Bonum Certa Men Certa

Links 24/5/2015: CrossOver 14.1.3, NTFS-3G Vulnerability





GNOME bluefish

Contents





GNU/Linux



Free Software/Open Source



Leftovers



  • Science



    • 20 First Photos from the History of Photography
      Photography has been a medium of limitless possibilities since it was originally invented in the early 1800s. The use of cameras has allowed us to capture historical moments and reshape the way we see ourselves and the world around us. To celebrate the amazing history of photography and photographic science, we have assembled twenty photographic ‘firsts’ from over the past two centuries.




  • Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression



    • Fascists Flipping Burgers in Saigon or Stalingrad
      These legends have some fundamental similarities. They are based on deliberate misrepresentations of the war and obfuscation with regard to the interests involved. In order to explain the deceptions behind the Vietnam Syndrome it is necessary to examine the “other war”. Contrary to much official history of US involvement in Indochina—the stuffing of almost all the films made—whether documentary or feature—the war began and ended as a CIA operation. The confusion as to war aims, strategy, tactical and operational effectiveness arise entirely from the fact that more than probably any other war fought with conventional forces—up to that time (except Korea but that war hasn’t ended yet)—the war in Vietnam was initiated, managed, funded, advertised and ultimately waged by the invisible army of US capitalism.


    • Unlike Chavez, Chavistas Appealed To A Powerless US President Who Works For Investors In Genocide!
      Yet, Obama is known to be just another powerless US president serving war industrialized Wall Street and at present dutifully ordering lethal multi nation bombings.


    • Congress must not abdicate its duty to authorize or declare war
      Despite the fact that the US plans on conducting airstrikes on Isis in Iraq and Syria for years, the Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that key members in the House and Senate have resigned themselves to the fact that there’s virtually no chance of Congress agreeing on any sort of bill to constrain or legalize the Obama administration’s bombing campaign in the Middle East.


    • Pentagon sham: Defense Dept altered books in long-awaited audit, reports claim
      The US Defense Department’s watchdog knowingly turned a blind eye to financial irregularities, leading to the Pentagon signing off on an audit. This has led to questions regarding just how transparent the government auditing process actually is.

      A special investigation by Reuters revealed that a senior member of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Inspector General team had colluded with an independent auditing company, Grant Thornton LLP, to falsely keep the US Marine Corps books clean.


    • Inside the fall of an Army Green Beret hero


    • Is the US-UK's special relationship in decline?
      Is Anglo-America a failed state? In the realm of intelligence and national security, the special relationship is being tested.

      As he spoke to a crowd of Americans, Britain's defence minister, Michael Fallon, had a US-UK flag pin on his lapel.

      "Just as together we broke the bonds of totalitarianism and tyranny in the Second World War," he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in March, "so we faced down the threat of communism in the cold war".


    • TribuneDrones, jets and sovereignty
      There is no independent identification of the casualties or any explanation as to why they were targeted.


    • Lindsey Graham Literally Says U.S. Drones Should Kill Americans Who Consider Joining ISIS


    • Lindsey Graham’s comments on drones were very blunt
      It's springtime, and Republicans are feeling hawkish again. See how Sen. Rand Paul's views on foreign policy have shifted as he's adopted a more aggressive stance. It wasn't that long ago when the Kentucky Republican was staging a talking filibuster against the Obama administration's drone policy, warning the American people that the president might deploy a drone against an American citizen on American soil without judicial process.


    • Lindsey Graham Will Drone You for Thinking About Joining ISIS
      At the Lincoln Day Dinner dinner in Des Moines Saturday night, Senator and probable 2016 candidate Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would have no problem droning potential ISIS recruits, and was so excited to do so he reckoned he might could skip the whole due process part.


    • Women and children targeted by US drones: Pundit


    • Why Elites Love Drones
      Elites want more violence. They are unconcerned that innocent civilians are killed.


    • Good Kill - American Sniper with Drones


    • Drone strikes take a terrible toll in innocent lives
      The truth is that we can never be certain who is in the target zone of any drone strike. Even though drones spent a week watching this compound, it is obvious that drones cannot see everything in the area.


    • Drone Warfare’s Costs and Benefits
      Lethal drones are President Obama’s weapon of choice in striking at suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists in remote areas, but – as with any weapon of war – there must be a cost-benefit analysis, including whether drone strikes create more enemies than they kill, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains.


