Tampa Police Eliminate Controversial Facial-Recognition System
Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security camera system that scanned city streets for criminals, citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone wanted by authorities.

Gulf War Veterans Sue Banks, Companies
Sixteen veterans from the Persian Gulf War filed suit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y., against 11 chemical companies and 33 banks from throughout the world that allegedly helped Iraq construct and support its extensive chemical warfare program. The suit alleges that evidence shows the companies "built Saddam Hussein's nerve gas and mustard gas factories, supplied him with chemical weapons production equipment, and sold him the bulk chemical precursors used to make his chemical weapons." It asks to become a class action on behalf of all veterans of the 1991 gulf war who can prove they became sick from chemical weapons' fallout.

Moussaoui Nuttiness
In his latest legal affronts, so-called 20th hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui mocks the victims of the September 11 attacks, noting that the nation's "9/11 balance sheet show a staggering 3000 deficit" in its "human resources account." In a court filing just unsealed by federal judge (and which you'll find below) Leonie Brinkema, Moussaoui drew a crude "WTC profit & loss account" statement that listed "3000 sons of evils" in the loss column and "19 slaves of Allah" in the profit column.

America Two Years after 9/11: 25 Things We Now Know
Last year, close to the time of the first anniversary of the 2001 terror attacks, I wrote "Twenty Things We've Learned One Year After 9/11." Now we're approaching the second anniversary, and it's time for an update. Things we could only speculate about a year ago have taken place -- to name just three: an invasion and occupation of Iraq (based on misleading intelligence and outright lies), an administration that may have committed the treasonous act of deliberately revealing the identity of a CIA agent, and shocking revelations about the computer-screen voting system now being put into place around the country for the 2004 election.

F.B.I. Accused of Corrupting Computer Surveillance
A defense lawyer in a New York terrorism prosecution has accused the government of mishandling the computerized surveillance records of thousands of phone calls, faxes and computer data collected in the case, a secret filing shows.

Israel's undercover assassins
They had been convicted of helping Israel's security services assassinate a leading Palestinian activist last year. Such killings are carried out by the Israeli army, or by Shin Bet, Israel's security services, known to Israelis as the Shabak. The Shabak is thought to have a large network of Palestinian agents on the West Bank. This allows Israel to identify those it says have carried out, or will carry out, "terrorist bombings". "Targeted military actions" - what the Palestinians call assassinations - are the result.

Why aren't we shocked?
What does it take to become a major news story in the summer of Arnold and Kobe, Ben and Jen? A lot, as a group of young Filipino soldiers discovered recently. On July 27, 300 soldiers rigged a giant Manila shopping mall with C-4 explosives, accused one of Washington's closest allies of blowing up its own buildings to attract U.S. military dollars -- and still barely managed to make the international news.

Nuclear power plant hit by Slammer virus
KEVIN POULSON at Security Focus is reporting that a network at Ohio's Davis Besse power plant was brought down earlier this year by the Slammer virus. According to the article, the intrustion by the virus pulled down its safety monitoring system for five hours, but the owners of the site, First Energy, claim that the downing didn't pose any kind of safety risk. The magazine said the incident came to light after First Energy sent an email to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The Slammer first penetrated the firewall through an unsecured consultant's network and gained access to the plant through an unsecured T1 line.