Public buses being outfitted with sophisticated audio surveillance across U.S.

“In cities across the United States, government officials are installing sophisticated audio surveillance equipment on public buses. Documents obtained by The Daily indicated that at least seven cities throughout the United States were installing surveillance systems capable of capturing riders’ conversations in addition to the video already being captured by existing systems. While transit agencies say that the system is intended to enhance saftey and resolve passenger complaints, experts have warned that the technology could easily be misused.” Continue reading

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Security Hole in Samsung Smart TVs Could Allow Remote Spying

“The company that made headlines in October for publicizing zero day holes in SCADA products now says it has uncovered a remotely exploitable security hole in Samsung Smart TVs. If left unpatched, the vulnerability could allow hackers to make off with owners’ social media credentials and even to spy on those watching the TV using compatible video cameras and microphones.” Continue reading

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Drug-sniffing Dogs and their Handlers

“Please remember this video the next time someone says, ‘Well if you have not done anything wrong, you don’t have anything to worry about.’ The officer admits putting illegal narcotics on cars randomly around town–enough to have a dog ‘alert’ to anyone’s car, whether they have ever used drugs or not. This isn’t an officer ‘caught on tape.’ The officer readily admits that this is what he does.” Continue reading

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Americans Are The Most Spied On People In World History

“In a radio interview, Wall Street Journal reporter Julia Angwin (who’s been one of the best at covering the surveillance state in the US) made a simple observation that puts much of this into context: the US surveillance regime has more data on the average American than the Stasi ever did on East Germans. The American government is collecting and storing virtually every phone call, purchases, email, text message, internet searches, social media communications, health information, employment history, travel and student records, and virtually all other information of every American.” Continue reading

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Where You Register Your Domain Name May Land You In Jail

“Richard O’Dwyer has never been to the United States. Not once. His Internet site ran on servers in Sweden. Neither Sweden nor his home country has charged him with a crime. So how in the world could the United States government make a case against O’Dwyer and enforce its laws against a foreign citizen like this? Because he used a .com domain name. All .com domains (among many other global top level domains or gTLDs) are registered with Versign, a US-based company. The implications of this are huge. Can the US government exert its laws against a non-US website based on the registry used for that domain name?” Continue reading

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CIA beat and sodomized wrongly detained German citizen

“CIA agents tortured a German citizen, sodomising, shackling, and beating him, as Macedonian state police looked on, the European court of human rights said in a historic judgment released on Thursday. In a unanimous ruling, it also found Macedonia guilty of torturing, abusing, and secretly imprisoning Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin allegedly linked to terrorist organisations. Masri was seized in Macedonia in December 2003 and handed over to a CIA ‘rendition team’ at Skopje airport and secretly flown to Afghanistan. It is the first time the court has described CIA treatment meted out to terror suspects as torture.” Continue reading

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Western diplomats report Israel behind bogus Iran nuclear data leak

“The leak’s principal impact, a European diplomat told The Guardian, was that it compromised the UN nuclear watchdog’s ongoing investigation. Despite increasingly heated rhetoric from Tel Aviv and Washington, the international community still lacks evidence that Iran has been working on nuclear weapons since 2003. However, the IAEA’s publication of summary intelligence on an alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program helped the US and EU to impose a new round of sanctions against Tehran. Now, the ‘amateurish hoax’ is said to threaten the position of the IAEA’s inspectors.” Continue reading

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Britain’s ‘under-trained’ drone pilots create ‘significant risks’

“Badly trained pilots are creating ‘significant risks’ to Britain’s unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) programme, a military investigation has found. A probe by the Military Aviation Authority found that ‘increasing demands’ on drones used for surveillance and intelligence-gathering were ‘constraining the length of time available to train and qualify’ new pilots. MPs are due to debate the country’s involvement in drone warfare later Tuesday and Labour plans to push the government over whether unmanned aircraft will be deployed to kill terrorist suspects.” Continue reading

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