Articles Posted by Sandy
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The Office for National Drug Control Policy spent $3.2 million for Super Bowl ads claiming that people who buy drugs are supporting terrorists. But that's not the real story. The real story is that the profits in the drug trade garnered by gangsters and terrorists is a product, not of the drugs, but of the laws prohibiting the drugs. Almost nine out of 10 of us use the addicting, mind-altering drug caffeine, but coffee sales don't fund terrorists. A quarter of all adults are addicted to nicotine, but cigarette sales don't fund terrorists. Two-thirds of the country uses the psychoactive ...
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RICHMOND, Feb. 10 -- A bill that would expand Virginia's DNA databank to include genetic samples from everyone arrested for a violent crime passed an important test in the state Senate today, winning approval in the courts committee by a vote of 14 to 1. The bill, promoted by Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore (R) as a way to enhance the crime-fighting power of Virginia's DNA database, now goes to the Senate floor. A similar measure, approved by a House of Delegates panel Friday, is scheduled for debate Monday on the House floor, where it has broad support. Police in ...
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CHAPEL HILL – In a talk sponsored by UNC-Chapel Hill Young Democrats and Choice USA at Memorial Hall Jan. 14, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., called for increased activism by challenging this young generation to "help us face reality" and to "educate Americans about the role of civil liberties." The two-term senator, first elected in 1992, rose to fame by joining Arizona Sen. John McCain in a bipartisan effort to overhaul the nation's campaign finance laws, restricting the amounts of money citizens can contribute to candidates. Although gaining a lot of attention in the media, the plan never gained traction ...
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<p>CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. - A new, book-length study to be published this month says that the negative impact of divorce on both children and parents has been exaggerated and that only about one-fifth of youngsters experience any long-term damage after their parents break up. One of the most comprehensive studies of divorce to date, the research will bring balm to the souls of parents who have chosen to end their marriages. It probably also will incense those who see divorce as undermining American society.</p>
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<p>The Drug Enforcement Administration plans to double the number of agents assigned to work with local law enforcement officials and community leaders to help in drug prevention and treatment programs, DEA Administrator Asa Hutchinson said yesterday.</p>
<p>"Agents are tired of dismantling an organization and a year later come back and see that they've moved in again or another organization has," Mr. Hutchinson said in announcing a new program to integrate the agency's drug enforcement efforts with a coordinated plan for field agents to help reduce demand.</p>
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Congress appears poised to offer America's farmers bold new incentives to become "greener" - paying more of them to hold their ground in the face of urban sprawl and, controversially, perhaps even writing subsidy checks to "environmentally correct" farmers. The emerging legislation would represent a dramatic shift in US agricultural policy. In tying subsidies more closely to environmental concerns, the bill would sprinkle payments across more states - such as California, where farmers now receive few crop subsidies. The bill, too, is creating wary allies of farmers and environmentalists, usually aligned on opposite sides. That pairing may yield a bill ...
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NEW HAVEN — Police in bulletproof vests Tuesday converged on a quiet Westville neighborhood and seized an arsenal of illegal assault rifles, canisters of live ammunition and a box of hand grenades from a pricey home.A 31-year-old man who lives in the house was arrested. "I've only seen this in a Bruce Willis movie," said one stunned neighbor, who came outside to survey the spectacle. Inside 851 Forest Road, police recovered at least four AR-15 assault weapons, authorities said. The guns, a civilian version of the military M-16, are illegal in Connecticut. They also recovered bomb-making manuals and volumes of ...
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<p>European lawyers have denounced a European Union proposal to establish a definition of terrorism so broad that it could include workers' strikes or protests against globalization.</p>
<p>More than 200 lawyers from nearly every country in the European Union (EU) have signed an appeal urging European Parliament and EU governments to reject a broad definition of terrorism.</p>
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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - A conservation group has purchased another large grazing allotment at a national monument in southern Utah in its campaign to reduce livestock grazing and preserve sensitive canyon land. The Grand Canyon Trust purchased grazing rights Monday in the 256,000-acre swath, which represents about 15 percent of the 1.9 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. The Flagstaff, Ariz.-based organization paid an undisclosed sum to a rancher, who will relinquish the rights. "It's a way of preserving a big representative swath of the canyon country," Bill Hedden, who runs the Grand Canyon Trust's Moab office, said in ...
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A recent article in the New York Times about how college campuses are reacting to the World Trade Center attack cited a characteristic anti-war comment from the Vietnam era. Daniel Ellsberg, the Rand Corporation official who leaked the Pentagon Papers, once said that he doubted that anyone in the Lyndon B. Johnson administration could pass a freshman course in Vietnamese culture and politics. One might have the same kind of worry this time. Afghanistan, after all, is a nation as exotic and remote from the experience of most Americans as Vietnam was in the 1960s. Happily, though, it turns out ...
