Archive for the 'Covert Operations' Category
Inside Romania’s Secret CIA Prison
December 8th, 2011Via: AP: In northern Bucharest, in a busy residential neighborhood minutes from the heart of the capital city, is a secret the Romanian government has long tried to protect. For years, the CIA used a government building — codenamed “Bright Light” — as a makeshift prison for its most valuable detainees. There it held al-Qaida […]
ATF Wanted to Use “Fast and Furious” to Justify More Gun Control Legislation
December 8th, 2011This is absolutely incredible. Via: CBS: Documents obtained by CBS News show that the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) discussed using their covert operation “Fast and Furious” to argue for controversial new rules about gun sales. In Fast and Furious, ATF secretly encouraged gun dealers to sell to suspected traffickers for Mexican […]
DEA Launders Mexican Profits of Drug Cartels
December 4th, 2011Via: New York Times: Undercover American narcotics agents have laundered or smuggled millions of dollars in drug proceeds as part of Washington’s expanding role in Mexico’s fight against drug cartels, according to current and former federal law enforcement officials. The agents, primarily with the Drug Enforcement Administration, have handled shipments of hundreds of thousands of […]
X-37B Spacecraft: “It’s Still Up There”
December 1st, 2011Via: MSNBC: The secretive X-37B robotic space plane is about to set its own space-endurance record on a hush-hush project operated by the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The craft, also known as the Orbital Test Vehicle-2, was boosted into Earth orbit atop an Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on March 5. […]
U.S. Settles Suit Over Anthrax Attacks
November 30th, 2011Via: New York Times: The federal government has agreed to pay $2.5 million to the widow and children of the first person killed in the anthrax letter attacks of 2001, settling a lawsuit claiming that the Army did not adequately secure its supply of the deadly pathogen. The settlement with the family of Robert Stevens, […]
Sirhan Sirhan Lawyers: ‘Hypno Programming and Memory Implantation Techniques’
November 28th, 2011Via: CNN: Sirhan Sirhan, convicted of the 1968 assassination of presidential candidate Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, should be freed from prison or granted a new trial based on “formidable evidence” asserting his innocence and “horrendous violations” of his rights, defense attorneys said in federal court papers filed this week. In a U.S. District Court brief, […]
What Really Happened to Strauss-Kahn?
November 27th, 2011Via: The New York Review of Books: The man I asked to talk to—and to whom I was not put through—was René-Georges Querry, Sheehan’s ultimate superior at Accor and a well-connected former chief of the French anti-gang brigades, who was now head of security for the Accor Group. Before joining Accor Group in 2003, he […]
PayPal’s Links to Palantir, a Metasearch Technology Used by Intelligence, Law Enforcement and Military Organizations
November 27th, 2011And guess where they’re located? That’s right: Facebook’s former building. I couldn’t make it up if I tried. Via: Bloomberg: An organization like the CIA or FBI can have thousands of different databases, each with its own quirks: financial records, DNA samples, sound samples, video clips, maps, floor plans, human intelligence reports from all over […]
Apple iTunes “Flaw” Allowed Government Spying for 3 Years
November 25th, 2011Via: Telegraph: An unpatched security flaw in Apple’s iTunes software allowed intelligence agencies and police to hack into users’ computers for more than three years, it’s claimed. A British company called Gamma International marketed hacking software to governments that exploited the vulnerability via a bogus update to iTunes, Apple’s media player, which is installed on […]
Egypt: Three American College Students Arrested for Allegedly Throwing Firebombs at Security Forces During Protests
November 23rd, 2011Fascinating. Via: AP / New Zealand Herald: Three American college students have been arrested in the Cairo protests at Tahrir Square. Luke Gates, 21, Gregory Porter, 19, and Derrick Sweeney, 21, were arrested on the roof of a university building where they were allegedly throwing firebombs at security forces fighting with protesters near Tahrir Square. […]
