Network Archives

Iranian Electoral Candidate Disqualified for Being Too Attractive

"27-year-old Nina Siahkali Moradi received 10,000 votes during the city's most recent election, placing her 14th out of the 163 candidates, which landed her the title of 'alternate member of council.' However when one of those ranked above her was elected as mayor, Moradi was instead disqualified. A senior office in Qazvin has been quoted as saying, 'We don't want a catwalk model on the council.' Moradi, a graduate student in architecture ran what many consider a successfully forward-leaning and high-profile election campaign, leading many to cite her disqualification as another blatant example of Iran's sexist policy." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIranian Electoral Candidate Disqualified for Being Too Attractive

Iraq Kurds reach out to Baghdad to fight surging al Qaeda

"The Shi'ite-led Iraqi government and Kurdish authorities are now looking at examples like the Shirqat attack and considering the once unthinkable - launching joint security operations and sharing intelligence - to combat the common enemy of al Qaeda. Such cooperation has been extremely rare since U.S. troops left at the end of 2011, while the central government and the autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan region in the north have been locked in an increasingly hostile dispute over land and oil. That the two sides are publicly contemplating working together underlines how worried they are about the insurgency and the threat of Iraq slipping back into all-out sectarian war." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIraq Kurds reach out to Baghdad to fight surging al Qaeda

Study Rejects Cell Phone Driving Danger Claims

"A study published in the August edition American Economic Journal rejects the commonly held view that the proliferation of cell phone use among the driving public has made travel more dangerous. Politicians have seized on the perception and outlawed driving while talking on a handheld cell phone in eleven states. The researchers began by posing a difficult question for politicians: Why has cell phone use skyrocketed at the same time that traffic accidents and fatalities are at an all-time low? The study found that fatal accident rates did not see either a short-term or a long-term drop in the states that adopted cell phone driving bans." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStudy Rejects Cell Phone Driving Danger Claims

DOJ, FBI admit they inflated claims about mortgage fraud crackdown last year

"The Justice Department and FBI have quietly acknowledged they grossly overstated the scope of a mortgage fraud crackdown, which the administration heralded with much fanfare a few weeks before last year's presidential election. The DOJ and FBI had long been dogged by claims that their numbers were inflated. Bloomberg has been reporting since October that the cases cited by Holder included charges filed during the George W. Bush administration. Bloomberg continued to press for clarification. The administration went dark on the issue until Friday, when the FBI acknowledged in a memo that it had conducted an 'extensive review' and found problems." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDOJ, FBI admit they inflated claims about mortgage fraud crackdown last year

Audit finds NSA violated ‘thousands’ of its own privacy rules

"The National Security Agency (NSA) has breached privacy rules or acted outside its authority several thousand times since being granted sweeping new powers five years ago, the Washington Post reported. The breaches had been revealed after analysis of an internal audit and other top secret documents, the details of which were made available to the Post by US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. It cited an instance in 2008 when a 'large number' of calls from Washington were monitored after a programming error mixed up the area code for the US capital — 202 — with the international dialing code for Egypt — 20." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAudit finds NSA violated ‘thousands’ of its own privacy rules

Paul Craig Roberts: Washington’s Drive For Hegemony Is A Drive To War

"NATO lost its purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Yet, it has been greatly expanded and now includes former constituent parts of the Soviet Empire. NATO has become a cover for US military aggression and supplies troops for Washington’s wars. Georgia’s troops are fighting for Washington in Afghanistan and fought for Washington in Iraq. Washington kept NATO alive and made it into a mercenary army that serves Washington’s world empire. Are Americans aware that Washington is conducting military exercises all over the world, is surrounding Russia and China with military bases, and now has an Africa Command?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Washington’s Drive For Hegemony Is A Drive To War

Julian Assange: ‘Bradley Manning’s Apology Was Extracted By Force’

"The United States government should be apologizing to Pfc. Bradley Manning, rather than the other way around, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement Wednesday. Assange said Manning's apology had been coerced by abuse. 'Mr. Manning's apology is a statement extorted from him under the overbearing weight of the United States military justice system. It took three years and millions of dollars to extract two minutes of tactical remorse from this brave soldier,' he said. 'As over 100,000 signatories of his Nobel Peace Prize nomination attest, Bradley Manning has changed the world for the better.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJulian Assange: ‘Bradley Manning’s Apology Was Extracted By Force’

City Reduces Police Force By Placing Public Under Constant Surveillance

"The Camden County Police Department recently created the Real Time Tactical Operation Intelligence Center in order to 'help a reduced police force' by installing 120 cameras across the city, according to My9NJ. The police department also monitors the public with a mobile 40-foot high sky booth called the 'Sky Patrol.' The booth is high enough for police to intimidate the population below while scanning a wide area of the city with cameras, thermal-imaging, and other sophisticated spy tech. The Camden County police have already covered one-third of the city with microphones, calling them 'gunshot detectors' as the cover story." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCity Reduces Police Force By Placing Public Under Constant Surveillance

Obama’s surveillance revisions omit limits on warrantless email searches

"In pledging to make changes that could curtail the federal government’s ability to spy on Americans, President Barack Obama failed to address calls by lawmakers and experts to overhaul a law that allows the National Security Agency to search vast databases of individual Americans’ emails without court warrants. Instead, Obama called on Congress to change the USA Patriot Act, which increased the government’s ability to gather intelligence after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and the secret court that oversees NSA surveillance programs. Obama said he still backed the surveillance programs but was trying to strike a balance." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObama’s surveillance revisions omit limits on warrantless email searches

PayPal freezes GlassUp’s $100K crowdfunding money, eventually releases it

"Today, the news is good: PayPal is releasing the funds. 'It’s great news. It’s wonderful,' Giartosio told me this morning from Venice, Italy. 'Now I can open PayPal payments again on the campaign.' Early this morning, a PayPal representative contacted me with the news. It turns out, on reflection, that there’s nothing nefarious about an Italian wearable computing company — and that PayPal thinks GlassUp is actually a pretty cool product. The question is: How much more successful would GlassUp have been if PayPal had not caused this problem? Or if, even after freezing the account, someone had just Googled the project, picked up the phone, and had a conversation?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingPayPal freezes GlassUp’s $100K crowdfunding money, eventually releases it