My feeling is that due to many Muslim leaders engaging in a Fatwa against terrorists, we are likely to see somewhat less of that in the near future... But guess who would claim all the credit for less terror in the world?... Yes! A trio of megalithic liars who might push their luck just a little too far while celebrating with the bombing a little shrine south of Baghdad and restarting the whole process with a vengeance... Some people might be willing to sacrifice their banquet-after-life for a thread of justice as they see it from their neolithic caves... Peace be with you, mate. Identity Kontrol Kards would do nothing towards anything in this terror context, except cost people (government) about $400 each to not even be up-to-date and provide a legal can-o’-worms for those of us who barely exist. Kontrol Kard should be banned. Waste of time and money... but the little man of Fulsome City is ready to do a giant back-flip on the issue... As if there were no terrorism in the 1980s... Well there was but it was not so "front page"...

Hey Gus, how about posting this on Jack Smit's Webdiary blog?

It's terrific.

John! Please copy the text and post it... I can't do it without exposing my sources, links and secret pathways... All due to the chip that's implanted in my brains... These days being my computer... See, I have no memory of my own.... Just an artificial "intelligence" if you see what I mean, say no more.

Fresh from being given the scoop by Bush, Our Leader is supping at Blair's table of terror-control goodies.

He has his eye on this Riot control ray gun.

I dunno about you guys, but this doodad will worry me. I have to wear the foil-lined hat, or a saucepan, when outside the house, to deflect evil thoughts and DIMIA's lasers.

I can see the full truck-sized job will come in handy, to keep the crowds of citizens from storming Kirribilli. The smaller units, made by Sandia Labs, will have their uses.
 

The private and public US security services have used Riot Control Ray Guns in mamy instances for quite a few years now. These guns are called Tasers and kill about 100 people in the US every year. Check it out They are manufactured with different strenght and power distance. Commonly used by police and Armed guards...

As mentioned in the The Dismount Warrior blog, the super soldier is also due to be equipped with such device to allow it to immobilize a target of unsure status. Thus approach safely while the target is paralyzed in pain to assess whether it's an illegal enemy combatant who might get a bullet in the head as he tries to grasp his gun, an old man who would be dead from heart failure under the strain, or a woman to which the soldiers can apologize profusely.. (I used the z language here as it is the USA lingo of the matter....)

Super soldiers could come in different shapes.  Give Carlyle another ten years developing the Talon War Robot (not to mention marrying it to the unmanned air vehicle technology the company have been testing in the Outback)  and your super soldier could be remotely controlled from a bunker half a world away.

 Genetically breed human kind into an operating brain for the machine, and you end up with something not unlike Terry Nation's famous creation of the sixties, the Dalek   Howard's riot control gun would clip on quite nicely. 

It's now longer drawing a long bow to consider utilising cyborg-style interfacing to produce a form of humanity that can also live under the sea and in outer space.  Whether it will look like a human being is another matter altogether

US Supreme Court nominee Roberts' lawyer wife facilitates global satellite system projects and her firm is targeting Iraq reconstruction.

A parody of British Labour Minister, Charles Clarke’s, ID Card Proposal.

 

The Identity Card Cabaret

Thanks for the link, John.

Have you listened to the infamous 'London Underground' song  (best heard in seclusion, offense guaranteed).

Maybe the 'underground' was the real target after all!!

From the ABC

Smart card savings estimate to be released
The Federal Government says it will release a report by consulting firm KPMG, which shows the smart card for welfare payments will save at least $3 billion over 10 years.

Yesterday Health Minister Tony Abbott said it was not normal practice to release such documents and described the predicted savings as an estimate.

But Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has told Channel 7 he believes a $3 billion saving is a conservative figure.

He says he will release the KPMG calculations once commercial material is removed.

"There are parts of it that are commercially valuable to us because we are going to go out to tender," he said.

"We will excise those parts of it that we don't want to give to the commercial world and we will certainly release the details on savings, I'm happy to do that."

The Government has decided to introduce the card by 2010.

read more at the ABC

-------------------

Gus laments that the "opposition", the Labor Party with the rubber stamp for everything has done the usual bend over routine with "reservations"... knowing well that whatever they say or don't do will change bugger all to the price of fish... So the government can tenderize the card's cost and benefits without proper debate on the issue... Nor on its necessity, nor on the massive backflip by Johnnee who opposed everything when He was in opposition so He could take the credit for the heist... The number of these grow by the minute... the GST, the Kard, the whatever of the bid-angle, everything's for sale... Including an emaciated Telstra in a straight jacket...

see cartoon at head of this line of blogs

From the ABC

Foreign experts to take on smart card project
Federal Minister for Human Services Joe Hockey says overseas specialists will be brought in to help the Government tackle the "smart card" project.

The head of the smart card task force, James Kelaher, has resigned after raising concerns that a separate authority is not being set up to oversee the project.

