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Bill requiring warrants for email searches nears senate vote

Brendan Sasso
The Hill
Sun, 21 Jul 2013 12:03 UTC
big brother watching
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is pushing to fast-track legislation that would require police to obtain a warrant before accessing emails and other private online messages.

Sen. Patrick Leahy's (D-Vt.) goal is for the Senate to unanimously approve his bill before the August recess, according to one of his committee aides. Any opposition could delay a vote until after Congress returns in the fall.

He has secured unanimous support from his fellow Democrats and is in negotiations with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the Judiciary Committee's ranking member, and other Republicans to address their concerns.

Leahy's aide claimed that even if a floor vote is delayed until after the recess, they are already "way past" the 60 votes they would need to overcome a filibuster and approve the bill, which is co-sponsored by Republican Sen. Mike Lee (Utah).

Gregory Nojeim, a senior counsel for the Center for Democracy and Technology and a supporter of stronger privacy protections, said that the news of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs has given Leahy's bill a new boost of momentum.

Comment: Note that even if the proposed bill is passed, it will not affect at all NSA's global surveillance program and human rights violations.

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Eye 1

Global Security State: Empire of Secrets


Al Jazeera
Sun, 30 Jun 2013 11:59 UTC
Image
As a presidential candidate, Barack Obama promised transparency and open government yet his administration is one of the most closed governments in US history, described as being worse than even the Nixon administration.The technology and information revolution allows the government to cast its net wider than ever before; collecting data, watching, spying and analysing. As revelations of systemic snooping continue to hit the headlines, Empire asks: who is watching the watchers? Joining us as we unpack some of the known unknowns are Oscar-winning film director Oliver Stone, and war reporters Jeremy Scahill and Richard Rowley. We unravel the psychology of secrets with psychiatrist Justin Frank, the author of Obama on the Couch and Bush on the Couch. We look at the impact of state secrets brought to light with Dana Priest, a leading Washington Post investigative reporter on national security and author of two books, including her most recent Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State. We are also joined by Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and an attorney representing Julian Assange and Wikileaks; as well as Evgeny Morozov, an expert on internet and privacy issues, and author of two books: The Net Delusion: The Dark Side of Internet Freedom and his most recent: To Save Everything, Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism.

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USA

Pallin' around with terrorists: Hezbollah declared 'terrorist group' for fighting al-Qaeda-in-Syria

Dr. Kevin Barrett
Press TV
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 05:53 UTC
Image
On Monday, the European Union formally labeled Hezbollah a "terrorist" group.

Why?

Because Hezbollah has gone to war with al-Qaeda.

But wait a minute - wasn't al-Qaeda supposed to be the worst terrorist group in the world? Isn't the West leading a "global war on terror" whose main target is al-Qaeda? Shouldn't the West be thanking Hezbollah, and showering it with rewards, for turning against global terrorist enemy number one?

Apparently not.

Al-Qaeda is now the West's darling in Syria. So anybody who resists al-Qaeda - as Hezbollah recently decided to do - is a "terrorist."

The irony doesn't get any thicker than that.

Comment: With hundreds and probably thousands more al Qaeda (Database) members being loosened from neighbouring Iraq, and the CIA ramping up its arms shipments to 'The Database' in Syria, it looks like the U.S. and allies have decided to simply throw more bodies, money and machinery into their dirty war against Bashar al-Assad.

The Syrian leader is stronger than ever following recent successes against the West's death squads. Now that he is supported by the only army that has ever actually beaten Israel in open battle (in Lebanon in 2006), the only way for the empire to 'win' this 'civil war' while maintaining the illusion of 'not intervening directly' is by maximising civilian carnage.

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Crusader

ACLU calls for new investigations into Todashev death


RIA Novosti
Wed, 24 Jul 2013 03:27 UTC
Image
© RIA Novosti. Alexander Natruskin
Abdulbaki Todashev, Ibraghim's father, holds up photos of his dead son at a press conference at the RIA Novosti headquarters in Moscow on May 30.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wants two US states, Florida and Massachusetts, to open their own investigations into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) shooting death of a Chechen immigrant acquainted with one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects.

"A person was shot and killed at the hands of law enforcement in Florida. That alone should require Florida officials to investigate, and explain to the public what happened," said Howard Simon, Florida Executive Director for the nonprofit civil liberties organization, in an ACLU press release.

The FBI and the Department of Justice are conducting an internal inquiry into the death of 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed by a Boston-based FBI agent during an interrogation with several different law enforcement agencies at his Orlando, Florida apartment on May 22.
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Hourglass

Could fracking finally kill off rural America?

Erik Curren
Transition Voice
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 22:52 UTC
fracking map
© Gasland 2
If drillers get their way, rural America will have no escape from fracking. U.S. map showing waterways (in blue) over shale gas plays (in red).
Gasland 2, the sequel to Josh Fox's documentary about the dangers of hydraulic fracturing for natural gas, introduces a frightening image.

It's not another money shot of tap water on fire, though the water well hose lit up by the owner of a multimillion dollar home in Parker County, Texas is a wonder.

Nor is the most frightening image an internal gas industry memo labeling residents of small towns in Pennsylvania or New York State an "insurgency" that must be put down with PSYOPS techniques honed by the military in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.

The most frightening image in Gasland 2 is a map of the United States covered with potential fracking sites.

