Swedish EU Presidency – USA and EU agree on future cooperation on justice and home affairs
During the meeting held today between the EU and the USA in Washington, the parties adopted a declaration on the development of future cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs. [isria.com] The EU was represented at the meeting by Minister for Justice Beatrice Ask and Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Tobias Billström, […]
As the Vice Minister turned his back
[lesvos09.antira.info] A few days ago, news arrived about the vice Minister visiting Pagani, describing it with the words “Dantes Inferno”. Today, our faithful source in Mytilini reports about new revolts in the Detention Center of Pagani. Today the revolts in Pagani started again. After the Vice Minister of internal affairs visited Pagani two days ago, […]
Taser makers say don’t aim at chest
The maker of Taser stun guns has advised law enforcement agencies to avoid hitting suspects in the chest, partly "to minimize controversy." [cnn.com] "Taser has long stood by the fact that our technology is not risk free and is often used during violent and dangerous confrontations," Taser International spokesman Steve Tuttle said in a memo […]
Italy and France seek EU-Libya accord to curb illegal immigration
[earthtimes.org] Italy and France want the European Union to clinch a deal with Libya aimed at helping the North African nation control its borders and stem the flown of illegal immigrants across the Mediterranean to Europe, the Italian government said Friday. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and French President Nicolas Sarkozy made the appeal in […]
Secret files reveal covert network run by nuclear police
The nuclear industry funds the special armed police force which guards its installations across the UK, and secret documents, seen by the Guardian, show the 750-strong force is authorised to carry out covert intelligence operations against anti-nuclear protesters, one of its main targets. [guardian.co.uk] The nuclear industry will pay £57m this year to finance the […]
Policing Dissent in the Information Age
The Twitterest Pill By JACK Z. BRATICH [counterpunch.org] Ahh, remember the Summer of Tweet-Love? Those heady days in June 09, when pundits and cable news anchors sang the praises of their beloved social media platform Twitter? Remember how we changed our Facebook profile pics to Green in solidarity with Iranian protestors? Perhaps Eliot Madison was […]
Belarus’ border guard, EU Frontex to ink cooperation agreement on 21 October
[belta.by] The State Border Committee of Belarus and the European Union border protection agency Frontex will sign an agreement on cooperation, Chairman of the State Border Guard Committee of Belarus Igor Rachkovsky told media. Frontex Executive Director Ilkka Laitinen is expected to arrive at the facilitated border checkpoint Nervelishki (Lithuania) to sign the document. According […]
New police crime-mapping system crashes on first outing
By John Ozimek The shiny new police crime-mapping system popped up yesterday – and promptly fell back down again. [theregister.co.uk] This is the long-awaited interactive mapping system, launched this week, and designed to allow individuals to compare crime figures across England and Wales. In practice, widescale public interest in the site has been its undoing. […]
U.S. Spies Buy Stake in Firm That Monitors Blogs, Tweets
[wired.com] In-Q-Tel, the investment arm of the CIA and the wider intelligence community, is putting cash into Visible Technologies, a software firm that specializes in monitoring social media. It’s part of a larger movement within the spy services to get better at using ”open source intelligence” — information that’s publicly available, but often hidden in the […]
Demo of EU’s Planned „INDECT“ Hints At Massive Data Mining, Little Privacy
[yro.slashdot.org] Ronald Dumsfeld writes "Wikinews puts together some of the details around the EU’s five-year-plan called Project INDECT, and brings attention to a leaked ’sales-pitch‘ video: ‚An unreleased promotional video for INDECT located on YouTube is shown to the right. The simplified example of the system in operation shows a file of documents with […]
The Stockholm Program: An open and secure Europe serving the citizen (as drafted by Swedish Presidency 6 October) [Update]
Update 19th October: This leaked document has significant differences to the official one, released 10 days later. Statewatch yesterday analysed the changes. (DRAFT 6/10.2009) The Challenges Ahead Towards a Citizens Europe in the Area of freedom, security and justice The European Council endorses the Stockholm Program, which sets out the priority actions for the next […]
Space-based applications are increasingly important to many other EU policy areas as well and they have a strategy
Speech: José Manuel Durão Barroso [earsc.eu] Let me start by welcoming you all to this groundbreaking conference. Europe now faces some fundamental challenges. Fighting the economic crisis; ensuring the well being of our citizens; tackling climate change; finding ways to unleash our full potential for innovation and job creation, and to bring about a true […]
Police win data deletion appeal
Five police forces which challenged a ruling that they should delete records on criminal convictions from their database have won their appeal. [bbc.co.uk] The court of appeal said convictions, however old and however minor, can be of value in the fight against crime. The court said that as a result the retention of that information […]
Big Brother
FBI Data-Mining Programs Resurrect "Total Information Awareness" by Tom Burghardt [globalresearch.ca] Like a vampire rising from it’s grave each night to feed on the privacy rights of Americans, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is moving forward with programs that drain the life blood from our constitutional liberties. From the wholesale use of informants and provocateurs […]
Towards the integration of maritime surveillance in the European Union: questions and answers
[europa.eu] What is maritime surveillance? It is the effective understanding of all activities carried out at sea that could impact the security, safety, economy, or environment of the European Union and its Member States. Maritime Surveillance is carried out by Member States‘ authorities dealing with maritime transport, fisheries, border control, fight against illegal immigration, law […]
Crowd control gets intelligent
By Dave Lee Predicting how large crowds will react in certain situations has long been the holy-grail for architects and planners. Many factors, such as a person’s emotions or intelligence, can determine how they act when confronted with a busy scene or an emergency. Crowd simulation software has always tried to recreate realistic behaviour, but […]
Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining Project *
A fast-growing FBI data-mining system billed as a tool for hunting terrorists is being used in hacker and domestic criminal investigations, and now contains tens of thousands of records from private corporate databases, including car-rental companies, large hotel chains and at least one national department store, declassified documents obtained by Wired.com show. [wired.com] Headquartered in […]
Post-26/11, EU wants stepped up exchange in counter-terror
New Delhi In the aftermath of Mumbai attacks, the 27-nation European Union is keen on substantially raising its cooperation with India in counter-terrorism and the two sides are exploring the possibility of signing a mutual legal assistance treaty. [expressindia.com] India and the EU are also looking at the possibility of an agreement between CBI and […]
Tel Aviv exhibition features anti-hooligan robots
The Third Israel Defense security exhibition being held in Tel Aviv’s Fairground this week had a number of nifty platforms put on display by international and Israeli companies, including a remote-controlled vehicle designed to deal with street riots. [jpost.com] The three-day exhibition, which kicked off on Monday, is aimed at offering the Israel Police, Prisons […]