Wired News: DOE Hides Hacker Hit

“WASHINGTON — A hacker stole a file containing the names and Social Security numbers of 1,500 people working for the Energy Department’s nuclear weapons agency.

But the incident, somewhat similar to recent problems at the Veterans Affairs Department, was last September yet senior officials were informed only two days ago, officials told a congressional hearing Friday. None of the victims was notified, they said.

The data theft occurred in a computer system at a service center belonging to the National Nuclear Security Administration in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The file contained information about contract workers throughout the agency’s nuclear weapons complex, a department spokesman said.”

Human Rights Watch: D.R. Congo: Climate of Fear Threatens Elections

“(New York, June 9, 2006) – When U.N. Security Council members visit the Democratic Republic of Congo on June 11 and 12, they should insist that the transitional government protect the rights of journalists and human rights defenders, who have increasingly come under attack ahead of the coming elections, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today.

The 11-page briefing paper, “Journalists and Human Rights Defenders Under Fire,” documents the increasing attacks, threats and detentions of journalists, human rights defenders and members of the political opposition in April and May, raising concerns about free speech in the run-up to Congo’s first round of elections set for July 30. The paper also documents the failure of the Congolese authorities to provide protection, as well as the involvement of state security services in some of the abuses.

“The elections cannot be free and fair elections if the press and civil society are too afraid to speak out or engage in legitimate political debate,” said Alison Des Forges, senior advisor to the Africa division of Human Rights Watch.”

Guardian Unlimited: ‘Killing themselves was unnecessary. But it certainly is a good PR move’

“The Bush administration stared down a new wave of international condemnation of Guantánamo yesterday, dismissing the suicides by three inmates of the prison camp as a “good PR move” on their part and an “act of asymmetrical warfare”.

The deaths of two Saudis and a Yemeni, who used knotted bedsheets to hang themselves in their solitary cells, brought renewed calls from European governments and human rights organisations to bring the 460 inmates to trial, or close down the camp. But Bush administration officials rejected suggestions that the three had killed themselves in despair over their indefinite confinement.”

IFEX: Online journalist to serve six months in prison

“(CPJ/IFEX) - The following is a 7 June 2006 CPJ press release:

Syria: Online journalist to serve six months in prison

New York, June 7, 2006 - The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned by the prison sentence handed down to a Syrian online journalist by a military court for articles advocating rights for Syria’s Kurdish minority, and criticizing the ruling Baath Party.

Muhammad Ghanem, editor of the news Web site Surion, was found guilty Tuesday of insulting the president, undermining the state’s dignity, and inciting sectarian divisions, according to an e-mail sent by Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, to The Associated Press. Ghanem was sentenced to one year in jail but the judge commuted his sentence to six months, Surion said, without offering further explanation.”

Story submitted by IFEX.

ZDNet: Appeals court upholds Net-wiretapping rules

“The Bush administration’s plans to force Internet providers to comply with extensive wiretapping rules received a boost on Friday, when a federal appeals court upheld the controversial regulations.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., refused to overturn the Internet surveillance regulations, saying the Federal Communications Commission made a “reasonable policy choice” when approving them last fall.

FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, a Republican, applauded the ruling (click for PDF), saying it “will ensure that law enforcement agencies’ ability to conduct lawful court-ordered electronic surveillance will keep pace with new communication technologies.”

Judge Harry Edwards, who had called the FCC’s arguments “gobbledygook” and “nonsense” during oral arguments before the appeals court last month, dissented. He said the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act, or CALEA, does not give the FCC “unlimited authority to regulate every telecommunications service that might conceivably be used to assist law enforcement.”"

Guardian Unlimited: Judge backs ‘buffoon’ attack on Berlusconi

“Italy’s highest appeals court has ruled that calling the former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi a “buffoon” can be actively useful for society.

Overruling the conviction of a freelance journalist who hurled insults at the then premier as he left a court three years ago, the court of cassation acknowledged that the man had levelled “strong criticism”. But Judge Alfonso Amato argued in a written judgment that it was “socially useful in terms of the interest of society as a whole in the expression of opinions”.”

CNet News: Is the NSA reading your MySpace profile?

“Will Lt. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, find its only six degrees of separation between him and University of Georgia researcher and educator Amit Sheth and University of Maryland professor, Anupam Joshi?

NSA is reportedly helping to foot the bill on research by Sheth and Joshi, which explores the use of combing information gleaned from social networks with other databases, according to an article in New Scientist.

This research project, funded by NSA supported Advanced Research Development Activity, may one day aid NSA in figuring out how to tie the hordes of information people post about themselves on social networks like MySpace with their more official personal data, such as bank and property records, the New Scientist article states. And that, as a result, may lead to a wider net of who affiliates with whom.”

