WikiLeaks: Information Suppression, Compliant Corporate Media - Evidence - Afghanistan

ꕤ Media Bullsh*t Corporate-Serving Corporate Media In Service of Aggressive Neoliberal Foreign Policy |  Manufacturing Consent Bias.  Censorship.  Disinformation.  Compliance. censorship & disinformation is denial of informed consent COMPLIANT CORPORATE & 'ALTERNATE' CORPORATE MEDIA Why We Need WikiLeaks EVIDENCE USA's spy agency, NSA, conducted mass surveillance on entire country (actually, more than one country ... but let's focus on Afghanistan) James Clapper says: 'untold damage'  Well, he would say that to justify US mass surveillance of entire countries in the free world & mass surveillance of free Americans.  Duh! Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper: #Snowden killed ‘important’ program in #Afghanistan / unnamed 'Intercept' country = Afghanistan http://pakobserver.net/detailnews.asp?id=272816 UPDATE It was the WikiLeaks follow-up identification of Afghanistan as country being surveilled that led to surveillance program closure/rejection by Afghanistan: In March 2014, The Washington Post, citing documents provided by Snowden, reported on a program called MYSTIC, under which the NSA was collecting “every single” phone conversation in a foreign country. The Post, following requests by U.S. officials, withheld the country’s name. Two months later, the Intercept news site published a similar story about the NSA’s “secretly intercepting, recording, and archiving the audio of virtually every cell phone conversation” in two nations. The site named the Bahamas as one country. It refrained from naming the other, citing concerns that doing so “could lead to increased violence.” Several days later, the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks reported that the country was Afghanistan. Soon after, “the program was shut down by the government of Afghanistan,” said Clapper, speaking at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Washington. SOURCE https://archive.is/94N16 ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- NO words for the suppression of truth by the corporate and 'alternate' corporate press: Washington Post The Intercept  It's anger provoking to see information denial and abuse of state power, in black and white. WikiLeaks was the only publisher that gave the world:  the truth. PS It's just occurred to me that the US spies on Japanese leaders, and European politicians and corporations, as well as entire countries. So if the public is told that a surveillance program has been rejected by a vanquished state, does anyone really believe there's genuinely been follow-through from the US-appointed Afghan government or from USA? On consideration, I really don't buy that they're done spying on Afghanistan. ꕤ

Assange: 2009 - Malaysia - HITB

TRANSCRIPT [for quotation purposes, confirm audio] ADAPTED / edited from | here HITB SecConf 2009  Malaysia WikiLeaks 1 of 8  VIDEO   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uq-LSlLC8Oo ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Thank you. Thank you. Everyone hear me OK? I am a writer, really, now by profession, so I can be very softly spoken. So, if I start speaking too softly, please just go like this [gestures]. I know you're an Asian audience, but you can still do it.  [audience laughter] OK. So, I just had this lovely introduction here, but perhaps some of you should know a little bit more about my background and my involvement in this. So, I was a famous teenage computer hacker in Australia, a long-term activist, and I'd been reading generals' e-mails since I was 17. After some famous cases, where I had a magazine that I wrote, I was involved in a court dispute in Australia (6 years in court), I went on to do other things. I wrote books, I did documentaries, and lots of human rights work, lots of photography work. Some of you may know Strobe where I invented parallel port scanning [here]; if you're using [???] , you're using my code; [???] ... or anything like that. But after a while I decided I would go and do something else. And, so, I entered into the academy, into the ivory tower, and started to do theoretical physics. And what I though I would create was a world that was mathematically pure for myself, that had a good history, a good intellectual history, and possibly a good intellectual future. And it was in some way honest work. But what I found, being an academic, was that no part of the economy anywhere in the world is isolated, including the highest part of the ivory tower. That, in fact, at the bottom of every ivory tower rests corrupt money, rests bodies of people killed in war.  And, in my particular case, I found that the quantum cryptography group ... in Australia was being financed by the National Security Agency; that the applied mathematics group, in Australia, was designing mathematical models to build an enhanced versions of the Grizzly Plow, that's a high-speed military bulldozer designed to bury people alive.  And many more things like that. So, not even in this highest reach of the ivory tower can you avoid the fact that the world is completely connected. When government is illegitimate, the government tanks[?] everything beneath it:  every aspect of the economy; every person in the country; including, those most removed (including, pure mathematicians). In fact, if you look on WikiLeaks you'll see an article I wrote analysing 3,600 academic papers that had been financed, overtly or covertly, by the National Security Agency. Google for MDA904, the grant code used by the Maryland Procurement Office, a cover name -- a light cover name -- for the National Security Agency. Google for grant code MDA903 -- a cover code used by the Defence Intelligence Agency -- [which] funded many, many of so-called 'pure papers' of academic research. The CIA has funded papers (supposedly by anthropologists and people interested in stress), covertly, to determine the most efficient way to torture people. Nowhere is free from the illegitimacy of corrupt -- morally or financially corrupt -- government. So, having discovered this, and also having many journalistic friends and activist friends, we decided to do what we could to make government and organisations more legitimate. What we had seen, as journalists, is that there were two sorts of political reform happening is society. One:   something that is part of a tide of change, that happens because a new invention is introduced into the society, or a new form of commerce or environmental change that seems to happen anyway, organically, and there's nothing we can do about it. And it may be positive, and it may be negative. But there are other aspects of reform that don't have to happen. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. And those paths of reform are seeded and created by unauthorized disclosures. A good one-third of the front of The New York Times of any day is built out of unauthorized disclosures. You won't see it, you'll just see "document seen by The New York Times" or you'll see "a senior official speaking confidentially says -- " something.  And that's really the big driving force for political reform all across the world: is individuals who know of an unjust plan (or an unjust past), revealing it to the population, so all the people in the population can decide to support (or, not support) those people or their opponents. Not just in democracies, but in all countries. So, what is WikiLeaks? A group of people, activists and journalists, cryptographers, who came together. We call them Sunshine Press. We have a platform on the Internet and our most famous platform, and that is called WikiLeaks. So, we do something relatively simple. We want to enable information to go out to the public, that is just not any information, but that it has the greatest chance of achieving political reform: positive political reform in the world. There's a lot of bits everywhere in the world. Some of those bits are special. Some of those bits can achieve something good. And the more bits are in the world, the more the problem becomes:  how do you find those bits which can change our civilization into a better state. So, we look for an economic symbol -- a colour on those bits -- which is that:  they are restricted. Someone understands those bits: the people who created them. That's who understands them the best. And they have restricted them from the public. Because they understand that we have materials we release, it makes it harder for them to carry out unjust plans. Because those plans could be opposed. Or, if they have carried out such plans in the past, the anger from the discovery will cause people to take away some of their power.  [OK] So, to get things to the public you need to protect sources who want to disclose, and you also need to protect your ability to publish in the face of attack.  And, people like to say that the Internet is a place of free speech. Nothing could be further from the truth. What the Internet has allowed is publishers to publish cheaply, and with that vast influx of new publishers, some of those publishers are motivated to protect what they are publishing. But, in general, the Internet is the easiest place to censor. You can't take a paper back from the library. Not very easily. But you can do it on the Internet. No problem at all. You can censor commercially on the internet by driving publishers away from your [?] So, protecting publishing on the internet is not something that comes about as a product of the internet itself. It needs something extra. We don't publish everything, because there's too much -- [audio cuts out -- 9:40] ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- Hack In The Box (HITB) MALAYSIA  |  here ꕤ

