– Prison America (Veterans Today, June 9, 2013)
Infinite
Why Is MSM So Busy Reporting On The NSA’s Secret Wiretapping Program NOW, When It Ignored The Story YEARS AGO???
Related info:
See commentary from reader M.G.:
“He has only provided information. It is up to Americans to stand up and demand more truth from government.
I have looked at some of the posts around the web, and appalled at the amount of fools calling him a traitor………
I checked US media TV news. MSNBC calls him an amateur, plays it down, Fox talked about milk and that NSA spying is not new……..financials talked about money, and HLN discussed the latest murder trial.
TV news is in short sound bytes, and discusses nothing in depth. It is corporate media, serving at the will of the corporate oligarchy. We have no free press in America.”
So whistleblower Edward Snowden, the source behind the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history, is now getting ridiculed, because the story couldn’t be ignored and had to be reported by MSM.
– The NSA wiretapping story nobody wanted (Computerworld, July 17, 2009):
IDG News Service – They sometimes call national security the third rail of politics. Touch it and, politically, you’re dead.
The cliché doesn’t seem far off the mark after reading Mark Klein’s new book, “Wiring up the Big Brother Machine … and Fighting It.” It’s an account of his experiences as the whistleblower who exposed a secret room at a Folsom Street facility in San Francisco that was apparently used to monitor the Internet communications of ordinary Americans.
IMF Says Another Greek Bailout Necessary
Related info:
– IMF Says Another Greek Bailout Necessary (ZeroHedge, June 9, 2013):
Just six short months ago (before GGBs rallied 119% and the Athens Stock Index 53%), the EU and IMF agreed on Greek Debt/GDP targets, pronounced the nation “fixed”, and went on winter vacation. Well, surprise, the hockey-stick of expected GDP has not come to pass and now, as Der Spiegel reports, the IMF is refusing to participate in further rescue programs for Greece unless financing for the nation is secured for the next 12 months – in other words – a new haircut for Greece will be required to cover the EUR4.6 billion funding shortfall.
Christine Lagarde’s ‘fund’ is putting pressure on EUR members, after their mea culpa last week at the biliousness of their previous efforts to save the troubled PIIG nation, to agree to these new haircuts. This will not be a pretty dance – as with Merkel now a few short months away from a general election (and Germany owed EUR15 billion in KfW loans and a further EUR35 billion contributions to ESM/EFSF mechanisms), any agreement on her part would solidify opposition parties’ proof that taxpayer money was lost (and the good money after bad argument).
Perhaps that is why GGB prices have dropped over 10% in the last week?
Revealed: £2 Billion Cost Of FAILED Sellafield MOX Plant
– Revealed: £2bn cost of failed Sellafield plant (Independent, June 9, 2013):
Internal review deals blow to the Government’s hope of commissioning new mixed-oxide facility
A controversial nuclear fuel plant that was closed down two years ago left taxpayers with a £2.2bn bill instead of turning a healthy profit, an government report has admitted.
An internal report revealing the full extent of the failure of the SellafieldMixed-Oxide (MOX) plant concluded that the facility was “not fit for purpose” and its performance over a decade was “very poor”.
The report is embarrassing for the Government which is proposing to build a new MOX plant at Sellafield to deal with Britain’s civil plutonium stockpile – the biggest in the world.
Campaigners and MPs claimed yesterday that the report’s account of the events at Sellafield fatally undermined the case for any further attempts to profit from the MOX process, which uses reprocessed plutonium to make fuel for civil nuclear power plants.
Read moreRevealed: £2 Billion Cost Of FAILED Sellafield MOX Plant
Meet ‘PRISM’ Whistleblower Edward Snowden The Source Behind The Biggest Intelligence Leak In NSA History (Video)
Related info:
– Obama Regime To Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger, Launches Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks
MUST-SEE!
The 29-year-old source behind the biggest intelligence leak in the NSA’s history explains his motives, his uncertain future and why he never intended on hiding in the shadows
– Edward Snowden: the whistleblower behind the NSA surveillance revelations (Guardian, June 9, 2013):
Glenn Greenwald, Ewen MacAskill and Laura Poitras in Hong Kong
The individual responsible for one of the most significant leaks in US political history is Edward Snowden, a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defence contractor Booz Allen Hamilton. Snowden has been working at the National Security Agency for the last four years as an employee of various outside contractors, including Booz Allen and Dell.
