City workers first to get hi-tech ID cards
By Sam Lyon, Evening Standard

Britain's first hi-tech identity cards are being issued to London workers today, the Evening Standard can reveal.

The cards, containing details of credit history, criminal records and immigration status, are being introduced to combat identity theft and illegal working.

Hundreds of staff at City banks, blue chip companies and government departments are being issued with them. Thousands more are expected to follow.

But critics condemned the scheme, which is being administered by a private-sector company, as an "unprecedented invasion of people's privacy".

Phil Booth, national coordinator of the No 2 ID campaign, said: "This is very worrying. Soon there will be no aspect of our lives which isn't sucked into the identity system."

The cards are linked to a database containing personal details gathered during a vetting process and held by private investigators Crocker Stolten. Unique identifiers such as fingerprints can also be added.

Former fraud squad officer Lionel Stolten, the man behind the London Identicheck scheme, said: "Companies need to know who is entering their buildings and that those people really are who they say they are, especially major corporations which hold sensitive information."

Most of the cards are being issued to foreign nationals, who work as contract cleaners, restaurant and mailroom staff.

Workers at Birkin Cleaning Services, whose cl ients include the Home Office and the Ministry of Defence, and MailSource UK, whose clients include Barclays, Shell, Deutsche Bank, the BBC and Channel 4, will be among the first to receive the cards.

There is already growing controversy over government plans to introduce national ID cards from 2008, to combat identity theft, organised crime and terrorism, and help stamp out benefit fraud.

The cards, which are not expected to become compulsory before 2012, will carry either fingerprints or an eye scan.

But Mr Stolten said: "I doubt the Government's plan for ID cards will include thorough searches of people's identity. It would take an army of staff."

Figures issued by Equifax, a credit rating firm leading the fight against ID fraud, suggest 31 per cent of Londoners have already been a victim.

External affairs director Neil Munroe said: "Companies are increasingly looking at more checks on people they employ. It protects the organisation."

Dear friends,

I'm writing to you now as the Government prepares to steamroller its
"Identity Cards" Bill through Parliament.  Each one of you can do
something immediately that will help in the fight against this
unnecessary, oppressive and invasive legislation.

Even the polls which the Government portray as indicating 'overwhelming
support' for ID cards clearly indicate that there are 3 to 4 million
people in Britain who are strongly opposed to ID cards.  What I would
like you to do now is quite simple.  Get as many of these people (and
others) as you can to sign NO2ID's petition before the Second Reading of
the Bill in early June.

When we tried this last year, we were hundreds strong and thousands
signed in two weeks - now we are ten thousands strong our impact should
be that much greater.

Two ways to go about this are:

1) Promote the petition on your website, blog, lists or (best of all) by
e-mail to people you know - please do not spam! A personal request to
just five friends or colleagues will take just a few minutes.  The
online petition is at http://www.no2id-petition.net/.

2) Attached to this mail is a PDF copy of our petition, a downloadable
version is available at
http://www.no2id.net/downloads/forms/NO2ID%20Petition.pdf.  Print it out
and collect as many names and addresses as you can - some supporters
have already sent in dozens gathered from their work, college, church or
pub in just a few hours.  The address to send completed sheets to is on
the bottom of the page.  Don't worry if you can't fill a sheet, send us
what you have got.

Thank you for helping us. Please act now.

Phil Booth
National Coordinator, NO2ID
www.no2id.net

11 Matters Beyond BT’s Reasonable Control
Sometimes BT may be unable to do what it has agreed because of
something beyond its reasonable control. If this happens BT is not liable to
the Customer.

