The New Dark Age

19 July, 2010 — Home page: www.statewatch.org/

Statewatch European Documentation Centre (SEMDOC): www.statewatch.org/semdoc/
Sitemap: www.statewatch.org/sitemap.htm

1.   COE-TURKEY: Council of Europe anti-torture Committee report
2.   HRW report: France, Germany & UK: No Questions Asked”: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture
3.   EU: Readmission agreement with Pakistan: International human rights norms respected?
4.   EU: European Parliament votes to back new EU-USA SWIFT agreement
5.   EU: European Commission: Annual report 2009: Regulation for public access to EU documents
6.   UK: The surveillance of protestors: Peace campaigner, 85, classified by police as ‘domestic extremist’
7.   USA: American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Unconstitutional “No Fly List”
8.   Cage Prisoners: Hunger strike continues by three Guantanamo detainees in Slovakia
9.   European Court of Justice: Two judgments limit rights of access to documents
10. EU: NGO Letter to EU Commissioners rejecting the Directive on mandatory data retention
11. EU: INVESTIGATION ORDER: Council of the European Union: Detailed Statement
12. UK-USA: National Archive publishes details of the 1946 UKUSA agreement for first time
13. EU: European Parliament calls on search engine companies to spy on all EU citizens
14. EU: Council: Proposals on trafficking, granting and withdrawing international protection and “qualifications” for protection
15. EU-UK: DATA PROTECTION ACT: Data protection: Commission requests UK to strengthen powers
16. ITALY: Genoa G8 appeal, Diaz school raid high ranking police officers convicted on appeal
17. SPAIN: SOS Racismo criticises Catalan municipal council burqa bans as “electoralist”
18. EU: Migreurop: calls for the closure of camps for migrants in Europe and beyond

1. COE-TURKEY: Council of Europe anti-torture Committee publishes report on Turkey:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jul/coe-cpt-report-turkey.pdf

2. Human Rights Watch report: France, Germany & UK: No Questions Asked”: Intelligence Cooperation with Countries that Torture (pdf, link)
www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/ct0610webwcover.pdf

3. Readmission agreement with Pakistan: International human rights norms respected? (link)
afsj.wordpress.com/2010/07/09/readmission-agreement-with-pakistan-international-human-rights-norms-respected/

4. EU: European Parliament votes to back new EU-USA SWIFT agreement: 484-109 in favour of a new five-year deal. See: This Big Brother Is in the USA (Inter Press Service, link): ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=52069

And see: MEPs look to new data protection battle with US (euobserver, link):
euobserver.com/9/30428?print=1

5. EU: European Commission: Annual report for 2009: Regulation for public access to EU documents:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jul/eu-com-access-reg-annual-report-2009.pdf

6. UK: The surveillance of protestors: Peace campaigner, 85, classified by police as ‘domestic extremist’ – John Catt and his daughter were placed under surveillance at more than 80 lawful protests (Guardian, link):
www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/jun/25/peace-campaigner-classified-domestic-extremist

and See: We must show we will not tolerate this arrogant policing – Continuiing surveillance of peaceful protesters proves it is essential that we monitor the police (Guardian, link): www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2010/jul/03/police-surveillance-peaceful-protesters-catts/print

See also: FITWATCH (link): fitwatch.org.uk/2010/07/fitwatch-reveals-new-evidence-of-police-data-gathering.html

Background: Statewatch’s Observatory on reactions to protests in the EU:
www.statewatch.org/observatory3.htm

7. USA: American Civil Liberties Union: ACLU Files Lawsuit Challenging Unconstitutional “No Fly List” (link):
www.aclu.org/national-security/aclu-files-lawsuit-challenging-unconstitutional-no-fly-list

8. Cage Prisoners: Hunger strike continues by three Guantanamo detainees in Slovakia (link):
www.cageprisoners.com/articles.php?id=31525

9. European Court of Justice: Two judgments limit rights of access to documents: Review of relationship between transparency and data protection more urgent after Court ruling on Bavarian Lager (Press release): www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-edps-bavarian-lager-prel.pdf

and Full-text of judgment:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/ecj-bavarian-lager-judgment.pdf

and Refusal of access to documents concerning a procedure for reviewing State aid may be justified by the general presumption that the disclosure of those documents would undermine investigation activities (Press release):
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/ecj-state-aid-prel.pdf

European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) reaction: Review of relationship between transparency and data protection more urgent after Court ruling on Bavarian Lager:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-edps-bavarian-lager-prel.pdf

10. EU: NGO Letter to EU Commissioners rejecting the Directive on mandatory data retention:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/ngo-dataret-letter.pdf

The Letter signed by 106 NGOs, including Statewatch, opposes the EU Directive which enforces the gathering and retention of communications data on all phone-calls, faxes, mobile phone-calls (including location) and internet usage right across the EU:

“We believe that such invasive surveillance of the entire population is unacceptable. With a data retention regime in place, sensitive information about social
contacts (including business contacts), movements and the private lives (e.g. contacts with physicians, lawyers, workers councils, psychologists, helplines,
etc) of 500 million Europeans is collected in the absence of any suspicion.”

