UN pulls out non-essential staff from Darfur town
06 Dec 2006 19:40:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Alaa Shahine
KHARTOUM, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations has airlifted dozens of its own and other agencies' staff out of the main Darfur town of El Fasher and said on Wednesday it was prepared for more evacuations if the already tense situation worsens.
The evacuations came a day after the African Union said rebel groups could attack El Fasher within 24 hours. It added that the AU base in the town was a possible target.
"The rationale behind the decision is the heightened security concerns we have as a result of the increased presence of the Janjaweed in the town of El Fasher and other armed groups in the area," Radhia Achouri, U.N. spokeswoman in Sudan, told Reuters by telephone.
The United Nations said 82 of the 134 non-essential staff who left El Fasher on Tuesday night were its own workers and the remainder were from other agencies.
"If the tension subsides we will go back in. If it gets worse we can pull more people out. We are prepared to take more flights today," said Dawn Blalock, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Janjaweed militia entered El Fasher on Monday and started looting the cattle market before clashing with members of the Sudan Liberation Movement's armed wing, witnesses and former rebels said.
The African Union said two SLM fighters and two militia members were killed.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06580786.htm
Bush 'Privacy Board' Just a Gag
By Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
11:45 AM Dec, 06, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The first public meeting of a Bush administration "civil liberties protection panel" had a surreal quality to it, as the five-member board refused to answer any questions from the press, and stonewalled privacy advocates and academics on key questions about domestic spying.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which met Tuesday, was created by Congress in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, but is part of the White House, which handpicked all the members. Though mandated by law in late 2004, the board was not sworn in until March 2006, due to inaction on the part of the White House and Congress.
The three-hour meeting, held at Georgetown University, quickly established that the panel would be something less than a fierce watchdog of civil liberties. Instead, members all but said they view their job as helping Americans learn to relax and love warrantless surveillance.
"The question is, how much can the board share with the public about the protections incorporated in both the development and implementation of those policies?" said Alan Raul, a Washington D.C. lawyer who serves as vice chairman. "On the public side, I believe the board can help advance national security and the rights of American by helping explain how the government safeguards U.S. personal information."
Board members were briefed on the government's NSA-run warrantless wiretapping program last week, and said they were impressed by how the program handled information collected from American citizens' private phone calls and e-mail.
But the ACLU's Caroline Fredrickson was quick to ridicule the board's response to the administration's anti-terrorism policies, charging that the panel's private meetings to date largely consisted of phone calls with government insiders and agencies.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72248-0.html?tw=wn_politics_1
y Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
15:30 PM Sep, 13, 2006
A bill radically redefining and expanding the government's ability to eavesdrop and search the houses of U.S. citizens without court approval passed a key Senate committee Wednesday, and may be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week.
By a 10-8 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB2453, the National Security Surveillance Act (.pdf), which was co-written by committee's chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) in concert with the White House.
The committee also passed two other surveillance measures, including one from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), one of the few senators to be briefed on the National Security Agency program. Feinstein's bill, which Specter co-sponsored before submitting another bill, rebuffs the administration's legal arguments and all but declares the warrantless wiretapping illegal.
In contrast, Specter's bill concedes the government's right to wiretap Americans without warrants, and allows the U.S. Attorney General to authorize, on his own, dragnet surveillance of Americans so long as the stated purpose of the surveillance is to monitor suspected terrorists or spies.
Lisa Graves, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the bill "stunning."
"The administration has taken their illegal conduct in wiretapping Americans without court orders, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Constitution, and used it as springboard to not only get FISA changed to allow the Terrorist Surveillance Program, but to actually, going forward, not give protections to Americans' privacy rights," Graves said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71778-0.html
06 Dec 2006 19:40:34 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Alaa Shahine
KHARTOUM, Dec 6 (Reuters) - The United Nations has airlifted dozens of its own and other agencies' staff out of the main Darfur town of El Fasher and said on Wednesday it was prepared for more evacuations if the already tense situation worsens.
The evacuations came a day after the African Union said rebel groups could attack El Fasher within 24 hours. It added that the AU base in the town was a possible target.
"The rationale behind the decision is the heightened security concerns we have as a result of the increased presence of the Janjaweed in the town of El Fasher and other armed groups in the area," Radhia Achouri, U.N. spokeswoman in Sudan, told Reuters by telephone.
The United Nations said 82 of the 134 non-essential staff who left El Fasher on Tuesday night were its own workers and the remainder were from other agencies.
"If the tension subsides we will go back in. If it gets worse we can pull more people out. We are prepared to take more flights today," said Dawn Blalock, spokeswoman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
The Janjaweed militia entered El Fasher on Monday and started looting the cattle market before clashing with members of the Sudan Liberation Movement's armed wing, witnesses and former rebels said.
The African Union said two SLM fighters and two militia members were killed.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L06580786.htm
Bush 'Privacy Board' Just a Gag
By Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
11:45 AM Dec, 06, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The first public meeting of a Bush administration "civil liberties protection panel" had a surreal quality to it, as the five-member board refused to answer any questions from the press, and stonewalled privacy advocates and academics on key questions about domestic spying.
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, which met Tuesday, was created by Congress in 2004 on the recommendation of the 9/11 Commission, but is part of the White House, which handpicked all the members. Though mandated by law in late 2004, the board was not sworn in until March 2006, due to inaction on the part of the White House and Congress.
The three-hour meeting, held at Georgetown University, quickly established that the panel would be something less than a fierce watchdog of civil liberties. Instead, members all but said they view their job as helping Americans learn to relax and love warrantless surveillance.
"The question is, how much can the board share with the public about the protections incorporated in both the development and implementation of those policies?" said Alan Raul, a Washington D.C. lawyer who serves as vice chairman. "On the public side, I believe the board can help advance national security and the rights of American by helping explain how the government safeguards U.S. personal information."
Board members were briefed on the government's NSA-run warrantless wiretapping program last week, and said they were impressed by how the program handled information collected from American citizens' private phone calls and e-mail.
But the ACLU's Caroline Fredrickson was quick to ridicule the board's response to the administration's anti-terrorism policies, charging that the panel's private meetings to date largely consisted of phone calls with government insiders and agencies.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72248-0.html?tw=wn_politics_1
y Ryan Singel| Also by this reporter
15:30 PM Sep, 13, 2006
A bill radically redefining and expanding the government's ability to eavesdrop and search the houses of U.S. citizens without court approval passed a key Senate committee Wednesday, and may be voted on by the full Senate as early as next week.
By a 10-8 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved SB2453, the National Security Surveillance Act (.pdf), which was co-written by committee's chairman Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) in concert with the White House.
The committee also passed two other surveillance measures, including one from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-California), one of the few senators to be briefed on the National Security Agency program. Feinstein's bill, which Specter co-sponsored before submitting another bill, rebuffs the administration's legal arguments and all but declares the warrantless wiretapping illegal.
In contrast, Specter's bill concedes the government's right to wiretap Americans without warrants, and allows the U.S. Attorney General to authorize, on his own, dragnet surveillance of Americans so long as the stated purpose of the surveillance is to monitor suspected terrorists or spies.
Lisa Graves, senior legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, called the bill "stunning."
"The administration has taken their illegal conduct in wiretapping Americans without court orders, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Constitution, and used it as springboard to not only get FISA changed to allow the Terrorist Surveillance Program, but to actually, going forward, not give protections to Americans' privacy rights," Graves said.
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,71778-0.html
Comments