    • US drone complex bureaucratizes murder
      Machinery of lethal strikes enjoys moral and legal impunity – as intended


    • Justice Department issues policy on domestic drone use
      The Justice Department is acknowledging that the FBI, DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies are likely to make increasing use of unmanned aerial drones in the United States.


    • The Future of War
      MALE VOICEOVER (Good Kill, Voltage Pictures): The remotely-piloted aircraft is not the future of war. It is the here and now. Make no mistake about it: this ain't PlayStation. We are killing people.


    • Why the Drones Keep Firing
      President Obama's announcement last month that earlier this year a “U.S. counterterrorism operation” had killed two hostages, including an American citizen, has become a fresh occasion for questioning the rationales for continuing attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at presumed, suspected, or even confirmed terrorists. This questioning is desirable, although not mainly for hostage-related reasons connected to this incident. Sometimes an incident has a sufficient element of controversy to stoke debate even though what most needs to be debated is not an issue specific to the incident itself. More fundamental issues about the entire drone program need more attention than they are getting.


    • Interview: Robotics Professor Noel Sharkey
      TONY JONES, PRESENTER: All this talk of killer drones raises some very profound questions. For instance, are nations more likely to go to war if there's less risk of their civilians being killed? And what does it mean if you take human decision-making out of the loop? Can a machine tell the difference between a civilian and a combatant?


    • Mission Unstoppable: Why Is the CIA Running America’s Foreign Policy?
      The programs in question involved such activities as the CIA’s efforts to derail Iran’s nuclear program and the agency’s use of drones to kill militants inside Pakistan. Again, the cracks in Blair’s authority were revealed: The DNI, as determined by the 2004 legislation that created the position, was to be the focal point for intelligence support to the president and other senior government leaders, and was allowed some say in budgetary matters, but was not granted command over any covert missions abroad.


    • Why can’t we handle the truth?


      Don’t expect any news you read or watch today or in the future to tell you that. The fact that President George W. Bush knowingly lied us into a disastrous war in Iraq cannot be told. Our media systems even now cannot report this story.


    • Iraq's phantom army
      These are the choices facing Washington, all stemming from the events of just one weekend. The path of this war has changed, leaving western powers with ever less room for manoeuvre.


    • 9 depressing predictions for the future of America
      Remind me who, even among opponents and critics of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, ever imagined that the decision to take out Saddam Hussein’s regime and occupy the country would lead to a terror caliphate in significant parts of Iraq and Syria that would conquer social media and spread like wildfire. And yet, don’t think that the future is completely unpredictable either.


    • Local View: What we knew then
      On top of this evidence, known to the Bush White House but not the general public or Congress, was the public evidence from the international weapons inspectors on the ground in Iraq. They found no WMD, yet the Bush administration insisted the weapons must be there and only by invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein could America be safe.


    • The War In The Shadows
      In which we examine the shadowy death of democracy, where we've come from and where we may still go.


    • Rachel Maddow slams Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio’s half-assed Iraq answers: “They weren’t duped by the CIA!”


    • Marco Rubio crashes and burns on Iraq question, says war was “not a mistake”
      So when Jeb Bush gave four answers in four days last week to the same question — “Knowing what we know now, would you have invaded Iraq?” — one would expect that his primary opponents realized that they were about to get asked the same question, and spent all of five minutes coming up with a better answer than “yes.”

      If Marco Rubio’s appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is any indication, he did not take those five minutes.


    • Yet plans call for guns-blazing war games on Pagan at least 16 weeks a year. Hundreds of Marines, potentially joined by troops from Japan, Australia and South Korea, would storm ashore in landing craft, firing mortars and small arms, backed by naval bombardments, swarms of helicopters, drones, fighter jets and perhaps B-52s dropping real bombs.

      The plan has sparked an outpouring of resentment toward the U.S. military, fueled by strong sentiment that Pagan's future should be determined by the people of the islands, not by Washington.

      "We love our island. We don't want to give it up," said Jerome Aldan, the 40-year-old elected mayor of the Northern Mariana Islands. "This proposal is going to turn it into a wasteland."

      Aldan was 6 when the eruption of Mt. Pagan forced the island's residents — about 100 families in all — to evacuate 200 miles south to Saipan, capital of the Northern Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth territory. The military, he fears, will turn Pagan into a war zone and kill the families' decades-old dream of returning.


