-Caveat Lector- [radtimes] # 189 An informally produced compendium of vital irregularities. "We're living in rad times!" ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Send $$ to RadTimes!! --> (See ** at end.) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Contents: --Massive New Top Secret Spy-Satellite Program to Cost up to $25 Billion --Swedish police brace for violent protests at EU summit --FBI Warns Infrastructure Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks --September 2001 Mobilization --Opening the Border for FTAA --Big Brother fear as terror law looms --The Taliban do not accept women as a part of society --National Guard may help HPD during ADB convention =================================================================== Published on Sunday, March 18, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times Massive New Top Secret Spy-Satellite Program to Cost up to $25 Billion <http://commondreams.org/headlines01/0318-02.htm> by Peter Pae A team of Southern California aerospace companies is covertly recruiting engineers across the country for a new generation of spy satellites under what analysts believe is the largest intelligence-related contract ever. The supersecret project for the National Reconnaissance Office is estimated to be worth up to $25 billion over two decades, providing a major boost to the Southland's aerospace industry and solidifying the area's dominance of high-tech space research. Equipped with powerful telescopes and radar, the nation's newest eye in space is expected to form the backbone of U.S. intelligence for several decades, analysts said. The satellites will be farther out in space and harder to detect than the massive spy probes that currently orbit the Earth. They will also be able to fly over and take pictures of military compounds anywhere in the world, in darkness or through cloud cover, with far more frequency. Company officials are restricted from talking about the highly classified contract, but Roger Roberts, general manager of the Boeing Co. unit in Seal Beach overseeing the project, gave a hint of its scope. The endeavor will require 5,000 engineers, technicians and computer programmers over the next five years, and that will just be for the initial design and development of the satellites, he said. That figure doesn't include thousands more who will be required to assemble the satellites, most likely at Boeing Satellite Systems in El Segundo, and thousands of workers employed by hundreds of subcontractors and parts suppliers such as the 1,900-employee Marconi Integrated Systems in San Diego. Sending the satellites into space will also require new rockets, which should also bolster the launch industry. The need for engineers has been so great that two months ago Boeing opened a recruitment office in Sunnyvale, where it is targeting both dot-com survivors and Lockheed Martin Corp. engineers who built many of the spy satellites now in orbit. After dominating that business since the 1950s, Lockheed lost the new contract to Boeing. John Pike, a Washington, D.C.-based military space consultant, believes that in all, the work could eventually mean jobs for at least 20,000 people in California. "Lots of kids will be sent to college, lots of swimming pools are going to get built and a lot of people will spend their career working on this project," Pike said. Still, most state officials said they know little about the project. "I don't think most people are aware of how big this is," said Mike Marando, spokesman for the California Technology, Trade and Commerce Agency. "We know California benefits substantially, but by exactly how much we just don't know." The National Reconnaissance Office hasn't helped. The enigmatic agency announced the contract in a three-paragraph news release posted on its bare-bones Web site little more than a year ago. The project is officially known as Future Imagery Architecture. Despite slowly opening itself up in recent years, the NRO still remains one of the most secretive government agencies. Even its innocuous logoa space probe circling the globe, was a secret until 1994. Besides saying it awarded the contract to Boeing "to develop, provide launch integration and operate the nation's next generation of imagery reconnaissance satellites," not much else has been revealed. Virtually everything else about the contract, its dollar amount, the number of satellites to be built, who is doing what and where, and the capabilities of the satellite, is secret. Even the duration of the contract is deemed classified. "This program is so secret that most of the people who work on it won't have a good sense of what they are doing," said Loren Thompson, a defense analyst at the Arlington, Va.-based Lexington Institute. Still, aerospace analysts have been able to draw some conclusions through past reconnaissance programs based on public information gleaned from different sources, such as watching the size and frequency of rocket launches carrying secret spy satellites. Analysts generally agree that the number of satellites involved in the new program will be at least a dozen to two dozen, compared with roughly half a dozen spy satellites now in orbit. The new models are likely to be significantly smaller and cheaper than the current generation of spy satellites, which cost about $1 billion each, weigh 15 tons and can take up to 18 months to build. With a bigger constellation of satellites, the probes will be able to revisit and take pictures of an area more frequently than the current versions. The need is driven in part by inadequacies identified during the Persian Gulf War, when military commanders complained