The strategy of the fly

"A terrorist is like a fly that wants to destroy a china shop. Small, low, fly is unable to move not even a cup. So she found an elephant, enters his ear and buzzes until mad with fear and anger, it sacked the shop. Thus, for example, the Al-Qaeda fly led the American elephant to destroy the china shop of the Middle East.

Why are they so sensitive to terrorist provocations? Because the legitimacy of the modern state is based on its promise to keep the public sphere free of political violence. A regime can withstand terrible catastrophes, and even ignore them, provided its legitimacy is not based on preventing them.

Today, a government may turn a blind eye to high levels of domestic and sexual violence, because they do not undermine its legitimacy. Rapists and abusive husbands are not perceived as an existential threat to the state, because, historically, the state did not build itself on the promise to eliminate sexual violence. In contrast, the much rarer cases of terrorism are viewed as a deadly threat, because over the last few centuries modern western states have gradually built their legitimacy on the explicit promise to maintain zero political violence within their borders."

Read the whole article from Yuval Noah Harari in French, or in English 

h/t Line Merrette Vincent

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Bill C-51 Senate Perp Walk of Shame

The Red Chamber of Sober Second Expense Accounts passed the anti-terrorism Bill C-51 by 44 votes to 28 yesterday. 

Below find those 44 Con Senators who voted YEA - along with their contact info/bios/pix - because I don't think these fine folks are well enough known to Canadians. You'll note some of them will still be in the Senate 30 years from now. 
All but three were appointed by Harper - two were appointed by Mulroney and one by Paul Martin. 

A full seven out of the 30 Harper's Perps with Perks are senators.

Name&contact info - Party affiliation - Appointed by - Province - Term of office

Ataullahjan, Salma  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2010 to 2027

Batters, Denise  CON - Harper - Saskatchewan - 2013 to 2045

Bellemare, Diane  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2012 to 2024

Beyak, Lynn  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2013 to 2024

Black, Douglas  CON - Harper - Alberta - 2013 to 2027

Carignan, Claude  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2009 to 2039

Dagenais, Jean-Guy  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2012 to 2025

Doyle, Norman E   CON - Harper - Nfld Labrador - 2012 to 2020

Eaton, Nicole   CON - Harper - Ontario - 2009 to 2020

Enverga, Tobias  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2012 to 2030

Fortin-Duplessis, Suzanne  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2009 to 2015

Frum, Linda  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2009 to 2038

Gerstein, Irving   CON - Harper - Ontario - 2009 to 2016

Greene, Stephen   CON - Harper - Nova Scotia - 2009 to 2024

Lang, Daniel  CON - Harper - Yukon - 2009 to 2023

LeBreton, Marjory  CON - Mulroney - Ontario - 1993 to 2015

MacDonald, Michael  CON - Harper - Nova Scotia - 2009 to 2030

Maltais, Ghislain  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2012 to 2019

Manning, Fabian  CON - Harper - Nfld Labrador- 2011 to 2039

Marshall, Elizabeth  CON - Harper - Nfld Labrador - 2010 to 2026

Martin, Yonah   CON - Harper - British Columbia - 2009 to 2040

McInnis, Thomas  CON - Harper - Nova Scotia - 2012 to 2020

McIntyre, Paul  CON - Harper - New Brunswick - 2012 to 2019

Mockler, Percy  CON - Harper - New Brunswick - 2009 to 2024

Nancy Ruth  CON - Martin (Lib)- Ontario - 2005 to 2017 

Neufeld, Richard  CON - Harper - British Columbia - 2009 to 2019

Ngo, Thanh Hai  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2012 to 2022

Ogilvie, Kelvin   CON - Harper - Nova Scotia - 2009 to 2017

Oh, Victor  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2013 to 2024

Patterson, Dennis  CON - Harper - Nunavut - 2009 to 2023

Plett, Donald  CON - Harper - Manitoba - 2009 to 2025

Poirier, Rose-May   CON - Harper - New Brunswick - 2010 to 2029

Raine, Nancy Greene  CON - Harper - British Columbia - 2009 to 2018

Rivard, Michel   CON - Harper - Quebec - 2009 to 2016

Runciman, Bob  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2010 to 2017

Seidman, Judith  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2009 to 2025