Mr Kelaher, a smart card supporter, believes the Government should seek independent expert advice on security and privacy.

Mr Hockey says Mr Kelaher could not commit to the project for the long-term.

"The bottom line is this, that I want people committed to the duration of the project," he said.

"It's important to have people who may not have conflicts of interest, or will not have conflicts of interest, and this project is far more significant for Australia than any one individual, including the Minister."

Mr Kelaher says he resigned over his concerns about the way the billion-dollar project will be run.

He says he urged Mr Hockey to reconsider his views on how the high-tech project should proceed.

"I feel quite strongly that a project like this, that isn't set up for success for the outset, is really going to struggle and because I'm a strong believer in this project and many of our stakeholders are, I don't want to see them disappointed," he said.
------------------
Gus is not only outraged at the idea of Johnnee's Dumb Kard being floated but giving the creation and running of it to a foreign "expert" is the pits of treachery.

I suppose this latest venture into foreign expertise (English? French? US? Iraq? El Salvador?) is another one of the government "fishing expedition" to divert from the monstrosity of their creation. One, they can claim that if we do not like the foreign expert, we could use a local, shifting the debate away from that on the need or not to have the kard which was never part of the election porkies either.

But I suppose, by having a "privateer" or mercenary to eventually blame for the fizzo, the government can sit pretty... and delegate responsibility... while making our lives a misery of useless encroaching data...

So while we're stuck with the dishonesty of a government that took us to war and who is not prepared to trust us to be honest enough... Er... I mean, may be our government rulers think we're too shifty like them and thus see the necessity of a Stupido Kard to keep us a little bit more "honest"... So they can control us better. Kontrol Kard, Ausweis, whatever... what would be the rule if one does not have one on oneself? Prison? Shot on the spot? No dole so you can die in the street? No emergency hospital treatment? Rubbed out of life?...

Go to the cartoon at the head of this line of blogs... Please note the memory chip... May be if Johnnee and Clowner had had one of these, they could have remembered the AWB memos? All of them? not even two memos? come on, what about half a one...? Nothing? Bloody useless kards!

From the ABC
Minister flags business access to 'smart card' data
Federal Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has signalled that private sector companies like banks and supermarkets may be given access to information stored on the Government's "smart card".

The Government is calling for tenders from private sector organisations to advise on the implementation of the card.

It is also recruiting a senior public servant to lead the project after the former head of the task force, James Kelaher, resigned this week.

The new smart card is designed to replace a number of health and welfare cards used by Australians to access government services.

Mr Hockey will not rule out giving the private sector access to people's personal information stored on the card.

"So a blanket policy saying that the private sector can have no access to the card, or a blanket policy saying that only certain government agencies can have access, or a blanket policy saying that individuals can or cannot change the information, I think is crazy at this particular point of time," he said.

---------

Gus knows who's crazy...

Yes Gus ... it's card fraud.

from joe bryant
….. 

THE
ID-CARD BLUFF GETS ANOTHER RUN.          

Will you fall for it this time? 

Do you
recall when Hawk’s Labour Government tried the Australia Card trick and
eventually it was abandoned, supposedly because some bureaucrat found a problem
with it? 

The Liberals
then were opposed to the idea of an “Australia Card” and the Liberal mouthpiece
was Alan Jones. 

Alan Jones
was chosen by a man named Mr Simon Davies, to head up a coalition against the
“Australia Card” 

The
coalition met at the Gazebo Hotel in Kings Cross when the campaigned opened.  

I was the
Small Business representative on this coalition.  

The
coalition chaired by Alan Jones, was all about informing the general public
about the proposed ID Card.  The
Australian Small Business Association (ASBA), one of two creditable small
business associations at the time on which I was a State Councillor, put in a
lot of effort independently of the “Jones’ ” coalition, under the management of
Mr Ian Johnstone. 

I was also
an Alderman (now called Councillor) on Blacktown City Council at the time and a
Council election came up.  On my own
initiative, I organised a petition against the Australia Card, to be made
available for signature outside polling booths across Sydney and some in
country NSW Local Government areas, with the help of a lot of independent
Council candidates.  The petitions were
printed and most delivered to the independent candidates who had organised a
suitably staffed table which was to be placed outside every polling booth in
their local government areas. 

Previous
attempt to introduce ID card abandoned: 

A strange
thing happened on the Wednesday before the Saturday Council Election day. The
Hawk Government announced that it had abandoned the idea of an “Australia Card”
due to, until then, an unknown bureaucrat having found a flaw in the proposal,
which meant that it would not stand up to a High Court challenge. 

With this
announcement all the independents, excluding myself, abandoned the idea
of the petition. 

Their
reason being, they needed as many people as they could muster handing out their
How to Vote papers, and most were relieved not to have to continue with the
petition-signing project. However, I stuck to the plan and continued with the
manned petition signing tables at all the polling booths in my area. 