The Guardian, after several days of interviews, is revealing his identity at his request. From the moment he decided to disclose numerous top-secret documents to the public, he was determined not to opt for the protection of anonymity. “I have no intention of hiding who I am because I know I have done nothing wrong,” he said.
Snowden will go down in history as one of America’s most consequential whistleblowers, alongside Daniel Ellsberg and Bradley Manning. He is responsible for handing over material from one of the world’s most secretive organisations – the NSA.
In a note accompanying the first set of documents he provided, he wrote: “I understand that I will be made to suffer for my actions,” but “I will be satisfied if the federation of secret law, unequal pardon and irresistible executive powers that rule the world that I love are revealed even for an instant.”
Despite his determination to be publicly unveiled, he repeatedly insisted that he wants to avoid the media spotlight. “I don’t want public attention because I don’t want the story to be about me. I want it to be about what the US government is doing.”
He does not fear the consequences of going public, he said, only that doing so will distract attention from the issues raised by his disclosures. “I know the media likes to personalise political debates, and I know the government will demonise me.”
Despite these fears, he remained hopeful his outing will not divert attention from the substance of his disclosures. “I really want the focus to be on these documents and the debate which I hope this will trigger among citizens around the globe about what kind of world we want to live in.” He added: “My sole motive is to inform the public as to that which is done in their name and that which is done against them.”
He has had “a very comfortable life” that included a salary of roughly $200,000, a girlfriend with whom he shared a home in Hawaii, a stable career, and a family he loves. “I’m willing to sacrifice all of that because I can’t in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they’re secretly building.”
‘I am not afraid, because this is the choice I’ve made’
CISPA Will Legalize PRISM NSA Spy Program
– CISPA Will Legalize PRISM Spy Program (Activist Post, June 8, 2013):
Give them an inch and they will take a mile. That is how power-hungry tyrants interpret any law.
The PATRIOT Act and the FISA court led to the blanket wiretapping of every American citizen and a PRISM lens into all Internet activity for the NSA.
Alex Jones Disrupts BBC’s Sunday Politics Show 2013 (Video)
… doing his best to discredit the truth movement with his bad behaviour?
Grow up Alex!
Related info:
– World’s Leading Vaccine Pioneer Dr. Maurice Hilleman Admits: HIV And Cancer Come From Vaccines (Video)
YouTube Added: 09.06.2013
Description:
The annual conference of the secretive Bilderberg Group is meeting near Watford, with some leading political and business leaders from the US and Europe.
American “shock jock” Alex Jones joined Times columnist David Aaronovitch to discuss it – and ended up disrupting the show in spectacular fashion.
Presenter Andrew Neil described him as “the worst person” that he had ever interviewed.
Humor: AbeGnomics: The Most Magical And Mysterious Economic Policy In The World!
– The Most Magical And Mysterious Economic Policy In The World! (Japan Subculture Research Center, June 7, 2013):
Japan is populated by magical creatures. There are the leprechauns that stole millions from Olympus, Lehman Brothers Japan–then a billion dollars from AIJ and MRI and then vanished. There are also the alchemist gnomes like Abe and Horie that manage to make money out of thin air (or hot air). Follow the rainbow, kids! A pot of platinum yen coins is waiting for you.
We’ll admit it. We just don’t understand Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s much vaunted economic policy known as Abenomics. Spend public funds that Japan doesn’t have, increase inflation, but not raise minimum wages? How is this supposed to improve the economy? We know we’re missing something. Secretly, we feel like it only works because people believe it works. Sort of like fairies. If you believe in fairies, gnomes, and Abegnomics – than clap your hands! If you know how to explain, Abenomics–we welcome your article! And we’ll pay you top Abegnomic yen for it! (It’s imaginary but it will feel like a lot when you imagine you have it.) Contributions welcome.
