Mainstream News

NSA promises transparency by launching new Tumblr blog

"IC on the Record will host official statements, declassified documents, speeches, interviews, fact sheets and videos among other content. Plans for the blog were announced by President Barack Obama earlier in August, as part of promises for more transparency on the activities of the US intelligence community in the wake ofrecent revelations about the NSA and its PRISM program of electronic surveillance. The IC on the Record blog was launched with a post by US director of national intelligence James Clapper, who has been criticised recently after he apologised for misleading a Senate hearing by denying that the NSA collects information about US citizens." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA promises transparency by launching new Tumblr blog

NSA admits: Our analysts ‘willfully violated’ rules of surveillance system

"'NSA takes very seriously allegations of misconduct, and co-operates fully with any investigations – responding as appropriate,' the NSA said in a statement. 'NSA has zero tolerance for willful violations of the agency’s authorities.' It said none of the abuses involved violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act or the Patriot Act – violations of which have been highlighted by the Guardian based on documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Instead, the abuses were related to misuse of the 1981 Executive Order 12333, which governs how US intelligence operations are used." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA admits: Our analysts ‘willfully violated’ rules of surveillance system

NSA inspector general admits to ‘willful violations’ of agency’s authority

"US intelligence analysts have deliberately broken rules designed to prevent them from spying on Americans, according to an admission by the National Security Agency that undermines fresh insistences from Barack Obama on Friday that all breaches were inadvertent. A report by the NSA’s inspector general is understood to have uncovered a number of examples of analysts choosing to ignore so-called 'minimisation procedures' aimed at protecting privacy, according to officials speaking to Bloomberg. These cases flatly contradict assurances given by President Obama that the NSA was only ever acting in good faith." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA inspector general admits to ‘willful violations’ of agency’s authority

Retiring FBI director warns ‘the threat is still here’

"He took the reins of the FBI a week before the attacks of September 11, 2001. Twelve years later, Robert Mueller is retiring, convinced that 'the threat is still here.' At the time, 2,000 out of 11,000 special agents were immediately transferred from fighting crime to combatting Al-Qaeda. Since then, the number of intelligence analysts at the FBI has more than tripled. Telephone and Internet surveillance programs are 'tremendously important,' Mueller explained. He was in the top FBI post for the second longest period after J. Edgar Hoover, who held it for 48 years until his death." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRetiring FBI director warns ‘the threat is still here’

300-pound fake corrections officer gets 10 years for sneaking into jails

"Jail fetishist Matthew Matagrano, 36, was sentenced to 10 years in prison today for posing as a correction officer and sneaking into the Manhattan Detention Complex earlier this year. The 300-pound convicted sex offender waddled into Manhattan Supreme Court in a bright orange jumpsuit looking sullen as Judge Ronald Zweibel handed down his punishment for the bizarre July 27th crime. The former counselor for at-risk-youth spent seven hours gleefully strolling through the White Street facility where he strip searched an inmate, stole a $2,500 walkie talkie and handed out cigarettes. It wasn’t a first for the Yonkers prison enthusiast – he’s been accused of sneaking into jails in four boroughs." Continue reading →

Continue Reading300-pound fake corrections officer gets 10 years for sneaking into jails

NSA broke encryption on UN communications: report

"The move provided the agency with 'a dramatic improvement of data from video teleconferences and the ability to decrypt this data traffic.' The NSA, on one occasion, also allegedly caught the Chinese secret services eavesdropping on the UN in 2011, it added, quoting an internal report. Der Spiegel also claims that the US agency kept tabs on the European Union after it moved into new offices in New York in September 2012. Earlier reports in Der Spiegel and Britain’s the Guardian newspaper had detailed alleged widespread covert surveillance by the NSA of EU offices, including diplomatic missions in Washington and at the United Nations in New York, as well as Brussels." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA broke encryption on UN communications: report

Russia closes 700 schools amid dramatic drop in birth rates

"Russia saw birth rates drop dramatically in the turbulent 1990s and its demographic situation has remained negative, with more deaths than births, ever since. President Vladimir Putin last year urged Russians to have at least three children. 'We plan to close 733 schools this year,' said the outspoken public health official Gennady Onishchenko, quoted by the Interfax news agency. 'You understand the reason: there aren’t enough children.' 'For some reason we have forgotten why we came into the world and we came with only one aim: to create new life, to continue our line,' said Onishchenko, who has three children. A recent uptick in births is partly driven by a wave of immigrants." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRussia closes 700 schools amid dramatic drop in birth rates

NSA Officers Spy on Love Interests

"National Security Agency officers on several occasions have channeled their agency’s enormous eavesdropping power to spy on love interests, U.S. officials said. The practice isn’t frequent — one official estimated a handful of cases in the last decade — but it’s common enough to garner its own spycraft label: LOVEINT. Spy agencies often refer to their various types of intelligence collection with the suffix of 'INT,' such as 'SIGINT' for collecting signals intelligence, or communications; and 'HUMINT' for human intelligence, or spying. The LOVEINT violations involved overseas communications, officials said, such as spying on a partner or spouse." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNSA Officers Spy on Love Interests

Guardian teams up with New York Times over Snowden documents

"In a brief story posted on its website, the Guardian said it 'struck a partnership' with the Times after the British government threatened the Guardian with legal action unless it either surrendered or destroyed files it received from Snowden about Government Communications Headquarters - Britain's equivalent of NSA. 'In a climate of intense pressure from the UK government, the Guardian decided to bring in a US partner to work on the GCHQ documents provided by Edward Snowden. We are working in partnership with the NYT and others to continue reporting these stories,' the British newspaper said in a statement." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGuardian teams up with New York Times over Snowden documents

Can Bitcoin make a good first impression with top federal agencies?

"The discussions are to involve many of the country’s top law enforcement and financial agencies, including the FBI, the Secret Service, the IRS, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Homeland Security. Also attending will be officials from the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, National Credit Union Administration, Money Transmitter Regulators Association and the Conference of State Bank Supervisors would also be in attendance, a Treasury official confirmed. Congress has also asked the Obama administration for information on its plans for regulating digital currencies." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCan Bitcoin make a good first impression with top federal agencies?