Transcript - Assange - Title: Counter-terrorism strategies targeting Muslims will affect the wider population | VIDEO Feb 2014 | Cage

TRANSCRIPT [For quotation purposes, confirm audio] Julian Assange: Counter-terrorism strategies targeting Muslims will affect the wider population VIDEO [14:33] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emfncWOhXw8&feature=youtu.be Published on 10 Feb 2014 Good afternoon. My name is Julian Assange. I am the founder and publisher of WikiLeaks. Today, I am proud to help Cage launch their Prevent report. It has been often said to me by my Muslim friends (and some of you,  I'm sure, have heard it), that there exists one law for Muslims and one law for everyone else, here in the UK, in the United States, in Australian, New Zealand, and in some of continental Europe.  That used to be true. Unfortunately, for everyone else, it is no longer true:  and the experiences that I and my staff (and other journalists) have gone through, in relation to the Edward Snowden affair; our big publications in relation to the US military intelligence sector; the activities taken against Associated Press, in United States, [and] Fox News; show that, in fact, it is no longer true. That what happens to the Muslim community, sure enough, sooner or later, happens to everyone else as well. In fact, we can go back and look at the origins of the famous mass spying efforts in the United States that affect the domestic population. EDIT - INSERT While mass spying of fibre optic cables, as they go from one country to another, has been something that the United States, the United Kingdom, [and] GCHQ, have been involved in for many years, the ramp-up in the amount of funding available to them, and to the invasiveness of that spying (and to it taking place at a domestic level), is something that occurred shortly after 9/11; although the programs were attempted to be put in place shortly before. That was meant to monitor only a few people connected to suspicious terroristic activities and, yet, within a few years, secret interpretations of that legislation had led to it being enacted for every single person in the United States. There is not a single person in the United States who has made a telephone call in that country, who has not had that call swept up into that mass surveillance system and stored. In fact, the entire community structure of the United States — from the most powerful politician or industrialist to someone in a payphone in the gutters of San Antonio calling their uncle for help — has [now] been incorporated into that system. And what does that mean? Well, if you understand who calls who, how frequently, and when, you can map the degree of social relationship between any two people; and when you do it for all people, you have the social relationship structure of the entire nation; and when you engage in worldwide spying and monitoring, you have it for most of the world. And what does it mean if you have the entire community structure of a nation? Well, it means that you end up in a similar situation to the Muslim community here in London, right now, which is:  understanding the relationships between people, allows you to affect the relationships between people; it allows you to push society in one way or another, and predict people's behaviour across a wide range of areas; in fact, in almost any way that people's behaviour is predictable. And the Prevent Strategy enacted by the United Kingdom is most often associated, or linked, to the policies of McCarthy. In fact, this room behind me is from 1943. It is J Edgar Hoover's room.  It is the FBI records office. If you were to construct a similar room using similar technology (where we didn't have computers, but we have people going from file to file), that room, for the United Kingdom, would be nearly the size of London. In fact, nearly all of us would be physically inside that room, because of the amount of information that's being collected. Now, what has happened with that Prevent Strategy: it's not just the electronic monitoring. To a degree, this room reflects an earlier stage, which is somewhat like what Prevent is doing. It is penetrating the social structure of people: their relationships with their GP; with their lecturers; with other people in their community (even schools). So there is no escape. Prevent means that the social structure of people is susceptible to whatever concern the major power factions of the day have in the united Kingdom. The precedents are all set there — enacted for the Muslim community - just like the precedents were set in the United States for mass domestic spying, by using the Muslim community as an excuse. So we're all in this together. Injustices which affect the Muslim community, soon enough, expand out to the rest of the community at large. They do that by creating policies, laws, institutions and industrial lobbies that seek always to expand their ambit to as many people as possible, to expand their domestic and international power, and lobby hard to prevent their powers being contained. We can see that, for example, with Section 7 of the Terrorism Act, which, surely most people thought, here in the UK, would only apply to those people genuinely suspected of terrorism and, if not, perhaps just Muslims. The reality is, Section 7 of the Terrorism Act, as we have seen in the David Miranda case, affects journalism. It is used to try and stop revelations of the abuses being conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) and GCHQ, here in the UK. It is the reason why our journalist, a British subject, Sarah Harrison, is in self-exile (on the advice of her lawyers), in Germany, and not here in the United Kingdom: because for her to return, she would subject herself to an interrogation under Section 7, without any ability to say that, no, she doesn't want to answer the question in relation to her journalistic work. Prevent is a human intelligence gathering system, and I think we need to see it in terms of:  it is a modern form of making people into informants, a modern regulated system of 'ratting' each other out. It is a system which turns doctor against patient, teacher against student, and neighbour against neighbour. Those people you should be able to trust the inner core of your life to ([eg] your doctor, to seek advice from), are now swept up in a system of inducements and coercion that means that they can't be trusted, debilitating the basic social fabric of society, which is that we all trust one another. What happens when Prevent expands out, as it must do, from is abuses on the Muslim community to those people involved in holding power to account? Cage itself is an institution — a very important institution — here in the UK — which is holding power to account for the abuses it conducts on the Muslim community, and yet Cage — Cage's Board and bank accounts — have been subject to interference by UK authorities. The Prevent system is almost done entirely outside of any court process and any meaningful ability to have an insight into how those people who are affected by this system may seek redress. That is the construction of a human intelligence system. What I have spoken about before and what has been reported with the Snowden revelations is the construction of an Orwellian, mass, global, surveillance system — an electronic system. So, we have here a pincer attack on basic human liberty. On the one hand, an electronic system that prevents us communicating privately with those people who are close to us; from engaging in private economic transactions; from preventing us enjoying, securely, the fruits of globalisation — the fruits of globalised interaction, the fruits of non-localised interaction, even within a country.  