Finnischer Abhörskandal: Sechs hohe Sonera-Angestellte unter Anklage

Sechs hochrangige Angestellte des finnischen Telekommunikationskonzerns Sonera, heute TeliaSonera, sind am Montag wegen groben Verstoßes gegen das Kommunikationsgeheimnis unter Anklage gestellt worden. Sie stehen im Verdacht, in den Jahren 2000 und 2001 in großem Stil die Telefonverbindungen aller Mitarbeiter und einer Reihe von Journalisten überwacht zu haben. Derartige Überwachungen sind in Finnland aber nur der Polizei bei Vorliegen gerichtlicher Genehmigungen gestattet.

Unter den Angeklagten befindet sich auch Kaj-Erik Relander, der zurückgetretene Geschäftsführer des Unternehmens. Relander erklärte in einem E-Mail seines Anwalts an die finnischen Medien seine Unschuld.

Vier weitere Angeklagte sind bei dem schwedisch-finnischen Großkonzern TeliaSonera beschäftigt. Jyrki Karasvirta, der Direktor von Telia Sonera Communications, erklärte, das Unternehmen werde zu einem späteren Zeitpunkt über das weitere Arbeitsverhältnis der vier entscheiden. (APA)

http://derstandard.at/?id=1907486

Zoe Koplowitz calls the Transportation Security Administration's new guidelines for airport searches of women "baby steps" in the right direction. Koplowitz is one of dozens of women to complain about the searches. In September, Koplowitz, a middle-aged New Yorker with multiple sclerosis, was singled out for a pat-down all over her body in Kansas City. She says she felt "violated." Attorney Norman Siegel, who has collected many of the women's complaints, says it's a common reaction. He'll be meeting next week with officials of the T-S-A, which now tells screeners to keep their hands away from women's breasts unless something sets off an alarm.

Siegel says close searches without cause are illegal.

http://www.lex18.com/Global/story.asp?S=2732560


Breasts out of bounds in air security checks

AIRPORT security staff in the US were ordered yesterday to avoid touching women passengers between their breasts when searching for weapons. Many women had complained that a new “patdown method”, introduced in September after two Chechen women were blamed for blowing up flights in Russia, killing 90 people, was too intrusive. Airport screeners will revert to checking around the “chest perimeter” unless the passenger sets off an explosives alarm. This can include checks under the bra but not hand searches between the breasts. “We’ve made it more of a perimeter patdown, but we’re still getting the security value,” Mark Hatfield, director of communications at the Transportation Security Administration, said.

Between 400 and 500 women had lodged formal complaints that they were touched inappropriately after being randomly selected or setting off metal detectors, he said.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-1414661,00.html


Airport searches of women's chests revamped

Airport security screeners this week will be instructed not to touch women passengers between their breasts as part of new pat-down procedures, the Transportation Security Administration said Wednesday. The agency said it is making a modification to its searching methods that began in September after more than 400 passengers, mostly women, formally complained that the experience was invasive, humiliating and akin to being molested.
Screeners had been instructed to use their hands to touch women between and underneath their breasts to inspect for explosives that might be hidden beneath clothing.

Now, the agency said, security screeners will be directed to pat down only the "chest perimeter" of female passengers and not to touch women between their breasts unless they set off a hand-held metal detector in the chest area. Female screeners perform the procedure on female passengers.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/1223security23.html


From:
Aftermath News Top Stories
December 26th, 2004

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/22/151230


Informant: Andrea Ball

by Marjorie Heins

From environmental hazards to sex education, the federal government in the past several years has been twisting science to political ends. The ends are sometimes ideological -- as in the suppression of information about condoms and sexual safety -- and sometimes simply take the form of favors to business interests that would like to see less environmental, public health, or workplace safety regulation. But the pattern has become so pervasive that much of the scientific community is up in arms. The question is, what can be done to stop it?

