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Officials Say U.S. May Never Know Extent of Snowden's Leaks

Mark Mazzetti, Michael S. Schmidt
The New York Times
Sat, 14 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
snowden
© Kin Cheung/AP
Edward Snowden
American intelligence and law enforcement investigators have concluded that they may never know the entirety of what the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden extracted from classified government computers before leaving the United States, according to senior government officials.

Investigators remain in the dark about the extent of the data breach partly because the N.S.A. facility in Hawaii where Mr. Snowden worked - unlike other N.S.A. facilities - was not equipped with up-to-date software that allows the spy agency to monitor which corners of its vast computer landscape its employees are navigating at any given time.

Six months since the investigation began, officials said Mr. Snowden had further covered his tracks by logging into classified systems using the passwords of other security agency employees, as well as by hacking firewalls installed to limit access to certain parts of the system.

"They've spent hundreds and hundreds of man-hours trying to reconstruct everything he has gotten, and they still don't know all of what he took," a senior administration official said. "I know that seems crazy, but everything with this is crazy."

Comment: Here again we see more of the same 'ole 'business as usual', with another ongoing example of the government investigating itself. Look how well that's worked out with regard to 9/11.

How much truth can the American people, or anyone, for that matter, expect to emerge from such 'investigation'?

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Gear

U.S. 'totally dictates' Swedish surveillance


The Local
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 10:55 UTC
Greenwald
© AP
Guardian journalist Glenn Grenwald
The US dominates Sweden during joint surveillance cooperation, as the Swedes give information but ask for nothing in return, claimed journalist Glenn Greenwald on Wednesday. When Sweden's National Defence Radio Establishment (Svenska Försvarets radioanstalt - FRA) works with foreign countries, it usually gets something in return. But this is not the case when it cooperates with the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) in its efforts to gain unauthorized access to computers, said Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who revealed Edward Snowden's leaks this year.

"Quite simply, what the Swedes do is target the groups or the individuals that the U.S. tells them to (target), and then hand over the information in bulk," Greenwald said, according to the TT news agency.

Sweden has a key role in the US global surveillance programme, he added.
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Magnify

Ex-FBI agent who disappeared in Iran was on rogue mission for CIA

Adam Goldman
Washington Post
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Video: Robert Levinson was on an unapproved intelligence-gathering mission:

An American man who disappeared in Iran more than six years ago had been working for the CIA in what U.S. intelligence officials describe as a rogue operation that led to a major shake-up in the spy agency.

Robert Levinson, a retired FBI agent, traveled to the Iranian island of Kish in March 2007 to investigate corruption at a time when he was discussing the renewal of a CIA contract he had held for several years. He also inquired about getting re­imbursed for the Iran trip by the agency before he departed, according to former and current U.S. intelligence officials.

After he vanished, CIA officials told Congress in closed hearings as well as the FBI that Levinson did not have a current relationship with the agency and played down its ties with him. Agency officials said Levinson did not go to Iran for the CIA.

But months after Levinson's abduction, e-mails and other documents surfaced that suggested he had gone to Iran at the direction of certain CIA analysts who had no authority to run operations overseas. That revelation prompted a major internal investigation that had wide-ranging repercussions, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

The CIA leadership disciplined 10 employees, including three veteran analysts who were forced out of their jobs, the officials said.
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Propaganda

Lying Propaganda: UN inspectors confirm Syria chemical attack

Edith M. Lederer
The Sacramento Bee
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 11:38 UTC
UNITED NATIONS -- Chemical weapons were probably used in four locations in Syria this year, in addition to the confirmed attack near Damascus in August that forced the government to abandon its secret chemical stockpile, U.N. inspectors said in a report released Thursday.

The experts, led by Swedish professor Ake Sellstrom, examined seven alleged chemical weapons attacks and said it lacked information to corroborate the allegations at two locations.