And, on the other hand, with Prevent, we have the construction of the remaining area of — a surveillance system for the remaining area of life that is free from mass electronic surveillance: our basic human interaction with our doctor, teacher and so on. And these two things are coming together. So, what does that mean? Does that mean all hope is lost when we have a titanic, global surveillance system and a local human intelligence system that turns one person against another? No. The existence of Cage, as an organisation that has been subject to unjust scrutiny; the existence of WikiLeaks, as an organisation which has fought a long battle against this sort of thing; demonstrates that it somehow possible — despite this excess — to succeed and grow. How was it that WikiLeaks was able to stand up to the Pentagon and the State Department, despite a very public, aggressive, engagement: the largest investigation against a publisher ever? How was it that we were able to spirit Edward Snowden out of Hong Kong to a place of safety, in the greatest manhunt the world has ever seen? How could we do that? It is not because of some extraordinary sophistication and power of WikiLeaks as an organisation. It is the result of extraordinary dedication; not extraordinary wealth. How is it that dedication is able to win against a much superior force? Well, let's remember what this game is about: mass surveillance — systems like Prevent — are all about diverting money from the tax base. It is about securitisation. What do I mean by securitisation? I mean: when the Muslim community, or WikiLeaks — or activists — are used to create fear amongst people in the establishment who have the ability to determine what money goes where. So we are used as an excuse to divert money to Booz Allen Hamilton (a contractor for the National Security Agency); G4S (which was responsible for maintaining an electronic bracelet around ankle when I was under house arrest); Serco (a similar multinational contractor, who maintained the electronic bracelet around my ankle in another house arrest location). These organisations are lobby groups, who lobby to get the maximum amount of wealth transfer from the bulk of the population, into their pockets. It's a way of transferring income, predominantly from the middle class, to these wealthy security organisations. And Prevent is no different. The people running these organisations, they're not actually concerned about preventing anything. They're not actually really concerned about stopping WikiLeaks, and that's why they're unable, so far, to stop us. What they're concerned about is engaging in a process of wealth transfer from the tax base, and gaining political support for their activities, and they can do that with smoke and mirrors. In the security industry, we call this 'security theatre': looking like you're doing something, without doing it too much. And that's why, through the assistance of organisations like Cage, actually the Muslim community in the United Kingdom — and the rest of us — stand a chance. So, I encourage you very strongly to not be frightened of what is going on. It is a concern.  But, remember: these people are deeply incompetent;  they don't have a passion for their work;  the people at Cage have a passion for their work — they are from the community; and you should support them and organisations like them. Thank you. ------- end audio | 14:32 ------- EDIT - red text insert (above).  Must have inadvertently deleted paragraph when formatting. (Lucky discovery nitpicking over a word here or there.  lol) USEFUL LINKS Prevent Strategy Presented to UK Parliament | June 2011 PDF https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/97976/prevent-strategy-review.pdf  CAGE, formerly Cageprisoners Ltd, is a London-based advocacy organization with an Islamic focus  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAGE_%28organisation%29 McCarthyism Joseph R. McCarthy http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/joseph-mccarthy David Miranda UK Court: David Miranda Detention Legal Under Terrorism Law Miranda’s attorneys argued that the stop was unlawful and a violation of Miranda’s right to freedom of expression. And they said his detention marked the first time the terrorism act had been implemented to seize journalistic materials. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/19/uk-court-david-miranda-detention-legal-terrorism-law/ On the UK's Equating of Journalism With Terrorism he UK Government expressly argued that the release of the Snowden documents (which the free world calls “award–winning journalism“) is actually tantamount to “terrorism”, the same theory now being used by the Egyptian military regime to prosecute Al Jazeera journalists as terrorists. Congratulations to the UK government on the illustrious company it is once again keeping. British officials have also repeatedly threatened criminal prosecution of everyone involved in this reporting, including Guardian journalists and editors. https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/02/19/uks-equating-journalism-terrorism-designed-conceal-gchq/ Sarah Harrison Britain is treating journalists as terrorists – believe me, I know http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/14/britain-journalists-terrorists-edward-snowden-nsa Booz Allen Hamilton HQ Tysons Corner, Fairfax County, Virginia core busines: provision of management, technology & security services to civilian government agencies / a security & defence contractor to defense & intelligence agencies civil & commercial entities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booz_Allen_Hamilton G4S plc (formerly Group 4 Securicor) British multinational security services company HQ Crawley, West Sussex world's largest security company https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G4S Serco Group plc British outsourcing company HQ Hook, Hampshire operates public and private transport and traffic control, aviation, military weapons, detention centres, prisons and schools on behalf of its customers. "There has been a history of problems, failures, fatal errors and overcharging." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serco The Prevent Strategy: a cradle to grave police-state http://www.cageuk.org/publication/prevent-strategy-cradle-grave-police-state Apologists for terror or defenders of human rights? The Cage controversy in context Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 ... government has drawn the entire public sector into its controversial counter-extremist agenda, meaning that public servants once responsible for the welfare of citizens – including children – must now monitor their behaviour, appearance and political views, feeding into the most unaccountable and repressive elements of the state. Increasingly marginalised by a media smear campaign, Cage has now achieved the status of public pariah once reserved for critics of government policy on Northern Ireland before the peace process. https://www.opendemocracy.net/ourkingdom/tom-mills-narzanin-massoumi-david-miller/apologists-for-terror-or-defenders-of-human-righ CAGE to sue David Cameron for calling it 'extremist' ISIS and Jihadi John supporting group ... seeking legal advice on whether Mr Cameron is "guilty of defamation". As well as potentially launching legal action against the Prime Minister, CAGE also announced today it has applied for a judicial review against UK charity watchdog, the Charity Commission. CAGE says the commission "exceeded its role as government regulator" by pressuring donors to stop funding it and claims the Charity Commission "spread false information based on misleading reports in certain sections of the media". It said the commission "demonised" CAGE because Jihadi John approached it for advice before he left to fight for ISIS in Syria. The organisation is not stopping there on the warpath against the establishment — it has also complained to the United Nations (UN) about "sustained attacks on its ability to do its advocacy work", which it says involves campaigning for the rights "of those adversely affected by the war on terror" http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/592855/CAGE-sue-David-Cameron-called-extremist-ISIS-Jihadi-John-supporting-group Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/6/contents/enacted ꕤ