I needed
to know public reaction and was subsequently surprised at the response. At the
end of the day 96% of the people who voted on the day signed the petition, many
making comments, such as  “I realise the ID card is dead in the water,
but we cannot trust them, so yes I will sign”.  This electorate is the strongest Labor electorate in Australia in
a Federal Election, the Labor candidate commands 70% of the first preference
vote. 

Just a
coincidence?

Do you
think that the government’s decision to abandon the Australia Card idea just
three days before the petition was due to be signed, was a coincidence? Or was
it that Labor did not wish to face the embarrassment of a 96% rejection across
the majority of the NSW electorate?  A
result their pollsters would be recording! There is no doubt that the publicity
that Alan Jones attracted to the issue resulted in a better-informed
electorate.  From my on-the-day
experience, it was clear that most people rejected the idea of an ID Card. 

What has changed
since the mid 1980s?   

It is true
that over the past 20 years government, with the willing assistance of the mass
media, has ramped up the fear element, and the pretence that we need an ID Card
to make us all a lot safer, when it clearly will not - in fact the opposite is
closer to the truth.  

The
proposal is to store all our personal details on a “smart card”, an ID card
with a computer chip that can be read and updated every time you make a
transaction, making your personal details available to the bureaucrat living
next door or just down the road from you, available also to any computer-smart
hacker capable of accessing the government database or reading the data on your
“Smart ID Card”. 

What all
this discloses, is the fact that the Hawk government was running a massive
bluff, and the Howard Government is re-running the same massive bluff, hoping
to get away with it on the basis that this time the bluff will not be exposed.
Calling this bluff will not be possible just on the basis that the people are
well-informed.  The only chance of
stopping this proposal is to call their bluff and the only way to do this is
for the general public to find out that the great majority of Australians are
opposed to a “Smart ID Card”  

A massive
bluff: 

The bluff
is designed to work on the basis that the majority of Australians believe that
a majority accept the idea, such acceptance is assumed to be the case on the
basis that there has not been an open, accessible, concerted effort made to
oppose and defeat the idea.  

Put
another way, we are being conditioned to believe that even though most people
we talk to are opposed to it, that the majority are in favour, and providing
that we have no way of finding out what the majority want we accept the
government’s position, that is the majority are in favour. The perfect
government con game.  

The bluff
can only be called by exposing it for what it is. Exposure requires proof that
the people do not want a “Smart ID Card”. Exposure requires clear,
incontestable proof, that the people reject the idea of a “Smart ID Card” and
the only way to obtain that clear proof is to provide an opportunity for the
electorate to say so.  A referendum
would be one way to obtain the electorates opinion, but government is not about
to hold one, because it is well aware of the outcome.  A petition is the next best thing, as I used against the
Australia Card 20 years ago.  

Some of
the objections:  

Non
thinking Aussie will say I have nothing to hide; I have no problem with a
“Smart ID Card” that records my movements and transaction from the day I get
it, until the day I die.  

This is
not only a naive but also a dangerous attitude because governments have a
penchant to accrue power at the expense of the liberties of individual
citizens. National identification features prominently in the police state
designs of totalitarian state, a concept which any student of history will be
familiar with, that is, the empowering of the police force with a vast network
of surveillance and encouraging informants to spy on citizens; national
identification cards for all citizens; civilian disarmament via gun
registration, licensing, followed by banning and confiscation of firearms, all
procedures historically implemented by governments prior to the public
realisation of an emerging police state enforced oppressive, totalitarian
system of government. 

Apart from
the obvious there is the very real possibility of upsetting a bureaucrat or
two, or a neighbour with a computer-smart friend, during a person’s lifetime.
Do you wish for the people you may upset during
your lifetime to have access to all your
private details such as your medical record, the medications you take, your
level of education, how many times you have been married, bought a car, got the
sack, defaulted on a financial commitment, were in court, did time, borrowed a
book, or where you bank? Such details are just part of a long list of private
matters that will become available to whoever is interested. 

Then there
is the clear possibility of ID card theft and fraud. Fraud is already rampant
with credit cards, passports and drivers licence. Which not only raises the
possibility of you being ripped off, but of you being seen to have booked into
a motel, or visited a doctor, or flew to Iran, and a whole gambit of things
that you may not have done - but your ID Card may say you did. Will officials
believe you and reject the information stored on the ID Card?   Then there is always the possibility of
losing your ID card.  How long will you
be a non-citizen and what will you be put through to obtain a replacement card? 

Even the
most naive of us will realise that when a powerful official (such as a
policeman) is upset with you he can “lose” your ID Card, then say you never
produced it and where would you be then? 
Without it you are suddenly a non-citizen, a possible terrorist, totally
without rights, with the possibility of a mandatory, week or two or more, in
prison. Under recently passed so-called Anti-Terror laws, it is an offence to
notify anybody, including your family, as to your whereabouts. How will a Smart
ID Card protect you against somebody intent on doing you damage?   