11. EU: INVESTIGATION ORDER: Council of the European Union: Initiative for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters – Detailed Statement (42 pages):
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-coucil-investigation-order-det-statement-9288-add2-10.pdf

See: Initiative for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council regarding the European Investigation Order in criminal matters:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/apr/eu-council-investigation-order-9145-10.pdf

See also: Statewatch Analysis: The proposed European Investigation Order: Assault on human rights and national sovereignty by Steve Peers, Professor of Law, University of Essex: www.statewatch.org/analyses/no-96-european-investigation-order.pdf

12. UK-USA: National Archive publishes details of the 1946 UKUSA agreement for first time.
www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukusa/

The documents are very large so here is the: 1946 Agreement – full-text: British-USA Communications Intelligence Agreement:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/uk-usa-ukusa-agreement.pdf

See: Not so secret: deal at the heart of UK-US intelligence – 1946 agreement tied allies into spying network by Richard Norton-Taylor (Guardian, link):
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/jun/25/intelligence-deal-uk-us-released/print .

Finally the 1946 UKUSA Agreement is public. It created a world-wide network of listening posts run by the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which endures today. In 1948 Canada joined and in 1956 Australia and New Zealand too – though they have always been junior partners. The latter, being Commonwealth countries, provide an important geographical spread as does GCHQ in Cyprus (which monitors the Middle East).

An extended UK/USA-run surveillance network known as ECHELON emerged in the 1960s. Although created for the Cold War era it has has adapted to new roles under the “war on terrorism. GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, employs 5,500 people and is significantly larger than MI5 (internal security) and MI6 (external).

Background: European Parliament: Report: on the existence of a global system for the interception of private and commercial communications (ECHELON interception system) (2001/2098(INI)):  www.statewatch.org/news/2001/sep/echelon.pdf

13. EU: European Parliament calls on search engine companies to spy on all EU citizens (Privacy International, link)
www.privacyinternational.org/article.shtml?cmd[347]=x-347-566453

14. EU: Council of the European Union: Latest “State of play”: Proposals on trafficking, granting and withdrawing international protection and “qualifications” for protection:

– Proposal for a Directive on preventing and combating trafficking in human beings, and protecting victims, repealing Framework Decision 2002/629/JHA – general approach:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-council-trafficking-10845-10.pdf

– Directive on minimum standards on procedures in Member States for granting and withdrawing international protection:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-council-standards-international-protection-80610-10.pdf

– Proposal for a Directive on minimum standards for the qualification and status of third country nationals or stateless persons as beneficiaries of international protection and the content of the protection granted:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-council-asylum-st-qual-9539-10.pdf

15. EU-UK: DATA PROTECTION ACT: Data protection: Commission requests UK to strengthen powers of national data protection authority, as required by EU law:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/eu-com-uk-dp.pdf

A welcome move but why is the Commission not questioning Section 7.2. This concerns the right to be informed if personal data is being processed/transferred and says that: “A data controller is not obliged to supply any information under subsection (1) unless he has received – a request in writing”. This makes the “right to be informed” meaningless.

16. ITALY: Genoa G8 appeal, Diaz school raid high ranking police officers convicted on appeal:
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/03italy-genoa-g8-appeal.htm

On 18 May 2010, the third section of Genoa appeal court overturned the acquittal of several high level police officers present at the raid on the Diaz and
Pascoli schools during the G8 summit in July 2001. The Diaz school had been made available by the city council as a dormitory for demonstrators, whereas
the Pascoli school hosted a media centre, the Genoa Legal Forum, Indymedia and other activist media groups, as well as providing office facilities. One
police official who was a defendant in the case, MF, described the scene that he witnessed as a “Mexican butchery”. 93 people were arrested, 75 were taken
to Bolzaneto where they suffered further violence in custody after the indiscriminate violence they were subjected to in the school

17. SPAIN: SOS Racismo criticises Catalan municipal council burqa bans as “electoralist”
www.statewatch.org/news/2010/jun/02spain-burga-sos-racismo.htm

18. EU: Migreurop: Introduction: Coinciding with the International Day for Refugees: Migreurop calls for the closure of camps for migrants in Europe and beyond (link).
www.migreurop.org/article1724.html

Full-statement (English, link): www.migreurop.org/IMG/pdf/texte_ENG.pdf

– French: www.migreurop.org/article1718.html
– Italian: www.migreurop.org/article1720.html
– Spanish: www.migreurop.org/article1721.html

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