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August 2010
UK: New anti-terror laws could see religious and political groups banned: LibertyHuman rights group welcomes overhaul, but warns new measures erode civil liberties and risk tacitly condoning torture (Guardian, link)
Germany Gave Names to Secret Taliban Hit List (Der Spegiel, link)
FRANCE: France rounds up hundreds of Roma (BBC News, link): "Roma families have been removed from their camps as part of the crackdown Some 700 people have been removed from more than 40 illegal Roma (Gypsy) camps in France as part of a police crackdown backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy. The country's Interior Minister, Brice Hortefeux, said the Roma would be returned to their country of origin on "specially chartered flights". Meanwhile, members of a committee of UN experts sharply criticised France's treatment of Roma. They said racism and xenophobia were undergoing a "significant resurgence"."
EU: Future health care 'like car insurance': Accenture (euractiv, link): "Citizens should take responsibility for the healthcare costs they incur and should be punished or rewarded according to their use of the service, Javier Mur, managing director of Accenture's health operations"
UK: Credit agencies are no way to catch benefit cheats - Using credit agencies on a 'bounty basis' offers an incentive to trap claimants using potentially inaccurate or incomplete data (Guardian, link)
EU: What happened to reciprocity? EU regrets US electronic visa fee (euobserver, link)
UK: Children
in immigration centres face deportation within weeks - Pilot
scheme gives families with children facing removal a two-week
ultimatum to leave the country voluntarily (Guardian, link)
IRELAND-GREECE: Migrant-transfer
rules to be tested at European Court - Case ‘may unblock’
Dublin rules stalemate (Times of Malta, link)
July 2010
RUSSIA: Russia to introduce 'draconian' Minority Report-style law - Legislation will give security services powers to arrest people for crimes they have yet to commit (Guardian, link)
FRANCE: Sarkozy under fire for taking aim at Roma (euactiv, link) and Sarkozy targets Roma for explusion (euobserver, link)
UK: No ID, no vote: Watchdog calls for 'immediate action' to prevent repeat of election chaos (Daily Mail, link)
UK: Fast-track deportations from UK 'unlawful' (BBC News, link)
UK: Another move towards the "cashless society": Co-operative to accept contactless payment - Supermarket shoppers will from next year be able to pay for their groceries by Oyster-style payment cards (Daily Telegraph, link)
UK: Crime software may help police predict violent offences - Minority Report-style technology being trialled by two British forces following success in the US (Observer, link). "Criminal Reduction Using Statistical History" known as CRUSH.
UK: Automatic gates allow banned criminal into Britain (Daily Telegraph, link)
UK: Home Office sacks Raytheon-led electronic border control consortium (Guardian, link)
UK: Dispersal order granted in Leeds city centre (BBC News, link) "Police have secured a dispersal order to deal with anti-social behaviour and disorder in the centre of Leeds. The order, which came into force on Saturday and runs for six months, allows police to order people out of the city centre for up to 24 hours. If they ignore the order they face a fine of up to £5,000 or a prison term."
EU-IRELAND: Report urges 'scrutiny reserve' by Government for draft laws (Irish Times, link)
USA: In Refusing to Hear My Case, The Supreme Court Has Put the World's Peace and Order in Danger by Maher Arar with his wife (link)
'Mushrooming' EU institutions cause unease amid era of national austerity (euobserver, link) - to say nothing of the enormous of justice and home affairs bodies, agencies and centres etc
EU to get 'judicial oversight' on human rights (euobserver, link): "EU laws will in a few years' time be subject to legal challenges in the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights"
Irish passports among most difficult to get in EU (Independent, link)
EU to get 'judicial oversight' on human rights (euobserver, link)
Germany: Unknown Assailant Insufficient:
Investigation into allege ill-treatment by police in Germany (Amnesty, link)
Greek
police find more immigrant bodies, toll rises to 18 (link)
June 2010
Swiss Plan to Gag Refugees (Inter Press Service, link) "Only
two years after its last revision, the Swiss Asylum Act is about
to be 'reformed' again. The changes include a gag order on political
activism for asylum-seekers and a modification of the concept
of a refugee."
UK: Abused, humiliated and abandoned. What really happens when the UK deports failed asylum-seekers (Independent, link)
EU: Ashton to command US-type situation room (euobserver, link)
CANADA: B.C. inquiry into death of Polish immigrant finds police not justified in using Taser stun gun (link)
UK: Health e-records 'struggling to fulfil potential' (BBC News, link): "Electronic patient care records will require an "enormous effort" and a "high cost" to fulfil their potential, a study warns. University College London researchers said the project had been dogged by technology problems and tensions which had led to delays." and UCL researchers publish Summary Care Record (SCR) evaluation (link) and British Medical Journal Summary (link)
UK: Government
vehicle surveillance database storing 250 journeys for every
motorist
(Daily
Telegraph, link): "The records, which include photographs
of private cars, can be secretly handed by ministers to the governments
of other European countries or the United States. Documents released
under the Freedom of Information Act disclosed that 7.6 billion
entries are currently stored on the police automatic number plate
recognition (ANPR) database."
