Aftermath News

50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.

It has not been decided whether the civilian patrollers will wear special clothing or to what level they will be vetted – leading to fears that vigilantes or busybodies will try to become involved.

Daily Mail | Jul 27, 2010

PC Joe Public: Now YOU can go on the beat: Unprecedented police shake-up will see unpaid civilians patrol with bobbies

By James Slack

In the biggest shake-up of policing for 50 years, ministers want the public to patrol alongside beat bobbies.

They also intend to recruit up to 50,000 extra special constables to flood crime-plagued neighbourhoods with an army of volunteers.

And villages will be protected by a new breed of ‘police reservists’, modeled on part-time firemen and the Territorial Army.

The coalition government yesterday set out plans for communities to ‘reconnect’ with police forces which have disappeared behind their desks, engulfed by a flood of red tape.

But the radical reforms are already being dismissed by Labour as ‘policing on the cheap’ and a fig leaf for cuts in fully sworn officers.

Home Secretary Theresa May said her plans were ‘the most radical reforms to policing in at least 50 years’. She also announced:

• The introduction of directly-elected police commissioners with the power to sack chief constables, along with the prospect of elected U.S.-style prosecutors
• The creation of a National Crime Agency to ‘tackle organised crime and protect our borders’
• Regular beat meetings in supermarkets and old people’s homes to hold officers to account
• ‘Virtual’ get-togethers on social networking websites such as Facebook and Twitter
• A bonfire of health and safety regulations that tie police in red tape

Mrs May said her reforms, part of David Cameron’s Big Society project, would ‘transfer power back to the people’ and make police into ‘crime fighters not form writers’.

Labour responded that the Government was seeking to replace police and community support officers with unpaid volunteers.

Ex-Home Secretary Alan Johnson said: ‘People volunteer to run the Scouts, not catch criminals. This is simply a cover for massive cuts to the number of police on the beat.’

But ministers said it was about giving local people the opportunities they need to join the fight against the loutish behaviour which took root under the last government.

The document says: ‘Across the country, we want to support more active citizens: taking part in joint patrols with the police, looking out for their neighbours and passing on safety tips as part of Neighbourhood Watch groups or as Community Crime Fighters.’

Policing Minister Nick Herbert gave the example of street pastors who go out alongside police officers to help deal with the tidal wave of drunkenness in town centres.

It has not been decided whether the civilian patrollers will wear special clothing or to what level they will be vetted – leading to fears that vigilantes or busybodies will try to become involved.

However they are likely to hold only the standard power of citizen’s arrest.

The planned expansion in the number of special constables – who have full police powers, but are not paid – would deliver the most dramatic change to the police service in decades.

The document says: ‘By volunteering their free time, special constables and other police volunteers provide a tangible way for citizens to make a difference in their communities. They have a long history within the police.

‘The number peaked at over 67,000 in the 1950s, but fell to around 24,000 in 1974 and 11,000 in 2004, although it has climbed to 15,000 today.

We want to see more special constables and explore new ideas to help unlock the potential of police volunteers in the workforce, for example as police “reservists”.

These would be modelled on part-time fire crews in rural communities who are on standby ready to respond to emergencies. They are paid, but less than full-time firemen.

The plans come with the Home Office is trying to identify budget cuts of between 25 and 40 per cent.

Experts have predicted 60,000 police staff, including officers, could be axed. Labour suspects that ministers will seek to replace them with unpaid volunteers.

But Mrs May said: ‘For this government, police reform is a priority, not just because we inherited the worst public finances of any major economy, but because for too long the police have become disconnected from the communities they serve, they have been bogged down by bureaucracy and they have answered to distant politicians instead of to the people.’

She added that ‘terrorism, serious and organised crime and cyber-crime require new approaches which cross not just police force boundaries but international borders as well’.

Labour’s Serious Organised Crime Agency will be scrapped in favour of a new National Crime Agency, which will include organised crime, border policing, and the Child Exploitation and Online Protection centre.

Soca was criticised last year when figures showed that for every £15 of public money it spent, just £1 was recovered from criminals.

The National Policing Improvement Agency – a quango criticised for lavishing tens of millions of pounds on consultants – will be phased out.

The Association of Chief Police Officers will be told it must become more accountable to the public.

Elected police commissioners with the power to hire and fire chief constables will be in place within two years, Home Secretary Theresa May announced yesterday.

The idea had faced a blizzard of protest from some chief constables and police authorities who claim the move could lead to the politicisation of the police service.

But the Home Secretary said it was vital to ‘re-establish the links between the police and the public’.

She said only seven per cent of the public know that they can go to a police authority – a panel of local councillors and other public figures – if they have a problem with their local force. The first elections will take place in May 2012.

Commissioners will serve fixed four-year terms, with a maximum of two terms. Their pay has yet to be set.

They will be monitored by a new Police and Crime Panel, made up of councillors and other lay members.

Mrs May was yesterday forced to deny that these are simply police authorities by another name.

The most extreme power the commissioners will have is to fire a chief constable – prompting concerns that they could sack a perfectly good senior officer who they do not personally like.

They will also be able to compel local police teams to hold regular beat meetings. The Home Office said these could take place in supermarkets, old people’s homes and schools.

But the commissioners could be sacked only if the Independent Police Complaints Commission rules that ‘serious misconduct’ has taken place.

Shadow Home Secretary Alan Johnson said the cost of elected commissioners had been estimated at £50million.

He labelled the proposal an ‘unnecessary, unwanted and expensive diversion’.

Lib Dem MP Tom Brake said: ‘These proposals should not be seen as a green light for the election of characters more interested in populism than effective co-operative policing’.

And Richard Kemp, vice-chairman of the Local Government Association, said: ‘In difficult financial circumstances, we have to ask if this is the right time to change structures through additional elections, which could cost the same as 700 police officers.’

Commissioners will be elected under an as-yet-undecided form of proportional representation.

One option is to adopt an Alternative Vote system, where the bottom-placed candidate is excluded and their votes reallocated until one candidate achieves 50 per cent support.

Ministers believe this will reduce the chances of an extremist fringe party such as the BNP seizing control of a police force.

In a surprise move, Mrs May yesterday also raised the prospect of having directly-elected prosecutors.

It followed an outpouring of anger from MPs over the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision not to prosecute the police officer captured on film striking Ian Tomlinson at the G20 protests.

Mr Tomlinson collapsed and died shortly afterwards but, last week, the Director of Public Prosecutions said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Whitehall sources said the door was being left open to making prosecutors more accountable to the public. In the U.S. have elected District Attorneys.

 Daily Mail | Jul 26, 2010

By Neil Sears

Dr David Kelly: A KGB spy says that the doctor was 'exterminated'

A former Russian spy’s dossier which suggests that Government scientist David Kelly was ‘ exterminated’ in a planned assassination is being studied by the Attorney General.

Boris Karpichkov, who fled to Britain after 15 years as a KGB agent, claims a London intelligence contractor linked to MI5 told him Dr Kelly’s death was not suicide.

Mr Karpichkov has emailed his evidence to Attorney General Dominic Grieve – who has already said he is ‘concerned’ by questions raised by doctors who dispute the official suicide ruling over the Iraq expert’s death.

