Big Brother Expands Reach

[JayT]

U.S. and Europe Near Agreement on Private Data

 

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: June 28, 2008

 

WASHINGTON â?? The United States and the European Union are nearing completion of an agreement allowing law enforcement and security agencies to obtain private information â?? like credit card transactions, travel histories and Internet browsing habits â?? about people on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

The potential agreement, as outlined in an internal report obtained by The New York Times, would represent a diplomatic breakthrough for American counterterrorism officials, who have clashed with the European Union over demands for personal data. Europe generally has more stringent laws restricting how governments and businesses can collect and transfer such information.

 

Negotiators, who have been meeting since February 2007, have largely agreed on draft language for 12 major issues central to a â??binding international agreement,â? the report said. The pact would make clear that it is lawful for European governments and companies to transfer personal information to the United States, and vice versa.

 

...The United States government demanded access to customer data held by airlines flying out of Europe and by a consortium, known as Swift, which tracks global bank transfers.

 

...â??Globalization means that more and more companies are going to get caught between U.S. and European law,â? he said.

 

...The Bush administration and the European Commission have not publicized their talks, but they referred to their progress in a little-noticed paragraph deep in a joint statement after a summit meeting between President Bush and European leaders in Slovenia this month.

 

 

[Bangkoktraveler]

[color:red]"..The United States government demanded access to customer data held by airlines flying out of Europe and by a consortium, known as Swift, which tracks global bank transfers."[/color]

 

They know our bank transfers?

 

Who do we have to call when we take a shit, or do they already know that also?

 

[cavanami]

"Who do we have to call when we take a shit, or do they already know that also?"

 

...and they also know what color and how long the turds are!

[jitagawn]

Yes its very bad. They monitor our emails,track our flghts,search our pockets,devalue our currency-

Orwell had NO idea it would get this ugly.

[Mekong]

What Fucking Right has a Foreign Goverment of a Country I have no intention to ever visit again to have access to my banking transactions from a EU bank to Thailand.

 

And America wonders why so many people are saying "FUCK YOU"

[rchapstick]

I think BushCo has a great strategy here!

 

After all, W keeps telling us that the terrorists hate us because we love freedom. So now they will love us with our government giving it to us up the shorts.

 

Talk about a clever way to win over the hearts and minds! Go Dubs!

[Old Hippie]

Yep, they hate us because we have and love freedom...so take ours away.

[loner w/a boner]

Yes its very bad. They monitor our emails,track our flghts,search our pockets,devalue our currency-

Orwell had NO idea it would get this ugly.

 

No, but Nikita Khrushchev did!

 

And now for something completely different:

 

Court says individuals have right to own guns

[Bangkoktraveler]

I will be happy when they do away with the Patriot Act and Homeland Security.

[loner w/a boner]

Okay, so I'm on my right-wing anti-U. S. government bitchfest again. At least it's on topic.

 

U.S. and British intel have been sharing info for several years now. Technically, each is only chartered to spy non-domestically, so each spies for the other, then shares the details. Free for you to google if you want references.

 

I remember back when the U. S. govt. raided the Branch Davidian religious compound, east of Waco, Texas. Shortly after the feds were accused of using flame throwers to set adults and children on fire, the U. S. govt released satellite video of the actual assault. It was taken by a "British spy satellite". Apparently it was just hovering over Waco, Texas--a well-known hotbed of Irish Republican Army activity.

 

The recording was in black and white, and the bright reflections coming off the tank and the "flame throwers" being carried by agents was said to be reflections from the sun. I don't recall the news explaining what the reflection was from...something reflective and metal??? Nor did they explain why there were NO "reflections" from anything else. I guess the reporters forgot to ask that question.

 

And the reason this tape was released and the govt was being accused of starting the fire?

 

Well, there was another tape that had already surfaced--showing the govt starting the fires. It was taken over several days, beginning very shortly after the raid began. It was long before news media arrived, and the media was kept far far away. It was taken at ground level and BATF and FBI agents were all around, to the immediate left and right of the camera--and there's NO WAY the feds would allow reporters to do that, even if they were present. In other words, the film was made by an FBI agent using concealed cam.