UK: UK
to deport child asylum seekers to Afghanistan (Guardian, link)
UK: Taking a liberty: Tories accused of U-turn on NHS database vow (Daily Mail, link)
UK: Outrage at secret probe into 47,000 innocent flyers (Daily Mail, link) and see: Identity Project (link)
EU: Spain sidelines Britain in case of rough EU justice (EUbusiness, link): " Europe's outgoing Spanish presidency and its justice commissioner clashed publicly on Friday over a decision to sideline British objections and ram through new plans to protect victims of crime."EU justice commissioner Viviane Reding said: "If we are protecting victims, I don't want Britain to be the first victim," she said of the row. A senior Spanish diplomat left the press conference seething, saying: "That's an incredible thing to say... to compare Britain to a woman who has been the victim of domestic violence is outrageous."
Statewatch Note: The 'voting calculator' on the Council site and shows why the Council Presidency have to sideline the UK, ie remove it from the blocking minority and force its non-participation, in order to get this directive adopted. With the UK abstention and those 6 MS against they have 18/25 participating MS, which is OK, but only 231 of the 245 votes they need for adoption. (Also, they have 64% of the population, just over the 62% they need, but that is irrelevant). With the forced non-participation of the UK they would still have 231 votes, but only need 224 for adoption, so the directive would go through. (They would also have 73% of the population, against the 62% they need).
May 2010
UK: Children, 4, 'to be fingerprinted to borrow school books from library' (Daily Telegraph, link)
America’s Non-Compliance: Gareth Peirce presents the case against extradition (London Review of Books, link)
UK: Caught on camera: 'They are watching you ... but you are also recording them' (Guardian, link)
Finland: Tough
Asylum Policy Opposed by Civil Disobedience (Inter Service, link)
Torture - Live and Well in Turkey (Inter Press Service, link)
USA: Dems spark alarm with call for national ID card (link): "Democratic leaders have proposed requiring every worker in the nation to carry a national identification card with biometric information, such as a fingerprint, within the next six years, according to a draft of the measure. "
April 2010
Terrorism: keep calm and carry on - The lack of proportion in America's response to the threat of terrorist attacks has been self-defeating (Guardian, links) and Ex-MI6 officer attacks America's torture policy
IRELAND: Putting up barriers to a free and open internet (Irish Times, link)
UK: CIA given details of British Muslim students (Independent, link)
EU: MEPs slam budgets of Council and EU police agency (euobserver, link)
USA: RIAA Wants Gov. to Delete Your Illegal Downloads (Tom's Us Guide, link): "Copyright holders are now lobbying to be allowed access to your computer to delete content they deem bad."
UK: Information Commissioner should enforce Article 8 privacy rights (Amberhawk, link)
HUNGARY: Rightward Swing Has Fascist Overtones (Inter Press Service, link)
UK: No
10 Downing Street bugged by MI5, claims historian (Guardian, link)
New Frontex guidelines ‘go beyond international conventions’ (Malta Independent,
link): "The position taken in the controversial set of
new Frontex guidelines goes beyond the position at international
law, according to Patricia Mallia, the author of a new book entitled
Migrant Smuggling By Sea: Combating a Current Threat to Maritime
Security though the Creation of a Cooperative Framework."
Article on the "German constitutional court judgment on data retention" (link)
India launches biometric census (BBC News, link): "India is launching a new census in which every person aged over 15 will be photographed and fingerprinted to create a biometric national database."
Poland: Air Disaster: Many Causes Lose Their Leaders (Inter Press Service, link): "The plane crash which claimed the lives of 95 Polish officials and public figures, including President Lech Kaczynski, has dealt a blow to minority rights movements in the country, activists say."
UK: Confront Counter Terror: Expose the Expo (link): "Sponsored by arms company Thales, and organised by Clarion Events—responsible for Defence & Security Equipment International (DSEi) the world’s largest arms fair, the Counter Terror Expo takes place between 14-15 April 2010 at Olympia, London. Officially supported by a plethora of military, police and private security organisations, the Expo will host over 250 exhibitors including leading arms companies such as BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin, and is endorsed by state agencies such as the MoD and NATO". See also: Identifying Threat: New biometrics markets and terror culture (Corporate Watch, link)
Hungary lurches to the right (euobserver, link): "Hungary has taken a lurch to the right, with the right-wing Fidesz party on track to win a supermajority and the radical nationalist Jobbik entering parliament for the first time."
EU data laws force e-Borders' compromise (ZDnet, link): "Data protection laws in other European countries will decide whether the UK Border Agency receives information on those travelling to Britain"
Digital civil rights: From Karlsruhe to Brussels (link): "The overturning of the EU Data Retention Directive by the German Constitutional Court provides an impetus for a Europeanization of the data privacy campaign, writes Ralf Bendrath. The biggest challenge for the new civil rights movement is to create greater public awareness of the problem in individual EU countries."
EU Boosts Arms Manufacturers (Inter Press Service, link): "Arms traders are to be given a central role in formulating a new European Union (EU) blueprint for stimulating weapons production, it has been confirmed. The EU's executive arm, the European Commission, has said it will draw up an action plan for how small and medium-sized companies that manufacture military goods or their components can be strengthened."