Intelligence Trivia - USA

Intelligence Trivia World War II close cooperation b/w USA & British intelligence began / Allen Dulles selected by Dwight Eisenhower to run CIA Allen Dulles, CIA later managed ops in Switzerland, a neutral operating ground for agents of the Allies & Nazis USA 1967 amid civil rights & anti-Vietnam War protests US Army Gen. William P. Yarborough, initiated Army intel + CIA + NSA domestic surveillance 1970s USA Sen. Frank Church, D-Idaho curtailed extensive USA domestic surveillance program http://www.deseretnews.com/article/865635176/Arthur-Cyr-Intelligence-involves-art-along-with-science.html?pg=all Arthur I. Cyr Professor Carthage College author of four books on international relations and British politics prior:  vice president of the Chicago Council on Foreign Relations & other 1966 UCLA Ph.D. with distinction in political science from Harvard University in 1971. ꕤ

USA Intelligence Contractor - Mantech International Corp

USA Intelligence Contractor Mantech International Corp | Profile ManTech International Corporation is a provider of technologies and solutions for national security programs for the intelligence community; the departments of Defense State Homeland Security Energy and Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation ... It supports national security programs for around 50 federal agencies through over 1,100 contracts. Its solutions and services include cyber; software and systems development; enterprise information technology; multi-discipline intelligence; program protection and mission assurance; systems engineering; test and evaluation; command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; training; global logistics and supply chain management and management consulting. http://www.octafinance.com/professional-analysts-at-thestreet-cut-mantech-international-corp-nasdaqmant-from-buy-to-hold-rating/ ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- ManTech International Corporation co-founded by George J. Pedersen 1968 purpose:  IT & technical services to US federal govt customers one of USG'S leading providers Intelligence DOD State Dept Homeland Sec DOJ Space + other ManTech has supported telecommunications use in Operation Iraqi Freedom HQ:  Fairfax, Virginia over 10,000 employees operations in 40 countries Revenue $2.582 billion (2012) Net income $95.019 million (2012) 2012 announced purchase of HBGary, Inc support the US Army in southwest Asia, Iraq and Afghanistan, as lead subcontractor to the VSE corporation specialization in communications and technology equipment is helpful to the ground and air soldiers ManTech’s personnel often placed inside the units of troops which they support contract -  mine-clearing and other systems for US Army in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ManTech_International VSE Corporation technical services company formed in 1959 2008 and 2009 annual revenues surpassed $1 billion 2013, VSE operations   structure = 2 groups  (3 wholly owned subsidiaries/LLCs) Federal Group International Group Energetics Incorporated (Energy) G&B/Akimeka (Information Technologies) Wheeler Bros., Inc. (Supply Chain Management) provides engineering, logistics support, supply chain management, sustainment, foreign military sales, management sciences, information technology, energy and environment support, and facilities management. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VSE_Corporation ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- COMMENT It's amazing how big these companies are.  I find huge companies like this sort of intimidating. Can't get a handle on how enormous they are and how powerful these organisations must be. ꕤ

NSA Illegal Surveillance - Salt Lake City - 2002 Olympics - Lawsuit

Kristin Murphy/Deseret News, File Photo Rocky Anderson to file suit against NSA for 'criminal' surveillance during Olympics By Angie H. Treasure   |  Posted Aug 12th, 2015 @ 8:12pm SALT LAKE CITY — Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is asking for the public's help in filing claims against the National Security Agency for what he called the "illegal" and "criminal" gathering of information during the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. In an interview with KSL NewsRadio, Anderson said he first became aware of the alleged surveillance when he read an article detailing the NSA's activity in the Wall Street Journal in 2013. The publication disclosed that every phone call and text message in Salt Lake City was subject to surveillance by the NSA and FBI before and during the 2002 Olympic Games held in Utah. The Olympic games took place less than six months after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. "Every bit of it was illegal. It was a criminal act," Anderson said. "Every instance was a criminal act and a massive violation of our