Quello che
si è sperimentato sulla pelle degli immigrati ora viene allargato all'intera
popolazione.
Tra le
nuove leggi che sta discutendo la Commissione Europea ce n'è una che prevede
che vengano obbligatoriamente rilevate le impronte digitali a partire dai 12
anni con la scusa ufficiale di adeguarsi agli standard statunitensi in materia
di visti, mentre il Regno Unito già da quest'anno rileva le impronte su
bambini anche di 5 anni figli di richiedenti asilo politico.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,1833407,00.html
Millions of
children to be fingerprinted
Jamie Doward, home affairs
editor
Sunday July 30, 2006
The Observer
British children, possibly as young as six, will be subjected to
compulsory fingerprinting under European Union rules being drawn up in secret.
The prints will be stored on a database which could be shared with countries
around the world.
The prospect has alarmed civil liberties groups who fear it represents a
'sea change' in the state's relationship with children and one that may lead to
juveniles being erroneously accused of crimes. Under laws being drawn up behind
closed doors by the European Commission's 'Article Six' committee, which is
composed of representatives of the European Union's 25 member states, all
children will have to attend a finger-printing centre to obtain an EU passport
by June 2009 at the latest.
The use
of fingerprints and other biometric data is designed to prevent passport fraud
and allow European member states to meet US entry visa requirements, but the
decision to fingerprint children has disturbed human rights groups.
The civil
liberties group Statewatch last night accused EU governments of taking
decisions in which 'people and parliaments have no say'. It said the
committee's decisions were simply based on 'technological possibilities - not
on the moral and political questions of whether it is right or desirable.'
'This is
a sea change,' said Ben Hayes, spokesman for Statewatch. 'We are going from
fingerprinting criminals to universal fingerprinting without any real debate.
In the long term everyone's fingerprints will be stored on a central database.
You have to ask what will be the costs to a person's privacy.'
According
to secret documents obtained by Statewatch, the committee will make it
compulsory for all children from the age of 12 to be fingerprinted. However,
several of the committee's member states are lobbying to bring the compulsory
age limit down. Sweden tells the committee it 'could agree with a minimum age
of six years for passports'.
The UK,
meanwhile, observes that it has collected the fingerprints of five-year-old
asylum seekers with no 'significant problems'. Since February the Home Office
has been fingerprinting children as young as five at asylum centres in Croydon
and Liverpool. It took the decision amid concerns children were being
registered by several families in order to claim more benefits.
Refugee
support groups, including the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants, have
described the action as 'intrusive'. The JCWI also expressed concerns that
fingerprints kept on file could be held against children if they tried to
return to the UK in later life.
Fingerprinting
young children is considered difficult because their fingers have yet to fully
develop. The European Commission notes: 'Scientific tests have confirmed that
the paillary ridges on the fingers are not sufficiently developed to allow
biometric capture and analysis until the age of six.'
A
commission spokesman said initially only member states would have access to
their citizens' fingerprint data. However, after the Madrid bombings the
commission signalled its intention for all fingerprints to be stored on one
database that could one day be accessed by each EU state. 'Whether access for
third countries will be allowed has to be decided by the EC at a later stage,'
the spokesman said. 'Nevertheless, full interoperability is ensured, should the
EU decide to give access to third countries.'
Such a
move opens up the possibility that the fingerprints of British children could
one day be accessed by foreign intelligence services. 'Secure passports make a
lot more sense than ID cards,' said Shami Chakrabarti, director of the human
rights group Liberty. 'But only as long as the information that is kept is no
more than necessary and is not shared with other countries.'
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt348.html
July 30, 2006
Images of Lebanese Death Intensify Arab Anger
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
DAMASCUS,
Syria, July 30 — The images of the dead children in southern Lebanon played across the television
screens on Sunday over and over again — small and caked in dirt and as lifeless
as rag dolls as rescuers hauled them from the wreckage of several residential
buildings pulverized hours earlier by the Israeli Air Force.
The
images were broadcast on all of the Arab-language satellite channels, but it
was the most popular station, Al Jazeera, that made the starkest point. For several hours
after rescuers reached Qana, Lebanon, the station took its anchors off the air
and just continuously played images of the little bodies there.
“This is
the new Middle East,” one report from the shattered town began, making a
sarcastic reference to a phrase Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice uttered last week
when visiting Beirut, Lebanon, and rejecting calls for an immediate cease-fire.
American
weapons caused the deaths, the report intoned. Men from the village were shown
weeping over the children as they were laid out under blankets in front of the
shattered buildings.
The anger
the deaths caused in Lebanon and elsewhere was palpable. Within hours,
thousands of demonstrators filled the streets in downtown Beirut, smashing
windows at the United Nations headquarters, one
of the few foreign buildings readily accessible.
“American-made
bombs, dropped by Israeli planes, with Arab cover,” said one sign in Arabic.
The last phrase referred to the initial criticism of Hezbollah by the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan when
the fighting erupted nearly three weeks ago. Already worried about the growing
appeal of political Islam, those governments worried that Hezbollah’s success
would only bolster the strength of Islamists.
Arab
public opinion, already convinced that Americans do not really care about Arab
lives given the dozens killed daily in Iraq, will undoubtedly sour even more on
the United States.
