Posts Tagged UK

UK Police Intercepting Cell Traffic

From: Threat Level

Britain’s largest police force has been using covert surveillance technology that can masquerade as a mobile phone network to intercept communications and unique IDs from phones or even transmit a signal to shut off phones remotely, according to the Guardian.

The system, made by Datong in the United Kingdom, was purchased by the London Metropolitan police, which paid $230,000 to Datong for “ICT hardware” in 2008 and 2009.

The portable device, which is the size of a suitcase, pretends to be a legitimate cell phone tower that emits a signal to dupe thousands of mobile phones in a targeted area. Authorities can then intercept SMS messages, phone calls and phone data, such as unique IMSI and IMEI identity codes that allow authorities to track phone users’ movements in real-time, without having to request location data from a mobile phone carrier.

A spokesman for the U.S. Secret Service verified to CNET that the agency has done business with Datong, but would not say what sort of technology it bought from the company.

The FBI is known to use a similar technology called Triggerfish, which also pretends to be a legitimate cell tower base station to trick mobile phones into connecting to it. The Triggerfish system, however, collects only location and other identifying information, and does not intercept phone calls, text messages, and other data.

more

, , , , , , ,

No Comments

UK: Breakdown of law and order?

No Comments

UK troops to pull out of Sangin in Helmand province

“British troops in the Sangin area of Afghanistan’s Helmand province are to be replaced by US forces, the UK’s Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said.

The UK has suffered its heaviest losses in the area, with 99 deaths since 2001.

About 1,000 Royal Marines are expected to leave and be redeployed to central Helmand by the end of 2010.

The military insists the move is a redeployment, now there are more US troops on the ground, but the Taliban are certain to portray it as a defeat.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/10533771.stm

, , ,

No Comments

New Report – Sharia Law in Britain: A Threat to One Law for All and Equal Rights

Americans can get a glimpse of the kinds of challenges an ever-growing Muslim population will present to Americans by watching carefully what is happening in the UK and Europe, where Islam is more deeply entrenched.
A new report by the human rights organization, One Law for All, has found Sharia Councils and Muslim Arbitration Tribunals to be in violation of UK law, public policy and human rights.

You can download the report, free, here:

http://www.onelawforall.org.uk/new-report-sharia-law-in-britain-a-threat-to-one-law-for-all-and-equal-rights/

Based on an 8 March 2010 Seminar on Sharia Law, research, interviews, and One Law for All case files, the report has identified a number of problem areas with Sharia Law.

The report was released at the time of a 20 June 2010 “One Law for All” rally on the issue of Sharia law.

Below are a few photos of Pro-Sharia counter-demonstrators who showed up at the rally (coming to your streets soon?).

Highlights of the rally:

Human rights activist Gita Sahgal:

“I think it is highly significant that in Britain there has been silence where there should have been condemnation. There is active support for ‘Sharia laws’ precisely because it is limited to denying women rights in the family. No hands are being cut off, so there can’t be a problem.

This campaign stands at the heart of a debate over the future of Britain. It also stands at the heart of global attempts to destroy the most basic rights, to invade liberty and to crush equality and to do this in the name of upholding and promoting human rights. We stand here today facing down forces of racism and fundamentalism as we struggle for secularism.”

Maryam Namazie:

“The fight against Sharia law is a fight against Islamism not Muslims, immigrants and people living under Sharia here or elsewhere. So it is very apt for the Islamists to hold a counter-demonstration against our rally. This is where the real battleground lies.”

MC Fariborz Pooya of the Iranian Secular Society:

“The One Law for All Campaign has brought to centre stage an important debate about the kind of society we want to live in whilst defending the rights of everyone irrespective of religion, race, nationality…; this Campaign is truly the voice of the voiceless.”

Anna Waters of One Law for All’s Legal Team:

“Any reasonable interpretation of the Human Rights Act shows us that there are certain things that it doesn’t allow – and one of the things it doesn’t allow is for a woman to have an inferior or second class status when she stands before a judge in a court of law. This is exactly what is happening…”

Gerard Phillips of the National Secular Society:

[Sharia Law is] “nothing less than an attack on human rights and on equality…It undermines our democracy. It must be opposed.”

The rally was held on 20 June to mark the killing of Neda Agha-Soltan at a protest in Tehran last year and link the fight against Sharia in the UK with that in Iran and elsewhere.

The supporters of One Law for All are non-violent warriors, working to protect those who can’t protect themselves – at a very real risk to themselves. I admire their courage. Do you think the threat of Sharia law could never happen in America? It is already happening in the UK, in Europe, and in Canada.

, , , , , ,

No Comments