Last night a spokesman for Mr Grieve confirmed that the dossier had been received, and that it was being ‘considered’.

Dr Kelly’s body was discovered in woods close to his Oxfordshire home in July 2003.

Tony Blair’s Labour Government had controversially unmasked him as the source of a hotly-disputed BBC news story that claimed a dossier used to justify the war on Iraq had been ‘sexed up’.

Lord Hutton’s public inquiry ruled that Dr Kelly killed himself, but since the ousting of Labour in May there has been growing pressure from within the coalition Government for a new independent inquiry.

A group of doctors have claimed Dr Kelly could not have died as a result of cutting his left wrist with a blunt garden pruning knife, and it has emerged that his death certificate was left incomplete.

There is also outrage at the fact that full details of his postmortem examination are to be kept secret for 70 years, and that no inquest took place.

Campaigners also note that on the morning of his death Dr Kelly sent an email warning of ‘many dark actors playing games’.

The new allegations from Mr Karpichkov suggest directly that the ‘dark actors’ could have been British secret agents determined to silence Dr Kelly before he could embarrass the Government.

The former Russian spy, who defected from Latvia to Britain in 1998, says the source of his dossier is ‘agent’ Peter Everett, who lives in Dulwich, South-East London, and until 2006 ran a shadowy firm, Group Global Intelligence Services.

The firm is understood to have employed former MI5 operatives to carry out detective work for corporations.

Mr Karpichkov, who now holds a British passport, claims in his dossier that he worked for Mr Everett too, and that one of their dozens of meetings took place two days after Dr Kelly’s body was found.

Mr Everett told him, the former KGB man claims, that Dr Kelly had been ‘ exterminated’ for his ‘ reckless behaviour’.

Mr Karpichkov says Mr Everett suggested he was himself an ‘active field operative’ for MI5, and continues: ‘He told me that it was extremely uncomfortable, inconsistent and unusual for Dr Kelly to slash his arm in the way he did. He would have lost some blood, but it would not have been fatal.

‘He also claimed that it was not a coincidence that Special Branch officers were the ones who first appeared on the scene. They moved Dr Kelly’s body to another location, changed the original position of his corpse and took away incriminating evidence.

‘He added that the scene where Dr Kelly’s body was found was carefully arranged and completely “washed out”, including the destruction of all fingerprints.

‘When I asked who was behind his death, he [ Mr Everett] answered indirectly, saying the “competing firm”, which I took to mean MI6.’

At the weekend, Mr Everett confirmed that he had met Mr Karpichkov, and that he had discussed Dr Kelly’s death. But he denied being party to any secret s about the incident.

He refused to comment on whether he had ever worked for MI5, but agreed he had ‘spent a number of years working in the world of intelligence’.

Mr Karpichkov’s dossier comes on top of a claim by Dr Kelly’s colleague Mai Pedersen that the chemical warfare expert had been too weak to slash his own wrist.

NY Times | Jul 16, 2010

By ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — The lower house of the Russian Parliament passed a draft law on Friday allowing the country’s intelligence service to officially warn citizens that their activities could lead to a future violation of the law, reviving a Soviet-era K.G.B. practice that was often used against dissidents. The president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, is expected to sign it into law shortly.

The legislation was proposed during the tense weeks after two suicide bombers attacked the Moscow subway, and its stated goal was to stanch the growth of radicalism among young Russians. But rights advocates and opposition parties have warned that the expanded powers could be used to silence critics of the government. In a letter made public on Thursday, 20 leading human rights activists condemned the legislation as a blow to “the cornerstone principles of the law: the presumption of innocence and legal certainty.”

“Our country now objectively faces a dilemma — either we take the long and difficult path toward rule of law, or an anti-constitutional restriction of individual rights and a return to legal tyranny, intimidation of dissenters, and control of special services over the peaceful activities of citizens,” the letter said.

Asked about the bill on Thursday by a reporter in Yekaterinburg, where he was meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, Mr. Medvedev intimated that foreign observers had little business questioning it.

“I would like to turn your attention to the fact that it is our domestic legislation, and not an international act,” he said. “Each country has the right to perfect its own legislation, including that which affects special services. And we will do this.”

He added that “what’s going on now — I would like you to know this — was done by my own direct instructions.” It was not clear whether he meant the drafting of the bill or its subsequent revision.

The bill has been criticized by opposition legislators in Parliament, but both the upper and lower houses are dominated by Kremlin loyalists. The measure passed in the lower house on Friday by a vote of 354 to 96; passage by the upper house is considered almost certain.

The version is somewhat weakened from an earlier draft, which prescribed punishment for individuals who ignored such warnings from the F.S.B. Amendments proposed during the bill’s first and second readings in Parliament also removed a provision that would have allowed the F.S.B. to publish its warnings in the media and to summon citizens to F.S.B. offices to be warned.

In remarks posted on his party’s Web site this week, Vladimir Vasiliev, the chairman of the State Duma’s Committee on Security, described the new power as “a preventive conversation” with “someone who is beginning to move toward committing a crime.”

“It’s another matter that he may not obey,” Mr. Vasiliev said, adding that someone can be punished only for an actual violation of the law. The policy, he added, “has been mapped out by the president,” and “answers all the most humane and highest standards of a law-based state.”

The legislation leaves vague what actions would prompt F.S.B. warnings, or what measures would be used to enforce them. Other provisions in the bill impose 15-day sentences or fines of $16.50 to $33 on citizens who obstruct the work of an F.S.B. agent. Previously, such administrative fines applied to police or prison officials.

Lev A. Ponomarev, a veteran activist with the group For Human Rights in Moscow, said liberals in Russia were seeing the bill as a litmus test for Mr. Medvedev and were surprised to hear him take credit for its development.

The president could win enormous loyalty in liberal circles if he had “the courage to oppose this bill, which puts the whole country under the control of the special services,” Mr. Ponomarev said. “We have some hope of this — but in fact, not much,” he said. “If, on the other hand, he signs it, it will be a big step toward losing his potential supporters.”

“And in truth he doesn’t have so many of them,” he said. “This is a pretty important moment.”

The picture of naked three-year-old Loius Mears which appeared on Google Street View. The picture has been pixellated after his mother complained to Google.

Mum’s outrage over picture of naked son on Google Street View

menmedia.co.uk |Jun 29, 2010

by Alice McKeegan

A mum has told of her horror after Google published a photograph of her young son naked on the internet.

Claire Rowlands, 25, was stunned to see the image of little Louis Mears playing on a sunny day in his gran’s garden in Walkden.

Louis, three, had been snapped by Google’s controversial ‘camera car’, as it took pictures of every road in Britain for the search engine’s Street View service. The company had blurred out the registration plate of a car on the drive of the house – but the image of Louis, who was wearing nothing but his shoes, was uncensored.

In another image, taken seconds later, Louis’s face was clearly identifiable, but his modesty was preserved by a fence.

Shocked Claire, who lives on the same road as her mother, said she had no idea the pictures had been taken and accused Google of invading her son’s privacy. She said:“I just felt sick to my stomach when I saw the naked picture of Louis on the internet. I’m angry, disgusted and upset about it – they should be checking every image before it goes up.

“They should be extra careful on warm days because this is what children do – he was just playing in the garden and we didn’t expect in a million years he’d have his picture taken and put on the internet for anyone to see.