Smith, Larry  CON - Harper - Quebec - 2011 to 2026

Stewart Olsen, Carolyn  CON - Harper - New Brunswick - 2009 to 2021

Tannas, Scott  CON - Harper - Alberta - 2013 to 2037

Tkachuk, David  CON - Mulroney - Saskatchewan - 1993 to 2020

Unger, Betty   CON - Harper - Alberta - 2012 to 2018

Wallace, John D.  CON - Harper - New Brunswick - 2009 to 2024

Wells, David M.  CON - Harper - Nfld Labrador - 2013 to 2037

White, Vernon  CON - Harper - Ontario - 2012 to 2034

Mike Duffy, Patrick Brazeau, and Pamela Wallin didn't vote of course.

Here are the 28 Liberal senators who voted against the bill in the Senate, as opposed to the 33 Liberal MPs who voted for it at final reading in the House of Commons.


Although the Senate records "nil abstentions", Con Senators Raynell Andreychuk, Jacques Demers, Janis G.Johnson, Don Meredith, and Josée Verner did not vote ; 
nor did Liberal Senators George Baker, Colin Kenny, and Terry Mercer.

Open Media : Bill C-51 Just passed. Where do we go from here?

Fingus : How the Senate's failure to provide any second thought on C-51 may serve as the ultimate signal that it has nothing useful to offer Canadians.

Akin : Deafening disrespect of aggrieved senators

Update : Dear Open Media : In your Heroes and Zeros list, your attribution of Rivard and Larry Smith as Liberals is incorrect. They are Cons and were appointed by Harper in 2009 and 2011 respectively.
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Homeland security perimeter

Listening in on : Border Security Challenges After 9/11: A Conversation With Three Commissioners of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Sept 9, 2011

On Sept. 10, 2001, Robert Bonner tells us, he began his job as head of what is now the US Customs and Border Protection. The next day, in reaction to 9/11 events, he raised the border security alert to Level One, resulting in border wait times from Canada increasing from an average of 10 minutes to over 12 hours. It was at this point he realized security considerations would have to be addressed without "effectively shutting down our [US] country's economy ... These two pillars are not mutually exclusive."

Expanded X-ray and radiation technology on the borders and "advance electronic data" and vetting incoming travellers in foreign airports were put in place to expand the security envelope beyond the US borders.

 "And this is an important point," he said. "We were able to do this without congressional mandates."
 
Also at the roundtable was former commissioner Ralph Basham, who described the US/Mexico security fence as the "dumbest idea" he had ever heard of : "We all knew this wasn't the answer".
And current CBP Commissioner Alan Bersin :

"What will become more and more a feature of our homeland security efforts is partnership at a new level with the private sector. We cannot actually accomplish this goal without being in partnership with the private sector, given their involvement in the private supply chain and travel network ....  From day one we brought the private sector into the discussion and rather than designing and then mandating an approach to security, we actually co-created it in the case of the express carriers.....

In this way we will overcome the dichotomy within this decade and we have always realized it as a dichotomy - those of us inside CBP have realized it but I think we need to make this much more a staple knowledge on the part of the American people - which is that trade and security are not mutually exclusive. Not only are they not mutually exclusive, let alone antithetical to one another, but we at CBP increasingly believe that they are the same process, that in fact we cannot increase our security profile unless we expedite the 99.5% of trade and travel that is legitimate." 

And if 'we' don't, added Basham, the terrorists will have won.
 
"Without congressional mandate" and dependence on the private sector from day one should remind you of the SPP : Security and Prosperity Partnership, whose various proponents advised on its deathbed that it could only be resuscitated in increments.
 
Steve of course continued to deny for months that any such new combined security perimeter border action plan even existed, while simultaneously consulting on it with lobby groups and the private sector since last fall.

Interesting that all three CBP commissioners repeatedly emphasized the importance of keeping the borders nice and thin for their supply lines, isn't it?
I thought that was supposed to be our worry, not theirs - something the Americans just don't get - and thus the reason why we have to give them whatever they want so trucks will keep running back and forth between Windsor and Detroit.
 