Will an ID
card protect you from being bashed in the street, shot in your bed, caught in a
terrorist attack?  No it will not.  All an ID card will do is make all your
private details available to officials at the post office, the bank, the
library, the police station, the court, the tax man, the social security
officer, the school teacher, and an endless list of other officials.  You will gain nothing - but you will lose
your privacy and your security as an individual. 

National
ID card by stealth: 

Surely the
proposed “Smart ID Card” is nothing more than an attempt to introduce a
national ID card by stealth, at first seemingly innocuous, later strengthened using
incremental steps. The strategy to bring in a smart ID card should be viewed as
the thin edge of the wedge, to introduce a total ID card, where at a future
date it may even be required to purchase food and other life supporting requirements. 

Arguments
for a limited ID Card can be put forth, such as curtailing social security
fraud. However, an “ID Card” to do this job only needs to be a card produced by
social security, similar to a divers licence, to be used when applying for or
collecting social security. Pensioners already have such a card, and there is
no need for that to be a “Smart Card” so why not a similar card for people on
the dole? 

If this
“Smart ID Card” becomes a reality, there is nothing to stop all potential
terrorists having one. Will having a an “Smart ID Card” make people safer, will
it protect you from a terrorist?.  Would
having an ID Card have protected the 35 people murdered in the Port Arthur
tragedy?   Could those who were murdered
have avoided this fate by jumping up and producing their ID Card?  Would the increasing number of people
murdered on our streets be safe if they flashed their ID Card? Would the taxi
driver be safe if he has a “Smart ID Card” in his wallet? 

One of
Australia’s growing problems is vote-fraud and it could be argued that an ID
card could be produced at the time of voting. One of Australia’s growing
problems is vote-fraud and it could be argued that an ID card could be produced
at the time of voting. The very fact that all voters need to identify
themselves before voting would prevent multiple voting, and in an odd case
where it did not it would possible during computerised roll check lists
presently carried out to identify anybody that voted more than once, something
that is not possible under the present system of identification, which consists
of stating/confirming the voters name and address. 

The
winding garden path: 

Are we in
Australia being led down the path of others who lost their lives to governments
with ID papers?  Oppressive regimes love
ID cards?  Will someone someday knock on
your door and bundle you off to a detention centre of some type based on the
information on your ID Card?   

The
chances are becoming greater as each day passes. 

Hypothetically,
the year is 2015. Bob Brown is the PM. 
At some time in the past you have been before a court for cutting down a
tree (that was about to fall on your dwelling), without permission, all
recorded on your “Smart ID Card”. Will the green hats knock on your door in the
middle of the night, and bundle you off for re-education? 

The only
case I can see for an ID card is similar to other ID cards already in use such
as your Medicare card that deals solely with payment for medical procedures,
and is not cross referenced (if we can trust the government) with other
activities of the individual card holder. 

Frankly,
Australians need a “Smart ID card” like they need a whole in the head. The
government doesn’t need more ways to check up on people. Recent tendencies for government
secrecy, justified or not, and recent tightening up sedition laws all send out
a message to the citizen, that the time has arrived to be extremely wary and
jealously guard what little freedoms we have left. 

There is
no doubt in my mind that the Hawk government would have proceeded with the
Australia Card proposal as a result of people being generally lulled into the
mistaken belief that the majority favoured its introduction, and on that basis
it would be accepted by the majority.  The
petition had the potential to prove otherwise, created a situation where
government not wanting to be identified as the deceivers they are cancelled
their Australia Card proposal. We called their bluff and they save face by
abandoning the proposal a few days before the petitions were due to be signed.  

Exactly
the same bluff is again on the government agenda.  Are you going to fall for it this time? 

Refused to
be bulldozed into accepting the proposed, “Smart ID Card”.  The proposal is that we apply for the card,
so if the worst comes to the worst and government implements the Smart ID Card,
simply decline to apply for it, and it will also be dead in the water with its
predecessor the Australia Card. 

The bottom
line is we make the effort, man petition tables, or fall for the bluff and risk
losing all. 

©Joe
Bryant. April 2006. Permission to reproduce in full or in part providing full
credit to author is shown.

From the New York Times

Personal Data of 26.5 Million Veterans Stolen

By DAVID STOUT
Published: May 22, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 22 — Personal electronic data on up to 26.5 million military veterans, including their Social Security numbers and birth dates, was stolen from the home of a Department of Veterans Affairs employee who had taken the information without authorization, the agency said today.

The department said there was no evidence that any data had been used illegally, and that whoever stole it during a burglary of the employee's home might be unaware of the nature of the information or how to use it. The stolen data does not include any health records or financial information, the agency said.

But it was immediately clear from the sheer numbers involved, as well as the tone of the department's announcement and the steps it has taken since the theft was uncovered, that the information breach has the potential to be deeply embarrassing to the agency and will be very costly.