March 2010
EU-US summits to take place 'only when necessary' (euobserver, link)
EU follows US model to track terrorist funding (European Voice, link): "The European Commission is to begin talks with member states on the Europe-wide monitoring of financial transactions by suspected terrorists. Viviane Reding, the European commissioner for justice and fundamental rights, announced yesterday (24 March) that the scheme would be modelled on the Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP) operated by the United States. “We would like to set up our own TFTP,” she said."
UK: HMRC officers to get powers to open people's post without asking permission - Tax inspectors are to get wide-ranging powers to open people’s post without their permission for the first time (Daily Telegraph, link)
EU: Lobbyists complain that lobby-watchdogs acted unfairly (euobserver, link): "EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - In a remarkable feat of lobbying 'jujitsu,' the trade association representing Brussels public relations firms has lodged a complaint with the European Commission that the NGO responsible for exposing their skullduggery is itself breaking guidelines. The European Public Affairs Consultancies Association (Epaca), the trade body for firms that lobby the EU institutions, on 18 March filed a complaint with the EU executive that accuses the Dutch-based Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) of being in breach of three different rules in the EU's "Code of Conduct for Interest Representatives."
Frontex eyes drone planes for migrant searches (Malta Independent, link): "Frontex, the EU’s border control agency, is reportedly eyeing the possibility of using unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) for its anti-migration patrols. Arms manufacturers, it has been reported in specialist media, have been asked to advise Frontex on how their products can be used to stop asylum seekers entering the bloc’s territory."
EU bid to join human rights convention poses tricky questions (euobserver, link)
UK: Could an ID card replace the bus pass for over-60s? (Mail Online, link)
UK: UK
opens high-tech hub to screen air passengers (PIT News, link): "
A new hi-tech 'border targeting centre' that will electronically
check passenger data before passengers arrive at British airports
from India and elsewhere has been opened in Manchester. Home
Secretary Alan Johnson last week unveiled the National Border
Targeting Centre (NBTC) which will replace the smaller joint
border operations units at Heathrow as the operational hub."
EU:
Asylum deportation flights need rights monitors, EU says (Guardian, link)
UK: Tortured logic of intelligence chiefFormer MI5 head Eliza Manningham-Buller denies knowing about mistreatment of detainees. Didn't she read the papers? (Guardian, link) includes a useful starter list of examples
Ireland: Thousands of marriages 'illegal' (Irish Times, link): "Thousands of foreign couples who married at their country’s embassies in the Republic over the past three years are being told their marriages are invalid and illegal."
Austria: Far-right contender for Austrian presidency forced to denounce Nazism - Barbara Rosenkranz in U-turn over country's ban on Holocaust denial (Guardian, link)
UK: NHS
database raises privacy fears, say doctorsGPs say patients' rights
are being overlooked (Guardian, link)
Austria: Migrants
Issue Stokes Political Passions (Inter Press Service, link): "Support
for the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) in Austria has soared amid
debate over controversial plans for the construction of a new
centre to house asylum seekers."
Greece: New law would grant citizenship to tens of thousands (Kathimerini, link)
EU: Germany attacks UK over EU diplomatic service (euobserver, link) and More than 50 European Union embassies have opened across the world since the Lisbon Treaty came into force (Daily Telegraph, link)
February 2010
FRANCE: SNCF
warns passengers about Romanians (Daily Telegraph, link): "France's
national railway provoked a race row after producing a poster
warning passengers to be on the look out for Romanians."
CANADA: The
Vancouver Statement on the 2010 Winter Olympics (link):
"not to assume a permanent legacy of increased video
surveillance and hardened security measures in the Vancouver/Whistler
area, and to have full and open public discussion on any such
proposed legacy."
N IRELAND: Special forces intimidating republicans in Northern Ireland, say dissidents - Republican Sinn Féin claim undercover soldiers have been carrying out surveillance in County Armagh (Guardian, link)
FRANCE: French prison system under scrutiny after suicide - Critics say death of high-profile inmate reveals the failings of a system with one of the highest prison suicide rates in Europe (Guardian, link)
CANADA: RCMP plans dramatic changes to Taser policy (link): "The RCMP plans a sweeping overhaul of its Taser policy following recommendations from inquiries prompted by the death of Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski."
UK: Unlawful anti-terror powers planned for use during 2012 Olympics (Times, link)
EU-LIBYA: EC condemns Libyan visa restrictions (Radio Netherlands Worldwide, link)
USA: Hold Onto Your Underwear, This Is Not a National Emergency by Tom Engelhardt (link): "Let me put American life in the Age of Terror into some kind of context, and then tell me you’re not ready to get on the nearest plane heading anywhere, even toward Yemen."
ITALY: Race riots hit Milan (FT, link)
Top Intel Officer: US May Kill Americans Abroad (Alternet, link): "Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair announced Wednesday that the U.S. may target its own citizens for death if it believes they are associated with terrorist groups"
ITALY-CIA: Judge: Italian spies likely knew of CIA kidnap (link)
UK: Campus Islamic extremists under police scrutiny (BBC News): "Special Branch officers are being deployed in universities particularly at risk of being targeted by Islamic extremists, the BBC has been told."