So much for the "prosperity" part - on to "security" :
 
Yesterday ...
Attorney General Eric Holder Speaks at the Northern Border Summit 
 
... 9/11 ...  unprecedented threats... yada yada
"Because of the promising new “Beyond our Border” initiative that President Obama and Prime Minister Harper proposed earlier this year, our law enforcement efforts have never been more closely aligned ...
The creation of “NextGen” teams of cross-designated officers would allow us to more effectively identify, assess, and interdict persons and organizations involved in transnational crime ..."
Ok, here we go, italics mine :

"Despite the excellent relationship we’ve established, I believe that there are areas in which the U.S. and Canada can enhance cooperation in criminal investigations and prosecutions. And I believe we must consider how extradition, and mutual legal assistance processes could be streamlined to avoid delays; and whether certain sentencing laws – and information sharing policies and practices – should be updated.
As Canada’s national government considers various anti-crime policies and approaches, we will continue working to implement a comprehensive anti-crime framework that respects the sovereignty of both our nations."

Certain sentencing laws?
Well we knew about the push for information sharing but "sentencing laws" ? For what crimes?
Is this why Steve has been pushing for "spending hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayers dollars on prison building, in order to impose a mandatory minimum term of six months in jail for anyone who grows more than six marijuana plants" ?

Holder winds it up :

"Since December, senior representatives from DOJ, DHS, Public Safety Canada and Justice Canada have been meeting regularly ... and progress has been made in developing a pilot project that we hope to launch next year."

Operation Spliff? Operation Doobie?

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Steve kicks off 9/11 blather week

with a CBC interview targeting "Islamicism" as the "major threat to Canada".

Islamicism?

"So what are we then?" respond the Unabomberanians, Norwegochristofarians, and McVeighlians. "Choppity liverers?"

"There are other threats out there, but that is the one that I can tell you occupies the security apparatus most regularly in terms of actual terrorist threats," Harper said.

Funny you should mention what "occupies the security apparatus", Steve ...

"Militant Extremists in the United States" : Council on Foreign Relations, Feb.7, 2011 :

"Since September 11, the threat of internationally based Islamic extremist networks has dominated concerns of Homeland Security officials. And while authorities say the threats posed by homegrown Islamic extremism is growing, the FBI has reported that roughly two-thirds of terrorism in the United States was conducted by non-Islamic American extremists from 1980-2001; and from 2002-2005, it went up to 95 percent."

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One of these things is not like the others

Harper, Obama talk plans for perimeter security

Manley, CEOs, propose details on perimeter security

CATSA airport security screening measures tightened
 
Government of Canada enhances aviation security
 
 CATSA lays off 15 to 20% of airport security screeners
* Winner! *

Cons direct every airport in Canada to reduce its security screeners by 15-20%

Vancouver International Airport - 120 screening officers laid off May 16th
Greater Toronto Airports Authority - 400 laid off
Montreal Pierre-Elliott Trudeau airport - 80 laid off
Ottawa International Airport - 11 laid off
Calgary and Edmonton - 15% reduction in screening staff

Hey, I'll bet it's because they've invested in those new full body scanners and they'll be using them instead.

Chair of the BC Association of Aerospace Workers :

"newly purchased multi-million dollar full body scanners will be left unmanned and unused ... because there is just not enough staff to operate them."

And you just know that even if we all consented to having Trusted Traveller barcodes tattooed on our foreheads, you still wouldn't be allowed onboard if you're packing Astroglide, although apparently handcuffs are still ok.
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Q & A with Mr.Bin Laden and Mr. William Elliott

Last October, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott addressed a meeting of security intelligence peeps about Canada's current terrorism environment :

"As far as Al-Qaeda is concerned, Canada is the enemy.
We recall Osama Bin Laden’s famous communiqué to America’s allies in November of 2002, in which he asked:

“Why are your governments, especially those of Britain, France, Italy, Canada, Germany and Australia, allying themselves with America in its attacks on us in Afghanistan? This is injustice. The time has come to settle accounts. Just as you kill, so you shall be killed; just as you bomb, so you shall be bombed. And there will be more to come.”

