Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
The Rise of Militarized NGOs
June 25th, 2014Via: The Atlantic: Who invaded Crimea? Civil society. Who has occupied government offices and police headquarters in eastern Ukraine, bringing massive instability to that region? Civil society. Who is fighting the governments of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and Nouri al-Malaki in Iraq? Civil society. And who are thecolectivos confronting Venezuelan students who protest against the […]
And Now… “Americans Have Joined Militant Group ISIS”
June 25th, 2014*wink* Via: CBS: The Sunni militant group in Iraq is a force roughly 3,000 strong and includes some Americans, a senior intelligence official told CBS News on Tuesday. The majority of fighters in the group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, are of Iraqi and Syrian origin. In all, up to 10,000 are fighting […]
Federal Judge Rules U.S. No-Fly List Violates Constitution
June 25th, 2014Via: Reuters: The U.S. government’s no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Anna Brown, ruling on a lawsuit filed in federal court in Oregon by 13 […]
Prison Inmates Offer Captive Market for Gadget Makers
June 23rd, 2014Via: NBC: Even in the cooler, Americans are hot for tech. U.S. inmates are increasingly buying gizmos from prison commissaries, including MP3 players and flat-screen televisions — spending about $750 million annually on their gadget habits as several companies quietly seize this massive, captive audience and take niche marketing to an entirely different place. Sign […]
WikiLeaks Publishes Secret Draft Text for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex
June 21st, 2014Via: WikiLeaks: Today, WikiLeaks released the secret draft text for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) Financial Services Annex, which covers 50 countries and 68.2%1 of world trade in services. The US and the EU are the main proponents of the agreement, and the authors of most joint changes, which also covers cross-border data flow. […]
Florida: Cops Hid Use of Phone Tracking Tech in Court Documents at Feds’ Request
June 20th, 2014Via: Ars Technica: On Thursday evening, the ACLU published a 2009 e-mail exchange (PDF) between police departments in Sarasota, FL and North Port, FL indicating that local law enforcement had concealed the use of cell phone-tracking Stingray devices in court documents. Stingray is a trademark, but it has come to generally mean devices that can […]
The Fall of Iraq – What You Aren’t Being Told
June 18th, 2014Via: Storm Clouds Gathering: Research Credit: Pookie
South Africa: Riot Control Drone Can Fire a Variety of Ammunition to Subdue Unruly Crowds
June 18th, 2014“Payload capacity of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is 40 kg” 40KG? Via: Defense Web: South African company Desert Wolf yesterday unveiled its Skunk riot control drone at the IFSEC security exhibition outside Johannesburg. Armed with four paintball guns, it can fire a variety of ammunition to subdue unruly crowds. The Skunk is designed to […]
UK Intelligence Forced to Reveal Secret Policy for Mass Surveillance
June 17th, 2014At least the wholly domestic traffic isn’t going down the gurgler too. *wink* Via: Privacy International: Britain’s top counter-terrorism official has been forced to reveal a secret Government policy justifying the mass surveillance of every Facebook, Twitter, Youtube and Google user in the UK. This disturbing policy was made public due to a legal challenge […]
U.S. Pushing Local Cops to Stay Mum on Surveillance
June 15th, 2014Via: AP: The Obama administration has been quietly advising local police not to disclose details about surveillance technology they are using to sweep up basic cellphone data from entire neighborhoods, The Associated Press has learned. Citing security reasons, the U.S. has intervened in routine state public records cases and criminal trials regarding use of the […]
