Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Timothy Geithner Heads to Private Equity Firm Warburg Pincus
November 16th, 2013Via: Politico: Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, a trusted lieutenant to President Barack Obama who played a leading role in the government’s response to the financial crisis, will join private-equity firm Warburg Pincus LLC in March. On Saturday, the firm, which is headquartered in New York, announced Geithner will hold the titles of president and […]
TSA SPOT Program: Billion Dollar Magic 8 Ball
November 16th, 2013Via: GAO: Available evidence does not support whether behavioral indicators, which are used in the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program, can be used to identify persons who may pose a risk to aviation security. GAO reviewed four meta-analyses (reviews that analyze other studies and synthesize their findings) that […]
U.S. Military May Have 10 Robots Per Soldier by 2023
November 16th, 2013Via: Computerworld: American soldiers patrolling dangerous streets will soon be accompanied by autonomous robots programmed to scan the area with thermal imaging and send live images back to the command center. Likewise, squads of infantrymen hiking through mountains will be helped by a wagon train of robots carrying extra water, ammo and protective gear.
Amazon Will Build and Manage Cloud Infrastructure in CIA Facility
November 16th, 2013Via: Networkworld: Amazon Web Services recently won a reported $600 million contract to build the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) a cloud. But that cloud will not look like any other cloud on the planet. Given the sensitive nature of building an IT operation for one of the United States’ most secretive organizations, details about […]
CIA Collecting Data on International Money Transfers
November 14th, 2013Via: New York Times: The Central Intelligence Agency is secretly collecting bulk records of international money transfers handled by companies like Western Union — including transactions into and out of the United States — under the same law that the National Security Agency uses for its huge database of Americans’ phone records, according to current […]
Obamacare Wreck
November 14th, 2013Wow. Via: Reuters: President Barack Obama on Thursday tried to ease the biggest crisis of his presidency, acknowledging missteps with his signature healthcare law and announcing a plan to help those seeing their current health plans canceled because of it. Obama, trying to limit the political damage to his presidency and fellow Democrats, said health […]
Americans’ Personal Data Shared with CIA, IRS, Others in Security Probe
November 14th, 2013Via: McClatchy: U.S. agencies collected and shared the personal information of thousands of Americans in an attempt to root out untrustworthy federal workers that ended up scrutinizing people who had no direct ties to the U.S. government and simply had purchased certain books. Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men […]
Secret Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement
November 13th, 2013Via: WikiLeaks: Today, 13 November 2013, WikiLeaks released the secret negotiated draft text for the entire TPP (Trans-Pacific Partnership) Intellectual Property Rights Chapter. The TPP is the largest-ever economic treaty, encompassing nations representing more than 40 per cent of the world’s GDP. The WikiLeaks release of the text comes ahead of the decisive TPP Chief […]
Tina Turner ‘Relinquishes’ U.S. Citizenship
November 13th, 2013Via: Washington Post: This item just in via an “activity” report from the U.S. Embassy in Bern, Switzerland, headlined “Soul Legend Relinquishes U.S. Citizenship.” “Long-time Swiss resident Tina Turner” was in the embassy Oct. 24 to sign her “Statement of Voluntary Relinquishment of U.S. Citizenship under Section 349 (a)(1) of the INA” — the Immigration […]
Government Spying Causing Self-Censorship, Privacy Fears Among U.S. Writers
November 13th, 2013Via: CBS: In the wake of revelations about intrusive government surveillance, many American authors are worrying about the freedom of the press and some simply are avoiding controversial topics. A new report from the PEN Center and the FDR Group entitled “Chilling Effects: NSA Surveillance Drives U.S. Writers to Self-Censor” finds that 85 percent of […]