BBC News: Russian ‘torture dungeon’ found

“A leading Russian human rights group says it has found evidence of a former Russian dungeon in the Chechen capital Grozny where prisoners were tortured.

The Memorial group has published details of the abandoned prison on its website, including photos and graffiti scrawled by inmates and their captors.”

Human Rights Watch: Iran: Scores Arrested in Anti-Baha’i Campaign

“(New York, June 6, 2006) – In its latest campaign of religious intolerance directed against the Baha’i community, Iranian security officials last month arrested scores of Baha’i youths in Shiraz solely on the basis of their religious faith, Human Rights Watch said today.

Baha’i representatives to the U.N. in Geneva told Human Rights Watch that Iranian authorities on May 19 arrested a group of mainly Baha’i youths who were teaching English, math and other non-religious subjects to underprivileged children in Shiraz. The authorities also arrested several other non-Baha’i volunteers at the same time but released them the same day without requiring bail. One Baha’i, under the age of 15, was released without having to post bail.

None of the 54 Baha’is arrested has been charged with a crime. As of today, three remain in detention while the others were released only after their families posted exorbitant bail.

“The arrests demonstrate how the Iranian government is subjecting Baha’is to religious persecution and discrimination,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. “Arresting people solely on the basis of their religious faith is a flagrant violation of freedom of belief and the freedom to practice a religion of one’s choice.””

Human Rights Watch: Bangladesh: Investigate Attacks on Media

“(New York, June 7, 2006) – Authorities in Bangladesh must promptly and impartially investigate and prosecute violent attacks against journalists last week by supporters of the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Human Rights Watch said today. Nine days after the attacks, the police have made no arrests and a local newspaper remains closed.

The attacks and slow government response reflect an intimidating atmosphere for journalists in Bangladesh. Restrictions on free expression and press freedom in particular could jeopardize the fairness of elections set for early 2007.

“The government must show that it will not tolerate attacks on the press from ruling party supporters or anyone else,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch. “Failing to investigate and prosecute violent incidents could encourage similar attacks.”

On May 29, more than two dozen BNP supporters attacked a peaceful protest by journalists in the western town of Kushtia. Using stones and sticks they wounded 19 people, including the chief editor of the Bangladesh Observer and then-president of the Bangladesh Federal Union of Journalists, Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury.”

CNN: Report: CIA flights ’spider’s web’

“LONDON, England (CNN) — The head of an investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons in Europe has accused the U.S. spy agency of orchestrating a global “spider’s web” of detentions and transfers.

Council of Europe investigator Dick Marty listed seven member states who could be held responsible, in varying degrees, for violations of the rights of named individuals by colluding in these operations.

Marty, a Swiss senator, said in his report that Romania was part of what he called a “renditions circuit” and was used as a stopover by CIA planes carrying terrorism suspects.

He also said a Polish airport was likely used as a detainee drop-off point and accused several other countries of colluding with the CIA’s “questionable activities.”"

This story is also covered by BBC News.

Worldpress: Blogs and Freedom of Speech

“A global phenomenon — blogging — has exploded in popularity to the point where there are now more than 20 million blogs being tracked around the world. They have risen in prominence as well as in numbers, with some leading blogs challenging the established order of the mainstream press. Indeed, at times the mainstream media has been put in the unusual position of reacting to news that bloggers generate.

[…]

Since 2003, blogs have gained increasing notice and coverage for their role in breaking, shaping, and spinning news stories. Bloggers provide nearly-instant commentary on televised events, creating a secondary meaning of the word ‘blogging’ — to simultaneously transcribe and editorialize speeches and events shown on television.

In 2004, the role of blogs became increasingly mainstream, as political consultants, news services and candidates began using them as tools for outreach and opinion forming. Appropriately, that year Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary declared ‘blog’ as the word of the year.”

Wired News: China Tightens Grip on Web

“The French organization Reporters Without Borders condemned the Chinese government Tuesday for its increasing censorship of the internet.

RWB claims that the Chinese government has expanded its efforts to block Chinese citizens from accessing Google, Google News and Google Mail, and that software programs like Dynapass, Freegate and Ultrasurf, which were designed to allow users to bypass China’s censorship methods, have been “neutralized.”

“It was only to be expected that Google.com would be gradually sidelined after the censored version was launched in January,” RWB said in its statement. “Google has just definitively joined the club of western companies that comply with online censorship in China. It is deplorable that Chinese internet users are forced to wage a technological war against censorship in order to access banned content.”

Bill Xia, CEO of Dynamic Internet Technology, the company that designed Dynapass and Freegate, said that his company has already figured out the method used to block their network, that they have already updated their servers and that traffic is recovering from the sudden drop they noticed on May 24.

“(The Chinese government) has been updating their blocking technology without success, but this time they used more resources and monitored our network more closely,” Xia said.

