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October 16, 2001 - 12:37pm -- nick
The State

Anonymous Comrade writes: "Changes On All Sides: Where Do We Stand? and Some Thoughts on
Perspectives


By Farooq Tariq

General Secretary Labour Party Pakistan

2-10-2001


The 11th September incident has had a devastating effect on the politics of different trends in Pakistan. It has polarized the politics of each group to an extent never seen before. The Pakistan Peoples Party, the party of the Bhuttos, is now openly supporting the stand of the military regime to go for an all out help for the Americans. So is the case of the Mutihida Qaumi Movement (MQM) the party of the immigrants with a mass base in Sind cities. In the North West Frontier province, the National Awami Party, the largest party of the Pushtoons has also changed sides from opposing the military regime to openly supporting the regime.

October 15, 2001 - 3:16pm -- autonomedia
News
The State

http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47552,00.htm l

RIAA Wants to Hack Your PC

By Declan McCullagh

2:00 a.m. Oct. 15, 2001 PDT    


WASHINGTON -- Look out, music pirates: The recording industry wants the right to hack into your computer and delete your stolen MP3s.

It's no joke. Lobbyists for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) tried to glue this hacking-authorization amendment onto a mammoth anti-terrorism bill that Congress approved last week.

An RIAA-drafted amendment according to a draft obtained by Wired News would immunize all copyright holders -- including the movie and e-book industry -- for any data losses caused by their hacking efforts or other computer intrusions "that are reasonably intended to impede or prevent" electronic piracy.

Full Story is at http://wired.com/news/conflict/0,2100,47552,00.htm l

October 13, 2001 - 2:02pm -- autonomedia
Analysis & Polemic
The State

"COINTELPRO: The Untold American Story



http://www.derechos.net/paulwolf/cointelpropapers/ coinwcar3.htm
>



Compilation by Paul Wolf with contributions from Robert Boyle,
Bob Brown, Tom Burghardt, Noam Chomsky, Ward Churchill, Kathleen
Cleaver, Bruce Ellison, Cynthia McKinney, Nkechi Taifa, Laura
Whitehorn, Nicholas Wilson, and Howard Zinn.



Presented to Mary Robinson at the World Conference Against
Racism in Durban, South Africa by Congresswoman Cynthia
McKinney, September 1, 2001.


We're here to talk about the FBI and U.S. democracy because
here we have this peculiar situation that we live in a
democratic country - everybody knows that, everybody says
it, it's repeated, it's dinned into our ears a thousand
times, you grow up, you pledge allegiance, you salute the
flag, you hail democracy, you look at the totalitarian
states, you read the history of tyrannies, and here is the
beacon light of democracy. And, of course, there's some
truth to that. There are things you can do in the United
States that you can't do many other places without being
put in jail.

October 12, 2001 - 3:18am -- hydrarchist
Analysis & Polemic
The State

This is the second installment of a paper by Max Kolskegg. The first section has now been archived in the 'analysis and polemic' section and may be accessed here. Max writes....:

Those Anarchists!

Although the New World Order is presented as a harmonious cross of
Democracy and the Market, its underlying reality is quite the
reverse. An accurate characterization would be something along the
lines of State-Imposed Corporate Oligarchy (SICKO), that is,
tyrannical rule of a tiny elite maintained by the brutal physical
force of states and the total penetration of psychological control
mechanisms. Genoa and its aftermath provide a clear and succinct
snapshot of its operations: ruthless crackdown on dissent,
pathological application of torture, and a continuous blitz of
defamation and denunciation, while behind the scenes the state
planners develop new levels of integration and surveillance to
suppress future resistance. Now let's ask ourselves again, what
exactly do we hope to achieve by pleading with the sickos to let up
on us a bit? One image says it all: helpless people at the Diaz
school raid, raising their empty hands in signal of total submission,
yelling "pacifist, pacifist" as their skulls were mercilessly cracked
open by the Fascist foot-soldiers of capitalism.

October 10, 2001 - 4:22pm -- autonomedia
Analysis & Polemic
The State

Max Kolskegg writes: "It would be hard to deny that the events in Genoa were, as
Starhawk has said, a major watershed in the history of the movement
to create a livable world. The repressive forces of capitalism were
in full display, so that even the most pacific of pacifists received
a salutary shock and have been forced to reevaluate the rationality,
if not the righteousness, of their strategy for social change. The
near-murderous assault on the sleeping place of the Genoa Social
Forum and the Independent Media Center on the 21st of July will go
down in infamy. The skulls cracked there may change more than a few
minds about who and what we're dealing with, and how best to
proceed.

