‘Rookie mistake’ in Cryptocat chat app makes cracking a snap

“Developers of the Cryptocat application for encrypting communications of activists and journalists have apologized for a critical programming flaw that made it trivial for third parties to decipher group chats. The precise amount of time the vulnerability was active is in dispute, with Cryptocat developers putting it at seven months and a security researcher saying it was closer to 19 months. As a result, activists, journalists, or others who relied on Cryptocat to protect their group chats from government or industry snoops got little more protection than is typically available in standard chat programs.” Continue reading

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Ex-Senator: FBI hindered 9/11 inquiry, withheld reports about Sarasota Saudis

“Former U.S. Sen. Bob Graham has accused the FBI in court papers of having impeded Congress’s Joint Inquiry into 9/11 by withholding information about a Florida connection to the al-Qaeda attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people. Graham said the FBI kept the 9/11 Commission in the dark, too. He said co-chairmen Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton and executive director Philip Zelikow all told him they were unaware of the FBI’s Sarasota investigation. Moreover, Graham stated that Deputy FBI Director Sean Joyce, the Bureau’s second in command, personally intervened to block him from speaking with the special agent-in-charge of the Sarasota investigation.” Continue reading

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Egyptian security forces open fire in dawn raid on praying pro-Morsi supporters, 42 dead

“At least 42 people were killed on Monday during an attack on supporters of ousted Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi outside an elite army base in Cairo, a senior medical official said. ‘The death toll is 42 dead and 322 wounded,’ Ahmed al-Ansari, the deputy head of emergency services, told AFP. The Muslim Brotherhood, which has led pro-Morsi demonstrations, said 35 of its supporters were killed when police and troops fired at them while they were praying at dawn. Witnesses, including Brotherhood supporters at the scene, said the army fired only tear gas and warning shots and that ‘thugs’ in civilian clothes had carried out the deadly shooting.” Continue reading

Continue Reading Egyptian security forces open fire in dawn raid on praying pro-Morsi supporters, 42 dead

Snowden fate in balance as Cuba backs asylum bid

“US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden won support from Cuba for his bid to seek asylum in Latin America as he began his third week in limbo at a Moscow airport on Monday. Cuba, a key transit point from Russia on the way to Latin America, supported the leaders of Bolivia, Venezuela and Nicaragua, who have offered the 30-year-old fugitive a possible lifeline as he remains marooned without documents in the transit area of a Moscow airport. Even if Snowden receives a new passport or travel document and manages to board a flight to Latin America, there are no guarantees that his plane would not be grounded once it reaches European airspace, analysts say.” Continue reading

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Two white Texas officers fired for beating black woman over $150 traffic ticket

“Two police officers in Texas have been fired after they were caught on video beating a woman who was being arrested for an unpaid traffic ticket. Video obtained from the Jasper Police Department shows Grissom pushing Diggles up against a wall before Officer Ryan Cunningham comes from behind and slams her head against a counter top. Diggles is then forced to the ground and dragged by her ankle into a nearby cell. ‘The amount of force used was abominable,’ attorney Cade Bernsen, who is representing Diggles, told Yahoo News. ‘She got her hair pulled out, broke a tooth, braces got knocked off… it was brutal.'” Continue reading

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Rape and sexual assault run rampant in juvenile justice system: Justice Department survey

“Hundreds of teen-agers are raped or sexually assaulted during their stays in the country’s juvenile detention facilities, and many of them are victimized repeatedly, according to a U.S. Department of Justice survey. The teens are most often assaulted by staff members working at the facilities, and fully 20 percent of those victimized by the men and women charged with protecting and counseling them said they had been violated on more than 10 occasions. The Justice Department survey involved more than 8,500 boys and girls. In all, 1,720 of those surveyed reported being sexually assaulted.” Continue reading

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Government Spying Has Always Focused On Crushing Dissent … Not On Keeping Us Safe

“High-level American government officials have warned for 40 years that mass surveillance would lead to tyranny. They’ve warned that the government is using information gained through mass surveillance in order to go after anyone they take a dislike to. And a lieutenant colonel for the Stasi East German’s – based upon his experience – agrees. You don’t have to obsess on the NSA’s high-tech spying to figure out what the government is doing. Instead of focusing on catching actual terrorists, police spy on Americans who criticize the government, or the big banks or the other power players.” Continue reading

Continue Reading Government Spying Has Always Focused On Crushing Dissent … Not On Keeping Us Safe

Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me [2008]

“For one thing, under an Obama presidency, Americans will be able to leave behind the era of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney and ‘wiretaps without warrants,’ he said. (He was referring to the lingering legal fallout over reports that the National Security Agency scooped up Americans’ phone and Internet activities without court orders, ostensibly to monitor terrorist plots, in the years after the September 11 attacks.) In our own Technology Voters’ Guide, when asked whether he supports shielding telecommunications and Internet companies from lawsuits accusing them of illegal spying, Obama gave us a one-word response: ‘No.'” Continue reading

Continue Reading Obama: No warrantless wiretaps if you elect me [2008]