245 million Americans to be forced to undergo “guilty until proven innocent” breathalyzer tests just to start their cars if plan proceeds

Just when you thought the Orwellian Big Brother society couldn’t possibly accelerate further, it gets even worse. A move is afoot to force 245 million drivers in America to have alcohol breathalyzers fitted in their vehicles, ignition interlocks that prevent the vehicle from being started by an inebriant.

“The threat of arrest and punishment, for decades the primary tactic against drunken drivers, is no longer working in the struggle to reduce the death toll, officials say, and they are proposing turning to technology — alcohol detection devices in every vehicle — to address the problem,” reports the New York Times.

In addition, Mothers Against Drunk Drivers today began a campaign to make all states pass legislation that mandates these devices be placed in all cars of drunk drivers, even if they are just a first time offender.

Mandatory breathalyzers in all vehicles is just one item in a veritable surveillance package that all drivers will be forced to accept if they wish to use America’s roads and highways. (more…)

Tancredo says president believes nation should be merely ‘idea’ without borders

PALM BEACH, Fla. – President Bush believes America should be more of an idea than an actual place, a Republican congressman told WND in an exclusive interview.

“People have to understand what we’re talking about here. The president of the United States is an internationalist,” said Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo. “He is going to do what he can to create a place where the idea of America is just that – it’s an idea. It’s not an actual place defined by borders. I mean this is where this guy is really going.”

Tancredo lashed out at the White House’s lack of action in securing U.S. borders, and said efforts to merge the U.S. with both Mexico and Canada is not a fantasy. (more…)

The White House dismissed a classified CIA draft assessment that found no conclusive evidence of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program, The New Yorker magazine reported.

The article by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh said the CIA’s analysis was based on technical intelligence collected by satellites and on other evidence like measurements of the radioactivity of water samples.

“The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” according to the article.

“A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis, and told me that the White House had been hostile to it,” it said. (more…)

DOVER, N.H. — A New Hampshire lawyer is representing 85 New England families that claim a mercury-based compound in vaccines caused autism and other disabilities in their children.

Michael Noonan said thimerosal, used for decades as a preservative in childhood vaccines, is a neurotoxin that damaged thousands of children. (more…)

A federal district judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration’s request to halt a lawsuit that alleges AT&T unlawfully cooperated with a broad and unconstitutional government surveillance program.

A federal district judge on Friday rejected the Bush administration’s request to halt a lawsuit that alleges AT&T unlawfully cooperated with a broad and unconstitutional government surveillance program.

U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker said the lawsuit could continue while a portion of it was being appealed, despite the U.S. Justice Department’s arguments that further hearings and other proceedings would consequently endanger national security. (more…)

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said on Monday he had assured Chinese President Hu Jintao Japan would not acquire nuclear weapons, but use its position as the only country to have suffered atomic attacks to urge members of the nuclear club to reduce their arsenals.

Abe was speaking at a news conference during an official visit to Vietnam following a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders in Hanoi, at which the issue of how to deal with North Korea’s October nuclear test was high on the agenda.

“Our country is the only one in the world to have suffered a nuclear attack,” Abe said. “We have to take the lead in persuading the world to give up nuclear weapons,” he added. (more…)

Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to hide

Comment True freedom is protecting Americans by letting the NSA monitor their email and phone calls by the millions without a warrant, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales explained to Air Force Academy cadets in a speech last week.

It’s a mistake to regard such Gestapo tactics as compromising freedom, he told the young officers in training. “This [antagonistic] view is shortsighted. Its definition of freedom - one utterly divorced from civic responsibility - is superficial and is itself a grave threat to the liberty and security of the American people”.

Only days earlier, vice president Dick Cheney had denounced an August court decision in Michigan that found the NSA wiretap program unconstitutional as “an indefensible act of judicial overreaching”. (more…)

A senior Chinese official has made a rare admission about the extent of the use of torture in getting convictions in China’s courts.
Wang Zhenchuan, Deputy Procurator General, said at least 30 wrong verdicts were handed down each year because torture had been used.

Mr Wang said the real number could be higher, according to state media.

Confidence in China’s justice system has been seriously undermined by recent high-profile wrongful convictions. (more…)

Putin angered by Chechnya criticism’, ‘Assassin used to be victim’s friend’

Alexander Litvinenko was poisoned on the direct orders of the Kremlin because of his biting mockery of President Putin, according to a former Soviet spy now living in Britain.

