Archive for the 'Dictatorship' Category
Media Farce: ‘Reporters’ Consult with Regime Censors Before Publishing Stories
July 24th, 2012Via: New York Times: They are sent by e-mail from the Obama headquarters in Chicago to reporters who have interviewed campaign officials under one major condition: the press office has veto power over what statements can be quoted and attributed by name. Most reporters, desperate to pick the brains of the president’s top strategists, grudgingly […]
VA Must Disclose Documents to MK-ULTRA Victims
July 24th, 2012Via: Courthouse News Service: Veterans won another court order requiring the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to hand over more documents about its Cold War-era drug experiments on thousands of Vietnam veterans. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley in Oakland, Calif., said the documents requested were “squarely relevant” to the claim that the government failed […]
DNI Admits FISA Surveillance Violated the 4th Amendment
July 23rd, 2012Shocker. Via: Wired: The head of the U.S. government’s vast spying apparatus has conceded that recent surveillance efforts on at least one occasion violated the Constitutional prohibitions on unlawful search and seizure. The admission comes in a letter from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassifying statements that a top U.S. Senator wished […]
Research Firm Correlates Spending on Lobbying with Stock Market Performance
July 23rd, 2012Via: Breakout: While this financial connection, in and of itself, is hardly a great revelation, new analysis from Strategas Research Partners shows irrefutable evidence that companies are getting a real bang for their buck on the money they spend trying to influence lawmakers. By tracking the 50 companies that spend the most money — as […]
Marine Corps Creates Law-Enforcement Battalions
July 23rd, 2012If you think that this is exclusively for deployment abroad, I’ve got a bridge to sell ya. Via: AP: The Marine Corps has created its first law-enforcement battalions — consolidated units of military police officers trained to investigate a variety of crimes. Combat in Iraq and Afghanistan has underscored the relevance of such a force, […]
Apple Yanks Privacy App From The App Store
July 19th, 2012Via: Security Week: Back in May of this year, Internet security firm Bitdefender launched an App and service designed to help iOS users get a grip on what the apps installed on their mobile devices may be up to. Dubbed “Clueful” by Bucharest, Romania-based Bitdefender, the App tells owners of iOS devices which applications may […]
IARPA Contracting for Quiet Surveillance Drone
July 19th, 2012Via: Aviation Week: Now small firm D-Star Engineering has received what appears to be the first contract (for $4.8 million) awarded under the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency’s (IARPA) Great Horned Owl (GHO) program to develop a new class of quiet small unmanned aircraft. … Sound is the number one signature that gives away the […]
U.S. Military Purchasing Combat Equipment for Domestic Contingency Planning
July 19th, 2012Via: Public Intelligence: For the last two years, the President’s Budget Submissions for the Department of Defense have included purchases of a significant amount of combat equipment, including armored vehicles, helicopters and even artillery, under an obscure section of the FY2008 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the purposes of “homeland defense missions, domestic emergency […]
Syria: Assad Brother-in-Law, Syria Defense Minister Killed in Damascus Blast
July 18th, 2012Via: Wall Street Journal: Three top military and security leaders in the Syrian regime including President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law and the defense minister were killed in a bombing in Damascus on Wednesday in the biggest blow to the country’s rulers since the start of the uprising. State television said Mr. Shawkat, Defense Minister Maj. Gen. […]
Pentagon, CIA Sued for Lethal Drone Attacks on U.S. Citizens
July 18th, 2012Via: Wired: Survivors of three Americans killed by targeted drone attacks in Yemen last year sued top-ranking members of the United States government, alleging Wednesday they illegally killed the three, including a 16-year-old boy, in violation of international human rights law and the U.S. Constitution. “The government has killed three Americans. It should account for […]
