Monday, May 9, 2005

In the recent UK general election, Craig Murray stood as candidate against Jack Straw in the Blackburn constituency. Murray was attempting to bring about public debate and public knowledge of Straw’s alleged complicity in Uzbek CIA torture. Straw retained his seat with 17,562 votes (42%), while Murray came fifth with 2,082 votes (5%).

Craig Murray was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan in 2002 and 2003. A career diplomat, Murray had a good record of success behind him, but was withdrawn from Uzbekistan after he publicly decried the widespread use of torture in that country. He was quoted in the Financial Times as claiming the MI6 used intelligence gained by the Uzbek authorities by torture.

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) stated at the time that “It’s now felt it’s no longer possible Mr. Murray can do his job effectively so he’s been withdrawn.” Mr. Murray was receiving medical treatment at the time for on-going ill health, including a near-fatal pulmonary embolism. He had previously been flown to London after collapsing during a medical check in Uzbekistan.

Craig Murray’s campaign website says, “A vote for Jack Straw is a vote for torture. Jack Straw expressly agreed that MI6 should use intelligence material obtained under torture, in tyrannical regimes like Uzbekistan.”

Two months before the UK election Channel Four premiered the program “Torture:The Dirty Business” which showed that the Uzbekistan government routinely uses torture to interrogate prisoners. It showed that CIA had sent prisoners to that country to be tortured in a procedure known as rendition.

The program alleged that UK’s MI5 received information obtained by torture. The FCO released a statement to the program claiming that they would never do anything to encourage torture, but that it would be “irresponsible” to rule out the use of any information received from a foreign government if such information could help protect British citizens. In the same program Craig Murray stated that after he raised objections to the use of information extracted under torture, his superiors informed him that Jack Straw had personally authorised the policy.

According to the program, confessions from tortured prisoners that suggested a link between Iraq and Al Qaeda could have contributed towards the case built by the government for going to war in Iraq. Information extracted under torture is known to be unreliable because prisoners can be coerced to say anything.

Craig Murray’s Blackburn campaign received widespread media attention around the world, although coverage was more limited in the UK (see below for links to some articles covering the Craig Murray campaign).

Saturday, July 9, 2005

After a press conference in London from the Metropolitan Police and Transport for London, more details are emerging about the attacks in London on Thursday.

Data from the Underground system’s power and control systems have revealed that all three bombs went off within 50 seconds of each other, at 8.50am, with the managing director of Transport for London, Tim O’Toole saying the bombs went “bang bang bang, very close together”.

The first bomb to detonate was on the Liverpool Street train soon after it left for Aldgate on the Circle line, seconds before the others. The blast tripped out the power system, visible in the control room. The first call the police received that morning reported “a bang” at Aldgate East, coming within a minute of the blast.

The Edgware Road train, leaving for Paddington and also on the Circle, exploded opposite a train coming from the other direction, making people think at first that it was a derailment. The first call to the Police spoke not of an explosion, but of a person falling under the wheels of the train. The confirmation of a bomb did not come until 9.17am, but by that time the emergency services were already on scene.

Transport for London’s new TrackerNet software is fully opertational on the Circle line, which allows for precise tracking of trains, but is not yet fully installed on the Piccadilly line. The first indication of the Piccadilly line bomb was when the tunnel telephone system wires were cut by the blast, an event logged by other software. The cutting of the lines then tripped out the track current. The tunnel itself suffered only slight damage and is safe, but the train – which was packed with commuters heading for Russell Square – is very badly damaged.

London Underground declared a ‘code Amber’ within minutes, moving trains to platforms and opening all doors. A ‘code Red’ – full evacuation – was set at around 9.15am. O’Toole described the decision to evacuate as being “very grave, not taken lightly”. When questioned as to whether everything possible had been done on the day to save lives, the managing director of Transport for London was “very proud” of the choices made that morning.