EU-FRONTEX: Fortress Europe Starts With Greece (Inter Press Service, link): "When Michalis Chrisohoidis, Greek minister of citizens' protection announced that FRONTEX, the European Agency for Border Control and Protection, would double its representation in this country in spring, it was clear that Greece is being charged with special responsibilities to apprehend and repatriate illegal migrants into Europe."
January 2010
Expulsions From EU Rise Sharply (Inter Press Service, link) bBy David Cronin: "The number of asylum-seekers and other migrants expelled from the European Union in joint operations between its governments has grown three times in as many years"
EU: EU commission 'embassies' granted new powers (euobserver, link)
UK: The laughing policemen: 'Inaccurate' data boosts arrest rate - Officers accused of targeting 'law-abiding middle classes' to meet government performance quotas (Independent on Sunday, link): "This target culture has allegedly led to unethical practices during roadside stops, according to concerned police sources. Some officers, they say, trawl through drivers' personal data on police databases to find any reason to arrest. Alternatively, they "wind up" motorists who, in their frustration, become abusive and are then arrested for a public-order offence."
USA: ACLU Sues Library Of Congress On Behalf Of Former Guantánamo Prosecutor (link)
UK: West Yorkshire nail bomb maker jailed for 11 years (BBC News, link): "A man who admitted making nail bombs at his West Yorkshire home has been jailed for 11 years. Terrance Gavan, 38, who the Old Bailey heard showed a strong hostility towards immigrants, was arrested by police in a raid at his home in May 2009... Gavan, a member of the BNP, pleaded guilty to a total of 22 charges at Woolwich Crown Court in November."
Robot border guards to patrol future frontiers (New Scientist, link)
USA: Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List (N York Times, link): "It is true that Mikey is not on the federal government’s “no-fly” list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10 percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening. At some point, someone named Michael Hicks made the Department of Homeland Security suspicious, and little Mikey is still paying the price." See also: Wikipedia No Fly Lists (link)
IRELAND: Migrants from new EU states 'denied welfare' (Irish Times, link)
SWITZERLAND: Police
Smash School for Undocumented Migrants (Inter Press Service,
link)
UK-YEMEN: British
Muslims detained in Yemen claim they were tortured in prison
(Guardian, link): Group were 'interrogated about London mosques'
FRANCE: French law could see fines for burqas (euobserver, link)
UK: Johnson reveals ID register linked to NI numbers (Kable, link)
Iraq: US court dismisses charges against Blackwater security guards (Guardian, link)
December 2009
LIBYA: 'Go back and die in your own country, hospital is only for Libyans' (Times of Malta, link)
GREECE: Border crackdown on migrants (Kathimerini, link): "Citizens’ Protection Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis yesterday heralded a major border crackdown aimed at significantly curbing the influx of undocumented immigrants into the country, noting that the majority of would-be migrants are trying to access the European Union from Turkey via Greece."
Eurojust chief quits over power abuse scandal (euobserver, link)
UK: Suspend Iraq refugee deportations (BBC News, link)
November 2009
UK: Home-schooling parents may face criminal record checks (Daily Mail, link)
LITHUANIA: Secret CIA prison revealed in Lithuania (euobserver, link) and Lithuania investigates facility that may have been CIA 'black site' (Washington Post, link)
GERMANY: Germany to draw up 'values contract' for new immigrants (BBC News, link)
GREECE: Violent dissent in Greece: It's time for the left to interrogate the systemic origins of the terrorism that has greeted the new Greek government (Guardian, link)
EU: Council president could be sidelined at the UN (European Voice, link)
UK: Secret CCTV cameras in homes to spy on neighbours (Evening Standard, link)
UK: MoD loses 100 computers: More than 100 Ministry of Defence computers and dozens more memory sticks have gone missing so far this year, it has been disclosed. (Daily Telegraph, link)
UK: Ministers cancel 'Big Brother' database - Plan to store details of every phone call and email 'kicked into long grass' after furore (Independent, link), while the Daily Telegraph says: State to 'spy' on every phone call, email and web search (link). Both are right: the Independent refer to a plan to create a central state database of all communications to be held ad finitum and the Telegraph refers to the fall-back plan to require service and telecoms providers to hold the same data - but not until after the election next year.
DENMARK: Foreigners to get 100,000 kroner incentive to leave Denmark (Copenhagen Post, link)
HUNGARY: Europe's new outer frontier Hungary battles illegal migrants (Monster and critics.com, link)
UK: Genetic Tests for UK Asylum Seekers Draw Criticism (New York Times, link)
US-EUROPE: An Ocean Apart in More Ways Than One (Inter Press Service, (link), see also: Towards a Post-American Europe: a power audit of EU-US Relations (link, pdf)
EU: 'Right to internet' dies quietly in Brussels back room (euobserver, link) "Early Thursday (5 November) morning the European Parliament and EU member states reached a deal over a long-delayed telecoms package when MEPs dropped their opposition to French-style 'three-strikes' laws aimed at illegal internet downloaders, ending for now the Brussels debate on a fundamental 'right' to internet access. In a major reversal of the parliament's position for much of the last year, MEPs in behind-closed-doors negotiations with the Council of Ministers, representing the member states, embraced new language in a compromise text that no longer requires that only judicial authorities be allowed to cut off internet access."
