Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
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 […]
Costa Rica’s President Flew Narco-Jet to Hugo Chavez Funeral
August 23rd, 2013Via: Mad Cow Morning News: An American-registered drug plane has been plying the airspace over Central and South America carrying cargoes of cocaine for a good long while (authorities admit they’ve been “investigating” it since 2011) without apparent incident, until recently, when a newspaper in Costa Rica reported that the President of Costa Rica had […]
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 […]
Michael Hastings Believed His Car Was Being Tampered With
August 22nd, 2013Via: LA Weekly: He came to believe his Mercedes was being tampered with. “Nothing I could say could console him,” Thigpen says. One night in June, he came to Thigpen’s apartment after midnight and urgently asked to borrow her Volvo. He said he was afraid to drive his own car. She declined, telling him her […]
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. […]
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 […]
New Zealand Extends Domestic Spying Powers
August 21st, 2013Via: BBC: New Zealand has passed legislation allowing its main intelligence agency to spy on residents and citizens. Parliament voted 61 to 59 on Wednesday to expand the powers of the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB).
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, […]
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 […]