constitution and other domestic laws." Anderson said he had since spoken with a source who worked within the NSA at the time of the Olympics, and said the truth is even worse than the Wall Street Journal alleges. According to the source, not only was the greater Salt Lake City area under NSA surveillance, but the areas surrounding all the Olympic venues were being watched, meaning that the NSA was collecting information on all the calls made, how long they lasted and what numbers were involved. Anderson said his source also claimed that the NSA targeted specific people and recorded their conversations. "Here's how this man put it to me: They saw this as a golden opportunity to put a security cone over an entire geographic area and grab everything. And he said they did it all outside the Fourth Amendment, outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act," said Anderson. "Now think of this," Anderson said. "All of it without a warrant, all of it without probable cause. It is absolutely unprecedented in our nation's history." It's what Anderson's website calls "The most massive, indiscriminate, illegal spying on the contents of communications in United States history." "It used to be that we'd looked at what the Stasi did in East Germany, or what the KGB did in the Soviet Union and we would be appalled," Anderson said. "We would never stand for that from our government. We, the people, would stand up against that. And the fact is, we the people are not standing up. And that's why, in large part, I'm pursuing this now." "It used to be that we'd looked at what the Stasi did in East Germany, or what the KGB did in the Soviet Union and we would be appalled. We would never stand for that from our government. We, the people, would stand up against that. And the fact is, we the people are not standing up. And that's why, in large part, I'm pursuing this now." –Rocky Anderson Anderson said that his pursuit of a lawsuit is a way to prevent further surveillance of this kind from happening in the future. "We can't let complacency set in to the point where we're clearing the path toward greater totalitarianism," said Anderson. The lawsuit is about reversing the behavior before it becomes an irreversible trend, according to Anderson. "A lot of people say, oh, you're doing it for the fees. Believe me," Anderson said, "I would've been happy just being a plaintiff. I tried to get other organizations to handle this case." Although the statute of limitations for this kind of lawsuit is usually two years, the timeline has been delayed in light of the 2013 Wall Street Journal article. Anderson is asking that the public step forward and file claims. From Anderson's website: "If, during the period of approximately Oct. 1, 2001, to February 28, 2002, you sent or received emails or text messages or engaged in telephone calls while you or the other person to the communication was in Salt Lake City or an area near another Olympic venue, your communications were likely illegally and unconstitutionally surveilled, intercepted, and analyzed by the FBI and/or NSA. If that is the case, then you are likely entitled to the recovery of money damages."     Stand up for accountability for illegal spying and for rule of law. Description and claim forms: http://t.co/60KcuQqDjc Urgent. File now! RT     — Rocky Anderson (@RockyAnderson) August 12, 2015 Those damages, according to one statute cited by Anderson, could pay up to a minimum of $10,000 in damages to each person who has received this kind of violation of the law. Anderson is asking that people go to his website, fill out five documents and bring them to the Winder & Counsel offices at 460 S. 400 East in Salt Lake City by Monday, Aug. 17, to be filed. Anderson added that he tried to speak to the head of public affairs at the NSA last week and when he asked her about the allegations in the Wall Street Journal article, he was told she was aware of them but that she did not admit, deny, nor would she discuss them. The former mayor hopes that people will join him in the lawsuit, saying, "The government should fear the people, not the people fearing the government." Contributing: Mary Richards http://www.ksl.com/?sid=35936923&nid=148&fm=most_popular&s_cid=popular-8 ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- COMMENT Not sure if I've posted this earlier.  If I have, here it is again.  lol The Google search box widget isn't doing its thing for me and I'm finding it hard to keep track of what I've posted so far. Thought NSA getting sued and resistance to surveillance and totalitarianism was post worthy. The links are there for anyone in that region who wants to join the suit for damages and effort to curb future civil liberties incursions. Law needs to be amended regarding that statute of limitations.  An extension to something like 30 years sounds good.  lol ꕤ