EU: No means no; yes doesn’t mean yes: Europe’s governments value the opinion of their peers more than that of ?their citizens. That isn’t democracy (Le Monde Diplomatique, link)
October 2009
Spanish parliament approves controversial immigration law (expatica, link): "Spain's lower house of parliament has approved a controversial law which extends from 40 to 60 days the maximum period that illegal immigrants can be held in detention centres before being deported"
GREECE: The UN refugee agency is demanding an inquiry into alleged police brutality at a notorious detention centre on the Greek island of Lesbos (BBC News, link)
UK: More than one in 10 people on DNA database for first time (Daily Telegraph, link): "Overall, when profiles taken in Scotland and Northern Ireland are included, almost six million people have now been stored on what is the largest DNA database in the world."
SWITZERLAND: Muslims Targeted in the Name of Minarets (Inter Press Service, link): By Ray Smith: Switzerland's Muslim community is witnessing a xenophobic campaign by the political right-wing ahead of a vote next month on the banning of Islamic minarets.
RIGHTS: 'Too
Innocent to Try, too Guilty to Fly' (PS, link) by Jan Lammers: Getting
blacklisted as belonging to a terrorist organisation is a punitive
sanction, even though governments may say it is only an administrative
measure, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
and the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights (ECCHR).
Greek
socialists to grant citizenship to migrants' children (Guardian, link)
FRANCE: Security
fears spark fresh controversy in Afghan deportation row (France24, link)
UK: Outrage
at government plan for secret inquests (Independent, link)
ROMANIA: Data
retention law declared unconstitutional (EDRI, link)
BULGARIA: Migrants
Denied Even Medicine (Inter Press Service, link): "Hasun Albaadzh,
an asylum-seeker from Syria, died Oct. 6 at the Busmantsi detention
centre on the outskirts of Bulgarian capital Sofia. He had been
held at Busmantsi for 34 months - considerably more than the
maximum legal period of detention - and had been denied proper
medical care."
UK: The
future of policing: A documentary on the G20 protests lays bare
rifts between senior officers – who will triumph, traditionalists
or modernisers? (Guardian, link) by Paul Lewis
France-UK: France, UK to fly Afghan migrants to Kabul (Reuters, link)
UK: Government
anti-terrorism strategy 'spies' on innocent - Data on politics,
sexual activity and religion gathered by government (Guardian, link)
Swiss
to vote on proposal banning new minarets (Times of Malta, link)
TURKEY-GREECE: Frontex seeks Turkish cooperation (Kathimerini, link)
Iraq sends back UK asylum flight (BBC News, link)
UK: £22,000 for man arrested after watching stop-and-search (Evening Standard, link)
Italy:Berlusconi allies seek to ban burqas in Italy (Reuters, link)
UK: Government reverses Brown's passport pledge (Kable, link) The Identity and Passport Service has confirmed that passports will in future require extra information from applicants – their fingerprints.
Italy: Citizen patrols hit Italy streets (BBC News, link)
UK-USA: What lies beneath the extradition of hacker Gary McKinnon to the USA (Hawktalk, link)
European Commissioner: Future of internet has dangers for privacy, Brussels warns (euobserver, link)
France-UK: French U-turn on Afghan flight deal (Press Association, link)
Le Monde Diplomatique: Complicit surveillance and social networking: "Watching me watching you" (link) We’ve all spent so much time and effort being worried about formal surveillance – all those street and lobby cameras – that we’re in danger of forgetting how much we cooperate in surveilling and being surveilled online
UK: Muslim groups hit out over 'funding with security strings attached' (Guardian, link)
UK: CIA at work in UK, anti-terror chief tells MPs (Guardian, link)
UK: Terror register comes into force (BBC News, link): Monitoring: Police will maintain register of offenders - People convicted of terrorism offences will join a register similar to that used to monitor sex offenders.
AUSTRIA: Thousands
of Migrants Take to Hunger Strikes (Inter Press Service, link) "Human
rights activists in Austria are calling for an overhaul of a
detention system for migrants and asylum seekers they claim breaches
human rights, following the death of a hunger-striking migrant
in police cells."
Italy:
Immigrants 'targeted' by police in Milan (link)
September 2009
UK: Lecturer
sues after detention in England, Scotland, Northern Ireland -
Jean-Pierre Djimbonge says he was wrongfully arrested during
his UK holiday because he is black (Guardian, link)
Greece struggles to cope as immigration tensions soar - The revolt
at conditions in overflowing detention centres is causing scenes
of chaos in the 'backdoor into Europe' (Observer,
link)
UK: Drivers' details sold by DVLA are used in bizarre roadside adverts for Castrol (Daily Mail, link)
UK: Foreign national ID cards roll out speeds up (Home Office, link)
UK: Justice
for the North West 10 (link): "Janas Khan is one of the North
West 10 Pakistan students arrested in Brown's "terror raids"
of April this year. He was released from deportation in July
but only to face "administrative removal" for working
more hours than permitted under his student visa."
