Land Of The Flea

NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel

"Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens. The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacyof US citizens caught in the dragnet. The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum." Continue reading →

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NSA routinely spied on phone records unrelated to terrorism cases

"US intelligence officials declassified documents Tuesday revealing the National Security Agency violated privacy rules for three years when it sifted phone records of Americans with no suspected links to terrorists. The government was forced to disclose the documents by a judge’s order after a Freedom of Information lawsuit. The NSA had been permitted by the court to only search phone numbers that had 'reasonable articulable suspicion' of having links to terrorism. But out of more than 17,000 numbers on a NSA list in 2009, the agency only had reasonable suspicion for about 1,800 of the numbers, two senior intelligence officials told reporters on Tuesday." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA routinely spied on phone records unrelated to terrorism cases

Documents Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches

"Today we are releasing new government documents that provide rare insight into how the government uses its powers at the border to search and seize Americans’ electronic devices. The government’s own records indicate that 4,957 passengers had their electronic devices searched between October 1, 2012 and August 31, 2013, and an additional 4,898 individuals were subject to electronic device searches the previous year. We have no way of knowing how many of those searches may have been carried out not to search for contraband—which is the reason ICE has been granted such broad search powers—but to exploit border search powers to evade the Constitution." Continue reading →

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Feds Abused Anti-Terrorism Database To Track Chelsea Manning Supporter

'Keeping our borders secure apparently means allowing federal agents to delve as deeply as they want into electronics that cross the border, even if it's someone who just went to Mexico on vacation. Presumably, David House wasn't a threat to national security when he left for Mexico, but by the time he landed at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, he was. House worked with the Bradley Manning Support Network and this was all the 'evidence' ICE needed to alert DHS agents that House would be returning from Mexico through Chicago -- and the wide-open policy on electronic searches was all the agents needed to seize and search House's phone and laptop." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFeds Abused Anti-Terrorism Database To Track Chelsea Manning Supporter

Misesians on 9/11, Then and Now

"I attended the Mises Institute’s Supporters Summit in 2001. Occurring shortly after 9/11, which was itself unsettling in its pointless bloodshed, we also knew that so much more bloodshed was to come, and that all the planned attacks on human liberty and decency, such as the USA-PATRIOT ACT, were all in the works. Libertarians were virtually alone in opposing the planned expansions of government power in the wake of 9/11, and we saw the attacks for what they were: criminal attacks on human persons and property which nonetheless have not been set right or rendered impossible by more than a decade of nearly untrammeled government theft, war, regulation, and spying." Continue reading →

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Luke Rudkowski Questions Larry Silverstein On WTC 7 [2011]

"There are so many unanswered questions about the days 9/11, and instead of making up theories and speculating, we go to the horses mouth to get answers. Sadly, the response we get from these questions only invites more speculation about what happened on 9/11." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingLuke Rudkowski Questions Larry Silverstein On WTC 7 [2011]

Richard Gage Talks Global ReThink 911 Campaign

"The engineers and architects who signed the ReThink911 petition question the physics and science of the collapse of the twin towers as defined by the US Government. These building professionals are being joined in their calls by a growing number of lawmakers in Washington. Former Senators Bob Graham and Mike Gravel have called for re-opening the 9-11 investigation. But most recently Alan Grayson of Florida. Grayson recently stated on CSPAN that classified 9/11 documents should be released." Continue reading →

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FBI continues to investigate Hastings for ‘controversial reporting’

"The FBI released a heavily redacted document on Rolling Stone journalist Michael Hastings, which revealed the law-enforcement agency is continuing to investigate what it characterized as 'controversial reporting' by the journalist, who died in a late-night car crash in Los Angeles in June. The FBI'S public liaison officer wrote that after the agency searched for responsive records it located one 'cross reference' file pertaining to a pending criminal investigation. The papers revealed that the FBI still considers Hastings' work highly sensitive; even the title of the case file has been withheld under claims that the information could interfere with an ongoing law-enforcement investigation." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFBI continues to investigate Hastings for ‘controversial reporting’

Judge orders trial in allegedly missing Oklahoma City bombing video case

"A Salt Lake attorney who contends the FBI is hiding surveillance video associated with the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing might see his case go trial. At issue is whether the FBI adequately responded to Trentadue's Freedom of Information Act request for footage of Timothy McVeigh parking a truckload of explosives at the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Trenatdue claims the video will reveal a second bombing suspect who resembles but is not his brother. [The judge] has chastised U.S. Department of Justice several times for not producing the tapes since Trentadue sued in 2008." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge orders trial in allegedly missing Oklahoma City bombing video case

The Best U.S. Metros for Recent College Grads Looking for Work

"Across the nation's 50 largest metro areas, there were 15.8 million jobs in these fast-growing, highly educated fields as of 2013. New York leads with more than 66,000 openings, roughly ten percent of the total. L.A. is second with 39,508. That makes sense: N.Y. and L.A. are America's two largest metros. Together, they in fact account for nearly 3 million of these positions, nearly one in five of these estimated fast-growing, highly-educated jobs across the nation. Once we look beyond these two largest metros, the pattern diverges a bit from the size of a metro's population. Greater Washington, D.C., has the third largest number of estimated openings, 39,259." Continue reading →

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