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The Wall Street Journal's misleading celebration of NSA spying

Julian Sanchez
juliansanchez.com
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 13:32 UTC
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The FISA Amendments Act has been extended, without amendment, for another five years - and The Wall Street Journal is delighted:
Well, not everything President Obama and the 112th Congress managed to achieve is so terrible. With scarcely any notice, much less controversy, they did at least preserve one of the country's most important post-9/11 antiterror tools.
One wonders just what their basis could be for the claim that warrantless wiretapping has been "one of the country's most important post-9/11 anti terror tools." After all, a comprehensive audit by the intelligence community's own Inspectors General found exactly the opposite: That the program launched by President Bush was of no greater value than other intelligence tools; that it generated an enormous number of false leads that wasted time and resources; and that, indeed, it was difficult for intelligence officials to point to a single clear cut case where the program made a crucial contribution to a counterterror success. Much about that program remains secret, of course, but the Journal's assertion here is contradicted by the public evidence.
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Stop

Israeli settlers attack Palestinians


Agence France-Presse
Thu, 03 Jan 2013 06:37 UTC
A group of Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians in the West Bank village of Jalud overnight, injuring several people, an army spokesman said on Thursday.

Palestinian security officials said a two-month-old baby was among those injured.

The spokesman told that the settlers had damaged two cars, thrown stones at houses and forcibly entered one home, beating a Palestinian who was afterwards taken to hospital.

Soldiers arrived at the village, south of the city of Nablus, and clashed with the settlers, but made no arrests, he added.
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Attention

U.S. House votes not to reauthorise domestic violence funding bill

Amanda Holpuch
Guardian
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 19:06 UTC
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Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) passes Senate but is not renewed after Republicans take issue with new provisions.

A bill that would extend funding for domestic violence programs has failed to be reauthorized for the first time since it was signed in 1994.

The Violence Against Women Act (Vawa) provides financing to programs that work to end domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking as well as offer support to victims. The bill was approved for reauthorization by the Senate in April, but failed to make it through the House before the year-end congressional deadline.

The bill was successfully reauthorized in 2000 and 2005, but House Republicans took issue with provisions added to the 2012 legislation that attempted to expand protections for undocumented immigrants, Native Americans and members of the LGBT community who are victims of domestic violence.

Advocates suggested additions to the bill based on researched trends in domestic violence and worked with both sides of the House and Senate to draft a bill they hoped would make it through Congress before the end of the year.

Kiersten Stewart, director of public policy and advocacy, Futures Without Violence, told the Guardian: "The Senate bill was already very much a bipartisan compromise, it seems very unfortunate that the House chose to fight the provision."
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Laptop

Why are people more scared of Facebook violating their privacy than Washington?

Scott Shackford
reason.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:55 UTC
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This morning, Matt Welch took note of the Senate's bipartisan effort to stop amendments to the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 that would make the domestic surveillance program more transparent and require compliance with the Fourth Amendment. (To follow up on Welch's notes this morning, Sen. Ron Wyden's amendment was indeed defeated and the act was reauthorized unchanged in a 73-23 vote.)

The traditional media response to the reauthorization battle has been remarkably nonexistent. As I was managing my shift updating Reason 24/7 yesterday afternoon I was learning the outcomes of the votes not from the Associated Press or anything that popped up on my Google newsfeed, but from tweets from the likes of Adam Serwer of Mother Jones or Julian Sanchez of Cato.

There's currently nothing on the New York Times web site about the votes (either yesterday's or today's). The Associated Press wrote a story about the House's vote in September but nothing yet from yesterday or today. The Washington Post did post a story this morning. A Google news search will land hits with mostly tech or web-based media outlets. (Update: Matt Apuzzo of the Associated Press e-mailed me to let me know they had indeed published some stories prior to the vote. I was unable to find them yesterday but have no reason to doubt him. Their report on the final vote is here.)
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Info

Michigan, Virginia pass backdoor abortion restrictions

Joe Landry
Salon
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:46 UTC
Governors in Michigan, Virginia sneak in a New Year surprise when no one was looking: Abortion restrictions.

On the Friday before the long holiday weekend, the Republican governors of Michigan and Virginia snuck in a little New Year's surprise for the women of their states, quietly signing abortion legislation that helped make 2012 the second most restrictive year for reproductive rights.

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In Michigan, Rick Snyder signed a bill passed by the lame-duck Senate - the same one whose anti-union legislating dominated headlines in recent weeks - requiring clinics that perform more than 120 abortions a year to become surgical outpatient facilities, a level of licensing intended to be onerous and put clinics out of business. He also approved a bill that purports to screen for women being coerced into abortions.

Snyder did veto another bill limiting insurance coverage in private employee plans, which would have required purchase of a separate abortion rider. He objected to that on the grounds that rape victims would have to pay out of pocket if they didn't buy the rider, and because, "As a practical matter, I believe this type of policy is an overreach of government into the private market." Overreach of government into other realms, of course, is another matter entirely. (According to Michigan resident Emily Magner, one legislator interrupted her to cry, "THIS ISN'T ABOUT WOMEN! THIS IS ABOUT PROTECTING FETUSES!")
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Propaganda

Dozens of Syrians killed in explosions around Damascus

Anne Barnard
NY Times
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:33 UTC
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© Andoni Lubaki/Associated PressRebel fighters patrol a neighborhood in Aleppo on Wednesday.
Dozens of Syrians were killed or wounded in an explosion at a gas station east of Damascus, the Syrian capital, on Wednesday, and explosions in another Damascus suburb killed at least six people and wounded many more, including women and children, according to videos and reports from antigovernment activists.

