to a longer-term one in 2012, assuming the
project survives the election.

Pilling said: “If I become concerned about any aspect of the NIS I
will not hesitate to write to the Home Secretary immediately. He, of
course, would then have to pass the report on to Parliament.”

He also said he had written twice to NO2ID and would have welcomed a
chance to meet them, he has also discussed his work with shadow Home
Secretary Damian Green.

He also noted that Manchester and London City airports had still to
sign formal agreements on data sharing.

Pilling has also met Sir Peter Gibson, Intelligence Services
Commissioner, who oversees use of the National Identity Register by
spooks.

He has a budget of GBP565,000 for setting up his office and running it
until March 2010.
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Hot Tips

Is America Becoming A Police State?
- Chuck Baldwin

There is a classic story about how no one had been able to capture a
herd of wild hogs that was rooting up crops from numerous farms.  It
got so bad that rewards had been posted for anyone clever enough to
corral the critters. But even this resulted in only limited success.

One day a stranger (who was a wily old trapper) came into town
and entering the general store ordered a truckload of fence posts and
fencing, along with some feed. When asked what he was going to use it
for, he said, “I’m going to get those wild hogs y’all are having
trouble with.” Of course, everyone in the store laughed at the
overconfident stranger. A few weeks later, however, the stranger rode
into town with the back of his truck tightly packed with the smelly
swine.

When asked how he was able to accomplish what no one else had been
able to do, the old trapper replied, ‘Simple. I started putting the
feed out in a small clearing and the hogs began freely eating the
feed.  It didn’t take long and they were there every day. Then I put
up the fence posts, but with no fencing. At first the hogs were a
little skittish, but it wasn’t long and they ignored the posts. Then
I began putting the fence up, but I left the gate off. Again, the
hogs were skittish at first, but soon realized they could come and go
freely, and before long, they were devouring the free food with a
vengeance. Then, one day when the hogs were aggressively consuming
the vittles, I slammed the gate closed.”

Ladies and gentlemen, I submit that what the old trapper did to the
wild hogs is exactly what our soon-to-be oppressors are doing to us!
What is worse, most Americans seem about as oblivious to the whole
thing as that bunch of pigs. For anyone who is paying attention,
however, the signs of growing enslavement are everywhere.

Inside my web site is a link page that is constantly updated with
pertinent information relating to how America is quickly being turned
into Huxley’s Brave New World. I invite readers to regularly visit
this page. It is entitled ‘The Emerging Police State.”

See the web page at: http://www.chuckbaldwinlive.com/patriotact.html
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*** Advisory

Lawmakers Punt Patriot Act to Obama
- David Kravets

Congress is sending President Barack Obama legislation that extends
three provisions of the Patriot Act, despite heated debate among
lawmakers that the surveillance measure goes too far.

The act, hastily adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks,
greatly expands the government’s ability to spy on Americans in the
name of national security. Three measures of the act were set to
expire at the end of 2009, but in December lawmakers extended the
deadline to the end of February in hopes of reaching a compromise.

But no deal was reached by the end of the new Feb. 28 deadline.
Instead, the Senate and House of Representatives ditched their two
conflicting measures and extended the Patriot Act for another year
without any changes. The final package was sent to the president
Thursday for his expected signature.

Lawmakers had taken the expiration as an opportunity to revisit a
number of the act’s surveillance provisions, including elements of the
Patriot Act that were not expiring. This included proposals to alter
the standard by which so-called National Security Letters are issued.

The letters allow the FBI, without a court order, to obtain
telecommunication, financial and credit records relevant to a
government investigation. The FBI issues about 50,000 NSLs annually,
and an internal watchdog has found repeated abuses of the NSL powers.

At one point last year, reforming the NSL took center stage during
vigorous debate in committee hearings. The Senate had moved to make
it more difficult for the FBI to issue NSLs, but caved after the
administration argued NSLs were assisting the fight against terrorism.
A House version granted the public greater protections.

The status quo, however, prevailed this week and the NSL structure was
left intact, as were the three expiring provisions. They were
extended on a 315-97 House vote Thursday and by a Senate voice vote
the day before.

The three extended Patriot Act provisions are:

* The “roving wiretap” provision allows the FBI to obtain wiretaps
from a secret intelligence court, known as the FISA court, without
identifying the target or what method of communication is to be
tapped.
* The “lone wolf” measure allows FISA court warrants for the
electronic monitoring of a person for whatever reason, even without
showing that the suspect is an agent of a foreign power or a
terrorist. The government has said it has never invoked that
provision, but the Obama administration said it wanted to retain the
authority to do so.
* The “business records” provision allows FISA court warrants for any
type of record, from banking to library to medical, without the government
having to declare that the information sought is connected to a terrorism
or espionage investigation.
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*** Brits, Who Already Pay 17.5% VAT, Face New Tax On Food
- London Telegraph

The imposition of VAT on groceries is being actively considered by
Whitehall officials as a radical means of reducing the national
deficit.

The feasibility of introducing the food tax is being raised informally
between civil servants, industry bodies and retail insiders.

So politically-sensitive is the move that all the talks are occurring
“under the radar”, according to retail industry insiders.

Basic supermarket groceries are currently immune from VAT, along with
books, newspapers and children’s clothes.

However a VAT levy on food of between three and five per cent would
raise billions of pounds in tax and help reduce Government borrowings,
which are expected to hit GBP 180 billion this year.

Shamrock’s comment: “We’re going to keep on taxing, taxing and taxing
until the pip squeaks.” – Franklin Roosevelt, US President
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*** The Love Police: How To Escape A Terror STOP!

Watch the video at
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9bfmW3iMqk&feature=player_embedded>
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Dumbing Down

Internet access is ‘a fundamental right’
- BBC

Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the
internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service
suggests.

The survey, of more than 27,000 adults across 26 countries, found
strong support for net access on both sides of the digital divide.

Countries such as Finland and Estonia have already ruled that access
is a human right for their citizens.

International bodies such as the UN are also pushing for universal net
access.

“The right to communicate cannot be ignored,” Dr Hamadoun Toure,
secretary-general of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU),
told BBC News.

“The internet is the most powerful potential source of enlightenment
ever created.”

He said that governments must “regard the internet as basic
infrastructure, just like roads, waste and water”.
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Dumb signs

Dad Branded A Paedophile Over Pic Of Son

A man who took a picture of his son while they were out shopping was
accused of being a paedophile and threatened with arrest.
- Sky News Online

A man who took a picture of his son while they were out shopping was
accused of being a paedophile and threatened with arrest. Kevin
Geraghty-Shewan had taken four-year-old Ben to the Bridges Shopping
Centre in Sunderland to spend GBP10 the boy had been given as a treat.

He told Sky News: “Ben spotted a children’s ride which had a train on
it and wanted to have a go because he’s obsessed with trains. “When
he got on my wife suggested we take a picture of him.”

“I took the picture on my phone and suddenly this security guard came
up and told me it wasn’t allowed because I could be a paedophile.”

“I told him Ben was my own son. But he said I couldn’t prove it. He
said there is a real problem with paedophiles and that if I didn’t
like it, he’d call the manager.”

“A few minutes later a policeman walked in and approached me, so they
must have been tracking me on the CCTV.”

“He said he’d received a complaint that a man matching my description
was taking pictures of children and wanted my name and address.

“I told him it was ridiculous because it was my own son. He then
started asking me what I was doing in Sunderland, asked for my name
and address and told me he had the right to delete my pictures.

“I got annoyed and raised my voice a bit, then he threatened me with
arrest for breach of the peace.”

Mr Geraghty-Shewan was so outraged by the incident, he posted a
picture of the security guarde on his website.

When contacted by Sky News the Bridges said in a statement: “We take
the safety at all our shopping centres very seriously.

“We do ask our security guards across the estate to be diligent in
implementing our security measures, which includes monitoring
photography in our centres.

“Unfortunately on this occasion what should have been a simple polite
conversation led to a misunderstanding and we apologise for any
offence caused.

“It is always our aim to implement our security procedures with the
minimum of fuss and disruption to our shoppers.”

Shamrock’s Comment: The dumbing down continues!
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Dumb facts

Flipping Off Cops Is Legal, Not Advised
- David Kravets

Flipping the bird, or sticking out the middle finger, is perhaps the
oldest insulting gesture on earth. The move dates back to ancient
Greece and was adopted by the Romans as digitus impudicus, the
impudent finger.

A zillion middle fingers later, an Oregon man is suing suburban
Portland cops over his use of the gesture, claiming civil rights
violations. Twice he flipped them off for no apparent reason while
driving and was pulled over each time, resulting in what he said was
a “bogus” traffic citation that was later dismissed, and a tongue
lashing he still remembers.

“The guy flew into a road rage,” Robert Ekas, a retired Silicon Valley
systems analyst, said in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Lawrence Wolf, a Los Angeles criminal defense attorney, said there was
no law against flipping off cops. And in most instances when it leads
to an arrest or conviction, the charges are dismissed. But the
gesture invites police confrontation, he said.

“It’s certainly not the smartest thing one can do,” Wolf said.

American University legal scholar Ira Robbins has written a definitive
paper on flipping the bird: “Digitus Impudicus: The Middle Finger and
the Law.”

“The pursuit of criminal sanctions for use of the middle finger
infringes on First Amendment rights, violates fundamental principles
of criminal justice, wastes valuable judicial resources, and defies
good sense,” Robbins wrote.

In November, a Pittsburgh man was awarded $50,000 after he was wrongly
cited for disorderly conduct after flipping off an officer.

Ekas, in both instances, flipped off officers while they were driving
a Clackamas County patrol car. “It seemed like the right thing to
do,” said the 46-year-old, who is seeking damages and police reform
amid allegations he was unlawfully stopped. “The long and the short
of it, I was pulled over because I gave them the finger.”

A federal judge will entertain Clackamas County’s motion on March 15
to have the civil rights lawsuit tossed. The county denies the
allegations.

Ekas said his actions, which occurred with his teen-aged son in the
car both times, were a form of protest against the agency he claims is
abusing its citizenry. “That’s why they get the finger,” he said,
noting he wants a jury trial.

Wolf, meanwhile, suggested if Ekas’ case makes it to trial, the
officers are likely to testify that they were concerned “about his
sanity.”

The jury, he said, is likely to say, ‘Give me a break’ and then go
home.”
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*** Dumb criminal acts

The DNA of a Police State
- SkyNews

Gordon Brown wants to expand the government-operated DNA database in
the UK.

Brown notes that the DNA database has helped to effectively prosecute
offending criminals. As with any technological development, such a
tool can be used for good or for ill. The problem lies not in the use
of the technology itself, but in the strong-armed monopoly of force
wielding the power; aka the government.

A free-market based on voluntary endorsement and association would be
most effective at regulating against unjustifiable usages of
technology. Any breach of contract in such a circumstance would be
much less devastating to the overall welfare of the populace, due to
the dynamic nature of a competitive economy. A forceful monopoly
offers no such refuge.  -
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uUPlzxBDd1Y&feature=player_embedded>
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Cannon Fodder

Hundreds more town hall staff to get police-style powers

Hundreds more town hall staff and private security guards are to be
handed police-style powers in a fresh Home Office drive to create an
army of civilian “spies”.
- Telegraph.co.uk

Almost 1,700 people, also including car park attendants and dog
wardens, already have powers to hand out a string of fines and even
take photographs of low level offenders under the Community Safety
Accreditation Scheme.

But the Government has quietly announced it plans to review the scheme
with chief police officers to see how it can be expanded further.

Even chief constables are now cautious over the scheme following it’s
rapid growth, which has seen numbers increase by a fifth in just 12
months.

It will further fuel concerns that, with increasing budget pressures,
the Government is keen to push for policing on the cheap.

Under CSAS, a chief constable can give employees of local authorities
or private companies limited powers such as the right to hand out
on-the-spot fines for offences including disorder, truancy and
littering; stopping vehicles for roadside tests and confiscating
alcohol.

They have their own uniform and badge and can demand names and
addresses as well as take photographs of offenders.

There are 1,667 so-called “accredited persons” in England and Wales
with 109 organisations, including 31 private companies, involved
across 26 forces.

A further 478 civilians have been given the power to stop vehicles to
check for out-of-date tax discs.

But a section buried in a recent Home Office neighbourhood policing
strategy document read: “The Community Safety Accreditation Scheme
(CSAS) is a powerful way for the police to work with partners and to
make the most out of other people whose job is to keep their
neighbourhoods safe by giving them a limited range of powers to tackle
ASB (anti-social behaviour).

“The Government and ACPO (Association of Chief Police Officer) will
review CSAS to see how it can be expanded to more forces and
organisations.”

The review is to be carried out this summer but Peter Davies,
Nottinghamshire assistant chief constable and ACPO lead on CSAS, said:
“Accredited persons do play a part in building safe and secure
neighbourhoods.

“However, their role must remain distinct from that of police officers
whose task is to uphold and enforce the law, tackling all forms of
harm to the public and communities.”