about intelligence photos arriving late. The new system would be less detectable by those being observed. For instance, U.S. intelligence officials were alarmed recently when they found a large contingent of North Korean troops lined up near the demilitarized zone with South Korea. Analysts believe that the North Koreans were able to move troops undetected by coordinating the operation with the orbit of a U.S. spy satellite. And with improvements in optical and radar technology, U.S. intelligence officials hope to place the satellites at a higher orbit so they can take pictures of a ground target for a longer period. Satellites can now "linger" over an area about 10 minutes. U.S. officials hope to double that span with the new probes. In all, the Federation of American Scientists believes the new satellites will be able to collect eight to 20 times more images than the current system. The agency now operates three optical satellites called KeyHole, which take photographic and infrared images, and three school-bus-size radar satellites known as Lacrosse, which can see through clouds and darkness, analysts said. Boeing is building both types of satellites under the contract. "They were talking about integrating new technology and building satellites that are one-third the size that NRO is used to," said Marco A. Caceres, a senior space analyst for the Teal Group in Fairfax, Va. "They're going to be cheaper, but there are also going to be a lot more of them." In an unusual moment of candor, an NRO spokesman confirmed last week that the satellites will be smaller and cheaper but more numerous than the current crop. "I can tell you that we plan to begin launching [the satellites] around . . . 2005," said spokesman Art Haubold. "It's a multiyear effort that will provide a more capable but less costly means of filling the nation's imaging needs." He declined to specify the value of the contract, although he said, "We're talking about a big part of our business. That's all I can say." Boeing and other contractors, which would normally gloat, aren't talking, other than to confirm that they are part of the winning team. Besides Boeing, which will oversee the contract and build the satellites, the other main companies include Raytheon Corp., Eastman Kodak Co. and Harris Corp. Analysts believe that Aerospace Corp., a government-funded research operation in El Segundo, drew up the blueprints for the new satellites. Although the firms declined to discuss the contract, workers at Raytheon in El Segundo are probably developing the radar-imaging equipment as well as the ground-based controls for the satellites. Meanwhile, Rochester, N.Y.-based Eastman Kodak is working on processing the images captured by the satellites. The role of Harris Corp., a Florida-based maker of telecommunications components and provider of support services to the Defense Department, is unclear. "I can only confirm that we are a contractor," said Mark Day, a spokesman for Raytheon's Electronic Systems unit in El Segundo. Raytheon and Boeing's operations in El Segundo both trace their origins to the former Hughes Aircraft Co., a longtime handler of top-secret programs during the Cold War. The NRO, created in 1960 to build and operate spy satellites, has an annual budget of at least $6 billion, exceeding yearly spending of either the Central Intelligence Agency or the National Security Agency. Pike estimates that the new contract accounts for about $1 billion of the annual budget and has a lifetime of at least 20 years. After factoring in about $5 billion for design and development, he believes the total worth of the contract to be as much as $25 billion, which includes building the satellites and maintaining them. In comparison, the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, which at one time employed as many as 125,000 people, cost the U.S. $20 billion after adjustment for inflation. The NRO program "will be the most expensive program in the history of the intelligence community," the Federation of American Scientists recently concluded. Much of that expense will be incurred in the South Bay, an area represented by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Rolling Hills), a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, which last week received a classified briefing about the project from the NRO. "I used to say that the area was the aerospace center of the world," Harman said. "I would now say it is the center of the world for space-based intelligence." Since the 1950s, U.S. spy satellites had mostly been designed and built in Northern California at Lockheed Martin's massive 275-acre Sunnyvale facility, which during its heyday employed more than 30,000 people. It was in Sunnyvale that the first spy satellites, known as Corona, were built. Although it made its last flight in 1972, the project's existence was revealed and declassified only by a special order of President Bill Clinton about 25 years later. Declassified documents say the NRO launched 145 Corona satellites, each of which flew a few days at a time taking photographs with six- to 10-foot resolutions, compared with resolution of approximately six inches on current satellites. Instead of transmitting the images to Earth, Corona capsules were allowed to free-fall and be snatched up in midair by a C-119 Flying Boxcar, often after several attempts. The capsules usually contained hundreds of pounds of film. In late 1999, the NRO stunned the industry and awarded the contract to build the next generation of spy satellites to a Boeing-led team. The competition, which took three years, was considered among the fiercest in recent memory, analysts