position:inspector

US drone strikes being used as alternative to Guantánamo, lawyer says- http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/02/us-drone-strikes-guantanamo

The lawyer who first drew up White House policy on lethal drone strikes has accused the Obama administration of overusing them because of its reluctance to capture prisoners that would otherwise have to be sent to Guantánamo Bay.

John Bellinger, who was responsible for drafting the legal framework for targeted drone killings while working for George W Bush after 9/11, said he believed their use had increased since because President Obama was unwilling to deal with the consequences of jailing suspected al-Qaida members.

“This government has decided that instead of detaining members of al-Qaida [at Guantánamo] they are going to kill them,” he told a conference at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

A Secret Deal on Drones, Sealed in Blood- http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/world/asia/origins-of-cias-not-so-secret-drone-war-in-pakistan.html?pagewanted=3&_r=3&

Bon voilà : La CIA adorerait les assassinats par drones parce qu’ils lui évitent d’avoir recours à la torture, cette dernière étant passible de poursuites judiciaires.

A New Direction

As the negotiations were taking place, the C.I.A.’s inspector general, John L. Helgerson, had just finished a searing report about the abuse of detainees in the C.I.A.’s secret prisons. The report kicked out the foundation upon which the C.I.A. detention and interrogation program had rested. It was perhaps the single most important reason for the C.I.A.’s shift from capturing to killing terrorism suspects.

Mr. Helgerson raised questions about whether C.I.A. officers might face criminal prosecution for the interrogations carried out in the secret prisons, and he suggested that interrogation methods like waterboarding, sleep deprivation and the exploiting of the phobias of prisoners — like confining them in a small box with live bugs — violated the United Nations Convention Against Torture.

“The agency faces potentially serious long-term political and legal challenges as a result of the CTC detention and interrogation program,” the report concluded, given the brutality of the interrogation techniques and the “inability of the U.S. government to decide what it will ultimately do with the terrorists detained by the agency.”

The report was the beginning of the end for the program. The prisons would stay open for several more years, and new detainees were occasionally picked up and taken to secret sites, but at Langley, senior C.I.A. officers began looking for an endgame to the prison program. One C.I.A. operative told Mr. Helgerson’s team that officers from the agency might one day wind up on a “wanted list” and be tried for war crimes in an international court.

The ground had shifted, and counterterrorism officials began to rethink the strategy for the secret war. Armed drones, and targeted killings in general, offered a new direction. Killing by remote control was the antithesis of the dirty, intimate work of interrogation. Targeted killings were cheered by Republicans and Democrats alike, and using drones flown by pilots who were stationed thousands of miles away made the whole strategy seem risk-free.

Les applications éphémères - Technology Review
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/513006/now-you-see-it-now-you-dont-disappearing-messages-are-everywhere

Les applications comme Snapchat - http://www.snapchat.com - qui vous permettent d’envoyer un message avec une durée de vie limitée se multiplient, estime Rachel Metz pour la Technology Review. Des applications qui permettent assez simplement d’avoir un contrôle sur nos données. « L’une des raisons pour lesquelles ces applications ont du succès, est qu’elles nous ramènent à un temps où le contexte était tout ce qui importait », estime Lee Rainie, directeur du Pew Research Center. Est-ce une réponse au (...)

#vieprivee #sitessociaux

Bronx Officer’s Recording Suggests Race Is Factor in Stops - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/22/nyregion/bronx-officers-recording-suggests-race-is-factor-in-stops.html?pagewanted=a

The recording, played on Thursday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, was of a conversation between a patrol officer and his commanding officer in the 40th Precinct in the South Bronx, a violent command that recorded the highest number of police stops in the Bronx in 2011.

The commanding officer, Deputy Inspector Christopher McCormack, urged the officer to be more active, emphasizing the need to conduct more street stops. “We go out there and we summons people,” Inspector McCormack said. The way to suppress violent crime, he said, was for officers to stop, question and, if necessary, frisk “the right people at the right time, the right location.”

The officer who surreptitiously recorded the conversation last month, Pedro Serrano, began pressing Inspector McCormack about who he meant by the “right people.” The conversation grew heated.

After an exchange about Mott Haven, a particularly crime-prone neighborhood, the inspector suggested that the police needed to conduct street stops of the people creating “the most problems” there.

“The problem was, what, male blacks,” Inspector McCormack said. “And I told you at roll call, and I have no problem telling you this, male blacks 14 to 20, 21.”

A lire absolument : 10 ans après la guerre en Irak, Blix appelle à ne pas répéter l’erreur en Iran

http://fr.news.yahoo.com/irak-10-ans-après-guerre-blix-appelle-à-114625674.html

L’ancien chef des inspecteurs de l’ONU en Irak Hans Blix, appelle la communauté internationale à ne pas répéter l’erreur en lançant une guerre contre l’Iran.
« Le monde a la mémoire courte. L’échec et les erreurs tragiques commises en Irak ne sont pas pris suffisamment au sérieux », déclare l’ancien diplomate suédois âgé de 82 ans à un groupe restreint de journalistes, dont celle de l’AFP, lors d’un passage à Dubaï.