"As a result of this incident, information identifiable with you was potentially exposed to others," R. James Nicholson, the secretary of veterans affairs, wrote in a letter being sent to the veterans who may be affected. Matt Burns, a department spokesman, said the data involves veterans from all the services who were discharged from about 1975 onward.

Mr. Burns said he could not comment on the motive of the employee who took the information home, and what form it was in. But Congressional sources who have been briefed on the episode said he was a mid-level career employee who lives in Maryland, and that the data was on discs.

Whether the incident is called a security breach or identity theft, it appeared to be one of the biggest of the computer age, according to records kept by the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse.

read more at the New York Times
---------------------

Gus : Kontrol Kards as safe as the nexk leak or sekurity Kerfuffle... See Kartoon at the head of this line of bloks... 26.5 millions identities... that's more than the entire population of Australia and New Zealand... inkluding kids!

From BOOK REVIEW : This time the crocodile won't wait ;Londonistan by Melanie Phillips: 

.... The British establishment may have recoiled in horror from the prospect of religious war precisely because it has sufficient institutional memory to know just what such wars entail. Religious war, however, is precisely what it will have, on the worst possible terms, and with an extensive fifth column in place.

Successful manipulation of religious conflict is a lost art. Cardinal Richelieu and his successor Jules Mazarin kept the Thirty Years' War aflame in Germany by subsidizing new entrants into the fray, notably Sweden's Gustavus Adolphus (King Gustavus II), deploying French forces when proxies were not available.

The carnage claimed the lives of more than half of the German speakers and left France the dominant power in continental Europe until 1870. On a smaller scale, Britain played such divide-and-conquer games throughout its imperial history, most obviously by transplanting Scottish Protestants to Northern Ireland. Some in India read malice aforethought into the 1947 partition of the sub-continent. Britain no longer has malefactors with the iron stomach and broad culture of a T E Lawrence or a Sir Richard Burton to undertake such projects. ... 

... or a Dick Cheney.

 

Another grand urban plan is afoot. From $4bn plan to send trains underground: 

... If successful, it could become a model for other subways and the creation of "linear suburbs" above them. ...

Very attractive. More and more services, more and more people underground for longer. Access points controlled to screen swarthy students carrying backpacks. Very attractive for the likes of Halliburton, and prospective denizens of gated communities. Very, very expensive, too, but the added carrot of Ronnie Reagan's umbrella overhead.

From U.S. Is Proposing European Shield for Iran Missiles:

... The establishment of an antimissile base in Eastern Europe would have enormous political implications. The deployment of interceptors in Poland, for example, would create the first permanent American military presence on that nation's soil and further solidify the close ties between the defense establishments of the two nations. ...

What about the threat of DPRK's missiles, to Adelaide, asks The Lord High Archdowner?

 

While waiting for the application for my identity implant to be approved, I reflect on the theft of 26.5 million electronic records, commisserate with Brigadier Cosson over the loss of one, and suggest we put Brendan Nelson on the job of locating the "lost" records:

... Dr Nelson said he was told that locating the disk would involve talking to taxi companies ...

 

The last word to Cardinal Richelieu (him, again!?) as quoted by Bruce Schneier:

... Cardinal Richelieu understood the value of surveillance when he famously said, "If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged." Watch someone long enough, and you'll find something to arrest -- or just blackmail -- with. Privacy is important because without it, surveillance information will be abused: to peep, to sell to marketers and to spy on political enemies -- whoever they happen to be at the time. ...

Anything to declare, Brendan?

 

From the blog above... DPKR "Rissoles"
Extract from a speech by our own Mr Clowner

""""The threat of proliferation

Ladies and gentlemen.

The Government is deeply concerned by the threat from the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. The threat is real; it exists now, not just in some theorist's apocalyptic vision of the future. Moreover, so sophisticated and widespread is this threat that we must confront it directly - with action, not merely talk of action. This has been and - as I will reveal - will continue to be the focus of the Government's approach.""""

Allow Gus to take over:
The biggest threat of weapons of mass destruction is not a few vials of anthrax for which we can manufacture vaccines, not just a few drums of poison gas for which we can manufacture decent masks... but the biggest threat is nuclear weapons

And this is why our lunatic government is going to sell more uranium like hot cakes to everyone and sundry who signs a bit of paper that states our bit will be used for peaceful purpose only... And this is why every time we sell a ton of uranium, a lot of it will mutate to plutonium for which there is no other usage than to make fast breeder reactors and bombs, the result of which is to produce more plutonium with which to make bigger bombs... Welcome to stupid politics and sneaky speeches by our clowns in Canberra.

From the ABC

Future doctors 'asked views on gay marriage'
The president of the Australian Society of Anaesthetists says part of the selection process for recruiting the nation's future doctors is discriminatory.

Dr Greg Deacon has raised concerns about some universities, including the University of New South Wales, asking candidates about their parents' occupations as well as the candidates' views on the Iraq war and gay marriages.

