I was sent the now notorious “police spotter card” through the post. It’s an official laminated card for “police eyes only” and labelled as coming from “CO11 Public Order Intelligence Unit”. The card contained the photographs of 24 anti-arms trade protesters, unnamed but lettered A to X. My picture appeared as photo H. You can imagine my reaction at finding I was the subject of a secret police surveillance process … I was delighted. I phoned my agent and told him I was suspect H. He replied: “Next year we’ll get you top billing … suspect A.”
What exactly was I doing that was so awfully wrong as to merit this attention? Today’s Guardian revelations of three secret police units goes some way to explain the targeting of protesters and raises worrying questions. The job of these units is to spy on protesters, and collate and circulate information about them. Protesters – or, as the police call them, “domestic extremists” – are the new “reds under the bed”.
Police are gathering the personal details of thousands of activists who attend political meetings and protests, and storing their data on a network of nationwide intelligence databases.
After Birmingham Museum’s breathtaking temporary display of the Staffordshire Hoard, the National Trust at Sutton Hoo have this week revealed their own treasure – a modern remake of the Royal Sceptre from the Sutton Hoo finds.
MAISONCELLE, France — The heavy clay-laced mud behind the cattle pen on Antoine Renault’s farm looks as treacherous as it must have been nearly 600 years ago, when King Henry V rode from a spot near here to lead a sodden and exhausted English Army against a French force that was said to outnumber his by as much as five to one.
A firefighter and two cops who worked at Ground Zero in the days and weeks after Sept. 11 have died of cancer in the past five days, the Daily News has learned.
Family members and advocates are blaming their deaths on toxins released into the air after the twin towers collapsed – and they’re urging Congress to act on a bill that would help pay for their medical care.
“Everybody is denying that this stuff is connected to 9/11, but it is,” said Stephen Grossman, whose son Robert died of cancer on Friday at the age of 44.
A blogger is inviting members of the public to join him in the House of Commons dressed up as the main character from the film and graphic novel V for Vendetta.
The plan follows on from last year’s November 5th events, in which ten protesters wearing Guy Fawkes masks were arrested in Parliament Square, and civil rights campaigners sent every MP a copy of George Orwell’s Nineteen-Eighty-Four.
According to a report out of Germany, German soldiers have been given an additive-free swine flu shot that doesn’t contain mercury, squalene, or any of the other dangerous adjuvants associated with the vaccine, raising questions as to why this version of the shot has not been made available to the general population.
An article that when translated is entitled, German soldiers gets non poisonous vaccine, explains how 250,000 German troops have been given a “friendly” vaccine made by Baxter that does not contain “controversial mercury-containing additives or preservatives”.
Just when you think the Unesco people have reached the upper limit of their criminal mindset, a new document emerges that proves you wrong.
An abject draft report on ‘International Guidelines on Sexuality Education’ proposes desensitizing children as young as 5 to the concepts of masturbation and preparing them incrementally for the possibility of an abortion. Although the report sparked a mild controversy in the beginning of September, the final ‘Conference Ready Version’ of the report has not removed the proposals.
Washington, DC — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has an explicit partnership agreement with the coal industry to market its combustion wastes for consumer, agricultural and industrial uses without knowing the true health risks, according to documents released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER).
The paintings, found in Deba’s Astigarraga cave, have been described by experts as the Basque Country’s most important finding since the discovery of the Altxerri cave in Aia and Ekain in Deba.
The streets and foundations of the oldest town in Britain are emerging on a low hill near Basingstoke in Hampshire – and they may cause history books to be shredded.
A new B.C. law could allow municipal officials to enter homes to seize anti-Olympic signs with only 24 hours’ notice, and violators could be fined up to $10,000 a day and jailed for up to six months, according to the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
The proposed law was introduced by the provincial government Thursday as one of dozens of amendments in Bill 13, the Miscellaneous Statutes Amendment Act 2009, which is only at first reading and has not yet passed.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair was told he had “blood on his hands” by the father of a dead soldier Friday, after a memorial for the fallen of the Iraq war in London.
Peter Brierley, whose 28-year-old son Shaun died in March 2003, refused to shake Blair’s hand when he offered it, telling the ex premier: “I’m not shaking your hand, you’ve got blood on it.”
A rusty iron helmet that may be the only surviving relic of one of the most decisive battles in English history has been found in an antiques shop.
A label on the helmet suggests it was fished out of the River Derwent at Stamford Bridge, where King Harold Godwinson defeated Viking invaders in 1066 before he was beaten by William the Conqueror at Hastings.
Experts are now examining a unique rune stone dating back to around 400 AD, discovered in a garden in the city of Mandal in Southern Norway a week ago. The find may also contain a grave.
This is the first rune stone discovered in Norway since 1947, and the find is described as a sensation by the experts.
An Italian scientist says he has reproduced the Shroud of Turin, a feat that he says proves definitively that the linen some Christians revere as Jesus Christ’s burial cloth is a medieval fake.
“You don’t need to know. You can’t know.” That’s what Kathy Norris, a 60-year-old grandmother of eight, was told when she tried to ask court officials why, the day before, federal agents had subjected her home to a furious search.
Kathy and George Norris lived under the specter of a covert government investigation for almost six months before the government unsealed a secret indictment and revealed why the Fish and Wildlife Service had treated their family home as if it were a training base for suspected terrorists. Orchids.
Obama goes to bat for Bush wiretap program: Although both the Bush and Obama administrations have refused to discuss the extent of phone company participation, several members of Congress have confirmed that the government obtained records from...
Just when you think the Unesco people have reached the upper limit of their criminal mindset, a new document emerges that proves you wrong.
