Boston’s MBTA set to begin passenger ID stops: “MBTA transit police confirmed yesterday they will begin stopping passengers for identification checks at various T locations, apparently as part of new national rail security measures following the deadly terrorist train bombings in Spain.

Although officials would release few details about the initiative, the identity checks will mark the first time local rail and subway passengers will be asked to produce identification and be questioned about their activities.” (Boston Globe)

“Cellphones fitted with digital cameras have been banned in US army installations in Iraq on orders from Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, The Business newspaper report.

Quoting a Pentagon source, the paper said the US Defence Department believes that some of the damning photos of US soldiers abusing Iraqis at Abu Ghraib prison near Baghdad were taken with camera phones.

‘Digital cameras, camcorders and cellphones with cameras have been prohibited in military compounds in Iraq,’ it said, adding that a ‘total ban throughout the US military’ is in the works.” (Sydney Morning Herald)

Doctors’ ties harbour disease-causing germs: “Doctors may be harbouring disease-causing bugs in their ties that could potentially be transmitted to patients, a new study has found.

Nearly half the neckties worn by 42 doctors at the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queen’s (NYHMCQ) contained bacteria which can cause dangerous conditions like pneumonia and blood infections, the researchers found.

‘This study brings into question whether wearing a necktie is in the best interest of our patients,’ says NYHMCQ’s Steven Nurkin, who led the team.” (New Scientist)

“Got a good idea? Now think for a moment where you got it. A sudden spark of inspiration? A memory? A dream?

Most likely, says Ronald S. Burt, a sociologist at the University of Chicago, it came from someone else who hadn’t realized how to use it.

‘The usual image of creativity is that it’s some sort of genetic gift, some heroic act,’ Mr. Burt said. ‘But creativity is an import-export game. It’s not a creation game.'” (New York Times)

“In a society devoted to “reality shows” and rampant commodification, it had to happen some time. Late last month an independent scientist auctioned off his services as a co-author on eBay, with the promise of helping the highest bidder write a scientific paper for publication. The offer even had the added allure of a linkage with the legendary mathematician Paul Erdös.” (The Chronicle of Higher Education)

‘ “For two centuries, the Amber Room – a chamber entirely panelled in amber – adorned the summer palace of the tsars near St Petersburg until in 1941, when the Germans invaded, it was stolen. Since the war, thousands of treasure hunters have pursued ever wilder theories in search of ‘the eighth wonder of the world’. Yet it is still missing.” Now, an exhaustive three-year investigation into the fate of the Amber Room has revealed the truth: the room was indeed taken by the Nazis and stored in Germany for a time. But a fire at the castle being used for the storage destroyed the room completely in 1945.’ (Guardian.UK)

“By the time the American army stepped into Iraq, the difference in world view between the United States and everybody else was immense. Why were Americans so taken in by Bush’s big lie?

…A fanciful explanation for the two realities is that the United States is the continent-wide set for a large scale re-enactment of the movie The Truman Show. The plot of that movie has the well-intentioned but naive hero go about his daily life without any suspicion that he is, in fact, in a gigantic soap opera. His hometown is actually the set for the TV show and from earliest childhood he has been manipulated and controlled by the producer and the director. The enthusiastic acceptance by the American multitudes of the Iraqi stuff-and-nonsense coming out of the White House would be understandable if we were all living on a stage set in a village called Freedom Island threatened by a town called Evil Axis.

Americans believed, as they usually do when their government and their television tell them something, but the rest of the world laughed every time George Bush or Colin Powell or Dick Cheney or Donald Rumsfeld thought up yet one more scary reason to invade Iraq. The ill-constructed, clumsy untruths were surprisingly crude for people who have had years to practice the craft of mass deception, and they had only to speak their latest falsehood to be cheered by their countrymen and disbelieved by non-Americans everywhere.

It’s not easy to pull off the Big Lie and George Bush failed; though, in mitigation, pulling off a bait-and-switch war demands skillful finagling and this one was complicated. There was the bait (terrorism), then the switch (weapons of mass destruction), then a switch again (kill the dictator), and yet again (regime change). A politician has to be an accomplished teller of tall tales and absurd fabrications to bring off such a demarché. Even the masters of mass prevarication occasionally fail. ” — excerpted from Hoax: Why Americans Are Suckered by White House Lies by Nicholas von Hoffman, a columnist for the New York Observer. (AlterNet)

‘Tonight President Bush will deliver a prime time address on Iraq aimed in part at controlling the damage from the situation at Abu Ghraib. Meanwhile, Conscientious Objector Sgt. Camillo Mejia was sentenced to a year in prison for desertion from the Army. His application for CO status mentioned prisoner abuse in Iraq long before the current scandal.

Now another US soldier who participated in the Iraq invasion and occupation has begun speaking out. Twelve year Marine veteran Jimmy Massey…talks about his time in Iraq where he admitted the U.S. treatment of Iraqi civilians is fueling the Iraqi resistance. In a recent interview he said “I felt like we were committing genocide in Iraq.” ‘ (Democracy Now!)

“Of course it would be best if we didn’t use torture at all, but if the United States is going to continue to torture people, we need to make the process legal and accountable.” — Alan Dershowitz (The Scotsman)

“At least 37 prisoners have died while in the hands of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan, Pentagon officials have admitted.

Eight of the deaths are classified as murder involving suspected assaults on detainees before or during interrogation sessions.

The deaths are from 33 incidents – eight more cases than the Pentagon publicly reported two weeks ago.

Meanwhile, a British soldier is facing criminal charges following the alleged killing of an Iraqi civilian.” (The Scotsman)

“Symantec Corp. is warning its customers about a security vulnerability within its antivirus application. The Internet security vendor ranks the flaw as “medium,” while security research group Secunia pegged the flaw as “moderately critical.”

The flaw, which resides within Symantec’s Norton AntiVirus 2004 application, could let attackers run code of their choice on a user’s system, launch unauthorized pop-ups, or even create a denial-of-service condition to freeze Symantec’s antivirus application. Virus and worm writers are increasingly attempting to disable antivirus and personal firewall security applications, so a flaw such as this would be a prime target for virus writers seeking to disable a user’s defenses.” (Yahoo! News)

“The U.S. military command on Sunday denied a report that the top U.S. general in Iraq was present during some interrogations at the Abu Ghraib prison and witnessed some of the abuse of Iraqi inmates.

The Washington Post, in a story first released on its Web site Saturday night, said a military lawyer stated at an open hearing April 2 that Capt. Donald J. Reese told him that Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez and other senior military officers were aware of the abuse at the prison.” (Yahoo! News)

“New video footage showing Iraqis singing and dancing at a desert wedding raised more questions on Monday about a U.S. air strike last week that killed about 40 people.

The U.S. military insisted most of the dead were foreign guerrilla fighters who had slipped over the nearby Syrian border. Local people say the Americans massacred wedding guests…

The video is unwelcome news for Washington on a day when it is to present a proposal at the United Nations (news – web sites) seeking approval for its continued military presence in Iraq following a handover of formal sovereignty to an interim government on June 30.

Nor will it help President Bush, who is to make a televised speech to the nation at midnight GMT that will lay out his strategy in Iraq. Bush’s chances of re-election in November have suffered as Americans question the cost of the mission.” (Yahoo! News)