Friday, January 31, 2014

Headlines of note for January, 2014

The Pacific Ocean is dying...

ENENewsRadiation Expert - It’s terrifying how Pacific ecosystem has collapsed since Fukushima — Plutonium and uranium suspected of spreading through food chain

LATimes: West Coast sardine crash could radiate throughout ecosystem

Rense (with Yoichi Shimatzu): Radiation Food Chain Devastation

Natural News: Study - Dead sea creatures cover 98 percent of ocean floor off California coast; up from 1 percent before Fukushima

Maija's Blog: Will Fukushima Daiichi Kill Vast Swathes of Life in the Pacific Ocean?

It is indeed likely that Fukushima contamination will kill great swathes of life in the Pacific, particularly because that life was already stressed by ocean contamination, acidification, and declining food stocks. Fukushima contamination is, I argue, a likely global tipping point.

+

The Internet as we've known it is under mortal threat...


...because the FCC took a regulatory approach that was designed to usher in a feudal internet...

The Verge: The wrong words - how the FCC lost net neutrality and could kill the internet

...while all watchful over these telecom fiefdoms, the cyclopsian NSA shall be maintained. Reading between the lines of Obama's proposed surveillance reforms, in his speech of January 17, there is no indication that the bulk collection of data will end, but only that the extraction of such data deemed relevant to terrorism investigations will be subject to "safeguards"...

I am therefore ordering a transition that will end the Section 215 bulk metadata program as it currently exists and establish a mechanism that preserves the capabilities we need without the government holding this bulk metadata...

Effective immediately, we will only pursue phone calls that are two steps removed from a number associated with a terrorist organization, instead of the current three, and I have directed the attorney general to work with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court so that during this transition period, the database can be queried only after a judicial finding or in the case of a true emergency.

Next, step two: I have instructed the intelligence community and the attorney general to use this transition period to develop options for a new approach that can match the capabilities and fill the gaps that the Section 215 program was designed to address, without the government holding this metadata itself...

The seemingly reassuring words, "without the government holding this bulk metadata," are belied by the assertion that the capabilities will be preserved and matched. It is all contingent upon the semantics of the terms: "without," "government," holding," "this," "bulk," and "metadata". The word hiding between the lines may be "unencrypted"...

+

Meanwhile, as Glenn Greenwald lobbies for Jonathan Pollard on Israeli television (video interview is in English)...

מפרסם מסמכי סנואדן: "יש עוד הרבה דיווחים על ישראל"

בעולם | עודכן 22:42 06/01/2014

תמר איש שלום
בראיון מיוחד לחדשות 10 סיפר כתב עיתון הגרדיאן הבריטי, גלן גרינוולד, כי המדליף האמריקני העביר לו עוד מסמכים רבים הנוגעים למזרח התיכון. "נכון להעלות את סוגיית פולארד בפני ארה"ב כי הריגול שלה אחרי בכירים בישראל מדגיש את הצביעות", הוא הסביר. לדבריו, סנואדן אדם אינטליגנט שחשב לעומק לפני שחשף את המסמכים

...the Snowden leaks stories are now being handled with by-lines from such establishment journalists as David Sanger...

NYTimesN.S.A. Devises Radio Pathway Into Computers

In this article we find an at best misleading assertion: "There is no evidence that the N.S.A. has implanted its software or used its radio frequency technology inside the United States." Even if that is true of the NSA itself, the domestic use of such technology by companies which contract to NSA cannot be ruled out. These are companies that have helped develop the NSA's capabilities; for instance, Palantir may have developed applications for the NSA's PRISM program, as reported by Wayne Madsen in June of last year: A wilderness of PRISMs. The products in turn are listed in catalogs, some with prices...

SpiegelInteractive Graphic - The NSA's Spy Catalog

Scribd: Nsa Ant Catalog

Cryptome: NSA Codenames

Among the codenames in the catalog, WATERWITCH and TYPHON HX ($175,000 for a 4 month rental) raise evidence that flies in the face of the Times assertion...

