Posted by admin on Sep 17th, 2009
By Patrick Martin, 17 September 2009, wsws. org
In a letter from the Justice Department to the Senate Judiciary Committee, the Obama administration has gone on record for the first time supporting the extension of key provisions of the USA Patriot Act, including the notorious provision that gives the federal government the power to subpoena library records of any individual. Several provisions of the Patriot Act, legislation adopted in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks that grants sweeping surveillance powers to US intelligence agencies, are scheduled to expire December 31, unless renewed by Congress. The House and Senate judiciary committees have scheduled hearings next week on the proposed reauthorizations.
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Posted by admin on Sep 16th, 2009
By Jeff Lee, Canwest News Service, September 16, 2009
VANCOUVER – Civil-rights activists say they’re worried police are infiltrating anti-Olympics groups, with a plan to influence or direct illegal activities that would justify a crackdown during the 2010 Winter Games. Robert Holmes, the president of the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said he tried twice without success to get the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (ISU) to promise not to place “agents provocateurs” in positions of power within anti-Olympics groups.
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Posted by admin on Sep 11th, 2009
KIRK MAKIN, Globe and Mail, Sep 11, 2002
An Algerian man who was turned over by Canada to the U.S. and imprisoned for five years as a possible terrorist is accusing federal lawyers of a cover up. Lawyers for Benamar Benatta will seek a court order today directing the government to hand over documents that could shed light on why Mr. Benatta was spirited out of Canada on Sept. 12, 2001 – the day after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
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Posted by admin on Sep 1st, 2009
By Tom Eley, 1 September 2009, WSWS
The Obama administration disclosed on August 27 that it will carry on Bush administration policies that allowed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to seize and search international travelers’ laptop computers, cellular phones, cameras, and other electronic devices, even in the absence of suspicion of criminal activity. Two DHS directives made public Thursday formalize operational practices established by the Bush administration to carry out searches of the personal digital instruments of travelers, US citizens or not, passing across US borders. By proclaiming that agents can confiscate any digital device that may contain “information,” even without suspicion of criminal activity, the directives amount to an open repudiation of the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures.
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Posted by admin on Aug 22nd, 2009
By Mike Blanchfield, Canwest News Service. August 22, 2009
Calling asylum seekers a “vulnerable group,” Canada’s privacy commissioner expressed concern yesterday about a new government plan to share fingerprint information with Britain and Australia to combat immigration fraud. The three-country agreement was announced yesterday with little fanfare, with all three countries providing assurances that no one’s privacy would be violated and that no database for the prints would be created.
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