“It’s such a clear image, I see it as an indecent photograph – my concern is that paedophiles could see it and there’s no way I ever wanted my son to be seen naked all over the world.

“Louis was on private property. Surely residents should be asked if they’re happy to have their pictures taken before this is allowed to happen.”

Google has now apologised and said it has blurred the image.

The company’s software automatically obscures car number plates but does not detect human bodies.

A spokeswoman said: “We take issues around inappropriate content in our products very seriously, and we removed the image in question within an hour of being notified.

“For us, privacy and user choice remain paramount.

“This is why we have put in place tools so that if people see what they believe to be inappropriate, they can report them to us using the simple tools and the images will be quickly removed. We apologise for any inadvertent concern this may have caused.”

Privacy groups have already blasted Street View, which they branded a ‘burglar’s charter’ when it was launched last year.

Alex Deane, from the Big Brother Watch group, said: “This is not the first time this has happened but the excuses are wearing thin.

“Google still needs to take greater responsibility for people’s personal privacy and introduce stronger safeguards to the system.”

An Italian appeal court upheld a conviction for Mafia links against one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s closest allies

Reuters | Jun 29, 2010

PALERMO Italy (Reuters) – An Italian appeal court upheld a conviction for Mafia links against one of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s closest allies on Tuesday, but reduced his jail sentence to seven years from nine.

Marcello Dell’Utri, a senator for Berlusconi’s center-right People of Freedom party and founder of its forerunner Forza Italia, had sought a full acquittal from accusations he acted as link between the mob and Italy’s business and political elite.

A long-time friend of the prime minister and former chairman of his advertising firm Publitalia, Dell’Utri was accused by Sicilian prosecutors of having frequent contact with the Mafia while working for Berlusconi between 1974 and 1994.

Berlusconi, however, is not linked to the Dell’Utri case.

Dell’Utri’s lawyers welcomed Tuesday’s ruling as it found no evidence of any Mafia link after 1992, the year in which Cosa Nostra launched a wave of brutal attacks against the Italian state, including the high-profile killing of anti-mafia prosecutor Giovanni Falcone.

“This sentence absolutely overrules the theory of organized crime infiltrating our country’s political institutions from 1992 onwards, when Berlusconi and Forza Italia entered the political arena,” defense lawyer Giuseppe Di Peri said.

“There was no involvement with the killings … A whole area of responsibility has been put aside,” Di Peri added.

In reaching its decision, the court appeared to dismiss testimony in December by a jailed Mafia hitman turned witness, Gaspare Spatuzza, who said that a godfather convicted of a 1993 bombing campaign had boasted to him of his links to Berlusconi.

A full explanation of the decision must be published within 90 days.

Dell’Utri’s legal team said they were still not satisfied with the seven year sentence and were considering whether to take the case to a further appeal. The senator was originally convicted in 2004 but has not served any jail time.

Dell’Utri helped create Forza Italia and acted as Berlusconi’s campaign manager in the 1994 election catapulted the media billionaire to power.

The Palermo case started in 1997, but it was testimony by a high-ranking Cosa Nostra member arrested in 2002 which provided some of the strongest accusations for the prosecution.

Witness Antonio Giuffre said Dell’Utri was the mafia’s main link with Forza Italia, receiving in return political favors and electoral support. Giuffre also testified that Berlusconi had met with the head of Cosa Nostra, an allegation the prime minister’s lawyers have dismissed as absurd.

Berlusconi has never been convicted in the 109 cases brought against him since entering politics 16 years ago. Many Italians have little regard for the country’s notoriously slow and capricious judicial system.

Bill Clinton met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Novo-Ogaryovo residence outside Moscow. Pool photograph by Alexey Druginyn

NY Times | Jun 29, 2010

By CLIFFORD J. LEVY and ELLEN BARRY

MOSCOW — Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin criticized American law enforcement agencies on Tuesday for breaking up an what they described as a Russian espionage ring in the United States, as other Russian officials questioned whether the arrests were intended to damage relations between the countries.

Mr. Putin, at a meeting with former President Bill Clinton, brought up the subject.

“You have come to Moscow at the exact right time,” Mr. Putin told Mr. Clinton. “Your police have gotten carried away, putting people in jail.”

Mr. Putin offered no comment on the specific accusations against the 11 suspects, who were described by prosecutors as living under false identities in an effort to penetrate American society. Russia has acknowledged that they are Russian citizens.

“I really expect that the positive achievements that have been made in our intergovernmental relations lately will not be damaged by the latest events,” he said. “We really hope that the people who value Russian-American relations understand this.”

Other Russian officials went further on Tuesday, suggesting that the timing of the case was politically motivated. The Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said the Russian government was awaiting more information from the United States about the accusations.

“They have not explained what the issue is,” Mr. Lavrov told reporters in Jerusalem, where he was on an official visit. “I hope that they will explain. The moment when this was done was chosen with a certain elegance.”

After Mr. Lavrov spoke, the Russian Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling the arrests “baseless” and “unseemly.” It accused American prosecutors of acting “in the spirit of the spy passions of the cold war period.”

“We would like to note only that this type of release of information has happened more than once in the past, when our relations were on the rise,” the statement said. “In any case, it is deeply regrettable that all this is taking place on the background of the ‘reset’ in Russian-American relations declared by the United States administration itself.”

On Tuesday night, the Foreign Ministry issued another statement acknowledging that the suspects were Russian citizens.

“They have not conducted any activities directed against the interests of the United States,” the statement said.

The ministry said it hoped that prosecutors would allow the suspects access to lawyers and Russian consular officials.

The arrests on Monday came after a period of warming in relations between the United States and Russia, with President Dmitri A. Medvedev making a visit to the United States this month, including to Silicon Valley in California, that was hailed here as a success. Mr. Medvedev met with President Obama, and the two seemed to have developed a personal bond.

Some Russian politicians declared that the announcement of the arrests indicated that hostile elements in the United States government were bent on preventing relations from flourishing.

Vladimir Kolesnikov, a prominent member of Parliament from Mr. Putin’s ruling party, said the timing “was not a coincidence.”

“Unfortunately, in America there are people who live with the old baggage, the baggage of the cold war, double standards,” Mr. Kolesnikov said.

On Tuesday, the arrests were widely covered on the state-controlled national television networks in Russia.

One of the people accused of involvement in the espionage ring made no secret of his ties to Russia, openly taking part in Russian social media in order to keep up with friends from high school and university.

The suspect, Mikhail Semenko, a Russian immigrant, maintained a page on Odnoklassniki, one of the most popular Russian Web sites, where he joined alumni groups from his high school and university in Russia’s Far East. He lived in Blagoveshchensk, 3,600 miles from Moscow, and attended Amur State University, earning a degree in international relations.

Cells of undercover operatives, masked as ordinary citizens, are known in Russian as “illegals,” and they occupy a storied position in Soviet culture.

One of Russia’s beloved fictional characters is an undercover agent, SS-Standartenführer Max Otto von Stirlitz, whose penetration of Hitler’s inner circle was at the center of popular television series.

Prime Minister Vladimir V. Putin, who served as a K.G.B. officer in East Germany in the 1980s, has said Stirlitz’s character helped shape an entire generation of Soviet youth.

