C E B O . org

Posted 11:23 PM by The Moderator

American Civil Liberties Union
Emerging “Surveillance-Industrial Complex” Is Turbo-Charging Government Monitoring, ACLU Warns in New Report

NEW YORK - August 9 - The government is rapidly increasing its ability to monitor average Americans by tapping into the growing amount of consumer data being collected by the private sector, according to a major report released today by the American Civil Liberties Union.

"The U.S. security establishment is reaching deeper and deeper into our private lives by forcing the corporate sector to inform on the activities of individuals," said Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU. "The government has always recruited informers to help convict criminals, but today that recruitment is being computerized, automated, and used against innocent individuals on a massive scale that is unprecedented in the history of our nation."

The release of the 38-page report, entitled "The Surveillance-Industrial Complex: How the American Government is Conscripting Businesses and Individuals in the Construction of a Surveillance Society," marks the launch of the ACLU’s Surveillance Campaign, which is designed to regain consumers’ personal privacy rights by mobilizing people to contact prominent companies – such as drugstore chains, insurance companies and retailers – to ask them to take a "no-spy pledge" to defend their customers’ privacy against government intrusion. A list of suggested companies for consumers to contact is available online at www.aclu.org/privatize.

"An important step in regaining control of our personal privacy is to demand that businesses not acquiesce in being drafted into adjuncts of a surveillance state," said Barry Steinhardt, Director of the ACLU’s Technology and Liberty Program, which produced the report. "If a big company won’t defend its customers’ privacy, then consumers should take their business to a company that will."

Posted 10:33 PM by The Moderator

Blackwell Halts Deployment Of Diebold Voting Machines For 2004 July 16, 2004

COLUMBUS – Ohio Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell today halted deployment of Diebold Election Systems’ electronic voting devices in Ohio for the 2004 General Election. The decision is based on preliminary findings from the secretary of state's second round of security testing conducted by Compuware Corporation showing the existence of previously identified, but yet unresolved security issues. Hardin, Lorain and Trumbull counties had selected to use new Diebold equipment this November. Those counties will use their current voting devices in 2004.
“As I made clear last year, I will not place these voting devices before Ohio’s voters until identified risks are corrected,” Blackwell said. “Diebold Election Systems has successfully addressed many, but not all, of the problems that were identified in our first security review. The lack of comprehensive resolution prevents me from giving county boards of elections a green light for this November.
“I look forward to working with Diebold Election Systems and our other qualified election system vendors as they continue to bolster security and develop voting devices that meet Ohio’s requirement for voter-verifiable paper audit trails.”
In December 2003, Secretary Blackwell released results from two comprehensive examinations identifying 57 potential security risks within the software and hardware of the voting devices offered by Ohio’s qualified electronic voting systems vendors: Diebold Election Systems, Election Systems and Software, Hart Intercivic, and Sequoia Voting Systems. He ordered the voting machine manufacturers to resolve all of the identified issues or face a halt in deployment.
Diebold Election Systems was the only vendor to submit revised voting software and hardware for retesting.
Compuware Corporation, based in Detroit, conducted the thorough technical analysis of each of the electronic voting

Posted 5:22 PM by The Moderator

U.S.: Released Documents on Torture Not Sufficient (Human Rights Watch, June 23, 2004): ".S.: Released Documents on Torture Not Sufficient
Commission Needed to Probe Treatment of Detainees
(New York, June 23, 2004) ? Documents released Tuesday by the U.S. Department of Defense on interrogation procedures at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, raise more questions than they answer, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch called for a 9/11-style independent commission to probe the issue of detainee abuse.
The released documents stop in April 2003 and do not cover practices at Abu Ghraib and other military prisons in Iraq, Human Rights Watch said. Even so, they show that in December, 2002, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld approved the use of techniques, such as the use of guard dogs to instill fear in detainees, stripping detainees nude, and the use of painful stress positions, that violate the law. Rumsfeld later rescinded his approval of these techniques on Guantanamo detainees, yet they later featured prominently in the abuses at Abu Ghraib.

?This selective release of documents raises more questions than it answers,? said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. ?We need an independent investigation, not a selective self-investigation.?

Human Rights Watch said that the released documents show the beginning of the story, how illegal tactics were approved in Guantanamo, but they do not show how these tactics, or even more abusive methods, were later approved and applied in Afghanistan and Iraq and resulted in the torture and other mistreatment of detainees in those places

Human Rights Watch also pointed out that the memos released Tuesday concern interrogation techniques by the Department of Defense, and that little or nothing has been provided about CIA in"

Posted 3:23 PM by The Moderator

Guilty Until Proven Innocent.At President's Whim
Humanists Find High Court Unwilling to Accept its Responsibilities

(Washington, DC) "Today the Supreme Court abdicated its responsibility to
uphold the constitution," states Tony Hileman, Executive Director of the
American Humanist Association. "In removing an important part of our system
of checks and balances, the power of the executive branch of government has
been inappropriately expanded."

