UK Met police using surveillance system to monitor mobile phones.

Civil liberties group raises concerns over Met police purchase of technology to track public handsets over a targeted area.

• Ryan Gallagher and Rajeev Syal
• guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30th October 2011.   Find Full Article Here:-

Britain’s largest police force is operating covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network, transmitting a signal that allows authorities to shut off phones remotely, intercept communications and gather data about thousands of users in a targeted area.

The surveillance system has been procured by the Metropolitan police from Leeds-based company Datong plc, which counts the US Secret Service, the Ministry of Defence and regimes in the Middle East among its customers. Strictly classified under government protocol as “Listed X”, it can emit a signal over an area of up to an estimated 10 sq km, forcing hundreds of mobile phones per minute to release their unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes, which can be used to track a person’s movements in real time.

The disclosure has caused concern among lawyers and privacy groups that large numbers of innocent people could be unwittingly implicated in covert intelligence gathering. The Met has refused to confirm whether the system is used in public order situations, such as during large protests or demonstrations.

Nick Pickles, director of privacy and civil liberties campaign group Big Brother Watch, warned the technology could give police the ability to conduct “blanket and indiscriminate” monitoring: “It raises a number of serious civil liberties concerns and clarification is urgently needed on when and where this technology has been deployed, and what data has been gathered,” he said. “Such invasive surveillance must be tightly regulated, authorised at the highest level and only used in the most serious of investigations. It should be absolutely clear that only data directly relating to targets of investigations is monitored or stored,” he said.

Datong’s website says its products are designed to provide law enforcement, military, security agencies and special forces with the means to “gather early intelligence in order to identify and anticipate threat and illegal activity before it can be deployed”.

The company’s systems, showcased at the DSEi arms fair in east London last month, allow authorities to intercept SMS messages and phone calls by secretly duping mobile phones within range into operating on a false network, where they can be subjected to “intelligent denial of service”. This function is designed to cut off a phone used as a trigger for an explosive device.

A transceiver around the size of a suitcase can be placed in a vehicle or at another static location and operated remotely by officers wirelessly. Datong also offers clandestine portable transceivers with “covered antennae options available”. Datong sells its products to nearly 40 countries around the world, including in Eastern Europe, South America, the Middle East and Asia Pacific. In 2009 it was refused an export licence to ship technology worth £0.8m to an unnamed Asia Pacific country, after the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills judged it could be used to commit human rights abuses.

Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe.

ScienceDaily (Oct. 26, 2011) — Astronomers report in the journal Nature that organic compounds of unexpected complexity exist throughout the Universe. The results suggest that complex organic compounds are not the sole domain of life but can be made naturally by stars.    Find Full Article Here:-

A spectrum from the Infrared Space Observatory superimposed on an image of the Orion Nebula where these complex organics are found. (Credit: Image courtesy of The University of Hong Kong / Background: Hubble image courtesy of NASA, C.R. O’Dell and S.K. Wong (Rice University)

Prof. Sun Kwok and Dr. Yong Zhang of The University of Hong Kong show that an organic substance commonly found throughout the Universe contains a mixture of aromatic (ring-like) and aliphatic (chain-like) components. The compounds are so complex that their chemical structures resemble those of coal and petroleum. Since coal and oil are remnants of ancient life, this type of organic matter was thought to arise only from living organisms. The team’s discovery suggests that complex organic compounds can be synthesized in space even when no life forms are present.

The researchers investigated an unsolved phenomenon: a set of infrared emissions detected in stars, interstellar space, and galaxies. These spectral signatures are known as “Unidentified Infrared Emission features.” For over two decades, the most commonly accepted theory on the origin of these signatures has been that they come from simple organic molecules made of carbon and hydrogen atoms, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) molecules. From observations taken by the Infrared Space Observatory and the Spitzer Space Telescope, Kwok and Zhang showed that the astronomical spectra have features that cannot be explained by PAH molecules. Instead, the team proposes that the substances generating these infrared emissions have chemical structures that are much more complex. By analyzing spectra of star dust formed in exploding stars called novae, they show that stars are making these complex organic compounds on extremely short time scales of weeks.

Not only are stars producing this complex organic matter, they are also ejecting it into the general interstellar space, the region between stars. The work supports an earlier idea proposed by Kwok that old stars are molecular factories capable of manufacturing organic compounds. “Our work has shown that stars have no problem making complex organic compounds under near-vacuum conditions,” says Kwok. “Theoretically, this is impossible, but observationally we can see it happening.”

Thorium – the safer nuclear power?

Published: 1st November, 2011.   Find Article & Video Here:-

Solar, wind, and biomass have been touted as viable alternative energy sources to fossil fuels. But what if there is a nuclear energy source that is safe, green, and abundant? Thorium could be that source.

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Lightbridge, based in Virginia, is now testing this next generation nuclear fuel in Russia.

“It dramatically reduces the amount of waste in the reactor, reduces the toxicity of the waste coming out of the reactor, and doesn’t produce any weapons usable materials,” says Seth Grae, president and CEO of Lightbridge.

