Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Syrian Rebels Told to Expect Western-Led Strike in Days
August 27th, 2013I don’t know, so I’ll ask you guys. Read about the Britam Defence hack that occurred back in January and then vote below. My guess is that there’s just about zero chance that such a conversation would be stored anywhere in cleartext. But then again… Here we are. Via: CBC: Syrian opposition leaders have been […]
Obama Appoints Cass Sunstein to Review NSA Programs
August 26th, 2013Via: Guardian: The review of US surveillance programs which Barack Obama promised would be conducted by an “independent” and “outside” panel of experts looks set to consist of four Washington insiders with close ties to the security establishment. The president announced the creation of the group of experts two weeks ago, in an attempt to […]
A Lexicon for Understanding the Words U.S. Intelligence Officials Use to Mislead the Public
August 26th, 2013Via: Slate: When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection—a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another. The assignment of unconventional meanings to conventional words allows officials to imply that the NSA’s activities are narrow and closely supervised, though neither of […]
GCHQ Intercepts Data on Middle East Fiber Optic Cables
August 23rd, 2013“It’s a definite WTF moment.” —Problems with Five Undersea Fiber Optic Cables, 2008 See: 2008 submarine cable disruption: 2008 submarine cable disruption refers to three separate incidents of major damage to submarine optical cables. The first incident caused damage involving up to five high-speed Internet submarine communications cables in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East […]
DARPA Wants a Synthetic Neocortex
August 23rd, 2013Via: Network World: The military’s advanced research group recently put out a call, or Request For information, on how it could develop systems that go beyond machine learning, Bayesian techniques, and graphical technology to solve “extraordinarily difficult recognition problems in real-time.” Current systems offer partial solutions to this problem, but are limited in their ability […]
The Confidential Memo at the Heart of the Global Financial Crisis
August 23rd, 2013Via: Vice: When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn’t believe it. The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak’s fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots […]
United States Military Interest in New Zealand Cable
August 22nd, 2013Via: Stuff: The United States Defence Department could help pay for a new cable linking New Zealand, Australia, the United States and several Pacific Islands, an Auckland source says. He said the department had an interest in spending about US$100 million (NZ$120m) to directly or indirectly acquire a pair of optical fibres between the US, […]
Hundreds Dead in Apparent Chemical Weapons Attack in Syria
August 21st, 2013Via: BBC: Chemical weapons attacks have killed hundreds on the outskirts of Damascus, Syrian opposition activists say. Rockets with toxic agents were launched at the suburbs of the Ghouta region early on Wednesday as part of a major bombardment on rebel forces, they say. State-run news agency Sana said the claims were “baseless” and an […]
Government Issued Credentials For Use Online
August 21st, 2013Via: Forbes: The Federal Cloud Credential Exchange (FCXX) is designed to enable individuals to securely access online services —such as health benefits, student loan information, and retirement benefit information—at multiple federal agencies without the need to use a different password or other digital identification for each service. The first federal agency to use it will […]
The NSA: ‘The Abyss from Which There Is No Return’
August 21st, 2013Via: Rutherford Institute: “The National Security Agency’s capability at any time could be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn’t matter. There would be no place to hide. If a dictator ever took over, the N.S.A. […]