Dr Deacon has accused some medical faculties of attempting to socially engineer their intakes through "personality assessments".

He says he has heard concerns from both sides of the interview panel and strongly believes some of the questions are inappropriate.

"We want to get clearly the most objective and the fairest system we can in selecting medical students," he said.

"And certain questions that are being asked I don't think are permissible in this day and age.

"It's concerning because we want all of the candidates to certainly feel they're getting treated equally and fairly and everyone has got the same chance of selection."

read more at the ABC

from the ABC

Minister omits costs from smartcard report
Detailed costings for the Federal Government's "smartcard" have been edited out of a report released by the Human Services Minister, Joe Hockey.

The Opposition says the Government has broken its promise to release the report in full.

Consulting firm KPMG advised the Government to introduce the photo-ID smartcard for accessing health and welfare payments from 2010.

Mr Hockey has released that advice partially; the report says the card would reduce fraud, but also raises privacy issues.

The Opposition says the KPMG report has been heavily edited, as it does not give details of the predicted $3 billion in savings, and does not say how much the card will cost to implement.

Labor says a Privacy Impact Assessment has also been withheld.

The Minister says the report contains some commercially sensitive information which could impact on future tenders for the card.

Labor says the Minister has broken a promise to introduce the card in an open and transparent manner.

read more at the ABC

From the NYT...

Democrats Blast Administration Over Data Theft

By DAVID STOUT
Published: June 7, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 7 — Democrats accused the Bush administration of incompetence today, after it became known that the recent theft of computer data from the Department of Veterans Affairs included private data about far more active-duty military people than was originally thought.

"At some point, this administration has got to stop saying we'll hire or appoint political cronies, but we'll actually appoint somebody who knows how to make the government work," said Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont. He said the department's troubles show the need for data-security legislation.

Senator Patty Murray of Washington, who joined Senators Leahy and Jack Reed of Rhode Island at a Capitol Hill news conference, said the data theft was undermining faith in the veterans agency. "Can you imagine being a young woman with a couple of children, your spouse is overseas in Iraq, and now you find out that your address has been stolen and your personal safety is at risk?" Ms. Murray said.

Mr. Reed said the mishandling of so much data could threaten national security as well as personal security and was another example of "incompetence at the highest level of the administration."

read more at the NYT

--------------------

"incompetence at the highest level of the administration."????
We've already mentioned this item of data-theft in the US (see Kontrol rekord kaklunk), especially in regard to the Kontrol Kard our little grocer is dreaming at night for us, when he is not devising ways to make us glow in the dark or buy what we already own...

As we can see, day after day ...
"""""""" from the new york times Inquiry Ties European Nations to C.I.A. Prisons
By DAN BILEFSKY International Herald Tribune
Published: June 7, 2006
BRUSSELS, June 7 — Fourteen European countries acted willingly or indirectly with the Central Intelligence Agency in the secret transfer of terrorism suspects, and two of them — Romania and Poland — probably harbored secret C.I.A. detention centers, according to a report from the Council of Europe issued today.)""""""""

... privacy becomes irrelevant if the state decides to fiddle with your privates... and send you on a free trip with rendition... But then we are fodder, aren't we?

So, as long as we are good dogs attached to the kennel, and plop in the designated places we have nothing to fear from the turd inspectors...

Sorry.

details from the Council of Europe rendition & torture report as follows (note "aussie tony's" contribution) ....

‘The full extent of European collusion with the CIA during
operations to abduct terrorism suspects and fly them to countries where they
may be tortured is laid bare today by the continent's most authoritative human
rights body (see Council of Europe report). 

Several states have allowed the
agency to snatch their own residents, others have offered extensive logistical
support, while many have turned a blind eye, according to the Council of
Europe. 

The UK stands accused of not only
allowing the use of British airspace and airports, but of providing information
that was used during the torture of one suspect. The report adds that there is
strong evidence to suspect two European states, Poland and Romania, of
permitting the CIA to operate secret prisons on their soil, despite official
denials.’ 

From Logistics To
Turning A Blind Eye: Europe's Role In Terror Abductions

The theft of the computer is much more to do with an individual's lack of insight into consequences. The employers must, however, be aware of the potential for human failure. If they gave him a portable computer to work at home, they should have kept watch on his use of it.

When the thief became aware of the value of the stored data, he may have had the wit to clone the drive, then arrange for the device to be 'found', intact! What a relief that would be.

ABC's 7.30 Report June 7th had a report on Joe Hockey's Access Card, Smart card debate continues immediately followed by story of a person who has been making a career of stealing people's identities to get at their bank accounts, Most-wanted woman taunts police. 

Nicely progammed! 

... JOE HOCKEY: This will be a one-stop shop where you can go and change your information and then that change of information is authoritative for Centrelink and Medicare and range of other Government organisations. ...