    • US Lacks Transparency on Drone Policy Despite Children's Deaths - NGO
      Pentagon's admitted partial responsibility in the death of two children was meant to divert attention from more widespread abuses, critics of the US government’s drone strikes claim.


    • What the accidental drone killing of an American ‘traitor’ says about the power of visual weapons
      This designation, I suggest, was less a reflection of the seriousness of Gadahn’s actions and more an indication of how much they perplexed the state. Gadahn never killed anyone, never blew up a building; the closest he ever came to actual operational significance was when he petitioned bin Laden, offering his services as a media strategist. Ultimately, the real threat was not so much Gadahn as his image. With his undeniable American-ness and (renounced) Jewish heritage, Gadahn confounded prevailing understandings of who “terrorists” are, where they come from and what they look like.


    • German court to hear case brought by relatives of Yemen drone attack victims
      A German court is to hear a case against the government brought by relatives of victims of a US drone attack in Yemen in a groundbreaking action that has the potential to interrupt the American strikes.


    • German court to consider evidence from Yemeni drone victim
      A court in Germany is set to take evidence from a Yemeni victim of the USA’s secret drone programme following revelations that military bases on German soil play a key role in the strikes.

      Faisal bin Ali Jaber, an environmental engineer from Sana’a who lost two relatives to a 2012 drone strike, has won the right to have his evidence heard as part of a constitutional claim filed in Germany.


    • US Drone Program Fails to Reduce Terrorism, Violence
      KnowDrones.com Coordinator Nick Mottern claims that the US Army and Air Force program to use unmanned aerial systems in combat has had catastrophic results because the drones have killed large numbers of civilians, but have not had significant impact on the scale of terrorist activities.


    • Scrutiny of CIA drones necessary
      No miraculous leap of faith is necessary to believe that U.S. officials did not know that the hostages were at the target site. And, still, it raises the question of whether the CIA really knows who it is killing when it launches strikes.


    • Saudi-led coalition pounds Yemen rebels in three cities
      Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition pounded Shiite rebels across three Yemeni cities today, as Riyadh reported the death of a Saudi child from cross-border fire.


    • Two Saudis killed in rocket attacks launched from Yemen - SPA
      Cross border rocket attacks launched from inside Yemen have killed two people in southern Saudi Arabia over the last 24 hours, Saudi Arabia's state news agency SPA reported on Friday.

      SPA quoted a Civil Defence official in the southwestern province of Jizan as saying that a child was killed and three other children were wounded on Friday in the al-Tawal region.


    • Whoopi Goldberg mocks ‘dummy’ Lindsey Graham and GOP contenders: They all want to be action heroes
      Whoopi Goldberg lit into Republican presidential candidates on The View on Tuesday for their attempts to sound tough on foreign policy.

      “The Republican candidates are kind of sounding more like action heroes,” Goldberg said. “Chris Christie wants to pump up the military. Marco Rubio says he will find and kill terrorists like Liam Neeson in Taken. You’re too short to be Liam Neeson, find somebody else.”


    • 'Children died' in US air strike
      A US air strike on Syria last year probably killed two children, officials say - the first admission of civilian casualties in the campaign.

      "We regret the unintentional loss of lives," said Lieutenant General James Terry, head of the US-led campaign.

      US Central Command said the strike on 5-6 November, near Harim City, targeted the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.


    • Six Months Later, Pentagon Admits (Maybe) We Killed Some Kids in Syria
      While notable for admitting the possibility it killed two young children, admission called "too little, too late" by expert who says deathtoll of innocent people far exceeds Pentagon statement.


    • U.S. military and civilians are increasingly divided
      The segregation is so pronounced that it can be traced on a map: Some 49% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members in the U.S. are concentrated in just five states — California, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia.


    • Making sense of Hersh's Bin Laden blockbuster
      The capture and killing of the world's most wanted man was always going to be an enthralling story, considering how he challenged and punctured the pride of the sole global superpower as well as evade arrest for a decade before being liquidated.


    • How Was Bin Laden Killed?
      Some might argue that knowing exactly how Osama bin Laden was killed really doesn’t matter. Some might even argue that he is still alive, which, if nothing else, would demonstrate the persistence of urban legends relating to conspiracies allegedly involving the U.S. government. JFK’s assassination has the grassy knoll and second gunman, plus Mafia, CIA, and Cuban connections as well as a possible Vietnamese angle. 9/11 had the mystery of the collapse of Building 7. More recently still, the Texas State Guard was mobilized to monitor a military training exercise because it was rumored to be a ploy to impose martial law. Demonizing Washington as one large conspiracy is good business all around.


