Yearly Archives: 2013

Internet Society Statement on the Importance of Open Global Dialogue Regarding Online Privacy

"The Internet Society has noted recent revelations regarding the apparent scope of U.S. government efforts to gather large amounts of end user information from U.S. Internet and telecom service providers for intelligence purposes. We are deeply concerned that the unwarranted collection, storage and potential correlation of user data will undermine many of the key principles and relationships of trust upon which the global Internet has been built. The Internet Society strongly believes that real security can only be realized within a broader context of trust and the respect of fundamental rights, such as privacy.." Continue reading →

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History of the Internet (Wikipedia)

"Since the mid-1990s, the Internet has had a revolutionary impact on culture and commerce, including the rise of near-instant communication by electronic mail, instant messaging, VoIP 'phone calls', two-way interactive video calls, and the World Wide Web with its discussion forums, blogs, social networking, and online shopping sites. The Internet's takeover over the global communication landscape was almost instant in historical terms: it only communicated 1% of the information flowing through two-way telecommunications networks in the year 1993, already 51% by 2000, and more than 97% of the telecommunicated information by 2007." Continue reading →

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Blind Man’s Bluff: Why the Surveillance State Is Doomed

"The bureaucrats' quest for omniscience and omnipotence will come to a well-deserved end, just as it did in the Soviet Union, and for the same reason. The state is inherently myopic: short-sighted. Computers make it blind. The state focuses on the short run. Computers overwhelm bureaucrats with short-run information. Let us not forget that the Internet was invented by DARPA: the military's research branch. It invented the Internet to protect the military's communications network from a nuclear attack by the USSR. Today, there is no USSR. There is the World Wide Web: the greatest technological enemy of the state since Gutenberg's printing press." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingBlind Man’s Bluff: Why the Surveillance State Is Doomed

NSA Official: Privacy Of NSA Employees Should Remain Despite Hampering Leak Detection

"Privacy mandates that prevent the government from monitoring the personal data of National Security Agency employees should not be altered to stop insider threats, despite leaks of Top Secret information, a senior NSA official said on Thursday. 'This is a case where I wouldn't advocate a change of laws,' NSA Technical Director Boyd Livingston said. 'It's very difficult to do insider threat monitoring -- there are a whole other set of federal laws having to do with personal identification information, PII, and your Social Security [number], that prohibit various monitoring.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Official: Privacy Of NSA Employees Should Remain Despite Hampering Leak Detection

Paul Craig Roberts: How the US Became the USSR

"The communists had a Julian Assange and an Edward Snowden of their own. His name was Cardinal Jozef Mindszenty, the leader of the Hungarian Catholic Church. Mindszenty opposed tyranny. For his efforts he was imprisoned by the Nazis. Communists also regarded him as an undesirable, and he was tortured and given a life sentence in 1949. Freed by the short-lived Hungarian Revolution in 1956, Mindszenty reached the American Embassy in Budapest and was granted political asylum by Washington. However, the communists would not give him the free passage that asylum presumes, and Mindszenty lived in the US Embassy for 15 years, 79% of his remaining life." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: How the US Became the USSR

Holder promises not to pursue death penalty against Snowden

"Former U.S. security contractor Edward Snowden would not face the death penalty or be tortured and would have all the protections of the U.S. civilian court system if he were sent home, the chief U.S. prosecutor wrote in a letter to his Russian counterpart this week. In the letter dated July 23 and released on Friday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder wrote that he sought to dispel claims about what would happen to Snowden if Russia handed him over to face charges of illegally disclosing government secrets about surveillance programs." Continue reading →

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Even who we’re in a drone war with is classified

"Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., asked the Defense Department to provide him with a current list of Al Qaeda affiliates. The Pentagon responded - but Levin’s office told ProPublica they aren’t allowed to share it. Kathleen Long, a spokeswoman for Levin, would say only that the department’s 'answer included the information requested.' A Pentagon spokesman told ProPublica that revealing such a list could cause 'serious damage to national security.' 'Because elements that might be considered 'associated forces’ can build credibility by being listed as such by the United States, we have classified the list,' said the spokesman, Lt. Col. Jim Gregory." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEven who we’re in a drone war with is classified

Egypt’s wheat problem: how Morsi jeopardized the bread supply

"Lack of money and a quixotic attempt at making Egypt self-sufficient spurred the decline, say officials familiar with the matter. Mursi dreamt of making Egypt grow all its own wheat and allowed imported stocks to fall to precariously low levels. It hurt both the country’s wheat stocks and Mursi’s government. With a quarter of Egypt’s 84 million people living below the poverty line of $1.65 a day, millions depend on subsidized bread that sells for less than 1 U.S. cent per loaf. That supply relies on foreign wheat. The country is the world’s largest wheat importer, bringing in about 10 million tonnes a year, around half its annual consumption." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEgypt’s wheat problem: how Morsi jeopardized the bread supply

Neuroscientists discover how to implant false memories in the brain

"Scientists have implanted a false memory in the brains of mice in an experiment that they hope will shed light on the well-documented phenomenon whereby people 'remember' events or experiences that have never happened. Susumu Tonagawa, a neuroscientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and his team encoded memories in the brains of mice by manipulating individual neurons. As the technology develops, said Chris French, 'whatever means are used to implant false memories, we need to be very aware of the ethical issues raised by such procedures – the potential for abuse of such techniques cannot be overstated.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNeuroscientists discover how to implant false memories in the brain

Georgia: The New CIA-NATO Arab Terrorist Training Center

"Our majority is under this notion that Al Qaeda operatives are some Afghani version of our hillbillies: a bunch of primitive illiterate tribesmen clad in gauze shalwar, sporting a few feet-long beards, spitting out phlegm while marching around with pitchforks fighting the western windmills. If you read up on Mohamed and watch our Gladio series you’ll know and understand the significance of Georgia as the new NATO-CIA training center for Arab & North African military elites. As we speak they are training the next commandos for the next wave of terror attacks-whether under the old label aka Al-Qaeda or a brand new title equally glitzy and ferocious." Continue reading →

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