Malta: Frontex
to take charge of repatriation (Times of Malta, link)
EU funding 'Orwellian' artificial intelligence plan to monitor public for "abnormal behaviour" (Sunday Telegraph, link)
Italy's migrant crackdown sparks political tensions (Reuters, link)
1.2bn population of India to be given biometric ID cards (Guardian, link)
UK: Review of control orders sought (BBC, link): "A wholesale review of control orders, which restrict the freedoms of some terror suspects, has been instigated by Home Secretary Alan Johnson. Lord Carlile, the independent reviewer of terror laws, will consider if the system is still "viable" following a ruling by the House of Lords."
UK: Presumed guilty (Guardian, link) "There is a new phrase in law enforcement circles, although it is more about enforcing the state's prejudice than any law. It is the Potential Dangerous Person, or PDP. This label is given by Northumberland and Cleveland police forces to someone who is suspected of crimes but who has not been charged, let alone found guilty of an offence. Under this new designation they will be targeted as criminals, watched and no doubt harassed."
UK: MI6 officer investigated over torture allegation (Guardian, link)
UK: We need to repeal 12 years of vile laws attacking our liberty (Guardian, link)
Long-range Taser reignites safety debate (New Scientist, link)
UK: CRB looks to ID cards to solve accuracy woes (Register, link) and ID cards: A new layer of compulsion by Henry Porter (Guardian, link)
August 2009
EU: The new European Parliament: too close to business? (Brussels bubble, link)
USA: US Torture Files and Access to Human Rights Information (link)
Greece: UNHCR orders closure of immigrant reception centre on Greek island (link)
UK: 'Racist bias' blamed for disparity in police DNA database - Profiles of one in four black children over 10 held (Observer, link)
UK: Police told to ignore human rights ruling over DNA database (Guardian, link)
UK: New ID cards are supposed to be 'unforgeable' - but it took our expert 12 minutes to clone one, and programme it with false data (Daily Mail, link)
Greece: Migrant children marginalized: Reforms aimed at social integration have not helped thousands born and raised in Greece, experts say (link)
UK: High Court shields database state from blame: No comeback on stigma of invented £254,000 bad debt (The Register, link): An entrepreneur whose fledgling business was ruined by a false entry in a court database has had his claim for compensation rejected by a High Court judge. The decision could set a broad and troubling precedent, because Mr Justice Bill Blair QC - brother of the former PM Tony Blair - ruled that the civil service cannot be found liable for the damage caused by its record keeping mistakes.
UK: ACPO policy on ANPR: The Management and Use of Automatic Number Plate Recognition (Spyblog, link) and ANPR Manual (link)
UK: Internet firms resist ministers’ plan to spy on every e-mail (Sunday Times, link)
Greece: Zero Tolerance, Zero Concern (Inter Press Service, link): "Increasing evidence has surfaced that a zero tolerance policy is denying due protection to people fleeing hardship, and condemning them to degrading treatment."
July 2009
UK: The image of the ID card for British citizens was officially unveiled by the Home Secretary today in Manchester and London (Home Office Press release, link). View front of card (link) and Back of card (link)
UK: Police
should respect press freedom: Protest is at the heart of any
functioning democracy – and a civil case launched today
aims to protect the media's right to report it (Guardian, link)
UK: Paul Donovan: The
secret trials that besmirch Britain's immigration law (Independent,
link)
CIA-UK: Secrets of CIA 'ghost flights' to be revealed - Guantánamo detainee's lawyers hail UK air firm's U-turn that allows rendition case to go to court (Observer, link)
UK: Bouncers and parking attendants given police-style powers to issue on-the-spot fines (Daily Mail, link)
USA: James B.
Rule: Balancing
privacy with better medical data (link): "Among the rare domestic
policy innovations strongly promoted by both the Obama and Bush
administrations is centralization of all Americans' medical records."
UK: The
truth about torture Britain's catalogue of shame, by Ian Cobain (Guardian,
link)
EU: If you can't beat 'em … Europe's new tactics in the battle against the far right (Guardian, link)
UK: DNA database plans based on 'flawed science', warn experts (Guardian, link)
UK: Metropolitan police's 'kettling' tactic challenged in European court (Guardian, link)
UK: National Policing Improvement Agency (link): The National Police Improvement Agency (NPIA) has released its Annual Report 2008/09. The report reveals the scale of the Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system that has been constructed in the UK: "The ANPR infrastructure has the capability to receive and store 50 million ANPR reads per day. The National ANPR Data Centre (NADC) receives around 8 million reads per day". Also revealed is who will have access to the data: "In due course, Scottish forces and PSNI will also be connected to NADC, as will other national policing and security agencies. These include British Transport Police, Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the Security Service." (thanks to No2id)
UK: House of Commons debate on ID cards (link)
Newspapers voice concerns about press freedom (euactiv, link) European newspaper publishers are calling on the Swedish EU Presidency to protect press freedom in Europe following recent attempts by the Italian and Czech governments to restrict journalists' access to wiretapped information, such as police documents.