“There is
a feeling right now that this war is not really an Israeli war against
Hezbollah, but an American war to get rid of Hezbollah,” said Hussein Amin, the
chairman of the journalism department at the American University in Cairo. “I
think most of the coverage, in showing the dead children repeatedly, is
something that is going to provoke rage and anger throughout the Arab world.”
Protesters
marched through downtown Cairo, too, chanting support for “the resistance,” as
Arabs call the increasingly popular Hezbollah, and “to liquidate Zionists.”
Shaimaa
Mohamed, 23, walked by the demonstration with her fiancé, though they did not
take part. As they went past, she broke down into tears. “You see the images of
what’s happening: wouldn’t you cry when you see these images?” she said. “Then
there is absolutely nothing that you can do!”
One of
the demonstrators, Faweya Ali, wearing a traditional head scarf, held up a
yellow Hezbollah flag in one hand and a picture of the group’s leader, Hassan
Nasrallah. “We are with the resistance, all of the Egyptian people are with the
resistance in Iraq, in Palestine, and in Lebanon!” she shouted. “All Arab
rulers and our ruler here is an oppressor and an agent and a conspirator!”
Arab
leaders were quick to criticize the attack. The leaders of Egypt and Jordan,
which have peace treaties with Israel but face mounting public
anger over their close ties with the Bush administration, condemned Israel for
the deaths.
King Abdullah II of Jordan called the attack “an ugly crime,” while
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt labeled it “irresponsible.”
The
official Syrian news agency released a brief statement from President Bashar al-Assad, made during a condolence call to his Lebanese
counterpart, in which he labeled the attack “state terrorism.”
Amr
Moussa, the secretary general of the Arab League, called for an international investigation.
Hassan M.
Fattah contributed reporting from Beirut for this article, and Mona El Naggar
from Cairo.
|
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3283901,00.html Hundreds
of anti-war protestors in Haifa and TA Hundreds demonstrate in Haifa against IDF
operations: Wave Palestinian flags, call Olmert murderer. Thousands protest
in similar rally in Um al-Fahem. Gush Shalom and Hadash activists in TA
protest Qana incident; labor party youth movement rallies in support of
government More
than a hundred leftists, Jewish and Arab, demonstrated in Haifa against IDF
operations in Lebanon and Gaza. The protestors, who participated in a number
of anti-war rallies in recent weeks, called for an immediate ceasefire,
release of kidnapped soldiers, and negotiations with Hizbullah and Hamas. The
recent killings in Qana intensified the reactions of the protestors, who
referred to PM Ehud Olmert as a murderer, and blamed the IDF for the targeted
killing of Lebanese civilians. Protestors carried signs expressing harsh
disapproval of the government and yelled anti-government slogans. Relatively few Israelis Originally,
there were only a few dozen demonstrators in Haifa, but they were later
joined by Arab residents of Haifa. These residents carried Palestinian flags
and also censured the government, particular the prime minister and defense
minister. Rally organizers said that they intended to continue protesting until
the war ends, and appealed to other Israeli to join them. They conceded that,
up until now, few Israelis had joined them in their efforts. Thousands
of Um al-Fahem residents participated in a demonstration that took place in
the village, carrying signs against Israeli occupation and against Israeli
policy. The mayor of the village spoke at the conclusion of the rally,
pointing an accusing finger at leaders of Arab countries for not condemning
Israel's 'massacre' in Lebanon. He also accused Israeli leaders of "also
harming Muslims in Israel".
Protestors in Um al-Fahem rally (Photo: Aved Mahmid) In Tel
Aviv, some 300 people demonstrated outside the ministry of defense building,
in three separate protests: On one side of the street stood Meretz members,
including former MKs Yael Dayan and Naomi Hazan. Next to them, members of the
Arab 'Hadash' party and the Gush Shalom movement protested against the deaths
in Qana and demanded a cessation of the fighting. On the opposite side of the
street, the Labor party's youth movement held a counter-protest in support of
the government. Public being brainwashed Gush Shalom representative, Uri Avneri, regretted that the voice of
the left was not heard in the media and claimed that "the public is
being brainwashed." Former MK Tamar Gozanski, who was also present,
responded to the claim that the former unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon in
2000 led to the current situation: "We, who don't want even one day of
war, are responsible for war? Both sides have armed themselves in the past
five years. We can't acquire missiles and demand for them not to." Despite demonstrating on the same sidewalk, Meretz members made sure
to distinguish between themselves and the other ralliers. "We're a
Zionist party, that's the difference," explained Yael Dayan. "I
would never in my life voice some of the statements that the Gush Shalom
members are yelling. We're looking out for the good of Israeli residents in
the north and think that there is an opportunity to use negotiation." The
protest drew responses from passing vehicles, some who honked in support,
some who yelled in dissent. One stone was even thrown, ironically, at the
less radical Meretz crowd. At a certain point, police arrived to protect the
protestors. Likud supporter Roee Sasa quarreled with the Gush Shalom-Hadash
protestors, in an argument that almost came to blows. "What they're
doing undermines the IDF and the residents of the north. When hospitals were
hit, I didn't hear the radical left. This is collusion with then enemy;
Nasrallah is rejoicing." Sasa declared. Meirav Crystal and Sharon Roffe-Offir contributed to the report |