The move also raises fresh fears over the future of policing,
especially with chief officers under pressure to cut costs. There are
already more than 16,000 police community support officers and now a
growing number of accredited civilians.

Simon Reed, the vice-chairman of the Police Federation, said: “It is
just growing out of control. The growth rates are phenomenal.

“It is blurring the lines between police as the legitimate law
enforcement organisation and these pseudo agencies springing up.

“It is effectively a third tier of policing. We are having all these
police powers devolved to anyone and there does not seem to be any
boundaries to law enforcement. Where will it end?”

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Those
empowered by these schemes don’t have anything near the proper
training, experience or respect to try and boss around members of the
public.”

A leaked document last month suggested one in five police officers
could lose their job under cost-cutting measures.

Up to 28,000 officers would be replaced by civilian workers   saving
hundreds of millions of pounds, under suggestions put to a Workforce
Council meeting chaired by Acpo and involving the National Policing
Improvement Agency, the Home Office-funded body responsible for
finding efficiencies within the service.

The Daily Telegraph also disclosed that forces are losing thousands of
officers by freezing recruitment and replacing them with volunteer
special constables.

Three quarters of all forces have stopped taking new recruits meaning
that up to 3,200 officers could be lost nationwide over the next three
years.

David Hanson, the policing minister, said: “Police are cracking down
hard on anti-social behaviour, but beating it is not just a job for
them. We are determined to give powers to communities to help tackle
the crimes that matter most to them and the Community Safety
Accreditation Scheme is part of that drive

“It gives limited powers to people already working in community
safety, which was backed by two thirds of the public in a nationwide
survey. The scheme is yet another tool to tackle anti-social
behaviour and can help free police time to tackle serious crime and
protect the public.”

Shamrock’s comment: This alarming trend continues full steam ahead!
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Oz Corner:

Ex-pats rate Oz the best place to raise kids, UK scores ‘poorly’: HSBC
In’tl survey
- international-adviser

Expatriates say Australia is one of the best places to raise children
if one is living abroad, and that the UK is among the least agreeable
and most expensive, according to an HSBC Bank International report
released today.
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Bug Bites:

Spy chips hidden in 2.5 million dustbins: 60pc rise in electronic bugs
as council snoopers plan pay-as-you-throw tax
- UK Daily Mail

The growing threat of a stealth tax on the rubbish we throw away was
exposed by startling figures yesterday.

More than 2.5 million homes now have wheelie bins fitted with
microchips to weigh their contents.

This is an increase of nearly two-thirds in just a year. The bins,
which can be electronically identified and weighed, are designed for
‘pay-as-you-throw’ rubbish tax schemes.

Under such schemes – which are likely to be hugely unpopular -
families who put out more waste will pay higher taxes to their local
council.

Disclosure of the rapid spread of chipped bins followed the
announcement this week of the first council to bring in a bin tax.
Bristol City is presenting its scheme as a reward for recyclers, with
cash payments to homes that leave out less rubbish.

The spread of chipped bins marks the revival of a tax idea that the
Government appeared to have abandoned last year.
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This no name no id card is issued by a privacy friendly bank
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To order please proceed to our secure on-line order form at
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Please indicate your preferred method of payment at the drop down
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You can remit payment by Bank Wire Transfer, Money Gram,
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Once we receive your order, we will immediately e-mail you the
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If you wish to remit your payment in US$, please use the
Royal Bank of Canada’s exchange rate at
<http://www.rbcroyalbank.com/cgi-bin/travel/fxconvert.pl>
for the current US$ equivalent for Euro.
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Shamrock’s Missive:

People are being worked into frenzy these days about terrorism. Scare
the hell out of the people and into submission is the Terrocrats
motto.

See “Your Neighbour Is a Terrorist According to talkSport UK” at
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIAFHjL3ZMg&feature=player_embedded#>

Probably more important is the article we have in this issue, i.e.
“The District of Criminals – Ron Paul on the Totalitarian ID Card”

It’s imperative you watch the YouTube broadcast by Congressman Paul.
Your freedom could depend on it.

See you next issue

Shamrock

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”
- Edmund Burke, 1784

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Quote

“I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about
what I think of what I do! That is character!”
- Theodore Roosevelt
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Another Quote

“Even a man who is pure in heart and says his prayers by night, may
become a wolf when the wolfbane blooms and the autumn moon is
bright…”
- Maleva, Maria Ouspenskaya from the original 1941 movie The Wolfman
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Thought provoking quotes:

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the
government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense
of taking care of them.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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*** Tid Bits

Pak lawmakers refuse body scan, cut short visit to US
- Times of India

A delegation of Pakistani lawmakers refused to subject themselves to a
controversial full-body scan at a Washington airport, a media report
said on Sunday.

The six-member group of the parliament members from Pakistan’s restive
tribal region cut short their official US visit immediately to return
home, the Pakistani Express News channel said. It was the first
official delegation that refused to go through the body scanners since
they were installed at 19 US airports last month.

Abbas Afridi, the head of the delegation, said the US state department
had invited them to Washington to discuss security and development
projects in the tribal region, with a promise that they would not be
subjected to body scanning. “We were not scanned when we arrived on
March 28 in Washington from Pakistan, but on Saturday when we wanted
to travel to another city the authorities told us that we would be
scanned, said Afridi.
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*** Bits n bobs

Paypal freezes Cryptome
- Andrew Orlowski

eBay Inc has suspended Cryptome’s PayPal account, confiscating
donations made to the site in the past two weeks. New York architect
John Young has refunded around $5,300 to donors.

Young has operated Cryptome since 1996, creating a large repository of
obscure or previously unpublished files focussing on intelligence and
internet policy. Much of it is available on DVD, sold through a
PayPal account.

Cryptome has recently published secret company guidelines for law
enforcement liaison policy from a number of well known internet
companies including Microsoft, Facebook, Skype, AOL, domain name
monopoly Network Solutions, and PayPal itself, which is owned by eBay.
On February 25 the site was taken offline in response to a DMCA
request by Microsoft.

PayPal hadn’t offered an with an explanation at press time, but we’ll
update this as soon as they do.
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*** Disturbing facts

Two Dubai Suspects Traveled to U.S.
- New York Times

Dubai – At least two of the 26 suspects sought by Dubai police for the
alleged killing of a top Hamas leader appear to have entered the U.S.
shortly after his death, according to people familiar with the
situation.

Records shared between international investigators show that one of
the suspects entered the U.S. on Feb. 14, carrying a British
passport, according to a person familiar with the situation. The
other suspect, carrying an Irish passport, entered the U.S. on Jan.
21, according to this person. Senior Hamas leader Mahmoud
al-Mabhouh’s body was found in a Dubai hotel room on Jan. 20.

There aren’t records of either man leaving the U.S., though
investigators can’t be sure the two are still in the country,
according to this person. Since the two were traveling with what
investigators believe to be fraudulently issued passports, they may
have traveled back out of the U.S. with different, bogus travel
documents.

The suspected U.S. travel broadens to American shores the
international manhunt triggered by Dubai’s investigation into the
death of Mr. Mabhouh. Dubai police have already identified two U.S.
financial companies they believe issued and distributed several credit
cards used by 14 of the suspects in the alleged killing.

A U.S. State Department spokesman declined to comment.

A spokesman for Interpol, which is also investigating the murder,
declined to comment.

Separately, Dubai police said Sunday that forensic results showed the
drug succinylcholine in Mr. Mabhouh’s bloodstream at the time of his
death, suggesting he had been incapacitated by the muscle relaxant
before being suffocated.

United Arab Emirates authorities have sought international arrest
warrants for the 26 suspects, whom they caught on closed-circuit TV
arriving at Dubai’s airport and checking into their hotels. Some used
disguises, and two of them shared an elevator ride with their alleged
victim, according to footage released by police.

Dubai released photos, passports and travel details of the 26, all of
whom had landed in Dubai with European or Australian passports. Many
of the individuals identified by Dubai police surfaced within days.
However, they looked nothing like the photos on the passports used in
Dubai; the passport holders appeared instead to be victims of identity
fraud. Britain, France, Ireland, Germany and Australia have all said
they believe their passports were issued and used fraudulently in the
case.

Dubai’s police chief has said he is 99% certain that Israel’s Mossad
intelligence agency is behind the killing. But he hasn’t provided any
evidence. Other officials here appear more circumspect, and say Dubai
and U.A.E. officials are concentrating on identifying and
apprehending the suspects before blaming anyone.

Israeli officials have neither confirmed nor denied any involvement, a
longstanding practice. Last week, Israel’s foreign minister said
there was no proof implicating Israel.

The investigation could prove an irritant to U.S.-Israeli ties if
Mossad is implicated. European and Australian governments have called
in their Israeli ambassadors demanding answers to how their passports
were misused, though officials have stopped short of accusing Israel
of involvement.

The U.A.E. government would seek the extradition of any suspects
found in the U.S., said an Emirati official. If Israel was
implicated, the Obama administration’s relationship with that of
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could come under further
strain. Washington and Israel have publicly sparred in recent months
on issues related to the resumption of peace talks between Israel and
the Palestinians. The Obama administration says it is continuing to
work with Israel on the possible resumption of peace talks, and U.S.
officials say they are “hopeful” that negotiations can resume shortly.

According to the person familiar with the matter, one of the suspects,
traveling with a British passport identifying him as Roy Allan Cannon,
entered the U.S. on Feb. 14. Another suspect, traveling as Irishman
Evan Dennings, entered the country on Jan. 21, a day after Mr.
Mabhouh’s body was discovered.

It wasn’t clear from where either man was traveling. Dubai
authorities have previously said the suspect traveling as Mr. Dennings
left Dubai on Jan. 20 on his way to Zurich.

Last week, the Associated Press identified a British citizen named Roy
Allan Cannon as having emigrated to Israel from Britain in 1979. His
son told the AP his father was a victim of identity theft, and that
“it’s clear that illegal use was made of personal information.” The
Irish government said last week it believed Mr. Dennings was also the
victim of identity fraud; he couldn’t be reached for comment.

Shamrock’s comment:

So much for Amerika’s anti-terrorist technology and trying to stop
terrorist and murders from entering the united States, correct
spelling. The problem is that we’re paying the price for this
kind of state sponsored terrorism at the cost of our privacy and
civil liberties.
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*** Letters to the Editor:

Keep them postcards and letters coming’ folks, ’cause we
done mailed the rosebushes!!

Dear Shamrock:

In reference to your latest newsletter, Going to Canada? Check your
past”, is it basically a “problem” for US passport holders
only?

What if a citizen of another country, say Sweden, was
convicted of a felony crime such as smoking marijuana or DUI,
will this situation still apply? Is US the only country at this
point they share this type of information? Thanks!

PS. I am a great supporter of your mission. Actually we need more
people like you!

Swede

Dear Swede:

Thanks for the kind words.

The answer is that we don’t know. However in the event Sweden is
not currently supplying info to the US and Canada, one must
assume they will be shortly and act accordingly.

You can have your lawyer try and find out, and or enquire at the
Canadian consulate in Stockholm and try to remove any derogatory
information about yourself from your files if that’s possible.

Everyone with a “past” will sooner or later have similar problems
trying to enter the United States, The UK, Japan, New Zealand
and many other countries in the not too distant future we are sad
to report.

regards and good luck

Shamrock

Dear Shamrock:

My case is this;

The DOJ had used a man saying he was a prosecutor for them.I found out
years later that he never had an oath of office. I took it to court
under a common law Habeas and the judge took 7 months to tell us some
technical code and said it wasn’t her jurisdiction…

He was taken by 100 men in full riot gear at the crack of dawn.
Months prior, we had telephone bugs and helicopters flying over too!

The authorities said the company was bogus. But the company was never
charged with any crime. Just my poor guy, the PR guy and two others.
One was acquitted and one paid $20,000 and he was an attorney for the
deal.

I believe the DOJ’s man to be a hater of the way my man believes. He
was jealous that he could put together deals and was going to be very
successful. To find out this man works for a bank!

They totally made up this crime… to which there are no victims….
after all these years…

So now we wait on the original judge to say something, hopefully to
release him… seven long years later.

Shamrock, I’m glad to know that someone cares.

TJ

Dear TJ;

Unfortunately in this world there are many injustices, i.e. innocent
people in prison and murders walking around free!

Shamrock

Dear Shamrock:

Good day to you.

I have been receiving your newsletter now for a couple of years. Just
a couple of quick questions and I don’t expect a big answer maybe just
a little guidance in the right direction.

(1) I was curious about how one would move a large sum of money from
the US to an offshore account without leaving paper trails.

(2) With all the options for protection that you offer how would one
know what is the best plan of attack? I was thinking about two or
three layers of protection, maybe a trust in one country that has the
holdings of an offshore business in another country? Do you have any
tips for something like that? I’m thinking XXX for a bearer trust and
then having a XXX in XXX held under that trust.

D

Dear D:

Many thanks for the kind words.

In answer to your questions;

There are no quick fixes for them.

In reference;
(1) I was curious about how one would move a large sum of
money from the US to an offshore account without leaving
paper trails.