    • World Bank: Gaza economy on 'verge of collapse'
      Gaza's economy is on the "verge of collapse," a new World Bank report warned Friday, saying the unemployment rate there is now the highest in the world and calling on Israel and international donors to remedy the situation.


    • FO condemns NWA drone strike
      Pakistan has strongly condemned the US drone strike in North Waziristan on May 16, and has called for cessation of such strikes.

      "Such strikes are a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said.


    • 3 EU nations pledge cooperation on developing 'Euro-drone'
      Germany, France and Italy have pledged cooperation to jointly develop a "Euro-drone" for intelligence-gathering and surveillance of the skies.


    • As Long as the War on Terror Continues, There Will be More Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs
      Last week, just over two years since that note was written, a jury sentenced Tsarnaev to death for his role in the bombing. Speaking to the press outside the John J. Moakley courthouse in Boston, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, “We are not intimidated by acts of terror, or radical ideals,” and described the marathon bombing as “a political crime, designed to intimidate and coerce the United States.”


    • Freedom and Death
      On May 12, 2015, Ananta Bijoy Das (32), a progressive writer, blogger, editor of science fiction magazine Jukti, and an organizer of Gonojagoron Mancha (People's Resurgence Platform), was hacked to death, using machetes, by four assailants at Subidbazar Bankolapara residential area of Sylhet city, for writing against religious fundamentalism.


    • Nepal quake death toll becomes highest on record


    • How Seeing Argo Helped Me Uncover a Top Secret Operation to Save My Dad
      In 1979, my father was arrested and tried as a CIA agent in Iran.


    • Morsi’s Death Sentence Reminds Us of Our System
      It would be difficult to find a better example of tyranny than the U.S.-supported military dictatorship that has ruled Egypt for decades. In many ways, it mirrors the brutal U.S.-supported military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. No legislature. No independent judiciary. No due process of law. And lots of round-ups, kidnappings, torture, and execution of people who protest or who just hold the “wrong” beliefs.


    • Drones best weapon against Al-Qaeda despite collateral damage – ex-CIA deputy
      Drone use against terrorists causes collateral damage, but it remains “the most effective weapon” in the United States’ arsenal, former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell told RT in a wide-ranging interview.


    • Is U.S. Foreign Policy Making Americans Less Safe?
      In summary, the most likely—though not most lethal—terror threats to Americans come from individuals living within the United States who are partially motivated to undertake self-directed attacks based upon their perception that the United States and the West are at war with the Muslim world.


    • Secrets, the C.I.A. and The New York Times
      Since 9/11, the United States’ “war on terror” has become the overarching news story of our time.

      As the nation’s dominant news organization, The Times deserves, and gets, intensive scrutiny for how it has handled that story. The grades, clearly, are mixed. Its role in the run-up to the Iraq War has been rightly and harshly criticized. Its early reporting on surveillance, though delayed, was groundbreaking. Its national-security reporting has been excellent in many ways and, at times, is justifiably slammed for allowing too much cover for government officials who want to get their message out.

      Nearly 14 years after 9/11, a reckoning finally is taking place. The Times’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, has said repeatedly in recent months that he thinks it’s time to toughen up and raise the bar.


    • Matt Taibbi on the Journalist & Politician Cheerleaders for Iraq War, Then & Now


      In this web-only conversation with journalist Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, we turn to Iraq. He recently wrote a piece for Rolling Stone titled "Forget What We Know Now: We Knew Then Iraq War Was a Joke." Taibbi wrote the piece after Jeb Bush’s infamous interview on Fox News. Megyn Kelly asked Bush "knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?" Bush responded, "I would have." Jeb Bush later reversed his stance.


    • VIDEO: Former CIA Deputy Director Grilled on Falsehoods That Led to Iraq War
      In a heated 10-minute exchange, MSNBC host Chris Matthews confronts CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell with the question of why, during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he let Vice President Dick Cheney get away with saying Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons.


    • Ex-CIA Official, Intel Briefer: Bush Admin Made False Claims on Iraq
      A former top CIA official and intelligence briefer to President George W. Bush before the Iraq War has acknowledged Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney falsely presented information to the public. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Michael Morell was asked about Cheney’s claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons.


