Infinite Unknown

Detective Charles Baker of the Charles County sheriff’s office checks data from two cameras installed atop his cruiser that scan license plates. (By James A. Parcell For The Washington Post)

Authorities plan to install about 200 automated license plate readers on police vehicles and alongside roads in the Washington area to thwart potential terrorist attacks, dramatically expanding the use of a high-tech tool previously aimed at parking scofflaws and car thieves.

Top homeland security officials from Maryland, Virginia and the District agreed last week to spend $4.5 million on the new system, officials said Friday. The funds will come from a $59.8 million federal homeland security grant for the D.C. area announced last month. That grant also will be used to outfit police with radiation detectors, improve hazmat and bomb squads and provide equipment to hospitals, officials decided.

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Tags: civil liberties, DHS, Government, Homeland Security, New World Order, Police State, Politics, Privacy, Surveillance, terrorism, terrorists, U.S., Washington

(NaturalNews) A newly discovered and highly lethal virus strain begins with symptoms similar to that of a cold but can quickly lead to severe respiratory crisis.

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Tags: Health, mortality rate, Oregon, pneumonia, South Carolina, Texas, virus, Washington

“My reaction is, welcome to Baghdad, D.C.,” said Arthur Spitzer, legal director for the ACLU’s Washington office. “I mean, this is craziness. In this country, you don’t have to show identification or explain to the police why you want to travel down a public street.”
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D.C. Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier announced a military-style checkpoint yesterday to stop cars this weekend in a Northeast Washington neighborhood inundated by gun violence, saying it will help keep criminals out of the area.

Starting on Saturday, officers will check drivers’ identification and ask whether they have a “legitimate purpose” to be in the Trinidad area, such as going to a doctor or church or visiting friends or relatives. If not, the drivers will be turned away.

The Neighborhood Safety Zone initiative is the latest crime-fighting attempt by Lanier and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, who have been under pressure from residents to stop a recent surge in violence. Last weekend was especially bloody, with seven slayings, including three in the Trinidad area.

“In certain areas, we need to go beyond the normal methods of policing,” Fenty (D) said at a news conference announcing the action. “We’re going to go into an area and completely shut it down to prevent shootings and the sale of drugs.” Continue reading »

Tags: ACLU, Police, Police State, U.S., Washington

Stephen Young, director of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT), said the United States would continue to supply weapons to Taipei.

“We also expect our traditional close security cooperation to continue, as we are convinced American support for Taiwan’s defence gives its democratic leaders the confidence to explore closer ties with its big neighbour without fear of pressure or coercion,” he said in an address to the American Chamber of Commerce (Amcham) here.

Taiwan has been governed separately since the end of a 1949 civil war, but Beijing has repeatedly threatened to invade should the island declare formal independence, and has targeted it with more than 1,000 ballistic missiles.

Washington has been the island’s leading arms supplier, despite switching diplomatic recognition from Taipei to Beijing in 1979.

But Taipei-Washington ties were frustrated by cross-strait tensions under the outgoing pro-independence government and Ma, of the Beijing-friendly Kuomintang, has vowed to improve relations.

Young also hailed the unprecedented contacts between the island and China earlier this month.

“We applaud both sides of the Strait for facilitating vice president-elect Vincent Siew’s recent participation in the Boao Forum, during which he held a highly symbolic meeting with People’s Republic of China President Hu Jintao,” Young said.

Tuesday April 29, 2008

Source: AFP

Tags: Arms, Beijing, China, Missiles, Taipeh, Taiwan, U.S., Washington, weapon

The Wrong Way To Carry Out Video Surveillance in D.C.

For more than five years, security experts and privacy advocates have praised the public video surveillance network operated by the D.C. police department as the model of a well-balanced system. The department has adopted a set of common-sense regulations for its 91 cameras that give police access to footage when they need it while protecting the privacy rights of the millions who live or work in Washington.

We were greatly disappointed, then, to hear Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and Darrell Darnell, director of the D.C. Homeland Security and Emergency Management Agency, announce plans this month [front page, April 10] to centralize monitoring of more than 5,000 cameras, including those in and around our schools, public housing and residential neighborhoods. Even worse, it appears that Darnell’s office has no plans to apply the D.C. police department’s best-in-the-nation safeguards.

In February, the D.C. police released a report evaluating the successes and failures of the video surveillance system. The report concluded that since the network was expanded into residential areas, some types of crime have declined in those neighborhoods. The department was applauded for undertaking an examination of its own system: A public account of how a video surveillance system affects the lives of a city’s residents promotes accountability. Sadly, the reporting requirement is one that may be scrapped as the D.C. police department loses control of the network.

Unchecked video surveillance invades individual privacy rights. People in public spaces routinely engage in activities that they expect and desire to keep private. For example, consider attending an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting or seeking treatment at a fertility clinic — legal and private activities — while faceless individuals track your movements. This is an area in which the law has not kept pace with rapidly changing technology. We need well-reasoned guidelines to protect the privacy rights of individuals in the face of emerging surveillance tools. Continue reading »

Tags: Constitution, Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security, Surveillance, video surveillance, Washington

The tax provisions of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which consumer groups and labor leaders say amount to government handouts to big business, show how the credit crisis, while rattling the housing and financial markets, has created beneficiaries in the power corridors of Washington.

It also shows how legislation with a populist imperative offers a chance for lobbyists to press their clients’ interests.

This has proved especially true on the housing legislation, which many lawmakers and lobbyists view as one of the last opportunities before Congress grinds to a halt amid election-year politics.

In the Senate bill, the nation’s biggest home builders, some now on the verge of bankruptcy, won a provision that would let them claim millions in tax refunds by charging their current losses against the huge profits they made three or four years ago. Other struggling industries would benefit from this provision.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, was the main author of the Senate bill meant to help homeowners.

(The ones who will really benefit from this are, like always, the corporations.
And guess who will pay for these tax breaks in the end? - The Infinite Unknown)

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Tags: airlines, alternative energy producers, American Airlines, automakers, bill, Businesses, corporations, Economy, financial market, Ford, Foreclosures, General Motors, Goodyear Tire, Housing Bill, Lobbyists, Northwest Airlines, Rubber., Senate, Tax Breaks, tax provisions, Wall Street, Washington

The government continues their on going agenda to destroy the Constitution and everything that the United States used to stand for. A new report from NBC 4 out of Washington DC covers how police are now asking residents to submit to voluntary home searches in exchange for amnesty under the DC gun ban. Of course, like every other tyrannical program being implemented by this criminal government, the police are claiming that this is for everyone’s safety. It is pretty clear that this is part of a larger national program to socially engineer the people for mass gun searches and gun confiscation. The Boston Globe reported that the police were conducting the same type of voluntary gun search program a few months ago. Then there’s the infamous Knock and Talk program in which police officers go around on fishing expeditions attempting to trick their way into people’s homes. Lastly, how can anyone forget about the gun grabbing in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina? The bottom line is that this type of activity is unconstitutional and the police that are participating in these programs should be put in prison.

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Tags: Constitution, guns, U.S. Disarmament Plan, Washington, weapons

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The Pentagon is scheduled to release an odorless, invisible, and yes, harmless, gases into the city Thursday to test how quickly they spread through buildings, officials said.The test is part of the military’s national security preparation for the capital area.

Over the past few years, the defense agency has worked with Arlington County to set up chemical sensors throughout the county, where thousands of defense employees work in leased office space. Continue reading »

Tags: Crystal City, Gas, national security, Paul Benda, Pentagon, perfluorocarbon, Washington