BT Phone DiscTM Single User version

Phone DiscTM Single User version For use on a single PC* £36.00 +VAT (Cost for a single Disc) Or call us on 0800 833400 and select Option 2

The Phone DiscTM Single User version contains approximately 15.5 million telephone number listings across the whole of the UK (including those from other Licenced Operators and the Channel Islands).** Ideal as a source of number information, this CD offers 3 search categories, "people", "business" and "all" using sophisticated interactive searching techniques. A range of other very useful features include:

UK and International code de-coders A personal directory facility enabling most frequently required numbers to be stored separately Auto-dial facility to call a number once retrieved *** Useful numbers directory along with easy to follow help pages Free of charge technical support is available from a specialist BT Support Team A Print / export facility allows downloads of individual listings into other applications that accept tab-delimited format ( such as MS-Word, Excel or Access)

The data

The Phone DiscTM Single User version contains a national data download from the BT Directory Solutions OSIS database. New versions are produced every quarter and can be searched for 12 months following each release. Phone Disc is activated with search credits following installation, either via a dedicated website or through calling our BT Customer Support Team

Personal Data for the Taking

enator Ted Stevens wanted to know just how much the Internet had turned private lives into open books. So the senator, a Republican from Alaska and the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, instructed his staff to steal his identity.

"I regret to say they were successful," the senator reported at a hearing he held last week on data theft.

His staff, Mr. Stevens reported, had come back not just with digital breadcrumbs on the senator, but also with insights on his daughter's rental property and some of the comings and goings of his son, a student in California. "For $65 they were told they could get my Social Security number," he said.

That would not surprise 41 graduate students in a computer security course at Johns Hopkins University. With less money than that, they became mini-data-brokers themselves over the last semester.

They proved what privacy advocates have been saying for years and what Senator Stevens recently learned: all it takes to obtain reams of personal data is Internet access, a few dollars and some spare time.

Working with a strict requirement to use only legal, public sources of information, groups of three to four students set out to vacuum up not just tidbits on citizens of Baltimore, but whole databases: death records, property tax information, campaign donations, occupational license registries. They then cleaned and linked the databases they had collected, making it possible to enter a single name and generate multiple layers of information on individuals. Each group could spend no more than $50.

Although big data brokers can buy the databases they crave - from local governments as well as credit agencies, retail outlets and other sources that students would not have access to - the exercise replicated, on a small scale, the methods of such companies.

They include ChoicePoint and LexisNexis, which have been called before Congress to explain, after thieves stole consumer data from their troves, just what it is they do and whether government oversight is in order. And as concerns over data security mount, inherent conflicts between convenient access to public records and a desire for personal privacy are beginning to show. [...]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/technology/18data.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Finally some journalist has caught up withh the tip of this iceberg.

Many years ago, there was a disc you could buy that contained all the BT telephone records. Called 'The Phone Disc' you could do forbidden 'reverse lookups' with it. It was the same data and programme used by Directory Inquiries.

Now. I guarantee you that there are DVDRs floating around with linked datasets of the american population, including SSNs and data from every available public record source and all the 'stolen' Choice Point and Lexis Nexis datasets. These DVDRs are changing hands for thousands of dollars now, but it won't be long before an ISO is available on USENET.

The point we need to understand is this; the UK, being still largely paper based for all of its important records should not go down the american road, which leads only to a spectacularly fatal car crash. It must not deploy a centralized database, because such a treasure trove will be copied and sold to people. The agents of HMG are constantly loosing laptops full of secret information; all it will take is someone to loose a tower or laptop containing a mirror of the complete database, or someone to retrieve an improperly sanitized hard drive from a garbage skip and then the pandoras box is open. Forever.

The computer illiteracy of the legislators elected by 22% of the electorate is no excuse for such an ill thought out idea to be adopted here. This legislation must be rejected outright, if not, then you can fasten your seatbelts all you like, you will be ground up in that car crash if you give in and register.

As for the public services you use, its long past the time to change the name of the billed person on all your accounts....right?

[American press sources: NY Post, LA Times, Wash Post...]

Best headline, from the New York Post:
BRIT FRIES SENATORS IN OIL

Coleman said later that despite the theatrics, Galloway gave evasive answers to some questions and was unable to refute the documentary evidence collected by his investigators. He said he would send the committee's report to British authorities. [...]

Speaking to reporters after the hearing, both Coleman and the panel's top Democrat, Sen. Carl Levin of Michigan, questioned Galloway's credibility. Asked if Galloway violated his oath to tell the truth before the committee, Coleman said, "I don't know. We'll have to look over the record." [...]

After the hearing, Coleman said that "nothing was said today that at all discounted the veracity, the reliability of those documents that were affirmed by senior Iraqi officials."

