Links: News About Surveillance, Covert Intervention, Drones...
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2014-04-06 13:05:41 UTC
- Modified: 2014-04-06 13:09:35 UTC
Domestic
Snowden
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.
Privacy
NSA
“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.”
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
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 Union governments are worried about cyberattacks from Palestine and Palestinian supporters, so will increase cybersecurity
UK
Ukraine
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
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
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.
Drones
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.
Egypt, Syria, and Libya
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.ââ¬â¹Ã¯Â¼Å 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.
USAID/Betrayal
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.
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
Attack on Journalism
Barrett Brown
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
Torture
Tony Blair knew in detail about the CIA’s secret kidnap and interrogation programme after the September 11 attacks and was kept informed “every step of the way” by MI6, a security source has told The Telegraph.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- European Authorities, Already Bribed and Infiltrated by Microsoft, Won't Help You Find BigBlueButton, Jami, Ring, and Jitsi
- Because they're paid by Microsoft and are Microsoft 'addicts' themselves
- Moving From Content Management Systems (CMSs) to Static Site Generators (SSGs) Saves You Time, Makes You a Lot More Productive
- try to reduce the cost (financial and computational) of running your site
- Leak: European Patent Office (EPO) is Now Attacking Amicale Clubs
- corruption has become the norm and scientists are robbed of any dignity
- Oracle Fraud (or Defrauding Shareholders)
- "the obvious [lie] is that watts are (wasted) electricity [and] and FLOPS are computing capacity"
- Explaining (in Length and Depth) the Damage Matthew Garrett Did to Linux and to GNU/Linux Users
- no matter how many threats we receive
-
- The Register MS Still Takes Money to Hype Up "AI" in Articles by Microsoft Resellers With the Term "AI" 30+ Times in Them
- Notice how many times they mention "AI"
- The Apache Logo News is VERY Old, Racists and 'Anti-Woke' Bigots Look for Something to Incite Other Bigots With
- Nothing to see here, move along
- Linux Mint 9/11: "4th One Today..." (in Reddit)
- Remember that not everyone having an issue reports it to social control media like Reddit
- Nepal Will Fall Without a Single Shot Fired, Thanks to Social Control Media
- Or very few shots (by the authorities)
- European Corruption in the European Patent Office (EPO) Targets Culture
- "In reality, the project includes a new “legal instrument” shifting administrative burden and liability on EPO staff while creating new uncertainty and externalising Amicale activities."
- UEFI Secure Boot Failing, as Expected for Nearly 15 Years Already (Techrights Said This Since 2012)
- in the media
- Debian 9/11
- people report this issue
- Gemini and Web Links 13/09/2025: MElon's Slop Grift and "Autonomous Trains"
- Links for the day
- Pursuing Peace Through Violence
- You cannot "see" a person's mind, until the mouth opens
- Can We Please Stop Celebrating Shooters?
- "An important point to hammer on is that CoCs were never intended for uniform or symmetric application"
- Geminispace is Growing Faster in 2025 Than It Did in 2024
- What matters is that corporations haven't ruined it and LLM slop is extremely rare
- Links 13/09/2025: China Punishes for 'Negative' Posts, US Police Unable to Find Shooter
- Links for the day
- Who's the Mystery Financier of SLAPP Against Techrights and Is That a Millionaire/Billionaire?
- Whose idea was it to fund meritless lawsuits against my wife and I?
- Slopwatch: Slow Slop Day
- This distracts from or may take traffic away from the original articles, actually written by actual people
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 12, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, September 12, 2025
- CoC Gone Wrong: Celebrating Murder OK, Complaining About the Celebration Gets You Banned
- Hopefully the NixOS Foundation will have a word with (maybe replace) the moderator/s
- Gemini Links 12/09/2025: Familiarity and Secondary Dominants
- Links for the day
- Links 12/09/2025: "Bad Reviews" as Extortion Weapon, "Free Speech At Risk in America’s Schools" According to ACLU
- Links for the day
- Only One Speaker Does Not Do Sharecropping for MElon (in X.com)
- The man who puts principles before PR/optics
- The Mind of the 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI'
- in a nutshell
- A Day After "UEFI 9/11": UEFI Secure Boot Bypass
- In the news today (right now), as published in the past few hours
- Links 12/09/2025: Slop Code as Liability, Microsoft Outlook Down for Many
- Links for the day
- It's Still Not to Late to Turn Off "Secure Boot"
- If people reboot their PC or server today, and it relies on "Secure Boot" on Sept. 12 or later, then depending on the firmware there may be trouble ahead
- Links 12/09/2025: Shira Perlmutter is Back, “Software Per Se” Patent Rejections in In re McFadden
- Links for the day
- Slopwatch: Linux Plagiarism, Slopfarms Still Infesting Google News, Many Images Are Fake
- Google is promoting plagiarism
- "This Morning Might Turn Out to be an Interesting One for System Admins Who Haven't Updated Their Devices' Secure Boot Certificate" (If They Reboot)
- Who asked for this anyway?