A – That needs to be done VERY carefully and legally.
Depending on the amount involved there are several ways to
accomplish this legally. However this must done legally
and above board otherwise you could be charged with a serious
offense along with other problems.

A consultation with our financial expert is recommended.
See <http://www.ptshamrock.com/secret/consultants.htm>

(2) With all the options for protection that you offer how
would one know what is the best plan of attack? I was thinking
about two or three layers of protection, maybe a trust in one
country that has the holdings of an offshore business in
another country? Do you have any tips for something like that?
I’m thinking XXX for a bearer trust and then having a XXX
in XXX held under that trust.

A – Assuming you’re an American you need to proceed carefully and
legally. Again a consultation would be a wise investment for you.

Your exact situation needs to be known to a professional,
whoever that might be, in order for anyone to offer intelligent
and legal possibilities that are available for you.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t advise you accordingly as there is
a lot involved and at state.

Regards

PT Shamrock
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Quote of the month!

“Life is a participant sport. Don’t be left sitting on the
sidelines.”
- unknown
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*** “PT Shamrock’s Exclusive Member’s Site!”

Each month we offer exclusive information, free privacy programs,
access to our newsletter archives and other insider information
for members only.

Our member’s site is accessed by user name and password only. This
is available to our newsletter subscribers ONLY!

Each month the password will change and you will have to e-mail us
from your subscribers e-mail address to request the NEW password in
order to gain access.

As a subscriber to our newsletter you automatically qualify for this
exclusive service. Just send an e-mail to
<mailto: ptshamrock@ptshamrock.com> and place “Members” in the
subject heading. We will forward to you full details for signing up and
gaining access to our Members Site, reserved for you.

Enjoy.
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Dear Friend:

If you like our newsletter please tell your friends and associates
about us. They can subscribe *FREE* by sending an e-mail to:
<mailto: ptbuzz-on@mail-list.com>.

Our pledge!

We never spam our subscribers, never rent or give our
subscribers list to anyone, and unlike other newsletters do
not accept paid advertisements; And of course, our PT Buzz
Newsletter is absolutely free, just packed full of interesting
privacy news and information with a tad of humor thrown in for
good measure.

We’re probably the oldest privacy newsletter on the Internet!

Thank you for your patronage and help in spreading the word.

Shamrock

“The right to privacy is a part of our basic freedoms. Privacy is
fundamental to close family ties, competitive free enterprise, the
ownership of property, and the exchange of ideas.”

PT Shamrock – issue one; 1994
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Don’t forget to check out our Special Offers at <www.ptshamrock.com>

See you next issue!

“Mehr sein, als scheinen” (German Proverb)
Be more, seem less!

PT Shamrock
- – - – - – - – - – NOTICE – - – - – - – - – -
In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit
research and for educational purposes only.
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PT Shamrock Limited Suite #79, 184 Lower Rathmines Road, Rathmines, Dublin D6, Ireland

March 2010 Newsletter

“I choose not to keep looking over my shoulder at ‘big brother’ while
he strips my carcass.”
- Joe Stack 1956 – 2010, Hailed as Hero in American ‘Patriot’ Resurgence

In this issue:

* Going to Canada? Check your past
* Scary Stuff – Greece Outlaws Cash Transactions Above 1500 Euros,
Unveils New Taxes
* Breaking News! Airport scanners face double exposure Not just unlawful
- but criminal too
* Did you know? Feds Can Search, Seize P2P Files Without Warrant
* Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure
* Bad News – Offshore tax scheme clampdown looms
* Food for thought – What difference does it make?
* The District of Criminals – Police escort student out of class after refusal
to recite Pledge of Allegiance
* Police State – Microsoft Takes Down Whistleblower Site, Read the
Secret Doc Here
* Red Hot Product!
* Advisory “It’s Over” For US Economy: Buffett Partner Charlie Munger
* Dumbing Down Award of the month
* Cannon Fodder – US unveils planet-hugging London embassy
* Oz Corner * Bug Bites -Hackers expose security flaws with ‘Elvis Presley’
passport
* Citizens rail against government data sharing
* Racist content on US server ‘within UK jurisdiction’
* Shamrock’s Missive
* Tid Bits – Joe Stack Hailed as Hero in American ‘Patriot’ Resurgence
* Just in case! Walmart suffers first ever fall in US quarterly sales
* Quotes * Tid Bits – FTC: Identity Theft Is No. 1 Consumer Complaint
* Disturbing facts – Girl’s arrest for doodling raises concerns about zero
tolerance
* Letters To The Editor
* Quote of the month!
* PT Shamrock’s Exclusive Member’s Site!

*** Going to Canada? Check your past
Visitors with minor criminal records turned back at border
- C.W. Nevius

There was a time not long ago when a trip across the border from the
United States to Canada was accomplished with a wink and a wave of a
driver’s license. Those days are over.

Take the case of 55-year-old Lake Tahoe resident Greg Felsch. Stopped
at the border in Vancouver this month at the start of a planned
five-day ski trip, he was sent back to the United States because of a
DUI conviction seven years ago. Not that he had any idea what was
going on when he was told at customs: “Your next stop is immigration.”

Felsch was ushered into a room. “There must have been 75 people in
line,” he says. “We were there for three hours. One woman was in
tears. A guy was sent back for having a medical marijuana card. I
felt like a felon with an ankle bracelet.”

Or ask the well-to-do East Bay couple who flew to British Columbia
this month for an eight-day ski vacation at the famed Whistler
Chateau, where rooms run to $500 a night. They’d made the trip many
times, but were surprised at the border to be told that the husband
would have to report to “secondary” immigration.

There, in a room he estimates was filled with 60 other concerned
travelers, he was told he was “a person who was inadmissible to
Canada.” The problem? A conviction for marijuana possession……
In 1975.

Welcome to the new world of border security. Unsuspecting Americans
are turning up at the Canadian border expecting clear sailing, only to
find that their past — sometimes their distant past — is suddenly an
issue.

While Canada officially has barred travelers convicted of criminal
offenses for years, attorneys say post-9/11 information-gathering,
combined with a sweeping agreement between Canada and the United
States to share data, has resulted in a spike in phone calls from
concerned travelers.

They are shocked to hear that the sins of their youth might keep them
out of Canada. But what they don’t know is that this is just the
beginning. Soon other nations will be able to look into your past
when you want to travel there.

“It’s completely ridiculous,” said Chris Cannon, an attorney
representing the East Bay couple, who asked that their names not be
used because they don’t want their kids to know about the pot rap.
“It’s a disaster. I mean, who didn’t smoke pot in the ’70s?”

We’re about to find out. And don’t think you are in the clear if you
never inhaled. Ever get nabbed for a DUI? How about shoplifting?
Turn around. You aren’t getting in.

“From the time that you turn 18, everything is in the system,” says
Lucy Perillo, whose Canada Border Crossing Service in Winnipeg,
Manitoba, helps Americans get into the country.

Canadian attorney David Lesperance, an expert on customs and
immigration, says he had a client who was involved in a fraternity
prank 20 years ago. He was on a scavenger hunt, and the assignment
was to steal something from a Piggly Wiggly supermarket. He got
caught, paid a small fine and was ordered to sweep the police station
parking lot.

He thought it was all forgotten. And it was, until he tried to cross
the border.

The official word from the Canadian Border Services Agency is that
this is nothing more than business as usual. Spokesman Derek Mellon
gets a little huffy when asked why the border has become so strict.

“I think it is important to understand that you are entering another
country,” Mellon says. “You are not crossing the street.”

OK, but something changed here, didn’t it?

“People say, ‘I’ve been going to Canada for 20 years and never had a
problem,’ ” Lesperance says. “It’s classic. I say, ‘Well, you’ve
been getting away with it for 20 years.’ ”

A prior record has always made it difficult to cross the border. What
you probably didn’t know was that, as the Canadian Consulate’s Web
site says, “Driving while under the influence of alcohol is regarded
as an extremely serious offense in Canada.”

So it isn’t as if rules have stiffened. But what has changed is the
way the information is gathered. In the wake of 9/11, Canada and the
United States formed a partnership that has dramatically increased
what Lesperance calls “the data mining” system at the border.

The Smart Border Action Plan, as it is known, combines Canadian
intelligence with extensive U.S. Homeland Security information. The
partnership began in 2002, but it wasn’t until recently that the
system was refined.

“They can call up anything that your state trooper in Iowa can,”
Lesperance says. “As Canadians and Americans have begun cooperating,
all those indiscretions from the ’60s are going to come back and haunt
us.”

Now, there’s a scary thought. But the irony of the East Bay couple’s
situation is inescapable. Since their rowdy days in the ’70s, they
have created and sold a publishing company, purchased extensive real
estate holdings and own a $3 million getaway home in Lake Tahoe.

“We’ve done pretty well since those days,” she says. “But what I
wonder is how many other people might be affected.”

The Canadian Border Services Agency says its statistics don’t show an
increase in the number of travelers turned back. But Cannon says
that’s because the “data mining” has just begun to pick up momentum.

“It is too new to say,” he says. “Put it this way. I am one lawyer
in San Francisco, and I’ve had four of these cases in the last two
years, two since January. And remember, a lot of people don’t want to
talk about it (because of embarrassment).”

Asked if there were more cases, attorney Lesperance was emphatic.

“Oh, yeah,” he says. “Just the number of calls I get has gone up. If
we factor in the greater ability to discover these cases, it is just
mathematically logical that we are going to see more.”

The lesson, the attorneys say, is that if you must travel to Canada,
you should apply for “a Minister’s Approval of Rehabilitation” to wipe
the record clear.

Oh, and by the way, if you don’t need to travel to Canada, don’t think
you won’t need to clear your record. Lesperance says it is just a
matter of time before agreements are signed with governments in
destinations like Japan, Indonesia and Europe.

“This,” Lesperance says, “is just the edge of the wedge.”

Who would have thought a single, crazy night in college would follow
you around the world?

Rules for getting into Canada

For more information on offenses that prohibit entry to Canada, go to
the Canadian Consulate’s Web site at
geo.international.gc.ca/can-am/seattle/visas/inadmissible-en.asp.

For more information on visiting Canada, go to cic.gc.ca.

Shamrock’s comment: You can’t say we haven’t been warning you about
this for years now! Past criminal records aren’t the only items that
are going to be shared. Think biometrics’, fingerprints, iris scans and
pictures! Maybe it’s time for a second passport and nationality?
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Scary Stuff

Greece Outlaws Cash Transactions Above 1500 Euros, Unveils New Taxes
- <http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2010/02/greece-outlaws-cash-transactions-above.html>

In an attempt to rein in the shadow economy and collect more tax
revenue, Greece outlaws cash transactions greater than 1500 Euros.
Please consider Greek Finance Minister unveils tax reform, wage
policy.

“From 1. Jan. 2011, every transaction above 1,500 euros between
natural persons and businesses, or between businesses, will not be
considered legal if it is done in cash. Transactions will have to be
done through debit or credit cards”

“There’s tax relief for incomes up to 40,000 (euros)”

“Taxable income based on the new scales will include capital gains
from the short-term trading of stocks”

“Deposits in banks outside Greece are exempted from audits of their
origin if they are repatriated within six months of the passing of the
tax bill and are taxed with a 5 percent rate”

“Wages of board members in unlisted state companies will fall by 50
percent”

“The budget bill for allowances and compensations will be cut by 10
percent” Buy It Now!

Everyone in Greece will quickly figure out that the time to make major
purchases is now. So expect to see sales plunge starting January 1,
2011 as demand for everything priced above 1500 euros shifts forward.

New 40% Tax Rate

In addition, attempts to collect more sales taxes (VAT), Greece to
levy 40% tax rate on more earners. Greece will lower the current
75,000 euro income threshold that is subject to a 40 percent tax rate
as part of reforms to urgently boost government revenues, the
country’s finance minister said on Monday.

“The 40 percent tax rate will be applied on income levels that are
lower than what is the case today, but there will also be intermediate
rates that will provide relief for low and middle incomes,” Finance
Minister George Papaconstantinou told Ta Nea newspaper in an
interview.

He said that as a result of the tax changes, the biggest burden would
be felt by a small percentage of tax payers as 95 percent of earners
report incomes below 30,000 euros a year. Retirement Age, Fuel Taxes
Rise

Please consider Greece raises retirement age and fuel taxes a day
ahead of nationwide civil service strike.

Prime Minister George Papandreou told a cabinet meeting that the
reforms “must go ahead now with greater speed.”

“Our primary duty now is to save the economy and reduce the debt,
aiming to do so through the fairest possible solutions that will
protect, as far as that is possible, the weaker and middle classes,”
said Papandreou, who is to meet in Paris with French President Nicolas
Sarkozy on Wednesday ahead of a European Union summit the following
day.

The new tax bill, Papaconstantinou said, will increase the burden on
the rich while easing taxation for those on low incomes. The top
income bracket which will be taxed by the maximum 40 percent will be
expanded to include incomes of over euro 60,000 a year, from the
current euro 75,000 threshold.