said. "I wish I can tell you how we won the contract. It's a story worth telling your grandchildren," said James Albaugh, president of Boeing's space and communications business. In aerospace, Boeing's coup was considered a huge turning point that reflected a shift in fortunes of the world's top two defense contractors. Lockheed shares fell for weeks after the news was made public. "This was the most serious loss for Lockheed in a decade," Thompson said. "This was a core business for Lockheed for decades. It was a large part of the reason why Sunnyvale existed at all." The aftermath is visible at Lockheed's Sunnyvale facility; the massive structure in which the first spy satellite took shape was recently torn down for an Internet firm. Nearby, Boeing opened a recruiting office to handle hundreds of applications weekly from Lockheed engineers drawn by a newspaper ad. "Stars. Sunsets. Satellites. Southern California has it all," it said, somewhat boastfully. ------- See also: National Reconnaissance Office <http://www.nro.gov/> =================================================================== Swedish police brace for violent protests at EU summit From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (AFP / Pia Ohlin) news:clari.world.europe.northern Tue, 20 Mar 2001 8:10:33 PST STOCKHOLM, March 20 (AFP) - Swedish police are bracing for the threat of violent protests at a European Union summit meeting in Stockholm this week, fearing a repeat of anti-globalisation demonstrations that have marred recent top-level gatherings. "We don't want to go into the various threat scenarios, other than to say that we are prepared for violent disturbances," Stockholm police spokeswoman Stina Wessling told AFP. Anti-globalisation protests have already managed to disrupt the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the EU summit in Nice, France, and the December 1999 global finance and trade meetings in Seattle, Washington. Wessling said some 1,000 police officers would be mobilised during the two-day EU summit, which opens in a suburb of the Swedish capital on Friday. Fifteen EU heads of state and government will attend the event, as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin and European Commission President Romano Prodi. Some 3,500 politicians, civil servants and journalists are also accredited for the meeting. According to police, more than 15 organisations have sought permission to hold demonstrations on the sidelines of the summit, including the Attac association, which promotes a tax on financial speculation to aid those in need, and the "No to the EU" political movement which groups more than 30 eurosceptic associations. The Swedish-Iraq Committee, the Chinese sect Falungong and the Somalian Association of Sweden are also among those who have applied for protest permits. But police are also preparing for the risk of unannounced demonstrations. The Swedish secret service said earlier this month it was trying to recruit informants among anti-globalisation activists, in order to feed police with inside information on possible protests and prevent ugly clashes between law enforcement officers and demonstrators. "It helps to have a source inside organisations in which (the Swedish secret service) SAEPO is interested," SAEPO chief Jan Danielsson said. Police want to avoid the kind of violence that occurred in Seattle in December 1999, when anti-globalisation demonstrators brought a World Trade Organisation conference to a halt. "We hope of course that we won't have those kinds of disruptions," said Wessling. The recent scourges of foot-and-mouth and mad cow disease affecting Europe could attract the likes of French anti-globalisation activist Jose Bove, a militant who has in recent years rallied tens of thousands of activists to protest against free trade, intensive agriculture and biotechnology. As of Monday, however, no such demonstration had been announced. Wessling said 800 police officers had over the course of the past six months been specially trained on relevant laws, crowd control, and horseback and canine patrol techniques ahead of the summit. Police will be deployed at the Aelvsjoe congress centre in suburban Stockholm where the summit will be held, at city hotels where delegates will be staying, and along the cortege route from the city centre to Aelvsjoe. Traffic disruptions were expected to be minimal in Stockholm city, police said. According to Swedish news agency TT, more than 200 people have been involved in planning security preparations, the cost of which is estimated at 70 million kronor (7.65 million euros, 7.0 million dollars). =================================================================== FBI Warns Infrastructure Vulnerable to Cyber-Attacks http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31203-2001Mar20.html By David A. Vise Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 20, 2001; 3:01 PM Federal facilities, electric power plants and other portions of the nation's critical infrastructure are highly vulnerable to potential cyber-attacks from terrorist groups, rogue nations, disgruntled employees and hackers, the new head of the FBI's cyber-crime fighting unit said today. Ronald L. Dick said that a cyber-attack seriously could damage the nation's economy without closer cooperation among federal agencies and better coordination between corporate America and the FBI-led, multi-agency National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC). More than 5,000 public and private sector sites have been identified as critical and vulnerable, according to the NIPC's Leslie G. Wiser Jr., an FBI veteran. "Information warfare is obviously