Heidi Boghosian on Mass Surveillance

Mike Lofgren’s exceptional essay, “Anatomy of the Deep State,” delivers the roadmap that bewildered Americans need to navigate the past year’s glut of news about mass surveillance. The term “Deep State” aptly conveys how the private security industry has melded with government. It is soldered by plutocracy, perpetual war, reduction of industrial capacity, US exceptionalism and political malfunction. Lofgren is a credible and welcome interpreter of how these factors combine to exert control over us.

There's Really Bad Stuff Buried in Those 'Terms and Conditions' You're Expected Not to Read and Just Click Yes on

Last month, I had a chance to talk with John McAfee, the founder of the popular McAfee computer security programs.

We talked about how people usually don't read the terms and conditions of the smartphone applications that they download onto their phones.

But McAfee did read the terms and conditions of the Bank of America smartphone application, and what he saw was pretty shocking.

German telecom firm to roll out text, voice encryption app

Deutsche Telekom plans to launch an app for smartphones that encrypts voice and text messages. The move is the latest step taken by the firm to address users’ privacy concerns following NSA whistleblower, Edward Snowden’s, mass surveillance revelations.

The cloud-based app will encrypt each voice or text exchange between two devices using a unique code, Reuters cites Deutsche Telekom as saying in a statement.

How Will WhatsApp Coexist With a Company Whose Business It Hates?

Current distribution of WhatsApp alternatives

WhatsApp was already bad before Facebook acquired it. But at least now people woke up and are considering alternatives. Yes, this move could have come earlier, but I do welcome the new opportunity: its the first time wide spread encryption actually has a chance in the consumer market. So for most of the people out there the question is more “which alternative should I use” instead of “should I use one”. Right now I do not have the faintest idea what alternative will make the break through – but you could say I am well prepare.

FISA, the NSA, and America's Secret Court System

Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the US Courts

Many commentators following the NSA scandals have been eagerly awaiting the recommendations of the US government task force on the matter, and the proposed reforms to be implemented by President Obama to bring the spy agency under control. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, you can watch the president’s recent speech and nod your head approvingly when he talks about the “tradition of limited government” in the United States, and the constitutional limits his government is at pains to respect. Oh, and just for good measure, while you’re listening to this magnificent oration being replayed to you on YouTube, the NSA will be recording your internet browser history, or possibly even hacking your computer.[1] If you decide to click on the “like” or “dislike” buttons at the bottom of the video, that little nugget of political information can be added to their “metadata” archives, along with the rest of your internet activities. In fact, in the 42 minutes it will take you to watch the president’s speech, the NSA will have hoovered up around 40 million records of internet browsing from around the world.[2] Perhaps yours will be among them.

George Brandis refuses to back up claim that Snowden put lives at risk

Attorney general says he is aware of particular cases on the basis of intelligence briefings but will not reveal the information

The Rise of the Ethical Hacktivist

The main problem with hacktivism "remains with the legislators and officials who fail to see things in analog-equivalent terms," said Piratpartiet's Rick Falkvinge. "If getting documents to a reporter was OK in the pre-Internet age as part of our checks and balances on power, then it has to be OK in the digital age, too." Yet "many powerholders freak out at the slightest occurrence of pentesting."

Snowden 2.0: Is There a New Active Duty NSA Whistleblower?

Perhaps one of the most striking and revelatory aspects about the latest NSA surveillance news story, this one published Sunday by The Bild am Sonntag newspaper in Germany, was that it was not based on leaked documents from the now famous NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

What the paper reported, based on information provided by a "high-ranking NSA employee in Germany," was that the U.S. spy agency—after being outed for spying on German Chancellor Angela Merkel—responded to an order to refrain from spying directly on Merkel's phone by intensifying its monitoring of other high-level officals her government.

​Post-WikiLeaks, Manning, Snowden world brighter for freedom fighters

NSA Inspector General Speaks on Snowden for First Time, Says He Was ‘Manic in His Thievery’

During a day-long conference at the Georgetown University Law Center, Dr. George Ellard, the inspector general for the National Security Agency, spoke for the first time about the disclosures made by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

NSA Wants to Keep Phone Records Longer Because of Privacy Lawsuits

Justice Dept: We Need to Keep NSA Call Data ‘Indefinitely’

When the NSA sweeps up your telephone data, including who you call, when you call them, and for how long, they don’t keep that data forever. The deal with the secret FISA courts gives them five years to hold on to your data, then they’re supposed to delete it.

Obama Requests NSA Phone Records Not Be Deleted

Obama’s first change to the NSA phone records is to keep more of them – as evidence against the NSA

Q&A: Schneier on trust, NSA spying and the end of US internet hegemony

Are you worried that you are personally under surveillance?

