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Snowden warns of the dangers of state secrecy privileges


Yahoo! News
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:05 UTC
Image
© AFP
A frame grab made from AFPTV shows US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden at an unidentified location, reportedly taken on October 9, 2013.
Former US security contractor Edward Snowden on Wednesday spoke out about the use of state secrecy privileges as he presented an Oxford University award to fellow intelligence leaker Chelsea Manning.

Snowden, who is in hiding in Russia, presented the prestigious British university's Sam Adams awards for integrity and intelligence to the jailed former US Army intelligence analyst via YouTube.

Snowden recorded a four-minute message, in which he warned of the dangers of "overclassification".

He said the term described governments' use of state secrecy privileges "to withhold information from the public that's not related to national security", adding it had become a "serious problem".

"The White House told us that 95 million records have been created and classified in the year 2012, more than any year on record," he continued. "Many other western governments are on the same trajectory."
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Top Secret

NSA lawyers say lawsuits require the agency to keep phone records!

Devlin Barrett and Siobhan Gorman
The Wall Street Journal
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 19:32 UTC
Image
The government is considering enlarging the National Security Agency's controversial collection of Americans' phone records - an unintended consequence of lawsuits seeking to stop the surveillance program, according to officials.

A number of government lawyers involved in lawsuits over the NSA phone-records program believe federal-court rules on preserving evidence related to lawsuits require the agency to stop routinely destroying older phone records, according to people familiar with the discussions. As a result, the government would expand the database beyond its original intent, at least while the lawsuits are active.

No final decision has been made to preserve the data, officials said, and one official said that even if a decision is made to retain the information, it would be held only for the purpose of litigation and not be subject to searches. The government currently collects phone records on millions of Americans in a vast database that it can mine for links to terror suspects. The database includes records of who called whom, when they called and for how long.
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Telephone

Tony Blair advised Rebekah Brooks launch a "Hutton-style" inquiry into the News of the World six days before her arrest

Lisa O'Carroll, Patrick Wintour and Nick Davies
The Guardian
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Fiona Hanson/PA
Tony Blair’s advice to Rebekah Brooks shortly before her arrest in the phone-hacking scandal included taking sleeping pills. The former prime minister also told her to ‘keep strong’ and ‘tough up’.
Tony Blair secretly advised Rebekah Brooks to launch a "Hutton-style" inquiry into the News of the World six days before her arrest as a suspect in the phone-hacking scandal, it has been revealed in evidence disclosed at the Old Bailey.

According to an email written by Brooks, following an hour-long phone call in July 2011, the former prime minister had also offered to act as an "unofficial adviser" to her, Rupert and James Murdoch on a "between us" basis.

The note from Brooks - sent to James Murdoch - was read out in the phone-hacking trial. In it, she said that Blair had suggested that News International set up an inquiry which would "publish a Hutton-style report" that would "clear you and accept short comings [sic]".

She also wrote that Blair told her the crisis would pass and she should "tough up" and not make any rash decisions. The former prime minister also told News International's then chief executive to "keep strong" and appeared to suggest she should take sleeping pills to keep a clear head.

The email was sent at 4.20pm on Monday 11 July, the day after the News of the World closed and seven days after the Guardian disclosed that the tabloid had hacked the voicemail messages of the missing Surrey schoolgirl Milly Dowler, triggering a chain reaction of further revelations and political outcry.

Comment:
The Mysterious Death of Dr David Kelly: Damning New Evidence Points to a Cover-up by Tony Blair's Government

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Post-It Note

Department of Homeland Security cancels national license-plate tracking plan

Ellen Nakashima and Josh Hicks
The Washington Post
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 00:00 UTC
Image
© Gizmodo
Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson on Wednesday ordered the cancellation of a plan by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to develop a national license-plate tracking system after privacy advocates raised concern about the initiative.