something the United States, the National Security Council, the Department of Defense, the CIA, the FBI and our private sector partners are very concerned with. We are picking up signs that terrorist organizations are looking at the use of technology," he said, adding that while no attacks thus far have succeeded in disrupting the flow of goods and services, the likelihood of economic disruption in the future is significant. Dick, who introduced a new, high-level NIPC team including representatives from the CIA and the Defense Department, said there are about 1,400 active investigations into cyber-crime with the number mounting daily. He also said there are at least 50 new computer viruses generated weekly that require attention from federal law enforcement officials or the private sector to prevent damage and losses. Notwithstanding the external threat from terrorists, Dick said the biggest immediate problem facing many companies is a lack of appropriate safeguards to prevent former employees who maintain computer access from attacking computer systems vital to commerce. "The biggest threat is the disgruntled employee who can do tremendous damage," he said. The NIPC, has been hampered by behind-the-scenes power struggles among various federal agencies, including on-going difficulties between the Department of Defense and the FBI over which agency ought to be in charge of protecting the nation's critical infrastructure. Both Dick and Rear Admiral James B. Plehal, a naval reserve commander who was named deputy director of the NIPC today, said they are determined to diminish the friction and enhance cooperation. "My technology background consists of a 17-year-old son," Plehal said. "All of what we do concerns relationships. . . . We at DOD need to better demonstrate our commitment." Dick concurred about the need for improved cooperation among federal agencies. "Anytime that you create something new there are problems getting the right people on board," he said. "I want to instill a new sense of ownership and urgency. The true success in being able to deal with these issues is building partnerships." In addition to growing to about 100 people including representatives from the National Security Agency, the Air Force, the Commerce Department and the Department of Energy the NIPC has established ties with 946 individual representatives from corporations and other entities that have joined its global information-sharing network. Out of those, 503 have been granted "secure access" to sensitive data necessary for battling cyber-crime. The private sector also has established industry groups of its own in technology, telecommunications, financial services and other sectors that interact with the FBI and the NIPC. However, one major remaining hurdle for the the NIPC is that numerous business executives fear that involvement with the FBI will hurt their enterprises by bringing public attention to cyber-problems that might otherwise be addressed privately. FBI Director Louis J. Freeh said today that Dick, who has been with the bureau for 24 years, is the right person to lead the NIPC through the next phase of its growth. Dick, who studied accounting in college but has investigated everything from violent crimes to drug crimes to financial fraud, most recently headed the NIPC's computer investigations unit. "Ron Dick has a wealth of experience," Freeh said. Dick is replacing Michael Vatis, the founding head of the NIPC, who left the FBI recently to pursue opportunities in the private sector. "He is one of those unique individuals who can see, over the hill, where we have been and where we need to go," Dick said of Vatis. "Mike and a number of people here in the past were truly visionary. The bureau has never done this before. This is uncharted territory." =================================================================== September 2001 Mobilization September 2001 Mobilization! Mark Your Calendars Now! Washington, DC: September 28 - October 4 A Call Issued By: 50 Years Is Enough Network; Mexico Solidarity Network; Essential Action; Center for Economic Justice; Nicaragua Network; Global Exchange; Jubilee South Africa; ACERCA; Native Forest Network - Gulf of Maine; Native Forest Network -Southwestern US; Native Forest Network - Eastern North America Resource Center; STITCH; Freedom from Debt Coalition (Philippines); Alliance for Global Justice; Campaign for Labor Rights; Jobs with Justice The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank will be holding their Joint Annual General Meetings in Washington, DC from September 28 to October 4, 2001. We call on activists from all over the world to come to Washington during that week to protest and expose the illegitimacy of the institutions and officials who continue to claim the right to determine the course of the world economy. In April 2000, some 30,000 activists came to Washington to protest the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank. The fall meetings are an even more important target for protests: instead of a few hundred bankers and bureaucrats, about 20,000 usually descend on Washington for the annual meetings. The IMF and the World Bank are the primary architects of neo-liberal globalization. Their meetings in Washington are the most significant gathering of the proponents of corporate-led globalization in the U.S. in 2001. It is imperative that supporters of global economic justice send a clear message: the movement for global justice continues to grow, and will not stand for continuing efforts by these institutions and the G-7 governments to structure the world for the benefit of corporations and the wealthy and to deny