Yes, 100 per cent: I'm a target. If the FBI tried to get a warrant on my computer based on the fact that I have worked with Snowden documents then the odds they would get it are 100 per cent. And I do take pains. But look at that NSA Tailored Access Operations catalogue from 2008. The fact that I'm running an air-gapped computer is irrelevant – if the NSA wanted in, they would get in.

The reason they are not is because they know that if it ever got out that they attacked US journalists, the shit-storm would be ginormous. I do think the NSA tries to follow the law, and the Attorney General has said [the US government] is not going to prosecute the journalists.

NSA spying revelations just the tip of the iceberg

Tom Engelhardt has a lengthy article in TomDispatch that explores the depth of the US national security state. He argues that people are deluded to think that whistle-blowers such as Edward Snowden, Chelsea (Bradley) Manning, and Julian Assange revealed the depth of spying in the US.

Arizona Anti-NSA Legislative Panel Vote Monday – Arizonans Calls Needed

We just received notice that SB1156, the Arizona 4th Amendment Protection Act will have a rules committee hearing and vote on MONDAY at 1pm.

How to stop the NSA collection of your data: Turn the water off

The NSA has taken snooping to a new level with the news that the Orwellian big brother of the U.S. Government wants to create a “national license-plate recognition database.”

The Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) stressed that the database “could only be accessed in conjunction with ongoing criminal investigations or to locate wanted individuals.”

Lawsuit: Attempted Entrapment of Activists by Military Officer & Further Evidence of Domestic Spying

A lawsuit challenging domestic military spying against citizens engaged in antiwar activism and acts of civil disobedience obtained a public record that further confirms the United States Army was involved in targeting “leftists” or “anarchists” as domestic terrorists in 2007.

Also, according to a “Democracy Now!” interview, one of the activists was pressured by the military officer, who infiltrated groups in the state of Washington, to become more interested in guns and to even publish an article in a magazine that was written from the perspective of hijackers behind the 9/11 attacks.

Schneier: NSA snooping tactics will be copied by criminals in 3 to 5 years

If you thought NSA snooping was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet: online criminals have also been watching and should soon be able to copy the agency's invasive surveillance tactics, according to security guru Bruce Schneier.

Poll: What’s The NSA Scandal Done To Your Attitudes?

Now surveillance by governments has been exposed, has the NSA scandal affected your trust for leading Internet brands?

Former White House Cybersecurity Chief Criticizes NSA

Richard Clarke, the first cybersecurity czar at the White House, said Tuesday that "terrible" internal cybersecurity at the National Security Agency was responsible for allowing former NSA contractor Edward Snowden to download about 1.5 million classified documents.

Richard Clarke: Potential for American ‘police state’ created by NSA

IE zero-day exploit being used in widespread attacks

The number of attacks exploiting a yet-to-be-patched vulnerability in Internet Explorer has increased dramatically over the past few days, indicating the exploit is no longer used just in targeted attacks against particular groups of people.

The vulnerability affects Internet Explorer 9 and 10 and was publicly revealed on Feb. 13 by researchers from security firm FireEye who found an exploit for the flaw being served from the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) website. Security researchers from security firm Websense later reported that the same vulnerability was being exploited from the compromised website of French aerospace association GIFAS (Groupement des Industries Francaises Aeronautiques et Spatiales).

Apple security flaw could be a backdoor for the NSA

Was the National Security Agency exploiting two just-discovered security flaws to hack into the iPhones and Apple computers of certain targets? Some skeptics are saying there is cause to be concerned about recent coincidences regarding the NSA and Apple.

Obama assessing four alternatives to NSA phone data collection: WSJ

The Obama administration has been presented with four wide-ranging options on how to reform the National Security Agency's (NSA) phone data collection program — including doing away it altogether — according to a report from the Wall Street Journal. Citing officials close to the matter, the Journal reports that intelligence officials presented the options ahead of the March 28th deadline that President Barack Obama set forth in a speech about NSA reform earlier this year.

N.Y. man’s prosecution in terrorism case relied partly on surveillance done without a warrant

Jaffer, who argued the Supreme Court case on behalf of the plaintiffs, said that questions remain about how the Justice Department arrived at its initial policy. “They don’t actually explain how they could have concluded that it was lawful to conceal the role that the FISA Amendments Act played in criminal investigations,” he said. “They haven’t explained their prior policy or how they arrived at it.’’

NSA surveillance: A new door to court challenges?

The government is notifying some defendants accused of terrorism that it used more National Security Agency surveillance than it disclosed during their court proceedings.

RSA chairman defends company’s links with the NSA

Art Coviello says security company’s relationship is strictly above board as he calls for the breakup of the NSA into separate organisations

Utah can still tax NSA, but probably won’t

After long debate over whether to give the NSA Data Center a $6 million tax break on its electric bill, the Senate passed a bill Tuesday that keeps the authority to tax the center intact, but makes it unlikely the state will ever actually levy the tax.

