Who Watches The Watchers

Michael Scheuer: Obama & Brennan – A new American-killing “Murder Inc”?

"If asked why I would want to go slow before dismissing the idea that the federal government murdered Mr. Hastings, I would answer that the power of the examples set by Barack Obama, in his two terms, and by John Brennan, in his work for Clinton and Obama, give me pause. From my perspective, both men consistently have demonstrated themselves to be completely comfortable with creating situations, or permitting situations to exist in which Americans — civilian and military — are killed, in essence, by their own government’s decisions, actions, or inactons. And what would these situations be, one might ask? Well, let me start with the following ten items." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMichael Scheuer: Obama & Brennan – A new American-killing “Murder Inc”?

White House Lies Undermine Its Credibility

"There is an outright lie, like this one: 'It is certainly not the policy of the coalition, of this administration, to decapitate, or to effect regime change in Libya by force.' There is the half-truth or half-lie, like this: 'Beyond Afghanistan, we must define our effort not as a boundless ‘global war on terror’ — but rather as a series of persistent, targeted efforts to dismantle specific networks of violent extremists that threaten America.' Then there is this type: 'There is no spying on Americans, we don’t have a domestic spying program. What we do have are some mechanisms where we can track a phone number or an email address that we know is connected to some sort of terrorist threat.'" Continue reading →

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Ohio Announces Drivers License Database Facial Recognition

"Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced Monday that the state has for several months been using facial recognition technology in a database that allows law enforcement agents to match a face with a name, address and record at will. The system was activated on June 6 and has already been used 2667 times so far. DeWine back then thought the program was a natural extension of existing law enforcement capabilities and was not worth announcing. That changed when former intelligence community contractor Edward Snowden kicked off a firestorm of controversy by revealing the extent of NSA collection of domestic emails and telephone records." Continue reading →

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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 →

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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

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 →

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NSA; The Not Secure Agency

"It's not a 'sophisticated' bypass, the NSA didn't protect databases from Database and Systems Administrators. Here's a blog article by a database security product vendor's research group about this widely known problem from January of last year. Even then, the information in the blog article was long in the tooth. This implies that everything the NSA has said about the careful auditing they do to prevent unauthorized access by employees and contractors is a joke - it's not possible when you don't take these basic precautions." Continue reading →

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Dealing with Cops These Days

"In a word – don’t. You are dealing with perhaps the worst possible tag-team combination: Someone with legal power over you who is held to a different – and far more lenient – standard than you are. A cop can: Commit assault with near-impunity. He can draw his firearm and point it at you – even shoot at you – without fear of life-altering consequences – such as a felony record for brandishing and reckless endangerment. He can rely on his cronies and the system to cover up or minimize his errors of judgment, even when they involve serious harm to innocent people such as yourself. His word will be treated as legal tender in court – while yours is considered suspect. His very person is anointed." Continue reading →

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Deputies Caught Dumping Name Tags

"You know a police force is bent when its officers start dumping their name tags. That's what happened before an illegal traffic stop in Malheur County, Oregon. The Malheur County Sheriff's Department has a sweetheart deal with the infamously cruel Big Loop Rodeo, in the remote and dying town of Jordan Valley, Oregon." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDeputies Caught Dumping Name Tags

Deputies Caught Dumping Name Tags

"You know a police force is bent when its officers start dumping their name tags. That's what happened before an illegal traffic stop in Malheur County, Oregon. The Malheur County Sheriff's Department has a sweetheart deal with the infamously cruel Big Loop Rodeo, in the remote and dying town of Jordan Valley, Oregon." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDeputies Caught Dumping Name Tags