It’s estimated that Thorium is three times more abundant than uranium, the element currently used in nuclear plants.Scientists say there is so much of it, that it can produce energy than all of the world’s oil, coal, and uranium combined. Sounds like the alternative energy source the world needs. But despite its advantages, nuclear experts say politics and corporate interests may be getting in the way.

“That doesn’t mean that it’s going to be picked up by the utilities and implemented.They’re going to look at the economics and not the environmental benefits,” says Thomas Cochran, Director attheNatural Resources Defense Council.

Cochran says the U.S. needs to change its energy policies in order to make Thorium more attractive to businesses.

“They would have to have a different fee structure than the current one to encourage the development of thorium fuels,” Chochran says.

President Obama has vowed to transition the nation to alternative energy. With testing underway in Russia, China, and India, the United States may lose the race and find itself behind the curve when it comes to energy innovation and the jobs it may create.

“I think in the coming years, you’ll start to see more testing, more results, and more industry interests. But I think most of the industry interest in using Thorium in reactors is from outside the U.S.,” says Grae.

Obama meets Tony Blair in private.

Monday, October 31st, 2011.    Find Article Here:-

US President Barack Obama held a private meeting with former British prime minister and current Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair in the Oval Office on Monday.

Obama told reporters after the meeting that he “enjoyed” the encounter but declined to offer further details.

The White House did not divulge whether Blair was meeting Obama in his capacity as Middle East envoy and also was sparing with details, saying there was no “set agenda” for the talks which ranged over a number of topics.

The talks went ahead on a day when UNESCO voted to admit the Palestinians in a boost for their drive for statehood and Washington responded by cutting payments to the global science, education and cultural organization.

Judyth Vary Baker, Girlfriend of Lee Harvey Oswald, Survives Another Attempt On Her Life While In Toronto.

October 31st, 2011 by POPEYE      Find Article Here:-

(Sydney White)   On the 18th of October, the crowd in the book store was overflowing to the doors. The enormous cake for the 72nd birthday of Lee Harvey Oswald was in the centre and Judith Vary Baker stood over it, ready to cut the first piece. She had kept her promise to Lee, that she would clear his name and let his children know that he was not the killer of President Kennedy but a young man who had tried to stop it. Her book, “Lee and Me” was selling like the proverbial hotcakes, and the line-up for autographed copies lasted two hours.

 

I bought a copy and read it before my interview with her on Friday, October 21st.

 

Over the next two days, I was drawn so completely into the book that I cancelled two events and several chores. It was not written like a textbook or an affidavit, but was more a diary of what happened to a naive school girl caught up in a conspiracy that was beyond her experience. She was a student with an aptitude for science who wanted to find a cure for cancer. She was twenty and Lee was twenty-three, when they met, fell in love and were both used and abused by those determined to kill Kennedy and/or Castro.

 

I arrived at the hotel around 4 on the 21st and was invited by Judith to her “celebration” family dinner where she said we could talk in an informal atmosphere. Little did I know our conversation would be cut short. She asked that I sit next to her at the head of the table where she related conversations with Lee, as if they were yesterday… “Lee said that you could never own your own house, because they could take if from you for taxes.” She loved the health care system in Sweden. She would love to get another dog but “would not outlive another dog”. I replied that of course she would. She replied “No, I would not.”

 

I looked away, at the dozen people enjoying the dinner, laughing, toasting, family that Judith had not seen in years. It was not safe for her to bring them into her life. Some of her relatives did not want to have her in their lives, she explained, understanding their fear. Suddenly she said, “I think my gum is bleeding”. As I stared, she put her finger in her mouth and brought out a pointed piece of glass. I took it from her as she reached in again and removed another small piece of glass. She said “There’s something in my throat”. I called the waitress over and told her to get the manager; I showed her the pieces of glass on the table.

 

The celebration was still going on; they could not see or hear what had transpired at the head of the table. They only realized what had happened when they heard me ask the manager to call an ambulance. There was obviously glass in Judith’s throat and possibly in her stomach. In fact, there were smaller sand sized pieces of glass throughout the meat on her plate. I explained to the manager that this lady was not a Canadian and had no health insurance here. After a slight hesitation he said that the hotel would pay for her emergency care.

 

Judith anxiously asked that I come in the ambulance with her; the family were told where she was going so they could meet her at the hospital. Her reunion celebration ended as daughters, sons, grandchildren and her stepfather, shocked, went to their cars . In the ambulance, she had some difficulty swallowing as there seemed to be glass stuck in her throat. At the hospital, she was immediately taken to the triage room where her daughter was the only one allowed to sit beside her. The room was full. In spite of this frightening end to the reunion she had looked forward to for so long, Judith was determined to get to her book signing in Montreal the next day. I wondered, as her son drove me home, how this night would end.

 

I heard from her agent on the weekend, that indeed, this determined lady was in Montreal the next day. I salute you Judith for your honesty and your true grit.

 

Sydney White

Investigative Reporter

Studies in Propaganda

The Free University of Toronto

Toronto, Ontario

Canada.