Wayne Madsen Report: January 3-5, 2014 -- NSA has capability to zap cell phone users with RF energy 

According to a set of documents from the National Security Agency's ANT division, which likely stands for Access or Advanced Network Technology, the NSA has fielded special units which drive up the RF output of cell phones. According to medical experts, the increased radiation can cause brain cancer, skin burns, and eye cataracts.The NSA unit is code named WATERWITCH.

WMR's editor discovered this technology the hard way when he received a second degree burn while talking on a Samsung cell phone in January 2011.


On January 10, 2011, WMR reported that this editor was under increased NSA surveillance because of a number of recent exposés of NSA:


"...Just as the latest report of NSA surveillance was received, this editor experienced a second-degree burn with blistering on the right neck and shoulder, usually where my cell phone is placed during conversations... The burn, that began as what can be described as a bad sunburn, began on the evening of January 6. The contour of the burn mark is oddly similar to the two equal halves of my flip-top telephone, with a white stripe in the middle where the hinge is located."


It now appears that the editor was subjected to a blast from WATERWITCH targeting and "finishing" signal boosting unit that works with the TYPHON equipment interrogator. The NSA document on WATERWITCH states the unit "emits tone and gives signal strength of target handset" from within a mile of the target.


A very good question...

Washington's Blog: Is The NSA Quartering “Digital” Troops Within Our Homes?

And coming soon to an eyeball near you...


+

In a monthly reference feature for DOD funding on Boiling Frogs Post, at the top of the Foreign Military Sales section, we find that the U.S. spawn of Al Yamamah lives on...

A Distillation of DOD Funding Priorities for December 2013

Lockheed Martin received $8,808,979 for sniper advanced targeting pods (ATP) for Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA aircraft. This is a source directed acquisition. Raytheon received $12,878,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-114) interrogators. This is a sole-source acquisition. Raytheon received $11,662,862 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-119) transponders. This is a sole source acquisition. Sikorsky received $105,300,000 to modify eight UH-60M helicopters for Saudi Arabia. One bid was solicited with one received.

Al Raha Group for Technical Services received $45,000,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with F-15 unclassified items, third party logistics, and repair and return management services.

BAE Systems received $12,835,546 for the delivery, installation, and testing of six E-2C compatible AN/APX-122A Mode 5/S Interrogator units for France.

BAE Systems received $21,742,595 for 200 F-16 Mode 5 Advanced IFF combined interrogator transponders. 70 percent is FMS to Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.
...

A ruling coming late last month in favor of of 9/11 families, along with a fresh congressional push to declassify 28 redacted pages of the 2002 Congressional Joint Inquiry of 9/11, might just begin to unravel the Saudi tape-worm infesting the U.S. body-politic...

LaRouchePAC: Federal Appeals Court Overturns Saudi Immunity, Allows lawsuits Against Kingdom to Proceed

Support For Jones-Lynch Bill For Cracking "The 9/11 Wall Of Silence"

While we're at it...

Kentucky.com: More Than 250,000 and Counting Join Rand Paul’s Class-Action Suit against NSA Data Collection


TPM: Effort To Shut Off The NSA's Water Supply Goes Bipartisan In California

Activist Post: Washington State Bill Would Turn Off Resources to NSA's Yakima Facility

Read more here: http://www.kentucky.com/2014/01/04/3018080/more-than-250000-and-counting.html#storylink=cpy

In other Snowden fall-out, back in September we wondered if Brazil's hesitancy to purchase Boeing's F/A-18 Super Hornet was borne of a "worry that U.S. contractors would install hack-able back-doors to weapons systems..?" There are grounds for that hesitancy, though perhaps it should be extended to anything with U.S. manufactured components...

Space War: France-UAE satellite deal shaky after US spy tech discovered onboard

+

Libyan Jamahiriyah staging a come-back? 

Global Research: The Secret War in Libya

Pravda: Interview with Green Resistance

Warning: while it is no secret whose government funds the previously linked site, it is less apparent that the following site is known to receive U.S. government funding...

Magharebia: Cyrenaica defies Libya oil policy

...The move by the self-declared Cyrenaica regional government marked a sharp escalation of its standoff with Tripoli, which on Sunday deployed the navy to prevent two tankers docking in the eastern port of al-Sedra to take on crude.