Both Coleman and Carl Levin of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said it was "simply not credible" that Galloway — who described himself as a "dear friend" of Aziz, one of three Iraqi officials, according to Coleman, who selected the contract recipients — did not know that his partner and the man who funded his campaign against the war was making oil deals with Hussein.

"If in fact he lied to the committee, there will have to be consequences," Coleman said. [...]

After the hearing, Senator Coleman said that "it strains any concept of reasonableness for him to assert that he didn't know, or wouldn't answer the question, whether his named representative in Iraq was involved in trading for oil. [...]

One Republican senator, Robert Bennett of Utah, defended the philosophy behind the oil-for-food program. "The efforts on behalf of the United States to help the people of Iraq have been well-placed and should be applauded rather than attacked," [...]

From the BBC: Senator Levin later said he was "deeply troubled" that Mr Galloway had "ducked the question".

Asked his reaction to the "unusual" manner of the witness, he replied: "I was not offended by what he had to say, it was not relevant.

"The theatre, the dramatics - I was not looking at that. I had one goal and it was to make a record." [...]

And that record has already been made.

You spin me right round baby, right round.

"It was an unequal battle. Senator Coleman had Mr Galloway’s name on a list: but Mr Galloway had something more, the gift of the Glasgow gab, a love of the stage and an inexhaustible fund of self-belief."

1. 1. Stage entertainment offering a variety of short acts such as slapstick turns, song-and-dance routines, and juggling performances.
   2. A theatrical performance of this kind; a variety show.
2. A light comic play that often includes songs, pantomime, and dances.
3. A popular, often satirical song.

"...Even so, it was a REMARKABLE and compelling performance. Crooks And Liars has an incredible video of the spectacle of Galloway ripping into U.S Iraq policy aiming his remarks at Norm Coleman.

Two things on this. (1) This writer has supported the war, but reads and watches everything he can on the subject. (We realize that some on the left and right consider that treason — to read and watch everything you can — so we plead guilty on that.) (2) Galloway's statement is powerful stuff, delivered with no-holds-barred language and he seemingly makes the case that he has been correct on lots of things and HE is not having to backtrack with spinners trying to justify his earlier position...

It doesn't matter if you support or oppose the war...this is must viewing (and Crooks And Liars as usual does a great job with giving you a hefty piece of high quality video). Watch it yourself."

http://www.themoderatevoice.com/posts/1116388846.shtml

The US says it is "deeply disturbed" by reports that troops in Uzbekistan fired on unarmed civilians during a protest in the east of the country.

It called on the Uzbek government to allow the International Red Cross full access to the part of the country affected by recent protests.

Local sources say several hundred people died when troops shot at protesters in Andijan on Friday.

Uzbek President Islam Karimov blamed the unrest on Islamic extremists.

US state department spokesman Richard Boucher said that stability in Uzbekistan depended on the government addressing human rights issues and the rule of law.

Elsewhere....

Immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks, however, the Bush administration turned to Uzbekistan as a partner in fighting global terrorism. The nation, a former Soviet republic in Central Asia, granted the United States the use of a military base for fighting the Taliban across the border in Afghanistan. President Bush welcomed President Islam Karimov of Uzbekistan to the White House, and the United States has given Uzbekistan more than $500 million for border control and other security measures.

Now there is growing evidence that the United States has sent terror suspects to Uzbekistan for detention and interrogation, even as Uzbekistan's treatment of its own prisoners continues to earn it admonishments from around the world, including from the State Department.

The so-called rendition program, under which the Central Intelligence Agency transfers terrorism suspects to foreign countries to be held and interrogated, has linked the United States to other countries with poor human rights records. But the turnabout in relations with Uzbekistan is particularly sharp. Before Sept. 11, 2001, there was little high-level contact between Washington and Tashkent, the Uzbek capital, beyond the United States' criticism.
[...]
Craig Murray, a former British ambassador to Uzbekistan, said he learned during his posting to Tashkent that the CIA used Uzbekistan as a place to hold foreign terrorism suspects. During 2003 and early 2004, Mr. Murray said in an interview, "CIA flights flew to Tashkent often, usually twice a week."
[...]

Craig Murray also writes in the Guardian today.