Amazon-CIA Cloud Contract Is A Recipe For Big Brother Hell, Warn Privacy Activists

The slogan “Amazon and you’re done” may have just taken on a whole new meaning -- at least for enemies of the state.

Privacy advocates and media watchdogs are challenging a contract between Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, calling it a potentially “ominous” convergence of mass surveillance and perpetual war.

Three reasons everything (the toilet) needn't be connected to the internet

Former CIA tech chief is on the prowl for big data & wearables startups (exclusive)

New assaults on American law -- more shocking revelations about NSA spying

In the months since Edward Snowden revealed the nature and extent of the spying that the National Security Agency (NSA) has been perpetrating upon Americans and foreigners, some of the NSA’s most troublesome behavior has not been a part of the public debate.

This behavior constitutes the government’s assaults on the American legal system. Those assaults have been conducted thus far on two fronts, one of which is aimed at lawyers who represent foreign entities here in America, and the other is aimed at lawyers who represent criminal defendants against whom evidence has been obtained unlawfully and presented in court untruthfully.

Reddit Mods Bury Glenn Greenwald's Story On GCHQ/NSA Use Of Internet To 'Destroy Reputations'

Mike's coverage of leaks showing the NSA and GCHQ using the internet to "manipulate, deceive and destroy reputations" (as reported by Glenn Greenwald at firstlook.org) hit the front page of Reddit yesterday, generating lots of traffic for Techdirt. This traffic truly should have gone to firstlook.org, but never made it there. A look at the top comments on our coverage show why...

GCHQ's dirty-tricking psyops groups: infiltrating, disrupting and discrediting political and protest groups

New NSA Docs Confirm Long-Held Blogger Fears: There Are Government Trolls Among Us

The Internet has provided a forum for average people throughout the world to disseminate, share and debate information unattenuated by gatekeepers in the mainstream media and their politically connected friends. New media outlets like Personal Liberty Digest™ have, for years, been warning readers that the well-connected and ruling elite, displeased by this newfound proletariat freedom, have been prolific in attempts to undermine and marginalize information provided by any media outlet unwilling to obey the same unspoken rules that govern the content choices of major media outlets.

Snowden's latest: NSA sets up online "Honey Traps" to capture people

The leaks just don't stop from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, with Glenn Greenwald reporting on his latest leak that US spy agencies manipulate and control online behavior in more ways than one.

US drone war must be 'brought into the light' - video

Kareem Khan's brother and son were killed in a Pakistan drone strike in 2009. Now he is in the UK to meet MPs and tells Channel 4 News "most drone strikes are killing innocent people".

European complicity in US drone strikes must be stopped, MEPs to warn

A draft resolution sponsored by the Green group of MEPs and enjoying cross-party support will be debated today (26 February) and voted on tomorrow between 12 and 2pm. The resolution condemns the extrajudicial killings resulting from drone strikes, notes an increase in strikes in recent years in places like Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia, and demands full transparency from those Member States that possess drones technology (including the UK).

Op-Ed: Report shows Yemen drone strike likely broke guidelines

Human Rights Watch issued a 28-page report investigating the attack in December 2013 on a wedding procession in Yemen. The attack killed at least 12 men and wounded at least 15 others including the bride.

Obama Drones On: The Slaughter of Pakistani Civilians

President Obama should be justly haunted by the slaughter of innocents, especially the ones he has personally condemned to death on untested evidence. But it’s hard to imagine him actually being haunted by any of his lethal failures, perhaps least of all by innocents condemned by the mere turning down of his imperial thumb in these or any other circumstances. The Nobel Peace Prize winner hardly sounds haunted when he’s quoted saying, “Turns out I’m really good at killing people. Didn’t know that was gonna be a strong suit of mine.”

Drone strikes on foreign soil are difficult to justify

On Feb. 10, mass media were embroiled with an intense debate. The debate was about the United States government’s possible drone strike on a U.S. citizen who lives abroad. The target is not just an ordinary U.S. citizen, but a terrorist affiliated with al-Qaeda who happens to hold a U.S. citizenship due to his original place of birth.

My question is: Why would the government even discuss conducting such an extreme measure? Why wouldn't they just send some UDT/NAVY SEAL teams to capture him and bring him to American soil for judicial proceedings? Under what authority and right can the government of the United States attempt to kill an American citizen by bombing without a trial or judicial review, ignoring fundamental human rights, not to mention the Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments? What happened to “due process” and “right in judicial proceedings?” There are so many questions to be answered, and I would like to narrate several points mentioned from a CNN debate, and past statements of government officials.