Author Of The Patriot Act: ‘This Abuse Of The Patriot Act Must End’
Jim Sensenbrenner is a US politician who has been a member of the Republican party in the House of Representatives since 1979, representing Wisconsin’s 5th congressional district. In 2001, he introduced the USA Patriot Act in the House
President Obama falsely claims Congress authorised all NSA surveillance. In fact, our law was designed to protect liberties
Barack Obama discusses the NSA surveillance controversy at a press conference in California, on Friday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
– This abuse of the Patriot Act must end (Guardian, by Jim Sensenbrenner, June 9, 2013):
We’ve gotten used to what “Big Government” looks like – Washington’s unchecked deficit spending, the Obama administration’s policing of the press and the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups. But the problem is bigger than we thought. “Big Brother” is watching. And he is monitoring the phone calls and digital communications of every American, as well as of any foreigners who make or receive calls to or from the United States.
Last week, the Guardian reported that the Obama administration is collecting records of every call made to, from or within the US, as well as records of many digital communications. President Obama has tried to deflect criticism by claiming “every member of Congress has been briefed on this program.” While some members of Congress were briefed – particularly those on the intelligence committees – most, including myself, were not.
The administration claims authority to sift through details of our private lives because the Patriot Act says that it can. I disagree. I authored the Patriot Act, and this is an abuse of that law.
I was the chairman of the House judiciary committee when the US was attacked on 11 September 2001. Five days later, the Justice Department delivered its proposal for new legislation. Although I, along with every other American, knew we had to strengthen our ability to combat those targeting our country, this version went too far. I believed then and now that we can defend our country and our liberty at the same time.
I immediately called then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert and asked him for time to redraft the legislation. I told the speaker that if the legislation moved forward as drafted, I would not only vote against it, but would actively oppose it.
Read moreAuthor Of The Patriot Act: ‘This Abuse Of The Patriot Act Must End’
Magnus Carlsen Vs Alexander Morozevich – World Blitz Championship 2012 (Video)
Already after the 15th move white is already lost and 16. f5 is making things worse (… but this is blitz chess).
21. Bf6 would have been better than 21. Nf6.
Morozevich could have ended this game a lot faster:
33. … Ng4!!! 34. Qe1 Rd1 35.Qxd1 Nf2+
… instead of 34. … Rd6:
34. … Rd1+ 35. Kg2 Rxc6!
… instead of 35. … Kg7:
35. … Rc1+ 36. Kg2 Rd2+ 37. Be2 Rxe2+ 38. Qxe2 Rc2
… instead of 37. Bd5:
37. …Rdd2! 38. Qf1 Bh3 39. Qe1 b2
Later on Carlsen even missed to win the game after 46. …Kf8?? …
… with 47. Qb8+!, …
…but then again this is blitz chess. 🙂
Great game!!!
Hope you’ve enjoyed it.
To analyse the game for yourself (or with your computer) use the Chessgames database:
See also:
– Morozevich vs Carlsen – World Blitz Championship 2012 – A80 Dutch – 1:0
To Improve Today’s Concrete, Do As The Romans Did … Whose Massive Concrete Structures Have Withstood The Elements For More Than 2,000 Years
– To improve today’s concrete, do as the Romans did (UC Berkeley, June 4, 2013):
BERKELEY – In a quest to make concrete more durable and sustainable, an international team of geologists and engineers has found inspiration in the ancient Romans, whose massive concrete structures have withstood the elements for more than 2,000 years.Using the Advanced Light Source at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), a research team from the University of California, Berkeley, examined the fine-scale structure of Roman concrete. It described for the first time how the extraordinarily stable compound – calcium-aluminum-silicate-hydrate (C-A-S-H) – binds the material used to build some of the most enduring structures in Western civilization.The discovery could help improve the durability of modern concrete, which within 50 years often shows signs of degradation, particularly in ocean environments.
NSA’s ‘Boundless Informant’ Collects 3 Billion Intelligence Pieces From US Computer Networks In One Month
– The NSA’s “Boundless Informant” Collects 3 Billion Intelligence Pieces From US Computer Networks In One Month (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):
There’s one reason why the administration, James Clapper and the NSA should just keep their mouths shut as the PRISM-gate fallout escalates: with every incremental attempt to refute some previously unknown facet of the US Big Brother state, a new piece of previously unleaked information from the same intelligence organization now scrambling for damage control, emerges and exposes the brand new narrative as yet another lie, forcing even more lies, more retribution against sources, more journalist persecution and so on.The latest piece of news once again comes from the Guardian’s Glenn Greenwald who this time exposes the NSA’s datamining tool “Boundless Informant” which according to leaked documents collected 97 billion pieces of intelligence from computer networks worldwide in March 2013 alone, and “3 billion pieces of intelligence from US computer networks over a 30-day period.”