UK: The ID Card dead. Long live the database! (Hawktalk, link)
Police bulldoze migrant camp in Greek port (link)
UK: Control Orders - Abu Rideh granted document to leave the country, decision welcomed by Amnesty (link)
Hungary: Slipping Further to the Right (Inter Press Service, link)
Bulgaria: Centre-right wins landslide victory in Bulgarian elections (euobserver, link)
Czech Republic: Special aircraft takes expelled Africans from Prague (link)
USA: 'A Comedy of Errors': Why It's Time to Get Rid of the So-Called Terrorist Watch List (Alternet, link)
UK: Government under fire over ID cards (ZDnet, link)
June 2009
UK: After Iraq WMD fiasco, MI6 faces new challenge under Sir John Sawers (Times, link)
UK: Government
faces court battle over £400m contract for hi-tech passports
(Daily Mail, link)
Ethnic profiling tarnishes the EU - Relying on race when
deciding who to stop, search or detain is illegal and ineffective
– but European police continue to do it (Guardian, link)
UK: Blair
Peach death secrecy review (Guardian, link)
EU: EU security plans threaten freedom, says rights expert (Irish Times, link)
UK: Police and protests: Video shows surveillance protesters bundled to ground by police - Women arrested for challenging officer with no badge number and Predatory policing: As my arrest and imprisonment demonstrates, the preventative policing model is a licence to harass legitimate protesters (Guardian, links)
EU: Stockholm programme: The lives of ... all of us (Daily Mail, link)
GERMANY: Quietly
Arming Conflicts (Inter Press Service, link)
UK: Abandon
ID cards: The attempt to justify the ID card scheme on
the grounds of the risk of terrorism is not sustainable –
we simply don't need it
(Guardian, link) and ID
cards 'will not protect UK against terrorism': Identity cards
are pushing Britain towards a "Kafkaesque" society
and will do nothing to protect the UK against terrorism, a retired
Law Lord will warn (Daily Telegraph, link)
The Dawning of the Biometric Age: Say goodbye to PINs and photo IDs. Say hello to digital fingerprints and iris scans—and to new opportunities for security businesses (Business Week, link)
Is the rise of the digital ID inevitable? As biometrics gain sway, not everyone sees them as a force for good (Independent, link)
PI and Free Expression Groups Call for Limits on Surveillance (PI, link)
Americans seek international database to carry iris, palm and finger prints (Guardian, link). This article, and a number of others refer to the "International Information Consortium", formed ten years ago by the USA, UK, Australia and Canada - all in the USA-UK intelligence network set up in 1947. Police Review reports that the Consortium met at Bramshill Police College for its annual conference in May where it discussed international access to DNA databases.
UK-EU: Racist
rants of elected BNP man, Andrew Brons, revealedYorkshire MEP
Andrew Brons drew up some of the National Front's most inflammatory
policies (Observer, link)
Malta: Frontex
to help in migrants' return - Justice Ministers to discuss EC
proposals today (Times of Malta, link)
UK: Man who died after police restraint 'covered with injuries' (Guardian, link)
GREECE: Greece Cannot Take Very Much More, Analysis by Apostolis Fotiadis (Inter Press Service, link): ATHENS, Jun 1 (IPS) - United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees António Guterres has asked the European Commission to call a meeting between the agency and countries around the Mediterranean to work out a joint strategy to deal with irregular migration. But while Italy is being internationally chastised for the refoulement of refugees that effectively annuls the country's responsibilities arising from international treaties, most notably the Geneva convention, neighbouring Greece is building up state-sponsored persecution of irregular migration that has gone largely unnoticed.
UK: Big Brother HAS gone too far ... and that's an ex-spy chief talking (Daily Mail, link)
May 2009
The technology of surveillance (BBC News, link)
UK: Tortured while MI5 left the room: Briton's claim after 7/7 attacks (Guardian, link)
USA: Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List (Wired.com, link)
UK: G20 police 'used undercover men to incite crowds' - MP demands inquiry into Met tactics at demo (Observer, link)
UK: Court says police can be challenged on 'stop and search' powers - 11-year-old twins left distraught after incident (Guardian, link)
April 2009
Czech Republic:
Roma
Seek to Flee Czech Republic (Inter Press Service, link)
UK: Met
pays out compensation to protesters for unlawful arrest (Guardian, link)
UK: Government wants phone and internet providers to track users (Guardian, link).Many newspapers, following the publication of a Home Office consultation paper, followed this line of reasoning. A bit strange as service providers have been keeping communications data (traffic data) since December 2001 for phone calls, e-mails and mobile phone calls - which is now being extended to internet usage as well in line with the EU Directive on mandatory data retention. See: UK: Data retention and access consultation farce
UK: David Howarth MP: This is the list of items seized by the police at the Kingsnorth Climate Camp. The list was supplied by Kent Police following an FoI request (link)
UK: Nottingham power station protesters 'treated like terrorists' (Guardian, link)
USA-ICRC: US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites (New York Review of Books, link) International Committee for the Red Cross report.
