04.06.14

Links: News About Surveillance, Covert Intervention, Drones…

Posted in News Roundup at 8:05 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Domestic

Snowden

Wary of wider govt monitoring, warn Snowden, Greenwald
Edward Snowden, Glenn Greenwald urge caution of wider government monitoring at Amnesty event

Edward Snowden and reporter Glenn Greenwald, who brought to light the whistle-blower’s leaks about mass U.S. government surveillance last year, appeared together via video link from opposite ends of the earth on Saturday for what was believed to be the first time since Mr Snowden sought asylum in Russia.
Photo: Edward Snowden joins Glenn Greenwald at Amnesty International Human Rights Conference in Chicago via video conference

Privacy

Why No One Trusts Facebook To Power The Future

NSA

Watching the watchmen
Commmentary: Putting limits on the NSA reach
Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern says Edward Snowden is no traitor
Privacy? Surely you jest!

“Identity theft is a growing problem, Tom. The personal information you willingly gave about yourself exists forever in the digital ecosystem. That gives savvy technical people lots of opportunities to steal your identity and destroy your finances.”

“I didn’t realize it was that easy.”

“Identity theft is less worrisome than what government entities could do to you. Look how the IRS has been used to attack political enemies. Now imagine what government entities can do when they know EVERYTHING about you! That’s why I called you today, Tom. I called to help you.”
How U.S. won deal with internet giants shows spy-law struggle

The night before President Barack Obama’s Jan. 17 speech, O’Neil, a Justice Department lawyer, and his boss, Deputy Attorney General James Cole, got on the phone with attorneys for five major technology companies. All five were suing the U.S. government for permission to disclose the extent of those same classified government orders, which require them to hand over records of customers’ emails and Internet use.

Germany

Germany’s de Maiziere hits out at Washington over NSA
US operates global drone war from German base – ex-pilot
More NSA revelations are yet to come, says author

Only a fraction of the NSA’s spying activities has been revealed to the public, claims German journalist Holger Stark in his new book. In an interview, he tells DW more about how the “surveillance matrix” functions.

Europe

European companies boosting security to prevent NSA-type snooping

European Union governments are worried about cyberattacks from Palestine and Palestinian supporters, so will increase cybersecurity

The relationship is only special if Britain brings something to table

Ukraine

The Ukrainian crisis – a cyber warfare battlefield
Metaphysical Doubts Concerning the Existence of Modern Ukraine, a 1918 Creation of the German General Staff

The Germans had been looking for subject nationalities of the Russian Empire, which they could play against the Tsar. The obvious candidates would have been the Poles, and the Germans did later create the Kingdom of Poland as a puppet state in November 1916 on territory they had conquered. But Germany had been ruling harshly and attempting to Prussianize their part of the former Poland for more than a century, and they ran the new Kingdom of Poland in a very oppressive way, so many Poles from Russia were reluctant to have anything to do with Berlin.

Backstabbing

Why allies can’t trust Uncle Sam

US allies should wake up and realize that the FIVE EYES GROUP remains the real allies and in the Asian continent to balance issues Australia, India and Japan are used. However given that Australia belongs to the Five Eyes Group, India and Japan must seriously wonder what they are getting out of betraying their own continent just to rub shoulders with the white man?

Deception

NSA Uses Corporate News to Spread Propaganda and Silence Dissent

Investigative reporter Glenn Greenwald published an expose this week detailing how the NSA has been feeding “propaganda” to various news publications, which have happily played along. The propaganda isn’t limited just to schlock networks like Fox News, but is promulgated also by widely trusted newspapers, including The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times.
During Cold War, CIA used ‘Doctor Zhivago’ as a tool to undermine Soviet Union [article by CIA-connected Washington Post]

Drones

Captain America’s directors say new film about Obama’s kill list

Captain America directors say new film about Obama kill listMarvel’s newest film, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier,” is meant to be direct slam on President Obama’s private terrorist kill list, according to the film’s directors.
The law according to Geneva Losing
CIA is going slow on new director’s promise to pivot from drone war
CIA’s return to spying role dragging

Egypt, Syria, and Libya

Egypt court sentences police captain to death
Seymour M. Hersh on Obama, Erdoğan and the Syrian rebels