- Gemini Links 12/09/2025: Metric System, Dumping Windows, and Software Architecture is Dead
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
- GNU/Linux news for the past day
- IRC Proceedings: Thursday, September 11, 2025
- IRC logs for Thursday, September 11, 2025
- Microsoft Admits the Workers Have Lost Trust (Endless Layoffs, 12-13 Rounds of Layoffs This Year), So Now It's Trotting out Its Peter Bright-Like Media Prop Jordan Novet
- What they don't want people to pay attention to right now
- Links 11/09/2025: Windows TCO and Russian Drones Invading Poland (EU/NATO)
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 11/09/2025: xkcd, misfin, and Alhena 5.3.2
- Links for the day
- Repetition of Last Summer (Microsoft Breaking Dual-Boot Systems)
- UEFI 9/11 is about to kick in
- UEFI 'Secure Boot' Boiling Frogs (Cannot Turn Off 'Secure Boot')
- "MSI laptop is locked on Secure Boot and doesn't allow me to turn it off"
- UEFI 9/11 Aftermath - Part IV: The 'Hulk Hogan of UEFI' and His 'Hideout' Holiday (Retreat From Reality)
- Let's keep an eye on what matters
- UEFI 9/11 Aftermath - Part III: Mr. 'Secure Boot' (Shim) and His Fake 'Holiday' (Sending My Wife and I Threatening E-mails on 9/11)
- despite being on holiday, according to him, he finds time to instruct lawyers to contact my wife
- UEFI 9/11 Aftermath - Part II: "The SecureBoot Thing Got Out of Hand."
- The next few weeks might be... interesting
- UEFI 9/11 Aftermath - Part I: "I Believe This Affects Thousands of Devices... Because Multiple Devices I Checked, Whether Client or Server [...] Affected."
- Most people aren't even aware that this is happening or about to happen
- The UEFI 9/11 - Part X - An Outline of the Series About Microsoft Sabotaging GNU/Linux (With Ramifications to Unfold Online in Coming Weeks as People Reboot)
- Today is UEFI 9/11 (9/11/2025)
- Ron Wyden: Microsoft Should be Held Accountable for Security Breaches (He Has Said This for Years Already, It Never Happens)
- Negative media coverage isn't a fine and it does nothing to compensate Microsoft's billions of victims
- Culture of silence: Ubisoft harassment convictions, Mozilla, Sylvestre Ledru & Debian make no comment
- Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
- Disable 'Secure Boot' (If It Lets You)
- it doesn't put you in control
- Links 11/09/2025: "Hey Hi" Ponzi Schemes at Oracle (Unpaid Contracts) and Cindy Cohn is Leaving the EFF
- Links for the day
- Longtime Red Hat Staff: Maybe Just Disable 'Secure Boot'
- A refreshing take from Adam Williamson
- Gemini Links 11/09/2025: Playdate Console, Dichotomy between the Real and the Digital
- Links for the day
- A Dozen Observations About "UEFI 9/11" Deflections
- What we are expected to see, tentatively
- The Microsoft AstroTurfing and Microsoft-Led Blame-Shifting Tactics Are Ahead of Us
- Of course it has nothing to do with security, it's about control, i.e. them controlling everything
- Celebrating Assassination is Bad Because It Legitimises Assassination of the People You Like, Too
- Condoning or even celebrating political assassinations is bad optics (and taste)
- The World's Richest Ponzi Scheme (Faking Value Using Net Waste)
- The higher they go the harder they fall
- We Could Dual-Boot Back in the 1990s, Why Has This Become So Difficult?
- And prone to breakage
- Being Conditioned to Accept Unreliable Computer Systems That Fail With Black Screen of Death (BSoD)
- Welcome to 2025
- Slopwatch: Google News is Still Promoting Many Fake Articles About "Linux", in Effect Rewarding Misinformation and Plagiarism
- things continue to deteriorate
- New Series: The Coup Against GNU/Linux Has Begun
- today, this year in particular, we shall also focus on Secure Boot, which is sold based on a lie and tortures many computer user
- New Paper on "BYOVD, but in firmware. Signed UEFI shells, vulnerable modules offer new paths for Secure Boot bypasses."
- One might say digital "security theatre"
- Links 11/09/2025: Oracle Layoffs, Drunk Pilots in Japan Airlines, US-Korea Tensions Grow
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, September 10, 2025
- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 10, 2025