CLibertyC

The FBI Ran a Child Porn Site for Two Whole Weeks

"The San Francisco Chronicle reports that Bureau agents posed as child porn dealers, actively distributing pornography while the site was under their control—just as other agencies perform sting operations with drugs and prostitution. It's not yet clear if the technique worked that well: in the two week period, the FBI attempted to identify 5,600 users who had shared over 10,000 images of children. What can, perhaps, be judged, is the ethical position of distributing child pornography to incriminate suspects. Is it worse than supplying drugs in a sting? Or is it fair game given the end result? What do you think?" Continue reading →

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Half Of Tor Sites Compromised, Including Tormail

"The founder of Freedom Hosting has been arrested in Ireland and is awaiting extradition to USA. In a crackdown that FBI claims to be about hunting down pedophiles, half of the onion sites in the TOR network has been compromised, including the e-mail counterpart of TOR deep web, TORmail. This is undoubtedly a big blow to the TOR community, Crypto Anarchists, and more generally, to Internet anonymity. All of this happening during DEFCON. If you happen to use and account name and or password combinations that you have re used in the TOR deep web, change them NOW." Continue reading →

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Casascius Physical Bitcoins Cracked at Defcon

"The methodology consisted of using a hypodermic needle to carefully inject tiny quantities of what the researchers will only refer to as a 'non-polar solvent' between the holographic security sticker and the brass coin itself. After the solvent weakened or entirely dissolved the adhesive they were able to peel back the holographic foil and access the private key beneath. The sticker was then trivially replaced, though Stits felt that using a secondary adhesive might be necessary since little of the original adhesive was left. The re-assembled coin bore only a tiny mark at the edge of the foil where the needle was first inserted." Continue reading →

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7 Things I Am More Concerned About Than a Terrorist Attack

"What I am doing as a result of the new US government terrorist attack alert? Absolutely nothing. The chance of a terrorist striking me is less than .000,000,0001%. However, there are things I am real concerned about. These are all very real dangers created by the state. When the state warns us of a potential terrorist attack, keep in mind what the state is doing to us on a daily basis--things that have a very real impact on our daily lives. The state is much more threatening to us than the less than .000,000,0001% chance that we will be directly impacted by a terrorist attack." Continue reading →

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Senator Schumer: Putin is behaving like a schoolyard bully

"A senior Democratic senator said on Sunday that the U.S.-Russia relationship had become 'poisonous' and urged President Barack Obama to consider moving next month’s Group of 20 summit away from the Russian city of St. Petersburg. Charles Schumer accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to antagonize the United States by granting American fugitive Edward Snowden asylum for one year. 'President Putin is behaving like a schoolyard bully,' Schumer said on the CBS television talk show 'Face the Nation.' 'In my experience, I’ve learned unless you stand up to that bully, they ask for more and more and more.'" Continue reading →

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What Bradley Manning’s life will be like in military prison

"Bradley Manning faces the prospect of years of monotony with no Internet access in a small military prison cell but he would likely be allowed to mix with other inmates and exercise outdoors. The 25-year-old Manning, who has yet to be sentenced, would be able to nominate friends and relatives for visits pending official approval. A handshake, a brief kiss or a hug that does not involve touching below the waist are allowed during visits, and visitors and inmates may hold hands. Prisoners are allowed to telephone friends and family through payphones that may only be used at set times, but they are not permitted to send email or browse the Internet." Continue reading →

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Senator Chambliss: NSA program helped gather current ‘terror chatter’

"'There is an awful lot of chatter out there,' Senator Saxby Chambliss, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on NBC’s 'Meet the Press.' He said 'chatter' – electronically monitored communications among terrorism suspects about the planning of a possible attack – was 'very reminiscent of what we saw pre-9/11.' Chambliss said one of the surveillance programs revealed by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden had helped. Those programs 'allow us to have the ability to gather this chatter,' he said. 'If we did not have these programs then we simply wouldn’t be able to listen in on the bad guys.'" Continue reading →

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The Ecuadorian Library: or, The Blast Shack After Three Years

"Snowden sure is a dissident defector, and boy is he ever. Americans don’t even know how to think about characters like Snowden — the American Great and the Good are blundering around on the public stage like blacked-out drunks, blithering self-contradictory rubbish. It’s all 'gosh he’s such a liar' and 'give us back our sinister felon,' all while trying to swat down the jets of South American presidents. These thumb-fingered acts of totalitarian comedy are entirely familiar to anybody who has read Russian literature. The pigs in Orwell’s 'Animal Farm' have more suavity than the US government is demonstrating now. Their credibility is below zero." Continue reading →

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Oklahoma legislator wants to legalize raw milk delivery to homes

"A Tulsa legislator wants to loosen state regulations of raw milk dairies to allow them to deliver directly to consumers. 'Basically, my hope is that we can make milkmen legal again,' said Rep. Ken Walker, R-Tulsa. 'Since these customers already go to the farm, my sole purpose is to let the farmer deliver to the home.' Committee Chairman Dale DeWitt, R-Braman, said he is uncomfortable with some of the health risks that broadening the availability of raw milk would carry. 'The risk is very, very low, but if there was any kind of outbreak of anything from the distribution of raw milk, ... it would just literally kill the industry,' he said." Continue reading →

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UN narcotics body warns Uruguay over marijuana bill

"The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says it is concerned by the approval by Uruguayan MPs of a bill which would legalise marijuana. The INCB says the law would 'be in complete contravention to the provisions of the international drug treaties to which Uruguay is party'. The INCB is an independent body of experts established by the United Nations to monitor countries' compliance with international drug treaties. It says that, if adopted, it 'might have serious consequences for the health and welfare of the population and for the prevention of cannabis abuse among the youth'." Continue reading →

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