Abuses of Rights: News About Surveillance, Torture, and Assassination
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-02-25 20:26:12 UTC
- Modified: 2014-02-25 20:40:41 UTC
Summary: This week's news about absence of legal adherence and other moral issues
Brazil and EU/Germany
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The European Union and Brazil have agreed to lay a fibre-optic undersea communications cable across the Atlantic, between Lisbon and Fortaleza. The cable -- which will cost $185 million (€£110 million) -- is designed to "guarantee the neutrality" of the internet and "enhance the protection of communications".
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There was something of an international uproar last year when it was revealed that the NSA, in addition to snooping on its own citizens, had bugged the personal cell phone of Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany. The prospect of the U.S. spying on the head of state of a country it supposedly considers an ally infuriated many, especially Merkel, and President Obama quickly promised to stop. That promise was quickly walked back by administration officials, and on Sunday, the Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported that the NSA is still tapping the phones of Merkel’s closest aides, including Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere.
Snowden and Judgment
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Edward Snowden, who exposed these illegal activities — much like Daniel Ellsberg, who exposed the “Pentagon Papers” in the early 1970s — due probably to his conscience, is now a hunted man hiding in Russia. He is reviled by President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, House Speaker John Boehner, former Vice President Dick Cheney and Sen. John McCain, to name a few.
On Dec. 18, 2013, a panel gave the president 46 recommendations, all of which meant shut down the spying on American citizens.
That same month, a federal judge ruled the NSA spying was unconstitutional.
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A few weeks ago, Glenn Greenwald, while working with NBC News, revealed some details of a GCHQ presentation concerning how the surveillance organization had a "dirty tricks" group known as JTRIG -- the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group. Now, over at The Intercept, he's revealed the entire presentation and highlighted more details about how JTRIG would seek to infiltrate different groups online and destroy people's reputations -- going way, way, way beyond just targeting terrorist groups and threats to national security.
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Another slide lists ways to “discredit a target”: “Set up a honey-trap,” “Change their photos on social networking sites,” “Write a blog purporting to be one of their victims,” “Email/text their colleagues, neighbours, friends, etc.”
There's also a slide on how to discredit a business: “Leak confidential information to companies/the press via blogs etc,” “Post negative information on appropriate forums,” “Stop deals/ruin business relationships.”
Blackphone
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Whether classed as the device for the clinically paranoid or the suitably vigilant, the Blackphone is a compelling reason to surface from the Android seas. Periscope up!
What we're looking at is a phone that's well-timed if nothing else. In recent years Earth's paranoia has been inflated like it was some sort of mad blue-green balloon having a panic attack in space, and we're all now super vigilant about protecting our privacy. (Aren't we?)
Zuckerberg 'Anger'
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Never let it be said that the Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is one to overhype a crisis. Asked about the National Security Agency’s spying scandal, which has hit Internet firms with widespread fears among users about being snooped on, he responded: “Well, it’s not awesome.”
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CEO Mark Zuckerberg says the NSA spy scandal that broke this past summer has strained some of the company's relationships overseas.
Google, Amazon, IBM, and Microsoft
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After Amazon signed a lucrative, long-term cloud computing contract with the CIA, concerns surfaced that the Internet giant might divulge customer information to the agency. So far, a petition for Amazon’s owner to address these concerns has gathered over 29,000 signatures.
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IBM is creeping towards the cloud, picking up startups on the way, including a NoSQL database company to fill in some of the perceived shortcomings of DB2.
The acquisition of Cloudant was announced on Monday and will give IBM control of a NoSQL "database-as-a-service" (DBaaS) [As a service? What the hell was a database beforehand? A pleasure cruise? – Ed]. Financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.
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Microsoft’s Lync communications platform collects a surprising amount of sensitive, analyzable data about its users, making employers who use Lync privy to some very personal information about their employees.
Software developer Event Zero told Microsoft’s Lync 2014 conference that by using call data collected by the platform, companies could analyze information to the point of discovering intimate personal details about employees’ lives, like which are dating one another, or who in the company may be looking for another job.
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A former White House security advisor has suggested that you, dear reader, are naive if you think hosting data outside of the US will protect a business from the NSA.
"NSA and any other world-class intelligence agency can hack into databases even if they not in the US," said former White House security advisor Richard Clarke in a speech at the Cloud Security Alliance summit in San Francisco on Monday. "Non-US companies are using NSA revelations as a marketing tool."
Security
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We talked about "Certification Authorities" in the previous installment when discussing how X.509 certificates function. In the X.509 world, you don't assign trust to people's certificates, but instead pick an authority who signs all the keys. Any key bearing the CA's signature is implicitly assumed to be fully valid. Usually, there are several levels of authorities, commonly referred to as "Root authorities" and "Intermediary Authorities," and together they form a "certification chain."