October 9, 2001 - 6:27pm -- nomadlab
News
The State

From: Angela Colaiuta, National Field Organizer, ACLU

October 8, 2001

In a dramatic departure from the anti-terrorism bill adopted by the House
Judiciary Committee, Senate leaders have introduced the "Uniting and
Strengthening America (USA) Act" (S.1510), a bill that would significantly
undermine many of the freedoms that Americans hold dear. It is likely that
this legislation will be rushed onto the Senate floor this week without any
committee review.



Among the bill's most troubling provisions are measures that would give the
government the authority to spy on its own people, enable the Attorney
General unlimited authority to incarcerate non-citizens, and allow the
government to expand its use of secret searches.



Take Action! Don't allow Congress to abandon our cherished constitutional
safeguards during this time of national crisis. You can read more about
this legislation and send a FREE FAX to your Senators from our action alert
at:


http://www.aclu.org/action/usa107.html

October 6, 2001 - 7:27pm -- nomadlab
The State

nomadlab writes: "Following attacks, courtrooms become secret, documents sealed


The U.S. terror investigation that has hauled in hundreds of
Middle Easterners is being conducted with closed court hearings
and sealed documents on a scale legal experts say may be
unprecedented.

As part of what Attorney General John Ashcroft has called the
biggest criminal investigation in U.S. history, federal authorities
have detained more than 500 people without releasing the
paperwork that usually accompanies nearly any type of court
proceeding.


"This is a unique moment in our history and to expect that the old standards of due process are going to apply is naive." said on legal analyist"

October 4, 2001 - 11:49pm -- autonomedia
News
The State

"http://www.worldbank.org/html/extdr/pb/pbfourdeman ds.htm


Response to Four Demands from the Mobilization for Global Justice

1. Open all World Bank and IMF meetings to the media and the public.

The Bank has opened up significantly to the media and the public -- this
applies not just to opening our meetings, but also to our new disclosure
policy, which allows for the release of more project-related documents,
information on Poverty Reduction Strategies and on adjustment lending; and
more access to Bank archives. The new policy also aims to strengthen our
Public Information Centers so that the general public in our borrowing
countries can have greater access Bank-related information.


October 3, 2001 - 10:12pm -- Stenglander
News
The State

Anonymous Comrade writes: "Here's summary of the anti-terrorism bill that has been agreed upon by the
Judiciary Committee:

Detention of Illegal Aliens:
Immigration officials would be able to detain suspected terrorists up to
seven days before charging them with a crime or a violation of
immigration law. The administration had asked to be able to detain
suspected terrorists indefinitely.

Roving Wiretaps:
Law enforcement officials would be able to obtain a court order to
wiretap the telephone of a specific suspect rather than just a specific
telephone, eliminating the need to get new wiretap authority each time a
suspect changes telephones.

Statue of limitations:
For the most serious terrorist offenses, there would no longer be a
statue of limitations. Currently, the statue of limitations for many
terrorist offenses is five to eight years.

Electronic Surveillance:
Law enforcement officials would be able to get the addresses of e-mail
messages sent and received by suspected terrorists without a search
warrant, as they can now obtain telephone numbers called by suspects
without a search warrant.

Foreign Intelligence:
Law enforcement officials seeking a court order for electronic
surveillance of terrorists overseas would have to show that the
collection of foreign intelligence information was "a significant
purpose" of the investigation. Currently, they must show that it is the
"sole or primary purpose" of the investigation. The Bush adminstration
had favored a less rigorous standard.

cryptome.org has posted the Senate version of the Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism
(PATRIOT) Act of 2001

October 3, 2001 - 9:40pm -- nomadlab
The State

Autonomedia writes:

"Crime Versus War:
The Consequences of Competing Descriptions of September 11

George Caffentzis

The Bush administration has described the hijacking and crashing of commercial airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001 as acts of war. I claim that the mass killings and property destruction of that day were crimes. Crime versus War, is this is not just a "semantic quibble"? On the contrary, the way in which these events are described is a "life and death" decision. For the description of an event has implicit in it many moral and practical consequences, some obvious and other unforeseen. In this article I present the reasons for my objection to the Bush administation's description of September 11.

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