The Court's ruling in Hamdi v. Rumsfeld leaves the president with the power
to name anyone an "enemy combatant" and hold that person without charges or
trial. According to the majority opinion written by Justice Sandra Day O'
Connor, enemy combatants retain their right to an attorney, but only for the
purpose of appealing their loss of habeas corpus and their designation as an
enemy combatant. Even then, the accused must prove his or her innocence and
the government is given the advantage-guilty until proven innocent. O'Connor
further writes, "Hearsay, for example, may need to be accepted as the most
reliable available evidence from the government on such a proceeding."

Fred Edwords, editor of the _Humanist_ magazine, responded, "It appears that
when O'Connor said, 'We affirm today the fundamental nature of a citizen's
right to be free from involuntary confinement,' her words were empty
platitudes. The Court overlooked the severity of the harm done when
potentially innocent citizens can be imprisoned until the 'end of
hostilities', (perhaps indefinitely. considering the nature of the so-called
war on terror) without a trial that truly addresses the merits of their
crime."

Justices Antonin Scalia and John Paul Stevens rebutted the decision, arguing
that foreigners might appropriately be designated enemy combatants but
American citizens must be treated differently. "In defense of his position,"
responds Edwords, "Scalia writes that this decision goes against our
constitutional tradition: 'The very core of liberty secured by our
Anglo-Saxon system of separated powers has been freedom from indefinite
imprisonment at the will of the Executive.'"

In a concurring opinion, Justices David Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg went
further than Scalia, suggesting that the Executive has no right to detain
Hamdi and suggests that even those who are not U.S. citizens should be
granted greater freedoms. Souter referenced the Geneva Conventions' rules on
prisoners of war, and the USA PATRIOT Act's limitation of detention to no
more than seven days for alien terrorists. Souter adds, "There is reason to
question whether the United States is acting in accordance with the laws of
war it claims to follow."

The Court also decided today not to decide on the case against Jose Padilla,
on which they heard oral arguments this past April, missing another chance
to reinforce constitutional liberties.

Edwords concluded, "First, Congress abdicated responsibility by giving the
president Carte Blanc to make war whenever and wherever he wished, now the
Supreme Court abdicates its responsibility to protect individual liberties."

Posted 10:35 PM by The Moderator

League of Women Voters Drops Support of Paperless Voting Machines: "Published on Tuesday, June 15, 2004 by the Associated Press
League of Women Voters Drops Support of Paperless Voting Machines
by Rachel Konrad

The League of Women Voters rescinded its support of paperless voting machines after hundreds of angry members voiced concern that paper ballots were the only way to safeguard elections from fraud, hackers or computer malfunctions.
About 800 delegates who attended the nonpartisan league's biennial convention in Washington voted overwhelmingly Monday in favor of a resolution that supports 'voting systems and procedures that are secure, accurate, recountable and accessible"

Posted 8:53 AM by The Moderator

Speaker Pushes Jobs Bill Provision (washingtonpost.com): "
Speaker Pushes Jobs Bill Provision
Religious Leaders Would Be Allowed More Freedom to Participate in Partisan Politics
By Alan Cooperman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, June 9, 2004; Page A19
House Republican leaders have tacked on to a major jobs bill a provision that would give religious leaders more freedom to engage in partisan politics without endangering the tax-exempt status of their churches.


Conservative Christian groups have been pushing for such legislation for years, while civil liberties organizations and religious minorities have opposed it. But unlike past proposals, which were stand-alone bills, the current provision is attached to a huge tax bill that House leaders have placed on a fast track for consideration.
A spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee, Christin Tinsworth, said the provision was inserted in the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 at the request of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) because 'this is an election year and there are not many bills that will become law this year.' Hastert's office did not respond to repeated calls Monday and yesterday seeking comment.
The provision's conservative Christian backers, including the Southern Baptist Convention, say selective enforcement by the IRS has had a 'chilling effect' on evangelical churches. Some also say the tax code, which was changed in 1954 to prohibit churches from engaging in partisan activity, has deprived religious groups of their historical place in U.S. politics.
But the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, called the latest legislation a 'back-door attempt' to revise tax laws to help President Bush's reelection campaign.

Posted 8:24 PM by The Moderator

CNEWS - World - War On Terrorism: Civil liberties groups raise concerns over FBI's information sharing program: "
May 31, 2004

Civil liberties groups raise concerns over FBI's information sharing program

By JOEL STASHENKO

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) - Civil-liberties groups are voicing concerns over a first-in-the-country system giving local police in New York and Vermont instant access to federal files on terrorism.
Critics of the pilot program caution that it poses an 'enormous risk' of arrest and detention of people without cause. However, officials announcing the new information-sharing system last week emphasized that civil liberties will be protected. "