Thomas Drake Interview - Transcripts - Series of Five (5)

Espionage Act Case USA (One of Few) Thomas Drake US Air Force / short stint CIA  /  US Navy veteran ex NSA / computers / whistleblower   "I flew in RC-135s, listening in on the Warsaw Pact. I became--the target country in which I became an expert as a crypto linguist was East Germany." " ... says he was targeted by the NSA because he exposed that the agency had intel that could have prevented the 9/11 attacks and because he blew the whistle on a massive secret surveillance program aimed at Americans -   August 2, 2015" "In 2010 the government alleged that he 'mishandled' documents, one of the few such Espionage Act cases in U.S. history. His defenders claim that he was instead being persecuted for challenging the Trailblazer Project."  [therealnews] Transcript Interview #1 - http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14393 Transcript Interview #2 - http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14395 Transcript Interview #3 - http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14399 Transcript Interview #4 - http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14405 Transcript Interview #5 - http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14423 ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- SUMMARY Part 1 NSA Key stakeholder = Congress, particularly the intelligence committees   Raised objections to NSA having knowledge re  9/11 & not making use of that knowledge to prevent 9/11 Objections internal - then public. Waste of multibillion-dollar mass surveillance program / he thought violated the Fourth Amendment USA - dragnet electronic surveillance indicted whistleblower  /  no prison NSA - had 9/11 knowledge  / at issue what NSA actually knew what they should have known what they didn't share what they kept hidden info they never even discovered until later   "I consider NSA quite culpable.  ... extraordinarily culpable. And they've been covering up their culpability ever since" *NSA did not not share intel properly with national command authorities massive multibillion-dollar fraud   mass surveillance regime put into place in the deepest of secrecy NSA didn't like Drake 'speaking truth to power" - witness various investigations. 2007 FBI raid of house and office (National Defence University). Indictment   "I was very publicly indicted on a ten felony count indictment, five under the Espionage Act, facing 35 years in prison." April 2010 was an exciting month: April 5th, 2010 - here WikiLeaks releases Collateral Murder video April 15, 2010 - here Thomas Drake indicted "DRAKE:  My eyes were wide open coming into NSA. Some people have this idea that somehow I was naive coming into NSA. In fact, I was actually--my sanity was questioned as to whether or not I really wanted to join NSA. JAY: And your first day of the NSA is actually 9/11. DRAKE: First day I reported. I actually took the oath prior. It was all in processing. But the first day that I reported to my new job was the morning of 9/11." Post 9/11 US govt operating in equivalent of secret marital law "verbal authority from the White House, authorizing NSA to start spying on the U.S. on an extraordinary scale, starting with phone numbers and special arrangements of certain telephone companies, starting with AT&T" " ... eyewitness to the subversion of the Constitution. " Oath to defend "Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." [NSA] "... had what they call cast-iron coverage on the Yemeni switchboard, the safe house. They'd been monitoring that safe house since at least 1996. It's an absolute lie of the U.S. government to say that we didn't know about the two hijackers in San Diego, for example. Absolute lie." "... when confronted with the prospect of fessing up, NSA chose instead to obstruct the 9/11 congressional investigation, play dumb, and keep the truth buried, including the fact that it knew about all inbound and outbound calls to the safe house switchboard in Yemen. " ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- COMMENT That's it for my lame summary. I'm not really into the 9/11 stuff and I'm not up for the summary of another 4 parts of the interview. Thought it was good to post here for anybody who might be more interested than I am. Might just quickly skim a few more bits of the interviews to see if there's anything earth-shattering in them that I might otherwise miss.  lol ꕤ