    • Here's how George W. Bush handled the big question that's dogging Jeb
      Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could learn a lesson from his older brother on how to field questions about the Bush family political dynasty.


    • Ex-CIA Leader Endorses Freedom Act and Mass Collection of Email Metadata
      Michael Morell, twice acting director of the CIA and a member of President Barack Obama’s five-member surveillance review panel, said he supports the latest version of the USA Freedom Act, which backers say would end the dragnet collection of domestic call records.


    • The CIA is dropping Burmese bombs on China
      Mystery bombs have fallen twice on China, from Myanmar. The first time, March 13, killed five Chinese and injured eight. On May 14th, another one was dropped, injuring five villagers.
    • Turkey Hires Ex-CIA Director to Lobby US Congress


    • Ex-CIA director hired by Turkey
      Goss registered through Dickstein Shapiro law firm which is his new employer. The company has long-lasting relations with the Turkish government in its turn.


    • Cheney Thought al Qaeda was Bluffing
      So it’s not just that Cheney is cartoonishly evil, it’s that he’s monstrously incompetent; in fact, his monstrous incompetence is a large part of why he’s so cartoonishly evil. He was overwhelmingly powerful, but with no understanding of reality, and so blundered around the world strewing destruction wherever he went.




  • Transparency Reporting



    • Ralph Nader on Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Bid & His Unanswered Letters to the White House


      Since independent Senator Bernie Sanders announced his presidential candidacy in April, polls in Iowa show support there for him has increased to 15 percent among Democrats, up from five percent in February. This compares to about 60 percent backing for former secretary of state, senator and first lady Hillary Clinton. Sanders is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history, yet he is going to run in the Democratic Party for the Democratic nomination. We discuss Sanders’ plans with former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, author of the new book, "Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015."


    • Murderous spooks drive journalism project to WikiLeaks
      Just two weeks after its launch, Transparency Toolkit’s ICWatch project, which documents more than 100,000 job profiles associated with the US "intelligence community" has been rehoused at WikiLeaks due to death threats and DDoS attacks on its infrastructure.


    • Bernie Sanders has been against the CIA’s role in destroying democracy since his early days
      As Independent Senator Bernie Sanders ramps up his campaign for the presidency, his focus has been on issues like economic inequality, the corrupting influence of money in politics, and stopping global climate change. Yet questions have remained about his views on the realm of policy most relevant to the commander in chief’s job: foreign affairs.

      A televised CSPAN interview Sanders gave in 1989, when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, offers a look into his thinking about the world. At one point, the interviewer asked Sanders about the distinction between socialism in Latin American countries and the authoritarian government of the Soviet Union.


    • Treat leakers like Edward Snowden, David Petraeus equally
      Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA analyst convicted of leaking information about a secret anti-Iran plot, to three-and-half years in prison. It was a strikingly heavy sentence. If it were part of a serious crackdown on all government employees who violate their oaths, it might be justifiable. Instead, it is something quite different: further evidence of the wildly different ways leakers are treated, depending on who they are.


    • The war on whistleblowers continues
      Even worse, the feds claimed that Sterling, who is black, did it out of resentment over a failed racial discrimination lawsuit against the agency — in effect using Sterling’s willingness to stand up for his rights against him.


    • A case of 'selective prosecution'?
      There were no Blacks on the jury, and according to Mr. Solomon, “the evidence presented by the prosecution was circumstantial email and phone call metadata without content of any incriminating nature.”

      Despite pledging to be the most transparent presidential administration, Pres. Obama has expanded Bush era surveillance techniques, and has used the Espionage Act more than all previous administrations combined.


    • Louis: Clinton emails -- A mix of conflicts?
      The mere fact that Hillary Clinton's official emails were kept on her personal computer system is turning out to be one of the least important things about them. What matters most about this first batch of messages released by the State Department is that they reveal Clinton, as secretary of state, at the center of a tangled web of connections and conflicts of interest between public and private actors.


    • Clinton's Benghazi emails show correspondence with adviser
      The messages show the role played by Sidney Blumenthal, who was working for the Clinton family foundation and advising a group of entrepreneurs trying to win business from the Libyan transitional government. Blumenthal repeatedly wrote dispatches about the events in Libya to Clinton, who often forwarded them to her aides at the State Department.