Forecasts of terrorist apocalypse? Never mind

LETTER: Thoughts about proposed cuts to defense

On my way to work one morning this week, I was listening to Fox News on Sirius. Bill Hemmer was interviewing Ralph Peters, a retired lieutenant colonel. The two were complaining the Defense Department was proposing cuts to our troop levels. Currently, they said, our army has 520K members, but now defense is proposing cutting it "about a 100K down to 440K-450K." They then stated how Turkey will have a bigger army than us.

I knew this was untrue. When I got to work and looked up the numbers, I found that Turkey has 450K active duty and 378K reserves. We have 1.4 million active and 850K reserves. The report was beyond misleading as it was comparing just our Army to Turkey's full force. I could say we have a smaller force than Cambodia if I only counted our Coast Guard. This wasn't misleading, it was outright deceitful.

We also spend more than the next 10 countries combined in our military. And sorry, but I don't think one Turkish soldier is equal to an American soldier. We have the best jets, tanks, ships, carriers, soldiers, seamen, airmen, and let's not forget the Marines.

[...]

On a different note, but one rarely discussed: Do we think the Iraq War, Afghanistan War, Gitmo and drones make us more safe or are terrorist organizations using these as propaganda to recruit more terrorists?

Moazzam Begg a Political Prisoner Again

What the British state did to me for opposing their torture programme was bad enough, but nothing to what Moazzam suffered. Yet he is much less embittered than I am.

Lisa Hajjar talks about torture in Guantanamo Bay

Lisa Hajjar, a sociologist from University of California, Santa Barbara, presented a lecture Feb. 24 discussing her research about the military commission trial at Guantanamo Bay for the men responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

“Let’s Go to Guantanamo! An On-the-Ground Perspective on the 9/11 Trial” was an in-detail discussion of 9/11 accountability, the issue of secret prisons and CIA torture.

Karl Rove: House Panel Must Press for Benghazi Answers

In an op-ed piece in the online Wall Street Journal on Wednesday night, Rove, once President George W. Bush's deputy chief of staff, said it would be too difficult for Congress to get National Security Adviser Susan Rice to testify under oath — and he blasted her expressed lack of regret Sunday for having said at the time that the siege was a result of protests against an offensive video denigrating Islam.

Rove: The Endless Benghazi Coverup

Is the Rebellion in Ukraine Really Aimed at Creating a National Socialist State?

The award-winning journalist Max Blumenthal is exactly right to suggest, as he does in his recent AlterNet piece, that the U.S. has ties to Nazi and fascist protesters in Ukraine. The CIA agrees with him, and so did George Bush Sr. The only difference in their appraisal is the use of the term Neo-Nazi , rather than Nazi. It is just too hard for anyone to fathom that large communities of World War II Nazis not only survived, but have thrived and been protected all these years in Lviv (a city and provincial district in western Ukraine), the USA, and Canada.

Neocons and the Ukraine Coup

American neocons helped destabilize Ukraine and engineer the overthrow of its elected government, a “regime change” on Russia’s western border. But the coup – and the neo-Nazi militias at the forefront – also reveal divisions within the Obama administration, reports Robert Parry.

Ukraine and the “Politics of Anti-Semitism”: The West Upholds Neo-Nazi Repression of Ukraine’s Jewish Community

The US and the EU are supporting the formation of a coalition government integrated by Neo-Nazis which are directly involved in the repression of the Ukrainian Jewish community.

Ukrainian Neo-Nazis Declare that Power Comes Out of the Barrels of their Guns

The Washington-paid schemers are now reaping their just reward as they sit in craven silence while neo-nazi Muzychko wielding an Ak-47 challenges government officials to their face: “I dare you take my gun!”

NSA reform advocates oppose White House proposal to hand data to FBI

Jim Sensenbrenner among those concerned by proposals on the table and says stance to end bulk surveillance is ‘unwavering’

Everyone is after personal data, not just the NSA

Forget the NSA, the LAPD Spies on Millions of Innocent Folks

Edward Snowden ripped the blinds off the surveillance state last summer with his leak of top-secret National Security Agency documents, forcing a national conversation about spying in the post-9/11 era. However, there's still no concrete proof that America's elite intelligence units are analyzing most Americans' computer and telephone activity — even though they can.

Los Angeles and Southern California police, by contrast, are expanding their use of surveillance technology such as intelligent video analytics, digital biometric identification and military-pedigree software for analyzing and predicting crime. Information on the identity and movements of millions of Southern California residents is being collected and tracked.

Does Life Mean Life? - The Fight over Whole Life Tariffs

As has been widely reported (BBC, Daily Mail, Guardian, Telegraph) the Court of Appeal has approved the use of "whole life tariffs" for murderers, seemingly contradicting the European Court of Human Rights. But as the reporting seems to miss some of subtleties of the judgment it is worth a closer look.