01.17.14

Kill Lists Watch: End of This Week

Posted in Action at 8:01 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: News from the past couple of days about the practice of spying on people and then killing some of them

• Washington State Bill Proposes Criminalizing Help to NSA, Turning Off Resources to Yakima Facility

  The state-level campaign to turn off power to the NSA got a big boost January 15, 2014, as Washington became the first state with a physical NSA location to consider a Fourth Amendment protection act designed to make life extremely difficult for the massive spy agency.

• Turn off the NSA’s power campaign underway

  A campaign which aims to turn off the electricity to the NSA so that it can’t store data on citizens is in full swing.
  The campaign has started in Washington and appears to be part of a partisan effort to rein in the country’s Men in Black.

  Washington became the first state with a physical NSA location to consider the Fourth Amendment Protection Act, designed to make life extremely difficult for the massive spy agency.

  The Bill, which has the catchy title HB2272, has been designed by Republican David Taylor and Democrat Luis Moscoso. It was introduced to the house in the dead of night and is based on model language drafted by the OffNow coalition.

• NSA infiltrated more than 100,000 offline computers using covert devices, says leaks

• New Evidence That the NSA Isn’t Forthcoming With Congress

  Throughout the NSA leak scandal, the surveillance agency’s defenders have insisted its actions are legitimate in part because they’re overseen by all three branches of government. The characterization has always been extremely misleading. For example, the secret FISA court system is often incapable of verifying the truth of what they’re told by the NSA, and so many members of Congress were ignorant of how the Patriot Act has been interpreted prior to the last reauthorization that, had the ignorant voted the other way, it would’ve changed the outcome.

• NSA hacking tools will find their way to criminals eventually

• Obama: Speech on perceived NSA abuses a turning point

• Obama to reveal curbs on NSA spy programmes

  President Barack Obama is to announce changes to US electronic spy programmes after revelations made by ex-intelligence contractor Edward Snowden.

  He aims to restore public confidence in the intelligence community.

  Mr Obama is expected to create a public advocate at the secretive court that approves intelligence collection.

  His proposals come hours after UK media reports that the US has collected and stored almost 200 million text messages per day across the globe.

• NSA states Dishfire does exist and lawfully collects data

• NSA collects millions of text messages globally – Guardian

  The U.S. National Security Agency has been gathering nearly 200 million text messages a day from around the world, gathering data on people’s travel plans, contacts and credit card transactions, Guardian newspaper reported on Thursday.

• Revealed: UK and US spied on text messages of Brits

  A slide from a presentation, seen by The Guardian and Channel 4 News, shows how Dishfire gave spies access to a trove of information. For example, by intercepting the welcome messages phone users receive when they arrive in a new country, the NSA tracked the movements of more than 1.5 million people every day. The agency spied on phone users’ contacts by hoovering up five million missed call alerts per day, as well as business cards sent by text message.

• Report: NSA ‘collected 200m texts per day’

  The US National Security Agency (NSA) has collected and stored almost 200 million text messages a day from around the world, UK media report.

• The NSA Lied About Collecting Hundreds of Millions of Texts a Day, and Everything Else

  During a speech at a hacker convention five months ago, NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander showed a PowerPoint slide that listed eight things his agency “does NOT collect.” In the months since, every single claim has been proven a lie.

• NSA Whistleblower: NSA Is a Corrupt, Broken Institution

  NSA has come under intense scrutiny because of Edward Snowdens disclosures about their spying on all Americans. But there are more problems at NSA than their violation of the fourth amendment protections of the constitution.

• OBAMA AND THE N.S.A.: WHY HE CAN’T BE TRUSTED

• NSA defenders’ shameless “national security” bait and switch

  Mounting evidence shows surveillance has had no impact on preventing terrorism. Is the public paying attention?