Now the Maghreb begins to resemble again the geo-economic situation that Thomas Jefferson confronted in America's first foreign war - a war waged to facilitate the free flow of commerce...

Library of Congress: America and the Barbary Pirates - An International Battle Against an Unconventional Foe

Jefferson justified his war on the principle that commerce will not be obstructed by 'infidel taxes' and thuggery. Over two centuries later, however, American policy has been turned on its head. Now the thugs receive the aid of the U.S. taxpayer - if not directly via CIA-funded operations, then indirectly through the support of our close ally Saudi Arabia and other Sunni-led gulf states, in their effort to stoke proxy wars against Iranian/Shiite interests through Salafist fighters...

CarnegieFollow the Money - How Syrian Salafis Are Funded From the Gulf

While the U.S. officially wags its finger at such support, nevertheless it in turn exploits the violence in an effort to gain concessions for - we will venture to guess - its own oil companies or those of its allies...

Al MonitorObama administration uses Anbar crisis to push Maliki on Iraqi oil law

The United States is also urging Maliki to take broader steps toward reconciliation with Sunnis and Kurds to decrease animosity toward the Shiite-led government. One element would be a new oil agreement allowing Kurds to export their oil production of about 300,000 barrels a day through existing Iraqi pipelines...

Denise Natali, a columnist for Al-Monitor and an expert on oil and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) at the National Defense University in Washington, told Al-Monitor that there is likely to be “a compromise and payment of some sort to the KRG” that will allow its oil to flow out to Turkey...

Russia however has different ideas about what is conducive to its economic interests...

Intelligence OnlineSyrian peace is gas for Moscow

+

Around the world, the people are taking matters into their own hands...


Inquisitr: Mexican Vigilantes Battling Cartel Seize Town From Knights Templar, Arrest Police

What’s considered controversial is how the Mexican vigilantes arrested police, accusing them of being traitors working for the cartels... But opponents of the Mexican vigilantes accuse the militias of working secretly with the New Generation Jalisco cartel, who are the main competitors of the Knights Templar.

Indeed many a "spontaneous uprising" is often of dubious provenance...

Strategic-Culture (Madsen): Greenbacks for blue buckets - USAID support for instability in Russia


RT: No EU country would tolerate Ukraine protest violence at home – Lavrov

Question-mark headlines: Who are the mystery gunmen of Kyiv and Bangkok?

Determining the backers and provocateurs of the uprising in Bangkok leaves us uncertain. Tony Cartalucci, generally one to cry "Soros!" behind any and every "themed revolution," takes a different position in Thailand...

Land Destroyer: US-backed Regime Using Terrorism Against Occupy Bangkok Protesters

But what are we to make of royal family loyalist protesters calling for the cancellation of an election?

ROAR: Thailand’s royalist protesters rise up against democracy

RealClearWorld: The Undemocratic Hand Behind Thailand's Protests

There are the hallmarks of Soros/NED funding. Sexy young girls wielding ribbons, whistles and props, provided by which sugar-daddy..?


+

Scandals just won't die...

Arizona Republic: Agent - FBI key in border agent Terry slaying



U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence: REVIEW of the TERRORIST ATTACKS ON U.S. FACILITIES IN BENGHAZI, LIBYA, SEPTEMBER 11-12,2012

+

Return of the swine flu...

Recombinomics: Silent Spread Of H1N1 Deadly RBD Change L194I

Michigan pH1N1 ECMO Machines Maxed Out

Add to that H7N9...

Google maps: H7N9 Pandemic Cases & Sequences

...and "Camel flu"..?

PressTV: 5 more contract MERS in KSA, one in UAE, WHO says

+

Miscellania...

A new model for financial transactions...


...as old models melt down...


Speculative but plausible...

AmmoLand: How the Feds Plan to Use the APA, NSA and Obamacare to Get Your Guns

...with robot swarms...

Military Times: Army studying replacing thousands of grunts with robots

33rd Square: Cloud-Computing Internet For Robots Developed

Gladio USA...

