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Twitter sues U.S. Justice Dept over limits on ability to disclose user surveillance

Ellen Nakashima
Washingtonpost.com
Tue, 07 Oct 2014 16:00 UTC
Image
© Gigaom.com
Twitter, the world's largest microblogging platform, on Tuesday sued the U.S. government, alleging that the Justice Department's restrictions on what the company can say publicly about the government's national security requests for user data violate the firm's First Amendment rights.

With its lawsuit, the San Francisco-based firm is seeking to go further than five other technology companies that earlier this year reached a settlement with the government on the permissible scope of disclosure at a time of heightened concern about the scale of government surveillance.

"It's our belief that we are entitled under the First Amendment to respond to our users' concerns and to the statements of U.S. government officials by providing information about the scope of U.S. government surveillance - including what types of legal process have not been received," Ben Lee, a Twitter vice president, said in a post online. "We should be free to do this in a meaningful way, rather than in broad, inexact ranges."

In a post-Edward Snowden world in which technology companies are striving to reassure customers about their commitment to privacy, Twitter is pressing for the ability to be more candid in its twice-a-year transparency reports than the government has been willing to permit.

Tech firms may now report the numbers of requests they receive from the government in broad bands - such as zero to 999, for instance. Twitter would like to be able to disclose the exact number of national-security-related orders received in any particular category - including zero, if that is the case.

Comment: What a bunch of lying hypocrites!

Twitter opens entire database to MIT (CIA)

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Vader

Hypocrats: UK pretends to care that Bahraini Prince may have tortured


RT
Wed, 08 Oct 2014 01:07 UTC

Comment: Butter wouldn't melt in their mouths. The UK is completely full of hypocritical blowhards and liars. What about Bush? What about Cheney? Oh, yeah, they're so against torture. Makes you wonder what this Prince did right to deserve this. Just remember, when it's official, it's a lie.


Prince Nasser of Bahrain, who is accused of involvement in the torture of detainees during a pro-democracy uprising in the island kingdom in 2011, is not immune from prosecution, the High Court in London ruled Tuesday.

Judges overturned the Crown Prosecution Service's decision that the Prince had state immunity from prosecution. The ruling could mean the prince may be arrested in the UK if he ever returns to British soil.

In May this year it emerged that a Bahraini citizen, referred to as FF, sought the arrest of Prince Nasser. He accused the prince of being involved in the torture of three prisoners in April 2011 - claims that the Bahrain government "categorically denies."

FF, who was granted asylum and now lives in Britain, called the Crown Prosecution Service's decision to grant immunity to the son of Bahrain's king "erroneous in law."

Comment: This Bahraini Prince is pretty interesting. Check out: NBHF, apparently he is all about funding education. Also check this out Women's Run

Bahraini Women
© NBHF
These women are obviously going to be executed for daring to wear pants. And tight ones at that.
OMG, those women aren't wearing veils! Shouldn't they be being stoned or something? And wearing pants. OMG, it looks like a modern secular country.

Guess we know what he's doing wrong!

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Network

Twitter opens entire database to MIT (CIA)

Nicolas West
Activistpost.com
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:50 UTC
Image
© Securityaffairs.co
Predictive technology is exploding, in stealth, across the virtual landscape. The arrival of Big Data initiatives by government, as well as a massive industry of data brokers is not only putting privacy at risk, but is offering those with access to the information unprecedented ways to manage the lives of everyday citizens.

The viral story of Facebook using their algorithms to go beyond surveillance and actually manipulate the emotions of users as a type of psychology experiment has caused consternation among anyone who might have had illusions of social media privacy, or beneficent intentions of offering free peer-to-peer communication.

Twitter is the latest to seek new ways to utilize its massive database of public information. It has granted MIT's Media Lab $10 million to analyze all communications beginning with the very first post in 2006.

It isn't specified exactly what the focus of the research will be, but there are some indications that it will be an attempt to further highlight budding social movements in order to potentially counter them with propaganda.
One major theme the lab will explore: the tendency of social media to be better at generating negative energy than positive energy. "It's better at disrupting or stopping things, or having your voice heard," says Roy. "It's harder to harness that into sustained change. It's not like there's a silver bullet in technology, but there may be tools that can start to get beyond that disruptive potential." He also says the lab could build tools for journalists that would help them monitor trends in media as a way to inform their coverage. ( Source ) [emphasis added]
That same Bloomberg article also mentions Reddit and Wikipedia as two more targets for such research.
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Bad Guys

Leon Panetta, head of Pentagon and C.I.A. under Obama, says brace for 30 year war with ISIS

Michael Krieger |
Liberty Blitzkrieg
Tue, 07 Oct 2014 23:15 UTC
"I vividly recall how, in the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing, Obama partisans triumphantly declared that this would finally usher in the winding down of the War on Terror. On one superficial level, that view was understandable: it made sense if one assumes that the U.S. has been waging this war for its stated reasons and that it hopes to vanquish The Enemy and end the war.

