Sunday, February 8, 2009

BUSH THREATENED BRITAIN WAToday: "A flurry of letters between the British Foreign Office and the US State Department has revealed that Washington did threaten to withdraw intelligence-sharing with Britain if documents related to the alleged torture of a British terrorism detainee in Guantanamo Bay were made public. The High Court in London said on Wednesday the Foreign Office had refused to allow the torture documents to be revealed because of a 'threat' from Washington to stop sharing intelligence with Britain. The US warning, related to the case of British detainee Binyam Mohamed, was promptly denied by British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, who insisted that there had been no threat from the US to 'break off intelligence co-operation'. But on Thursday night British broadcaster Channel 4 revealed that a letter dated August 21, 2008, from the US State Department, stated the consequences if a British court published American documents on the capture and interrogation of Mohamed. 'I write with respect to proceedings ... regarding Mr Binyam Mohamed,' the letter said. 'We note the classified documents identified in your letters of June 16 and August 1, 2008, to the acting general counsel of the Department of Defence ... the public disclosure of these documents or of the information contained therein is likely to result in serious damage to US national security and could harm ... intelligence information sharing arrangements between our two governments.' Channel 4 revealed that a week later the State Department wrote again to the Foreign Office to make clear the consequences if British courts released the paperwork detailing allegations of torture by US and British intelligence services." 2:25:47 PM

IT There is a lot going on in the IT world. It seems many companies are closing down services and forcing their policies on the customers and users. A few weeks ago Google Earth has downsized its Google Earth Community. The new software has many flaws and the 'places of cultural interest' (placemarks of general interest) have apparently been taken down from their servers. The Google Maps option is gone from the GEC site. ecademy: "Google says the vast majority of the 1 million businesses that use Google Apps opt for the free advertising supported version. To make the free option less attractive they've been quietly lowering the number of user accounts that can be associated with a free account. Now as businesses grow, they'll be forced to move to the paid version much more quickly than before." I can't say I am very enthusiastic about Google's privacy policies. Under the cloak of cute apps the surveillance society is creeping up on us. MacWorld: "Not content with indexing the world's information, Google is now tracking where users of its maps service are, and making that location data searchable by others. The tracking feature, called Latitude, will appear on compatible mobile devices in a new version of Google Maps, version 3.0.0. " Apple has just introduced the new iPhoto with face recognition possibilities. You can't disable the feature, so your computer will index all faces found on your photos. It is the most ridiculous thing ever developed. Fortunately, it does not work too good. Even figureheads and publicity boards don't escape the attention of Apple's Faces. But it is able to recognize your cat. So this is a giant step forward for mankind. EFF: "This is what it's come to. Teenagers singing 'Winter Wonderland' being censored off YouTube. Fair use has always been at risk on YouTube, thanks to abusive DMCA takedown notices sent by copyright owners (sometimes carelessly, sometimes not). But in the past several weeks, two things have made things much worse for those who want to sing a song, post an a capella tribute, or set machinima to music. First, it appears that more and more copyright owners are using YouTube's automated copyright filtering system (known as the Content ID system), which tests all videos looking for a 'match' with 'fingerprints' provided by copyright owners. Second, thanks to a recent spat between YouTube and Warner Music Group, YouTube's Content ID tool is now being used to censor lots and lots of videos (previously, Warner just silently shared in the advertising revenue for the videos that included a 'match' to its music)." TheRegister: "The BBC has dropped a controversial tracking system from its UK website after privacy activists complained that it was reporting personal information including their post codes to a US company. Until recently, the BBC was sending copies of cookies dropped on bbc.co.uk visitors to Visual Sciences, a web analytics operation bought in 2007 by Omniture, a Utah-based online marketing firm." Wired: "Bloggers: If you suddenly find Air Force officers leaving barbed comments after one of your posts, don't be surprised. They're just following the service's new 'counter-blogging' flow chart. In a twelve-point plan, put together by the emerging technology division of the Air Force's public affairs arm, airmen are given guidance on how to handle 'trolls', 'ragers' - and even well-informed online writers, too. It's all part of an Air Force push to 'counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force,' Captain David Faggard says." 2:07:59 PM

