Orwellian

Snowden reveals US intelligence’s black budget: $52.6 billion on secret programs

"Despite the hefty cost of operating the secret operations amid sequestration, excerpts from the summary leaked by Snowden show that the US still has significant setbacks keeping it from achieving its intelligence goals. For one, the disclosure in and of itself demonstrates the intelligence community’s inability to prevent sensitive information from being leaked. For those nations of upmost interest, the intelligence community is investing heavily on 'offensive cyber operations' launched by the CIA and NSA to hack foreign competitors, steal data and sabotage servers, at a time when, domestically, so-called cybercriminals are prosecuted at an alarming rate for comparably less harsh crimes." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSnowden reveals US intelligence’s black budget: $52.6 billion on secret programs

Codename ‘Apalachee’: How America Spies on Europe and the UN

"The classified documents, which SPIEGEL has seen, demonstrate how systematically the Americans target other countries and institutions like the EU, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna and the UN. They show how the NSA infiltrated the Europeans' internal computer network between New York and Washington, used US embassies abroad to intercept communications and eavesdropped on video conferences of UN diplomats. The surveillance is intensive and well-organized -- and it has little or nothing to do with counter-terrorism. In an internal presentation, the NSA sums up its vision, which is both global and frighteningly ambitious: 'information superiority'." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCodename ‘Apalachee’: How America Spies on Europe and the UN

WikiLeaks raises $12,000 in Bitcoin for Edward Snowden’s defense

"Now that he’s found asylum in Russia and faces espionage charges at home, a legal defense fund launched by WikiLeaks has raised over $16,000 to pay Snowden’s legal fees. 75 percent ($12,740 by current exchange rates) of that money came in the form of Bitcoins raised in just the past two weeks. A Bitcoin is currently selling for about $130 on Mt. Gox, the currency’s largest exchange. Over 105 Bitcoins from 144 donors have made their way to a Bitcoin wallet set up by WikiLeaks specifically for Snowden donations. Since they began accepting Bitcoin donations on August 12, the single largest deposit to the account has been an impressive 25 Bitcoins ($2,908)." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingWikiLeaks raises $12,000 in Bitcoin for Edward Snowden’s defense

New Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking

"The Post’s article doesn’t detail the 'groundbreaking cryptanalytic capabilities' Clapper mentions, and there’s no elaboration in the portion of the document published by the paper. But the document shows that 21 percent of the intelligence budget — around $11 billion — is dedicated to the Consolidated Cryptologic Program that staffs 35,000 employees in the NSA and the armed forces. Last year James Bamford reported that the NSA secretly made some sort of 'enormous breakthrough' in cryptanalysis several years earlier. The leaked budget document is the first published Snowden leak to touch upon the question of how safe routinely encrypted traffic is from cutting-edge nation-state spying." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingNew Snowden Leak Reports ‘Groundbreaking’ NSA Crypto-Cracking

Mike Gogulski: Is America still a democracy? Who cares? It’s DANGEROUS!

"If you look at the visible signs of how the country has been developing for the last 25 years, the signs of the emergence of a police state are obvious and everywhere. The Department of Homeland Security recently purchased something like one billion rounds of high-powered rifle ammunition. These are not to be used in wars. The US government has just purchased three bullets for every man, woman and child inside the country. When you add to these things the endless American wars that have been going on since 'peace' after World War II, the question becomes: 'Is America a democracy? Who cares? It’s DANGEROUS!'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMike Gogulski: Is America still a democracy? Who cares? It’s DANGEROUS!

Obamacare is About to Get More Personal

"Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi and a dozen other state attorneys general asked U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to implement more stringent privacy requirements and safeguards on these so-called navigators. Who is in charge of monitoring these navigators? Who will be liable if someone’s identity is stolen? And who is responsible for alerting the American public about fraud prevention? Bondi said that the HHS is making it easier for your private information to fall into the wrong hands by cutting back on employee background checks and eliminating a fingerprinting requirement for navigators and those that work with them." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingObamacare is About to Get More Personal

Energy Firm Caught Breaking Into Door to Install Smart Meter

"Smart Meters are a financial coup for Big Energy. This is why we are witnessing - and now catching on film - criminal acts of vandalism, breaking & entering and trespass by energy firms trying to install their next-generation 'cash machines' in the homes of customers. When companies are prepared to treat the properties of their customers with this much contempt, the extent to which sensitive personal data will be cared for is in little doubt." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingEnergy Firm Caught Breaking Into Door to Install Smart Meter

The NSA and Its “Compliance Problems”

"For ordinary citizens, 'compliance problems' with the law are better known as 'crimes' (or possibly civil wrongs) and these lead to judgment debts, fines, and possibly even jail time, depending on the severity of the lack-of-compliance. But for government officials such notions are irrelevant — legal compliance problems are just something you file a report about, and send to another bureaucrat higher up in the government chain, so that he can bury it on his desk. Unfortunately, this is not a new phenomenon. The notion of the rule of law is the wellspring of an endless stream of hypocrisy in the modern social-democratic welfare-warfare state." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe NSA and Its “Compliance Problems”

James Clapper Says Feds Will Start Releasing Some FISA And NSL Metadata

"For what it's worth this is a step forward -- and something the government should have done ages ago, but perhaps not nearly as big as Clapper would like everyone to believe. Note that they only say they'll reveal the number of 'targets' rather than people impacted. Given that each person "targeted" may lead to scooping up records on many, many others, this seems fairly weak. Remember, for a 'target' they can scoop up all kinds of records, and then go three hops deep. So, one target could impact thousands or possibly hundreds of thousands (or even millions) of people. This is a baby step forward, but it still seems designed to mislead." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJames Clapper Says Feds Will Start Releasing Some FISA And NSL Metadata

Fidel Castro denies Cuba refused Edward Snowden asylum

"Castro, in the same article, praised Snowden, who disclosed the existence of secret US government surveillance programs used to scoop phone and Internet data on a vast scale. 'I admire how brave and just Snowden’s declarations were, which in my opinion provided a service to the world by revealing the disgustingly dishonest politics of the powerful empire that lies and deceives the world,' Castro wrote. 'It is absolutely clear that the United States will always try to put pressure on Cuba as it does with the UN or any public or private institution in the world, that is one of the characteristics of that country’s government and it would not be possible to expect anything else.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingFidel Castro denies Cuba refused Edward Snowden asylum