Illegals, unlike most spies, live in foreign countries without the benefit of a diplomatic cover, which would have offered them immunity from prosecution if they were caught. Soviet intelligence services began training a corps of these agents shortly after the October Revolution in 1917, when few countries had diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, and it came to be seen as a particular Soviet specialty.

It is both risky and very expensive work, since agents often spend years just developing a fake life story, known in Russian as a “legend,” and because the K.G.B. would often keep an agent in place abroad for years or even decades before he or she was able to gather useful information.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, many career spymasters began to speak publicly about the adventures of the illegals, but several recent arrests have come as reminders that the tactic is still in use.

In 2008, Estonia found that one of its top intelligence officials was reporting to a Russian agent who was living under a Portuguese identity as Antonio de Jesus Amorett Graf. In 2006 Canadian officials arrested a Russian spy who had been living under an assumed Canadian identity as Paul William Hampel.

Police officers cordon off empty Lubyanka Square near the Lubyanka Subway station, which was earlier hit by an explosion, Moscow, 29 Mar 2010. Photo: AP

voanews.com | Jun 30, 2010

by Jessica Golloher

Russia’s parliament is considering a new law that would extend the powers of  the country’s secret security agency, the FSB. If the bill is passed, it would restore practices once associated with the infamous KGB. Russia’s security services have steadily regained power and influence under Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, himself a former KGB officer. Human rights advocates are concerned that the new measures could further curtail the rights of government critics and the independent media.

The KGB was one of the most feared instruments of the Kremlin during the Soviet Union and viewed by many as the world’s most effective information gathering organization. It’s successor organization, the FSB is engaged mostly in domestic affairs and its powers have been steadily growing. The current government-backed legislation would allow FSB officers to summon individuals for informal talks and issue written warnings about forbidden participation in anti-government activities such as protest rallies – even if they have not violated the law.

“The draft, as I currently understand it, we have very serious human rights concerns about it,” said Allison Gill, the director of Moscow’s office of Human Rights Watch. “It allows law enforcement agencies to literally question anyone about anything and to punish people through arrest or forced interrogation or deprivation of liberty for what would otherwise be a protected activity. Civil peaceful forms of dissent are protected by Russian law and they are protected by international human rights standards.”

“Combatting extremism”

The Russian government says the proposed new measures are an effort to combat extremism.

In 2006, the Russian parliament passed anti-extremism legislation that expanded the definition of extremism to include the slandering of a public official, hindering the work of authorities and involvement in hooliganism or vandalism for ideological, religious or ethnic reasons.

Alexander Verkhovsky is director of the SOVA Center for Information and Analysis in Moscow, an organization dedicated to researching nationalism and xenophobia in Russia.

He says government claims that expanding the power of the FSB would stop extremism is ironic because he continues to be the victim of extremists, such as skinheads, because of the work he does. Furthermore, Verkhovsky says that law enforcement officials, including the FSB, have done absolutely nothing to help protect him and his family.

“Some Neo-Nazi groups, they sent us death threats by email or by phone,” said Verkhovsky.  “Some even came to my house. They even sent me a video.  It explained that I am an enemy of the Russian people, that I support terrorists.  My house was exposed, my address, my photo. Officially, I was never called to the police station.  They never called me on the phone. They are not interested in this type of investigation and really are not involved.”

Controls on journalists, media rights

The proposed bill also appears to tighten controls on journalists. It was submitted after Moscow’s subway system was hit by dual suicide bombers at the end of March, killing at least 40 people.

Boris Gryzlov, the speaker of Russia’s lower house of parliament, sharply criticized two major Russian newspapers for their coverage of the event. Gryzlov implied that the journalists had taken the side of the terrorists by claiming that the Kremlin’s policies, in the Northern Caucuses region, may have contributed to a rise in the violence in the region, and may have accounted for the subway bombings.

Allison Gill, with Human Rights Watch in Moscow, says the proposed law would have grave consequences for press freedom.

“This could present serious obstacles to journalists. It’s in the public’s interest for journalists to be able to report freely and independently they have to be able to write without fear of legal sanctions,” said Gill. “It would limit journalists on what they are allowed to write or it would require cooperation between journalists and law enforcement authorities. That would have a chilling effect on what stories journalists are allowed to report that are supposed to be in the public’s interest.”

Human rights lawyer Lidia Yusupova has done a lot of work in both war ravaged Chechnya and in Moscow. She says the FSB already has too much access to the average person. Yusupova voiced her concerns and the video was also posted on the internet website, YouTube.

She says the best way is to tap phones; the secret service does not have to work hard for information. She says she feels safer in Chechnya than she does in Moscow.

Medvedev defends FSB

On the other hand, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev has defended the FSB and commented on how important the organization is to the average Russian.

He recently gave a speech to the agency’s board. Mr. Medvedev says ensuring the security of Russia is one of the top priorities. He says most important is the fight against terrorism and extremism. Last year the FSB succeeded in preventing more than 80 terrorist attacks and neutralized more than 500 leaders and members of criminal groups.

It is unclear when the bill will come up for a vote in Russia’s lower house of parliament, otherwise known as the Duma. It could be amended in the meantime or even scuttled.

rt.com | Jun 27, 2010

The Kremlin’s human rights council has opposed the idea of expanding the Federal Security Service’s (FSB) powers, saying it is anti-constitutional and would be a revival of the worst practices of a “totalitarian state”.

Russia’s presidential Council on Civil Society Institutions and Human Rights has appealed to President Medvedev and suggested that the State Duma “immediately” suspends the process of the adoption of amendments to the law that would give a lot more power to the FSB.

Initiated by the government, the bill would allow the FSB to issue warnings to people it believes are about to commit a crime and threaten, fine, or even arrest for up to 15 days for disobeying its orders.

“The FSB would be allowed to summon citizens and publicly make such warnings. No grounds would be required for such measures to be taken and there would be no need [for the FSB] to follow procedures set by the law for limiting citizens’ freedom,” the presidential human rights watchdog statement reads as published on their website.

The body studied the document and presented to the head of state its legal analysis, which proves that the draft is “anti-constitutional”, and would be a political mistake.

“Such a revival of the worst and illegal practices of a totalitarian state – aimed at spreading fear and distrust among people – can be seen by society only as a suppression of civil freedoms and dissent,” the council stated.

In April the bill was submitted to the lower house, and on June 11 the lawmakers – though only the majority United Russia party – passed the draft in the first of the three required readings. All other factions of the State Duma opposed the law for different reasons. While communists worried that the amendments would violate human rights, liberal-democrats – on the contrary – deemed the draft too soft.

Back then the news rocked the socially active part of Russia’s society, with many seeing the move as a comeback to Soviet-time repressions and direct violation of human rights.

“So far there has been a presumption of innocence in Russia and inflicting a punishment – including administrative one – has only been possible by court decision,” Lev Ponomarev, the chair of organization “For Human Rights”, was quoted as saying by newsru.com. “If a person was taking part in a meeting not permitted by the authorities, one’s fate would be decided by court. There was a hope that – assuming there is no pressure from the state – such procedure of protecting human rights could save us from arbitrariness. What is being suggested is a turn back to the Soviet totalitarian regime,” he stated.