Papaconstantinou said that public consultation over the tax bill
continued, and that there could be changes, but that any amendments
would be based on the broad principles outlined in the draft.

He confirmed plans to freeze public sector hirings and wages, while
cutting bonuses or stipends by 10 percent, a move he said would trim
between euro18 and euro345 euros off monthly salaries. The stipend
cut will also apply to those of the prime minister, ministers and
other high-ranking ministry officials.

“We all know that the civil service salary system is one full of
injustices, that lacks any central logic and has evolved with
successive bonus payments,” Papaconstantinou said. “We are committed
to have a unified payment system.”

He also said all Greeks must collect receipts in order to qualify for
the income tax-free amount of euro12,000, an attempt to crack down on
widespread tax evasion, where vendors under-declare their income by
not giving receipts. Cash registers will have to be installed
everywhere, including kiosks found on practically every Greek street,
and food markets.

Pensions Increase
In a move that makes little economic sense in light of attempted
austerity measures everywhere else, Greece to grant pension increases
of 1.5 pct. “All pensions will increase by 1.5 percent,” Finance
Minister George Papaconstantinou said in a television interview.

The government did not intend to raise the nation’s top 40 percent
income tax rate as part of measures to shore up its finances, he said.
I have little faith this will work because revenue projections are
sketchy and austerity measures will undoubtedly plunge Greece into a
severe recession, if not depression.

Will Greece have the resolve to cut more if necessary? Will France
and Germany pony up after a “good faith” try by Greece?

In light of Eurogroup Chairman Jean-Claude Juncker’s Grecian Bluff,
there are still more questions than answers. The EU simply has no
plans if Greece fails.
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*** Breaking News!

Airport scanners face double exposure
Not just unlawful – but criminal too
- John Ozimek

A warning shot from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC)
suggests that yet again, the UK government may be erring on the wrong
side of the law, this time over the vexed question of airport
scanners.

Legal opinion is on their side: a barrister has told El Reg that the
current scanning regime may not only be unlawful, but criminal to
boot.

In a letter to the Secretary of State for Transport, Lord Adonis, the
EHRC has expressed concerns about the apparent absence of safeguards
to ensure the body scanners, already in place at Heathrow and
Manchester airports, are operated in a lawful, fair and
non-discriminatory manner. It also has serious doubts that the
decision to roll this out in all UK airports complies with the law.

Their argument, based on the selection of passengers for scrutiny, is
that the current use of body scanners may already be breaking
discrimination law as well as breaching passengers’ right to privacy.

They are demanding safeguards, such as monitoring who is being scanned
and how those scans are carried out, to ensure that people are not
being unfairly selected on the basis of their race, religion, gender,
age, sexual orientation or disability.

Trevor Phillips, EHRC Chair, said: “State action like border checks,
stop and search and full body scanning are undertaken for good
reasons. But without proper care such policies can end up being
applied in ways which do discriminate against vulnerable groups or
harm good community relations.”

Whilst the EHRC is concerned with the possible discriminatory use of
scanners, El Reg today learnt about the concerns of one barrister who
specialises in criminal law, and who is currently seeking more
information on government policy on scanning.

Despite government claims that their policy on using scanners to scan
children is compatible with existing child protection legislation, he
has his doubts. First, because the “making” of an indecent image is a
criminal offence, and does not cease to be a criminal act just
because a government department issues guidelines on the matter.

That would be akin to a government department issuing guidelines
authorising its officials to carry out illegal house searches
(otherwise known as “breaking and entering”).

Whether an image generated by the scanning equipment is illegal is not
a matter for those viewing the images to determine. In other
circumstances, when police have advised art galleries against
displaying nude images of children, the presumption appears to be that
such an image is de facto indecent. In strict practice, only a jury
can determine whether the images in question are indecent.

As for the argument that such viewing is exempted from child
protection legislation on the grounds that it is being done in order
to detect a crime, our barrister is equally unpersuaded. Such
sweeping “just in case” powers are not granted to any arm of the
state: if they were, we might as well not bother at all with any
limitations on police powers.

His own view of statements put out by the Department for Transport
(DfT) is that they bear all the hallmarks of civil legal advice, and
that the DfT have therefore failed to recognise the criminal
implications of their actions.

A spokesman for the DfT would not respond directly to that suggestion.
Instead, he told The Register: “The safety of the travelling public is
our highest priority and we will not allow this to be compromised.
However, we are also committed to ensuring that all security measures
are used in a way which is legal, proportionate and
non-discriminatory.

“That is why we have been absolutely clear that those passengers who
are randomly selected for screening will not be chosen because of any
personal characteristics, and why we have published an interim code of
practice which addresses privacy concerns in relation to body
scanners.

“Given the current security threat level, we believe it was essential
to start introducing scanners immediately. We are currently carrying
out a full equalities impact assessment on the code of practice, which
will be published shortly when we begin a public consultation on these
issues. We would welcome any comments the EHRC wish to make during
this process.”
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Did you know?

Feds Can Search, Seize P2P Files Without Warrant
- David Kravets

The authorities do not need court warrants to view and download files
traded on peer-to-peer networks, a federal appeals court says.

February 17th’s 3-0 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
concerned a Nevada man convicted of possessing child pornography as
part of an FBI investigation. Defendant Charles Borowy claimed the
Fourth Amendment required court authorization to search and seize his
LimeWire files in 2007.

The San Francisco-based appeals court, however, cited the nation’s
legal standard, reiterating that warrants are required if a search
“violates a reasonable expectation of privacy.”

Borowy, the court noted, “was clearly aware that LimeWire was a
file-sharing program that would allow the public at large to access
files in his shared folder unless he took steps to avoid it.”

The defendant, however, claimed he had a reasonable expectation of
privacy because he thought he had turned off LimeWire’s share feature.

He was sentenced to 45 months in prison after pleading guilty to
child-porn charges. The deal allowed him to appeal whether the search
and seizure of his computer files was unlawful. Ultimately, a
forensic examination conducted with a search warrant found 600 images
of child pornography, as well as 75 videos on his computer or in his
house.

He was nabbed when an FBI agent logged into LimeWire and searched
using the keyword “Lolitaguy,” a term the court said was “known to be
associated with child pornography.”

The agent used a proprietary software program that verified hash marks
of files and displays a red flag next to known images of child
pornography. The agent used LimeWire’s “browse host” feature and
downloaded seven of 240 files being shared on Borowy’s IP address
four of which turned out to be child pornography.

The court’s decision was not the first word on the issue and won’t be
the last.

Tens of millions of people use peer-to-peer services daily. LimeWire,
one of many popular peer-to-peer programs, boasts 50 million monthly
users.

And the same federal appellate circuit that considered Borowy’s case
ruled similarly in 2008. The Supreme Court declined to review that
decision.

Two other federal circuits, the 8th and 10th, have recently issued
similar rulings. The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ 2009 opinion
is on appeal to the Supreme Court.
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*** Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure
Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks
- WLWT.com

Moscow, Ohio – Like many people, Terry Hoskins has had troubles with
his bank. But his solution to foreclosure might be unique.

Hoskins said he’s been in a struggle with RiverHills Bank over his
Clermont County home for nearly a decade, a struggle that was coming
to an end as the bank began foreclosure proceedings on his $350,000
home.

“When I see I owe $160,000 on a home valued at $350,000, and someone
decides they want to take it, no, I wasn’t going to stand for that,
so I took it down,” Hoskins said.

Hoskins said the Internal Revenue Service placed liens on his carpet
store and commercial property on state Route 125 after his brother, a
one-time business partner, sued him.

The bank claimed his home as collateral, Hoskins said, and went after
both his residential and commercial properties.

“The average homeowner that can’t afford an attorney or can fight as
long as we have, they don’t stand a chance,” he said.

Hoskins said he’d gotten a $170,000 offer from someone to pay off the
house, but the bank refused, saying they could get more from selling
it in foreclosure.

Hoskins told News 5’s Courtis Fuller that he issued the bank an
ultimatum.

“I’ll tear it down before I let you take it,” Hoskins told them.

And that’s exactly what Hoskins did.

Man Says Actions Intended To Send Message To Banks

The Moscow man used a bulldozer two weeks ago to level the home he’d
built, and the sprawling country home is now rubble, buried under a
coating of snow.

“As far as what the bank is going to get, I plan on giving them back
what was on this hill exactly (as) it was,” Hoskins said. “I brought
it out of the ground and I plan on putting it back in the ground.”

Hoskins’ business in Amelia is scheduled to go up for auction on March
2, and he told Fuller he’s considering leveling that building, too.

RiverHills Bank declined to comment on the situation, but Hoskins said
his actions were intended to send a message.

“Well, to probably make banks think twice before they try to take
someone’s home, and if they are going to take it wrongly, the end
result will be them tearing their house down like I did mine,” Hoskins
said.

Man Has No Regrets Over Bulldozing House

Hoskins said he’s heard from people all over the country since his
story first aired Thursday, and he said most have been supportive.

He said he sought legal counsel before tearing down his home and
understands the possible consequences, but he has never doubted his
decision once he made it.

“When I knew I was going to lose it, I decided to take it down,”
Hoskins said.
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Bad News

Offshore tax scheme clampdown looms
- The Recruiter.co.uk

Thousands of contractors using offshore schemes to cut tax are facing
a clampdown after HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) won a High Court
ruling to allow it recover tax retrospectively, warns Giant group, the
contractor services provider.

Following a High Court ruling last week on 28 January, HMRC can
introduce anti-avoidance measures that apply tax retrospectively.
This means that any offshore scheme marketed as legitimate could be
made retrospectively illegal, leaving contractors having to pay tax
backdated for many years.

The High Court ruled last week that an IT contractor must pay
retrospective tax of GBP80,000 after HMRC introduced measures in the
Finance Act 2008 to close a loophole to prevent contractors receiving
income offshore via a trust at a taxable rate of 3.5%. Several
thousand contractors are likely to be affected by the ruling, many of
whom could now face bankruptcy.

Matthew Brown, managing director of Giant group, says: “This ruling
sends a clear signal that if tax arrangements are blatantly
artificial, they can be taxed retrospectively. Even if a tax scheme
expolits a loophole in the current law there are still risks using it.
If a tax scheme sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

“Numerous providers of tax services to contractors operate offshore.
Contractors and recruiters need to be wary about dealing with these
providers as the risk of retrospective measures from HMRC has
significantly increased.”

Brown adds: “Contractors could try to persuade the HMRC to collect
outstanding tax from scheme promoters, but this may not be possible,
in which case recruitment agencies could also be in the firing line.
HMRC has already shown its willingness to include debt transfer
provisions in anti-avoidance legislation, so in cases where it
believes debts will be unrecoverable from contractors, recruiters
could be targeted if schemes are deemed to be managed service
companies (MSCs).”

Brown’s comments will add to concerns over the use of offshore
schemes. Contractors who deposited funds with Mirasol Holdings, a
split funds scheme, registered in the Turks & Caicos Islands, are
already concerned over the security of their money, after the UK arm
of Albany went into administration yesterday.

Shamrock’s comments: All government love to move the goal post
in their favor don’t they?
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Food for thought

We have been asked to reprint the following missive, which was
first published in our May 2003 issue.

What difference does it make?

We received a mail last week from a rather discouraged privacy seeker
in the united States (correct spelling.) The essence of his rather
lengthy mail was “what difference does it make” for one person to try
and change what the (US,) or any government, are doing to steal our
(your) rights?

The adage that one can’t fight city hall may or may not be correct.
However one person, or a small group of persons, can have a dramatic
impact on the course of history. More important, though at times you
may not be able to change the things you don’t like, you can change
yourself. That is what PT Shamrock and your PT Buzz Newsletter is all
about; presenting you with alternative information, articles, ideas,
options, along with the means and tools for you to obtain privacy and
true sovereignty in today’s unfree world so that YOU can change
yourself.

Mahatma Gandhi single handed caused the greatest power on earth at the
time, Great Britain, to grant Independence to India, East and West
Pakistan. He was murdered for it by his own people. The conspirators
who assassinated John F. Kennedy (US President) certainly changed the
course of history. Had JFK lived, there was the real possibly that
the US would NOT have had such a large presence in Vietnam, which
would have certainly changed things for the US and SE Asia.

Look at recent history and take Osama bin Laden and the 9/11 crew as
an example. They certainly changed the course of history, and not for
the better either. Nearly singled handed, they saw to the taking
away of more of your freedoms and privacy than anyone could possibly
have imagined.

Being somewhat of a history buff, we’ve done more than our share of
reading about turning points in history and have concluded that
history indeed, does repeat itself, although not exactly in the ways
one might predict.

Perhaps one man, along with a band of 188 men from America, Ireland,
Scotland, England, Germany, and Mexico, did more to change the future
of America than you realize.

William Barret Travis, died age 26, at a little Spanish mission called
the Alamo on March 6th, 1836 along with 188 defenders. US folk
legends Davy Crockett, Jim Bowie, Captain Dickinson, Jim Bonham and
many others gave their lives to fight tyranny and for freedom. The
youngest defender to give his life at the Alamo was only 15 years old!