THE NAZIFICATION OF ISRAEL This image shows the ongoing ethnic cleansing of Palestine. eIntifada: "Extremist rabbis and their followers, bent on waging holy war against the Palestinians, are taking over the Israeli army by stealth, according to critics. In a process one military historian has termed the rapid 'theologization' of the Israeli army, there are now entire units of religious combat soldiers, many of them based in West Bank settlements. They answer to hardline rabbis who call for the establishment of a Greater Israel that includes the Occupied Palestinian Territories." Reuters: "Israel admitted Wednesday that one of its tanks killed three girls whose father's cries on live television shocked viewers in the final days of the Gaza offensive, but said the action was 'reasonable'." Haaretz: "The Yisrael Beiteinu youths gather for a final consultation as dozens of elderly party supporters slowly make their way into the white tent where the movement's conference is being held, behind the Plaza Hotel in Upper Nazareth. The youths, ages 16-18, many of them good friends from school, had stood for a long time before the event began at the intersection near the hotel, waving Israeli flags and shouting 'Death to the Arabs' and 'No loyalty, no citizenship' at passing cars." 1:45:08 PM

THE FAILURE OF MARKET ECONOMY Stiglitz: "For 15 years, I have attended the World Economic Forum in Davos. Typically, the leaders gathered there share their optimism about how globalisation, technology and markets are transforming the world for the better. Even during the recession of 2001, those assembled in Davos believed that the downturn would be short-lived. But this time, as business leaders shared their experiences, one could almost feel the clouds darkening. The spirit was captured by one speaker who suggested that we had gone from 'boom and bust' to 'boom and Armageddon'. Equally striking was the loss of faith in markets. In a widely attended brainstorming session at which participants were asked what single failure accounted for the crisis, there was a resounding answer: the belief that markets were self-correcting. The so-called 'efficient markets' model, which holds that prices fully and efficiently reflect all available information, also came in for a trashing. So did inflation targeting: the excessive focus on inflation had diverted attention from the more fundamental question of financial stability. Central bankers' belief that controlling inflation was necessary and almost sufficient for growth and prosperity had never been based on sound economic theory; now, the crisis provided further scepticism. The few labour leaders who work hard at Davos each year to advance a better understanding of the concerns of working men and women among the business community were particularly angry at the financial community's lack of remorse. A call for the repayment of past bonuses was received with applause. Worse still, much of the money flowing into the banks to recapitalise them so that they could resume lending has been flowing out in the form of bonus payments and dividends. The fact that businesses around the world were not getting the credit they need compounded the grievances expressed at Davos. This crisis raises fundamental questions about globalisation, which was supposed to help diffuse risk. Instead, it has enabled America's failures to spread around the world, like a contagious disease. Making matters worse, the IMF still forces most countries that turn to it for help to raise interest rates and lower spending, worsening the downturns. And, to add insult to injury, banks in advanced countries, especially those receiving aid from their governments, seem to be pulling back from lending in developing countries, including through branches and subsidiaries. So the prospects for most developing countries - including those that had done everything 'right' - are bleak. With American-style capitalism and America's financial markets in disrepute, will the US now lead the world into a new era of protectionism, as it did once before, during the Great Depression?" DeutscheWelle: "In an interview with Deutsche Welle, Nobel-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz talks about nationalizing banks, the outlook for developing countries, and the need for an international financial regulator." AlterNet: "Just when you thought Bank of America couldn't abuse the bailout any more than they already have, the nation's largest bank threw a lavish 5-day Super Bowl extravaganza worth $10 million, according to ABC." Destroying our economy is encouraged (Fiore animation). 1:35:48 PM

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