... JOE HOCKEY: Well the first point is, you know, a national ID card has displayed on the front of it your name, your address, your date of birth, your photo and maybe your religious background, maybe your ethnic background and a range of other details. That's a trend for ID cards around the world. Secondly, ID cards are by law required to be carried at all times. ...

The previous URL for his "access" card was  www.humanservices.gov.au/idc.htm - Click on Cached to see the page as it was. 

... JOE HOCKEY: Well, at the end of the day, it's each Australian who owns the data on the card because they're the ones that provide us with that information. ...

Doubletalk! Hockey knows his department has been lobbied to "own" the data, because it is valuable to commerce. The software vendors will not come to the party unless there is some guarantee they will be given rights of ownership to the data. For Hockey to babble on about "they're the ones that give us a face for the photo" is duplicitious and obscurantist. Step forward for the Stalin award, Joe!

The risk of fraud, or worse, due to mishandling of personal data, spreads across the whole spectrum of 'service' agencies. Security consciousness thinks about the possibility of loss, before letting a geek walk home, every night, with an entire database in his satchel.  When public agencies have been gutted of expertise, by privatising governments, mistakes happen. Managers who want a quiet life, and a salary bonus, do not hire employees who may ask difficult questions. The Kevin Mitnicks of the world find that setting very cosy.

From Social Engineering Using USB Drives at Slashdot:

This is going to be a hard one to stop. Humans are curious, when you find a cd, hard drive, thumb drive, the first thing your going to want to do is stick it in your computer and find out what juicy secrets are on it.

From the ABC

615 passport applications lost in the mail
Australia Post has launched an investigation into the disappearance of more than 600 Australian passport applications.

The documents went missing en route to the passport office in Sydney.

The 615 applications were made to post offices in the Sydney metropolitan and central coast areas of New South Wales on June 9.

They were misplaced after being put into three or four mail trays.

Australia Post has launched a high-level investigation into the matter.

It has apologised to the customers concerned and has offered to reimburse them for the extra cost involved in preparing a new application.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Sydney passport office are trying to contact the affected people.

They have offered to speed up the process for the additional passport applications.

-----------------

Security is fantastic... considering that conveniently released report:

"Al Qaeda planned Australian attacks: report
A report by the United States Department of Homeland Security says Al Qaeda had plans to hijack planes and fly them into buildings around the world, including in Australia.

The attacks were supposed to take place in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.

Details of the report, which was dated June 16 this year and marked unclassified, have been broadcast on the American network, ABC.

The report has also been sighted by journalists at the BBC."
------------------------

Since, "Saddam has WMDs" also came from the same line of information, Gus has no idea about the truth or the fudge in here ...

-----------------------
But according to the ABC :

"The possibility of such a plot has previously been reported but never officially confirmed.

The report also says in another plot in the summer of 2003 Al Qaeda planned to use cameras to hide bombs and take on stun guns disguised as flash attachments.

The hijackers considering those tactics were to crash planes into targets in Australia, Britain, Italy and the US.

The report does not say how the plot was foiled..."
--------------------

Anyone at the CIA or ASIO can write such report without an ounce of evidence in it since one can assume with probabilities, etc...
But Australia Post cannot assume where the passports have gone...

In SMH editorial a couple days back, Ticket captured by flawed automation:

... The Sydney scheme's complexity is what has slowed progress, and bogged it in legal wrangling. The smartcard is being asked to marry a number of separate ticketing systems - for buses, trains, light rail and ferries, public and private. In all, it means the system must cope with more than 70 different types of fares. Clearly what is needed is a simpler fare scheme to replace the present complexity. But that should be introduced before the smartcard. As things stand, Sydney commuters will have to wait until an unnecessarily difficult problem is solved. ...

Why don't they wait till Joe Hockey has got his health/social/welfare card running, then simply park the travel-card on its tail? Or is there a not-so-subtle message there?

From the NYT

Bank Data Sifted in Secret by U.S. to Block Terror

By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN
Published: June 23, 2006
WASHINGTON, June 22 — Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.
______________________

Mostly sifting through the quick sands of debt should they come to Gustashian Krakovitch Leonisky accounts in Uberblokistan... and no need for counter-terrorism there, just a bit of yellow laughter to a minute amount of sedition in cyberspace... Did I mention most clever terrorists would pay cash?

From the ABC

Smart card could access Govt payments through ATMs: Hockey
The Human Services Minister Joe Hockey has released more details about the Federal Government's controversial smart card proposal.

Mr Hockey says he wants Australians to be able to access Government payments using the card in automatic teller machines (ATMs) and through EFTPOS.

The $1.1 billion card will replace 17 existing health and welfare cards and could be rolled out from 2008.

Mr Hockey has told a conference in Sydney he also wants to debunk the theory that the smart card would intrude on the privacy of ordinary Australians.

"It is the replacement of a magnetic strip with a chip. That enhances my privacy rather than reduces my privacy because the magnetic strip is notoriously unreliable from a security perspective," he said.

