News Stories Which Highlight the Structure of the System

[Cain]

Mohammed Merah, the man behind the French school shootings and the killing of three French soldiers, was under surveillance by French security services for months before he carried out his attacks.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17484121

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said there were no grounds for arresting Mohammed Merah before he shot seven people.

Security services have been criticised since it emerged that Merah had been under surveillance for months.

Mr Fillon said there was no single element to suggest a threat.

Socialist presidential candidate Francois Hollande said there had been flaws in the surveillance of Merah, who was killed by a sniper on Thursday.

But speaking on French radio, Mr Fillon said the DCRI, France's domestic intelligence service, "had done their job perfectly".

"They did enough surveillance to see that there was no evidence to suggest he was a dangerous man," he told RTL on Friday.

Merah was also on the US flight watch-list.

Presumably, the surveillance was of such poor quality, the French security services somehow managed to overlook Merah stockpiling ammunition, buying a flak jacket and making up molotov coktails in his apartment.

[LMNO]

Would this be evidence of a false-flag op, or merely incompetence?

[Cain]

Either.

[LMNO]

Well, I'm going to naively go with whoever it was that said, "never ascribe conspiracy to what can easily be explained by stupidity."

[Doktor Howl]

Well, I'm going to naively go with whoever it was that said, "never ascribe conspiracy to what can easily be explained by stupidity."

Hanlon's Razor.

The fundamental flaw with that is that something can be both malicious AND stupid.

[LMNO]

Good point.  At that point, I suppose you'd have to figure out how much of each.

[BabylonHoruv]

I though Dok Howl would be interested (as well as a few others which are in fields where standards incorporated-by-reference into law are commonly used), as this directly effects their jobs and stuff....

it matters an awful lot for anyone who is interested in DIY home building, plumbing, etc.  The standards not being freely available makes the entire concept much more difficult.  It also makes even trying to follow the codes seem a bit silly, you can't follow codes you aren't allowed to read.

[Cain]

The DCRI have found at least something that suggests Merah wasn't acting alone:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17499831

Abdelkader Merah is being questioned at domestic intelligence agency (DCRI) headquarters in Paris, where he was brought along with his partner.

Mohamed Merah admitted killing seven people in execution-style gun attacks before his death in a police siege.

Abdelkader reportedly told police after the attacks he was "proud" of him.

The men's mother was released without charge on Friday evening.

Investigators are trying to establish if Merah, a 23-year-old French citizen of Algerian descent, acted alone.

Crucial questions include how Merah, a petty criminal, was able to amass an arsenal of weapons and rent a car without any clear source of income.

He reportedly told police during the siege he had bought weapons for 20,000 euros (£16,700; $24,400) using money taken through break-ins and hold-ups.

That's a lot of money to raise through robbery.  And risky too, given that a number of armed robberies would, of course, draw police attention to them.  Other than the police who supposedly had him under surveillance for months, that is.

I'm not saying who he got the money from, only that someone was possibly sponsoring this venture.

[Junkenstein]

3 Shiny trinkets says that Israel accuses Iran within the next 2 weeks.

Taking all bets!

[Cain]

http://www.channel4.com/news/new-police-corruption-alleged-in-secret-report

The confidential report produced by the Serious Organised Crime Agency (Soca) in 2008, found that private investigators, linked to organised criminals, used corrupt serving and former police officers to delete intelligence records from law enforcement databases and access details of police operations. The report has been seen by Channel 4 News Home Affairs Correspondent Andy Davies.

The eight-page report, which has been passed to the Leveson inquiry into police corruption and media ethics, warns of "rogue" private investigators "providing organised crime groups with counter-surveillance techniques" and attempting to discover the identities of informants and witnesses under police protection.

The details in the report entitled "Private Investigators: The Rogue Element of the Private Investigation Industry and Others Unlawfully Trading in Personal Data" have never been disclosed publicly before, because the report is labelled "exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act 2000".

Soca analysed five UK Law enforcement operations leading up to 30 September 2007. The report says: "Four of the operations provided examples of corrupt individuals including serving and former police officers, a bank employee, employees in a communications service provider, a public service employee, and a HM Prison Service Employee. All of these were used by private investigators to facilitate access to information."

This of course also potentially ties back into the News International/Met/organised crime links detailed earlier on.

[Junkenstein]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17576745

The government will be able to monitor the calls, emails, texts and website visits of everyone in the UK under new legislation set to be announced soon.

Internet firms will be required to give intelligence agency GCHQ access to communications on demand, in real time.

The Home Office says the move is key to tackling crime and terrorism, but civil liberties groups have criticised it.

Attempts by the last Labour government to take similar steps failed after huge opposition, including from the Tories.

A new law - which may be announced in the forthcoming Queen's Speech in May - would not allow GCHQ to access the content of emails, calls or messages without a warrant.

But it would enable intelligence officers to identify who an individual or group is in contact with, how often and for how long.

Crime and terror prevention. Totally not riot prevention. I'm sure this will be completely safe from hacking and abuse.

I get a feeling this ties into copyright and piracy but I'm not quite certain why. Just seems like the kind of thing that would used mainly beyond it's official/apparent remit.

Also, what a lovely show of the two party con. It's not even subtle now.

[Cain]

Total Information Awareness.

The UK is looking less and less appealing every single day.

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

The previous Labour government attempted to introduce a central, government-run database of everyone's phone calls and emails, but eventually dropped the bid after widespread anger.

Fuck, this is the exact same thing the NSA is doing.

[Telarus]

http://www.salon.com/2012/04/01/how_billionaires_destroy_democracy/

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/03/us/justices-approve-strip-searches-for-any-offense.html?_r=1

The Supreme Court on Monday ruled by a 5-to-4 vote that officials may strip-search people arrested for any offense, however minor, before admitting them to jails even if the officials have no reason to suspect the presence of contraband.

Ok, Orwellian surveillance and arrests without trial are one thing, but now the powers that be are just being dicks.