In 2011 Barack Obama led an allied military intervention in Libya without consulting the US Congress. Last August, after the sarin attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta, he was ready to launch an allied air strike, this time to punish the Syrian government for allegedly crossing the ‘red line’ he had set in 2012 on the use of chemical weapons.＊ Then with less than two days to go before the planned strike, he announced that he would seek congressional approval for the intervention. The strike was postponed as Congress prepared for hearings, and subsequently cancelled when Obama accepted Assad’s offer to relinquish his chemical arsenal in a deal brokered by Russia. Why did Obama delay and then relent on Syria when he was not shy about rushing into Libya? The answer lies in a clash between those in the administration who were committed to enforcing the red line, and military leaders who thought that going to war was both unjustified and potentially disastrous.

Obama’s change of mind had its origins at Porton Down, the defence laboratory in Wiltshire. British intelligence had obtained a sample of the sarin used in the 21 August attack and analysis demonstrated that the gas used didn’t match the batches known to exist in the Syrian army’s chemical weapons arsenal. The message that the case against Syria wouldn’t hold up was quickly relayed to the US joint chiefs of staff. The British report heightened doubts inside the Pentagon; the joint chiefs were already preparing to warn Obama that his plans for a far-reaching bomb and missile attack on Syria’s infrastructure could lead to a wider war in the Middle East. As a consequence the American officers delivered a last-minute caution to the president, which, in their view, eventually led to his cancelling the attack.
Khadafy kept enemies on ice, ran university rape dungeon

USAID/Betrayal

Cuban Government Reacts to USAID’s “Cuban Twitter” Project
US secretly built ‘Cuban Twitter’ to stir unrest

The U.S. government masterminded the creation of a “Cuban Twitter” — a communications network designed to undermine the communist government in Cuba, built with secret shell companies and financed through foreign banks, The Associated Press has learned.

The Obama administration project, which lasted more than two years and drew tens of thousands of subscribers, sought to evade Cuba’s stranglehold on the Internet with a primitive social media platform. First, the network would build a Cuban audience, mostly young people; then, the plan was to push them toward dissent.
Top 5 Things Wrong With USAID Social Media Plot Against Cuba

The US Agency for International Development established a microblogging platform similar to Twitter for Cubans. It used it to promote critical discussion of the government but also to gather private information of users. Covert operations are supposed to be approved by the White House but it is not clear this one was. The whole thing may have been illegal. Sen. Patrick Leahy said he knew nothing of the project and criticized the use of US AID as the agency to pursue it. He is right. Here’s what’s wrong with this picture:

Censorship

Erdogan Blasts Court Ruling Lifting Twitter Ban

Attack on Journalism

Barrett Brown

Barrett Brown ‘agrees plea deal in Stratfor email hack case’ – report

Barrett Brown, the activist-journalist whose prosecution linked to the 2012 Stratfor email hack sparked first-amendment concerns among internet activists, lawyers and publishers, has agreed to a plea deal, according to Wired.
Former Anon spokesman Barrett Brown copping a federal guilty plea

Over time, the authorities dropped most of the charges, which included identity theft and possession of stolen credit card numbers. The hyperlinking charge was also dismissed, setting aside a high-profile constitutional battle over posting links.

Foreign Affairs

Not Saving the Children

Such suspicion of NGOs is not a Pakistani phenomenon alone. Globally speaking, NGO-government relations are not only tenuous but also generally straitened. Civil society organizations have quadrupled in number across the developing world over the last 20 years. This in turn has generated a sense of mistrust between the state and NGOs.
US-compliant regime assured

The candidates include US groomed politicians, and drug-dealing warlords from the Tajik and Uzbek north. Chief among them, Rashid Dostam, a major war criminal and principal CIA ally who ordered the massacre of over 2,000 Taliban prisoners.
Not all veterans want to remember war
DC Has Two Team Names to Change

The Nationals, on the other hand, are part of the promotion of the worst crimes our society is currently engaged in. A National’s game is packed, inning after inning, with songs and cheers and announcements promoting war. Fans are told that the U.S. Navy is “keeping the world’s oceans safe and free” — and they stand and cheer for that, even as the U.S. Navy and Army and Air Force and Marines and assorted special forces and mercenaries and CIA kill, and kill, and kill, building hostility around the world.