Saturday, August 9, 2008
Sunday, August 3, 2008
U.S. congressman opposes House resolution on China
2008-08-04 06:22:22
WASHINGTON, Aug. 3 (Xinhua) -- U.S. Republican congressman Ron Paul of Texas described the recent resolution by the House of Representatives on China's human rights situation as "ill-conceived" and "hypocritical" and he urged the U.S. legislature to deal with human rights abuses in U.S. or those created abroad by U.S. foreign policies.
"I rise in opposition to this resolution, which is yet another meaningless but provocative condemnation of China. It is this kind of jingoism that has led to such a low opinion of the United States abroad," Paul, who had run for U.S. president as a Republican candidate earlier, said in a statement posted on the official website of the House.
"We are not debating a bill to close Guantanamo, where abuses have been documented. We are not debating a bill to withdraw from Iraq, where scores of innocents have been killed, injured, and abused due to our unprovoked attack on that country. We are not debating a bill to reverse the odious FISA bill passed recently which will result in extreme abuses of Americans by gutting the Fourth Amendment," he said in the statement made before the House voted to adopt the anti-China resolution on July 30.
"Instead of addressing these and scores of other pressing issues over which we do have authority, we prefer to spend our time criticizing a foreign government over which we have no authority and foreign domestic problems about which we have very little accurate information," the congressman added.
Paul described it as "ironic" that the resolution calls on the Chinese government to begin negotiations, without preconditions, directly with the Dalai Lama or his representatives.
"For years U.S. policy has been that no meeting or negotiation could take place with Iran until certain preconditions are met by Iran. Among these is a demand that Iran cease uranium enrichment, which Iran has the right to do under the terms of the Non-Proliferation Treaty. It is little wonder why some claim that resolutions like this are hypocritical," he said.
"Instead of lecturing China, where I have no doubt there are problems as there are everywhere, I would suggest that we turn our attention to the very real threats in the United States where our civil liberties and human rights are being eroded on a steady basis," Paul said.
"The Bible cautions against pointing out the speck in a neighbor's eye while ignoring the log in one's own. I suggest we contemplate this sound advice before bringing up such ill-conceived resolutions in the future," he said.
In response to the U.S. Congress' adoption of the resolution on China's human rights situation, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic Games said last Thursday that the resolution was an attempt to politicize the Games.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao also rejected the resolution as an abominable conduct by a handful of anti-China lawmakers.
"Such a deed itself is blasphemy to the Olympic spirit, and is against the common wishes of people all around the world, including people of the United States," Liu said.
U.S. President George W. Bush had announced that he would travel to Beijing next week to attend the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.
Friday, August 1, 2008
Baseless searches - Yup that's Okay
The Washington Post Published: August 1st, 2008 01:00 AM
WASHINGTON – Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two Homeland Security agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The policies … are truly alarming,” said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who is probing the government’s border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
Officials said that the newly disclosed policies – which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens – are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such practices have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest.
Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cell phones and other digital devices have been taken and their contents examined.
The policies state that officers can “review and analyze information” in the traveler’s laptop “absent individualized suspicion,” and that the laptops and other devices are to be returned “in a reasonable period of time.”
The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books and pamphlets.
Reasonable measures must be taken to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material, the policies say, but there is no specific mention of the handling of personal data such as medical and financial records.
When a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information, any copies of the data must be destroyed. But the documents specify that there is no limitation on authorities keeping written notes about the materials.
“They’re saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler’s laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies “don’t establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that “the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices.” Searches have uncovered “violent jihadist materials” as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.
In April, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the government’s power to conduct searches of an international traveler’s laptop without suspicion of wrongdoing.
Opinion: Is anyone paying attention? Read the 4th amendment!!
WASHINGTON – Federal agents may take a traveler’s laptop or other electronic device to an off-site location for an unspecified period of time without any suspicion of wrongdoing, as part of border search policies the Department of Homeland Security recently disclosed.
Officials may share copies of the laptop’s contents with other agencies and private entities for language translation or other reasons, according to the policies, dated July 16 and issued by two Homeland Security agencies, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“The policies … are truly alarming,” said Sen. Russell Feingold, D-Wis., who is probing the government’s border search practices. He said he intends to introduce legislation soon that would require reasonable suspicion for border searches, as well as prohibit profiling on race, religion or national origin.
Officials said that the newly disclosed policies – which apply to anyone entering the country, including U.S. citizens – are reasonable and necessary to prevent terrorism. Officials said such practices have long been in place but were disclosed last month because of public interest.
Civil liberties and business travel groups have pressed the government to disclose its procedures as an increasing number of international travelers have reported that their laptops, cell phones and other digital devices have been taken and their contents examined.
The policies state that officers can “review and analyze information” in the traveler’s laptop “absent individualized suspicion,” and that the laptops and other devices are to be returned “in a reasonable period of time.”
The policies cover “any device capable of storing information in digital or analog form,” including hard drives, flash drives, cell phones, iPods, pagers, beepers, and video and audio tapes. They also cover “all papers and other written documentation,” including books and pamphlets.
Reasonable measures must be taken to protect business information and attorney-client privileged material, the policies say, but there is no specific mention of the handling of personal data such as medical and financial records.
When a review is completed and no probable cause exists to keep the information, any copies of the data must be destroyed. But the documents specify that there is no limitation on authorities keeping written notes about the materials.
“They’re saying they can rifle through all the information in a traveler’s laptop without having a smidgen of evidence that the traveler is breaking the law,” said Greg Nojeim, senior counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology. Notably, he said, the policies “don’t establish any criteria for whose computer can be searched.”
Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff wrote in an opinion piece published last month in USA Today that “the most dangerous contraband is often contained in laptop computers or other electronic devices.” Searches have uncovered “violent jihadist materials” as well as images of child pornography, he wrote.
In April, the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld the government’s power to conduct searches of an international traveler’s laptop without suspicion of wrongdoing.
Opinion: Is anyone paying attention? Read the 4th amendment!!
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