These were truly great men, who knew what it meant to stand up and die
for what they believed in, freedom!

Post Mortem

Without the Alamo there could have been no Battle of San Jacinto.

Without the Battle of San Jacinto, Texas could not have existed.

Without Texas, the westward expansion of the U.S. would have been
thwarted.

Without the West, the U.S. would have remained an Atlantic power, and
not risen to become a world power.

Without the U.S. as a world power, the world as we see it today would
not exist. Most of us would probably be speaking German instead of
English today!

Clearly, Travis’ decision, along with the others, to sacrifice themselves
at the Alamo is one of the most decisive contributions by a single
individual in recent world history. Those who believe that historical
forces rather than individuals control events should consider this:

what if the indecisive Fannin had been in charge at the Alamo?
[Shamrock's history note; Colonel James W. Fannin Jr.
surrendered at Goliad without a fight shortly after the fall of the
Alamo to General Santa Ana. Fannin and all but one of his 400 men
were executed. One escaped during the murderous slaughter to tell the
story of what happened at Goliad.]

We’re not asking you to die for what you believe in, but we are asking
you to stand up for what you do believe in and take positive action.
Get that anonymous ATM card, obtain a legal second passport, and get
your money offshore that you’ve been thinking about doing, but have
been procrastinating with for so long. Spread the world about PT Buzz
and other privacy thinking publications. But what ever it is that you
do, DO IT NOW!

We’ll leave you with the quote below for you to think about until next
issue.

Shamrock

“It’s not about land, or money. But the one thing that no man, should
ever, be able to take from another man. The freedom to make his own
choices, about his life. Where he’ll live, how he’ll live, how he’ll
raise his family. We face a man who would take those God given rights
away from us. Well not from me he’s not. There can be no doubt about
the price!”
- William Barrett Travis, commander of the Alamo; prior to the fall
of the Alamo on March 6th, 1836
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*** The District of Criminals

Police escort student out of class after refusal to recite Pledge of
Allegiance
- Daniel Tencer, Raw Story

A middle school teacher in Montgomery County, Maryland, will have to
apologize to a 13-year-old student after yelling at her and having her
escorted out of class by school police when the student refused to
recite the Pledge of Allegiance.

According to the ACLU of Maryland, a 13-year-old female student at
Roberto Clemente Middle School in Germantown refused to stand for the
Pledge of Allegiance on Jan. 27. The teacher reportedly ordered the
girl out into the hallway, where he threatened the girl with detention
and then sent her to the school counselor’s office.

The next day, when the student again refused to stand for the pledge,
the teacher called school officers to remove her from the classroom
and take her to the counselor’s office once again.

“When the student’s mother reached out to an assistant principal for
help in dealing with the teacher’s abusive and improper actions, the
official said her daughter should instead apologize for her
‘defiance.’ The student did apologize, twice,” the ACLU states.

The right to sit silently during the Pledge of Allegiance has been
held up by the US Supreme Court, and is enshrined in Maryland state
law and Mongtomery County Public Schools’ own policies, reports the
Washington Post.

“No one will be permitted to intentionally embarrass you if you choose
not to participate,” says the school district’s handbook, according to
TheGazette.net in Maryland.

The ACLU and the girl’s mother declined to identify the girl. They
say the student, now 14, has been “traumatized” by the experience,
including taunting from fellow students, and has not returned to the
school since the incident.

Neither the ACLU nor the school district would identify the teacher
involved.

The girl’s mother says the way the teacher “bellowed” at her daughter
was inappropriate and the school should take disciplinary action
against the teacher, reports TheGazette.net.

“It’s an even bigger problem because he did it to a child in front of
a group of other children,” the mother said. “On top of that, the
school didn’t protect her. I thought they would protect her, and
that’s why I let her go to that school. I was disappointed.”

The turning point evidently came when the ACLU of Maryland sent a
letter (PDF) to the school district asking for an apology.

“Expression of patriotism in unsettling times certainly is a worthy
and understandable emotion,” the letter stated. “But, as the Supreme
Court recognizes, that expression is best honored by venerating the
civil liberties and freedoms enshrined in the Constitution and not by
losing patience with those whose views or actions do not conform to
those of the majority.”

The teacher’s actions were “a violation of our regulations, and we’re
in the process of rectifying the situation,” Montgomery Public Schools
spokesperson Dana Tofig told TheGazette.net. Tofig said the teacher
would apologize to the student, but would not say if any disciplinary
action would be taken against the teacher.

The president of the county’s teachers’ union, Doug Prouty, told the
Washington Examiner that he supports the move to have the teacher
apologize.

“My initial thought is yes, but we would need to know all of the
details,” Prouty said.

School officials say several conflicts involving the Pledge of
Allegiance arise every year in Maryland, but most are resolved
quietly.
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*** Former New Orleans Detective Pleads Guilty in Katrina Shooting
Cover-up
- ProPublica

Former New Orleans Police Department Lt. Michael Lohman today pleaded
guilty to a single count of conspiring to obstruct justice, in
connection with one of a string of violent encounters between police
and civilians in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Police
shot at least 10 people during the week after the storm made landfall.
(We have been investigating the shootings, along with our partners the
New Orleans Times-Picayune and PBS “Frontline.”)

Lohman’s conviction stems from the so-called Danziger Bridge incident
of Sept. 4, 2005. Responding to an emergency call that day, New
Orleans police officers shot six citizens killing two on and around
the span.

The Times-Picayune has been covering the Danziger Bridge shootings
from the start and they have the latest.

Lohman helped orchestrate the police’s investigation of the shooting,
a probe portrayed in the bill of information as an attempted cover-up.
The former lieutenant was involved in planting a handgun at the scene,
drafted phony police reports, and lied to federal agents, according
the court document. (The New York Times has good details on the
alleged cover-up. And we at ProPublica have posted the bill of
information in our easy-to-read document viewer.)

Lohman’s plea is the clearest indicator yet that the federal
government which for more than a year now has been investigating the
New Orleans Police Department’s actions in the aftermath of Hurricane
Katrina is mounting a two-pronged probe: federal prosecutors and the
FBI are scrutinizing incidents in which police shot civilians in the
chaotic days after the storm, as well as the alleged efforts of other
officers to cover-up those shootings.

Defense attorneys familiar with the widening federal probe say the
Justice Department is looking at the death of Henry Glover as a
possible cover-up, as well.  Glover was shot on Sept. 2.
2005 possibly by NOPD officer David Warren and died, according to
three witnesses, at makeshift police compound in the Algiers section
of New Orleans. His charred remains were later discovered in an
incinerated car dumped on a Mississippi River levee.

Federal agents began examining Glover’s death after ProPublica, in
conjunction with The Nation magazine, reported on the case in late
2008.

In recent weeks, the Justice Department has begun looking at three
other post-Katrina incidents the shootings of Danny Brumfield, Matthew
McDonald and Keenon McCann, all of whom were shot by NOPD officers in
the week after the hurricane made landfall. Brumfield and McDonald
died; McCann was injured but survived to file a lawsuit against the
police department. He was shot to death by an unknown assailant in
2008 while the suit was pending.

The NOPD, like most police departments, conducts an investigation
every time an officer opens fire on a citizen the goal is to make sure
the shooting was proper and justified. As a general rule, officers
are allowed to use deadly force only when confronted by a person
posing a physical threat, either to the officer or another civilian.

However, a joint effort by reporters with ProPublica, the New Orleans
Times-Picayune and PBS “Frontline found that NOPD investigators did
little to determine whether officers acted appropriately when they
shot Brumfield, McDonald and McCann. NOPD detectives collected little
physical evidence, spoke to few civilian witnesses, and conducted
brief interviews ranging from seven to 12 minutes with the officers
involved in the shootings.
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*** Police State

Microsoft Takes Down Whistleblower Site, Read the Secret Doc Here
- Ryan Singel

Microsoft has managed to do what a roomful of secretive, three-letter
government agencies have wanted to do for years: get the
whistleblowing, government-document sharing site Cryptome shut down.

Microsoft dropped a DMCA notice alleging copyright infringement on
Cryptome’s proprietor John Young on Tuesday after he posted a
Microsoft surveillance compliance document that the company gives to
law enforcement agents seeking information on Microsoft users. Young
filed a counterclaim on Wednesday, arguing he had a fair use to
publishing the document, a full day before the Thursday deadline set
by his hosting provider, Network Solutions.

Regardless, Cryptome was shut down by Network Solutions and its domain
name locked on Wednesday, shuttering a site that thumbed its nose at
the government since 1996, posting thousands of documents that the
feds would prefer never saw the light of day.

Microsoft did not return a call for comment by press time.

The 22-page document
<http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/threatlevel/2010/02/microsoft-online-services-global-criminal-compliance-handbook.pdf>
contains no trade secrets, but will tell Microsoft users things they
didn’t know. (You can read it directly on your own computer from the
above link.)

For instance, Xbox Live records every IP address you ever use to login
and stores them for perpetuity. While that’s going to be creepy for
some, there’s an upside if your house gets robbed, according to the
document: “If your investigation involves a stolen Xbox console, if
the console serial number or Xbox LIVE user gamertag is provided and
the console has been connected to the Internet, IP connection records
may be available.”

Shamrock’s comment: The above document makes for a very sobering
read!
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*** Advisory

“It’s Over” For US Economy: Buffett Partner Charlie Munger

Long-time business partner of Warren Buffett, Charlie Munger, writes
in a new article for Slate.com that “it’s basically over” for the
United States economy.

In his article, the Berkshire Hathaway vice chairman constructs the
parable of Basicland, whose economy just so happens to run parallel to
that of America.

In the beginning of Basicland, people live within their means, debt is
limited to mortgages and some consumer loans, speculation is
discouraged, and taxes are limited and pay for only “basic services”
like fighting fires, defense, and the court system.

As a result, the economy happily grows at a steady annual rate of 3
percent.

But things take a turn for the worse, Munger writes.

“The extreme prosperity of Basicland had created a peculiar outcome:
As their affluence and leisure time grew, Basicland’s citizens more
and more whiled away their time in the excitement of casino gambling,”
and financial services soon grow to account for too big a portion of
the economy.

“The winnings of the casinos eventually amounted to 25 percent of
Basicland’s GDP, while 22 percent of all employee earnings in
Basicland were paid to persons employed by the casinos, many of whom
were engineers needed elsewhere,” Munger writes.

Then, Munger’s tale takes a shocking turn: Imported energy costs rise,
and low-cost labor competition from abroad appears.

“Suddenly Basicland had to come up with 30 percent of its GDP every
year, in foreign currency, to pay its creditors,” Munger writes.

The U.S. deficit, just the gap between spending and income in one
year, is projected to hit $1.6 trillion in 2010. Total debt is
project to exceed 100 percent of GDP starting in 2011.

Paul Volcker In the parable, Munger strongly suggests that the United
States take seriously the campaign of Reagan-era Fed Chairman Paul
Volcker, who wants the big banks to cease pretending to be banks if
they expect the freedom to trade securities on the side.

“He suggested that Basicland should strongly discourage casino
gambling, partly through a complete ban on the trading in financial
derivatives, and it should encourage former casino employees   and
former casino patrons, to produce and sell items that foreigners were
willing to buy,” Munger writes.

As the parable ends, none of the politicians listen, and Basicland
turned into “Sorrowland,” Munger concludes.
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*** Dumbing Down Award of the month

This month’s award goes to….. Italy!

Does Italy’s Google Conviction Portend More Censorship?
- Ryan Singel

Online rights activists are divided Wednesday over an Italian court’s
guilty verdicts against Google executives who were convicted on
privacy charges for not blocking a video that made fun of a child with
Down syndrome. All agree the controversial ruling runs counter to
longstanding U.S. and E.U. “safe harbor” laws immunizing online
service providers for what users do, but the activists are mixed over
what the decision means and how much importance should be place
on it.

Leslie Harris, the president of the influential Washington, D.C.-based
Center for Democracy and Technology, argued the ruling would be used
by authoritarian regimes to justify their own web censorship.

“Today’s stunning verdict sets an extremely dangerous precedent that
threatens free expression and chills innovation on the global
internet,” Harris said in an e-mail statement. “If the conviction is
allowed to stand, it will chill the provision of Web 2.0 services that
provide user-generated content platforms in Italy, and Italian
internet users will find themselves without a powerful forum for free
expression.

“Most troubling, what happened in Italy is unlikely to stay in Italy.
The Italian court’s actions today will surely embolden authoritarian
regimes and be used to justify their own efforts to suppress internet
freedom.”

Chief among the concerns is that nations might turn to using criminal
laws or threats of criminal prosecutions to force companies to bend to
the their political will.

Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Lee Tien of the San
Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation shares Harris’ concern
for online rights.

“The threat to internet free speech from nations around the world that
don’t have the same laws and attitudes about free speech is absolutely
a constant problem and is getting worse,” Tien said.