On June 23, following the fierce response from human rights activists, the United Russia faction called for an amendment to the bill, Itar-Tass reported.

FSB considers tougher control over Internet

In a cover letter to the controversial draft, its authors also wrote that “some media outlets – both printed and electronic – openly promote forming negative processes in the spiritual sphere, the settlement of cult of individualism and violence, disbelief in the ability of state to protect its citizens.” Thus, the authors believe, the media “involves young people in extremist activities.”

Journalists and human rights activists were not excited over such statements, seeing it as a possible way to strengthen pressure on the media.

Meanwhile, the FSB is reportedly working on amendments to yet another law – “On Information” – which would oblige internet providers to shut down websites on the prosecutor’s demand – without a court decision. Vedomosti daily writes that the FSB suggests that providers – under a “motivated letter” from a law enforcement agency – would have to close domains. The measures will supposedly be aimed at fighting extremism.

The website, however, would not be closed for more than a month if a case is dropped, or if the court rules that the content of the site is not in violation of the law.

In addition, internet providers could be obliged to keep data on all their users and all the services they got for half a year and provide that information on demand of the law enforcement agencies.

A defendant known as ‘Anna Chapman’ allegedly communicated with a Russian official in Manhattan in January Photo: Facebook

Portrayed as a flame-haired, green-eyed femme fatale, a 28-year-old Russian businesswoman has emerged as a tabloid darling after an alleged Cold War-style spy ring was uncovered by US authorities.

Telegraph | Jun 30, 2010

A defendant known as ‘Anna Chapman’ allegedly communicated with a Russian official in Manhattan in January Photo: Facebook

Sultry Facebook photos of Anna Chapman were plastered on the front page of the New York Daily News following her arrest along with 10 other alleged members of a sophisticated network of US-based Russian sleeper agents.

“Spy ring’s femme fatale,” declared the New York Post, before elaborating: “Red hot beauty snared in Russian ‘espionage’ shock.”

FBI agents monitored Ms Chapman on 10 Wednesdays between January and June 2010 as she allegedly carried out elaborate communication rituals with her Russian handler in scenes straight out of a John Le Carre spy novel. The FBI has described her as a “highly trained intelligence operative”.

To avoid having to meet, Ms Chapman and the unidentified man – repeatedly observed by the FBI entering Russia’s UN mission in Manhattan – used specially configured laptops to message each other covertly.

On one occasion Ms Chapman sat by the window of a coffee shop, according to the charge sheet. Her handler passed by 10 minutes later in a minivan, close enough to pick up her messages on a private wireless network.

MS Chapman was reported to have previously worked in Britain and been married to a British citizen.

Last week an FBI agent, purporting to be a Russian consulate employee, arranged an undercover face-to-face meeting with Ms Chapman in another coffee shop in downtown Manhattan, saying he had something urgent to give her.

During the meeting, detailed exhaustively in the 37-page criminal complaint, Ms Chapman is asked to give a fake passport to another Russian agent, presumably an undercover FBI operative in on the sting.

Asked if she was ready to carry out this “next step,” Ms Chapman replied: “****, of course.”

She appeared in federal court for the first time on Monday in Manhattan. Dressed in jeans and a white t-shirt, she spoke for several minutes with a lawyer after being released from her handcuffs.

According to the New York Post and the Russian news website lifenews.ru, Ms Chapman moved to New York in February from Moscow after a divorce.

In an interview posted on video-sharing site Youtube, she described herself as a start-up specialist, seeking to build a recruitment agency targeting young professionals in Moscow and New York.

On her Facebook page, meanwhile, the budding business tycoon sets out a bold personal philosophy. “If you can imagine it, you can achieve it. If you can dream it, you can become it,” she comments.

A security officer examines a computer screen showing a scan from a RapiScan full-body scanner, being trialled by Manchester Airport

Airport body scanners emit radiation up to 20 times more powerful than previously thought, a scientist has warned.

Telegraph | Jun 29, 2010

By Andy Bloxham

Dr David Brenner, head of the centre for radiological research at Columbia University in New York, said Government scientists had not taken into account the concentration of the radiation on the skin. He said it raised concerns about a potentially greater risk of cancer than previously realised.

Dr Brenner, who is from Liverpool, said children and passengers with genetic mutations – around one in 20 of the population – were most at risk because they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their cells.

He added that the danger posed to individual passengers was “very low” but said more research was required to more accurately determine the risks.

He said: “If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk.

“The population risk has the potential to be significant.”

A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority said: “The device has been approved for use within the UK by the Department for Transport and has been subjected to risk assessments from the Health Protection Agency.

“Under current regulations, up to 5,000 scans per person per year can be conducted safely.”

It has been claimed that Britain’s Royal Family can be traced to Vlad the Impaler, the real-life ruler who inspired Transylvania’s Count Dracula vampire legend.

In the land of Dracula, a property revamp: Prince Charles renovates Transylvanian home

Charles, first visited Transylvania in 1998 and has bought three properties there.

Daily Mail | Jun 28, 2010

By Vanessa Allen

Among the Prince of Wales’s outlays is the latest addition to his property portfolio in Transylvania.

Charles is expected to use the 150-year-old five-bedroom house in remote Romania as an isolated holiday retreat, and it will be used as a guesthouse when he is not in residence.

Renovations on the house and an adjoining stable are now nearing completion, including ensuite bathrooms and underfloor heating.

The prince’s new neighbours include wolves, lynxes and several brown bears, who forage for food in his 37-acre grounds and the surrounding wilderness.

The house is in the village of Zalanpatak, which is said to have been founded by one of the prince’s Transylvanian ancestors in the 16th century.

It has been claimed that Britain’s Royal Family can be traced to Vlad the Impaler, the real-life ruler who inspired Transylvania’s Count Dracula vampire legend.

Old haunt: The farmhouse in Viscri, Transylvania, that Charles bought in 2006 and turned into a guesthouse

Charles, first visited Transylvania in 1998 and has bought three properties there, including the Zalanpatak house and a £43-a-night guesthouse in the village of Viscri.

Traditional farming and building techniques used in the area are said to have inspired his plans for Poundbury, the Dorset village created by his Duchy of Cornwall.

He has since sold a manor near the medieval town of Sighisoara, while the Viscri and Zalanpatak guesthouses are managed by Count Tibor Kalnoky.

Count Kalnoky said Charles wanted the Zalanpatak house as ‘a home to relax in, in an environment that is comfortable’.

The prince is expected to visit the property later this year, once the renovations have been completed.

He bought the Viscri house in 2006 and the Zalanpatak property in 2008, and has campaigned for the area to be protected by sustainable development.

In a speech in Viscri in 2008, he praised the region for ‘the sheer beauty of the landscape, the unspoilt nature of the villages, the churches, the extraordinary atmosphere of somewhere which is timeless’.

Ticket controversy: Some parking wardens are issuing fines simply to reach performance targets

Daily Mail | Jun 27, 2010

By Ryan Kisiel

Motorists have been tricked into paying tens of thousands of pounds in ‘illegal’ parking tickets issued so that wardens can meet targets.

Thousands of the wrongful tickets have been paid by drivers who were unaware that they should have been cancelled by the council contractors who dole them out.