This is summarized in the chart below which shows that only the middle east has more active NSA-espionage than the US. Also, Obama may not want to show Xi the activity heatmap for China, or else the whole “China is hacking us” script may promptly fall apart.
Using simple, non-AES 256 breaking math, 3 billion per month amounts to some 100 million intrusions into the US per day, or looked at from another perspective, just a little more than the “zero” which James Clapper vouched announced earlier today is the applicable number of US citizens falling under the NSA’s espionage mandate: “Section 702 cannot be used to intentionally target any U.S. citizen, or any other U.S. person, or to intentionally target any person known to be in the United States.” Oops.
But it gets worse for the NSA. As the Guardian reports, “Emmel, the NSA spokeswoman, told the Guardian: “Current technology simply does not permit us to positively identify all of the persons or locations associated with a given communication (for example, it may be possible to say with certainty that a communication traversed a particular path within the internet. It is harder to know the ultimate source or destination, or more particularly the identity of the person represented by the TO:, FROM: or CC: field of an e-mail address or the abstraction of an IP address). Thus, we apply rigorous training and technological advancements to combine both our automated and manual (human) processes to characterize communications – ensuring protection of the privacy rights of the American people. This is not just our judgment, but that of the relevant inspectors general, who have also reported this.”
In other words, Americans are absolutely the target of billions of monthly intrusions, but said data “mining” is exempted because it is difficult to identify in advance if a US citizen is implicated in any metadata chain.
Only it isn’t as it is the whole premise behind Boundless Informant.
FLASHBACK: Barack Obama’s Speech On Warrantless Wiretapping In 2007! (Video)
Change!
– Flashback to 2007: Obama’s Speech on Warrantless Wiretapping (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 7, 2013):
At this point we all understand that there is absolutely zero in common with Presidential-candidate Barack Obama and President Barack Obama.
He has so consistently lied while in office I have become convinced that he ranks deception as one of his most cherished hobbies.
Right up there with rounds of golf and posing for pictures with ice cream cones (he learned that trick from Uncle Warren). After all, the man’s entire life is a giant lie.
A constitutional law professor who spends his entire two terms dismantling the document itself.
So… just in case you need a reminder in light of the NSA/Verizon spy scandal, here is what candidate Obama was saying in 2007.
10 Questions: Warrantless Wiretaps
YouTube
Greece: Total Collapse In Pics – GDP Plunges To Year 2000 Levels – That Things Are Hopeless And Getting Worse Is An Understatement – Another Bailout Imminent
Related info:
– Greek GDP Plunges To Year 2000 Levels (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):
That things in Greece are hopeless and getting worse is an understatement. With unemployment levels off the charts, the pension and retirement systems effectively gone and every able-bodied individual (what little remains of them) moving to the shadow economy which now accounts for 24% of GDP, there are few incentives for people to remain on payrolls, pay taxes and otherwise grow the economy via conventional channels. As a result, instead of an improvement in the economy despite all Greek foreign debt now having been forgiven courtesy of its recent conversion to perpetual Zero Coupons, not even during the depths of the recent economic collapse in late 2011 and early 2012 has the economic collapse been as bad. Kathimerini reports that figures released by ELSTAT on Friday showed GDP at 37.7 billion euros in the period from January to March 2013 – the lowest quarterly GDP since 2000.
Remember how everyone said Q1 2012 is the bottom and there was only upside from there? They lied.