The order came just days after ICE solicited proposals from companies to compile a database of license-plate information from commercial and law enforcement tag readers. Officials said the database was intended to help apprehend fugitive illegal immigrants, but the plan raised concerns that the movements of ordinary citizens under no criminal suspicion could be scrutinized.

The data would have been drawn from readers that scan the tags of every vehicle crossing their paths, and would have been accessed only for "ongoing criminal investigations or to locate wanted individuals," officials told The Washington Post this week.

"The solicitation, which was posted without the awareness of ICE leadership, has been cancelled," ICE spokeswoman Gillian Christensen said in a statement. "While we continue to support a range of technologies to help meet our law enforcement mission, this solicitation will be reviewed to ensure the path forward appropriately meets our operational needs."
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Alarm Clock

Planned food safety rules rile organic farmers

Evan Halper
The Los Angeles Times
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 11:00 UTC
food safety regulations
© Evan Halper/Los Angeles Times

Jim Crawford, left, of New Morning Farm, says new food safety regulations would be an added expense that would hurt growers operating on the margins.
Planned food safety rules rile organic farmers Local growers are discovering that proposed FDA regulations would curtail many common techniques, such as using house-made fertilizers and irrigating from creeks.

Hustontown, Pa. - Jim Crawford was rushing to load crates of freshly picked organic tomatoes onto trucks heading for an urban farmers market when he noticed the federal agent.

A tense conversation followed as the visitor to his farm - an inspector from the Food and Drug Administration - warned him that some organic-growing techniques he had honed over four decades could soon be outlawed.

"This is my badge. These are the fines. This is what is hanging over your head, and we want you to know that," Crawford says the official told him.

Crawford's popular farm may seem a curious place for the FDA to move ahead with a long-planned federal assault on deadly food poisoning. To Crawford's knowledge, none of the kohlrabi, fennel, sugar snap peas or other crops from his New Morning Farm have ever sickened anyone. But he is not the only organic grower to suddenly discover federal inspectors on his land.
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Snakes in Suits

Ukraine's acting president warns economy is in dire state‏

Daryna Krasnolutska, Kateryna Choursina and Ilya Arkhipov
Bloomberg
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:20 UTC
Image
© Bulent Kilic/AFP via Getty Images
People wave a giant Ukrainian flag at Kiev's Independence Square on February 23, 2014.
Ukrainian lawmakers gave presidential powers to parliament Speaker Oleksandr Turchynov, who urged political parties to agree on a new government and warned of the "catastrophic" state of the nation's economy.

The U.S., Europe and the U.K. said they would help with financial aid when a new cabinet is formed, a day after the assembly ousted Viktor Yanukovych from the presidency for his role in violence that killed at least 82 people last week. Border officials stopped him and members of his cabinet from fleeing Ukraine at an airport in the country's eastern city of Donetsk yesterday. They were not detained.

Comment: Dire economic state? You ain't seen nothin' yet Turchynov...
In case you missed it, make sure to download today's SOTT Talk Radio show for some real discussion, and much needed truth on the situation:
Revolution in Ukraine and Venezuela

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Boat

Ukrainian parliament passed resolution on Yanukovich's resignation


Voice of Russia
Sat, 22 Feb 2014 21:09 UTC
Image
© AFP
Ukraine's parliament has approved a resolution on the resignation of President Viktor Yanukovych. A total of 328 deputies have noted for the parliament's resolution. The resolution, which envisages holding presidential elections on May 25, 2014, will come into effect since the parliament has approved the resolution.

The resolution says Yanukovych removed himself from the constitutional powers. "The state cannot depend on the mood of the president, who has removed himself and whose whereabouts are unknown," Verkhovna Rada speaker Aleksander Turchinov said.

"I want to say at about 15:00 Moscow time we've succeeded in contacting Yanukovych. In the presence of deputies Arseny Yatsenyuk (head of the Batkivshchina faction) has talked with him. Yatsenyuk proposed him to resign and he (Yanukovych) agreed," Turchinov said, adding "Later, talking with other people Yanukovych denied his statement."