Pour aller plus loin, lire Le monde diplo actuellement en kiosques qui propose un dossier « Dix ans après, que devient l’Irak ? » ►http://www.monde-diplomatique.fr
#ADM #WMD

Barthélémy Toguo performance Transit
http://www.barthelemytoguo.com/2oeuvres/3performances/transit.html
http://www.barthelemytoguo.com/2oeuvres/3performances/imas/transit_colb.jpg

Le 18 janvier 1999, à Cologne, je monte dans le TGV Thalys, en direction de Paris. Je suis habillé dans la tenue des éboueurs de la ville de Paris, une tenue flambant neuve. J’ai la place 84, voiture 27… Au milieu de la rame, là où quatre personnes peuvent s’asseoir face à face. Les sièges 82, 83, 85 sont occupés, le mien est libre, je m’assois. Dans les minutes qui suivent, mes voisins quittent leur place pour aller s’asseoir plus loin… Une heure après, à hauteur, à hauteur d’Aix-la-Chapelle, un contrôleur arrive et me dit : « Monsieur, vous n’avez pas le droit de voyager dans cette tenue. » Etonné, je lui demande pourquoi, je lui demande s’il y a une tenue appropriée pour prendre le Thalys… J’ai un billet en règle, je suis assis tranquillement, mais visiblement la tenue des éboueurs de la ville de Paris est incompatible avec celle des hommes d’affaires du Thalys… Après quelques minutes de discussion, il me dit que je mets les gens mal à l’aise et me demande de descendre à Aix-la-Chapelle. Les occupants des places 82, 83 et 85 s’étaient-ils plaints ? Se sont-ils levés à cause de ma tenue ? À cause de ma condition d’éboueur ? Je n’en sais rien… Toujours est-il que le contrôleur est là, devant moi, en train de perdre patience. Bien entendu, je refuse d’obtempérer. Excédé, il me déclare qu’à Bruxelles, le service de la sécurité et de la police vont s’occuper de moi. Poursuivant sa logique d’intimidation, il prend son téléphone, s’éloigne pour que je ne puisse pas entendre la conversation… Je ne parviens à savoir s’il téléphone à Bruxelles, mais je l’entends dire que je refuse de descendre… Évidemment, en gare de Bruxelles, personne n’est monté et je n’ai plus revu ce contrôleur. J’ai donc fini ce voyage, seul, sans être importuné, dans une voiture 27 quasiment vide.

EXCLUSIVE: DoD Report Reveals Some Detainees Interrogated While Drugged, Others “Chemically Restrained”
http://truth-out.org/news/item/10248-exclusive-department-of-defense-declassifies-report-on-alleged-drug

Detainees in custody of the US military were interrogated while drugged with powerful antipsychotic and other medications that “could impair an individual’s ability to provide accurate information,” according to a declassified Department of Defense (DoD) inspector general’s report that probed the alleged use of “mind altering drugs” during interrogations. In addition, detainees were subjected to “chemical restraints,” hydrated with intravenous (IV) fluids while they were being interrogated and, in what appears to be a form of psychological manipulation, the inspector general’s probe confirmed at least one detainee - convicted “dirty bomb” plotter Jose Padilla - was the subject of a “deliberate ruse” in which his interrogator led him to believe he was given an injection of “truth serum.”

USA Today pair hit by smear campaign after Pentagon propaganda story
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/20/usa-today-smear-campaign

Two USA Today journalists investigating private security companies engaging in foreign propaganda wars on behalf of the Pentagon appear to have been subjected themselves to a dirty tricks campaign, the newspaper has revealed.

U.S. ’info ops’ programs dubious, costly
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2012-02-29/afghanistan-iraq-military-information-operations-usa-today-investigation/53295472/1

As the Pentagon has sought to sell wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to often-hostile populations there, it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on poorly tracked marketing and propaganda campaigns that military leaders like to call “information operations,” the modern equivalent of psychological warfare.

http://i.usatoday.net/_common/_notches/c51360f9-930f-4d22-822b-aada7c1b5c3d-info-opsmanual.jpg
#propagande #psy-ops

Police Twittering on Twitter
http://euro-police.noblogs.org/2012/01/police-twittering-on-twitter

he police of many countries have started sharpening their skills in social networks because mass riots and meetings have recently been organized through the Internet.

In Britain, 2,500 police officers have started studying the intricacies of “Managing Anger” in Twitter and Facebook. The initiative was put forward by a Sheffield police inspector Jayne Forrest who was the first among her colleagues to start engaging radical protesters using Twitter. Her calls on the social media not to go into crime not only calmed the potential rioters but also upgraded the rating of the police. At present, there are 20,000 subscribers on the Sheffield police pages in Twitter and Facebook and this shows that the police is on the right track: preventing crimes comes first.

