Network Archives

DEA Must Pay $3 Million in 2010 Killing of LA Teen

"A federal judge Tuesday awarded $3 million to the family of an 18-year-old Los Angeles honors student who was gunned down by undercover DEA agents in a parking garage in 2010. But the judge also ruled the officers were not negligent in their actions. Officers claimed that Champommier's vehicle struck a deputy as he attempted to leave the scene. Officers opened fire, killing the 18-year-old honor student and 'band geek.' Both the DEA and the LA County Sheriff's Department said the shooting was justifiable because Champommier had tried to run down an officer." Continue reading →

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Mexican Cartels Not in “Over 1,000 US Cities,” Report Finds

"The refrain that Mexican drug cartels 'now maintain a presence in over 1,000 cities' has been widely heard ever since the claim was first made in a 2011 report by the now defunct National Drug Intelligence Center (NDIC). But the Washington Post reported Sunday that it isn't true. The figure is 'misleading at best,' law enforcement sources and drug policy analysts told the Post. The number was arrived by asking law enforcement agencies to self-report and not based on documented criminal cases involving Mexico's drug trafficking organizations, the so-called cartels." Continue reading →

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The NSA and Its “Compliance Problems”

"For ordinary citizens, 'compliance problems' with the law are better known as 'crimes' (or possibly civil wrongs) and these lead to judgment debts, fines, and possibly even jail time, depending on the severity of the lack-of-compliance. But for government officials such notions are irrelevant — legal compliance problems are just something you file a report about, and send to another bureaucrat higher up in the government chain, so that he can bury it on his desk. Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. The notion of the rule of law is the wellspring of an endless stream of hypocrisy in the modern social-democratic welfare-warfare state." Continue reading →

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James Clapper Says Feds Will Start Releasing Some FISA And NSL Metadata

"For what it's worth this is a step forward -- and something the government should have done ages ago, but perhaps not nearly as big as Clapper would like everyone to believe. Note that they only say they'll reveal the number of 'targets' rather than people impacted. Given that each person "targeted" may lead to scooping up records on many, many others, this seems fairly weak. Remember, for a 'target' they can scoop up all kinds of records, and then go three hops deep. So, one target could impact thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of people. This is a baby step forward, but it still seems designed to mislead." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJames Clapper Says Feds Will Start Releasing Some FISA And NSL Metadata

Fidel Castro denies Cuba refused Edward Snowden asylum

"Castro, in the same article, praised Snowden, who disclosed the existence of secret US government surveillance programs used to scoop phone and Internet data on a vast scale. 'I admire how brave and just Snowden’s declarations were, which in my opinion provided a service to the world by revealing the disgustingly dishonest politics of the powerful empire that lies and deceives the world,' Castro wrote. 'It is absolutely clear that the United States will always try to put pressure on Cuba as it does with the UN or any public or private institution in the world, that is one of the characteristics of that country’s government and it would not be possible to expect anything else.'" Continue reading →

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Snowden Leak: U.S. Paying Contractors Ten Times as Much as Bureaucrats

"While contractors represent fewer than 20 percent of the workforce, 70 percent of the intelligence budget goes to them, according to a figure from the U.S. Director of National Intelligence Agency (DNI) at a Colorado sponsored by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). That rare peek behind the veil is likely still relatively accurate. Traditionally the lion's share of this money has gone to Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC), Honeywell Int'l Inc. (HON) (via is Science Applications Int'l Corp. subsidiary), Raytheon Comp. (RTN), Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), and Edward Snowden's former firm Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Comp. (BAH)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden Leak: U.S. Paying Contractors Ten Times as Much as Bureaucrats

‘Brilliant’ Snowden Digitally Impersonated NSA Officials

"The 30-year-old's role as a 'system administrator' meant that he was able to access NSAnet, the agency’s intranet, using those user profiles and without leaving any signature. An official told NBC that the NSA identified several instances in which the elite NSA-trained hacker impersonated officials, and that the spy agency's forensic investigation is 'trying to figure out which higher level officials Snowden impersonated online to access the most sensitive documents.' Last week Michael Isikoff, Cole, and Esposito reported that the NSA is 'overwhelmed' - does not know the full extent of the tens of thousands of documents the former NSA contractor took from its system." Continue reading →

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Spain fights to lose status as drug gateway to Europe

"The make-up of drug rings sending cocaine to Spain has changed as well. The Colombian groups which dominated the trade in the 1980s have given way bit by bit to Mexican cartels. Drug traffickers’ interest in Europe has increased because demand from the continent for cocaine is growing. Over the past decade the number of cocaine consumers in Europe has doubled while demand for the drug has plunged by 33 percent in the United States. In response European nations have reinforced regional cooperation as well as their cooperation with police forces in Latin America to stop the flow of cocaine. Hiding cocaine in banana shipments remains one of the favourite tactics used by traffickers." Continue reading →

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Peru dethrones Colombia as cocaine king

"With Peru already vying with Colombia in 2011 — it actually was growing 400 hectares of coca more than its neighbor then, although it is thought to have produced less drugs — that means this country is now almost certainly the world’s top source of coca for the manufacture of illegal narcotics. Ricardo Soberon, now a trenchant critic of the government’s counter-narcotics policies, is not holding his breath. 'These figures are a clear indication the government is making incorrect decisions,' said Soberon, who was squeezed out of his job, apparently under pressure from Washington, in 2011, for allegedly being sympathetic to the impoverished, small farmers who grow most of Peru’s coca." Continue reading →

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Iraq war killed 120,000 and cost $800 billion, study estimates

"At least 116,000 Iraqi civilians and more than 4,800 coalition troops died in Iraq between the outbreak of war in 2003 and the US withdrawal in 2011, researchers estimate. Its involvement in Iraq has so far cost the United States $810 billion (625 billion euros) and could eventually reach $3 trillion, they added. 'More than 31,000 US military personnel were injured and a substantial percentage of those deployed suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, and other neuropsychological disorders and their concomitant psychosocial problems.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIraq war killed 120,000 and cost $800 billion, study estimates