military industrial complex

Former FBI agent pleads guilty to leaking secrets to the Associated Press

"In investigating the leak, authorities obtained two months of phone records of reporters and editors at AP at several offices, covering 20 separate phone lines, defense lawyers said. Although Obama had promised openness when he entered office, his administration has pursued an unprecedented crackdown on leaks from government employees, attempting more prosecutions under the 1917 Espionage Act than all previous administrations. John Kiriakou, a former Central Intelligence Agency officer, was charged with leaking secrets after he gave an interview to ABC television describing the use of water boarding in interrogations of terror suspects under the Bush administration." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFormer FBI agent pleads guilty to leaking secrets to the Associated Press

How to Decode the True Meaning of What NSA Officials Say

"An equally insidious threat to the integrity of our national debate, however, comes not from officials’ outright lies but from the language they use to tell the truth. When it comes to discussing government surveillance, U.S. intelligence officials have been using a vocabulary of misdirection—a language that allows them to say one thing while meaning quite another. The assignment of unconventional meanings to conventional words allows officials to imply that the NSA’s activities are narrow and closely supervised, though neither of those things is true. What follows is a lexicon for decoding the true meaning of what NSA officials say." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow to Decode the True Meaning of What NSA Officials Say

The NSA’s hiring – and they want a ‘civil liberties’ officer

"The ongoing Snowden revelations about the NSA's indiscriminate spying on private communications over the internet make the role particularly challenging. Anyone applying for the role would do well to familiarise themselves with the Electronic Frontier Foundation's handy guide to decoding NSA doublespeak. When senior NSA officials maintain that keeping track of phone conversations, for example, doesn't count as surveillance, then any privacy officer is going to have a difficult job. In fact, we can think of few more difficult jobs since the post of Staff Rabbi to the Spanish Inquisition." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe NSA’s hiring – and they want a ‘civil liberties’ officer

Cruz’ plan B for defunding Obamacare: ‘Shut down the military’

"Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) on Sunday warned Senate Republicans that refusing to filibuster a bill that defunds President Barack Obama’s health care reform law 'is a vote for Obamacare,' and he also advised House Republicans to 'shut down the military' if they had to. 'If Harry Reid kills the bill in the Senate, the House should hold its ground, and should begin passing smaller continuing resolutions, one department at a time,' Cruz explained. 'It should start with a continuing resolution focused on the military.' 'Send it over, see if Harry Reid is willing to shut down the military,' he quipped." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCruz’ plan B for defunding Obamacare: ‘Shut down the military’

The co-conspirators in military mass shootings

"Republican Sen. Susan Collins was prompted to 'question the kind of vetting contractors do.' Ask the government you serve, Susan, for it, not the contractors, conducts background checks. 'The government maintains the final approval authority,' Rear Adm. John Kirby told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. And for government officials, no infraction committed by Alexis was too egregious to ignore. Even stranger is the discrepancy between the killer’s performance during his Navy service and the glowing evaluations and awards he received from his superiors. If anything, top brass’s outsized ambition for Alexis incriminates them, not him." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe co-conspirators in military mass shootings

Twelve years after 9/11, we still have no idea how to fight terrorism.

"The seven studies include among them 86 findings about the effectiveness of counterterrorism programs, and those findings are startling. Lum, Kennedy and Sherley report that the average effect of the programs examined was negative. That is, the intervention was found to increase terrorist incidents rather than reduce them. The results varied by the type of intervention, but not in a way that should give us any comfort about our strategy. It's scandalous that we spend billions every year on counterterrorism but barely spend any effort on evaluating whether what we're doing works." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingTwelve years after 9/11, we still have no idea how to fight terrorism.

NASA: Voyager 1 becomes first spacecraft to leave our solar system

"NASA’s Voyager 1 probe has now left the solar system and is wandering the galaxy, US scientists said Thursday. The spacecraft was launched in 1977 on a mission to explore the outer planets of our solar system and to possibly journey into the unknown depths of outer space. US space agency scientists now agree that Voyager is officially outside the protective bubble known as the heliosphere that extends at least eight billion miles beyond all the planets in our solar system, and has entered a cold, dark region known as interstellar space. Voyager’s instruments will have to shut down permanently in 2025, Science reported. NASA spends $5 million per year to operate the twin spacecraft." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNASA: Voyager 1 becomes first spacecraft to leave our solar system

Did You Know: YOU Are Responsible for the Washington Navy Yard Murders

"ABC Radio this morning broadcast the voice of a 'Pentagon official' who explained that the maniac who murdered all those people at the Washington Navy Yard was not able to just walk in with a shotgun and begin blasting away because of the government’s asinine gun-free-zone-on-military-bases policy, or its grotesquely inept 'security' policies, but because of 'budget cuts.' It is you stingy, selfish taxpayers who are at fault here for not paying enough taxes. Shame on you. How much more blood will be on your hands?" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDid You Know: YOU Are Responsible for the Washington Navy Yard Murders