• Obama Panel to Address Online Companies’ NSA Concerns

  President Barack Obama tomorrow will create a panel to examine how data-collection efforts like the National Security Agency’s spy programs affect Internet companies and privacy rights, said two people familiar with White House deliberations.

• Spying plunges U.S.-German ties lower than Iraq war: Merkel ally

• NSA: six out of 10 Americans want reform of data collection, says poll

• US set to announce NSA reforms

  Former NSA employee Edward Snowden’s leaks to the public have sparked months of controversy and could lead to reforms.

• Phone Companies to Win in Obama Plan to Leave Records at NSA

  President Barack Obama’s plan to keep phone data with the National Security Agency for now is a victory for telecommunications companies, which resisted the idea of holding the records themselves over concerns about lawsuits, lost business and unwanted responsibility.

• NSA reform measures quietly included in $1.1tn spending bill

• Huawei dismisses NSA backdoor claims as profits soar

  It’s been a mixed week for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei after the firm announced impressive financials but was forced again to deny allegations of security weaknesses in its products.

  The device and telecoms kit maker announced its unaudited financials on Wednesday, claiming sales revenue for 2013 will reach between 238 billion and 240 billion yuan (£24bn). This will be a year-on-year jump of around 8 per cent, or 11.6 per cent when measured in US dollars.

• Anti-NSA Blackphone: Encrypted smartphone designed to liberate users from total surveillance

• NSA Metadata Collection: Fourth Amendment Violation

  This issue is headed to the Court of Appeals. From there, it will likely go the Supreme Court. The high court checked and balanced President George W. Bush when he overstepped his legal authority by establishing military commissions that violated due process, and attempted to deny constitutional habeas corpus to Guantanamo detainees. It remains to be seen whether the court will likewise refuse to cower before President Barack Obama’s claim of unfettered executive authority to conduct dragnet surveillance. If the court allows the NSA to continue its metadata collection, we will reside in what can only be characterized as a police state.

• NSA Whistlebower– William Binney: Corruption in NSA, Lies About Snowden, Threats to Democracy

• Security Expert Bruce Schneier Says to Foil NSA Spies, Encrypt Everything

  In the world of cybersecurity, Bruce Schneier is an unusually accessible voice for those of us who feel we don’t quite understand what’s going on. The author of 12 books, and a prolific blogger and speaker, Schneier helped the Guardian go through the top-secret documents from the U.S. National Security Agency leaked by Edward Snowden last year.

• Privacy advocates fear ‘largely cosmetic’ NSA reform package

• Latest Revelations on NSA Likely to Change Little in US Cyber Spying

  U.S. officials are reacting cautiously to revelations published in The New York Times that the National Security Agency has found a way to spy on computers even when they are not connected to the Internet. Report says software was implanted into 100,000 computers worldwide.

• Obama set to respond to Snowden about NSA reforms in highly anticipated speech

• Two whistleblowers share concerns of NSA overreach at WCU event

  As President Obama prepares to announce Friday what action he will take with the future of the National Security Agency, two whistleblowers visited West Chester University with recommendations on how to roll back government surveillance.

  The two former NSA employees, William Binney and Thomas Drake, sat down with a WCU class Tuesday to discuss the current state of privacy in the country and their struggle for freedom.

• The NSA’s Biggest Supporter Is Worried About Drone Privacy Issues

• This Is Where Drone Operators Kill People by Remote Control

• Texas named a drone ‘site’

  With Alpine and the area off limits to drone testing, Texas still was one of the six states selected for “drone test sites,” the Federal Aviation Administration has announced.

• UC doesn’t want you to fear the dawn of drones

• Violence becoming the new norm in America

  The United States carried on two ten-year wars in Iraq and Afghanistan where we killed an estimated 250,000 civilians. We killed many more Muslim fighters by the tens of thousands. We destroyed their country with our bombs. Because those third world countries lack birth records, identification and death certificates–the numbers could be much higher.

  In most large city in America, such as Denver, newscasters relate killings every night of the week. Chicago, Houston, Detroit and Los Angeles suffer gang killings nightly.