PageLink-Intel - GCSB, New Zealand - Government Communications Security Bureau

GCSB NEW ZEALAND FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE (See also:  Domestic Intel - NZSIS - Security Intelligence Services - here) Hon Christopher Finlayson, Attorney-General- here 2015/16 the budget: $89.6 million Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) national security part of ECHELON see Nicky Hager, writer (book) David Lange { report released in error } - Targets of GCSB: Japan, Philippines, Argentina, France, Vietnam, + many small Pacific island states. + United Nations diplomatic traffic. Two listening stations + Secret Post + Southern Cross fibre-optic cable: Waihopai Station 1) SATELLITE communications interception station - Waihopai (near Blenheim) Part of ECHELON intercepts and processes all phone calls, faxes, e-mail and computer data communications. Tangimoana Station 2) RADIO communications interception station at GCSB Tangimoana (near Palmerston North) Part of ECHELON 3) Secret listening post codenamed "Caprica" - NZ High Commission in Honiara, Solomon Islands 4) Southern Cross Cable 95% international internet access point Construction & Ownership 1999: laid by the ship 'CS Vercors' Spark New Zealand (50.01%) SingTel (39.99%) Verizon Business (10.00%) mass surveillance - internet & phone traffic - 95% all NZ traffic (part trans-Pacific network of telecommunications cables) operated by Bermuda company Southern Cross Cables Limited Southern Cross Cables Limited asked NSA to pay them for MASS SURVEILLANCE allows government to spy on all phone calls and internet traffic from New Zealand  { NZ govt denies & claims merely negotiation w/ NSA } collection and processing of intel distribution of intel information assurance | cyber security Signals Intelligence Communications Security Anti-Bugging Measures Computer / IT security technology Foreign intelligence Assistance to other NZ govt agencies GCSB reports to the minister holding the Intelligence portfolio by convention: always the Prime Minister * Illegal surveillance of Kim Dotcom Shortly before Fletcher (head GCSB) was appointed, the GCSB illegally spied on Kim Dotcom, a German national but New Zealand resident. By law the agency cannot spy on New Zealand residents. The GCSB admitted that Hugh Wolfensohn, acting director at the time, knew the organisation was spying on Dotcom. Kitteridge Report *may have unlawfully spied on up to 85 ppl b/w April 2003 and Sept 2012 (Kitteridge report, leaked - Rebecca Kitteridge, Cabinet Secretary) Ian Fletcher (former diplomat) = Director GCSB controversy re appointment (forgotten friend of John keys) ---------------------- ꕤ  ---------------------- SOURCE https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_Communications_Security_Bureau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_Cross_Cable ꕤ