Mr Hockey says the Government will legislate to ensure privacy is protected.

"And I praise those people who are prepared to publicly speak out to disabuse the debate about the incursions, suggested incursions into privacy, that somehow this is another Australia card because this is far, far from it," he said.

"It is an enhancement of privacy."

-------------------

"A smart Kard , an enhancement on privacy...?" Good lord, The minister's good... really good... He should stand at a street corner selling counterfeit watches...

From the New York Times...

Consultant Breached FBI's Computers
Frustrated by Bureaucracy, Hacker Says Agents Approved and Aided Break-Ins
By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 6, 2006; Page A05

A government consultant, using computer programs easily found on the Internet, managed to crack the FBI's classified computer system and gain the passwords of 38,000 employees, including that of FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

The break-ins, which occurred four times in 2004, gave the consultant access to records in the Witness Protection Program and details on counterespionage activity, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Washington. As a direct result, the bureau said it was forced to temporarily shut down its network and commit thousands of man-hours and millions of dollars to ensure no sensitive information was lost or misused.

The government does not allege that the consultant, Joseph Thomas Colon, intended to harm national security. But prosecutors said Colon's "curiosity hacks" nonetheless exposed sensitive information.

Colon, 28, an employee of BAE Systems who was assigned to the FBI field office in Springfield, Ill., said in court filings that he used the passwords and other information to bypass bureaucratic obstacles and better help the FBI install its new computer system. And he said agents in the Springfield office approved his actions.

--------------------

Springfield...? Isn't that the home of Homer or the Simpsons? Yeah... One wonders why the FBI has an office there...

And you hoped the privacy of your privates was private... Sure, someone forgot to draw the curtains or opened them wide as you undressed...

From the Guardian

Cracked it!

Three million Britons have been issued with the new hi-tech passport, designed to frustrate terrorists and fraudsters. So why did Steve Boggan and a friendly computer expert find it [http://www.guardian.co.uk/idcards/story/0,,1950226,00.html|so easy to break] the security codes?
----------------
Gus: see cartoon a the head of this line of blogs and refresh with the rest — as slowly but surely our masters are working overtly and covertly to drive us towards the corral...

From our ABC

Smart card laws in Parliament

Legislation giving the green light to the Government's proposed smart card has been introduced to Parliament.

The new Human Services Minister Ian Campbell says the legislation is designed to replace the Medicare card and will help prevent the system being defrauded.

But a number of Coalition MPs still have concerns that it could become a national identity card.

Bronwyn Bishop has asked whether the accumulation of so much information could have assisted Hitler in his appalling polices.

"Although the legislation says you may not be obliged to carry the card and produce it when asked for it, it's only a line in an act of parliament and a future government of whatever persuasion could change that and make it an identity card," she said.

-----------------

Gus: see my own dumbKard at top of this line of blogs. 

 

"I'm old, I'm not obsolete," looks to be one of the catch-phrases that'll emerge from Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest outing in the Terminator movie franchise, Genisys.​

It neatly summarises both the film's plot and the real world challenges facing a 67-year-old movie star – in fact, any ageing human being. "Retro" may be in vogue for everything from clothing to furniture and body hair but when it comes to actual people? Not so much.

Which is kinda funny because oldness is everywhere demographically and bodies such as the Human Rights Commission and Department of Employment are all furiously promoting the wisdom of mature Australians through campaigns like the Power of Oldness and Restart Wage Subsidy.

Sam de Brito: 'So often, progress seems a synonym for discarding the old.'

Maybe things are changing? Lately, I've noticed a trend in the hipper cafes and bars in my hood, something I call "greyters" – grey-haired waiters – or folks in the their 50s and sometimes 60s, putting their hard-won people skills and patience to use in some of the busiest establishments in the city. 

As one cafe owner said to me: "I know they're not going to call in sick at 6am on a Sunday because they've been pilling all night. The oldies turn up for work." They also understand the concept of a job well done, is its own reward – and they won't be texting while doing it.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/invasion-of-the-old-people-20150612-ghjl44.html#ixzz3czEnxVYS


That's okay... there there... Most old people like me don't know how to text on a phone that has more multifunctions than a Swiss army-knife... Now, we old foggies know how to use one of those, though we can't take them on planes anymore to play with...
Serving people in restaurants? My old back would not last five minutes from politely bending over because I am a bit hard of hearing and one needs to show respect to the patronage, and I would tell the young chef to f@#$ &&f, because I know cooking better than he does... But that's me, I maintain my energy level with rage... Makes the blood go faster, otherwise it could go sluggish and we would die. Punctuality? Excellent, always five minutes early, but I'd need a nap every ten minutes... and let's not mention the toilet breaks... If I did not need the cash, I would discard myself.... See toon at top.

 

And now they blame the Chinese for this: Kontrol rekord kaklunk

and nine years ago: Discrimination pending?