Local Law
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A pair of bills in the Utah State Legislature are taking a look at the National Security Agency’s massive data center in Bluffdale.
Torture
Air Strikes
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A senior security official confirmed to The Express Tribune that CIA Director John Brennan traveled to Islamabad last Friday and held meetings with Army Chief General Raheel Sharif and his Pakistani counterpart Lt General Zaheerul Islam.
However, the official, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media, insisted that he only ‘paid a courtesy call’ on the Army Chief. “It was a routine visit,” the official added.
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The Obama administration's proposals, some of which are likely to face resistance in Congress, reflect changing fortunes for once-sacrosanct defense spending.
Drones
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It's been more than a year since incoming CIA Director John Brennan signaled his intention to shift drone warfare to the Pentagon as soon as possible. Brennan, a career spook, was said to be determined to restore the agency to its roots as an espionage factory, not a paramilitary organization. And President Obama endorsed his plan to hand drone warfare over to the military, according to administration officials.
But a funny thing happened on the way back to cloak-and-dagger. According to intelligence experts and some powerful friends of the CIA on Capitol Hill, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the agency may simply be much better than the military at killing people in a targeted, precise way—and, above all, at ensuring that the bad guys they're getting are really bad guys. And that distinction has become more important than ever at a time when Obama is intent on moving away from a "permanent war footing" and on restricting targeted killings exclusively to a handful of Qaida-linked senior terrorists.
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The U.S. government’s drone use as a means to combat global terrorism was one of the main topics at an event hosted by the Amnesty International Chapters of Georgetown University and Georgetown Law Center on Sunday night in the Intercultural Center Auditorium.
Foreign Policy
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Ukraine is delaying the formation of a new government until Thursday following the ouster of democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovych after months of protests that killed dozens of people. The Obama administration has indicated it no longer recognizes Yanukovych as Ukraine’s leader and has pledged financial support to Ukraine. President Yanukovych had come under fire for strengthening ties with Russia instead of Europe. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has rejected the interim government.
Police
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Christopher Roupe, 17, was shot by a Euharlee police officer on Friday when he answered the door. Police say he was pointing a handgun, not the video game device. Roupe was an aspiring Marine, his family said.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
- if this persists, we'll need to escalate
- Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
- Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
- Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
- Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
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- Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
- paid to promote slop
- Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
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- Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
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- If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
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- The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
- Call out the culprits
- There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
- there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
- Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
- We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
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- Links for the day
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- Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
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- Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
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- Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
- Links for the day
- Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
- Things The Register MS could (but does not) cover this morning
- Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
- Maybe Gemini Protocol's promise becomes more appealing as the Web turns to slop and bloat
- It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
- Going after powerful and high-budget interests is never easy
- Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
- For over 4 months already their facilitator in London has been under investigation by British authorities because of what's being done to my wife and I
- Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
- Talk about this? They'd rather not.
- Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
- There are August layoffs at Microsoft
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Thursday, August 07, 2025
- Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
- LLM slop helps replace information with junk or misinformation
- When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
- We know GAFAM not only worries about Gemini Protocol but also attempts to 'infiltrate' Geminispace
- The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
- Microsoft really dominates the site
- Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
- Links for the day
- Links 07/08/2025: US Punishes India Instead of Russia, Attacks Law Firms to Prevent Scrutiny
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- Read Us in Geminispace as Well
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- very frustrating
- Links 07/08/2025: Hardware Wars, Mass Recall of Colgate Total Clean Mint, More Microsoft Holes Found
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 07/08/2025: "Right To Manage" and LoRa Analysis
- Links for the day
- For the First Time in a Month OSI's "OpenSource.org" Blogs and It's Basically a Microsoft Blog Post (Microsoft Controls OSI)
- For the first time in a month OSI writes something and it is Microsoft propaganda composed by a Microsoft-salaried operative
- Microsoft, Already Borrowing 3 Billion Dollars a Month, is Trying to Cause Many People to Resign
- MSN (i.e. Microsoft) and others openly admit it
- GAFAM 'Says' is Front Page "News"
- The point of journalism is to check and assess facts, not parrot what people and companies merely claim
- Links 07/08/2025: Apple Makes False Promises, More Trouble for Microsoft
- Links for the day
- OSS Didn't Always Mean Open Source Software
- "oligarchs all the way down"
- The Register MS Does More Microsoft Sez or GitHub Sez (Says) Pieces
- 60 minutes ago
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- It's sort of like the ending of '1984'
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- The "whisper campaign" against Gemini Protocol
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- Many people are quitting Social Control Media (fewer of them announce this in public)
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- Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Replacing a Pocket Watch and Buying in Bulk
- Links for the day
- IBM is Obliterating Fedora
- "Fedora releases were shipping with an increasing number of bugs on launch day even while I was using it for a several year stretch."
- Over at Tux Machines...
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