basic justice to the majority of the world's people. Among the groups issuing this call are those who issued the first call for the April 2000 mobilization. We helped create the Mobilization for Global Justice for that event, and in cooperation with Jobs with Justice and others later helped organize over 65 nationwide events in September 2000 in solidarity with protesters in Prague at the time of the 2000 IMF/World Bank annual meetings. Those of us in Washington are now part of the local coalition (again assembled under the banner Mobilization for Global Justice) organizing for teach-ins, trainings, and demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and in solidarity with activists opposing it at the Quebec Summit of the Americas April 18-22. Actions in Washington will include demonstrations at the U.S. Trade Representative's office and outside the spring meetings of the IMF and World Bank on April 29. The FTAA will be the focus of the Washington actions as we make the link between longstanding economic positions of the IMF/World Bank and the trade regime embodied in the FTAA. We will work to rally the same coalition of forces that came together in April 2000 as we work to organize for September 2001. We will also (and have already started) work to reach out to the many groups working on the issues within the U.S. that parallel those in the IMF/World Bank struggle: access to health care, welfare reform, labor rights, discrimination, people of color, environmental justice, etc. We issue this call now, ahead of the formal beginning of that organizing effort, to alert activists to an upcoming imperative and opportunity. At the World Social Forum, which drew 16,000 activists to Porto Alegre, Brazil in January, 2001, there was broad support for IMF/World Bank protest actions in September. In Porto Alegre, we distributed about 2000 flyers (in Portuguese, English, Spanish, and French) inviting people to Washington between September 28 and October 4. The 50 Years Is Enough Network will circulate a set of demands of the IMF and World Bank, developed in consultation with colleagues in the Global South, for which we hope to gain broad endorsement. As part of the preparation for the September actions, the Network, in cooperation with others, is also organizing "teach-in tours" in the U.S. and Canada, featuring colleagues from the Global South who will share their experiences and struggles of resistance to corporate-led globalization, the international debt burden, structural adjustment programs, the HIV/AIDS crisis, economic and political oppression, as well as their organizing efforts in advance of the September actions. For more information contact the 50 Years Is Enough Network [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: +1-202-463-2265 www.50years.org =================================================================== Opening the Border for FTAA by CARLYN ZWARENSTEIN Tue Mar 20 '01 Americans coming north to protest free trade talks in Quebec City next month will find the border open, if Shawn Brant has his way. A Mohawk from the community of Tyendinaga and an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), Brant will take part in a plan to open the international border near Cornwall, Ont., on the weekend of the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas talks in Quebec City (April 20-22).The border cuts through the Mohawk territory of Akwesasne, which overlaps Ontario, Quebec and the United States. "My motivation is to assert and reinforce the sovereign integrity of Mohawk people within the Mohawk nation and to bring the organizing bodies together so we can stand and fight in preparation for the fall," he says, referring to a series of actions with which OCAP and allied groups plan to confront the Ontario government. "We will engage in attacks against the provincial economy, the provincial infrastructure. We will shut down highways, roadways, bridges until this government is brought to its knees." As Brant describes it, people will assemble in Cornwall on April 19 and then move into Akwesasne, while supporters from the US will gather on the American side of the border. And then? "The Mohawks of Akwesasne will have pre-secured the bridge," says Brant, though he is reluctant to go into details. "That's probably something that wouldn't be best to publish, tactically," he says. "We are preparing for every possible scenario. Certainly an aggressive stand by the state would not stop us from pursuing our objective -- we'll respond to force with force and to opposition with opposition." Meanwhile, OCAP is forming networks with Mohawk communities in the area. A recent OCAP tour raised interest among Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca communities south of the border. The action has been endorsed by the Cornwall Labour Council (CLC), the Kingston-based People's Community Union (PCU) and members of the Mohawk communities of Akwesasne and Kahnawake. The CLC has sent letters to the elected leadership in Akwesasne, requesting their support. Brant maintains that although some members of the Akwesasne Mohawk community may oppose a potentially explosive action, none oppose opening the border. "The border is a barrier to community life in Akwesasne," says Brant, who must submit to car searches and ID checks at Customs in order to visit relatives who live in the same Mohawk territory, but across the border. "It is the right of the Mohawk nation to determine who can cross the border," he adds. According to Darren Bonaparte, the Akwesasne author of A Line on a Map: A Mohawk Perspective on the International Border at Akwesasne, the Mohawks have had a