U.S. Government Refuses FOIA Request to Turn Over ‘Secret’ Interpretation of Patriot Act
October 17th, 2011Via: TechDirt:
We’ve been covering for a while now how Senators Ron Wyden and Mark Udall have been very concerned over the secret interpretation the feds have of one piece of the PATRIOT Act. They’ve been trying to pressure the government into publicly explaining how they interpret the law, because they believe that it directly contrasts how most of the public (and many elected officials) believe the feds are interpreting the law. While the two Senators continue to put pressure on the feds and to hint at the feds’ interpretation, just the fact that the government won’t even explain its own interpretation of the law seems ridiculous.
Given all of this, reporter Charlie Savage of the NY Times filed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out the federal government’s interpretation of its own law… and had it refused. According to the federal government, its own interpretation of the law is classified. What sort of democracy are we living in when the government can refuse to even say how it’s interpreting its own law? That’s not democracy at all.
Julian Sanchez points us to the news that Savage and the NY Times have now sued the federal government for not revealing its interpretation of the PATRIOT Act, pointing out that if parts of the interpretation contain classified material, the Justice Department should black that out and reveal the rest, but simply refusing to reveal the interpretation entirely is a violation of the Freedom of Information Act. You can bet that the feds will do everything they can to get out of this lawsuit, just as they did with the various lawsuits concerning warrantless wiretapping.
Related:
U.S. Runs Surveillance Operations Based on Secret Interpretations of Patriot Act
The Secret Patriot Act Is Staying Secret
Research Credit: alvinroast
Verizon Wireless Now Handing Over Your Web, Location and App Data to Advertisers by Default
October 17th, 2011Via: PC Magazine:
For the last month, Verizon Wireless has been notifying customers through email of a major change to its default privacy setting: it will begin collecting your Web browsing history, cell phone location and app usage, for third-party marketing purposes.
You can opt out of such surveillance, although Verizon has promised not to share any identifiable information with these third-party companies.
Related: Similar Change for Home Users
Cryptogon Readers Sign Up for Hosting with BlueHost
October 17th, 2011Wow, readers are really going for hosting packages with BlueHost this month. Thanks to the owners of babajj.com, algadelta.com, and sunenergyapps.com for signing up for hosting with BlueHost. Cryptogon received $270 in commissions as a result!
I see that BlueHost is having one of their $3.95/month hosting blowout sales right now. These usually don’t last long, so if you’ve been thinking about setting up a site (or a bunch of them), and earning Cryptogon $90, head over to BlueHost and check out everything you get for $3.95 per month.
I’ve hosted all of my sites (and other people’s sites that I control) on BlueHost since 2005. A few months ago, I noticed that BlueHost started offering a 99.9% uptime guarantee. I quietly wondered to myself if that was actually possible at this price point, with the sort of traffic Cryptogon experiences. I decided to test it using Pingdom with a probe set to a five minute interval. This isn’t a normal ping. The probe actually loads the page and verifies that a specific text string appears.
It’s hard to believe, but there it is: 99.966% as I’m writing this. (The widget above is live, so the current uptime may be higher or lower.)
If you’re wondering if shared hosting is suitable for your small business or your clients’ small businesses, check out Cryptogon’s traffic and keep in mind that this site is dynamic (making continuous use of mysql and loading off site content). In other words, BlueHost likely offers plenty of hosting power for your small business at a fraction of what you’re paying now.
Cryptogon Readers Send Contributions in October
October 17th, 2011Thank you.
Pookie $75
Eileen $75
BS $25
Anonymous $56.23
JA $11.11
September Earnings
October 17th, 2011Earnings in September came to a total of $1616.91, which is a fantastic result.
Thank you very much to those of you who kept Cryptogon going in September.
Meet the Guy Who Snitched on Occupy Wall Street to the FBI and NYPD
October 16th, 2011My guess is that we would all be taken aback if we could know the complete list of agencies working that thing.
Via: Gawker:
The Occupy Wall Street protests have been going on for a month. And it seems the FBI and NYPD have had help tracking protesters’ moves thanks to a conservative computer security expert who gained access to one of the group’s internal mailing lists, and then handed over information on the group’s plans to authorities and corporations targeted by protesters.
Since the Occupy Wall Street protest began on September 17, New York security consultant Thomas Ryan has been waging a campaign to infiltrate and discredit the movement. Ryan says he’s done contract work for the U.S. Army and he brags on his blog that he leads “a team called Black Cell, a team of the most-highly trained and capable physical, threat and cyber security professionals in the world.” But over the past few weeks, he and his computer security buddies have been spending time covertly attending Occupy Wall Street meetings, monitoring organizers’ social media accounts, and hanging out with protesters in Lower Manhattan.