As investigations continue, all bodies have been removed from the sub-surface Circle line trains, but the carriages themselves are still in situ while a painstaking forensic investigation takes place.

Currently, work is on-going to retrieve bodies and forensic evidence from the carriage of the train in the deep tunnel of the Piccadilly line near King’s Cross. Teams of rescue workers looking for human remains are working alongside forensics experts in a “meticulous” search to find evidence.

Conditions are described as being very difficult, with high temperatures and lots of dust. Work was halted over Friday night when conditions became too bad, and resumed this morning. Efforts have been made to improve the ventilation.

Work will continue throughout tonight and possibly into Sunday. The exact number of bodies still in the wrecked carriage is unknown.

Access from King’s Cross is impossible, so workers are taking the longer route from Russell Square station to get to the front of the train.

Police have revealed that the bombs were ‘high explosives’ – not homemade. However they are declining to be specific about their composition as the information could be useful when they interrogate suspects.

Police will not confirm or deny if any parts of a timer have been found, but have said that “any device will now be in a million pieces”. Police believe the use of timers more likely than suicide bombings as the blasts were so closely timed, but are not ruling out anything.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Leading up to the 2008 Taipei Computer Applications Show (TICA), the 8th-annual Linux Forum, accompanied with Linux Expo Pavilion, started yesterday July 30 at Taipei World Trade Center Conference Roon 3 & 4 to promote the open source applications in Taiwan.

With popularity of OLPC and Eee PC, mobile applications, low-price PCs, embedded systems, and enterprise applications are enrolled into the Linux Forum by forum organizer, Industrial Development Bureau of Ministry of Economic Affairs of the Republic of China.

Since Linux-related solutions were promoted at Softex Taipei 2008 by Taipei Computer Association, as well as the organizer of TICA and Softex shows, executives from industrial, academical, and governmental people mostly cautioned the importance of Linux, which had also become another choice to be built inside a computer after OLPC and Eee PC.

As several required functions from business software are built in some open source software, software and platforms complied with open source had become the second choice for consumers. UPP, an open source platform built by United Daily News Digital Corporation, is a typical example on open source application integrated to a USB flash drive.

Apart from basic applications, some companies also demonstrated some examples of deploying and programming on a Linux-based platform. In addition, some experts recommended enterprises to consider user needs before introducing Linux as the desktop platform in the enterprise.

After the Linux Forum, the Linux Expo will also showcase solutions of open source at TICA.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Wikinews has learned that the internet group known only as “Anonymous” has hacked the website of the No Cussing Club (NCC), nocussing.com, for at least two days in a row. On day one, the group hacked into the website, replacing the content with links to images of alleged e-mail conversations. The e-mails appear to be from the founder’s e-mail account, accusing organization members of forgery and using the site for their own personal financial gains. The website was also replaced with Anonymous’s logo and a message. On January 22, they again attacked the website, by means of a Distributed Denial-of-service attack (DDoS), bringing it offline periodically throughout the day. Anonymous attacked the Scientology website in 2008 with a DDoS attack, taking it off-line for at least two days.

“It has come to our attention that the creators of the no cussing club, McKay and Brent Hatch have done so at great personal gain. Their material promotes the organization as the brainchild of their 14-year-old son, when actually the material is written by his parents, who also manage his profitable career while using his speaking events to plug their own material,” said Anonymous on the hacked website. On Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satire Wiki, they claim further responsibility for the hack and exposition saying they managed to break into McKay and Brent Hatch’s email accounts. “[the accounts got] haxx0rd and via this astonishing development passwords were got and a certain website got its shit ruined.”

According to the NCC’s website, it has 20,000 members worldwide, was founded in 2007 by McKay Hatch, a 14-year-old boy, and aims at discouraging swearing in public places such as schools. In 2008, McKay even succeeded in making cussing illegal in his hometown of South Pasadena, California and has appeared on various talk shows such as that of Doctor Phil. However, according to e-mails leaked to Wikinews, allegedly written by the boy’s father Brent, a motivational speaker also owning Dawson Publishing, the parents are allegedly using the site and their son’s material for their own personal financial gain. Anonymous also claims that the parents have forged some of their son’s writings and claim it to be his.

