Telegraph – A far-Right candidate for Austria’s presidential election has brought the country’s dark past to the surface again, by denouncing a law banning Nazi groups and Holocaust denial. Barbara Rosenkranz, 51, a regional leader of the Freedom Party (FPOe), looks likely to be the only candidate to run against the incumbent, President Heinz Fischer, on April 25. But her comments supporting the scrapping of the tough prohibition law have renewed the debate about a heritage with which the country, which was under Nazi rule from 1938 to 1945, has never fully come to terms. Austrian leaders and the press already fear for the country’s image abroad. Under the 1947 Verbotsgesetz law, anyone who seeks to set up a Nazi organisation, propagates Nazi ideology or denies Nazi crimes can be jailed for up to 20 years. Read article
Ed – is it democratic to suppress or ban political ideologies, no matter how repulsive they might be to the majority? Surely a healthy democracy will ensure good debate and the election of those fit to represent their constituents.
Reuters – Pakistani security agents denied on Monday that an American al Qaeda spokesman wanted in the United States for treason had been arrested, saying there had been confusion over the identity of a detained suspect. Some Pakistani officials had said on Sunday that Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million U.S. bounty on his head, had been arrested on the outskirts of the city of Karachi. But a senior government official and two security agents said on Monday the suspected al Qaeda operative picked up in Karachi was not Gadahn. Read article
Telegraph – The Ministry of Defence has been accused of ordering a “truth blackout” over the war in Afghanistan amid warnings it is attempting to “bury bad news” during the election campaign. British journalists and TV crews are to be banned from the Afghan front line once a date for the election has been set, while senior officers will be prohibited from making public speeches and talking to reporters. MoD websites will also be “cleansed” of any “non-factual” material including anything containing troops’ opinions of the war, according to a memo leaked to The Daily Telegraph. Read article
Guardian – An Observer investigation reveals how rich countries faced by a global food shortage now farm an area double the size of the UK to guarantee supplies for their citizens. We turned off the main road to Awassa, talked our way past security guards and drove a mile across empty land before we found what will soon be Ethiopia’s largest greenhouse. Nestling below an escarpment of the Rift Valley, the development is far from finished, but the plastic and steel structure already stretches over 20 hectares – the size of 20 football pitches. Read article
Phys.org – The White House has pulled back the curtain on portions of a secret US cyber defense strategy crafted during the administration of former president George W. Bush. White House Internet security coordinator Howard Schmidt described bits of the strategy at the RSA cybersecurity conference here, saying the revelation was part of a promise of transparency by President Barack Obama. Read article
CNN – A majority of Americans think the federal government poses a threat to rights of Americans, according to a new national poll. Fifty-six percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Friday say they think the federal government’s become so large and powerful that it poses an immediate threat to the rights and freedoms of ordinary citizens. Forty-four percent of those polled disagree. Read article
Telegraph – The new US defence logo has provoked controversy on the internet after right wing commentators said it resembles the Islamic crescent and star design. As well as resembling the Islamic flag, it has been said to bear a “scary” likeness to the campaign symbol President Barack Obama used in the electoral race against Senator John McCain in 2008, according to right-leaning blogs and websites. The circular red, white and blue sign, which has also been compared to the communist hammer and sickle symbol, first appeared on the Missile Defense Agency’s website in the Autumn. Read article
Time – You know the government’s broken when, in the face of tough fiscal times, the President freezes government spending but gives the military a pass. That’s because spending on the military and homeland security, following 9/11 and the launch of two wars in its wake, has become sacrosanct. But it’s too bad — because there is plenty of money to be saved by lopping off the well-marbled fat that clings to the $700 billion the U.S. spends annually on national security. Read article
CNN – Two ex-Blackwater Worldwide employees allege the company charged the government for a prostitute and strippers and kept incompetent personnel for financial reasons, part of what they call a systematic pattern to defraud authorities. The accusations come in a lawsuit filed by Brad and Melan Davis — who said the fraudulent activity, such as double billing and submitting false invoices, occurred while the security firm, now known as Xe, carried out its work in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Louisiana during Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath. Read article
The Asutralian – IN this dark world, we look for signs of light where we can find them. The recently announced US defence budget, and the Pentagon’s quadrennial defence review, are bright shining stars in a dark and naughty world. Read article
