http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media Without the players there can be no game. Don't play the game Sun, 14 Mar 2010 02:44:43 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Google to Shut China Search Engine Richard Waters in San Francisco and Kathrin Hille in Beijing March 12 2010 Google has drawn up detailed plans for the closure of its Chinese search engine and is now “99.9 per cent” certain to go ahead as talks over censorship with the Chinese authorities have reached an apparent impasse, according to a person familiar with the company’s thinking. In a hardening of positions on both sides, the Chinese government also on Friday threw down a direct public challenge to the US search company, with a warning that it was not prepared to compromise on internet censorship to stop Google leaving.]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/google-to-shut-china-search-engine/ The History of the Honey Trap Five lessons for would-be James Bonds and Bond girls -- and the men and women who would resist them. PHILLIP KNIGHTLEY MARCH 12, 2010 MI5 is worried about sex. In a 14-page document distributed last year to hundreds of British banks, businesses, and financial institutions, titled "The Threat from Chinese Espionage," the famed British security service described a wide-ranging Chinese effort to blackmail Western businesspeople over sexual relationships. The document, as the London Times reported in January, explicitly warns that Chinese intelligence services are trying to cultivate "long-term relationships" and have been known to "exploit vulnerabilities such as sexual relationships ... to pressurise individuals to co-operate with them." This latest report on Chinese corporate espionage tactics is only the most recent installment in a long and sordid history of spies and sex. For millennia, spymasters of all sorts have trained their spies to use the amorous arts to obtain secret information. The trade name for this type of spying is the "honey trap." And it turns out that both men and women are equally adept at setting one -- and equally vulnerable to tumbling in. Spies use sex, intelligence, and the thrill of a secret life as bait. Cleverness, training, character, and patriotism are often no defense against a well-set honey trap. And as in normal life, no planning can take into account that a romance begun in deceit might actually turn into a genuine, passionate affair. In fact, when an East German honey trap was exposed in 1997, one of the women involved refused to believe she had been deceived, even when presented with the evidence. "No, that's not true," she insisted. "He really loved me." Those who aim to perfect the art of the honey trap in the future, as well as those who seek to insulate themselves, would do well to learn from honey trap history. Of course, there are far too many stories -- too many dramas, too many rumpled bedsheets, rattled spouses, purloined letters, and ruined lives -- to do that history justice here. Yet one could begin with five famous stories and the lessons they offer for honey-trappers, and honey-trappees, everywhere.]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/the-history-of-the-honey-trap/ Australia on internet watchlist with Iran, North Korea ASHER MOSES AND ARI SHARP March 12, 2010 A top media rights watchdog has listed Australia along with Iran and North Korea in a report on countries that pose a threat of internet censorship. Paris-based media rights group Reporters Without Borders on Thursday put Australia and South Korea on its list of countries "under surveillance" in its "Internet Enemies" report. Australia was listed for the government's plan to block access to websites featuring material such as rape, drug use, bestiality and child sex abuse. Critics say the plan is a misguided measure that will harm civil liberties by blocking a broader range of content than just nasty material. Communications Minister Stephen Conroy has said he plans to introduce legislation by the end of next week that would require ISPs to block a blacklist of "refused classification" websites for all Australians.]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/australia-on-internet-watchlist-with-iran-north-korea/ European Union could ban 'Mosquito' devices because they infringe children's human rights ‘Mosquito’ devices which emit high-pitched whine to help disperse teenagers from street corners could be banned by the European Union on the grounds that they infringe children’s human rights. Christopher Hope 11 Mar 2010 A committee of MEPs voted unanimously for a Europe-wide ban on the marketing, sale and use of the Mosquito acoustic youth dispersal devices in all public places. They said the devices treat young people “as if they were unwanted birds or pests” and that their use was tantamount to degrading treatment prohibited by the European Convention on Human Rights. The committee said the devices also constituted a “disproportionate interference with the right to respect for one’s private life, including the right to respect for one’s physical integrity”. The devices could even contravene the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, in particular regarding health and safety. It sends out a powerful acoustic signal audible to almost all young people under the age of 20 years but barely noticeable to anyone over the age of 25. Teenagers exposed to this type of noise are forced to leave the immediate area.]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/european-union-could-ban-mosquito-devices-because-they-infringe-childrens-human-rights/ New Zealand's internet filter goes live ROB O'NEILL 11/03/2010 The Department of Internal Affairs' (DIA) internet filter is now operational and is being used by internet providers (ISPs) Maxnet and Watchdog. Thomas Beagle, spokesperson for online freedom lobby Tech Liberty says he's "very disappointed that the filter is now running, it's a sad day for the New Zealand internet". He told Computerworld the filter went live on February 1 but DIA has delayed announcing that until it held a meeting with its Independent Reference Group. He says he's disappointed the launch was conducted in such a "stealthy mode". The manager of the Department of Internal Affairs' Censorship Compliance Unit, Steve O'Brien, denies any subterfuge in the launch, saying the trial has been going on for two years and that has been communicated to media for "quite some time".]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/new-zealands-internet-filter-goes-live/ Afghans ask US court: “Why are we in prison?” 12 March, 2010, 22:52 Four Afghan prisoners in the most notorious detention center, Bagram, have turned to a US court for help. They claim ignorance as to why they are being held. The American Civil Liberties Union took on their cases, and Jonathan Manes from the ACLU explains why a Washington court should intervene in the situation. “Like many people of Bagram, they have been held for more than a year, and two of our clients have been held for almost two years. We’ve talked to their family, we’ve talked to anyone we can get a hold of, and nobody has any idea of why they are being held. They have not been told as far as we know,” Manes told RT. “I should say that this is not a first case – other Bagram detainees have brought their cases to the court,” he added. “And the federal court in the District of Columbia has held that at least some of them have the right to go to federal court to challenge their detention and to have a judge the United States review why they are lawfully held.”]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/afghans-ask-us-court-%e2%80%9cwhy-are-we-in-prison%e2%80%9d/ An Excuse Is Finally Found To Blame The Underwear Bomber on the Internet Tony Romm 03/11/10 The Internet allowed extremists to contact, recruit, train and equip the suspect responsible for the attempted Flight 253 bombing on Christmas Day "within weeks," a top Pentagon official told lawmakers Wednesday. That relatively brief timeframe only speaks to how quickly extremist groups have "optimized" the Web and developed a "highly evolved" process by which to develop terrorist networks, added Garry Reid, deputy assistant secretary of Defense for Special Operations and Combating Terrorism.]]> http://gangstalkingworld.com/Media/2010/03/an-excuse-is-finally-found-to-blame-the-underwear-bomber-on-the-internet/