The violence came as the United Nations released a study showing that more than 60,000 people had been killed in Syria's 22-month-old conflict, a third higher than estimates by antigovernment activist groups.

Also on Wednesday, the family of James Foley, a reporter for the Global Post Web site, announced that Mr. Foley had been kidnapped on Nov. 22 by unidentified gunmen in northwest Syria. Mr. Foley had survived an abduction in Libya while covering the conflict there.

A recent flurry of diplomatic activity by Russia, the United Nations' special envoy and others aimed at finding a political solution appeared to founder in recent days as neither Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, nor his opponents expressed a willingness to make concessions to end the bloody conflict.
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USA

Death industry booming: U.S. arms sales to Asia set to boom on Pacific 'pivot'


moneycontrol.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 18:26 UTC
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U.S. sales of warplanes, anti-missile systems and other costly weapons to China's and North Korea's neighbors appear set for significant growth amid regional security jitters.

Strengthening treaty allies and other security partners is central to the White House's "pivot" toward a Pacific region jolted by maritime territorial disputes in China's case, and missile and nuclear programs, in North Korea's.

The pivot "will result in growing opportunities for our industry to help equip our friends," said Fred Downey, vice president for national security at the Aerospace Industries Association, a trade group that includes top US arms makers.

Demand for big-ticket US weapons is expected to stay strong for at least the next few years, the trade group said in a 2012 year-end review and forecast released in December.

Fears resulting from China's growing military spending should lead to enough US sales in South and East Asia to more than offset a slowdown in European arms-buying, according to the forecast.
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Bad Guys

Best of the Web: White House wins fight to keep drone killings of Americans secret


RT.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:22 UTC
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© Reuters / Pascal Lauener
A federal judge issued a 75-page ruling on Wednesday that declares that the US Justice Department does not have a legal obligation to explain the rationale behind killing Americans with targeted drone strikes.

United States District Court Judge Colleen McMahon wrote in her finding this week that the Obama administration was largely in the right by rejecting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and The New York Times for materials pertaining to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles to execute three US citizens abroad in late 2011 [pdf].

Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, both US nationals with alleged ties to al-Qaeda, were killed on September 30 of that year using drone aircraft; days later, al-Awlaki's teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, was executed in the same manner. Although the Obama administration has remained largely quiet about the killings in the year since, a handful of statements made from senior White House officials, including Pres. Barack Obama himself, have provided some but little insight into the Executive Branch's insistence that the killings were all justified and constitutionally-sound. Attempts from the ACLU and the Times via FOIA requests to find out more have been unfruitful, though, which spawned a federal lawsuit that has only now been decided in court.
Siding with the defendants in what can easily be considered as cloaked in skepticism, Judge McMahon writes that the Obama White House has been correct in refusing the FOIA requests filed by the plaintiffs.
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Red Flag

The irony of joint FBI/private sector OWS policing

Natasha Lennard
Salon
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:53 UTC
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© Credit: Glynnis Jones / Shutterstock
The intractable fusion of Wall Street and government interests was a major focus of many Occupy Wall Street protests in 2011. There is some dark irony, then, that an FBI program specifically dedicated to the partnership between the FBI, DHS and the private sector monitored the protests, providing information and tips to corporate partners on interacting with and combating Occupy groups.

According to FBI documents obtained through FOIA by the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund, the Domestic Security Alliance Council (DSAC) - "a strategic partnership between the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the private sector" - produced a report specifically for the use of "the corporate security community" on the Occupy protests that aimed to shut down West Coast ports. DSAC also issued tips to corporate clients advising that they avoid "all large gatherings relating to civil issues." As Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, executive director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund (PCJF) put it, such documents show "federal agencies functioning as a de facto intelligence arm of Wall Street and Corporate America."

The FOIA'ed FBI documents have garnered much attention from civil liberties advocates for highlighting the coordination between federal agencies, local police departments, fusion centers and hired corporate security firms in surveying, policing and ultimately cracking down on Occupy encampments and days of action. As a number of outlets have noted, PCJF's findings also show how the authorities had long framed Occupy as a potential terrorist or criminal threat.
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Target

FBI classified information about OWS assassination plot


RT.com
Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:37 UTC
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© AFP Photo / Andrew BurtonProtestors associated with Occupy Wall Street gather in Foley Square on the eve of the anniversary of the start of their movement
Only one month into the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations last year, plans were formulated to identify key figures in the movement and execute them with a coordinated assault using sniper rifles, new documents reveal.

The revelation - discussed in a heavily redacted FBI memo unearthed late last month through a Freedom of Information Act request - reveals that the Federal Bureau of Investigation was aware of plans for a violent assault on the peaceful protest movement but stayed silent on rumors of an assassination attempt only until now.

Information on the alleged plot to kill off protesters appears on page 61 of the trove of documents obtained recently by a FOIA request filed by the Partnership For Civil Justice Fund. On the page in question, marked "SECRET," the FBI acknowledges:
An identified [redacted] of October planned to engage in sniper attacks against protesters in Houston, Texas, if deemed necessary. An identified [redacted] had received intelligence that indicated the protesters in New York and Seattle planned similar protests in Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin, Texas. [Redacted] planned to gather intelligence against the leaders of the protest groups and obtain photographs then formulate a plan to kill the leadership via suppressed sniper rifles.
Throughout the rest of the material obtained by the PFCJF, the FBI declines to mention any follow-up attempts at investigating or handling the rumored assassination plot.Page 61, where the plot is discussed, was redacted heavily before handed over to the PFCJF.

As RT reported when the documents were first published just before Christmas, other material released through the FOIA request shows the FBI and other law enforcement agencies labeling Occupy activists as criminal and domestic terrorists right from the early days of their anti-capitalism and anti-corporate greed protests that began in September 2011.
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