Researchers demand sealed files about JFK assassination be made public

"Fifty years after the assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, researchers are still investigating his mysterious murder. Thousands of pages pertaining to the assassination are still sealed, and researchers are calling for a complete public release. The first official investigation found that Lee Harvey Oswald was acting alone, after failing to get a visa to Cuba and his wife Marina rejected his attempts at reconciliation. Another investigation in the mid-1970s said that the assassination was probably a conspiracy, after discovering audio files suggesting a second shooter." Continue reading

Continue ReadingResearchers demand sealed files about JFK assassination be made public

Paul Craig Roberts: Too Many Years Of Lies, From Mossadeq to 9/11

"On August 19, 1953, the democratically elected government of Iran was overthrown by a coup instigated by the US government. Sixty years after the event declassified CIA documents detail how the secret CIA operation overthrew a democratic government and imposed Washington’s puppet on the people of Iran. If 60 years is the time that must pass before Washington’s crimes can be acknowledged, the US government will admit the truth about September 11, 2001 on September 11, 2061. In 2013, on this 12th anniversary of 9/11, we only have 48 years to go before Washington admits the truth. Alas, the members of the 9/11 truth movement will not still be alive to receive their vindication." Continue reading

Continue ReadingPaul Craig Roberts: Too Many Years Of Lies, From Mossadeq to 9/11

Assad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press

"President Bashar al-Assad did not personally order last month's chemical weapons attack near Damascus that has triggered calls for US military intervention, and blocked numerous requests from his military commanders to use chemical weapons against regime opponents in recent months, a German newspaper has reported, citing unidentified, high-level national security sources. The intelligence findings were based on phone calls intercepted by a German surveillance ship operated by the BND, the German intelligence service, and deployed off the Syrian coast, Bild am Sonntag said." Continue reading

Continue ReadingAssad did not order Syria chemical weapons attack, says German press

U.S. Intelligence: Syrian Government Didn’t Launch Chemical Weapons

"We regret to inform you that some of our former co-workers are telling us, categorically, that contrary to the claims of your administration, the most reliable intelligence shows that Bashar al-Assad was NOT responsible for the chemical incident that killed and injured Syrian civilians on August 21, and that British intelligence officials also know this. In writing this brief report, we choose to assume that you have not been fully informed because your advisers decided to afford you the opportunity for what is commonly known as 'plausible denial.'" Continue reading

Continue ReadingU.S. Intelligence: Syrian Government Didn’t Launch Chemical Weapons

CIA document from 1983 indicates Israel built chemical weapons stockpile

"Intelligence circles in Washington believe that Israel amassed a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons decades ago to complement its alleged nuclear arsenal, Foreign Policy reported Monday on its website. Information about Israel’s chemical weapons production appears in a secret 1983 CIA intelligence estimate obtained by Foreign Policy. American spy satellites in 1982 uncovered 'a probable CW (chemical weapon) nerve agent production facility and a storage facility… at the Dimona Sensitive Storage Area in the Negev Desert,' the CIA document reported. In 1992, the Israeli government signed but never ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans such weapons." Continue reading

Continue ReadingCIA document from 1983 indicates Israel built chemical weapons stockpile

NSA encryption, Latin American fallout and US/UK attacks on press freedoms

"In Europe this week, President Obama has been making similar claims when asked about NSA spying, repeatedly assuring people that NSA surveillance is overwhelmingly devoted to stopping terrorism threats. One big problem the NSA and US government generally have had since our reporting began is that their defenses offered in response to each individual story are quickly proven to be false by the next story, which just further undermines their credibility around the world. That NSA denial I just excerpted above has already been disproven by several reports, but after Sunday, I think it will prove to be perhaps the NSA's most misleading statement yet." Continue reading

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How to foil NSA sabotage: use a dead man’s switch

"It doesn't really matter if you trust the 'good' spies not to abuse their powers (though even the NSA now admits to routine abuse, you should still be wary of deliberately weakened security. It is laughable to suppose that the back doors that the NSA has secretly inserted into common technologies will only be exploited by the NSA. There are plenty of crooks, foreign powers, and creeps who devote themselves to picking away patiently at the systems that make up the world and guard its wealth and security (that is, your wealth and security) and whatever sneaky tools the NSA has stashed for itself in your operating system, hardware, applications and services, they will surely find and exploit." Continue reading

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Let us count the ways: How the feds (legally, technically) get our data

"It’s worth considering the various vectors of technical and legal data-gathering that high-level adversaries in America and Britain (and likely other countries, at least in the 'Five Eyes' group of anglophone allies) are likely using in parallel to go after a given target. So far, the possibilities include: A company volunteers to help (and gets paid for it). Spies copy the traffic directly off the fiber. A company complies under legal duress. Spies infiltrate a company. Spies coerce upstream companies to weaken crypto in their products/install backdoors. Spies brute force the crypto. Spies compromise a digital certificate. Spies hack a target computer directly, stealing keys and/or data, sabotage." Continue reading

Continue ReadingLet us count the ways: How the feds (legally, technically) get our data

9 Myths About Obama’s Drone Killings Debunked

"The Obama administration has launched more drone strikes in recent weeks than any time since 2009, according to human rights lawyers and overseas media reports. Attacks in Yemen killed more than 37 people, Reuters reported. Nearly all of their identities remain unknown. The killings are a bleak reminder that Syria is not the only war President Obama is pushing. Despite the president's recent pledges to make the drone program more transparent to the public, it remains not only secretive and unaccountable, but also at odds with U.S. and international law." Continue reading

Continue Reading9 Myths About Obama’s Drone Killings Debunked

U.S. spy chief criticizes journalists for publishing anti-encryption efforts

"The office of the director of national intelligence (ODNI), which oversees the US’s intelligence agencies, suggested the stories, simultaneously published on the front pages of the New York Times and Guardian, were 'not news', but nonetheless provided a 'road map … to our adversaries'. Privacy groups, however, said the NSA’s activities were endangering privacy and putting both US internet users and businesses users at risk. 'Even as the NSA demands more powers to invade our privacy in the name of cybersecurity, it is making the internet less secure and exposing us to criminal hacking, foreign espionage, and unlawful surveillance,' said the ACLU’s principal technologist." Continue reading

Continue ReadingU.S. spy chief criticizes journalists for publishing anti-encryption efforts