The tickets were issued by NSL, formerly NCP, Britain’s biggest parking enforcer, which patrols the streets of 60 local authorities and Heathrow and Gatwick.

The Daily Mail has seen evidence that wardens are issuing the penalty charge notices simply to hit personal targets set by NSL – and even give this reason to management in writing.

In one case, a warden placed a ticket on a vehicle, waited an hour and then issued another for the same offence knowing that this was unlawful.

On the paperwork, seen only by his supervisor, he wrote in poor English: ‘I issued PCN to keep my performance on reasonable level regardless of that it will get spoil as soon as challenge.’

Parking bosses who review the penalty charge notices know the fines – costing £120, or £60 if paid within two weeks – are wrong, but do not tell the drivers and instead wait to see if they pay the fine.

In some cases bailiffs have pursued drivers for not paying up. On official paperwork, managers have described the fraudulent practice as ‘commonplace’.

During one month last year at one London local authority, managers wrote ‘only cancel if appealed’ on paperwork for dozens of tickets issued for no legitimate reason.

For example, tickets in Westminster have been issued for vehicles unloading, cars temporarily parked on pavements while the driver is opening a gate, and scaffolding trucks at the side of building sites.

NSL wardens say that if they do not hit their targets they are told they are ineligible for overtime and even face losing their jobs.

Parking bosses who are supposed to cancel these tickets simply write ‘cancel if challenged’ – placing the onus on the motorist, who is unaware of the illegality of the fine.

An NSL source said: ‘All councils deny setting targets for parking tickets but they do by giving them another name such as the “expected rate” or “base level”.

‘Some wardens have resorted to issuing tickets they know are unlawful just to hit their target. The company knows most people will pay it rather than appeal.’

NSL has denied setting targets and claimed it is simply monitoring performance, but monthly NSL figures show a ‘PCN target’ in the documentation.

In Westminster, traffic wardens, now called Civil Enforcement Officers, are given a target to issue 1.5 tickets an hour despite the council denying they have specific quotas to fill.

It is also in breach of Government guidelines outlawing target setting. Westminster Council has begun an investigation.

An NSL spokesman said: ‘With any contract we monitor the performance of our Civil Enforcement Officers, as there is a great deal of trust associated with the role.’

He said ‘Performance Indicators’ were simply a guide to whether CEOs were doing their job properly.

NU Online News Service | Jun 21, 2010

By CAROLINE MCDONALD

As fossil fuel supplies are stretched thinner, risks similar to the British Petroleum oil spill will increase, according to a new report from Lloyd’s and a U.K. think tank that urges businesses to rethink their approach to energy.

The report, “Sustainable Energy Security: Strategic Risks and Opportunities for Business,” by Lloyd’s 360 Risk Insight and U.K. think tank Chatham House, found that reliance on fossil fuels is pushing the search for reserves into more difficult and risky territories.

Declining production from easily accessed oil reserves combined with rising demand from developing economies can result in events such as the current Deepwater Horizon Oil Platform spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the report said, adding that the BP spill could push the transition to more cost-efficient clean and renewable energy systems.

The study predicts that price spikes and supply disruptions will become more frequent due to rising consumption, insufficient investment, and threats to installations and transport.

These factors, the report notes, combined with political pressure to reduce greenhouse gases and protect our environment, will force businesses to be more efficient consumers of energy and adopt clean and renewable technology.

Richard Ward, Lloyd’s chief executive, said in a statement that business leaders “need to rethink their approach to energy risks or be left behind as energy becomes less reliable and more expensive. The environmental and economic cost of our reliance on fossil fuels is too high. We need a long-term plan to reduce consumption and diversify our energy sources.”

Mr. Ward said the report “should cause all risk managers to pause,” adding that it outlines “that we have entered a period of deep uncertainty in how we will source energy for power, heat and mobility, and how much we will have to pay for it.”

Bernice Lee, research director at Chatham House, noted, “Businesses across the board need to make a serious assessment of their vulnerability to change and volatility on the energy scene. There are huge opportunities as energy systems evolve to include users and increase resilience and efficiency. There is also the potential for heavy or even catastrophic financial and environmental losses.”

The expected level of investment in renewables and clean energy—up to $500 billion per year by 2050—holds tremendous opportunities for businesses, but the lack of global agreement on carbon reduction is inhibiting commitment and investments, the report states. Ultimately, this will make catching up or adapting to energy shortages much more expensive for all, it notes.

The report calls on governments to set clear policies and create certainty in the transition to a low carbon economy.

The study also warns that preparations must be made for a new set of risks as our energy system changes. Many renewable technology systems, for example, use rare materials, and the increasing reliance on electricity and IT could raise vulnerability to cyber attacks, according to the report.

The report advises businesses to reassess global supply chains and increase the resilience of their operations.

The Australian | Jun 15, 2010

by Karen Dearne

AUSTRALIANS should consider switching search engines because Google is no longer a safe option, according to US anti-surveillance technology activist Katherine Albrecht.

Dr Albrecht was in Sydney to launch Startpage Australia, a local version of the popular privacy-protective Startpage (formerly Ixquick), that has been operating out of the Netherlands for more than a decade.

Startpage allows users to anonymously search the internet across nine global and local engines including Yahoo, Bing, Anzwers and Bigroo.

Searching is anonymised through secure SSL encryption and a proxy service.

User privacy is further protected because it does not record IP addresses or use tracking cookies that link search queries back to individual users.

Dutch law requires Startpage to delete all search records.

Dr Albrecht discovered Startpage when challenged to come up with a privacy-friendly alternative to Google.

“The last straw was its Flu Map, and the realisation the company was watching back,” she said.

“Google has amassed, without any of us realising it, the largest dossier of information ever put together on individuals in the history of humanity, and that’s a shocking thought.

“And they could have the best intentions in the world, but common sense tells you that if you want to protect people’s data you don’t hang on to it.”

She joined Startpage as marketing manager. She also hosts a daily radio show syndicated across the US, has produced six books and videos including “Spychips: How major corporations and government plan to track you every move with RFID”, and is director of CASPIAN (Consumers Against Supermarket Privacy Invasion and Numbering), an 18,000-strong consumer organisation she founded in 1999.

Dr Albrecht earned a doctorate for her research into retailers’ use of shopper data collected from loyalty card schemes.

“To stand in supermarket doorways and ask people to do a five-minute voluntary and anonymous survey, I had to prove I was not violating anyone’s privacy,” she said.

“But marketing people see themselves as entitled to get into our heads, to spy on us or use trickery to find out what we’re doing.”

Dr Albrecht came to prominence over her campaign against the use of radio-frequency identification chips in clothing that allowed shops to match customers to previous purchases.

Then she campaigned against the push by radio frequency identity tag vendor VeriChip to implant chips in people for things such as medical records, tracking prisoners, club entry and even to identify missing children.

Now she is concerned by the “enormity of what Google has done” in taking people’s innocent behaviour in searching for information about rashes and restaurants and “turning that into marketing data”.

More worrying, she says, is the fear people may fall victim to Google-held data that is turned over to governments under anti-terror provisions.

“Google’s chief executive Eric Schmidt has essentially said if you don’t want Google to know what you are searching for, then you shouldn’t be searching for it. We are recording it all and if we get a Patriot Act request, we will hand it over,” she said.