In an interview with UBR television channel, Yanukovych said he considered the events in Ukraine "a coup d'etat". "I'm going to resign and leave the country," Yanukovych said.

Ukrainian President Yanukovych does rejects the decision of the Verkhovna Rada to remove him from the President's office, presidential adviser Anna Herman said this Saturday.
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Radar

U.S. States make moves to put anti-drone laws in place

Dylan Stableford
Yahoo! News
Wed, 19 Feb 2014 10:46 UTC
Image
© AP/Eric Gay
A test drone with a wing span of almost 13 feet flies over a ranch near Sarita, Texas, Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2014. A Texas A&M Corpus Christi research team is conducting tests to help determine how unmanned aircraft system can be integrated into existing airspace.
A pair of states passed bills this week restricting the use of unmanned aerial vehicles, better known as drones.

In Washington, the state House passed two bills on Monday limiting the purchase and use of drones for government surveillance, The Associated Press reports.

House Bill 2789 requires state agencies and municipal governments to obtain search warrants to use drones in specific situations, including "emergencies with an immediate danger of death or serious bodily injury; criminal emergencies with immediate danger of death or serious bodily injury with no time to get a warrant; for military training on a base; training and testing of devices if no personal information is collected; a governor-declared state of emergency; or for an operation such as environmental or wildlife monitoring."

Also, agencies using drones would have to prepare annual reports for the public describing how they were used.

The bill was approved in an 83-15 vote.

The other, House Bill 2178, would ban the "unauthorized use of drones, or other unmanned aircraft with sensing devices, above private property." It passed by a vote of 92-6.
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Headphones

Behind the Headlines: 'Revolution' in Ukraine: A history of manufactured chaos

Sott Editors
Sott.net
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 19:00 UTC
Map of Ukraine
© Unknown
This week we took a closer look at the unfolding chaos in Ukraine. Is it really 'chaos'? Or is their method behind the madness?

In the context of 100+ years of U.S. intervention abroad, the worsening situation in Ukraine is just another in a long line of manipulated and bloody conflicts the U.S. elite has brought about.

This time, however, the U.S. is facing a strong opponent in the form of a resurgent Russia. How will Putin respond to the unfolding mayhem on his doorstep? Will he play dirty like the Americans? Will he just try to keep it contained within Ukraine's borders?

Running Time: 02:10:00

Download: MP3

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War Whore

Adding insult to injury, George W. Bush sheds a (fake) tear over vets suffering from his wars: 'I'm in there with them'

David Edwards
The Raw Story
Sun, 23 Feb 2014 12:47 UTC
Bush
Former President George W. Bush described himself as "emotional" recently when he talked about how he was trying to make a difference for the veterans who are trying to put their lives back together after serving in the wars waged by his administration.

At a Military Service Initiative Summit last week, the former president had explained that his institute was going to take steps to assist the veterans who were trying to transition into civilian life after coming home from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

In an interview that aired on Sunday, ABC's Martha Raddatz asked the former president if the new initiative helped him cope with the 6,800 service members killed, and 51,000 wounded.

"No question it helps," Bush stuttered. "I have a duty."

"I obviously get slightly emotional talking about our vets because I'm in there with them," he added with a single tear spilling down his right cheek.

"But my spirit is also uplifted when I visit with vets. As I say, there is no self-pity... They don't say, 'Woe is me.' They say, 'What can I do to continue to serve?'"

Watch the video below from ABC's This Week, broadcast Feb. 23, 2014.


Comment: Err... did you see any tears, sign of remorse or genuine emotion coming from Bush in the video above?

Neither did we. No wonder, since psychopaths are incapable of any of that. Instead, we did catch a couple of those smirks which are Dubya's trademark, which give an air of mockery to his latest charade and reveal how he really feels about the suffering he has caused.

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