love-hate relationship with the border over the years. During Prohibition it provided opportunity for illegal profit through alcohol trading, and more recently cigarettes and foreign nationals have illicitly traveled north and south, respectively. The border action was news to Canada Customs spokesperson Collette Gentes-Hawn. "Have we been officially notified?" she asks. Still, she's not surprised. "This wouldn't be the first time there are demonstrations on this bridge," she adds, noting that a court case relating to the border is outstanding. The case, launched by Grand Chief Mike Mitchell and the Mohawk Council, alleges that the feds knew about cigarette smuggling across the border, but used the Mohawks as scapegoats rather than acting against the tobacco industry. According to Brant, the action is really about the free-trade-friendly policies of the Ontario government, which are of concern to poor people and First Nations alike: "[Free trade] does everything to help corporations, and absolutely shit to help people in poverty." =================================================================== Big Brother fear as terror law looms <http://athensnews.dolnet.gr/athweb/nathens.prnt_article?e=C&f=12901&t=01&m=A04&aa=2> BY DEREK GATOPOULOS Athens News 16/03/2001 SENIOR Greek legal experts have strongly condemned government plans to overhaul laws on terrorism and organised crime, warning that lax control of surveillance and DNA testing could create a "Big Brother" state. They follow calls from civil liberties groups and left-wing opposition parties against the draft legislation which was presented by the justice ministry on Monday and is likely to be approved by parliament next month. The changes introduce non-jury criminal trials, a limited right of appeal, DNA testing without consent, sweeping police powers of infiltration and surveillance, and impose 10-year jail terms for members of serious crime gangs. "This effort to try and tackle both drug trafficking and terrorism together has made the provisions vague and therefore dangerous," said Yiannis Panoussis, a professor of criminology who resigned from a panel of experts created to draw up the new law. "This could fertilise the egg of Big Brother." He suggested delaying the changes for a year. Athens Bar Association leaders and even a former counter-terrorism expert also have serious doubts. "The inability of police to prosecute terrorists does not mean the existing laws are not adequate. They are," said Mary Bossi, a former advisor to the government on terrorism. Greece is faced with a pressing need to improve its crime-fighting ability as gangs across the Balkans, smuggling guns, drugs and immigrants, grow more powerful and security plans are laid down for the 2004 Olympics in Athens. A drastic increase in police patrols has sharply cut the number of arson attacks by anarchist groups in Athens, but November 17 and other deadly urban guerrilla groups continue to escape prosecution. Lawmakers from the ruling socialists and opposition conservatives support the crime proposals involving 10 major amendments. These make no distinction between terrorist groups and criminal gangs. Suspects in both cases face trial in a jury-free court of three appeals judges. Witnesses could be offered anonymity, immunity from prosecution and participation in a witness protection programme. Illegal immigrants will be offered residence permits. Surveillance using cameras and bugging devices, as well as the interception of bank records, letters, e-mails, mobile phone data etc, will all be sanctioned by a panel of judges and no longer need permission from service providers. Police sources say this could speed up access from up to several months to a few days. Judges will also supervise DNA testing. On "serious grounds" of suspicion, suspects will be tested without their consent. The data will be destroyed when their case is concluded. But critics say there is little to stop the information being misused or entered illegally into a DNA database. Police in Britain maintain a giant DNA database, fast approaching a million samples. Many surveillance cameras - again there are about a million in total - can read licence plates on a car, and some use face-recognition technology. In Germany, DNA samples from more than 16,000 men were taken to solve a rape and murder case three years ago, an action that would not be possible under the proposed Greek law. And in the United States, reliance on statewide gene databases is so heavy that criminals in New York have been granted the right to DNA testing if trying to prove wrongful conviction. British and American assistance provided to police here has sounded some alarm bells. The Greek Communist Party (KKE) said the bill would create a vast surveillance network and described it as "another weapon trained on people's rights and freedoms". The government dismissed the charges of outside influence and said the value of technology outweighs the risks. "It has reached the point where [critics] say that the CIA is making the laws and not [me]," said Justice Minister Michalis Stathopoulos. "Lawmakers cannot stop making laws because of risks, which are fewer in a democracy." =================================================================== 'The Taliban do not accept women as a part of society' <http://www.tehelka.com/currentaffairs/mar2001/ca032001afghan1.htm> The members of the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (RAWA) are struggling against vast odds, often risking their own lives for a democratic, non-fundamentalist and women-friendly regime in Afghanistan. V K Shashikumar, Mehmooda of RAWA talks about the almost