UK: Specialist protest squads at centre of investigations into G20 police violence - Police territorial support teams, used at demonstrations and marches, involved in previous controversy (Guardian, link)
Global Detention Project (link)
UK: Anger over £78 deportation ruling (BBC, link)
UK: NHS Health records: Summary care records - you might die, but they never will - Once you can opt in, you can never opt out (Register, link)
Red Pepper: Viva Siva: Now in his eighties, A Sivanandan remains an important figure in the politics of race and class, maintaining his long-held insistence that only in the symbiosis of the two struggles can a genuinely radical politics be found. By Arun Kundnani
UK: ID cards 'could use chip-and-pin' (BBC News, link)
Surveillance Self-Defence (link)
UK: Jail for photographing police? (British Journal of Photograhpy, link)
March 2009
UK: IPCC 'not functioning properly', claims new report (Guardian, link)
UK: Police identify 200 children as potential terrorists (Independent, link)
USA: US teenager killed by police Taser attack (Amnesty International, link)
UK: Police to get 6,000 extra Tasers (BBC News, link)
Liberty wins ruling against Home Secretary over Harmondsworth disturbance (link) The Court of Appeal has ruled today that the Government was wrong not to order an independent inquiry into allegations of mistreatment at Harmondsworth immigration detention centre in 2006.
UK: Muslim man suffered 'gross brutality' during terrorism raid, court told - Metropolitan police say officers used reasonable force during arrest of Babar Ahmad (Guardian, link)
Germany, Britain, Netherlands Agree to Enhance Anti-Terror Cooperation (dw-world.de, link)
Internet's inventor warns of risk of allowing firms to spy on their users - Berners-Lee says law must protect privacy - Data is of huge commercial value, he tells conference (Guardian, link) and Who is watching you online? Technology that tracks the websites we visit is valuable for advertising and surveillance alike – and the law controlling its use remains unclear (Guardian, link)
Involvement in torture is always a violation of international law by Martin Scheinin (Guardian, link)
UK: Covert army unit played role in Menezes killing - Anti-terror troops deployed in Northern Ireland present at Tube shooting (Guardian, link)
GREECE: Violence Begins to Take Hold (Interpress, link)
UK: Spying on 60 million people doesn't add up (Guardian, link)
CANADA: SIS asked Sudan to arrest Canadian, files reveal - Abdelrazik is 'first case of Canadian rendition (link)
UK: Policemen face charges over Cardiff Three case (Guardian, link): "Thirteen serving and former police officers are facing charges of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice as a result of a 1988 murder investigation for which three innocent men were jailed. It is the largest number of officers ever to face such charges in British legal history."
February 2009
UK: Challenging the Home Office: After the cynical arrest of five men facing deportation, we need a review of counter-terrorism practice more than ever (Guardian. link) by Vitctoria Brittain.
UK: More minorities scanned for ID (BBC News, link): A disproportionate number of Asian and black people are being stopped by police and fingerprinted using a new mobile scanner, the BBC has learned. Of the 29,000 people stopped, 14% were Asian and 16.5% black despite those ethnic groups representing just 4% and 2% of the population respectively."
EU: Commission dismantles data watchdog group (European Voice, link):
"The European Commission has disbanded a group of experts that was supposed to review EU data protection legislation, following complaints in the French parliament that the body comprised people “representing American interests” ".
UK: Identity database accessed by town hall staff without justification: A database which is to be used as a model for the proposed ID card scheme has been accessed more than 30 times by council staff without authority (Daily Telegraph, link)
EU-USA: The United States and Europe Bury the “Swift Affair” (Le Monde, link)
EU: Eurojust supports wire-tapping of Skype conversations (euobserver, link)
UK: Data bill jeopardises confidentiality, say doctors' leaders (Guardian, link): "Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of the British Medical Association, said the profession was "extremely concerned" about legislation tabled by Jack Straw, the justice secretary, which would allow the Department of Health to share information on NHS databases with other ministries and private companies."
EU: European Commission fears 'increasing' espionage (euobserver, link) "The European Commission fears that its confidential documents are increasingly at risk from spies who use a number of covers while working in the EU capital.... The remarks come after the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, a German newspaper. the same day published parts of a confidential letter from the director of the commission's security services to its head of resources.
Germany: 'Europe Is Suffering from Too Little Democracy' (Spiegel Online, link): "Germany's high court is taking a closer look at the European Union's Lisbon Treaty, the document meant to replace the failed EU constitution. Early indications are that it doesn't like what it sees. If Germany says no, the treaty is likely dead. Commentators can't decide whether or not that is good."
UK: Licence to spy on drinkers - The police are forcing publicans to install CCTV before approving their licences (Guardian, link)
UK: Police towed Bristol driver thanks to out of date database (link)
January 2009
UK:Straw plan for private inquests back on agenda - National security cases would be held with no jury (Guardian, link)
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