Martin Luther King: ‘Everything Adolf Hitler Did In Germany Was Legal”’
– Martin Luther King: “Everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was Legal” (Liberty Blitzkrieg, June 7, 2013):
Even if you have read Martin Luther King’s celebrated “Letter from Birmingham Jail,” I insist you read it again. For those that have never read it, the inspired prose may very well change your life. The letter’s message is eternal and extraordinarily relevant in the current global struggle of the 99.9% against the criminality, corruption and oppression of a very small, but very powerful 0.01%. One of the key tactics this tiny minority uses is to claim that their immoral deeds are “legal.” He spends much of his time in the letter outlining the distinction between “just laws” and an “unjust laws,” and one of the key points he makes that we should all keep close to our hearts and minds in these trying times is:
We should never forget that everything Adolf Hitler did in Germany was “legal” and everything the Hungarian freedom fighters did in Hungary was “illegal.” It was “illegal” to aid and comfort a Jew in Hitler’s Germany. Even so, I am sure that, had I lived in Germany at the time, I would have aided and comforted my Jewish brothers.
I also think it’s important to recognize that many of his contemporaries referred to his tactics as “extremist,” very similar to how the term “terrorist” is used currently to demonize public dissent in America. Below are some of the excepts I found most powerful:
Read moreMartin Luther King: ‘Everything Adolf Hitler Did In Germany Was Legal”’
China Grows Its Rice On Land Contaminated With Industrial Waste
Related info:
– In China, Breathing Becomes A Childhood Risk (New York Times)
– China Pulls 1,000 Dead DUCKS From Sichuan River:
The news comes as the toll of dead pigs pulled from Shanghai’s Huangpu river passed 16,000.
Food, water, herbs … everything in (and coming from) China is totally contaminated …
… except:
– In China, What You Eat Tells Who You Are … And Organic Food Is Only For The Power Elite
– I ate Hu Jintao’s dinner; China’s president, and the rest of the politburo eat only organic food
– China grows its rice on land contaminated with industrial waste (Natural News, June 8, 2013):
The news regarding the abysmal conditions in which China produces its food continues to go from bad to worse as new information reveals the absolute failure of the Communist Party’s ability to create an environment of self-sustainability.
Reuters reported May 22 that yet another food scandal has arisen with the discovery of dangerous levels of toxic cadmium in rice that was being sold in the southern city of Guangzhou. It was the late CP Chairman Mao Zedong’s goal to make China self-sufficient, but with such a poor record of ensuring a safe food supply, that goal has, so far, been unattainable.
Per Reuters:
The ruling Communist Party has long staked its legitimacy on its ability to guarantee domestic staple food supplies, and has pledged to be at least 95 percent self-sufficient even as demand increases and the fastest and biggest urbanization process in history swallows up arable land.
That has led to a drive for quantity rather than quality – securing bumper harvests even from land contaminated by high levels of industrial waste and irrigated with water unfit for human consumption.
Growing industrialization literally killing Chinese with tainted food
Read moreChina Grows Its Rice On Land Contaminated With Industrial Waste
Google, Facebook, Skype, Yahoo And AOL Blatantly Lying To Users In Denying NSA Spy Grid Scheme PRISM
Related info:
– UK’s Electronic Eavesdropping And Security Agency GCHQ Also Accesses NSA’s Secret PRISM Programme
– Obama Regime To Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger, Launches Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks
– President Obama Defends Unconstitutional Surveillance Programs In San Jose Speech
– How Google, Facebook, Skype, Yahoo and AOL are all blatantly lying to their own users in denying NSA spy grid scheme (Natural News, June 8, 2013):
What do Google, AOL, Skype, Facebook, Apple, Hotmail and Yahoo all have in common? They have all been caught turning over private user data to the government’s spy agency, the NSA. All these companies routinely turn over the emails, voice calls, text chats, photos, files and even logins and passwords of their users, including Americans.
“There is a massive apparatus within the United States government that with complete secrecy has been building this enormous structure that has only one goal,” journalist Glenn Greenwald recently told Piers Morgan (who knows all about spying and hacking people’s private data). “And that is to destroy privacy and anonymity not just in the United States but around the world.”