The Russian law enforcement agencies have armed themselves with the experience of their British colleagues. They not only watch the social networks with respect to extremism but also use it to inform the public about their work, says an expert in competitive surveillance Professor Yevgeny Yuschuk in an interview with the Voice of Russia.

944 police officers ’have criminal record’ - Crime - UK - The Independent

More than 900 serving police officers and community support officers have a criminal record, official figures show.

Forces across England and Wales employ policemen and women with convictions including burglary, causing death by careless driving, robbery, supplying drugs, domestic violence, forgery and perverting the course of justice.

Those with criminal records include senior officers, among them two detective chief inspectors and one chief inspector working for the Metropolitan Police.

At least 944 currently serving officers and police community support officers (PCSOs) have a conviction, according to figures released by 33 of the 43 forces in England and Wales in response to Freedom of Information requests.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/944-police-officers-have-criminal-record-6284098.html

U.S. says Israel’s inclusion on terrorist watch list was a mistake | JTA - Jewish & Israel News
http://www.jta.org/news/article/2011/07/06/3088429/israels-inclusion-on-terrorist-watch-list-was-a-mistake

Israel was included erroneously on a U.S. Department of Homeland Security terrorist watch list, a U.S. official said.

John Morton, the director of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the department, said Israel’s recent appearance on a list compiled by the department’s office of the inspector general was a mistake.

“The addition of Israel in the OIG’s list of ICE’s ’Third-Agency Checks’ (TAC) was based on inaccurate information provided to the OIG during the course of its audit,” Morton said in a statement sent by e-mail to JTA. “The U.S. does not and never has considered Israel to have links to terrorism, but rather they are a partner in our efforts to combat global terrorism. The United States maintains close intelligence-sharing relationships with Israel in order to address security issues within its own borders and in our mutual pursuit of safety and security around the globe.”

Ah mais dis donc : ça c’est le gag qu’il est carrément excellent...

Évidemment, dans ce monde orwellien, la véritable « erreur », c’est qu’Israël et les États-Unis ne figurent pas dans la liste des pays pratiquant le terrorisme.

Le lapsus est révélateur.

Les jeunes européens, premières victimes du chômage - Google Maps

http://maps.google.fr/maps/ms?hl=fr&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=205595710421264503124.0004a404dc8dedd2acb8c&

Les jeunes européens, premières victimes du chômage
En Espagne, au Portugal, en Grèce, mais aussi en France, au Royaume-Uni, en Europe de l’Est, les taux de chômage des moins de 25 ans s’envolent. Premières victimes de la crise et des politiques d’austérité, les jeunes sont aussi les premiers à se révolter.

Réalisation : Elodie AUFFRAY et Maxime BODEREAU

Source : Eurostat

#cartographie #chômage #europe #révoltes

Un dossier sur le gourou américain de la représentation graphique, Edward Tufte

The Washington Monthly - The Magazine - The Information Sage

►http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/mayjune_2011/features/the_information_sage029137.php?page=1

The Information Sage

Meet Edward Tufte, the graphics guru to the power elite who is revolutionizing how we see data.

By Joshua Yaffa

One day in the spring of 2009, Edward Tufte, the statistician and graphic design theorist, took the train from his home in Cheshire, Connecticut, to Washington, D.C., for a meeting with a few members of the Obama administration. A few weeks earlier, he had received a phone call from Earl Devaney, a former inspector general in the Department of the Interior, who is best known for leading that agency’s investigation of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Devaney had recently been appointed head of the Recovery Act Accountability and Transparency Board, the body created by the Obama administration to keep track of the $780 billion in federal stimulus money that has spread out across the country.

#cartographie #visualisation

holmes.css - #CSS Markup Detective
http://www.red-root.com/sandbox/holmes

Holmes is stand-alone diagnostic CSS stylesheet that can highlight potentially invalid, inaccessible or erroneous HTML(5) markup by adding one class.

Judge awards $2.5 million to attorneys in Yoo case
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/24/MNV01GV67T.DTL

John Yoo’s November 2001 legal justification for a secret wiretapping program was a hit with George W. Bush’s White House but got bad reviews from other quarters, including Yoo’s successors in the Justice Department and the department’s inspector general.

Add another critic to the list: Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker in San Francisco, who awarded more than $40,000 in damages and $2.5 million in attorneys’ fees this week to a target of Bush-era.

Étrange logique :
– les écoutes téléphoniques étaient clairement illégales ;
– les plaignants touchent 40000 dollars, leurs avocats 2,5 millions (quoi ?) ;
– c’est l’avocat qui avait conseillé la Maison blanche qui est responsable ;
– la Maison blanche, elle, est dédouanée.

Comme si les « avocats » et autres nauséabonds qui ont rédigé les justifications navrantes pour la Maison blanche n’avaient pas été choisis, justement, après que les décisions politiques avaient été prises.

#Saving_Private_Bush.