To answer Mr. Bin Laden's question, here's David Rothkopf, Bill Clinton's Deputy Undersecretary of Commerce and former managing director of Kissinger Associates, from Empire : Superclass, posted here on Saturday (mark 18:31) :

"If there were no oil in the Middle East, the United States wouldn't care about the Middle East, it wouldn't care about Israel, it wouldn't care about Palestine, it wouldn't care about social development in Iraq, it wouldn't care about the Taliban. If there were no oil and the interests who benefit from that oil and advocate for that oil, and who have done so and who have shaped American policy over the course of the past 70 years as a consequence of that oil, are big businesses."

Call me crazy, Mr. Elliott, but I think not helping the US occupy a country for oil bidness would go some distance towards not attracting unwanted attention from Mr. Bin Laden and his new friends here at home.
Back to Elliott's address :

Canada does suffer an image problem with some Americans as a safe haven for terrorists. We must work to overcome that perception ... demonstrate a more proportional and comprehensive commitment to not only fighting terrorism but to advancing our shared security interests more broadly.

I note that this year the RCMP’s strategic priority of “Terrorism” will be expanded to “National Security” which is consistent with this broader objective.

More criminal prosecutions for terrorist offences would certainly be one step to enhancing security relations with the United States.

And just where are we going to find "more criminal prosecutions for terrorist offenses" for the benefit of the US?
Junkies rebranded as terrorist financiers for the war on drugs.

Put succinctly, Canadian criminals and Canadian drug users keep Afghan and Pakistani heroin traffickers in business and contribute to the continuation of a serious threat to the West, and to Canada and Canadian interests.

Proving such linkages in court would mean that drug couriers and their associates could face terrorism financing charges. That would help send a strong message to the world [aka the US] that we are serious about prosecuting accomplices to terror.

Perhaps it also explains why someone decided to send a strong message to the RCMP in BC to stand down from its presser with Insite one month later.

Elliott wraps up with a pitch for an expanded RCMP "capacity to conduct and support extraterritorial investigations" in national security:

I believe the time has come for law enforcement to be even more active in the realm of national security. We need greater capacity to put more terrorism cases before the courts and more terrorists in jail.

And voilà! - Project Samosa. Hope our new alleged terrorists appreciate their important role for us in "enhancing shared security relations with the US".
I know Osama Bin Laden does.
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G20 : Cops avenge themselves on satirist

British filmmaker/satirist Charlie Veitch is here informed by police he is being arrested under the now thoroughly discredited "Public Works Protection Act" for failing to produce ID while being near a public work :


On Tuesday Police Chief Blair admitted that police didn't have any authority under that act to arrest someone for not showing identification within five metres of the fence, but meanwhile Veitch spends 40 horrible hours in the G20 pens specially constructed to detain dangerous comedians and other freedom loving people like himself for exactly that.

Veitch then releases to Youtube a conversation he filmed with a very literal-minded Paragon Security guy explaining why he can't produce ID back on June 24th :

Charlie: "We're from British Military Intelligence, I'm here with the metropolitan police...so it's all fully authorized at the highest levels...cause you know sometimes, have you heard what an Agent Provocateur is....

Security: "I have no ideas."

Charlie: "What it is, sometimes when there are big demonstrations - I can tell you this because you're security - they use fake protesters to cause trouble, and we're here to be those fake protesters. So it's fully authorized."

Security: "OK, I understand that, do you have a certification?"

Charlie: "No, we're not press, 'cause we're undercover, and if we carried ID around, we might get searched by protesters."

Two days ago Veitch is arrested again just as he is about to board a flight home to UK.
Toronto Police Service News Release :

On Tuesday, June 29, 2010, police arrested a man for impersonating a peace officer.
It is alleged that:
− on Thursday, June 24, 2010, the accused was filming the G20 Summit security fence area at Front Street/York Street,
− he was approached by a security officer and was requested to provide ID,
− he indicated that he was not carrying identification because he was working undercover as a peace officer,
− later a warrant was issued for his arrest by officers from the Toronto Police Service,
− the accused was about to board a plane at Toronto Pearson International Airport when he was arrested by officers from Peel Regional Police.