The inspectors' limited mandate barred them from identifying whether the government or opposition fighters were responsible for any of the attacks.

Thursday's report said evidence indicated chemical weapons were probably used in Khan al Assal outside Aleppo, Jobar in Damascus' eastern suburbs, Saraqueb near Idlib in the northwest, and Ashrafiah Sahnaya in the Damascus countryside. In two cases, it found "signatures of Sarin."
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Sheriff

Legal payouts involving former Sacramento sheriff's deputy, now accused in molestation case, totaled more than $2 million

Kim Minugh
The Sacramento Bee
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 11:12 UTC
Bad guy
© Fox410
Donald Black
Once referred to by a local attorney as the "Million Dollar Man," a former sheriff's deputy cost the county of Sacramento more than $2 million in awards and settlements during his 23 years on the force.

By the time Donald Black retired Oct. 1 following his arrest on suspicion of child molestation and steroid possession, his actions had resulted in at least 10 payouts by the county, most of them involving excessive force allegations, according to a spreadsheet provided to The Sacramento Bee in response to a Public Records Act request. The largest payout - $1.5 million - went to a woman who had a 3-inch chunk of flesh taken out of her calf by Black's then-K-9 partner. In another case, according to a court complaint, Black and another deputy allegedly terrified a man during a traffic stop by pointing an unloaded pellet gun at his head and pulling the trigger.

Black, who was arrested by Nevada County authorities in September, retired from the department before the conclusion of two internal administrative investigations initiated by his arrest.

Even some who are familiar with Black's controversial history expressed shock at the $2 million total payout - and questioned how a deputy who had become such a financial liability managed to keep his job.

"It's utterly amazing.... This guy is off the charts," said local attorney Stewart Katz, who represented the man awarded $90,000 in the pellet gun incident.
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Bad Guys

CIA probe into Bay of Pigs should be kept secret - Obama admin


RT
Sat, 14 Dec 2013 03:48 UTC
Playa Giron Museum, dedicated to the Bay of Pigs
© AFP Photo / Adalberto / Roquue
Tourists visit the Playa Giron Museum, dedicated to the Bay of Pigs combats 50 years ago, at the Bay of Pigs, in the Matanzas province, Cuba, on April 17, 2011.

Over 50 years after the Bay of Pigs invasion went awry, the US federal government is still attempting to keep secrets about the failed overthrow of the Cuban government, with an Obama administration lawyer arguing this week to keep a document classified.

The National Security Archive, a private research institution, has sought to force the government to hand over the fifth of a five-volume internal account of the Bay of Pigs. The four earlier volumes were released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Penned by a CIA staff historian in the years between 1973 and 1984, the final document chronicles - and presumably critiques - the CIA's own investigation of how the invasion went wrong.

In 1961, not long after the Cuban revolution had ousted Cuban President Fulgencio Batista, a US ally, American lawmakers were growing nervous about the new Fidel Castro-led government. In a plan organized under President Eisenhower and authorized by President Kennedy, the CIA trained Cuban exiles to act as a paramilitary force that would usurp Cuban troops at the Bay of Pigs in a surprise attack.

The plot fell apart for a variety of reasons, with many of the 1,500 CIA-trained Cubans killed before they could rush past the beach. The Castro government, strengthened in its resolve after the victory, solidified its socialist stance.

Yet the CIA's interpretation of the events remains shrouded in secrecy. Assistant US Attorney Mitchell P. Zeff told the US Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, the second highest court in the nation, that "the passage of time has not made it releasable."
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Newspaper

Hersh revelations and false-flag talk in media

Kevin Barrett
Press TV
Wed, 11 Dec 2013 07:09 UTC
Hersh
© Jana Birchum
Whenever a big, media-hyped attack or atrocity happens, the mainstream media always says the same thing: "The bad guys did it."

And who are these "bad guys"? The enemy-du-jour of the powers-that-be.