“But last year a government agency’s information awareness report was leaked, naming a range of people as potential domestic terrorists, including people who voted for third-party candidates in our primaries.”

Dr Albrecht said such scenarios went beyond concerns about marketing, to issues of physical risk.

“I fear people don’t realise the things they are searching for could at some time become a threat to them,” she said.

“If firms have no qualms about turning information over in response to political demands, we’re not safe.”

Dr Albrecht said the local site was a response to the federal government’s plan to introduce mandatory internet filtering against a secret blacklist.

“I pray Australians will say they don’t want this kind of blocking.”

She said using a range of search engines increased the likelihood that blocked sites would remain accessible.

“When China told Google to block things, that included Amnesty International,” she said.

“If you were searching for Amnesty within China, you’d have got no results found.

“That’s the risk we run when we put the world’s information into a small number of hands.”

A CCTV camera is situated above the toilets at The City Bar in Inverness.

highland-news.co.uk | Jun 24, 2010

By Laurence Ford

PUNTERS at a popular Inverness hostelry wouldn’t need to be shy when they go to spend a penny.

For it’s very much a case of big brother watching their every move at one city centre pub.

Directly above the urinal in the gents is a dome CCTV camera, similar to those which can zoom in and pan onto any subject.

And it is the same story in the ladies, where a similar camera on the ceiling overlooks the cubicles.

Even before they open the door to the toilets, customers are recorded on another spy camera in the corridor leading to the loos.

The City Bar, in Queensgate, is popular with mostly younger age-group customers and boasts amateur pole dancing nights among its list of “attractions”.

But one customer, who blew the whistle on the camera views of the loos, thought the management were out of order.

The man told the Highland News: “I could not believe it when I went to the toilet and saw this camera directly overlooking the urinal.

“Talk about an intrusion of privacy. This is well over the top. I asked the barman about it and he said the owner had installed it.

“I asked him about the ladies toilets and if they had a camera in there as well, and he said he didn’t know as he never went in to the ladies.”

Ramsay McGhee, of the Highland Licensed Trade Association, was shocked when he heard of the cameras in the toilets, and said it was something he had never come across before.

He said: “There is no reason why you could not have one in a cloakroom area where folk are washing their hands, but to have one above the urinal or toilets is, in my view, an infringement of human rights.

“You have got to be mega-careful nowadays about people’s human rights.”

Mr McGhee also posed the question about who would be monitoring the cameras and where they would be focussing them.

He said if a male operator had access to the cameras in the ladies’ toilets this could be a real cause for concern, and likewise if a female staff member was able to access the camera in the gents.

“You are just asking for trouble,” he said. “I would think you are on really shaky ground there. I would certainly deem it an infringement of people’s human rights to use a camera in such a situation.”

CCTV regulations say people must be made aware they are in an area where surveillance is being carried out.

“Clear and prominent signs are particularly important where the cameras themselves are very discreet, or in locations where people might not expect to be under surveillance,” the regulations state.

“As a general rule, signs should be more prominent and frequent where it would otherwise be less obvious to people that they are on CCTV.”

And, they stress: “Operators should not adjust equipment to overlook spaces not covered by the scheme and should also be aware of privacy implications.”

The only sign advising City Bar customers visiting the toilets they could be playing a starring lavatorial role is a small sticker on the loo door proclaiming: “Protected by Swann Security. 24-Hour Video Surveillance.”

A staff manager at the City Bar would not comment on the cameras, and referred queries to proprietor Paul McIvor, who did not respond to messages the HN left on his answering service.

Councils explain their use of ‘spying’ laws in Essex

yellowad.co.uk | Jun 24, 2010

By Matthew Stanton

COUNCIL bosses have defended the use of special laws to spy on residents – claiming they wanted to catch nuisance neighbours.

Castle Point Council has used powers under the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 to monitor residents 40 times in two years – 22 in 2008/09 and 18 in 2009/10.

The council stated most of the instances involved monitoring noise across the borough.

A Castle Point Council spokesman denied officers were checking innocent people.

Chief executive David Marchant said: “In Castle Point, most of these instances relate to noise surveillance equipment used by our Environmental Health team to determine noise nuisances in residential areas.

“No charges were brought as the issues were resolved through other means.

“All councils are strictly regulated in the use of surveillance and at its last inspection by the Office of Surveillance Commissioners, Castle Point was given a clean bill of health.

“Surveillance powers are used largely as a last resort in cases of anti-social behaviour and community safety.”

Councils use the Act to detect crimes such as fraud.

However, some authorities also use the powers to probe problems such as dog fouling, fly tipping and graffiti.

Between April 1, 2008, and March 31, 2010, Essex County Council used the powers 68 times – 50 times in 2008/09 and 18 times in 2009/10.

An Essex County Council spokesman: “The service is required to comply with this legislation, and on occasion uses covert surveillance as a means of gaining information about people acting in the course of a trade or business.

“This means that we will observe traders, without letting them know that we are doing so.

“We also use this legislation in order to obtain communications data regarding potential defendants. Specifically the names and addresses associated with telephone numbers or e-mail addresses.

“Under no circumstances do we use intrusive surveillance and in fact we are prohibited from doing so by the legislation.”

Meanwhile, Rochford District Council has used the Act twice to investigate a suspected breach of planning control and a fraudulent benefit claim. Basildon used it three times and Southend just once.

Evening Gazette | Jun 21, 2010

by Ian McNeal

COUNCIL chiefs have pledged to fight any move to scrap Middlesbrough’s famous talking CCTV cameras as part of a review of civil liberties.

Civil liberties campaigners have called for the coalition Government to axe the system, branding it “bullying and intrusive”.

However Middlesbrough Council says the system has provided a number of major benefits, including cutting theft, preventing litter and anti-social behaviour and cutting fear of crime.

Middlesbrough was the first location in the UK to introduce talking CCTV cameras in 2007. Seven were installed the town centre with loudspeakers enabling operators to challenge people.

Campaign group Big Brother Watch urged the Government to withdraw the cameras. Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, said: “Talking CCTV must be included in the regulation promised by the coalition: indeed, it should be stopped. These systems are bullying and intrusive, lecturing people for petty offences rather than catching real criminals.”

A spokeswoman for human rights group Liberty said: “We recognise the role the CCTV has to play in tackling crime. And none of us likes litterbugs or yobs acting out on a Saturday night, but even ‘talking’ CCTV cameras will never take the place of officers on the beat.”

Middlesbrough Council strongly defended their use. It said the cameras were used 1,011 times in 2009/10.

About 50% were broadcasts to remind the public about littering and vehicle safety, while 18% were direct challenges for littering and 32% for public order and anti-social behaviour (including graffiti and drinking in alcohol free zone) and potential violence offences.

Councillor Julia Rostron, Middlesbrough Council’s Executive member for community protection, said: “We didn’t know what the outcome would be when we launched the talking CCTV pilot, but the results speak for themselves. The vast majority of law-abiding people welcome them, and they have had a positive and beneficial effect on behaviour.”

Even a mum wrongly accused of dropping litter in 2007, when cameras spotted her putting rubbish in the undercarriage of her baby’s pram, told the Gazette at the time they were doing a good job.

