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Spies-R-Us
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| 17/7/06 |
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Home page: www.statewatch.org 1. EU: “biometric passports”: We will not just have to be finger-printed once but over and over again 1. EU: “biometric passports”: We will not just have to be finger-printed once but over and over again: 2. EU: European Commission proposal to amend list of third countries whose nationals need a visa to enter the EU (COM 84, 13 July 2006): This proposes transferring Bolivia from Annex II (the “white-list” of countries whose nationals do not need a visa) to Annex I (”black-list”, countries whose nationals need a visa). Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Mauritius,Saint Kitts and Nevis and the Seychelles would be moved from Annex I to Annex II. All members of the armed forces of NATO are to be exempted from needing a visa. So too are refugees and stateless people resident in the EU. British Nationals (Overseas) are to go in Annex II but British Overseas Territories Citizens (BOTC), British Overseas Citizens (BOC), British Subjects and British Protected Persons (BPP) are to go in Annex II because they only have a “tenuous link” with the UK and present “risk of illegal immigration” moreover they will be a specific category as “they do not have the nationality of a third country”: Background: Regulation 539/2001 (Initial Ann I & II): Amendment in 2003: Amendment in 2005 3. UK: Freedom of Information: Cabinet Office refuses to reveal “personal and political contacts” between the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and Rupert Murdoch. Lord Eric Avebury is challenging the decision of the Information Commissioner to only list one “official” telephone conversation between the two. He is also questioning “unspecified amendments” to the Commissioner’s decision made at the request of the Cabinet Office: Press release: www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jul/avebury-3-prl.pdf 4. European Parliament: MEPs want to participate as observers in negotiations of passenger data agreement with USA – press release: 5. The fallacies of the EU-Africa dialogue on immigration: EU-African ministerial conference on immigration, 10 and 11 July 2006 – introduction and commentaries 6. Italy: Speech by the president of the ombudsman’s authority for the protection of personal data, Francesco Pizzetti, to illustrate the Annual report for 2005: and Full-text of the annual report “Relazione annuale 2005" (pdf, broken up into sections): 7. Enron 3 to be extradited to USA on 13 July. Full-background on extradition to USA: UK applies new simplified extradition procedures to USA and over a hundred other countries: www.statewatch.org/news/2003/jul/analy18.pdf and Statewatch analysis. The UK-US Extradition Treaty (pdf) – removes or restricts key protections for defendants and signed and adopted with no parliamentary scrutiny: www.statewatch.org/news/2004/jan/06extradition.htm 8. European Court of Justice: Judgment in case of right to appeal against having funds frozen because of UN (and EU) terrorist sanctions list (press release): Ben Hayes of Statewatch comments: “With respect, the repeated rulings by the CFI that being listed by the UN Security Council as a supporter or associate of Osama Bin Laden, Al Qaeda or the Taleban “does not prevent the individuals concerned from leading a satisfactory personal, family and social life” is plainly wrong. In today’s political climate it is hard to think of a more serious allegation than being publicly branded a “terrorist” ? whether by the UN, EU or national governments ? never mind the crippling effect of the sanctions themselves. The fact remains that these regimes are a recipe for arbitrary, secretive and unjust decision-making. Unless procedures are introduced allowing affected parties to know and challenge the allegations against them in a court of law the “terrorist lists” will continue to lack legitimacy.” 9. EU: European Parliament Press Release: German prosecutor tells MEPs he has no evidence contradicting El-Masri abduction claim: For full background see: Statewatch’s Observatory on CIA rendition and flights: 10. UK: Home Office: Statistics on Race and the Criminal Justice System – 2005 (pdf) and Proportion (%) of ethnic groups at different stages of the criminal justice process, England and Wales, 2004/5: Chart (pdf): www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jul/uk-race-stats-s95-05-chart.pdf 11. EU: Provisional agenda for Justice and Home Affairs Council on 24 July 2006: 12. EU: Council of the European Union amends its Rules of Procedure (pdf): They have only made the minimum changes necessary to comply with the recent agreement on open meetings (art 8). The other two changes concern an 18-month agenda for the Council (art 2(4)) and the use of simplified written procedure (art 12). 13. EU: New agreement between the Council and the European Parliament on scrutiny of implementation measures: For commentary see: euobserver (link): 14. Shetland: Young Shetland man of Thai origin wins appeal against deportation under Home Office crackdown. Sakchai Makao had been snatched from his home in Shetland and taken to a jail in Scotland where he was held until released on bail after major protests from Shetlanders including a petition with around 9,000 signatures from islanders – the population is just over 20,000. A parliamentary motion by the local MP was signed by more than 100 MPs. At the immigration appeals tribunal on 7 July in North Shields Judge John Aitken, who chaired the panel of three judges, said: “The appeal is allowed, you are free to go”. Sakchai Makao said: “there are a lot of people to thank for a lot of hard work in the Shetland community, and without them this could not have happened” Shetland News (link): www.shetland-news.co.uk/pages/news%20stories/07_2006/judges_say_sakchai_can_stay.htm 15. European Parliament: Transfer of financial data to USA from SWIFT: The parliament adopted a Resolution on 6 July calling on EU governments, the Commission and the European Central Bank “to explain fully the extent to which they were aware of the secret agreement” between the Belgium-based SWIFT (’Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication’) and the United States. Full-text of Resolution: Text of the debate – in original languages: The Resolution was proposed by an alliance of the PSE (Socialist group), ALDE (Liberals), GUE/NGL (United Left) and Green/EFA group. It was agreed by 302 votes with 219 votes against from the PPE-DE (Conservatives) and UEN groups. See: European Digital Rights (link): www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.13/swift?PHPSESSID=d0fdcb815572575642a1d1dc91a6fd3b 16. European Parliament: Interim report on alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners approved in plenary session by a majority of 389 members against 137 with 55 MEPs abstaining (6 July 2006). Press release: Full-text of Interim report (pdf) 17. EU: Policy shift as Italy signs up to the Prüm Treaty: 18. EU: Series of Communications from the European Commission: a. Evaluation of EU Policies on Freedom, Security and Justice (COM 332) b. Implementing the Hague Programme: the way forward (COM 331) c. Report on the implementation of the Hague programme for 2005 (COM 333) d. Hague programme: 2005 implementation scoreboard – Table 2 (SEC 813) e. Hague programme: 2005 Institutional scoreboard – Table 1 (SEC 814) f. Evaluation of EU Policies on Freedom, Security and Justice – Impact Assessment (SEC 815) 19. UK: Home Office consultation on: Acquisition and Disclosure of Communications Data A public consultation: and Investigation of Protected Electronic Information: A public consultation: Deadline: 30 August 2006: 20. UK: 28 days detention in terrorist suspect cases comes into effect on 25 July 2006. The Commons and Lords (5 July) agreed a new code of practice: Draft code of practice on detention adopted: www.statewatch.org/news/2006/jul/uk-detention-powers-terr-code.pdf Bookmark: What’s New: Statewatch News Online: Observatory on immigration and asylum in the EU: Observatory on “Rendition” and CIA flights: “Terrorist” lists: monitoring proscription, designation and asset-freezing: ASBOwatch: Secret Europe: access to EU documents: BOOKMARK News online – full contents: ________________________________________________ |
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