Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
NSA Admits Bulk Collection of Cell Phone Location Data, But Don’t Worry, This Was Only a Test
October 3rd, 2013*wink* Via: New York Times: The National Security Agency conducted a secret pilot project in 2010 and 2011 to test the collection of bulk data about the location of Americans’ cellphones, but the agency never moved ahead with such a program, according to intelligence officials. The existence of the pilot project was reported on Wednesday […]
Man Held in Solitary Confinement for 41 Years for a Crime He Didn’t Commit, Released from Prison on Verge of Death
October 2nd, 2013Via: The Times Picayune: In the last 41 years, Herman Wallace has been incarcerated for a robbery he did commit, indicted for a murder a court ruled he didn’t and diagnosed with a cancer that will end his life. But Tuesday night, he passed through the prison gates and, as a free man, made his […]
How a Purse Snatching Led to the Legal Justification for NSA Domestic Spying
October 2nd, 2013Via: Wired: It began as an ordinary purse snatching. On an early Baltimore morning in 1976, a local street thug crouched alongside his green Monte Carlo, pretending to change a flat, biding his time. Finally, a young woman passed by walking alone to her suburban home. Smith wrenched her handbag from her grasp, jumped into […]
Is Saddam Hussein’s Fortune in a Warehouse in Moscow?
October 1st, 2013Via: Daily Mail: A cargo of 20 billion euros in cash (£16.75billion) has lain unclaimed at a Moscow airport for six years amid allegations it could be the secret fortune of Saddam Hussein. The stash, now under high security in a cargo depot, is held on 200 wooden pallets each worth 100 million euros, enough […]
The California Industrial Hemp Farming Act
October 1st, 2013Via: Vote Hemp: Vote Hemp and the Hemp Industries Association (HIA), the nation’s leading hemp grassroots advocacy organization and industry trade group, respectively, each working to revitalize industrial hemp production and processing in the U.S., are excited to report that Governor Jerry Brown has signed SB 566, the California Industrial Hemp Farming Act. After moving […]
Navy Research Blimp Hovering Over Maryland
September 30th, 2013[???] Via: CBS: The U.S. Navy research laboratory says the blimp is a government research airship conducting aerial mapping, and that the MZ-3A lighter than air blimp began roaming above the D.C. area on Sept. 21 and can remain stationary for more than 12 hours. The blimp is mapping in the flight restriction zones around […]
To Protect and Serve? MRAPS Come Home
September 28th, 2013Via: Dallas Observer: Now that the war in Iraq is officially over and the one in Afghanistan winding down, the Department of Defense found itself facing a conundrum. It had just spent billions of dollars buying heavily armored personnel carriers designed to stand up to insurgent attacks only to find that it had run out […]
NSA Gathers Data on Social Connections of U.S. Citizens
September 28th, 2013Via: New York Times: Since 2010, the National Security Agency has been exploiting its huge collections of data to create sophisticated graphs of some Americans’ social connections that can identify their associates, their locations at certain times, their traveling companions and other personal information, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with officials. The spy […]
Say Hello to Rick Ross
September 26th, 2013Via: Esquire: Back in the day, Ross would offer the same deal with crack cocaine — to start you out, he’d give you $100 worth for free and you could sell it for $300. Between 1982 and 1989, federal prosecutors estimated, Ross bought and resold three tons of cocaine. In 1980 dollars, his gross earnings […]
How Does Obamacare Affect Americans Living Abroad?
September 26th, 2013*phew* For now, anyway… However, about 3/4 of Cryptogon readers will be affected by this, so… Via: Yahoo: If you’re living outside the US, you don’t have to purchase health insurance by the end of March, 2014, through what will be the newly established health insurance marketplaces in each state. And unlike other citizens residing […]
