Orwellian

Swiss MPs endorse US tax compliance deal

"FATCA only addresses current and future accounts held by Americans, but Bern also recently agreed to a controversial deal focused on making amends for past wrongdoings by the banks. That deal offers individual Swiss banks the opportunity to avoid US prosecution if they agree to pay 'substantial fines', and provide details on US citizens' accounts, including the sources and destinations of funds transferred to and from the accounts. The agreement, which is expected to erode Swiss bank secrecy laws, has come under widespread criticism, tempered by recognition that without a deal the country's all-important financial sector could lose access to the US market." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSwiss MPs endorse US tax compliance deal

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation

"Mayer said she was 'proud to be part of an organisation that from the beginning, in 2007, has been sceptical of – and has been scrutinizing – those requests [from the NSA].' Yahoo has previously unsuccessfully sued the foreign intelligence surveillance (Fisa) court, which provides the legal framework for NSA surveillance. In 2007 it asked to be allowed to publish details of requests it receives from the spy agency. 'When you lose and you don’t comply, it’s treason,' said Mayer. 'We think it make more sense to work within the system,' she said. The meeting came as Yahoo and Facebook filed suits once more to force the Fisa court to allow them to disclose more information." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingYahoo CEO Marissa Mayer defends tech company NSA cooperation

‘Legitimate Wiretapping’

"Russian spy agencies want easier access to all Skype conversations, notes Doug Valentine. Who can doubt the CIA, FBI, NSA, and the rest of the alphabet from Hell already have access from Bill Gates, the oligarch whose company Microsoft owns Skype? Now Bill wishes Obama could be even more of a dictator, adds Travis Holte, so the corporate state can crony-subsidize the plutocrats even more than it does now. And, Travis notes. Gates is openly anti-free market. His preferences should be enforced at the point of a government gun." Continue reading →

Continue Reading‘Legitimate Wiretapping’

Americans Aren’t Buying the Media’s Push For A War In Syria

"While the mainstream media has enjoyed a monopoly on this thought-enforcement for decades, thanks to decentralized power of the internet there are signs that Americans are starting to wake up. Administration claims, whether they be about the next country that needs to be bombed or the status of the economy, are now more easily scrutinized than ever before. Rather than an acceptable, bipartisan mainstream and a kooky fringe, slowly but surely the real ideological battle lines are being drawn: individualism vs. authoritarianism. Those of us who believe in peace and the Bill of Rights on one side, and those who believe in unlimited state power on the other." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAmericans Aren’t Buying the Media’s Push For A War In Syria

(Surveillance) Times have Changed

"It was only a year ago when the UK Home Office repeatedly made statements about how their capability to collect intelligence was degrading, and how new laws such as the Communications Data Bill were necessary to protect citizens. In hindsight, given the revelations about the UK domestic mass surveillance programs, these once desperate cries for more crime- and terrorism-fighting tools now look like nothing more than attempts to illegitimately spy more on all citizens. Quotes from those debates look rather different now." Continue reading →

Continue Reading(Surveillance) Times have Changed

Is This Why Obama is So Desperate for a Nice Little War?

"Why the desperation to focus our attention externally, to monsters abroad in need of slaying? Could it be the mushrooming NSA scandal, that all of a sudden has grown exponentially more serious with today’s Guardian Snowden-leak sourced report that the 'NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel.' According to Glenn Greenwald, the National Security Agency routinely sends raw intelligence information to Israeli intelligence without first removing information about American citizens. In effect, rather than serving to protect the safety of Americans and national security of the United States the NSA has seemingly become an agent of Israeli intelligence." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingIs This Why Obama is So Desperate for a Nice Little War?

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 →

Continue ReadingNSA shares raw intelligence including Americans’ data with Israel

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 →

Continue ReadingDocuments Shed Light on Border Laptop Searches

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