Charlie Veitch, 29, of England, has been charged with:

1) Impersonate a Peace Officer

We are treating this very very seriously," a Toronto police spokesninny told CTV repeatedly in an apparent effort to be taken seriously and win a role in Veitch's next satire.

Un-fucking-believable. They made up the second charge to cover their asses over wrongly arresting him the first time. If this is an example of the level of revenge intelligence gathering by the Toronto police, why not just let mall cops do it?

Down at the mall in the above vid, Charlie delivers some of his trademark advice to shoppers via a bullhorn : "You are not unique and beautiful snowflakes," he says. "Shop faster."
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h/t Back of the Book
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G20 : Security theatre bait cars

Protesters amuse themselves playing with the sirens and lights in two police cruisers inexplicably driven into the crowd and then abandoned in the middle of the street. Calling in to dispatch, making aeroplane noises on the mike for the crowd, and handing out tickets - it's all rather jovial.

Kid lights a paper fire on the passenger seat, someone else puts it out, and a short altercation about safety ensues. Another guy writes on the cruiser in green paint : "This is bait, aka a prop."

Kid on the mike in the cruiser : "For $1.2 billion dollars, thanks for all your photography. This will be on the news tonight justifying the whole event."

And later when the cars were torched for real it was. But some in the media remember the agents provocateurs at the SPP protest at Montebello.

The Guardian :

Many Canadians have become suspicious of police tactics since the Quebec police force admitted that it had disguised three of its own officers as rock-wielding anarchists in an attempt to provoke violence at a peaceful protest in the town of Montebello two years ago. Somewhat farcically, the three were exposed as agents provocateurs when they were found to be wearing official issue police boots identical to those of the uniformed officers "arresting" them.

"There are concerns that similar skulduggery may have played a part in Toronto this weekend, where the burning of three police cars quickly became the defining image of Saturday's otherwise peaceful demonstration. Questions are being asked as to why the police chose to drive the vehicles into the middle of a group of protesters and then abandon them, and why there was no attempt to put out the flames until the nation's media had been given time to record the scenes for broadcast around the world."

Indeed. The other three parts to this event are in the embedded related videos. Click on the title

G20 : National anthem provokes police riot

Peaceful G20 protest at Queen & Spadina from Meghann Millard . Full video at her link.

Cliff has a good aerial shot of the penned-in protesters.

Over 600 arrests as of tonight.

Update : A street's eyeview of same event, shot by Ryan Walker at the Torontoist :

G20 - Cops Charge Protesters at Queen and Spadina, After "O Canada" from Torontoist .

G20 : Inside / Outside

Inside the G20 wives dined on chocolate canoe paddles and learned how to make canoe seats from a master craftsman :

Outside full riot gear was gathering at Yonge and College :

Photo via G20 live-blogging Torontoist, with more from The Star

"The public has nothing to fear with this legislation and the way the police will use [new expanded police powers]" said. Sgt. Tim Burrows of the G8/G20 Integrated Security Unit "It really comes down to a case of common sense and officer discretion."
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G8 - Police arrest guy for driving around with guy stuff

The original G&M headline : "Police arrest man with arsenal of weapons near G20 zone"

has since been amended to read : "Police arrest man with cache including crossbow" but the URL still reads as above.

Personally I'd go with : "Police arrest guy for driving around with guy stuff in his car"

"Maybe he's a woodsman," suggested a CNN newsthingey, helpfully.

Yeah, and maybe, given that there was also a chainsaw, gas cans, a lot of tools, a crossbow, baseball bats, a scruffy white dog, and blankets in the car ... just maybe he's a guy driving around with all his worldly possessions strapped to the roof of his car because he has no where else to put it. Maybe he just got divorced or evicted; maybe he's a guy.

Other important G8/G20 security theatre busts :

Two AntiPoverty protesters arrested for having B&E tools - keys for entering her office.

Guy busted for being FN with a flag - twice.

Guy busted for having a water bottle and asking questions. Questions about the draconian new Public Works Protection Act

On the other hand ... Undercover Mountie escorted off Ryerson campus by campus security.