First NSA Mass Surveillance Legal Challenge - Portland, USA

Mohamed Mohamud appeal is first to challenge NSA surveillance in terrorism conviction 1 / 42 Mohamed Mohamud, after being sentenced to 30 years in prison on Oct. 1, 2014. Courtroom sketch by Abigail Marble. Mike Zacchino | The Oregonian/OregonLive Print Email Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive By Bryan Denson | The Oregonian/OregonLive Email the author | Follow on Twitter on August 12, 2015 at 5:00 AM, updated August 12, 2015 at 5:01 AM The U.S. spy operations that once put Portland terrorist Mohamed Mohamud under FBI surveillance violated his constitutional right against unlawful search and seizure, two civil liberties groups contend in a federal appeals court filing. Lawyers for the ACLU and Electronic Frontier Foundation recently filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of Mohamud, who has appealed his 30-year-sentence for trying to detonate a bomb in downtown Portland four years ago. They have joined Mohamud's legal team in denouncing a law that has allowed the National Security Agency to collect troves of overseas communications by Americans through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 provided the legal justification for the massive NSA surveillance programs exposed two years ago by Edward Snowden. To identify foreign terrorists, the U.S. has secretly collected records of communications between untold numbers of Americans and tens of thousands of people overseas. While the targets of those queries are foreign agents, the civil liberties groups wrote that the government has sometimes performed "backdoor searches," poring through electronic repositories of phone calls, emails and texts for information about U.S. citizens such as Mohamud. That violated Mohamud's Fourth Amendment rights, they argue. His lawyers filed an opening brief with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals this spring, opening the door for what is expected to be the nation's first appellate review of a criminal conviction resulting from the law. Their brief totaled 256 pages, and the court's commissioner ordered them to produce a slimmer version – no more than 180 pages – by this Friday. Government lawyers have until Dec. 7 to file their reply. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ethan D. Knight, lead prosecutor in Mohamud's criminal case, declined to comment on the appeal because it is pending. Lawyers have been arguing about Mohamud's case since the last Monday in November 2010, three days after he tried to detonate what he thought was a massive fertilizer bomb supplied by al-Qaida terrorists. The explosive was packed in a van near Pioneer Courthouse Square, where thousands of people gathered for Portland's holiday tree-lighting ceremony. The latest brief filed by Mohamud's lawyers describes his actions that night: "He pushed the buttons of a cellphone, twice, believing they would cause the explosion of a massive, nail-filled bomb capable of eliminating at least two city blocks. ... The bomb was a fake, created by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as the culmination of a sting operation they had started over a year earlier. "The defense at trial was entrapment: that the government had induced this teenager to attempt a crime he was not predisposed to commit." Mohamud was 19 at the time. On Jan. 31, 2013, a jury before Senior U.S. District Judge Garr M. King found Mohamud guilty of attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, a charge that carried a potential life sentence. King sentenced him last October to 30 years in prison, and his lawyers filed a notice of appeal eight days later. Ten months later, the Department of Justice filed a court notice saying that the government had obtained permission – under the FISA Amendments Act – to eavesdrop and collect evidence on Mohamud. The 7-year-old law has allowed the NSA to vacuum up millions of ordinary Americans' telephone records. But it also has played a significant role in identifying and disrupting foreign spies and terrorists, national security experts say. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which signed orders that allowed the U.S. to eavesdrop on Mohamud, is the most secretive court in the land. Its written orders, unlike standard wiretap warrants, are classified and not disclosed to the defense. So Mohamud's lawyers never fully understood how the FBI came to investigate their client as a potential terrorist. As Mohamud sits in a federal prison in Victorville, California, his lawyers hope to persuade the appeals court to reverse his conviction and send the case back to Portland for dismissal or a new trial. As an alternative, they are asking the appeals court to vacate their client's sentence and send it back to U.S. District Court for evidentiary hearings or resentencing. Mohamud's lawyers raise 11 key issues in their appeal, pointing out that King had repeatedly turned down their requests for classified evidence. For instance, they wrote that the judge allowed the FBI's two key witnesses – undercover agents – to use their pseudonyms and wear light disguises as they testified before the jury. But their main point, the one that will keep national security scholars buzzing until the 9th Circuit rules in the Mohamud case, is the assertion that the FISA Amendments Act is illegal. One of those watching most closely is Tung Yin, a Lewis & Clark Law School professor who specializes in national security matters. "We shouldn't be putting someone in prison for 30 years if that conviction resulted in significant part from evidence that the government should not have had, which is what this case would determine," said Yin. Retired Federal Public Defender Steven T. Wax, who served on Mohamud's defense team and now works on his appellate team, said the government's use of the FISA Amendments Act should lead to reversal of his client's conviction. He remains troubled that the government might still possess classified evidence that could have helped Mohamud's case. "The way our system should work, the government is obligated by law to provide notice," he said. "They did not. That's a fundamental failing that should lead to throwing out the conviction." -- Bryan Denson bdenson@oregonian.com SOURCE http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2015/08/mohamed_mohamud_appeal_is_firs.html ---------------------- ꕤ ---------------------- COMMENT What I got out of this (if I understand correctly): The following enabled the NSA to bulk collect data, in what amounts to the violation of the US  constitution: FISA Amendments Act of 2008 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court NSA conducted an illegal program that bulk collected the records of Americans, in violation of the Fourth Amendment rights enshrined in the US constitution. NSA conducted an illegal program that bulk collected the records of "tens of thousands" of non US citizens abroad (more like entire countries). FBI secures convictions on the basis of entrapment:  inducing targets to commit crime. Following civil liberties groups are mounting a legal challenge in respect of this conviction: ACLU Electronic Frontier Foundation  Law professor, Tung Yin:  "... if that conviction resulted in significant part from evidence that the government should not have had" - 30 year conviction a no go. The brief in defence was knocked back, with instructions to compile something scant (WTF?  A defence is a defence.  It's as long as it takes.) The secrecy surrounding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court is troublesome, because it prevents the defendant mounting a proper defence:   vital information is withheld, on basis of "classified" information justification, interfering with ability to defend. secret, disguised, key FBI witnesses testify. Under these circumstances, anybody could probably be convicted of anything.  No transparency and no accountability.  The accused is induced to commit crime and then denied information on 'classified' grounds and therefore denied the opportunity to properly defend. I don't understand the principles associated with evidence one is not supposed to have.  But I guess it has something to do with fair trials. As for FBI informants, they're not necessarily reliable.  Usually, these types are being blackmailed by the authorities into informing on others, so they're motivated by the opportunity to save their skin. ꕤ