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Google report reveals continued rise in U.S. government requests for data

Dominic Rushe
Guardian
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 13:09 UTC
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© Photograph: Britta Pedersen/EPA
Google said it complies to some degree with 90% of requests made under the ECPA.
Transparency report shows officials bypassing judicial approval under controversial Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

Google has revealed the full scale of the US government's use of controversial legislation that bypasses judicial approval to access the online information of private citizens.

According to its latest transparency report, the number of requests for private data Google received from US officials had increased by 136% by the end of 2012 from the second half of 2009, when the search firm first started collecting data.

In the US, 68% of requests were made under Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) subpoenas, which, unlike wiretaps or physical search warrants, typically circumvent the need for officials to make their case to a judge. Google said it complies to some degree with 90% of those requests.

This is the first time Google has disclosed the legal processes used by US officials to gather electronic information.
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Wall Street

The Untouchables: How the Obama administration protected Wall Street from prosecutions

Glenn Greenwald
Guardian
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:55 UTC
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© Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters
Eric Holder talks to DOJ Criminal Chief Lanny Breuer in 2010.
A new PBS Frontline report examines a profound failure of justice that should be causing serious social unrest.

PBS' Frontline program on Tuesday night broadcast a new one-hour report on one of the greatest and most shameful failings of the Obama administration: the lack of even a single arrest or prosecution of any senior Wall Street banker for the systemic fraud that precipitated the 2008 financial crisis: a crisis from which millions of people around the world are still suffering. What this program particularly demonstrated was that the Obama justice department, in particular the Chief of its Criminal Division, Lanny Breuer, never even tried to hold the high-level criminals accountable.

What Obama justice officials did instead is exactly what they did in the face of high-level Bush era crimes of torture and warrantless eavesdropping: namely, acted to protect the most powerful factions in the society in the face of overwhelming evidence of serious criminality. Indeed, financial elites were not only vested with impunity for their fraud, but thrived as a result of it, even as ordinary Americans continue to suffer the effects of that crisis.
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USA

Oklahoma Republican congressman blames gun violence on Prozac and 'welfare moms'

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:46 UTC
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James Lankford
Oklahoma Republican congressman Rep. James Lankford said at a town hall meeting in Oklahoma City earlier this month that blame for gun violence in the U.S. falls on the shoulders of "welfare moms" who commit fraud. According to video published by Think Progress on Tuesday, Lankford was answering a question from a constituent who was concerned that "psychotropic drugs" are to blame for recent tragedies involving high powered assault weapons and multiple deaths.

The constituent, a woman in a gray, zippered polar fleece and jeans, can be seen in a video of the event asking the congressman, "My question is regarding the guns and is Washington at all aware of the psychotropic drugs that these children are taking? I guarantee it, 100 percent, that's our big problem. I'm a little afraid of what I'm hearing about the psychiatric, uh, bent, as far as running people through nurses and psychologists because they want to put 'em on drugs."

Her statement falls in line with theories put forth by pro-gun advocate and professional conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, proprietor of InfoWars.com and who infamously blamed the shootings in Aurora, Colorado and Newtown, Connecticut on "CIA mass murder pills" like Prozac and other antidepressants during a bizarre, rambling interview with CNN's Piers Morgan.
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Megaphone

Rachel Maddow: Republicans now openly rigging elections in Virginia and other states

David Ferguson
Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:36 UTC
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On Tuesday night's edition of "The Rachel Maddow Show," host Rachel Maddow took aim at Virginia's Republican party, which she said is using gerrymandered electoral maps to rig elections in its favor.

She began the segment by saying that as of Tuesday evening, people were still dancing in Washington, DC, in celebration of President Barack Obama's second inauguration. On Tuesday afternoon, President and Mrs. Obama greeted a tour group with Bo, the White House dog in tow. Hours later, they presided over the White House Staff Inaugural Ball, which Maddow described as "an office Christmas party if your office is the kind of office that can book Lady Gaga to entertain the guests."

The inauguration of a president, whether for his first or second term, Maddow said, is a big deal. There were, by some estimates, a million people in Washington for the event. One of those people was Democratic state senator from Virginia named Henry Marsh. Marsh was a civil rights pioneer and now sits on Virginia's board of state legislators.

That state senate, however, is an evenly divided chamber, 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans. Republicans seized the opportunity presented by Marsh's absence for the inauguration to redraw the state's electoral districts, stacking the state's population distribution in their party's favor.
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Handcuffs

Thai activist jailed for 11 years for 'royal slurs'


Raw Story
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 12:07 UTC
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© AFP Photo
A Thai political activist was jailed for 11 years Wednesday in the latest tough sentence under the kingdom's controversial royal defamation law, to the dismay of human rights defenders.

The European Union said it was "deeply concerned" by the punishment imposed on Somyot Prueksakasemsuk, 51, in connection with two articles that appeared in his magazine in 2010.

"The verdict seriously undermines the right to freedom of expression and press freedom," the EU delegation in Bangkok said in a statement.