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There is one phrase that has crept into the American vernacular that I wish I could banish from the hearts and minds of my countrymen: "If you're not guilty, then what have you got to hide?" There is one phrase that has crept into the American vernacular that I wish I could banish from the hearts and minds of my countrymen: "If you're not guilty, then what have you got to hide?" The phrase equates the desire for privacy with the presumption of guilt. It suggests that anyone who wants to keep government's prying eyes away is trying to get ...
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<p>In an attempt to differentiate themselves from their GOP counterparts, House Democrats are preparing legislation they say will shield America from biological terrorism.</p>
<p>As anxieties about anthrax mushroomed on Capitol Hill -- with the deadly bacteria discovered in five congressional office buildings so far -- House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-Missouri) said Thursday that new spending and police powers are necessary to protect the public.</p>
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<p>The Federal Bureau of Investigation is seeking to broaden considerably its ability to tap into Internet traffic in its quest to root out terrorists, going beyond even the new measures afforded in anti-terror legislation passed by the House today, according to lawyers familiar with the FBI’s plans.</p>
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The U.S. Supreme Court on Oct. 15 refused to hear an appeal in the case of two Dayton, Ohio men cited for driving without licenses in 1998. Magus D. Orr and Andre L. Smith were ticketed in June 1998 at random local police roadblocks. The men argued the stops were unconstitutional because police had no particular reason to suspect specific criminal behavior. Nonetheless, the Ohio Supreme Court unanimously upheld the roadblocks in May, and the high court's refusal to intervene means the convictions now stand. "The idea that government agents may seize people at checkpoints without having any suspicion ...
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Analysis of Provisions of the Proposed Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 Affecting the Privacy of Communications and Personal Information In response to the horrendous attacks that occurred on September 11, Attorney General Ashcroft has proposed the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001 (ATA), a far-reaching legislative package intended to strengthen the nation’s defense against terrorism. Several of ATA’s provisions would vastly expand the authority of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to monitor private communications and access personal information. Those provisions address issues that are complex and implicate fundamental constitutional protections of individual liberty, including the appropriate procedures for interception of information transmitted ...
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LONDON, Sept. 18 — A poll in the United States has found widespread support for a ban on “uncrackable” encryption products, following proposals in Congress to tighten restrictions on software that scrambles electronic data. The survey found that 72 percent of Americans believe that anti-encryption laws would be “somewhat” or “very” helpful in preventing a repeat of last week’s terrorist attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. The poll, conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates on Sept. 13 and 14, reveals that the question of banning encryption tools without “backdoors” for government interception ...
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As expanded wiretap authorities are proposed in response to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, it is useful to first understand the current laws on electronic surveillance. Contrary to some of the assertions being made in support of new authorities, federal agencies already have broad legal powers to carry out wiretaps of telephone conversations, e-mail, pagers, wireless phones, computers and all other electronic communications and communications devices. -- Government wiretap authority There are two sources of authority for wiretapping in the US. (1) The Federal Wiretap Act, adopted in 1968 and sometimes referred to as Title III, normally requires, ...
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Freeper "Stand Watch Listen" hasn't posted anything since September 10th, the day before the WTC/DC attacks. Anyone with any info showing that SWL is on vacation or otherwise not hurt, please check in here. Or just bump the thread, if nothing else. I'm kinda concerned; sent a freepmail but haven't gotten a reply yet.
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ANTI-TERRORISM ACT OF 2001 SECTION -BY-SECTION ANALYSIS Title I: Intelligence Gathering Subtitle A: Electronic Surveillance Section 101 Modification of Authorities Relating to Use of Pen Registers And Trap And Trace Devices This section authorizes courts to grant pen register/trap and trace orders that are valid anywhere in the nation, and subjects Internet communications to the same rules as telephone communications. At present, the government must apply for new pen/trap orders in every jurisdiction where an investigation is being pursued. Hence, law enforcement officers tracking a suspected terrorist in multiple jurisdictions must waste valuable time and resources by obtaining a duplicative ...
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<p>In the wake of the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, scholars fear that Americans will sacrifice civil liberties that could be difficult to win back.</p>
<p>Many civil liberties watchdogs say freedom in the United States have been slowly eroding for the past several decades. But they say Tuesday's attacks will redouble efforts by the government to infringe on civil freedoms, and now people won't resist.</p>
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