Internet users in China can still go to Google.cn, a version of the search engine introduced in January that Google itself censors — by hiding the search results of subjects which may be sensitive to the Chinese government — in order to maintain a presence on computers within China.”

MSNBC: Vatican condemns gay marriage, contraception

“VATICAN CITY - The Vatican issued a sweeping condemnation Tuesday of contraception, abortion, in-vitro fertilization and same-sex marriage, declaring that the traditional family has never been so threatened as in today’s world.

The document was issued by the Pontifical Council for the Family, whose head, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, is a strong opponent of the use of condoms under any circumstances.

However, the document did not mention an ongoing debate within the Vatican on whether the Roman Catholic Church could permit condoms to battle AIDS in a particular circumstance — when one partner in a marriage has the virus.”

This just goes to show how out-of-touch the Catholic Church is. They even keep preaching abstinence in the face of a global AIDS epidemic. They just don’t get it.

IFEX: Golden Pen of Freedom awarded to Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji

“(WAN/IFEX) - The following is a 5 June 2006 WAN press release:

Moscow, Russia, 5 June 2006 - Golden Pen of Freedom Awarded to Iranian Journalist

An Iranian journalist who spent the last six years in jail for criticising the Iranian authorities has been awarded the 2006 Golden Pen of Freedom, the annual press freedom prize from the World Association of Newspapers.

Akbar Ganji, a leading investigative journalist who is now one of Iran’s most renowned dissidents, dedicated the award to “all Iranian dissidents and freedom-fighters.”

“And in this category, more than anyone the prize should go to those who fought for freedom and human rights and were, as punishment, slaughtered during what came to be known as the ‘Serial Murders’,” he said, referring to the murders of dissident intellectuals by Intelligence Ministry agents in the late 1990s. Mr. Ganji wrote extensively about these cases, implicating leading conservative figures from the ruling establishment in the murders. The Ministry said “rogue agents” were responsible for the killings.”

Story submitted by IFEX.

The following is an editorial titled, “The Death of the IT Department” by Commander K0rs0:

I have been working in the industry now for 15 years, and I know there are many who have been there longer. I feel that it is time to put keyboard to text file and take an opportunity to discuss the death of the traditional IT department as we know it.

The Servicing of Software
The holy grail of every software company is to deliver a business model that guarantees income. Presently with most software companies this is not the case. Almost every software company presently researches a product, develops a product, markets a product and then finally sells a product with the aim of making enough money to pay for all three prior steps whilst enabling a return for their share holders. Once the cycle is complete it begins again.

What if there was a way where it was possible to force your customer base to pay a nominal fee on an annual or a monthly basis that would permit you to terminate the software they used on their machines as easily as a gas company can switch off the gas supply to a defaulting customer. The solution is simply to make software a service that, like any service, you get what you pay for on a monthly or annual basis.

Such moves have been made by the major software companies. Slowly but surely with a wave of non-threatening on-line activation systems and an ever increasing smattering of software distribution services such as Steam, not to mention the proofing of the model by the companies that bring you games like World of Warcraft and Eve Online, the software companies are positioning themselves now to deliver service based software.

Imagine a future where a domestic home user is paying $10 a month to keep Windows running on their own computer. How about another $20 a month for an Office suite. It has already begun . Google has already announced the availability of its on-line web spreadsheet application; the war for the hearts, minds and dollars of the IT department has begun.

The Servicing of People
Which brings me to the next point. As part and parcel of the push to the conversion of software to a service delivery model, the people who deliver the support and technical functions within an organisation must also be converted to a services model. The goal of any organisation is to ultimately create a profitable framework that is independent of the people who work within that framework. For example any John Doe can be a janitor, therefore the janitorial services provided are not dependent upon John Doe turning up to perform them. So too the core functions of any aspect of a business.

There are many businesses that have totally adopted the outsource everything approach and have outsourced their IT department, HR department, Accounting department, Janitorial services, and even the CEO in order to leave behind a framework that makes money independently of the organisations that are servicing the outsource contracts. If a provider (outsourcer) breaks their agreements with the rest of the firm its contracted position can be awarded to a different outsource partner without threat to the business. This creates a company that is effectively a shell that has limited liabilities mitigated against SLA’s (Support Level Agreements) with the partners that deliver its services. How is this done?

Taking the IT department as a microcosm of this trend the tasks that are carried out by individuals within the organisation are analysed and documented in a simple format, the task is stripped of that individual and handed to someone else who is much cheaper and who will follow the documented procedure to the letter. Once the task documentation phase is complete it becomes possible to separate the people from the IT department and pass those tasks on to other people or outsource partners who can do the job by following the documented processes at a much lower price point. For those of you who do not know the path it’s called ITIL (or is a bastardisation of an originally sound idea).

