101124
submission
Eelco writes:
The monopolist provider of software used during elections in The Netherlands has threatened the Dutch state after the state ordered security enhancements right before the parliamental elections of 2006. This was discovered by the we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation who received, invoking the Dutch Freedom of Information Act, shocking internal documents from the Dutch Electoral Council. In one of the e-mails, the companies owner Jan Groenendaal threatens (translated) that his company will cease all activity if Rop Gonggrijp of the we-don't-trust-voting-computers foundation becomes a member of the independent commission that is investigating the future of the electoral process. Moreover, he demands the state to buy his company, in exchange for his cooporation during the next national elections. The full story shows a weird an almost not imaginable relationship between the Dutch state and the company that provides all software to tabulate election results, as well as the software used in 90% of the voting machines itself.
100716
story
Coryoth writes
"The Canadian parliament has voted against renewing anti-terror laws that had been introduced after September 11, 2001. The rejected laws included provisions to hold terror suspects indefinitely, and to compel witnesses to testify, and were in some sense Canada's version fo the Patriot Act. The laws were voted down in the face of claims from the minority Conservative government that the Liberal Party was soft on terror, and despite the fact that Canada has faced active terrorist cells in their own country. The anti-terror laws have never been used, and it was viewed that they are neither relevant, nor needed, in dealing with terrorist plots. Hopefully more countries will come to the same conclusion."