But that is not, and never was, the purpose of the War on Terror. It was designed from the start to be endless."

- Glenn Greenwald, in his latest piece for the Intercept.
Endless War
© laprogressive.com
Leon Panetta is pretty much the epitome of a status quo insider. Someone, who due to his influence and mainstream veneer of respectability, is capable of inflicting an almost inconceivable amount of damage to freedom and prosperity in America. In fact, you could say that Mr. Panetta is as responsible as almost anyone else for the banana republic laughing stock that this nation has been transformed into over the past several decades. Why? Because he served in top positions for several of America's Presidents over that time.

He started out working for Richard Nixon, before switching parties and serving nine terms as a Democratic Congressman from California. He then served the Clinton Administration, including as Chief of Staff. Most recently, he was head of the Department of Defense and the CIA under Obama. This is an extremely political animal.

His ties run deepest with the Clintons, and while he criticizes Obama heavily in his new book, he excitedly proclaims that Hilary Clinton would be "great president," and that "one thing about the Clintons is, they want to get it done."

I'm sure they do, but get what done exactly. In the case of of Bill Clinton, it was dismantling Glass Steagall, and fully turning over the entire U.S. economy and public policy to financial oligarchs.

Think I am exaggerating? In a recent USA Today interview, we can clearly see exactly what "getting it done" would mean during a Hilary Clinton Presidency: Endless War.
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Quenelle

British politicians to face criminal investigation over rigging Scottish Referendum

Mark Hirst
RIA Novosti
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 23:02 UTC
Image
© PA
Police are investigating irregularities with the ballot papers

Police in Scotland will formally investigate allegations that anti-Scottish independence campaigners breached electoral law during the referendum held on September 18.

"We can confirm that Crown counsel has instructed Police Scotland to commence an investigation into alleged breaches of Schedule 7, Paragraph 7, of the Scottish Independence Referendum Act 2013," a statement issued on Saturday by the Crown Office, Scotland's prosecution service reads.

The allegations relate to comments made by Ruth Davidson, a Member of the Scottish Parliament and leader of the Scottish Conservatives, in which she appeared to know the general results of postal votes arising from "sample opening" of ballot boxes.

Comment: The parasites in London could not afford to let Scotland off "Scot-free," regardless of whether or not Scotland would be truly independent in the long run. For evidence indicating that the Referendum was indeed rigged, and the motives behind rigging it, check out:

Special Report: Scottish Referendum Rigged - the How and the Why

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Better Earth

China and India: Dragon and Elephant tiptoe a tango, iron out critical agreements


BRICS Post
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 22:58 UTC
Image
© Xinhua
Chinese President Xi Jinping (2nd L front) and his wife Peng Liyuan lay a wreath to the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi in New Delhi, India, Sept. 18, 2014
The China-India economic relationship is one of the fastest growing in the world: Bilateral trade has grown from virtually zero to $100 billion in just over a decade, and Chinese exports to India grew at 39 per cent a year since 2001.

India's rank as an export destination went up from nineteen to six, for China's exporters.

India's exports to China didn't keep the same pace, however, and as a result, the trade today is skewed in China's favour, by two to one. While India imports consumer and capital goods from China, its exports are mainly primary goods like ores, metals and cotton.

Comment: While the BRICS nations continue to hammer out their differences and come to critical agreements, the West continues to believe it can control the entire planet through the same old lies and tactics:

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Arrow Up

Continuing without interruption: China, Russia to Strengthen Ties with 30 New Agreements

RI Staff
Russia-Insider
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 22:55 UTC
Image
© Unknown
Russia and China will sign more than 30 new agreements on energy, finance and high-speed rail at an annual summit to be held on 13 October.

The slated agreements make it clear that close collaboration between Moscow and Beijing - on everything from historic gas dealsto infrastructure development in Crimea - will continue without interruption.