Tech companies rush to issue (false) denials
Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities
– Meet Your New Boss: Buying Large Employers Will Enable China To Dominate 1000s Of U.S. Communities (Economic Collapse, June 6, 2013):
Are you ready for a future where China will employ millions of American workers and dominate thousands of small communities all over the United States? Such a future would be unimaginable to many Americans, but the truth is that it is already starting to happen. Chinese acquisition of U.S. businesses set a new all-time record last year, and it is on pace to absolutely shatter that record this year. Meanwhile, China is voraciously gobbling up real estate and is establishing economic beachheads all over America. If China continues to build economic power inside the United States, it will eventually become the dominant economic force in thousands of small communities all over the nation. Just think about what the Smithfield Foods acquisition alone will mean. Smithfield Foods is the largest pork producer and processor in the world. It has facilities in 26 U.S. states and it employs tens of thousands of Americans. It directly owns 460 farms and has contracts with approximately 2,100 others. But now a Chinese company has bought it for $4.7 billion, and that means that the Chinese will now be the most important employer in dozens of rural communities all over America. If you don’t think that this is important, you haven’t been paying much attention to what has been going on in the world. Thanks in part to our massively bloated trade deficit with China, the Chinese have trillions of dollars to spend. They are only just starting to exercise their economic muscles.
American Households On Foodstamps Climb To A New All Time High Of 23,116,441 (Each Collecting An Average Of $274.30 Per Month)
– American Households On Foodstamps Climb To New Record (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):
Yesterday, briefly, we were confused by the eruption in the stock market following a not too bad sub-200K nonfarm payrolls number. Because we know that in the New Normal bad is always good, no matter what the well-coifed TV pundit du jour tells you. Then we remembered that yesterday is when the USDA releases its monthly Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program data, i.e. Americans on Foodstamps.It was here that the ramp was perfectly explained, because while the bad (for stocks of course) data was that individual foodstamps recipients rose by 170K in March – if just a whisker below all time highs – it was the number of American households on foodstamps, which rose to a new all time high of 23,116,441 (each collecting an average of $274.30 per month) that perfectly explained the Dow Jones’ 200 point surge higher: the transfer of wealth from the poor and middle-classes to the 1% continues without a hiccup.
Source: SNAP
Obama Regime To Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger, Launches Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks
– Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger: Obama To Launch Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks (ZeroHedge, June 7, 2013):
Suddenly embroiled in too many scandals to even list, and humiliated by a publicly-exposed (because everyone knew about the NSA superspy ambitions before, but with one major difference: it was a conspiracy theory…. now it is a conspiracy fact) surveillance scandal that makes Tricky Dick look like an amateur, earlier today, as expected, Obama came out and publicly declared “I am not a hacker” and mumbled something about “security”, “privacy” and “inconvenience.” He went on to explain how the government “welcomes the debate” of all three in the aftermath of the public disclosure that every form of electronic communication is intercepted and stored by the US government (now that said interception is no longer secret, of course) but more importantly how it is only the government, which is naturally here to help, that should be the ultimate arbiter in deciding what is best for all.Yet the PRISM-gate scandal which is sure to only get worse with time as Americans slowly realize they are living in a Orwellian police state, meant Obama would have to do more to appease a public so furious even the NYT issued a scathing editorial lamenting the obliteration of Obama’s credibility. Sure enough, the president did. Reuters reports that the first course of action by the US government will be to… shoot the messenger.
Reuters reports that “President Barack Obama’s administration is likely to open a criminal investigation into the leaking of highly classified documents that revealed the secret surveillance of Americans’ telephone and email traffic, U.S. officials said on Friday.”
And how did Reuters learn this: from “law enforcement and security officials who were not authorized to speak publicly.”
The mimetic absurdity of the narrative is just too surreal to even contemplate for more than a minute before bursting out in laughter: the administration’s plans to launch criminal charges against those who “leaked” its Nixonian espionage masterplan involving every US (and world) citizen using the Internet, revealed by another group of sources leaking in secret. Pure poetry.
Read moreObama Regime To Shoot The PRISM-Gate Messenger, Launches Criminal Probe Into NSA Leaks
President Obama & America’s Internet Companies Are ALL LYING – Here Is How Your Data Is Handed Over To Uncle Sam
– “You Should Use Both” – How America’s Internet Companies Are Handing Over Your Data To Uncle Sam (ZeroHedge, June 8, 2013):
In the aftermath of the PRISM spying scandal, the first and logical response was an expected one: lie. The president did it, and so did the various companies implicated in the biggest US surveillance scandal ever exposed. To wit:
- Zuckerberg: “Facebook is not and has never been part of any program to give the US or any other government direct access to our servers.”