TNN | Jun 23, 2010

NAGPUR: In many schools and colleges, Big Brother is watching. Several educational institutions in the city have installed CCTV cameras in their classrooms, labs and libraries to keep an eye on students.

While advocates of the system say that it helps institutions get solid proof of a student’s bad behaviour and brings about deterrence against mischief, those against it say that it is intrusive and curbs the freedom of students as well as teachers.

The system has also raised questions of legal and moral validity and educationists claim that parents can take the institutions to court which may put schools in trouble.

Closed-circuit TV monitoring is already common in many cities. Pic: Mark Gibson

Privacy fears over the device that can eavesdrop on crimes

heraldscotland.com | Jun 21, 2010

by Jasper Hamill

Civil-liberties campaigners have demanded a controversial audio surveillance system be kept out of Scotland.

The Coventry decision has raised the prospect of microphones coming to Scottish cities, as Glasgow was one of the places where a trial was conducted.

The system, called Sigard, is able to direct CCTV cameras towards suspicious sounds, which can also be gunshots or the smashing of glass.

Operators can then direct police straight to a confrontation, in the hope they can stop violence before it erupts.

Sound Intelligence, the Dutch company that manufactures the system, claims Sigard could be vital in combating violence on British streets. But campaigners fear it may be used to record ­conversations and claim that

Sigard is another milestone in Britain’s transformation into a surveillance society.

Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Green Party, said: “It must not become a default ­expectation that wherever we are in the public realm, we are being recorded. That is a situation we are close to. There are very few places in Glasgow city centre where you are not on camera.”

Harvie also raised concerns about who would have access to the data gathered by Sigard. “It tends to be that an arm’s-length body controls the data, so there are questions about ­accountability and trust.

“These questions have not been fully resolved and, until they are, I cannot support the increased use of CCTV and other technological monitoring systems. There are more expensive things that are proven to cut crime, such as ­visible community policing, which uses a pair of eyes from a real person with common sense, rather than relying on a person watching from a control room miles away.”

Sigard works by picking up the changes in someone’s speaking that are said to indicate violence is about to occur, such as a raised voice and change of tone.

Last February, Sound Intelligence conducted a trial in ­Glasgow, installing microphones in the city centre. At the time, company director Bram Kuipers said: “We detected aggression, and it’s currently under evaluation.”

He has suggested that police cars could be fitted with microphones and could cruise city ­centres, listening out for audible signs of trouble.

Sigard has also been tested in London, Manchester and Birmingham. In Hackney in London, the system detected up to six crimes a night, including fights and guns being fired.

The microphones can hear from distances of 100 yards and can ­filter out background noise. They were installed in Coventry city centre after a nine-month trial, and there are now seven microphones covering two streets.

Sigard systems are used more widely in Holland, where 12 cities have fitted the microphones and they are also in use on buses and trains.

Although the company stressed Sigard does not record conversations, campaigners fear it could used for this in the future.

Dylan Sharpe, campaign director of the anti-CCTV group Big Brother Watch, said: “Coventry has set a very dangerous precedent with this scheme. There can be no justification for giving councils or the police the capability to listen in on our private conversations.”

Last week, more than 200 CCTV cameras in Birmingham was shut down over fears they were being used to monitor ­Muslim communities.

Sharpe added: “Coming so soon after their near-neighbours Birmingham were reprimanded for placing a disproportionate number of CCTV cameras in a … Muslim area, Coventry should realise that this sort of intrusive and overbearing ­surveillance is completely unacceptable.”

The spread of CCTV

There are estimated to be 4.8 million CCTV cameras in Britain, which works out at about 13 per person – more per head than any other country in the world.

There were 1,269 cameras in Scotland during 2003. There are now estimated to be 2,235.

Shetland Islands Council has more CCTV cameras than the city of San Francisco, according to BBC research.

Glasgow has more CCTV cameras than Paris, with 408 against 326 in the French capital.

Experiments with CCTV in the 1970s and 1980s led to the current boom in the number of cameras. A Home Office report called CCTV: Looking Out For You in 1994 is seen as the beginning of the roll-out of almost universal CCTV surveillance.

A Scotland Yard police chief has claimed only 3% of crimes are solved using CCTV. In London, a Metropolitan Police report released last year showed that in 2008 only one crime was solved per 1000 cameras.

In Scotland, people are likely to be filmed by a CCTV camera up to 300 times a day.

Hitler and friends relaxing at Landsberg prison

Independent | Jun 24, 2010

By David Rising in Berlin

Adolf Hitler enjoyed special treatment while jailed in 1924 and was allowed hundreds of visitors – sometimes unsupervised – including some 30 to 40 celebrants of his 35th birthday. The details have emerged from documents written by officials at the prison near Munich where he was held.

The 500 papers from the Landsberg prison were recently found by a Nuremberg man among the possessions of his late father, who purchased them at a flea market in the 1970s according to Werner Behringer, whose auction house in the Bavarian city of Fuerth will offer them for sale next month.

Mr Behringer said they were packed among a bundle of books on the First World War the man had bought, and his 55-year-old son, who has requested anonymity, never knew of their existence. “His father probably didn’t know what he had there,” Mr Behringer told Associated Press. Robert Bierschneider, an archivist with the Bavarian State Archives in Munich, said he had examined images of the documents Mr Behringer sent to him and they had stamps and notations matching others from the prison.

“The documents appear genuine, but to do a real examination we need the originals in our hands,” he said.

The documents are to be auctioned on 2 July, with a starting price of €25,000 (£20,000). Though only one is signed by Hitler, and much of the information is otherwise available, they do provide an intriguing window into his early days as Nazi leader.

Hitler was imprisoned in Landsberg after his abortive bid to seize power in the notorious “beer hall putsch” in Munich. A decade later, in 1933, the Nazis came to power through elections.

Sentenced to five years in prison, Hitler was granted early release and ended up serving about nine months.

His right-wing politics and German nationalism won him friends among the German establishment, including the First World War hero Erich Ludendorff. He came to visit Hitler several times in jail and the Prussian general was allowed to see the former Austrian corporal unsupervised for as long as he wanted, the documents show.

They include some 300 to 400 original cards listing Hitler’s other visitors, including the 30 to 40 allowed in to celebrate his birthday on 20 April 1924 – 19 days into his sentence. “His time in prison was more like a holiday,” Mr Behringer said.

Otto Leybold, the prison director, gushed about Hitler in a memo about the inmates on 18 September 1924, saying he was always “sensible, modest, humble and polite to everyone – especially to the officers of the facility.”

Hitler spent much of his time in prison writing his manifesto Mein Kampf, detailing his ideology and ambitions, but the documents also show he had time for more prosaic thoughts.

In a typed copy that prison authorities made of a letter Hitler wrote to a Munich car dealer, the future dictator is having a hard time deciding whether to purchase a newer model Benz 11/40 or the older 16/50 because he had concerns that the higher RPMs of the motor in the former might mean that it would have more mechanical problems. “I can’t get a new car every two or three years,” he wrote.

He also noted he had court costs to pay once released and asked the dealer to arrange a discount on an 11/40. “Please reserve the grey car that you have in Munich until I have clarity about my fate (probation?).”