Comment: Despite NATO's attempts to contain China and Russia through subversion and terrorism, it is clear that they are up against far superior minds than their own:

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Umbrella

Blatant disregard of the law by 'Umbrella Protestors': China has not violated the Joint Declaration

Editorial Board, Guancha.cn
Huffington Post
Mon, 06 Oct 2014 20:35 UTC
This is an opinion article of the editorial board of the Guancha Syndicate. Its Chinese version is published in www.guancha.cn.
Image
© ALEX OGLE via Getty Images
As protests are continuing in Hong Kong and the Western media are busy engaging in an orgy of throwing mud onto China, Martin Lee, the 76-year-old poster boy of Hong Kong opposition, has not disappointed his supporters in the West. In an article titled Hong Kong's Great Test in The New York Times, Mr. Lee repeated many inaccurate claims and even lies on the situation in Hong Kong.

Leaving aside whether the "umbrella" protestors are as peaceful and unrowdy as he claims in his article, let's go to the heart of the matter: the nomination rules for the 2017 election of a new Hong Kong Chief Executive

The purported rationale for the current protests in Hong Kong is summarized by Mr. Lee this way:
"The people of Hong Kong have waited for decades for China to honor its promise that we would rule our city with a 'high degree of autonomy.'
This commitment was made in the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration, an international treaty registered at the United Nations - and applauded by the world when it was announced. China's determination to ignore its promises and to control the election of Hong Kong's next chief executive has created this dangerous climate."
"Britain signed the Joint Declaration with Beijing and must act now that it is being violated," Mr. Lee pleads.

All is fair and well except that he is beating up a straw man he created. Let's be absolutely clear on one basic point: Despite what Mr. Lee and the protesters have been crying out so loud China has not violated the Joint Declaration at all.
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Display

Moldova joins anti-Russian coalition: 4 TV channels fined for re-broadcasting Russian programs


ITAR TASS
Tue, 07 Oct 2014 19:59 UTC
Image
© Flickr/ Robert S. Donovan
Moldova Suspends Russia’s Rossiya-24 TV Channel Until 2015
Moldova's authorities have on Tuesday fined four local TV channels for re-broadcasting Russian programs over "anti-Ukrainian coverage of the armed conflict in eastern Ukraine."


Comment: Russian channels have been providing accurate coverage of the armed conflict in Ukraine. The claims of Moldova authorities are unsubstantiated.


Moldova's decision to ban Russia 24 TV news channel for the next six months until January 1, 2015 is outrageous and will certainly produce a negative impact on the Russian-Moldovan relations, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in July.

"It is clear that Moldova took this step under a far-fetched pretext on the wave of euphoria from signing an association agreement with the European Union. However, the decision does not meet an integral right of citizens to free access to information, one of the basic European democratic principles, which Chisinau is zealously trying to observe," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.

Moldova has banned rebroadcasting of Russia's Russia 24 television channel being driven by the desire to please the United States and the European Union, Konstantin Starysh, a lawmaker with the Party of Communists and former chief of the Moldovan office of the MIR television company, told TASS.
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Vader

Escalation of war in Ukraine? Victoria Nuland arrives in Kiev

Finian Cunningham
Strategic Culture Foundation
Tue, 07 Oct 2014 19:21 UTC
Image

Victoria Nuland being received in Kiev with a guard of honor
In an ominous sign that the war in Ukraine is set to further escalate, US state department official Victoria Nuland arrived in Kiev where she met with senior members of the Western-backed regime.

In recent days the ceasefire brokered on September 5 has come under intense pressure as Kiev military forces have stepped up their barrage of the eastern city of Donetsk, with several civilian casualties reported almost on a daily basis.

As civilian homes burn in Donetsk, the Kiev regime has also begun openly talking about resuming its war footing by «raising combat readiness» and mobilising new army units toward the eastern Donbass regions, where it is trying to suppress a pro-independence movement in the self-declared People's Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk.

For the past month, the Kiev regime has been talking out of both sides of its mouth. At times it has been declaring commitment to a ceasefire brokered by Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). At other times, hardliners in the regime have been warning that there was no such truce in practice, and that it was on the verge of an all-out war with Russia.

All the while, the putative ceasefire has been in tatters largely because Kiev's forces have refused to withdraw from the conflict lines and continued to shell civilians centres.

Now the Kiev President Petro Poroshenko has flipped to a strident war rhetoric. In a televised appearance this week, the former industry tycoon had swapped his tie and suit for military uniform, and was warning that forces under his command were ready to use «modern fighting techniques».
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