  One in four children suffers bullying by a teen thug in high schools across America every day during school terms. In other words, our children cannot attend school without fear of being beat up, harassed, called names and demeaned by meaner, bigger students who have no other purpose in life but to manifest their thuggery.

  What bothers me: we promote horrific violence via our continuous wars promoted by bankers and the military industrial complex that profit at the cost of human lives. We promote TV violence such as “Criminal Minds” and “NCIS” where lots of people commit diabolical mayhem. We support social media arcade games for kids like “Doom” and worse. Our movies feature horrific violence that pours into our kids minds and emotions. It’s like the 60s movie “Clockwork Orange” seems normal. You can watch television “Cops” where violence becomes normal. Our drones in the Middle East kill any number of humans without identity.

• Secret amendment in Congress keeps CIA in charge of deadly drone strikes

  President Barack Obama said last May that control of the United States’ weaponized drone program would shift away from the Central Intelligence Agency and into the hands of the Pentagon, but a new report suggests Congress could keep that from happening.

• US policymakers seek to block transfer of drone campaign CIA to Pentagon

• How the CIA Shaped the Modern Middle East

  The authoritarian regimes, bloody revolutions and tense diplomatic relations in the Middle East dominate the news today. Much of this turmoil was presaged by the activities and experiences of three covert CIA officers in the 1940s and 1950s, says Hugh Wilford, professor of history at California State University, Long Beach. In “America’s Great Game: The CIA’s Secret Arabists and the Shaping of the Modern Middle East,” Wilford chronicles American adventures in the Middle East after World War II. He recently spoke to U.S. News about romanticized spy games, staged coups and the consequences of it all. Excerpts:

• DOES BEZOS’ CIA LINK, COMPROMISE WASHINGTON POST?

  A “progressive” columnist whose own organization is pursuing a “fresh approach” in contrast to “a far-right Republican Party that is a wholly owned subsidiary of corporate America,” is petitioning the Washington Post to publicize its owners’ financial investments each time it reports on the CIA.

• The Special Ops Surge: America’s Secret War in 134 Countries

• Secret Law Alert: Congress Tries to Hide Its Drone Policy

• UK not to reject from drones in military operations

• Jeremiah Wright slams President Obama at MLK event; says he has a ‘kill list’

  The Rev. Jeremiah Wright, speaking at a Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration in Chicago Wednesday, took several swipes at President Barack Obama, at one point saying that while King would have said, “I have a dream,” the president would have to say “I have a drone.”

  According to a story in The Chicago Sun Times, Wright, Obama’s former pastor, spoke at the breakfast hosted by the Chicago Teachers Union and called on those there to reject the “three-headed demon” of “racism, militarism and capitalism” — the foundations of Western society.

  Wright went on to slam the president by saying that each week Obama presides at a meeting to decide where drones will be launched.

• McCain blasts budget panel for meddling in U.S. drone policy

• Lawmakers seek to stymie plan to shift control of drone campaign from CIA to Pentagon

• There’s a Secret Provision in Congress’ Spending Bill

  Congress’ $1.1 trillion spending bill contains a secret provision torpedoing President Obama’s plans to pass the drone program from the CIA to the Pentagon. In a classified annex, the bill specifically prohibits any funds being used to facilitate such a transfer, the Washington Post reports. Obama wants to shift the CIA from its paramilitary footing back to an intelligence one, and perhaps bring greater transparency to the drone program. But lawmakers don’t trust the military with the keys.

• Congress balks at moving drone oversight from CIA to Pentagon

  Congress has moved to block President Barack Obama’s plan to shift control of the U.S. drone campaign from the CIA to the Defense Department, inserting a secret provision in the massive government spending bill introduced this week that would preserve the spy agency’s role in lethal counterterrorism operations, U.S. officials said.

• Congress Restricts Drones Program Shift

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