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/Dec2004/Heins1222.htm

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article7486.htm


Informant: David House

Kurz bevor das Informationsfreiheitsgesetz in Kraft tritt, sollen die Angestellten des Büros des britischen Kabinetts Millionen Emails löschen...

http://www.telepolis.de/tp/r4/artikel/19/19059/1.html

Inspector General Had Reported Mismanagement, Security Flaws

The man who has issued many critical reports about the mismanagement and security flaws at the Department of Homeland Security was told Wednesday night that he was out of a job. Clark Ervin made himself very unpopular by issuing a series of stinging reports on security programs that he said had failed, officials he called inept, and fraud that he suspected. His year-end report, out today, alleges that millions of dollars have been wasted or are unaccounted for by the department. "There isn't a concern about the importance of spending every single dollar to the maximum effect of the core mission of the department," Ervin told ABC News. The White House appointed Ervin as inspector general for the Homeland Security Department only for the term of Congress. He wanted to stay on, but was informed Wednesday night that he would be replaced. "His term expired and that's that," said a White House spokesperson. "I think this was a voice that was a little too critical and made the administration a little too uncomfortable," said Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on Government Oversight, a nonprofit government watchdog group.

Among the investigations being conducted by Ervin was what he called an illegal contract with the Boeing company for the installation of explosive detection machines at airports. "At least $49 million, almost $50 million, in excessive profit was paid to Boeing," according to Ervin.

http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/Investigation/story?id=316582&page=1


From:
Aftermath News
Top Stories - December 20th, 2004

The open secret -- who runs the show?

by Paul Jacob

Town Hall

12/19/04

Politicians are suffering. And last October former Florida Supreme Court justice and sometime lobbyist Wade Hopping was hopping mad about it. The trouble? Term limits. They really irk politicians, as the citizens who have supported term limits had every reason to expect.

The longer representatives serve in office, the more removed the representatives become from the concerns and interests of citizens. But boy, how expert they become in serving their own interests, and the interests of the biggest wheels!

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/pauljacob/pj20041219.shtml


Informant: Thomas L. Knapp

URL:
http://sozialisten.de/presse/presseerklaerungen/view_html?zid=25342
Datum: 20.12.2004
© www.sozialisten.de


Raffke-Mentalität beschädigt Glaubwürdigkeit der Politik

Zum Umgang mit den zusätzlichen RWE-Bezügen von CDU-Generalsekretär Meyer erklärt Bundesgeschäftsführer Rolf Kutzmutz:

Alle nun angekündigte "brutalstmögliche Aufklärung" der Zusatz- und Nebenverdienste von CDU-Generalsekretär Meyer wird auf eine Frage der Menschen keine Antwort geben: Warum braucht ein wohlbestallter Landtagsvizepräsident und ein ordentlich bezahlter CDU-Generalsekretär und Bundestagsabgeordneter überhaupt einen Nebenverdienst von einem Energiekonzern in sechsstelliger Höhe?

Wenn Laurenz Meyer nach seiner Wahl zum Landtagsvizepräsidenten in NRW den Vertrag mit RWE hat wiederaufleben lassen und nach seiner Wahl zum CDU-Generalsekretär trotz gegenteiliger Beteuerungen den Vertrag noch fünf Monate weitergeführt hat, bestätigt das den Verdacht einer Raffke-Mentalität, die die Glaubwürdigkeit der Politik beschädigt.

Das ist das eigentliche Problem, das mit Meyers bisheriger Salami-Taktik beim Umgang mit seinen Nebenverdiensten nur verschärft wird. In der Union aber hat man offenkundig nur Probleme mit Meyers Krisenmanagement. Ob die von der Spendenaffäre gebeutelte CDU den Doppelverdienst ihres Generalsekretärs toleriert, muss die Schatzmeisterei klären. Ob aber die rechte Hand von Angela Merkel, die gern in Richtung der politischen Gegner schlägt, sich weiter in eigener Sache in Unschuld waschen kann, wird die CDU-Vorsitzende zu klären haben. Denn wen sie es nicht tut, werden es die Wählerinnen und Wähler tun.

Die Strom-Affäre des CDU-Generalsekretärs macht deutlich: Es führt kein Weg an der Offenlegung von Neben- und Zusatzverdiensten von Politiker/innen vorbei. Die Wählerinnen und Wähler haben einen Anspruch darauf zu erfahren, aus welchen Quellen jemand neben den Diäten finanziert wird, der sich zur Wahl stellt. Dass in dieser Frage ausgerechnet die SPD kneift, macht die Aufforderung des SPD-Generalsekretärs an Angela Merkel, für Klarheit zu sorgen, zu einem Muster ohne Wert.