Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
CIA CTO: ‘We Fundamentally Try To Collect Everything And Hang On To It Forever’
March 21st, 2013Via: Huffington Post: The CIA’s chief technology officer outlined the agency’s endless appetite for data in a far-ranging speech on Wednesday. Speaking before a crowd of tech geeks at GigaOM’s Structure:Data conference in New York City, CTO Ira “Gus” Hunt said that the world is increasingly awash in information from text messages, tweets, and videos […]
Defense Contractor Allegedly Compromised by Honey Trap
March 20th, 2013Via: ABC: A defense contractor and former U.S. Army officer has been charged with communicating national defense secrets to a 27-year-old Chinese national with whom he had a romantic relationship. According to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court Monday in Hawaii, Benjamin Pierce Bishop, 59, who held a top secret clearance, transmitted “national defense […]
Amazon and CIA Ink Cloud Deal
March 20th, 2013Via: FCW: In a move sure to send ripples through the federal IT community, FCW has learned that the CIA has agreed to a cloud computing contract with electronic commerce giant Amazon, worth up to $600 million over 10 years. Amazon Web Services will help the intelligence agency build a private cloud infrastructure that helps […]
OTP22: Are The Dead Drops Outside the U.S. Real?
March 14th, 2013I read the recent IRC transcript of the user with alleged ties to GCHQ and thought that, while entertaining, it was the happiest bunch of horseshit I’ve come across in awhile. And that’s when it hit me: OTP22 is probably not a government recruitment operation or social engineering experiment because the dead drops are all […]
U.S. to Let Spy Agencies Scour Americans’ Finances
March 14th, 2013Via: Reuters: The Obama administration is drawing up plans to give all U.S. spy agencies full access to a massive database that contains financial data on American citizens and others who bank in the country, according to a Treasury Department document seen by Reuters. The proposed plan represents a major step by U.S. intelligence agencies […]
34 Civil Liberties Groups Speak Out Against CISPA in Lead Up to Hearings
March 13th, 2013Via: EFF: On Monday, EFF and over 30 other Internet rights organizations sent a letter to members of Congress demanding they vote no on the “cybersecurity” bill known as CISPA. The letter starts off a week in which Congress will hold three different hearings about CISPA and computer and network security. In addition to the […]
Over 20 Tons of Heroin Seized in Afghanistan
March 12th, 2013Is this Karzai’s way of negotiating better terms? Via: RIA Novosti: Almost 21 tons of heroin have been seized in an operation in eastern Afghanistan , the head of Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) said on Tuesday. “An operation was carried out yesterday in the province of Nangarhar, during which several drug production labs […]
Is HSBC Really ‘Too Big to Jail’?
March 12th, 2013Via: Yahoo Finance / The Exchange: In December, HSBC (HBC) admitted to money laundering violations covering $200 trillion worth of transactions involving Mexican and Columbian drug cartels, groups allegedly aligned with terrorist organizations, sanctioned nations and others. The Department of Justice (DoJ) explained it could not exact a penalty greater than one month’s profits because […]
Americans Training Syrian Rebels in Jordan
March 11th, 2013Via: Reuters: Americans are training Syrian anti-government fighters in Jordan, the German weekly Der Spiegel said on Sunday, quoting what it said were participants and organizers. Spiegel said it was not clear whether the Americans worked for private firms or were from the army but said some wore uniforms. The training focused on use of […]
Karzai Says Taliban ‘In Service to America’
March 10th, 2013My guess is that Karzai probably perceives that he’s not getting a big enough cut of the opium pie. Via: Wall Street Journal: Afghanistan’s fraying ties with the U.S. hit a new low on Sunday, as President Hamid Karzai said before meeting the new U.S. defense secretary that the Taliban kill Afghan civilians “in the […]