Amnesty International, which considers Somyot to be a "prisoner of conscience", described the Bangkok Criminal Court ruling as "a serious setback for freedom of expression in Thailand".

Somyot is a supporter of the "Red Shirt" protest group, which is broadly loyal to ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
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Dollars

The Fed's Plan B: "We're going to kill the dollar"

Mike Whitney
Counterpunch
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 10:37 UTC
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"How do you solve a problem when you're running a 10% fiscal budget deficit? You are not going to get growth without private sector credit demand. The government's idea right now is that we're going to export our way out of this, and when I asked a senior member of the Obama administration last week how are we going to grow exports if we will not allow nominal wage deflation? He said, "We're going to kill the dollar." Kyle Bass interview.

Last week, amid growing rumors of a global currency war, the Fed's balance sheet broke the $3 trillion-mark for the first time in history. According to blogger Sober Look: "For the first time since this program was launched (QE) it is starting to have a material impact on bank reserves ... which spiked last week. 2013 will look quite different from last year. The monetary base will be expanded dramatically as long as the current securities purchases program is in place. 'Money printing" is in now full swing.'" ("Fed's balance sheet grows above $3 trillion, finally impacting the monetary base", Sober Look)
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Eye 1

Perception Management: Someone pretending to be Ryan Lanza gives Facebook interview to the New York Post

Dylan Stableford
Yahoo! News
Sun, 23 Dec 2012 06:39 UTC
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© CIA
A Facebook user claiming to be Adam Lanza's brother took to the social network to mourn the 27 people--including his mother and 20 schoolchildren--killed by Adam in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14, before the younger Lanza turned the gun on himself.

"I am a victim," Ryan Lanza told the New York Post via Facebook on Saturday. "I [lost] my mom and brother."

The 24-year-old, who lives in Hoboken, N.J., was initially misidentified by several media outlets as a suspect on the day of the shootings. He was questioned by police and later released.

According to the Post, Ryan Lanza posted a photo of Adam on Facebook Saturday under the message:
R.I.P
Adam Peter Lanza
April 22, 1992- Dec. 14, 2012(20 years old)
"I will miss you bro. I will always love you as long as I live"
-Ryan
When another Facebook user wrote that Adam deserved to "rot in hell," Ryan responded: "You have no right to call my brother names when he isn't here no more. Just let my brother rest in peace. Please. Respect that."

According to the paper, Ryan also posted a photo of his mother, Nancy, who was shot and killed by Adam in their Newtown home before the troubled 20-year-old fired his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 children and 6 adults.

"You all will be truly be missed," Ryan wrote on Facebook. "God Bless."
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Hourglass

Aaron Swartz, Wikileaks, & Senator John Cornyn


TheYoungTurks
Wed, 23 Jan 2013 05:43 UTC
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent a sharply worded letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday questioning the Department of Justice's prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who was found dead of a suspected suicide last week after fighting federal hacking charges for two years... The Young Turks host Cenk Uygur breaks it down, including the link to Wikileaks.

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Bad Guys

Outrage grows as records reveal bishops covered up California sex abuse


Agence France-Presse
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:04 UTC
Clerics
© AFP
Cardinals and bishops follow the pontif's weekly general audience at St. Peter's square in October 2012 at the Vatican.
Victims of child sex abuse by Roman Catholic clerics voiced anger after newly-released records showed church leaders discussing how to cover up priests' alleged crimes in California in the 1980s.

Prosecutors also said they wanted to study the previously confidential records, including exchanges involving then Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahony about how to prevent police hearing about alleged abuse cases.

Excerpts from the documents were published Monday by The Los Angeles Times, including exchanges between Mahony and a top aide talking about how to conceal pedophile priests from law enforcement.

The records include secret memos between Mahony and Monsignor Thomas Curry, his top aide on sex abuse cases, about how to prevent police from investigating three priests who had admitted to the church that they had abused young boys.

Specifically Curry suggested stopping suspected priests from seeing psychiatric therapists who might alert authorities about alleged abuse, or keeping them outside of California to avoid police investigations, the Times reported.
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War Whore

US military wants to hide drones under sea


Press TV
Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:06 UTC
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Hollywood films often show alien ships or giant monsters rising from the ocean depths to threaten humanity's existence. The U.S. military envisions a more realistic scenario of hiding robotic drones, sensors or decoys on the ocean floor so that they can rise to the occasion when needed.

The idea of hiding sneaky spy technologies beneath the waves comes from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. The agency described its Upward Falling Payloads program as an effort to hide underwater capsules that could be triggered remotely to activate, float to the surface and release their payloads of sensor buoys or even flying drones.

"The concealment of the sea also provides opportunity to surprise maritime targets from below, while its vastness provides opportunity to simultaneously operate across great distances," DARPA said in a broad agency announcement on Jan. 11.

Earth's oceans provide plenty of hiding places for robots to engage in some "cheap stealth" -- about 50 percent of the oceans reach depths deeper than 2.5 miles. DARPA's ideal payload would fit within a spherical capsule 17 inches in diameter or a cylinder about 5 inches in diameter and 36 inches in length.
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