    • Britain hid secret MI6 plan to break up Libya from US, Hillary Clinton told by confidant
      Britain acted deceitfully in Libya and David Cameron authorised an MI6 plan to "break up" the country, a close confidante of Hillary Clinton claimed in a series of secret reports sent to the then-secretary of state.

      Sidney Blumenthal, a long-time friend of the Clintons, emailed Mrs Clinton on her personal account to warn her that Britain was "game playing" in Libya.

      Mr Blumenthal had no formal role in the US State Department and his memos to Mrs Clinton were sourced to his own personal contacts in the Middle East and Europe.


    • Alegedly US Officials Leak Worse Than Whistleblowers
      Unnamed US officials allegedly disclosed very sensitive information in a report on raid in Syria, published by New York Times.




  • Environment/Energy/Wildlife



    • Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs
      The two great ecological challenges of our times are biodiversity erosion and climate change. And both are interconnected, in their causes and their solutions.

      Industrial agiculture is the biggest contributor to biodiversity erosion as well as to climate change. According to the United Nations, 93% of all plant variety has disappeared over the last 80 years.


    • Pesticides offer bees a risky allure
      Bees flit from flower to flower dining on nectar. Sometimes that nectar may contain traces of widely used pesticides. Yet the bees are unlikely to know which nectar is tainted. Indeed, they can’t taste these pesticides, a new study finds. However, the pesticides are similar to nicotine. This can encourage the bees to come back for more. And especially troubing: A second new study suggests the pesticides can harm some wild bees.


    • Survivor bees
      “We need that relationship with bees,” says author and beekeeper Crowder. “That’s how we need nature. We can’t live without nature and bees help us recognize that connection.”


    • The CIA Is Shuttering a Secretive Climate Research Program?
      So gushes Mother Jones, adding the enticing word “exclusive” to the story. But – weirdly enough, for a confection of spying and science reporting, both of which are normally so reliable – this appears to be a bit garbled. Firstly, the “climate research programme” looks to be more like the CIA had allowed civilian scientists to access classified data—such as ocean temperature and tidal readings gathered by Navy submarines and topography data collected by spy satellites. So, not CIA research at all: just data sharing. And presumably not CIA data mostly; if this is stuff routinely gathered by Navy subs, its presumably Navy data; which the CIA had been given the job of giving out? Hard to be sure. National Journal seems to support my interpretation.


    • CIA shuts down program using spy satellites to track climate change
      For most of the past two decades, a handful of climate change scientists have had the CIA's MEDEA (Measurement of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis) program as an ace in the hole: they could draw on classified info from spy satellites and subs to study global warming in extreme detail. However, they'll now have to make do with alternatives. The agency has shut down MEDEA, saying that its projects to study the security implications of climate change "have been completed." While the CIA says it'll still "engage external experts" on the subject, it won't be providing consistent access to its extremely accurate and rare data.


    • The CIA Is Shutting Down Its Secretive Climate Change Research Project
      The Central Intelligence Agency has announced that it’s closing down MADEA, a decades-old research program that shared classified information with scientists to study how climate change might exacerbate global security risks.


    • CIA ends climate research program after Obama calls climate change a security risk
      Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, or Medea, which began in the 1990s, allowed civilian scientists access to classified satellite data. The program was scrapped under former President George W. Bush, but reconstituted in 2010 under president Obama.


    • Britain sends biggest warship for NATO drills on Russian border
      Britain is ramping up its military rhetoric, sending its biggest warship for NATO drills in the Baltic, right off the Russian coast, in this latest show of force. The drills kick off on June 5 and will last for two weeks.

      The helicopter carrier HMS Ocean is expected to reach Russia’s city of Kaliningrad sometime this week, carrying aboard about 80 Royal Marines who are to join other NATO troops in Poland, the Sunday Times reports.






  • Finance



    • Bank of England's EU exit strategy leaked to national newspaper – by its head of press


      A senior official at the Bank of England “inadvertently” sent research assessing the economic dangers of the UK leaving the European Union to an editor at a national newspaper.

      The Bank was left in an embarrassing situation on Friday after it accidentally emailed details – including how to fend off inquiries related to the report – directly to the Guardian newspaper.




  • PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying



    • Ira Glass Clarifies That Public Radio Is Ready for the GOOD Kind of Capitalism
      The context was “Hearing Is Believing,” an event sponsored by NPR and member stations WNYC and WBEZ to pitch public radio (and its podcasts) as an advertising vehicle (American Community Radio, 5/12/15).


    • Jeff Bezos’ Paper Assures Us System Isn’t Rigged for Amazon
      Actually, Border Books did close in large part because the economic system is rigged against ordinary Americans. One of the main reasons Amazon has been able to grow as rapidly as it did is that Amazon has not been required to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors in most states for most of its existence. The savings on sales tax almost certainly exceeded its cumulative profits since it was founded in 1994.

      While there is no policy rationale to exempt businesses from the obligation to collect sales tax because they are internet-based, this exemption has allowed Amazon to become a huge company and made its founder, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world.

      Oh yeah—Jeff Bezos now owns the Washington Post.


    • War Propaganda. “Planting Stories” in the News Chain
      The most powerful component of the Fear and Disinformation Campaign (FDI) rests with the CIA, which, secretly subsidizes authors, journalists and media critics, through a web of private foundations and CIA sponsored front organizations. The CIA also influences the scope and direction of many Hollywood productions. Since 9/11, one third of Hollywood productions are war movies. “Hollywood stars and scriptwriters are rushing to bolster the new message of patriotism, conferring with the CIA and brainstorming with the military about possible real-life terrorist attacks.” “The Sum of All Fears” directed by Phil Alden Robinson, which depicts the scenario of a nuclear war, received the endorsement and support of both the Pentagon and the CIA.


    • The Infernal Cocktail Party Corruption of Washington’s Elite Media
      In particular, Allen frequently documents how intimately and seamlessly connected the members of the media aristocracy are with other members of Washington’s ruling elite, whether they come from the intelligence community, the super-wealthy, big banks, the lobbying community, or top levels of government.


    • Fox News confused about whether Allah and God are the same


    • The Accidental Operative
      Here is the shocking story of how the niece of former CIA director Richard Helms became an intermediary for the Taliban in Afghanistan and relayed an offer by the Taliban to the US government for the surrender of Osama Bin Laden months before the 9/11 attacks. The offer was refused. This story, written by my friend and Cockburn’s old partner at the Village Voice, James Ridgeway, and Camelia Fard, was published in the Voice on June 12, 2001, and promptly vanished from the cultural memory after 9/11. In the wake of Seymour Hersh’s recent revelations, Ridgeway asked me to re-run the article on CounterPunch. I was very happy to oblige him. It’s an astounding read. –Jeffrey St. Clair


    • The Misinformation Burnout. Media Fatigue with “Islamism” and “Terrorism”
      Every nation must create a bogey man or a group to crucify and persecute, in order to unify the public behind their leaders, help them act out their collective aggression, and dodge the important domestic issues that plague the day.




  • Censorship



  • Privacy



  • Civil Rights



  • Internet/Net Neutrality



    • Here’s how badly we’re getting ripped off by our mobile phone providers
      It is hard to overstate how much I love the British mobile provider Three and how I wish it would come to the United States.

      My fellow Americans, let me (again) re-iterate how badly we’re all getting overcharged: Three offers a 30-day prepaid plan with unlimited data, unlimited texts, and 200 minutes of domestic calling, all for €£20 ($31). That’s about one-third less than what I pay right now Stateside.






Recent Techrights' Posts

Microsoft's Latest 'Novel' Approach, Trying to Prevent People Moving Away From Microsoft and From Windows
ads say a lot about their business strategy
Microsoft-sponsored "The New Stack" Publishing Microsoft Windows Articles in "Linux" Clothing
Just sayin'...
 
