How has the Prime Minister survived the political fallout from Iraq, Hutton and, in particular, the Butler report?" - Are we witnessing the slow death of accountability in the UK?

http://comment.independent.co.uk/commentators/story.jsp?story=605290
http://tinyurl.com/4n6zz


UK: A blow for democracy:

The new home secretary should not be looking at new laws to subvert the criminal justice system but should be looking at how to improve it so that there are more successful prosecutions of terrorist suspects. - If a person cannot be prosecuted for a terrorist charge, it means that either there is not enough evidence to convict that person or that the evidence cannot be relied upon.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/letters/story/0,3604,1400295,00.html
http://tinyurl.com/6u4p4


From Information Clearing House

by Nebojsa Malic

AntiWar.Com

11/18/04

It is not uncommon for countries that have been infected by democracy to fall prey to a malaise in which every sphere of life becomes political, i.e., falls under the control or influence of the state. The amount of power this gives the state becomes so strong a lure that it attracts the very worst of characters, and tempts even the best who somehow manage to stumble into governance. Power struggles at the top result in widespread destruction of society, or even the country itself. One very clear example of this is Serbia today -- but if one looks hard enough, it can be seen everywhere. Only the extent varies...

http://antiwar.com/malic/?articleid=4002


The battle of the century

by Jim Peron

Institute for Liberal Values

11/18/04

Capitalism is inherently anti-fundamentalistic. The fundamentalist puts a restricted, stilted version of their religion at the centre of everything. They take the culture bound words of some ancient mystical writing and attempt to apply it to a modern age. There is a conflict inherent in this. But for the fundamentalist the ancient word supersedes that of anything since then. So instead of looking for truths that apply to the modern world they attempt to restrict and confine the modern world so it will fit the ancient text. But capitalism undermines this...

http://makeashorterlink.com/?L27C12FC9


The "Armageddon" Nation?

by Dorothy Anne Seese

Ether Zone

11/18/04

The dispensationalists in the 'Christian right' are sitting around waiting for some fuzzy rapture and the hypocrites who disregard all Ten Commandments while claiming to be Christians are leading them into the grand delusion. And the world into a fake Armageddon. It's doubtful few have even done enough research to know what 'Armageddon' (the Bible one) is, they take Hollywood's version. And they're going to make it real at the expense of American blood, foreign blood, and the destruction of anything in the way of American hegemony. So they think...

http://www.etherzone.com/2004/sees111804.shtml


It has happened here

by Pierre Tristam

CounterPunch

11/17/04

Requisite recitations of the Pledge of Allegiance at public functions, singing 'God Bless America' at sports events, fawning over the military in bumper stickers, in business-seminar speeches, in the public ceremonies of virtually every national holiday, in the $16-million exhibit at the Smithsonian of American wars dubbed 'The Price of Freedom,' in the president's silly and improper salutes every time he encounters a uniform -- these are the signs of a society growing not only less secure with its civilian identity, but also more martial, more authoritarian, more uniformly submissive, less tolerant, much less democratic...

http://www.counterpunch.org/tristam11172004.html


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

One of Every 140 U.S. Residents is in Prison or Jail:

State and federal authorities held 1,470,045 prisoners as of December 31, 2003

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/press/p03pr.htm


From Information Clearing House

Harry Browne on the Statue of Liberty and the America that once was:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/browne7.html

If our Founding Fathers suddenly arose from their graves and surveyed our present situation, to a man, they would hold that not only are we not free and not a democracy, but instead a subjugated and down trodden people.

http://207.44.245.159/article7141.htm

FBI Seeking Tools to Control and Censor Internet
http://www.dojgov.net/USDOJ_Carnivore_Scam.htm

How the United States can stop Internet censorship
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-5021355-1.html?legacy=cnet
http://www.cdt.org/speech/


Informant: savefreedom2003

ASCII stands against eviction - free software needs home

The ASCII squat, a free public internet space run by hackers and activists in Amsterdam, is getting evicted at this moment by the local police.

See http://squat.net/asciicam

ASCII was set up recycling old computers and using only free software (GNU GPL) to bring broader access to technology for the populace.

ASCII is a collective of free and autonomous thinkers, technically and politically aware hackers and free software developers.

The current location of ASCII, Kinkerstraat 92, is not the first nor the last place where hackers struggle for redemption from merchantile agendas speculating on technology and its accessibility by the populace. The right to comunicate is everyone's good and software implements it!

Stand now in solidarity with ASCII, because free software needs /home! Raise consciousness! This small eviction reflects a larger wave of repression operated by western NATO regimes, the recent FBI raid on Indymedia online servers is a serious signal of the current crackdown on freedom of speech. As of today there are no clear legal motivations for this action of censorship affecting more than 20 different countries. But for us the motivation is clear: the capitalist regime brought to its extreme consequences is revealing all its intrinsic violence and its logics of prevarication by silencing any critical voice opposing it.

We will keep on struggling for the right to think differently, act differently and compute differently from the way corporations and fascist state governors are trying to impose us. And if necessary we will compile our last lines of sourcecode on the barricades.

In solidarity with all those who resist.

ASCII Amsterdam Subversive Center for Information Interchange

http://scii.nl

NL: ASCII von Polizei ausgeräumt

Das freie Software- und Internetprojekt ASCII in Amsterdam wurde am 12.10.04 von der Polizei geräumt. Das langjährige Projekt von Hackern und Aktivisten verwendet alte Rechner mit freier Software um kostenloses und unzensiertes Internet für jedermann zu ermöglichen. Aber auch den Niederländern ist freie Kommunikation und Software Politikern und Konzernen ein Dorn im Auge.

[...]

Montag Abend erreicht uns eine weitere traurige Meldung, diesmal aus den Niederlanden.

[...]

ASCII [1] realisierte seit 5 Jahren ein öffentliches, freies Internetcafe in Amsterdam. Der Zugang zum Netz war kostenlos, zum Einsatz kam nur freie Software. Nun wurden die Räume des freien Projektes ASCII von der Polizei geräumt [2].

Es ist nicht das erste Mal, dass ASCII geräumt wurde und sicher nicht das letzte Mal. ASCII wird einen neuen Wirkungsort finden. Das Öffentliche Internetcafe wird es vermutlich nicht mehr geben, doch der Kampf um die Freiheit der Kommunikation und andere Themen, die von der Politik niedergemetzelt werden, geht weiter.

Zitat von der ASCII Webseite: "We will keep on struggling for the right to think differently, act differently and compute differently from the way corporations and fascist state governors are trying to impose us. And if necessary we will compile our last lines of source code on the barricades."

In Solidarität mit den freiheitlichen Bewegungen.

[...]

[1] http://scii.nl/
[2] http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2004/10/22178.shtml

Mehr: http://koeln.ccc.de/updates/2004-10-14_ascii.html


relayed by Abdul Alhazred

Quelle: quintessenz-list Digest, Vol 19, Issue 9