Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
What NSA Transparency Looks Like: Redacted
August 21st, 2013Via: ProPublica: Last week, the Washington Post published an internal audit finding the NSA had violated privacy rules thousands of times in recent years. In response, the spy agency held a rare conference call for the press maintaining that the violations are “not willful” and “not malicious.” It’s difficult to fully evaluate the NSA’s track […]
The Department of Homeland Security Testing Crowd-Scanning Project Called the Biometric Optical Surveillance System
August 21st, 2013Via: New York Times: The federal government is making progress on developing a surveillance system that would pair computers with video cameras to scan crowds and automatically identify people by their faces, according to newly disclosed documents and interviews with researchers working on the project. The Department of Homeland Security tested a crowd-scanning project called […]
Groklaw Legal Site Shuts Over Fears of NSA Email Snooping
August 20th, 2013Via: Guardian: The award-winning legal analysis site Groklaw is shutting because its founder says that “there is no way” to continue to run it without using secure email – and that the threat of NSA spying means that could be compromised. “There is now no shield from forced exposure,” writes the site’s founder, Pamela Jones, […]
Obama Administration Asks Supreme Court to Allow Warrantless Cellphone Searches
August 20th, 2013Via: Washington Post: If the police arrest you, do they need a warrant to rifle through your cellphone? Courts have been split on the question. Last week the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue and rule that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cellphone searches.
CIA Admits It Was Behind Iran’s Coup
August 19th, 2013If there’s a bigger snoozer posted on Cryptogon, I don’t know what it is. What the casual reader may not know about, however, and what the piece below doesn’t mention, is SAVAK: SAVAK (Persian: ?????, short for ?????? ??????? ? ????? ???? S?zem?n-e Ettel?’?t va Amniyat-e Keshvar, Organization of Intelligence and National Security) was the […]
Militants Execute at Least 25 Policemen in Northern Sinai
August 19th, 2013Via: Independent: Bloody violence has continued today as Egyptian security officials say suspected militants have ambushed two police minibuses in northern Sinai, firing rocket-propelled grenades at the vehicles. The attack is believed to have been carried out as the two vehicles were driving through a village near the border town of Rafah in the volatile […]
Egyptian Government Admits Killing Islamists in Custody
August 19th, 2013Via: Globe and Mail: The Egyptian government acknowledged that its security forces killed 36 Islamists in its custody Sunday, as the military leaders and the country’s Islamists vowed to keep up their fight over Egypt’s future. The news of the deaths came on a day in which there appeared to be a pause in the […]
Britain Tries to Intimidate Greenwald by Detaining His Partner
August 19th, 2013Via: Guardian: At 6:30 am this morning my time – 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US – I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a “security official at Heathrow airport.” He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been “detained” at the London airport “under Schedule 7 […]
Apple Patents Kill Switch for Mobile Devices Because: “Covert Police or Government Operations May Require Complete ‘Blackout’ Conditions.”
August 18th, 2013Via: United States Patent 8,254,902: As wireless devices such as cellular telephones, pagers, personal media devices and smartphones become ubiquitous, more and more people are carrying these devices in various social and professional settings. The result is that these wireless devices can often annoy, frustrate, and even threaten people in sensitive venues. … Covert police […]
Two US Senators on Intelligence Committee: Thousands of Annual Violations by NSA of Its Own Restrictions Were ‘The Tip of The Iceberg’
August 17th, 2013Via: Guardian: Two US senators on the intelligence committee said on Friday that thousands of annual violations by the National Security Agency on its own restrictions were “the tip of the iceberg.” “The executive branch has now confirmed that the rules, regulations and court-imposed standards for protecting the privacy of Americans’ have been violated thousands […]