Oleg Gordievsky, the most senior KGB agent to defect to Britain, said that the attempt to kill Mr Litvinenko had been state-sponsored.

It was carried out by a Russian friend and former colleague who had been recruited secretly in prison by the FSB, the successor to the KGB. The Italian who allegedly put poison in Mr Litvinenko’s sushi “had nothing to do with it”.

“Of course it is state-sponsored. He was such an obvious enemy. Only the KGB is able to do this. The poison was very sophisticated. They have done this before — they poisoned Anna Politkovskaya (the campaigning journalist murdered on October 7) on a plane last year. Who else would know where she was sitting and could poison her food? Probably also it was the KGB that shot her.” (more…)

Fails to mention it led straight back to the CIA, was not investigated by 9/11 Commission

In a twenty first century update, the new James Bond Movie, Casino Royale, directly references 9/11 and highlights the fact that massive manipulation of airline stocks prior to the attacks account for a leading motive behind the event.

The movie, based on the original 1953 novel, has been updated with a terrorism plotline in which the bad guy, Le Chiffre, is a banker to the world’s terrorists and in order to stop him, and bring down the terrorist network, Bond must beat Le Chiffre in a $150 million poker game at the Casino Royale.

The movie contains a significant reference to 9/11 when M, the fictional head of MI6, tells Bond the following: (more…)

Journalists working for the US print media are steaming with righteous indignation as their bosses start outsourcing their jobs to India.

The International Herald Tribune fumed that there was a sudden rush of advertisements on MonsterIndia.com for hacks to write for US and UK print media in Mumbai.

The article cites a WAN global survey of about 350 newspaper bosses in Europe, Asia and the United States. They expected outsourcing to increase, although few were willing to farm out all of their editorial functions.

Part of the reason is that advertising revenues for print media is dropping and people are failing to buy hard copies of their news. (more…)

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Syria’s foreign minister called Sunday for a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces to help end Iraq’s sectarian bloodbath, in a groundbreaking diplomatic mission to Iraq that comes amid increasing calls for the U.S. to seek cooperation from Syria and Iran. At least 112 people were killed nationwide, following a week that had already seen hundreds of deaths.

On Monday, a roadside bomb exploded near a convoy carrying Iraq’s minister of state, missing him and slightly wounding two of his bodyguards, the minister said. (more…)

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday said Israel was currently incapable of launching a military attack on Iran’s nuclear sites, the ISNA news agency reported.

“At the moment the Zionist regime will not attack Iran, because it has many problems,” Ahmadinejad said, describing some Israeli threats of a military strike to curb Iran’s nuclear drive as “propaganda.”

Source: AFP

Tony Blair’s plans to let police hold suspected terrorists for up to 90 days without charge suffered a setback at the weekend when the Government’s senior law officer said he had seen no evidence that the change was necessary.

Lord Goldsmith, the Attorney General, said that he would prefer to let prosecutors make greater use of telephone-tapping evidence and to let the police question suspects after they had been charged. The Government’s attempt to increase the maximum detention period led to Mr Blair’s first defeat in the Commons a year ago.

Asked last week in a Downing Street webcast whether he still wanted to increase the limit from 28 days to 90 days, the Prime Minister replied: “I favoured it then and I haven’t changed my mind”.

But Lord Goldsmith said: “The recent investigations demonstrate that it was right to extend the period to 28 days, but extending it any further would need evidence to demonstrate that that was needed.” (more…)

Tuesday’s incident at the University of California, Los Angeles involving a student getting repeatedly tasered by police was completely unacceptable.

UCLA student Mustafa Tabatabainejad was in the campus library after 11 p.m. It is procedure for the school’s campus police to randomly check IDs at night. Tabatabainejad had failed to produce his ID when police officers first asked him to leave.

Students who witnessed the incident said Tabatabainejad was gathering his belongings to leave when the police officers grabbed him by the arm. Tabatabainejad told them to get off him, and then the police tasered him. Tabatabainejad, a student of Iranian decent, could be heard screaming and afterward yelling, “Here’s your Patriot Act; here’s your-abuse of power!” (more…)