The United States of Fracking

Look at the map. It's hard to find a state whose water supply doesn't originate in or cross through a place that the industry would like to frack.

So what? The U.S. government says that fracking can be done without harm to groundwater. And the industry claims that no study has ever proven that fracking has contaminated one single water supply.
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Arrow Down

MIT opposes Freedom of Information when it comes to Aaron Swartz

Abby Zimet
Common Dreams Org
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 18:34 UTC
Aaron
© Common Dreams Org
Despite its earlier vow to act in "a spirit of openness," the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has intervened in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) court case brought by Wired reporter Kevin Paulsen aimed at releasing Aaron Swartz's Secret Service file. Paulsen has blasted MIT's move to block the release, which they justified by citing the need to protect MIT personnel even though records are routinely redacted, as unprecedented, noting neither he nor his lawyer has ever seen a non-governmental party argue for the right to interfere in a FOIA release of government documents.
"The mission of MIT is to advance knowledge and educate students in science, technology, and other areas of scholarship that will best serve the nation and the world in the 21st century...The Institute is committed to generating, disseminating, and preserving knowledge, and to working with others to bring this knowledge to bear on the world's great challenges."
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Whistle

ALEC - State by State: Ag-Gag Laws silence whistleblowers

Bill Moyers
Moyers & Company
Wed, 10 Jul 2013 00:00 UTC
Muckrakers and activists have been working to expose the brutality of industrialized meat production since Upton Sinclair's writing of The Jungle in 1906. But an ALEC model bill known as "The Animal and Ecological Terrorism Act" would make it a crime to film at animal facilities - such as factory farms or slaughterhouses - with the intent to "defame the facility or its owner." So-called "ag-gag" laws that appear inspired by the ALEC model have been passed in several states. This report, produced by Okapi Productions, LLC and the Schumann Media Center, Inc. looks at the effect of these laws on both our food supply and our freedom of speech.


Comment: Warning: this video features disturbing images. Further information from Moyers & Company on ALEC can be viewed here in the film "United States of ALEC", September 28, 2012.

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Pirates

500 Al Qaeda terrorists 'escape' from Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons in Iraq


BBC
Tue, 23 Jul 2013 11:19 UTC

Al-Qaeda has said it carried out two mass jailbreaks in Iraq, which freed hundreds of prisoners including senior leaders of the Islamist militant group.

In an online statement, al-Qaeda said Sunday's attack was the final one in a campaign aimed at freeing inmates.

At least 20 security guards died when gunmen stormed the Abu Ghraib and Taji jails near Baghdad.

Abu Ghraib gained global notoriety in 2004 when images were released showing US guards abusing Iraqi detainees.

Iraqi officials had previously tortured regime opponents in Abu Ghraib during Saddam Hussein's rule.


Comment: Oh but nothing near the scale and depth of depravity reached by the U.S. governors of the jail...


On Tuesday, an al-Qaeda affiliate calling itself the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant said it carried out the attacks on the prisons.

Comment: No doubt, like the thousands of Al Qaeda-type nutcases freed by NATO in Libya, imprisoned by progressive leader Muammar Ghaddafi in accordance with Western wishes to 'remove safe harbor for terrorists' in the aftermath of 9/11, these Iraqi fundamentalists, kept at bay by the progressive Maliki government to date, will join their brethren across the Middle East incausing bloody mayhem in the name of their lord and master, the CIA...

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X

U.S. reviewing 27 death penalty convictions for errors

Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post
Wed, 17 Jul 2013 20:52 UTC

An unprecedented federal review of old criminal cases has uncovered as many as 27 death penalty convictions in which FBI forensic experts may have mistakenly linked defendants to crimes with exaggerated scientific testimony, U.S. officials said.

The review led to an 11th-hour stay of execution in Mississippi in May.

It is not known how many of the cases involve errors, how many led to wrongful convictions or how many mistakes may now jeopardize valid convictions. Those questions will be explored as the review continues.

The discovery of the more than two dozen capital cases promises that the examination could become a factor in the debate over the death penalty. Some opponents have long held that the execution of a person confirmed to be innocent would crystallize doubts about capital punishment. But if DNA or other testing confirms all convictions, it would strengthen proponents' arguments that the system works.
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Rocket

Global surveillance state: Australia's Pine Gap drives U.S. drone kills

Philip Dorling
The Age
Sun, 21 Jul 2013 22:06 UTC
pine gap

Central Australia's Pine Gap
Central Australia's Pine Gap spy base has played a key role in the United States' controversial drone strikes involving the ''targeted killing'' of al-Qaeda and Taliban chiefs, Fairfax Media can reveal.

Former personnel at the Australian-American base have described the facility's success in locating and tracking al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders - and other insurgent activity in Afghanistan and Pakistan - as ''outstanding''.

A Fairfax Media investigation has confirmed that a primary function of the top-secret signals intelligence base near Alice Springs is to track the precise ''geolocation'' of radio signals, including hand-held radios and mobile phones, in the eastern hemisphere, from the Middle East across Asia to China, North Korea and the Russian far east.

This information has been used to identify the location of terrorist suspects, which then feeds into the United States drone strike program and other military operations. The drone program, which has involved more than 370 attacks in Pakistan since 2004, is reported to have killed between 2500 and 3500 al-Qaeda and Taliban militants, including many top commanders.
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