Microsoft Ends Support for Vista 10, So Relative Share of Vista 10 Goes Up, Vista 11 is Down
For 2 months in a row already
When Python is Basically Run by a 'Microsoft-Friendly' Mole Who Ousts People That Actually Contributed a Lot to Python for Many Years
Removing some of the best people
Syria: Microsoft Windows Down to 8% "Market Share" (It Was 99% Just 15 Years Ago)
it was even measured at less than 5% earlier this year
Links 08/12/2024: Boeing Leaks and Bluesky’s Business Model Dilemma
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/12/2024: UK Winds and Ultraviolet Grasslands (UVG)
Links for the day
Links 08/12/2024: Conflicts, Misinformation, and Gutting of the Media
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, December 07, 2024
IRC logs for Saturday, December 07, 2024
Czech Republic: GNU/Linux Jumps Above 4%
data from the Czech Republic for 2024
IBM Engagement Surveys "Are Usually Useful for the Executives So They Know Which Things to Ignore"
This impacts Red Hat as well
Did Microsoft 'Write' (by Chatbots) This 'Article' About WINE?
The Web is drowning in garbage
Dictatorship Formalised: Python Software Foundation Violates Its Very Own Code Of Conduct (COC) or Code Of Censorship
Incoming Python Software Foundation Executive Director, Deb Nicholson, allegedly uses COCs to get ahead while violating COCs
[Meme] 'Self-Checkout' (and Banking 'Apps'): Passing All Accountability to the Customers
Stealing
Gemini Links 07/12/2024: Leasehold and NNTP
Links for the day
Fun Statistics About Techrights (Almost a Quarter Million Files)
Here are some raw numbers
PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) as an Instrumental But Largely Hidden (From the Public) Extra Layer of IBM's Workforce Reductions
The morale at IBM is really bad
Microsoft Money: From Bribing Bloggers to SLAPPing Bloggers
Microsoft money, different strategy?
Belgium: Windows Falls to Quarter of the Market, Mobile Devices Outsell or Overtake Desktops/Laptops on the Web
Microsoft has no operating system for 'smartphones'
Links 07/12/2024: CALEA Back Doors Backfiring, Fentanylware's (TikTok) U.S. Ban a Step Closer
Links for the day
statCounter: GNU/Linux Rises Sharply to All-Time High in Republic of South Korea
Notice how sharp the rise is!
It's FOSS? No, It's SPAM.
Another sellout
Another Massive Blow to the Web
This is awful news and it neatly relates to topics that we covered this morning
All the Latest Five Blog Posts at OSI's Blog Are Written by a Microsoft Operative Salaried by Microsoft
"Open Source" no longer means anything
Legacy of a Dying World Wide Web
Many people truly believe they're "stars" in social control media
Google Does Not Have a Search Engine Anymore
Google wants to "retain" users for more "screen time" and influence over their minds; it does not save you time, it's manipulating you
[Meme] Automattic: Host With Automattic, We'll Handle Our Own Complexity for You
The RHEL modus operandi (more so with systemd)
Finding Peace With Less
There seems to be a growing consensus (speaking to other editors helps confirm this) that the Web is going in a very bad direction
Links 07/12/2024: DEI Chopped by University of Michigan, French and South Korean Governments in Turmoil
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, December 06, 2024
IRC logs for Friday, December 06, 2024
Links 06/12/2024: Meal Changes and Internet Nostalgia
Links for the day
Brittany Day (linuxsecurity.com) Reposing Linux Foundation/Microsoft FUD Using LLMs, Probably Controlled by Microsoft
Plagiarised FUD by LLMs
Three Months
Next week on Tuesday our sister site turns 20.5
Links 06/12/2024: Promotion of Fake and Illegal Patent 'Court' (UPC), South Korean Strikes, and More Bailouts at Taxpayers' Expense
Links for the day
Links 06/12/2024: Alarm Raised in EU Over Meddling and Destabilisation by TikTok, Strong Criticism of 'Open'AI
Links for the day
In France, Android Skyrockets to 52%, Windows Falls to 26%
even in rich countries across Europe Windows is rapidly losing "market share"
When News Sites Become Shopping Catalogues Disguised as 'Reviews' or 'Articles'
Sometimes Fagioli uses HEY HI (AI, LLMs actually) to make 'articles' about HEY HI
[Meme] Hit and Run with SLAPP
Microsoft staff versus Techrights
[Meme] When You Go Against Corporate Front Groups and Shills of Moneyed Interests (EDRi is Microsoft-Compromised Now)
The "golden rule" is, follow the gold
The Register Exposed Many IBM Scandals, Lawsuits, and Secret Layoffs. Now IBM Pays The Register.
Hush money?
IBM Told the Media the Secret Mass Layoffs Would Carry on Till End of November, But They Still Happen This Month
"My team of 9 people had 4 regulars and 5 contractors. All contractors gone."
All the Red Flags in New Linux Foundation Report
How telling...
Gemini Links 06/12/2024: Shrinkflation and Working at Google
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, December 05, 2024
IRC logs for Thursday, December 05, 2024