Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
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 […]
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 […]
Area 51: Nothing to See Here, Move Along
August 16th, 2013Swamp gas, weather balloons, U2 spy planes… Via: BBC: The CIA has officially acknowledged the secret US test site known as Area 51, in a newly unclassified internal history of the U-2 spy plane programme. The document obtained by a US university describes the 1955 acquisition of the Nevada site for testing of the secret […]
More Fast and Furious Guns Surface at Crime Scenes in Mexico
August 14th, 2013Via: CBS: Three more weapons from Fast and Furious have turned up at crime scenes in Mexico, CBS News has learned, as the toll from the controversial federal operation grows. According to Justice Department tracing documents obtained by CBS News, all three guns are WASR-10 762-caliber Romanian rifles. Two were purchased by Fast and Furious […]
