Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
U.S. NSA Domestic Phone Spying Program Illegal: Appeals Court
May 7th, 2015Via: Reuters: A U.S. spying program that collects data about millions of Americans’ phone calls is illegal, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, adding pressure on lawmakers to decide quickly whether to end or replace the program, which was intended to help fight terrorism. While stopping short of declaring the program unconstitutional, the 2nd […]
France: More Surveillance
May 6th, 2015Via: BBC: The French parliament has approved a controversial law strengthening the intelligence services, with the aim of preventing Islamist attacks. The law on intelligence-gathering, adopted by 438 votes to 86, was drafted after three days of attacks in Paris in January, in which 17 people died. The Socialist government says the law is needed […]
NSA Speech to Text Systems Makes Conversations Searchable
May 5th, 2015Via: FirstLook: Most people realize that emails and other digital communications they once considered private can now become part of their permanent record. But even as they increasingly use apps that understand what they say, most people don’t realize that the words they speak are not so private anymore, either. Top-secret documents from the archive […]
German Intelligence Helped NSA Spy on European Politicians and Defense Contractors
April 24th, 2015Via: Ars Technica: Germany’s intelligence service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), has been helping the NSA spy on European politicians and companies for years, according to the German news magazine Der Spiegel. The NSA has been sending lists of “selectors”—identifying telephone numbers, e-mail and IP addresses—to the BND, which then provides related information that it holds in […]
And Now… “How Tor Is Building a New Dark Net with Help from the U.S. Military”
April 22nd, 2015You betcha. Via: TheDailyDot: To stay ahead in the security race, Tor is building the next-generation Dark Net in part with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the U.S. military agency charged with inventing the cutting edge of new technology. The funding, which began in 2014, comes as part of DARPA’s Memex project, […]
Jeb Bush Praises Obama’s Expansion of NSA Surveillance
April 22nd, 2015Via: FirstLook: One of the most glaring myths propagated by Washington — especially the two parties’ media loyalists — is that bipartisanship is basically impossible, that the two parties agree on so little, that they are constantly at each other’s throats over everything. As is so often the case for Washington partisan propaganda, the reality […]
Human Rights Watch Sues DEA Over Bulk Collection of Americans’ Telephone Records
April 8th, 2015Via: EFF: Human Rights Watch, a nonpartisan organization that fights human rights abuses across the globe, filed suit against the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration late Tuesday for illegally collecting records of its telephone calls to certain foreign countries as part of yet another government bulk surveillance program. The group is represented by the Electronic Frontier […]
Former Blackwater Gets Rich as Afghan Drug Production Hits Record High
April 1st, 2015Via: Guardian: In a war full of failures, the US counternarcotics mission in Afghanistan stands out: opiate production has climbed steadily over recent years to reach record-high levels last year. Yet there is a clear winner in the anti-drug effort – not the Afghan people, but the infamous mercenary company formerly known as Blackwater. Statistics […]
Court Accepts DOJ’s ‘State Secrets’ Claim to Protect ‘An Extremist Neocon Front Group’
March 29th, 2015Via: First Look: A truly stunning debasement of the U.S. justice system just occurred through the joint efforts of the Obama Justice Department and a meek and frightened Obama-appointed federal judge, Edgardo Ramos, all in order to protect an extremist neocon front group from scrutiny and accountability. The details are crucial for understanding the magnitude […]
“Pentagon Loses Track of $500 Million in Weapons, Equipment Given to Yemen”
March 24th, 2015Another U.S. arms drop to ISIS/al-Qaeda. Via: Washington Post: The Pentagon is unable to account for more than $500 million in U.S. military aid given to Yemen, amid fears that the weaponry, aircraft and equipment is at risk of being seized by Iranian-backed rebels or al-Qaeda, according to U.S. officials. With Yemen in turmoil and […]