Update : Greg Weston was there : 'Perfect gentleman' likely off his meds: Father

He had tears in his eyes, and looked clearly distraught. There was no hint of anger or aggression.
“My dog,” he said plaintively to no one in particular. “Please someone do something with my dog.”

Greg did.

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Yo! Opposition parties! This is what an election issue looks like

Globe and Mail online poll G8/G20 May 29, 2010

Security for the billion-dollar boondoggle is being managed by ex-CSIS director Ward Elcock, who also just spent another billion on Vancouver Olympics security.

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Asked why the London G20 expenses clocked in at $30-million last year by comparison, Elcock answered, "Bookkeeping."

.

I wonder if we could possibly get some of that.

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$13-million an hour for three days

That's the security budget for Steve's upcoming billion dollar bunfest.

Could go even higher says Public Safety Minister Vic Toews.

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Originally pitched to us at $179-million, the cost of G8/G20 security is now creeping up to a billion dollars.

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"I understand that the Liberals don't believe in securing Canadians or the visitors here," Toews told the House yesterday. "We're different."

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How different are they?

Well, by comparison, an hour and a half's worth of our security budget this time round would have paid for the entire security bill for the G20 summit in Pittsburgh in 2009, which clocked in at $18-million US.

An hour and a half's worth.

But then the US has never been all that concerned about security, have they?

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Bonus BS : For the G20 portion of the show, Toronto will be locked down, the CN Tower will be closed, and the Toronto Blue Jays will have to play in Philadelphia. Nothing is too much trouble to protect our safety.

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Bonus irony : Among the list of topics at the billion dollar bunfests will be how to battle poverty and get government spending under control.

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Orange Alert! Orange Alert! now with shiny things!

"Vigilance is at a medium level. This is not 9/11, but the information we have
received is of concern and we need to have heightened vigilance," said Mr. Baird.

But the attempted airliner bombing on Christmas Day could be a "pilot project" for attacks on North America and represents the first time al-Qaeda in the Arab Peninsula has attempted to strike this part of the world, Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan said.

CTV, the G&M, the Star, and NaPo are all reporting on the Transport Canada "heightened alert" for Canadian airports this last weekend, a full two weeks after the Detroit underwear bomber told of 20 more guys in Yemen planning attacks on North America.
And apparently there's also the other terrorists ...

"But sources say Canadian intelligence also had credible information of other terrorists planning to come to Canada.
Federal authorities say the terrorists did not pose a direct threat to Canada. They were not planning to blow up a Canadian airliner, nor were they planning terrorist attacks at the Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler, or some other target in Canada."
The terrorists want to use Canada as a jumping-off point to get into the U.S."

So we should be scared, but not too scared?


Robert Fife wastes no time getting to the point : The Canada-US border would be shut down immediately, he said - a disaster because 75% of our trade is with the US.

Then CTV, the Star, and the G&M all end their reports with :

In addition to the heightened security already in place, Transport Canada said it will install full-body scanners at major Canadian airports by the spring.

even though full-body scanners would not have stopped the underwear guy anyway.

Say, will we be buying the scanners promoted by former Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff, who now represents Rapiscan, "one of the leading manufacturers of whole-body-imaging machines"?

Security theatre plus expensive new shiny things.
Scanners might not be any good at detecting whatever device the next Detroit bomber is carrying; what they will do is keep our trucks rolling across the Detroit River.
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Christmas security theatre

Within days of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Barack Obama's announcement that US cruise missiles attacked Yemen in his ever-expanding war on terror, the Christmas Day bomber shows up on a flight to Detroit in his suicide underwear - on instruction, he says, from Al Qaeda in Yemen.
Make of that what you will.

In response, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration announced new security rules for flights inbound to the US :
~physical pat down at departure
~only one piece of hand luggage per customer and no access to it during the final hour of the flight
~all customers must remain in their seats for the final hour of the flight
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None of these new measures would have prevented Captain Underpants from detonating his underwear an hour and five minutes before arrival. As with the shoe bomber in 2001, it was the terrorist's incompetence and plucky passengers who saved the plane.
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