The e-mails allege that Brent along with his publishing company, the name which “nocussing.com” is also registered under, were trying to set up assemblies in the No Cussing Club’s name at schools across the United States for US$1,500.00 per show and would then pocket the money, doing the same for postcards they created for churches and schools.

“McKay spoke last night to a group of 40 people, and at the end of his presentation, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. I know this is going to work because the message is so important. Thanks for all you do and I hope we can work together for a long time, and of course make money in the process,” said Brent in an alleged e-mail conversation on November 25, 2008. Earlier in August 2008, Brent spoke about hoping to reach a “goal” of “2.5 million dollars” by selling thousands of postcards to “schools and churches”.

On January 19, 2009, ABC News.com reported that McKay claimed Anonymous was sending him and his family hate e-mail and death threats, nearly 50,000 per day, “almost all of them filled with obscenities” and spam. On the NCC’s website, McKay calls himself the “most cyberbullied kid on the planet” because of Anonymous’s attacks.

“A lot of people were saying I was taking away their freedom of speech,” said McKay to ABC News on January 16. “All I was trying to do was raise awareness.” He says he formed the club because his schoolmates were sick of hearing people swear in public. Wikinews contacted the NCC to confirm or deny the reports, but would only say that “the FBI is [working] on it [the case]” including “our attorney and we will press charges” against those who are responsible for the crimes.

Anonymous is known to prank and hack websites and e-mail accounts. In September 2008, the group hacked into BillOreilly.com, the official website of Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly, exposing personal information of the site’s users in a document posted on the internet.

The NCC is located in South Pasadena. According to the California Penal Code §502 part C of the computer hacking laws, depending on the offense if caught, punishments could be a “fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years, or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment”.

On October 20, 2008, Dmitriy Guzner, aged 18 from New Jersey, admitted to the charges related to carrying out the DDoS attack on Scientology’s website. He was subsequently charged with computer hacking crimes and faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Authorities in Spain say that at least two explosive devices were found on a section of the Tour de France bicycle race just outside the Spanish town of Belagua. Authorities say that “a small amount of explosives”, were placed inside plastic food containers then placed on both sides of the road.

There are no reports of injuries but conflicting reports say that the cyclists passed the area before the devices went off, while others report that the devices were detonated before the cyclists passed.

The Basque separatist group known as the ETA have claimed responsibility for placing the devices on the route. A telephone call was placed to authorities by someone claiming to be from the ETA who threatened to use the devices.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Wikinews interviewed author Amy Scobee about her book Scientology – Abuse at the Top, and asked her about her experiences working as an executive within the organization. Scobee joined the organization at age 14, and worked at Scientology’s international management headquarters for several years before leaving in 2005. She served as a Scientology executive in multiple high-ranking positions, working out of the international headquarters of Scientology known as “Gold Base”, located in Gilman Hot Springs near Hemet, California.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Rhode Island will receive US$90 million in funding from the United States federal government to support unemployment benefits in the state.

Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training stated on Wednesday that it requested the line of credit because the account utilized to provide funding to unemployed individuals in the state had decreased to only $2 million; enough to last only a few days.

In a statement released by the Department, the agency said: “Unemployment insurance customers will not experience any delays in receiving their weekly payments.”

Unemployment in Rhode Island was 12.8 percent in August 2009 – the third-highest rate in the United States. During the first eight months of 2009, Rhode Island’s state unemployment insurance trust fund has provided over $300 million in unemployment benefit funding.

In addition to Rhode Island, 20 other states have outstanding balances on money they borrowed from the Federal Unemployment Account of the United States Department of Labor. Rhode Island has an outstanding balance of approximately $90.68 million due to the account. The loans are interest-free until December 2010.