Nexus - 0706 - New Times Magazine-pages

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... GLPBAL NEWS ... NEWS lessly transmitted to the ground station and made available on Web-enabled desktop, laptop or wireless devices. Research chief Dr Peter Zhou is passion- ately enthusiastic about the device. "Digital Angel will be a connection from yourself to the electronic world. It will be your guardian, protector. It will bring good things to you. We will be a hybrid of electronic intelligence and our own soul." (Sources: ADS press release, 31 July 2000, www.digitalangel.net; WorldNetDaily, 13 August 2000, www.worldnetdaily.com/) population movements". Documents which would have been sup- pressed under the new controls include minutes of a meeting of paramilitary police from Spain, Portugal, France and Italy in January, at which they discussed the cre- ation of a "European security and investi- gation force" as a "tool" at the disposal of the EU and NATO. (Source: By Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian, 31 August 2000, website www.guardian.co.uk) software that give a fix to within 50 metres of their actual position. Newer mobile phone technologies such as the General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications Services (UMTS) have even more accurate locating systems built in. GPRS services are due to become widely available later this year, and UMTS telephone networks are due to be switched on in 2002. But Caspar Bowden, director of the Foundation for Information Policy Research, warns that the newly passed Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act could allow for the data to be used for a more sinister purpose. He says the RIP Act regards the information used to locate phones as "communications data" and that police do not need a warrant to obtain it. The police could thus use this information to conduct covert surveillance of anyone using such a phone. (Source: By Mark Ward, BBC News Online, 14 August 2000, http://news.bbc.co.uk/ hi/english/sci/tech/) THE SPY IN YOUR POCKET lhe next generation of mobile phones will make it much easier for the police to carry out covert surveillance of citizens, say UK civil liberties campaigners. They warn that the combination of location-revealing technology built into the phones and rights given to the police under the UK Regulation of Investigatory Powers (RIP) Act means that the owners of such phones can and will be watched. They are now advising people that using one of the new phones might make it hard for them to maintain their privacy. In recognition of the implications, phone companies are working on ways to allow clients to conceal where they are at the touch of a button. Although existing GSM handsets can be used as location devices, they typically only give a fix to within a couple of hun- dred metres. This accuracy can be improved if handsets are fitted with special NEW EUROPEAN SECRECY CODE BECOMES LAW weeping new controls on information, including details of a proposed new European paramilitary police force, have been approved by European Union (EU) governments. The new EU secrecy code was agreed earlier in August by "written procedure", preventing any debate by the European Parliament. It became part of EU law on 23 August. The code was drawn up in secret by EU security supremo Javier Solana, who is also Secretary-General of the EU Council of Ministers, in coopera- tion with his successor as NATO Secretary-General, Lord Robertson. The controls were rushed through despite opposition from the European Ombudsman, Jacob Soderman, who warned that the code could be applied to policy areas presently open to public scrutiny. Under the Solana plan, all classified documents relating to "security and defence of the Union or one or more of its member states" or to "military or non-mili- tary crisis management" will be perma- nently excluded from public scrutiny. The blanket secrecy rules will cover pro- posals to set up a 5,000-strong EU para- military police force as well as plans for a rapid reaction force. They could cover all EU discussions on criminal justice, border controls and trade policy. The code will also enable NATO and non-EU governments to veto the disclo- sure of EU documents. However, leaked documents show that the plans go much much further than pure- ly military operations. The proposed rapid reaction force could be used to quell "growing violence and destabilising law and order, breaches of the peace, outbreaks of fighting, armed conflicts" and "massive DOCTORS, THE THIRD LEADING CAUSE OF DEATHS IN THE US lhe US population does not have any- where near the best health in the world. Of 13 countries in a recent compar- ison, the United States ranks an average of 12th (second from the bottom) for 16 available health indicators. Countries in order of their average rank- ing on the health indicators (with the first f NEXUS 7 OCTOBER — NOVEMBER 2000