Cryptogon: Indiana Guardsman Stopped for Speeding in Madison County Had 48 Bombs

American SchutzStaffel...

TMZ: Iraqi Death Scene Pics of Marines Burning Bodies Trigger U.S. Military Investigation [PHOTOS]

The hacker's TMZ...

The Smoking Gun"Guccifer" Files Further Detail Hacking Spree

Busted! Mother Of Mercy, Is This The End Of “Guccifer?”

Also busted: a conduit of kiddie porn in U.S. Congress who had been released to the custody of his parents and was said to have agreed to a plea deal, now suicided?

The Tennessean: Former Alexander aide Ryan Loskarn commits suicide

As Wayne Madsen notes: A lot of senators are breathing easier today folks.

+

World War II claims one more casualty...

DW: One killed after World War II-era bomb goes off in western Germany

Lockheed Martin received $8,808,979 for sniper advanced targeting pods (ATP) for Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA aircraft. This is a source directed acquisition. Raytheon received $12,878,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-114) interrogators. This is a sole-source acquisition. Raytheon received $11,662,862 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-119) transponders. This is a sole source acquisition. Sikorsky received $105,300,000 to modify eight UH-60M helicopters for Saudi Arabia. One bid was solicited with one received.
Al Raha Group for Technical Services received $45,000,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with F-15 unclassified items, third party logistics, and repair and return management services. 
BAE Systems received $12,835,546 for the delivery, installation, and testing of six E-2C compatible AN/APX-122A Mode 5/S Interrogator units for France.
BAE Systems received $21,742,595 for 200 F-16 Mode 5 Advanced IFF combined interrogator transponders. 70 percent is FMS to Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.
- See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/02/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-december-2013/#sthash.fAGIh6HO.dpuf
Lockheed Martin received $8,808,979 for sniper advanced targeting pods (ATP) for Saudi Arabia’s F-15SA aircraft. This is a source directed acquisition. Raytheon received $12,878,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-114) interrogators. This is a sole-source acquisition. Raytheon received $11,662,862 to provide Saudi Arabia with 94 IFF (AN/APX-119) transponders. This is a sole source acquisition. Sikorsky received $105,300,000 to modify eight UH-60M helicopters for Saudi Arabia. One bid was solicited with one received.
Al Raha Group for Technical Services received $45,000,000 to provide Saudi Arabia with F-15 unclassified items, third party logistics, and repair and return management services. 
BAE Systems received $12,835,546 for the delivery, installation, and testing of six E-2C compatible AN/APX-122A Mode 5/S Interrogator units for France.
BAE Systems received $21,742,595 for 200 F-16 Mode 5 Advanced IFF combined interrogator transponders. 70 percent is FMS to Belgium, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, and Portugal.
- See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/02/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-december-2013/#sthash.fAGIh6HO.dp
A Distillation of DOD Funding Priorities for December 2013 - See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/02/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-december-2013/#sthash.FaZdyjkG.dpuf
A Distillation of DOD Funding Priorities for December 2013 - See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/02/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-december-2013/#sthash.FaZdyjkG.dpuf
A Distillation of DOD Funding Priorities for December 2013 - See more at: http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2014/01/02/bfp-exclusive-report-a-distillation-of-dod-funding-priorities-for-december-2013/#sthash.FaZdyjkG.dpuf

Sunday, January 5, 2014

The scat Snowden

Edward Snowden made his case for privacy...

“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought..."

“A child born today will grow up with no conception of privacy at all. They’ll never know what it means to have a private moment to themselves, an unrecorded, unanalysed thought. - See more at: http://blogs.channel4.com/paul-mason-blog/conception-privacy-snowdens-alternative-christmas-message/221#sthash.lejgQF2h
...and here's how Joshua A. Gorski made his...

Christian Post: Man Smears Excrement on Church Door, Masturbates on Steps in Sacrilegious Act

 A 19-year-old who allegedly violated a Bay City, Mich., church by repeatedly smearing feces on the church's door and masturbating on the steps of the building says he was forced to take his lewd behavior to church because there wasn't sufficient privacy in the apartment he shared with his mother and father.