Reuters – A high-powered laser aboard a modified Boeing Co 747 jumbo jet shot down an in-flight ballistic missile for the first time, highlighting a new class of ray guns best known from science fiction. The flying laser’s long-awaited test on Thursday showcased a potential to zap multiple targets at the speed of light and at a range of hundreds of kilometers, the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency said in a statement. Read articlde
Reuters – A British student, described by prosecutors as a “wannabe suicide bomber,” had his main conviction for possessing terrorism-related materials quashed on Tuesday after spending nearly four years in custody. Read article
UPI – There are more private security contractors from Xe, formerly Blackwater, operating in Islamabad than capital police, a religious leader said. Maulana Fazal-ur-Rahman, the leader of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, a Deobandi political party in Pakistan, said there were as many as 9,000 Xe contractors working in Islamabad, compared with just 7,000 capital police, Pakistan’s News International reports. Read article
Telegraph – Charles Farr, the head of the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism, said that while the names of terror groups threatening the UK were likely to change, the threat itself would continue for decades. Within ten years al-Qaeda could have been replaced by a different group with a similar ideology, he said. Read article
Telegraph – The Government has been accused of pursuing a secret policy of encouraging mass immigration for its own political ends. The release of a previously unseen document suggested that Labour’s migration policy over the past decade had been aimed not just at meeting the country’s economic needs, but also the Government’s “social objectives”. Read article
France 24 – Germany’s foreign minister, Guido Westerwelle, backed the idea of a permanent European army Saturday. While speaking to the Munich Security Conference, Westerwelle said a parliamentary run army would help the EU in its role as a “global player”. Read article
Reuters – The Pentagon said on Monday it would expand secretive Special Operations units, deploy more unmanned aerial drones and increase aid to countries like Yemen to fight al Qaeda in a shift away from Cold War priorities. In unveiling the Pentagon’s proposed $708 billion budget for the 2011 fiscal year that begins in October, Defense Secretary Robert Gates declared that decades of Pentagon planning, focused on waging two major conventional wars at the same time, had been “overtaken by events.” Read article
The Asutralian – BIG business and unions in the US will have freedom to spend unlimited money in election campaigns, after a Supreme Court ruling that overturns longstanding laws restricting campaign funding for or against political candidates. The 5-4 Supreme Court decision yesterday was widely interpreted as recasting the political landscape as big interest groups were predicted to inject millions of dollars directly into influencing the choice of voters. Read article
Columbia Tribune – New technology introduced this morning by the Boone County Sheriff’s Department is a step forward for Mid-Missouri counties building criminal databases. A $200,000 COPS — or Community Oriented Policing Services — technology grant will fund license plate and iris scanners for patrol vehicles and the Boone County Jail. Read article
AAP – Criminals are committing armed robberies to get hold of EFTPOS machines in a nationwide card skimming scam that has already netted more than $50 million in NSW. NSW Police say every Australian capital city and some regional centres have been hit by the scam, believed to involve teams of criminals from India. Read article
Ireland Online – New legislation is being published this lunchtime which will pave the way for a new DNA database – for the first time ever in Ireland. This new legislation will allow gardaí to take blood, hair or swab samples from suspects as well as prisoners currently serving a sentence for a serious offence. Read article
Leader – POLICE could crack down on concealed weapons in Fitzroy and Chapel streets with laws giving them new search powers. The powers were first used recently in Melbourne’s west, where 21-year-old Indian graduate Nitin Garg was fatally stabbed. Read article
The Australian – THE Rudd government has failed to calm fears over patient privacy and data security risks related to its proposed Healthcare Identifiers regime, with consumer and industry groups warning the draft Bill is flawed. They say the proposed identifier system will enable linkage of personally identifiable information across multiple networks, it is based on old technology, and designed to support a nationwide e-health records system that may never be built. Read article
China View – U.S. Muslim and civil liberties groups lambasted new U.S. airport security rules implemented in the wake of the foiled Christmas bombing of a U.S.-bound jetliner … Under the new rules, those carrying passports from 14 listed countries — and those traveling from or transiting through them –will be subject to full body pat downs, body scans, luggage checks and be checked for explosives, the Obama administration announced Sunday. Read article
BBC – The UK’s equality watchdog has written to the home secretary expressing concerns about plans to use body scanners at airports. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) said the devices risked breaching an individual’s right to privacy under the Human Rights Act. Read article