But he warned against placing too much emphasis on this case, which
many see as thinly veiled machinations against Google by Italy’s Prime
Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who has nearly monopoly control over
Italy’s mainstream media. Italy’s parliament is currently considering
a law that would put online video services under the same rules
imposed on broadcast stations, legislation intended to stifle online
speech.

But the Google case will drag on in appeals for years and it’s not
clear it will be anything more than a legal anomaly.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of real and sticky issues around hate
speech and pornography, where people have legitimate issues and real
public policy has to be worked out, according to Tien.

“I’d prefer people to think about those cases and not focus on show
cases,” he said.

Google, for one, called the decision “astonishing.”

“It attacks the very principles of freedom on which the internet is
built,” Google lawyer Matt Sucherman wrote on Google’s blog. “If that
’safe harbor’ principle is swept aside and sites like Blogger, YouTube
and indeed every social network and any community bulletin board, are
held responsible for vetting every single piece of content that is
uploaded to them, every piece of text, every photo, every file, every
video, then the web as we know it will cease to exist, and many of
the economic, social, political and technological benefits it brings
could disappear.”

And while it might be tempting for some to dismiss the suit as the
work of a crazy Italian justice system, the United States is no
stranger to politically motivated legal attacks on free speech and
internet freedom.

The U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles prosecuted and convicted a
Missouri woman on hacking charges for helping put up a fake MySpace
profile to harass a neighbor’s teenage daughter, who later committed
suicide. The judge in the case overturned Lori Drew’s conviction. He
found the government’s contention that violating a website’s terms of
service was the same as hacking “unconstitutional.”

And in South Carolina, the Attorney General Henry McMaster threatened
to criminally prosecute Craigslist management if the classified
listings site didn’t remove its erotic listings category, saying the
site was promoting prostitution. A federal judge had to order
McMaster to stop his threats.

The Italy decision won’t be published in full for several weeks and
will likely be on appeal for years. None of those convicted will
likely ever serve their six months of jail time, in no small part
since they all live outside of Italy. The video at issue appeared in
2006, on Google Video, a service now replaced by YouTube.

University of Virgina media studies and law professor Siva
Vaidhyanathan, meanwhile, sees the Italian case as a very local issue
rooted in Italian politics and a sign that Google’s culture of
audacious enterprises isn’t as welcome outside the Unite States as it
hoped it would be.

“The government in Italy wants to hold Google down in Italy until it
says ‘uncle’ for a while,” Vaidhyanathan said. “But it does say a lot
about the fact that the globalization of Google is not going well.
The ruling comes as cyberliberties are in flux globally and Google is
trying to maintain revenues in countries like Egypt and Russia.”

Vaidhyanathan, whose upcoming book The Googlization of Everything
tackles the subject of Google as a worldwide cultural force, says that
the net’s and Google’s method of doing things first and letting people
opt out later is proving to be not a hit everywhere around the globe.

“Google is finding that getting beyond America is difficult,” sad
Vaidhyanathan, referring to Google’s hacking showdown in China,
privacy issues with its Street View mapping cameras in Germany, and
the censorship demands placed on it by China, Turkey, Thailand,
Argentina and India.

“I can see the general objection to Google’s way of doing things,”
said Vaidhyanathan. “It’s default setting is that it can do whatever
it wants and if you have a problem, just let them know, and that
opt-out model is not applicable in every case.”

To others, like Tien, the ruling is simply baffling. Clearly, Italy
doesn’t want its own service providers to have to meet the burden of
approving every forum posting, blog comment or uploaded video, and
punishing executives when their companies miss the mark, as was the
case of the Google executives in Italy.

That’s akin to making automobile executives personally liable in any
automobile accident related to the company’s sticky pedal woes.

Tien said that would be a “massive extension of liability.”
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Cannon Fodder

US unveils planet-hugging London embassy
- Lester Haines

The US has unveiled the design of its new embassy in London – a
“carbon neutral” glass cube described as a manifestation of the “core
beliefs of our democracy – transparency, openness, and equality”.

Philadelphia architects KieranTimberlake are at the helm of the
GBP 650m project, destined to land in Nine Elms, Wandsworth, in 2017.
Embassy staff will up sticks from their current Grosvenor Square abode
which is suffering from old age.

Louis Susman, US ambassador to the UK, explained: “We will replace our
current embassy, which has become overcrowded, does not meet modern
office needs and required security standards – and, after 50 years, is
showing signs of wear and tear.

“This effort has special significance in that we are creating a new
home and focal point for one of our most cherished and bilateral
relationships.”

Indeed, KieranTimberlake explains that “visual presence” of the
12-storey diplocube is “that of a beacon that is a respectful icon
representing the strength of the US-UK relationship”.

Highlights of the visual presence include a landscaped “Embassy Park”
surrounding the structure, open to all Londoners. The architects
explain that “the embassy grounds will provide the prospect of an open
park, a landscape of grasses rising gracefully to the new embassy
colonnade, with the required secure boundaries incised into the
hillside and out of view”.

KieranTimberlake’s Strategy Boutique continues: “The spiraling form of
the landscape is expressed through grading, walks and plantings in a
way that simultaneously opens out to the city beyond and spirals
inward as it envelops and then moves up into and through the embassy
building. As a choice of form, the spiraling garden is meaningful as
it represents connections of site to landscape to building.”

Ground-breaking on the site is scheduled for 2013. Adam Namm, acting
director of the US government’s overseas building operations, said UK
sub-contractors would likely benefit from working alongside the main
US builder. The UK treasury will not, however, be getting a slice of
the action, if the US gets its way.

Namm declared: “We feel we should not be subject to VAT. We’ve
made this view known to Her Majesty’s Government.”

According to the Telegraph Treasury officials are mulling that,
although a spokesman stonewalled: “We cannot comment on the tax
affairs of individuals or specific organizations.”

Shamrock’s comment: Don’t you just love the US’ double
standards? The US govt doesn’t want to pay tax, but if you don’t,
then guess what happens!
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Oz Corner:
Aussie net censorship turning Chinese
Minister opts for Google China-style stifling
- By John Ozimek

Recent DDoS chaos on the Australian internet may have been great fun
for all involved, but behind the good-humoured anarchy lies a growing
concern that the government really does have a dark and Big Brotherly
vision for the future of politics in the country.

As reported
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/aus_gove_ddos_protest/> in
The Register this week, groups exasperated by government plans for a
mandatory firewall that will censor far more than the child porn
material claimed, finally resorted to long-promised direct action,
with a short and successful DDoS attack on government sites and
offices.

At its peak, the attacks floored Australia’s parliamentary website for
around an hour as well as having serious impact on The Department of
Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy website.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy responded by branding those
who carried out the attacks “irresponsible”. This is the stock response
of officialdom to direct action that causes any form of inconvenience:
however, such action has a long and distinguished pedigree, with
supporters arguing it is absolutely justified where existing political
mechanisms do not give voice to a significant point of view.

While distancing itself from the action, and denying all
responsibility for it, the Australian Sex Party has accused Mr Conroy
of being anti-democratic in the way he is conducting debate. The
action appeared to spring from a Sex Party media release last week
that reported the banning of women with small breasts from adult
magazines by Australian censorship authorities.

Convenor Fiona Patten said: “Senator Conroy… uses unfair tactics by
continuing to ban the Australian Sex Party website from within his own
department.

“Despite letters of protest about the unconstitutional nature of such
bans he refuses to budge. These bans have now spread to state
government departments with the Victorian Dept of Infrastructure the
latest government agency to ban access to the Sex Party’s site.”

She also expressed concern over Senator Conroy’s statements in Senate
Estimates that he admired Google’s role in blocking content in
countries such as China and Thailand. She adds: “First he tells us
that it is only Refused Classification (RC) material that will be
blocked and only via a complaint driven scheme. Now he is discussing
getting Google to block search requests for what might be considered
RC material.”

Having recently discovered a backbone
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/10/google_china/> in its
dealings with China, Google declared itself unimpressed. Warning that
this would lead to the removal of many politically controversial but
harmless YouTube clips, a spokesman said Google will not “voluntarily”
comply with the government’s request that it censor YouTube videos in
accordance with broad “refused classification” content rules”.

This request by Senator Conroy emerged in an interview with ABC’s
Hungry Beast, as he finally appeared to accept the long-standing
argument put forward by critics that applying ISP filters to
high-traffic sites such as YouTube would slow down the internet.

Google Australia’s head of policy, Iarla Flynn, confirmed that Google
can give no assurances that it would voluntarily remove all Refused
Classification content from YouTube. She added: “The scope of RC is
simply too broad and can raise genuine questions about restrictions on
access to information.

“RC includes the grey realms of material instructing in any crime from
[painting] graffiti to politically controversial crimes such as
euthanasia, and exposing these topics to public debate is vital for
democracy.”

Despite this, a poll this week (also for Hungry Beast) has been
promoted as showing widespread support for the government’s proposed
internet filter. However, this poll obscures rather more than it
illuminates. In answer to a question as to whether they are in favour
of the government acting to help prevent children being exposed to
inappropriate material on the internet, a resounding 94 per cent said
yes.

This muddies the water greatly. The RC category includes not just
child abuse material, but also “bestiality, sexual violence,
gratuitous, exploitative or offensive sexual fetishes; and detailed
instructions on or promotion of crime, violence or use of illegal
drugs”. From Senator Conroy’s latest remarks, this would just be the
start point for future Australian censorship.

Another question, which has received slightly less publicity, was
whether website filtering might in future be used to block free
speech. The answer to that was an almost equally resounding 70
per cent affirmative. The debate goes on.
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Bug Bites:

Hackers expose security flaws with ‘Elvis Presley’ passport
- CNN

London, England – In the name of improved security a hacker showed
how a biometric passport issued in the name of long-dead rock ‘n’ roll
king Elvis Presley could be cleared through an automated passport
scanning system being tested at an international airport.

Using a doctored passport at a self-serve passport machine, the hacker
was cleared for travel after just a few seconds and a picture of the
King himself appeared on the monitor’s display.

Adam Laurie and Jeroen Van Beek, who call themselves “ethical
hackers,” say the exercise exposed how easy it is to fool a passport
scanner with a fraudulent biometric chip.

The Presley test was carried out at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport in
September 2008 — by Laurie and Van Beek — to highlight potential
security shortcomings.

Passports, and the ability to fake them, are back in the spotlight
after the apparent use of false documents during the gang
assassination of a Hamas militant in Dubai in January.

Van Beek said: “What we did for that chip is create passport content
for Elvis Presley and put it on a chip and sign it with our own key
for a non-existent country. And a device that was used to read chips
didn’t check the country’s signatures.”

Fingerprint scans, eye scans and digital photographs are now
frequently used with passports to check a traveler’s biometrics –
unique physical characteristics that can identify a specific
individual.

Biometric passports — with data stored on embedded chip — are now
standard issue in Europe, the U.S. and a number of other countries.

Laurie and Van Beek use their knowledge of IT security and hacking to
show that biometric passports remain vulnerable to fraud.

“I think [fraud] is 100 percent possible,” said Laurie. “The passport
bit is the more difficult. You would have to buy one from a
professional forger or some means, but adding the chip is something we
could do ourselves using off the shelf equipment using $100
investment.”

The problem, in part, is that each country has its own security
signature for verifying its own biometric passports. While some share
that information, many countries do not, making it easy to exploit the
loopholes, said Laurie.

“I probably couldn’t produce a fake UK passport that would
successfully cross into the UK because I’m sure the UK is actually
able to check its own signatures,” Laurie said.

“But I may be able to produce a passport from some other country and
use it on an automated system to enter the UK and the UK wouldn’t be
able to check the signatures because they don’t have them.”

An international system coordinating the various security signatures
is needed, said Van Beek.

“If you want to make the system more secure then all countries need to
have access to a list of all certificates of all countries all over
the world. If that’s in place, if that list is used by all countries
and all inspection systems, that might help to detect non-genuine
documents and non-genuine chips,” said Van Beek.

“But if that system is not there, it’s really difficult to increase
the security level with the technology that’s currently used. So,
implementing a central security system with all lists from around the
world, that’s something that needs to be done before you can trust the
system,” he added.

Most countries rely on a combination of automated passport scanning by
computers and border control officers. But Laurie and Van Beek fear
an over-reliance on the automated scanning.

“If they [the scanners] are checking a facial image, they look at the
picture of the person standing there. They check it against the data
stored on the chip and if they match and that person isn’t on a stop
list, then they let you through,” explained Laurie. “In the current
state, I think they’ve actually made the borders weaker, not
stronger.”

But Britain’s Home Office maintains that its biometric passports are
some of the most secure in the world.

“We remain confident that the British passport is one of the most
secure documents of its kind — fully meeting rigorous international
standards,” said a Home Office spokesperson.

“Since 2006 biometric passports issued by the British government
biometrically link an individual to their passport through their
photograph contained in an electronic chip.

“Even if an individual’s photograph on the document is changed the
photograph in the chip cannot be without border control officers
becoming aware that the passport chip has been tampered with.”