pathological misogyny of the Taliban, and of RAWA's struggle to survive New Delhi, March 20 Women's rights have moved rapidly backwards into the unknown in Afghanistan under the Taliban militia's horrifically stringent rule. The ravages of three decades of continuous conflict, drought and disease has turned this hardy land into a nation of refugees, single mothers and orphans. Together, they make up a large portion of the country's considerable refugee population. Women and children comprise a large percentage of the estimated 170,000 refugees who have poured into the poorly-equipped and overcrowded refugee camps in neighbouring Pakistan, since September last year. RAWA, based in Quetta, has been in the forefront of the women's movement in Afghanistan. It calls itself the only feminist anti-fundamentalist organisation of Afghan women". Mehmooda outlines the reasons behind the almost pathological misogyny that underlies much of the Taliban's actions. "Most of the Taliban (cadres) have experienced sexual abuses by their seniors during their youth in the religious schools (madrasas). It may have created a kind of complex in them, which has made them so bestial towards women. It must be clear that homosexuality is very common among these 'champions of Islam'." What are the living conditions of women and children in Afghanistan today? Life for women under fundamentalist regimes like the Taliban is terrible. The fundamentalists do not accept women as a part of society. Afghanistan is now a ghost country, and due to the heavy fighting and rising crime rates, women in the country are little more than zombies. They are not allowed to go for treatment, get education, or enjoy any entertainment. They are lashed on the streets for the strangest reasons and their hands and feet are cut off if they were to steal a loaf of bread. The extremists have formed a state were women are seen as subhuman creatures, whose role is to satisfy men's sexual needs, procreate, and handle domestic affairs. Women are altogether deprived of an education, the right to work, and cannot leave the house without a male escort (usually a close relative). No woman can be treated or operated on by a male physician. They are forced to wear shapeless bags called burqas, in pale colours only, to completely cover their bodies. Not even their ankles or wrists may show. No make-up, heels that make a clicking sound, singing or laughing aloud is tolerated. These restrictions are imposed, because anything female is seen as tempting a man to depart from his duties to God. In their extreme dishonouring of Islam, even the windows of all homes have been painted, so that women cannot be seen from the outside. Women are not allowed to be photographed or filmed or printed in newspapers. These are just a rundown of their despotic limitations. =================================================================== Wednesday, March 21, 2001 National Guard may help HPD during ADB convention <http://doit1.starbulletin.com/breaking/FMPro?-db=breaking.fp3&-format=record%5fdetail.htm&-lay=web&-sortfield=cpriority&-sortfield=serial&-sortorder=descend&public=yes&-recid=36164&-find=> Some members have undergone training Members of the Hawaii Army and Air National Guard could be called to assist police during the Asian Development Bank meeting in the Hawaii Convention Center May 7-11, said Capt. Charles Anthony, National Guard spokesman. "There are certain individuals and units who may be on alert at that time," Anthony said. But he would not say how many individuals or what type of units have been notified. There are at least 3,500 National Guard members on Oahu and an additional 1,000 on the neighbor islands. Anthony said National Guard soldiers and airmen have undergone civil-disobedience and other training for the Asian Development Bank meeting. "Yes, National Guard has increased some of the type of training with respect to situations that might come up during ADB." That training included briefings by the Honolulu Police Department, the primary agency responsible for providing security during the meeting. The meeting is expected to draw 3,000 participants and an undetermined number of protesters. =================================================================== "Anarchy doesn't mean out of control. It means out of 'their' control." -Jim Dodge ====================================================== "Communications without intelligence is noise; intelligence without communications is irrelevant." -Gen. Alfred. M. Gray, USMC ====================================================== "It is not a sign of good health to be well adjusted to a sick society." -J. Krishnamurti ====================================================== "The world is my country, all mankind my brethren, and to do good is my religion." -Thomas Paine ====================================================== " . . . it does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds . . . " -Samuel Adams ====================================================== "You may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there will be no results." -Gandhi ______________________________________________________________ To subscribe/unsubscribe or for a sample copy or a list of back issues, send appropriate email to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. ______________________________________________________________ **How to assist RadTimes: An account is available at <www.paypal.com> which enables direct donations. If you are a current PayPal user, use this email address: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, to contribute. 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