The authorities blamed 9/11 on "radical Muslims." They blamed the Boston Marathon, Sandy Hook and Aurora, Colorado massacres on "gun nuts" and "extremists."

The mainstream media have not yet admitted that these atrocities were false-flag operations. They are too recent. People would be too angry.

But mainstream journalists and historians do admit the truth about past false-flags.

During the Cold War, Western governments and media blamed the Operation Gladio massacres in Brabant, Belgium and Bologna, Italy on "anti-American leftists". . . just as they blamed the fake Gulf of Tonkin attack on the North Vietnamese. Today, everyone admits that these were all false-flag operations commanded by the US military.

During Operation Ajax - the CIA's overthrow of Iran's prime minister Mossadeq in 1953 - CIA operatives repeatedly committed mass murder and falsely blamed Mossadeq supporters. They blew up mosques, targeted religious leaders for assassination, machine-gunned crowds, then scattered thousands of leaflets claiming Mossadeq was responsible.

Former CIA operative Kermit Roosevelt has admitted to committing these murders and spreading these lies. CIA documents released this year confirm the Agency's role in the atrocities.
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Chess

Vladimir Putin orders speeding up of military presence in the Arctic


The Siberian Times
Tue, 10 Dec 2013 12:49 UTC
Swift response by the Russian president to Canada's move to claim seabed under the North Pole and surrounding waters.
Image
© Dozhd' TV Russia
Russia is developing this promising region more and more actively, the country is returning to it and should have here all levers for the protection of country's security and national interests.
The firm Russian move came after Ottawa indicated it is mapping the Arctic seabed with a view to claiming the North Pole seabed as Canadian. This puts Canada at odds with Russia which argues the underwater Lomonosov Ridge is linked to the Siberian land mass.

At stake for both countries - and others with Arctic claims such as Denmark - are vast untapped oil and gas reserves.

'I would like you to devote special attention to deploying infrastructure and military units in the Arctic,' Putin told a defence ministry meeting on Tuesday. 'Next year, we have to complete the formation of new large units and military divisions.'
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Evil Rays

WWII veterans lobotomy story: Tragic but not scandalous?

James Joyner
Outside The Beltway
Thu, 12 Dec 2013 00:00 UTC
Some 2000 veterans of World War II were lobotomized by the VA. While tragic, it's not a scandal.

The story was broken yesterday by WSJ as part of a series called "The Lobotomy Files: Forgotten Soldiers."

Comment: The author may benefit from learning about psychopaths and ponerology. "One phenomenon all ponerogenic groups and associations have in common is the fact that their members lose (or have already lost) the capacity to perceive pathological individuals as such, interpreting their behavior in a fascinated, heroic, or melodramatic way. The opinions, ideas, and judgments of people carrying various psychological deficits are endowed with an importance at least equal to that of outstanding individuals among normal people. The atrophy of natural critical faculties with respect to pathological individuals becomes an opening to their activities, and at the same time a criterion for recognizing the association in concert as ponerogenic. Let us call this the first criterion of ponerogenesis."

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Vader

Police States of America: Americans killed by cops now outnumber Americans killed in Iraq war


The Free Thought Project
Sat, 14 Dec 2013 11:24 UTC



A hard hitting mini film by film maker Charles Shaw, properly titled RELEASE US, highlights the riveting and horrid reality of America's thin blue line.

500 innocent Americans are murdered by police every year (USDOJ). 5,000 since 9/11, equal to the number of US soldiers lost in Iraq.

In 1994 the US Government passed a law authorizing the Pentagon to donate surplus Cold War era military equipment to local police departments.

In the 20 years since, weaponry designed for use on a foreign battlefield, has been handed over for use on American streets...against American citizens.

The "War on Drugs" and the "War on Terror" replaced the Cold War with billions in funding and dozens of laws geared towards this new "war" against its own citizens.

This militarization of the police force has created what is being called an "epidemic of police brutality" sweeping the nation.
      Read More...
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