But Laurie and Van Beek insist that confidence in technology could be
misplaced, because biometric passports can be faked, with pictures and
chips that match.
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*** Citizens rail against government data sharing
- Kable

A new poll shows that Britons are becoming increasingly concerned
about the type of personal information held by the government.

Just under two thirds of respondents said they are against the
government centralising information about citizens so it can be shared
between different government departments.

The ‘State of the Nation’ poll carried out for the Joseph Rowntree
Reform Trust, for which ICM surveyed 2,288 people face to face, was
released on 20 February 2010.

The poll found that 61% of those surveyed believe police should not be
allowed to keep a person’s DNA profile if they have not been charged
with an offence, compared to 45% in a similar survey by the trust in
2006.

More than half of those polled oppose recent government proposals to
retain a person’s DNA profile for six years if the person has not
committed an offence. However, 92% said if a person is convicted of a
serious crime, such as rape or murder, then their profiles should be
kept indefinitely.

The survey revealed substantial opposition to medical records being
held on a centralised computer system, with 55% against this, compared
with 53% in 2006. Most medical records are currently controlled by
GPs and hospitals, but health services are introducing centralised
systems such as England’s Care Records Service and Scotland’s
Emergency Care Summary.

Other findings show that 52% of participants think the introduction of
identity cards is a bad idea, compared with 33% in the 2006 poll, and
most people believe that the government should not be allowed to
access the public’s phone, email and internet records. The 2006
figure of 82% has risen marginally to 83%. The Home Office’s
Interception Modernisation Programme is working on enhancing existing
government capabilities to access data about phone and web use.

Chris Pennell, senior analyst at Kable said: “The results of the
research echo recent research by Kable into citizen data security.
The survey, based on responses from 1,000 individuals and 240 public
sector organisations, indicated that 83% of respondents were concerned
about the storage and sharing of citizen data by public sector
organisations, while 84% said they were in favour of government having
to seek permission before sharing their data.

“While there is a high level of familiarity with UK and EU privacy
laws within public sector organisations, this has not stopped problems
with data security from occurring. This indicates that there is a
need therefore for a change to the current model, one which puts the
citizen in control of their personal data, opening up the market for
suppliers who can provide IT built around citizen consent.”
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*** Racist content on US server ‘within UK jurisdiction’
- Out-Law.Com

The law of England and Wales applies to material published online,
even if it is hosted on a server in another country, the Court of
Appeal has ruled. As long as a substantial measure of the activities
takes place in England, its law will apply, it said.

Two men’s appeals against convictions for publishing racially
inflammatory material were based on their claim that the law of
England and Wales should not apply because the material in question
was hosted on a server in California in the US.

The Court of Appeal rejected that claim, saying that according to a
precedent set in a previous case domestic law will apply so long as
much of the activity in question took place in the UK.

The original trial judge said that that previous case, in which the
Crown took a case against Wallace Duncan Smith, meant “that the Crown
Court had jurisdiction to try the appellants for their conduct because
a substantial measure of the activities constituting the crime took
place in England,” according to the Court of Appeal.

“It seems to us that the substantial measure test not only accords
with the purpose of the relevant provisions of the [Companies Act at
issue in that previous case] it also reflects the practicalities of
the present case,” said Lord Justice Scott Baker in his ruling.

Stephen Whittle had been found to have written a number of articles
that were derogatory of Jewish and black people and likely to stir up
racial hatred. They were edited and put online by Simon Guy Sheppard.

Lord Justice Scott Baker agreed with the original trial court’s
analysis that this activity was within the jurisdiction of English
law.

“The judge pointed out that the material complained of was prepared in
England and Wales, was uploaded onto the website from England and
Wales and that this must have been done by Sheppard in the knowledge
and with the expectation and intent that the material should be
available to the public or a section of it within the jurisdiction in
England and Wales,” he ruled. “He noted there were references to
postage for people living in England and Wales should they wish to
have the materials sent to them by post. Thus it was in the
contemplation of Sheppard that people in England and Wales should have
access to the material which he posted on the website.”

The Court of Appeal also ruled that the material constituted ‘writing’
and so was covered by the Public Order Act, which contains the
offences of publishing racially inflammatory material. Just because
it was on the internet did not mean that it did not count as ‘written
material’ covered by the Act, the ruling said.

“Whilst in 1986 the world-wide web was a thing of the future and
computers were in their infancy it seems to us clear that ‘written
material’ is plainly wide enough to cover the material disseminated by
the website in the present case,” said the judgment. “The judge took
the same view. He said that what was on the computer screen was first
of all in writing or written and secondly that the electronically
stored data which is transmitted also comes within the definition of
written material because it is written material stored in another
form.  He drew a comparison with opening and closing a book; when the
book is open you can see the writing; when it is closed you cannot.”

Lawyers for the two men also argued that there was no actual
‘publication’ of the material because there was no actual proof that
anybody had read it. The Court of Appeals dismissed this claim.

“[The original trial] judge put it correctly when he said that what
the Crown had to show was that there was publication to the public or
a section of the public in that the material was generally accessible
to all or available to or was placed before or offered to the public
and that that could be proved by the evidence of one or more
witnesses,” said Lord Justice Scott Baker.

“The point that there cannot be publication without a publishee is in
our judgment fundamentally misconceived,” he said. “It is based on an
irrelevant comparison with the law of libel. Libel is a tort or civil
wrong where it is necessary for the claimant to prove that the words
complained of were published of him and were defamatory of him, the
offences of displaying, distributing or publishing racially
inflammatory written material do not require proof that anybody
actually read or heard the material.”
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Shamrock’s Missive:

Joe Stack’s kamikaze attack on a Texas IRS office, (see “Joe Stack
Hailed as Hero in American ‘Patriot’ Resurgence” article below,) and
the 20 million hits his web site received before being forced to be
shut down by the FBI, clearly shows that something is amiss in
Amerika, the land of the not so free.

Whilst we do not condone the harm of others by anyone, citizens
worldwide, especially in the USA, are clearly unhappy with their
governments’ terroristic policies, programs, technologies and actions.

Another case in point can be read above in this issue, i.e. Did you
know? section “Frustrated Owner Bulldozes Home Ahead Of Foreclosure.”

One thing is certain; anyone associated with any kind of
anti-government movement, i.e. tax or otherwise, will be branded as
“terrorists” and therefore should expect to be dealt with by their
respective government in such Terrocratic draconian measures as the
authorities deem appropriate.

May we suggest that the article “Hello, I’m with the IRS and I’m here
to help you” at <http://www.ptshamrock.com/finance/financial1.html>
written in late 1997 to be a worthwhile read, which can be read in a
better light in lieu of the demise of Mr. Joe Stack and the statement
he made by his final actions.

Other interesting commentary regarding Joe Stack is “I Don’t Buy the
Official Story of Joe Stack” by Anne Wright at
<http://wakeup1776.blogspot.com/2010/02/i-dont-buy-official-story-of-joe-stack.html>

PT Shamrock Ltd. is one of the world’s leading publishers of content
related to how to protect ones privacy in an increasingly non-private
world and we’re darn proud of it.

See you next issue

Shamrock

“The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion.”
- Edmund Burke, 1784
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Tid Bits

Joe Stack Hailed as Hero in American ‘Patriot’ Resurgence Expert:
Online Cheers for Joe Stack Reflect Growing Anti-Government Movement
- ABC News

Most were shocked by the charred scene of Joe Stack’s kamikaze attack
on a Texas IRS office, but for an alarmingly growing number of
Americans Stack is a hero.

The Web was studded with praise for Stack almost immediately after his
plane slammed into the Austin office complex Thursday morning. The
admiring salutes appearing on sites ranging from Facebook to the pages
of extremist groups reflect what experts say is an “explosive growth”
in the anti-government patriot movement.

“Extremist groups are already aligning behind [Joe Stack], beginning
to talk about him as a hero,” said Mark Potok, director of the
Southern Poverty Law Center which studies American militia and hate
groups. “The growth of those groups has been astounding.”

Stack’s suicide note, an angry rant against the IRS and the government
which was posted online the morning of his death, got around 20
million hits before it was taken down at the request of the FBI,
according to Alex Melen, president and founder of T35, the network
service provider for the Web site where the note was posted.

Melen, 25, said within minutes of taking the note down, the company
was “bombarded” with around 3,000 e-mails demanding Stack’s words be
reposted. Some of the e-mails contained personal threats against
Melen.

“What’s funny is most people were pretty much praising him,” Melen
told ABC News.

Bob Schulz, founder of the anti-government We the People Foundation,
said that while he only advocates non-violent means of protest, he can
understand Stack’s motives and said it is a reflection of a movement
unlike any he’s ever seen.

“There’s a huge patriot movement,” Schulz said. “I’ve been doing this
kind of work for 30 years.  Never have I seen the likes of what’s
going on now. It’s delightful.”

The anti-government movement gathered strength during the early 1990s,
resulting in several high profile stand-offs with the FBI.
Anti-government militias trained in the woods and prepared for a
confrontation with the U.S. The militia movement peaked in 1995 when
Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols bombed the Murrah Federal Building
in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people.

The anti-government movement became dormant until the mid-2000s.
Potok said a militia and extreme anti-government movement, fueled
initially by anti-immigration sentiment, is back in a big way,
especially since President Obama took office.

According to an April 2009 report by the Department of Homeland
Security, the current anti-government climate “parallels” what federal
officials saw in the 1990s.

“Rightwing extremists have capitalized on the election of the first
African American president, and are focusing their efforts to recruit
new members, mobilize existing supporters, and broaden their scope and
appeal through propoganda, but they have not yet turned to attack
planning,” the report said.

For many, Obama’s election was a near perfect storm of
disappointments, Potok said.

“The longer term thing goes back seven or eight years due to
immigration,” Potok said citing the surge of border patrol militias
like the Minutemen. “But Obama’s election, which is in a way related
to the non-white immigration issue, was representative proof that this
country is irreversibly changing demographically. Then the economy
has played a role and things have gotten worse and worse.”

The result is what Potok referred to as a “broad-based, right-wing
populist rebellion,” generally short of violent extremism.

Expert: Violent Acts ‘Inspire’ Extreme Groups While not necessarily
extreme itself, many groups in the overall movement are “shot through
with radical ideas, conspiracy theories and racism,” Potok said.
“Sometimes these attacks do serve as inspiration for other groups and
individuals.”

One reason anti-government groups are embracing Stack, rather than
distancing themselves from his extreme actions, is that he does not
seem to be crazy, Potok said. It’s a characteristic that troubles
forensic pyschiatrist and ABC News consultant Dr. Michael Welner.

“It’s easy to get a sense that someone like snaps,” Welner told “Good
Morning America” today. “But this is the kind of crime that’s planned
for a long time… I don’t find it to be psychotic. That’s the problem here.
It’s rational.”

Schulz believes Stack was simply beaten to the point of desperation by
the government.

“The government is routinely allegedly violating the Constitution…
Then when you call them on it, they ignore you too. That’s enough to
drive a lot of people together and to start, you know, some kind of
movement,” he said. “There are people that are out there so
frustrated that say ‘Hey it’s time to lock and load.’”

Online Posting: ‘Prepare for Battle!’  Schulz compared Stack’s attack
to McVeigh’s Oklahoma City bombing, saying despite the desperation,
any violent act is detrimental to the movement.

“Anybody that commits a violent act against the government sets things
back,” Schulz said. “The government uses that as more reason to
further clamp down… Timothy McVeigh set things back. Joe Stamp set
things back.”

Online, it appears that many people disagree.

“He sacrificed his life to inspire the quest for TRUTH,” one Facebook
poster said. “He deserves a memorial. A one man uprising… God
Bless him.”

“This was quite heroic,” said a member of Stormfront.org, a white
supremacist Web site. “There is a gradual awakening underway.”

“This is just the beginning, prepare for battle!” another said.
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*** Just in case!

Walmart suffers first ever fall in US quarterly sales
- Financial Times

Walmart has suffered its first fall in quarterly sales at its US
discount stores, underlining the challenges facing future growth in
its home market as the economy recovers.

During the important holiday quarter ending on January 31, net sales
at Walmart’s 3,400 plus US stores fell 0.5 per cent year-on-year to
$71bn, while comparable store sales declined 2 per cent. Customer
traffic also fell.

The retailer blamed price deflation in food and electronics for
lowering the overall value of its sales, as well as the impact of
store refurbishment.

The decline contrasted with the strong sales and traffic growth during
its first three quarters, as low prices attracted new budget-minded
shoppers.

Shamrock’s comment: This is simply more unfortunate news confirming
the US economy is still in the dog house and likely to remain so for a
good time, in spite of all the brouhaha from the talking heads to the
contrary.
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Quotes

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those
who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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Memorable Quotes

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it
goes. A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars
of the world.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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More Quotes

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government
results from too much government.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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Thought provoking quotes:

“I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our
liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow
private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by
inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will
grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property
until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their
fathers conquered.”
- Thomas Jefferson, 1802
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*** Tid Bits

FTC: Identity Theft Is No. 1 Consumer Complaint
- David Kravets

Are you really you? It’s hard to say.