- Google CEO Larry Page: “We have not joined any program that would give the US government – or any other government – direct access to our servers.”
- Yahoo: “We do not provide the government with direct access to our servers, systems, or network.”
One small problem: they are all lying.
The NYT explains just how the explicit handover of private customer data from Corporate Server X to NSA Server Y takes place.
The companies that negotiated with the government include Google, which owns YouTube; Microsoft, which owns Hotmail and Skype; Yahoo; Facebook; AOL; Apple; and Paltalk, according to one of the people briefed on the discussions. The companies were legally required to share the data under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. People briefed on the discussions spoke on the condition of anonymity because they are prohibited by law from discussing the content of FISA requests or even acknowledging their existence.
In at least two cases, at Google and Facebook, one of the plans discussed was to build separate, secure portals, like a digital version of the secure physical rooms that have long existed for classified information, in some instances on company servers. Through these online rooms, the government would request data, companies would deposit it and the government would retrieve it, people briefed on the discussions said.
‘BOUNDLESS INFORMANT’: The NSA’s Secret Tool To Track Global Surveillance Data
Revealed: The NSA’s powerful tool for cataloguing data – including figures on US collection
The color scheme ranges from green (least subjected to surveillance) through yellow and orange to red (most surveillance). Note the ‘2007’ date in the image relates to the document from which the interactive map derives its top secret classification, not to the map itself.
– Boundless Informant: the NSA’s secret tool to track global surveillance data (Guardian, by Glenn Greenwald, June 8, 2013):
The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.
The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA datamining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks.
Read more‘BOUNDLESS INFORMANT’: The NSA’s Secret Tool To Track Global Surveillance Data
UK’s Electronic Eavesdropping And Security Agency GCHQ Also Accesses NSA’s Secret PRISM Programme
UK security agency GCHQ gaining information from world’s biggest internet firms through US-run Prism programme
Documents show GCHQ (above) has had access to the NSA’s Prism programme since at least June 2010. Photograph: David Goddard/Getty Images
– UK gathering secret intelligence via covert NSA operation (Guardian, June 7, 2013):
The UK’s electronic eavesdropping and security agency, GCHQ, has been secretly gathering intelligence from the world’s biggest internet companies through a covertly run operation set up by America’s top spy agency, documents obtained by the Guardian reveal.
The documents show that GCHQ, based in Cheltenham, has had access to the system since at least June 2010, and generated 197 intelligence reports from it last year.
The US-run programme, called Prism, would appear to allow GCHQ to circumvent the formal legal process required to seek personal material such as emails, photos and videos from an internet company based outside the UK.
President Obama Defends Unconstitutional Surveillance Programs In San Jose Speech
From the article:
“When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls,” Obama said. “That’s not what this program is about. As was indicated, what the intelligence community is doing is looking at phone numbers and durations of calls — they are not looking at people’s names and they are not looking at content.”
Oh, really?
– Is The U.S. Government Also Monitoring The CONTENT Of Our Phone Calls?
Flashback:
“The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. “
– Benjamin Franklin
– President Obama defends surveillance programs in San Jose speech (Mercury News, June 7, 2013):
SAN JOSE — President Barack Obama on Friday defended his administration’s mass collection of telephone and Internet records, saying the surveillance is thoroughly overseen by Congress and judges to strike the right balance between security and privacy.
“When I came into this office, I made two commitments that are more important than any commitment I made: number one to keep the American people safe, and number two to uphold the Constitution,” he told reporters who had gathered at San Jose’s Fairmont Hotel to hear him tout California’s implementation of Obamacare, but were more interested in hearing about government surveillance.
“You can’t have 100 percent security and also then have 100 percent privacy and zero inconvenience. We’re going to have to make some choices as a society,” he said. “I think that on balance, we have established a process and a procedure that the American people should feel comfortable about.”Obama made his first public comments about the growing national firestorm over reports that the National Security Agency has been obtaining massive data on Verizon telephone customers, continuing a George W. Bush-era anti-terrorism program. And the Washington Post reported the NSA and the FBI have access to the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, including Google, Apple, Yahoo and Facebook.
Read morePresident Obama Defends Unconstitutional Surveillance Programs In San Jose Speech