As part of their intelligence-gathering operation, the group gained access to a listserv used by Occupy Wall Street organizers called September17discuss. On September17discuss, organizers hash out tactics and plan events, conduct post-mortems of media appearances, and trade the latest protest gossip. On Friday, Ryan leaked thousands of September17discuss emails to conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart, who is now using them to try to smear Occupy Wall Street as an anarchist conspiracy to disrupt global markets.
Banks Demolishing and Trying to Give Wrecked, Looted Homes Away
October 16th, 2011This is such a sickening, egregious waste.
So it goes.
Via: Washington Post:
Cleveland — The sight of excavators tearing down vacant buildings has become common in this foreclosure-ravaged city, where the housing crisis hit early and hard. But the story behind the recent wave of demolitions is novel — and cities around the country are taking notice.
A handful of the nation’s largest banks have begun giving away scores of properties that are abandoned or otherwise at risk of languishing indefinitely and further dragging down already depressed neighborhoods.
The banks have even been footing the bill for the demolitions — as much as $7,500 a pop. Four years into the housing crisis, the ongoing expense of upkeep and taxes, along with costly code violations and the price of marketing the properties, has saddled banks with a heavy burden. It often has become cheaper to knock down decaying homes no one wants.
The demolitions in some cases have paved the way for community gardens, church additions and parking lots. Even when the result is an empty lot, it can be one less pockmark. While some widespread demolitions could risk hollowing out the urban core of struggling cities such as Cleveland, advocates say that the homes being targeted are already unsalvageable and that the bulldozers are merely “burying the dead.”
Research Credit: noncompliant
Related: Solution to Real Estate Mess: Burn Down Homes
Major Manufacturers Have Ceased Production of New Motion Picture Film Cameras
October 16th, 2011Via: Salon:
We might as well call it: Cinema as we knew it is dead.
An article at the moviemaking technology website Creative Cow reports that the three major manufacturers of motion picture film cameras — Aaton, ARRI and Panavision — have all ceased production of new cameras within the last year, and will only make digital movie cameras from now on. As the article’s author, Debra Kaufman, poignantly puts it, “Someone, somewhere in the world is now holding the last film camera ever to roll off the line.”
What this means is that, even though purists may continue to shoot movies on film, film itself will may become increasingly hard to come by, use, develop and preserve. It also means that the film camera — invented in 1888 by Louis Augustin Le Prince — will become to cinema what typewriters are to literature. Anybody who still uses a Smith-Corona or IBM Selectric typewriter knows what that means: if your beloved machine breaks, you can’t just take it to the local repair shop, you have to track down some old hermit in another town who advertises on Craigslist and stockpiles spare parts in his basement.
Geithner: U.S. to Play ‘Very Major Role’ In Helping Europe
October 15th, 2011Mmm hmm.
Via: CNBC:
The U.S. plans on being an active partner as efforts intensify to get Europe get back on its feet financially, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNBC Friday.
…
Geithner said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has “very substantial” resources to fund a device that could look like the Troubled Asset Relief Program, which helped navigate American financial institutions through the crisis in 2008 and 2009.
“Through the IMF, of course, we’re already playing a very major role,” he said in a live interview in Paris. “We’re happy to see the IMF continue to play that role in support of a more forceful, comprehensive strategy where Europe’s own resources—very ample resources—are deployed on a much more substantial scale.”
Obama Regime Deploys U.S. Troops to Uganda
October 15th, 2011Uganda: Scramble for Minerals Begins:
Firms from China, India, Australia and South Africa have shown interest in exploring and producing the minerals.
…
The revelations come shortly after an aerial survey report confirmed that Uganda is endowed with copper, iron ore, cobalt, tin, gold as well as platinum.
Via: Bloomberg:
President Barack Obama authorized about 100 “combat-equipped U.S. forces,” including special operations personnel, to central Africa to help fight against Uganda’s renegade Lord’s Resistance Army and its leader, Joseph Kony.
The troops are to “provide assistance to regional forces that are working toward” Kony’s removal “from the battlefield,” Obama said today in a letter to House and Senate leaders released by the White House.
The White House was responding to 2010 legislation pushed by a group of lawmakers and human rights organizations that supported a comprehensive U.S. effort short of active military involvement to mitigate or eliminate the Lord’s Resistance Army threat.