 

When the BATF poured out of a cattle truck they began opening fire. A small boy was playing out front with his dog. They just shot them both down. The tape didn't show this, but started right afterward. The tape DID show an agent, in his assault gear, carrying the dead body of the little boy. It didn't show his face, but you could see his little legs dangling down over the right forearm of the agent. The mainstream media did play audio of a conversation David Koresh had with the local sheriff. He said, as I recall, "You shot my boy. You shot my son." The sheriff acknowledged it. The mainstream media video that DID make the news showed the agents getting up on the first floor roof, trying to enter a second floor window. Shots were fired. A rapid succession of bullet holes appeared entering the house under and around that window. The mainstream media didn't show where the shots came from. The "hidden cam" did. It showed a U. S. army helicopter discharging its guns. It also showed U. S. army personnel getting out of the copter after it landed. Their military shoulder patches were visible. This was in gross violation of federal law and posse comitatus. The feds also injected gas into the house that is illegal under U. S. federal law to use indoors--because it is flammable indoors.

 

The hidden cam also showed agents carrying flame throwers and the flames were clearly extending a long way, same as with the tank, showing flames shooting out of it, into the house, contradicting the government story that the Branch Davidians set the fire themselves. These guys were caught red-handed. The British spy satellite video was produced to try to convince people they didn't see what they saw. The hidden cam was in color. In one interview I heard, a man identified as a "film expert" remarked of the black and white British spy satellite video, saying "the grayscale was manipulated.". The British "version" was aired on broadcast television. One late-night news program was called "Nightline", presented by a man named Ted Koppel. During his intro, before the film was aired, I could tell on his face he was lying. He knew. Before I even saw the film, I knew he was lying about something. If you could have just seen his eyes and face.

 

The agent who took the hidden video was pretty smart. He didn't simply keep a copy. I don't know the details of how, but sometime over the many days, he transmitted his data to a local Waco community college. Nice to have a backup copy safely tucked away, huh? The secret FBI recording was made into a video and marketed as "Waco, the Big Lie"; bashed by smug spinmasters, I'm sure.

 

The whole investigation started apparently when a UPS (parcel delivery) driver was delivering "fake, souvenir" hand grenade replicas. How he knew what was in the sealed package, I don't know. Apparently, he assumed they could be modified and made "live" and reported this to federal authorities, and an investigation began. What justification for his suspicion of modification I never heard. Anyway, there was nothing sufficient there. Replica weapons are not illegal and there was nothing concrete regarding making them actual weapons (AFAIK). So, no legal justification for a raid, much less an investigation. In the congressional investigative hearings that followed, U. S. Attorney General Janet Reno (top federal prosecutor appointed by President Clinton) claimed they raided the compound because of a report of child sexual abuse (any accusation of which is investigated by a county social worker with CPS--Child Protection Services). They bring the sheriff if they think there might be trouble. When Janet Reno was asked who filed the sexual abuse claim, (while under oath) her response was, "I don't remember.". I guess they don't bother with stuff like recording incoming phone calls, taking names, interviewing complaintants to see if there is cause, creating database files, etc...

 

And the most obvious and blatant lie they were caught in? Under oath, it was stated that the feds did NOT tap the Branch Davidian phone lines (since they had no just cause, they didn't have the legally-required judge-issued warrant to tap the phones). The government made public a tape recording of Koresh calling the sheriff. They claimed it was the recording FROM the sheriff's office, as the sheriff's department presumably record all their calls. They govt. failed to doctor the tape before public airing. In the recording, you can hear the digital beeps from Koresh dialing the phone. How can the sheriff's office have a recording of that BEFORE the sheriff's number was dialed? Gee, the mainstream news reporters forgot to bring that one up, too. I guess Ted Koppel had a lot on his mind.

 

None of this should diminish the fact that David Koresh was probably a scumbag, may have been guilty of sexual crimes against children (he did screw the wives of his married male followers), may have been guilty of illegally converting weapons, and had he surrendered early, almost certainly could have avoided all those needless deaths.