That’s because identity theft was the top consumer complaint for 2009,
the Federal Trade Commission reported Wednesday.

It was also the top complaint from the year before, although 5 percent
fewer consumers reported it in 2009, the commission said.

Overall, of the 1.3 million complaints the agency received last year,
21 percent were for identity theft. Debt collection agencies ranked
second, with 9 percent of complaints, according to the Consumer
Sentinel Network Data Book released Wednesday.

Credit card fraud was the top complaint when it comes to identity
theft, followed by fraud related to government benefits, utilities,
phones and loans.

The FTC did not verify the complaints lodged with it. It said 72
percent of those reporting identity theft also notified a police
department.
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*** Disturbing facts

Girl’s arrest for doodling raises concerns about zero tolerance
- Stephanie Chen, CNN

“I didn’t want them to see me being handcuffed, thinking I’m a bad
person.”
- Alexa Gonzalez, 12 year old student, New York USA

There was no profanity, no hate. Just the words, “I love my friends
Abby and Faith. Lex was here 2/1/10 ” scrawled on the classroom
desk with a green marker.

Alexa Gonzalez, an outgoing 12-year-old who likes to dance and draw,
expected a lecture or maybe detention for her doodles earlier this
month. Instead, the principal of the Junior High School in Forest
Hills, New York, called police, and the seventh-grader was taken
across the street to the police precinct.

Alexa’s hands were cuffed behind her back, and tears gushed as she was
escorted from school in front of teachers and — the worst audience of
all for a preadolescent girl — her classmates.

“They put the handcuffs on me, and I couldn’t believe it,” Alexa
recalled. “I didn’t want them to see me being handcuffed, thinking
I’m a bad person.”

Alexa is no longer facing suspension, according a spokeswoman for the
New York City Department of Education. Still, the case of the
doodling preteen is raising concerns about the use of zero tolerance
policies in schools.

Critics say schools and police have gone too far, overreacting and
using well-intended rules for incidents involving nonviolent offenses
such as drawing on desks, writing on other school property or talking
back to teachers.

“We are arresting them at younger and younger ages [in cases] that
used to be covered with a trip to the principal’s office, not sending
children to jail,” said Emma Jordan-Simpson, executive director of the
Children’s Defense Fund, a national children’s advocacy group.

There aren’t any national studies documenting how often minors become
involved with police for nonviolent crimes in schools. Tracking the
incidents depends on how individual schools keep records. Much of the
information remains private, since it involves juveniles.

But one thing is sure: Alexa’s case isn’t the first in the New York
area. One of the first cases to gain national notoriety was that of
Chelsea Fraser. In 2007, the 13-year-old wrote “Okay” on her desk,
and police handcuffed and arrested her. She was one of several
students arrested in the class that day; the others were accused of
plastering the walls with stickers.

At schools across the country, police are being asked to step in. In
November, a food fight at a middle school in Chicago, Illinois,
resulted in the arrests of 25 children, some as young as 11, according
to the Chicago Police Department.

The Strategy Center, a California-based civil rights group that tracks
zero tolerance policies, found that at least 12,000 tickets were
issued to tardy or truant students by Los Angeles Police Department
and school security officers in 2008. The tickets tarnished students’
records and brought them into the juvenile court system, with fines of
up to $250 for repeat offenders.

The Strategy Center opposes the system. “The theory is that if we
fine them, then they won’t be late again,” said Manuel Criollo, lead
organizer of the “No to Pre-Prison” campaign at The Strategy Center.
“But they just end up not going to school at all.”

His group is trying to stop the LAPD and the school district from
issuing the tickets. The Los Angeles School District says the policy
is designed to reduce absenteeism.

And another California school — Highland High School in Palmdale –
found that issuing tardiness tickets drastically cut the number of
pupils being late for class and helped tone down disruptive behavior.
The fifth ticket issued landed a student in juvenile traffic court.

In 1998, New York City took its zero tolerance policies to the next
level, placing school security officers under the New York City Police
Department. Today, there are nearly 5,000 employees in the NYPD
School Safety Division. Most are not police officers, but that number
exceeds the total police force in Washington, D.C.

In contrast, there are only about 3,000 counselors in New York City’s
public school system. Critics of zero tolerance policies say more
attention should be paid to social work, counseling and therapy.

“Instead of a graduated discipline approach, we see … expulsions at
the drop of a hat,” said Donna Lieberman, an attorney with the New
York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union.

“If they have been suspended once, their likelihood of being pushed
out of the school increases,” she said. “They may end up in jail at
some point in their life.”

One of Lieberman’s clients was in sixth grade when police arrested her
in 2007 for doodling with her friend in class. The child, called M.M.
in court filings to protect her identity, tried to get tissues to
remove the marks, a complaint states.

Lieberman says police subjected M.M. to unlawful search and seizure.
A class-action lawsuit, filed in January on behalf of five juveniles,
is pending. It maintains that inadequately trained and poorly
supervised police personnel are aggressive toward students when no
criminal activity is taking place.

Several studies have confirmed that the time an expelled child spends
away from school increases the chance that child will drop out and
wind up in the criminal justice system, according to a January 2010
study from the Advancement Project, a legal action group.

Alexa Gonzalez missed three days of school because of her arrest. She
spent those days throwing up, and it was a challenge to catch up on
her homework when she returned to school, she said. Her mother says
she had never been in trouble before the doodling incident.

New York attorney Joe Rosenthal, who is representing Alexa, plans to
file a lawsuit accusing police and school officials of violating
Alexa’s constitutional rights. New York City Department of Education
officials declined to comment specifically on any possible legal
matters.

“Our mission is to make sure that public schools are a safe and
supportive environment for all students,” said Margie Feinberg, an
education department spokeswoman. Our mission is to make sure that
public schools are a safe and supportive environment for all students.
–Margie Feinberg, New York City Department of Education spokeswoman

Several media outlets have reported that school officials admitted the
arrest was a “mistake,” but when asked by CNN, Feinberg declined to
comment specifically on the incident. She referred CNN to the NYPD.

The NYPD did not return CNN’s repeated phone calls and e-mails. It is
unknown whether charges will be pressed against Alexa.

Kenneth Trump, a security expert who founded the National School
Safety and Security Services consulting firm, said focusing on
security is essential to the safety of other students. He said zero
tolerance policies can work if “common sense is applied.”

Michael Soguero recalls being arrested himself in 2005 when, as
principal at Bronx Guild School, he tried to stop an officer from
handcuffing one of his students. A charge of assault against him was
later dropped. He says police working in schools need specific
training on how to work with children.

In Clayton County, Georgia, juvenile court judge Steven Teske is
working to reshape zero tolerance policies in schools. He wants the
courts to be a last resort. In 2003, he created a program in Clayton
County’s schools that distinguishes felonies from misdemeanors.

The result? The number of students detained by the school fell by 83
percent, his report found. The number of weapons detected on campus
declined by 73 percent.

Last week, after hearing about 12-year-old Alexa’s arrest in New York,
he wasn’t shocked.

“There is zero intelligence when you start applying zero tolerance
across the board,” he said. “Stupid and ridiculous things start
happening.”

Shamrock’s comment: We find and condemn the authorities actions most
disturbing in this matter. Arresting and placing handcuffs on a
twelve year old child will only cause psychological damage to a young
person and irreparable harm for the authorities involved.

Unfortunately governments’ zero tolerance policies aren’t working the
way intended and should have common sense placed into play.

Polices placed into play like those of juvenile court judge Steven
Teske of Clayton County, Georgia, do make sense and are working.

When will this craziness end?
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*** Letters to the Editor:

Keep them postcards and letters coming’ folks, ’cause we
done mailed the rosebushes!

Dear Shamrock:

Thank you for all your great newsletters.

Our freedom is very threatened at the moment. There are
some movies you will find very fascinating. <snip>

Understanding the enemy is half the battle for freedom.

B.B.T.

Dear Shamrock:

Hope you’re well. Enjoying your newsletters as always.

I thought you might like to look at this article. US
Prosecutors are now charging any DNA they find with a
crime, thus circumventing the statute of limitations laws:
<http://rawstory.com/2010/02/prosecutors-charging-dna-evidence/>

This is truly scary. I haven’t been home in two years, since
the last time the Nazis there confiscated my laptop because
I wouldn’t give them my encryption keys. I just fly my family
to meet me now.

Thanks as always for your fine newsletter and for taking the
stand that you do. You are definitely a gem in this coal mine!

A

Dear A:

Nice to hear from you after such a long time.

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated.

<snip> Wishing you and yours continued health and success.

Kindest regards

Shamrock

Dear Shamrock;

I really appreciate your reply more than anything. It really
surprised me as it’s been a too long while since I last saw this
type of care for the client. Old school and it is also how I work.

Anonymous

Dear Shamrock:

I love your website! Very nicely done.

Could you advice me on the most Anonymous Bank/Credit Card you have
available? <snip>

I’m highly interested, please get back to me a.s.a.p!

D.

Dear D.

Many thanks for the kind words. Suggest you take a look at the
cards we have on offer at http://www.ptshamrock.com/atmcc.html

Then check out our no name debit card, which is our best seller.

Full details can be located at
http://www.ptshamrock.com/auto/nonamecc.html

Any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Shamrock

Dear Shamrock:

Well, I’ve been a subscriber for a couple of months now and have
really enjoyed the e- mails. Some of the content has been quite
relevant; others, not so much. But everything I’ve read has had value
and so wanted you to know that.

I’m writing for a couple of reasons. The first is that, now that I’ve
taken some time to go into the members area I’ve been busily
downloading a lot of the material. And, as you well know, a small
portion of that material requires a password, specifically FWP issues
1-12 and 14-16. Could I get those passwords from you?

The second reason I’m writing is to simply ask you: Why do you freely
give away all this good information? I know what’s in it for me but
what’s in it for you? Is there some angle I’m missing or what? Now,
I’m not complaining, I’m just…skeptical… and appreciative, even
though it’s highly likely I’m one of your… how shall I say?…
less-well-to-do subscribers. Rather, I’m simply someone who values
personal privacy and, sadly, would really, REALLY “like” to get out of
where I am now and do it as quickly as is reasonably possible.

Anyway, that’s my story and those are my requests.

Thanks for all your help.

D

Dear D.

Many thanks for the kind words.

The passwords have been sent via separate cover. Do enjoy.

You ask “Why do you (PT Shamrock) freely give away all this good
information?”

There’s several reasons really; first off where else can the main
street public locate the information we offer; on your local TV
station, The BBC, WalMart, local bank or Fox News? Hardly.

Further, in spite of your not so well to do financial status, we trust
that you will soon join the ranks of our many thousands of satisfied
customers who have supported us over the many years we’ve been
around by acquiring one or more of our numerous privacy related
products and services that we offer.

We’d like to think that the very reason you say you are skeptical,
i.e. offering great free information, etc., has contributed to our
extraordinary success and longevity helping make PT Shamrock the
oldest, and we trust, best privacy provider on the Internet bar none.

Our motto has always been “Give the customer more than their monies
worth and you’ll retain loyal and supportive customers for a long time.”

We’ve learnt from the many, many years we’ve been in business that it
is far easier to retain a customer and subscriber by keeping them happy,
than to try and find a new one.

In due time we trust you’ll become a loyal customer too!

Kindest regards and good luck

Shamrock
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Quote of the month!

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe,
we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”
- Thomas Jefferson
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*** “PT Shamrock’s Exclusive Member’s Site!”

Each month we offer exclusive information, free privacy programs,
access to our newsletter archives and other insider information
for members only.

Our member’s site is accessed by user name and password only. This
is available to our newsletter subscribers ONLY!

Each month the password will change and you will have to e-mail us
from your subscribers e-mail address to request the NEW password in
order to gain access.

As a subscriber to our newsletter you automatically qualify for this
exclusive service. Just send an e-mail to
<mailto: ptshamrock@ptshamrock.com> and place “Members” in the
subject heading. We will forward to you full details for signing up and
gaining access to our Members Site, reserved for you.

Enjoy.
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Dear Friend:

If you like our newsletter please tell your friends and associates
about us. They can subscribe *FREE* by sending an e-mail to:
<mailto: ptbuzz-on@mail-list.com>.

Our pledge!

We never spam our subscribers, never rent or give our
subscribers list to anyone, and unlike other newsletters do
not accept paid advertisements; And of course, our PT Buzz
Newsletter is absolutely free, just packed full of interesting
privacy news and information with a tad of humor thrown in for
good measure.

We’re probably the oldest privacy newsletter on the Internet!

Thank you for your patronage and help in spreading the word.

Shamrock

“The right to privacy is a part of our basic freedoms. Privacy is
fundamental to close family ties, competitive free enterprise, the
ownership of property, and the exchange of ideas.”

PT Shamrock – issue one; 1994
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Don’t forget to check out our Special Offers at <www.ptshamrock.com>

See you next issue!

“Mehr sein, als scheinen” (German Proverb)
Be more, seem less!

PT Shamrock