Technology sold by Microsoft to the Chinese government has been used by Beijing to censor the internet, and resulted in the jailing of its political opponents.

An Amnesty International report has cited Microsoft among a clutch of leading computer firms heavily criticised for helping to fuel 'a dramatic rise in the number of people detained or sentenced for internet-related offences'.

China is the world's most aggressive censor of the internet. Websites are banned for using words such as 'Taiwan', 'Tibet', 'democracy', 'dissident' and 'human rights'. Amnesty has recorded dozens of cases of political opponents jailed for circulating material offensive to the Chinese government.

Microsoft told The Observer: 'We are focused on delivering the best technology to people throughout the world. However, how that technology is used is with the individual and ultimately not in the company's control.'

Chinese dissidents say that despite the government's best efforts to stop them, they are successfully using the internet to spread their messages ever more widely through the world's most populous country.

"The more they do to block it, the more people want to get online," said Liu Xiaobo, who spent years in detention after leading a hunger strike in 1989 in support of the student democracy protesters on Tiananmen Square.

The government needs the internet as an integral part of China's economic opening up, but consistently tries to block anything it dislikes, stepping up its efforts during major events such as the National Party Congress, he said.

Although some subjects are still taboo, many of these internet discussions, bulletin boards and petitions have given birth to grassroots groups. Sometimes they succeed in having their causes taken up in the mainstream media, and even changing government policy.

Computer security experts hired to hack electronic voting machines manufactured by Diebold Election Systems found that flaws in the machines could result in malicious insiders or outsiders stealing an election.

William Arbaugh, a University of Maryland assistant professor of computer science who participated in the test, graded the system an "F," "with the possibility of raising it to a 'C' with extra credit -- that is, if they follow the recommendations we gave them."

"I was really surprised with the totality of the problems we found. Just about everywhere we looked we found them," Arbaugh said.

Diebold President Bob Urosevich said in the release that the Raba Technologies report confirmed "the accuracy and security of Maryland's voting procedures and our voting systems as they exist today."

"They took a study that was highly critical of them and claimed victory. I don't understand the continuous need to insist that things are OK," said Avi Rubin, director of the Information Security Institute at Johns Hopkins University and author of an earlier report critical of the Diebold system.

To amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.

December 8, 2003
Mr. OSE (for himself and Mr. SMITH of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

A BILL
To amend section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, to provide for the punishment of certain profane broadcasts, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 1464 of title 18, United States Code, is amended--

(1) by inserting '(a)' before 'Whoever'; and

(2) by adding at the end the following:

'(b) As used in this section, the term 'profane', used with respect to language, includes the words 'shit', 'piss', 'fuck', 'cunt', 'asshole', and the phrases 'cock sucker', 'mother fucker', and 'ass hole', compound use (including hyphenated compounds) of such words and phrases with each other or with other words or phrases, and other grammatical forms of such words and phrases (including verb, adjective, gerund, participle, and infinitive forms).'.

Two detailed reports have thrown serious doubt on whether Iraq had any nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or even the means to make them, at the time when the US cited this as its major reason for going to war.

The first report was released on Thursday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think-tank in Washington DC. It cites intelligence information and material uncovered by weapons inspectors to conclude that while Iraq still wanted such weapons, it did not have any, or any means to produce them, in 2002. The one exception was continuing illicit work on long-range missiles.

The second report, in the Washington Post, cites new documentary evidence and testimony from Iraqi scientists showing the same thing. However, this evidence also indicates that Saddam Hussein decided not to prove Iraq's lack of weapons of mass destruction to inspectors, as the UN demanded.

According to this NY Times article (registration required), while Congressional members were busy passing the U.S. anti-spam law that will go into effect on January 1, they were also busy sending unsolicited e-mail to their constituents. This activity was aimed at growing the subscriber base receiving their political messages because these email lists are not subject to the normal 90-day blackout period before an election where members are forbidden to use taxpayer-supported Congressional mass communications. Consumer advocacy groups say that this policy may be unfair to the challengers because this loophole could be used by elected officials to communicate with voters right up to Election Day.