Ultimately there is no task that cannot be done cheaper by employing a “process specialist” to do the same task. If there is a major problem it can be handled by calling in a third party specialist to do the work or by consolidating complex services into simpler systems. Driven by a number of factors but primarily cost-reduction the shape of business is changing rapidly and the IT department is a cost centre that can be dramatically reduced.

Discuss.

MSNBC: Bush pushes for gay marriage ban

“WASHINGTON - President Bush and congressional Republicans are aiming the political spotlight this week on efforts to ban gay marriage, with events at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue — all for a constitutional amendment with scant chance of passage but wide appeal among social conservatives.

“Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society,” Bush said in his Saturday radio address. “Government, by recognizing and protecting marriage, serves the interests of all.”

The president was to make further remarks Monday in favor of the amendment as the Senate opened three days of debate.”

WorldPress: Leading Iranian Scholar Remains in Detention

“Iranian authorities should immediately release…

This is a familiar sentence, repeated over and over again in the media, with each instance ending in a different name — Akbar Ganji, Abdolfattah Soltani, and Zahra Kazemi are among the most well known. Add to that list approximately 500 Iranian bus organization workers arrested in January for striking to demand recognition of union activities. Now it is the turn of one of Iran’s most prominent scholars, Ramin Jahanbegloo.

Since his arrest, Jahanbegloo has been held in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison where Human Rights Watch, and many other press and human rights organizations indicate he is at risk of being tortured.

An Iranian-Canadian scholar, who was educated at the Sorbonne in Paris and Harvard University, and has written extensively on cultural and philosophical topics, Jahanbegloo is the director of Contemporary Studies at the Cultural Research Bureau, a private institution in Tehran. His academic writings include more than 20 books in English, French and Persian. He has also written for newspapers and magazines in Iran and abroad.

Jahanbegloo, arrested by Iranian police on April 27 in Tehran’s Mehrabad airport, was at the time on his way to India. Authorities in Iran initially refused to acknowledge the arrest until May 3, when Tehran’s deputy prosecutor general, Mahmoud Salarkia, confirmed Jahanbegloo’s detention. On the same day, the chief of prisons in Tehran Province, Sohrab Soleimani, stated that the scholar was being held in Evin prison.

The charge aimed at this renowned philosopher, writer and university professor is espionage, an accusation that regardless of its authenticity is among the easiest for any journalist or elite figure in Iran to be labeled with.”

Washington Post: Vast DNA Bank Pits Policing Vs. Privacy

“Brimming with the genetic patterns of more than 3 million Americans, the nation’s databank of DNA “fingerprints” is growing by more than 80,000 people every month, giving police an unprecedented crime-fighting tool but prompting warnings that the expansion threatens constitutional privacy protections.

With little public debate, state and federal rules for cataloging DNA have broadened in recent years to include not only violent felons, as was originally the case, but also perpetrators of minor crimes and even people who have been arrested but not convicted.

Now some in law enforcement are calling for a national registry of every American’s DNA profile, against which police could instantly compare crime-scene specimens. Advocates say the system would dissuade many would-be criminals and help capture the rest.”

Story submitted by transend.

UN: Annan urges world leaders to take the responsibility for stopping HIV/AIDS

“Secretary-General Kofi Annan, addressing national leaders at a special United Nations meeting to assess progress since 2001 on turning back HIV/AIDS, today called on all heads of State and government to take personal responsibility for stopping the spread of the disease.

[…]

Among the action needed was giving more power and confidence to women and girls, transforming relations between women and men at all levels of society, and providing greater resources for women, better laws for women, and more seats for women at the decision-making table, Mr. Annan said.

Without radical change, “we will get nowhere close to universal access to HIV prevention, treatment, care and support by 2010 – the goal that you committed yourselves to at the World Summit last September. If we don’t step up the fight drastically, we will not reach the Millennium Development Goal of halting, and beginning to reverse, the spread of HIV and AIDS by 2015,” he said.”

“This is a rare statement coming from a World Leader at any organization, even one that has been considered engaging in sex discrimination in the past. I will be writing a personal response to Mr. Annan’s statement, because had I been living in Geneva, I would. Strengthening women and he is talking sexually, in the bedroom and the boardroom, to halt the spread of AIDS, has huge risks. They face acts of violence, shunning, defamation, gross forms of retaliation including use of eavesdropping technology in their bedrooms, and other day to day events that can be life crippling. Unless there is a United Naitons Committee willing to bring those to light and reprimand those who encourage this practice, this plan to encourage stronger women will fail! Right now a radio station here in Florida is offering to give a woman a breast implant for free if they will agree to cut off their pinky, but seriously. Women are calling in, one to ask if she could cut off here toe. How can you even start a plan to fight aids when you can’t fight stupid! Can I just sign this flat chested and love myself for it!” –hazelflagg