Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

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Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Sun Feb 14, 2016 9:46 pm

FBI’s new game battles violent extremism with goats
Gaming
February 14, 2016 5:36 pm

http://www.gamespresso.com/2016/02/14/f ... ith-goats/


Step side, Goat Simulator, “The Slippery Slope to Violent Extremism” has arrived. Brought to you by the FBI, this game teaches its youthful demographic the distorted logic of violent extremism, level by goat-galloping level at a time.

In “The Slippery Slope“, you play as a mountain goat, trekking your way past natural obstacles like rocks, hills and trees, or whatever the grey and green blocky obstacles are supposed to represent. Upon the completion of each level, which doesn’t take much longer than a few seconds, the player is rewarded with an example of “Distorted Logic”. These messages include “We must defend our traditions”, and “The use of violence is the only way to defend our beliefs,” and “our violent actions will result in a better future.”

It’s not as easy as it sounds, though, as our valiant mountain goat protagonist appears to have Link’s hover boots for hooves while running across petroleum slick grass. The controls are only the left and right keys, but steer your goat too extremely and you’ll run into obstacles and shatter into dozens of cubic wooly fragments.

Regardless of whether or not you are able to complete the game without expending all of your lives, the messages of the game that follow each level will roll across the screen. This series of messages is a part of the FBI’s site “Don’t be a Puppet,” designated to the fight against violent extremism. This site is meant to educate the youth of America on the dangers
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Thu Feb 18, 2016 3:43 am

couple of stories




http://siliconangle.com/blog/2016/02/17 ... rom-apple/

Protests planned as Government demands iPhone backdoor from Apple

by Duncan Riley | Feb 17, 2016 | 0 comments
Protests planned as Government demands iPhone backdoor from Apple

News that the United States Government is demanding that Apple, Inc. build a backdoor into the iPhone has prompted an unprecedented response, including the first of many rallies to come from concerned iPhone users and civil liberties supporters.

The original news came via way of a message to customers from Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, who explained that the demand had come about following the investigation into the San Bernardino terrorist attack.

Cook explained that while Apple has assisted the investigation in every way it could, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) wants more:

Specifically, the FBI wants us to make a new version of the iPhone operating system, circumventing several important security features, and install it on an iPhone recovered during the investigation. In the wrong hands, this software — which does not exist today — would have the potential to unlock any iPhone in someone’s physical possession.

The FBI may use different words to describe this tool, but make no mistake: Building a version of iOS that bypasses security in this way would undeniably create a backdoor. And while the government may argue that its use would be limited to this case, there is no way to guarantee such control.

Civil liberties

The push by the Government, through the FBI, hasn’t gone unnoticed, with a protest movement being launched by digital rights group Fight For The Future.

A first, warm up rally was held outside the Apple Store in San Francisco Wednesday (picutred) with a call for countrywide protests to be held outside of Apple stores at 5:30pm on Tuesday, February 23rd.

Protesters are being encouraged to bring signs, but will also have the option of loading a “Protest Sign” on their phone using Fight for the Future’s ProtestSign.org, which rather interestingly can turn any phone, tablet, or laptop into a light-up protest sign.

“Governments have been frothing at the mouth hoping for an opportunity to pressure companies like Apple into building backdoors into their products to enable more sweeping surveillance. It’s shameful that they’re exploiting the tragedy in San Bernardino to push that agenda,” Fight for the Future Campaign Director Evan Greer said in a statement sent to SiliconANGLE. “Security experts agree that any weakening or circumvention of security features on a phone puts everyone in danger. Encryption is what protects our airports, power plants, and hospitals. If the FBI succeeds in forcing Apple to help them hack into an iPhone, it will open the floodgates and set a dangerous precedent that will inevitably lead to more suffering and loss of life.”
RELATED: JAMF's Dean Hager predicts declining Microsoft enterprise desktop market share, Apple Watch success in 2016

A list of planned protests can be found on Facebook here.



1.

http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/02/1 ... voyeur.htm


Courthouse News Service
Tuesday, February 16, 2016Last Update: 7:13 AM PT

FBI Agent Sues Over Border Patrol Voyeur


A female FBI agent claims in Federal Court that a government cover-up may have allowed a former border patrol supervisor to secretly tape his female colleagues using the restroom for years.
A woman named in the complaint as "Agent Anonymous" sued former border patrol supervisor Armando Gonzalez in Federal Court on Friday, claiming civil rights violations, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.
The agent says she first became aware of her peeping-tom co-worker when she met with the San Diego Police Department on Jan. 29, 2015. Detectives showed the agent images of her using the restroom that were taken without her consent, according to the 30-page complaint.
When Gonzalez got caught, he initially told investigators he installed a digital recorder in the floor drain adjacent to the toilet "in the context of conducting an official investigation into alleged drug use by his subordinates," according to the complaint.
The female agent says she later learned Gonzalez had been capturing images and footage for years - saving over 300 videos on various devices - and may have even made money by uploading nude images of the plaintiff and other women to file-sharing websites, according to her complaint.
Over the course of 18 months, Gonzalez captured images of unclothed private parts of seven women - all federal employees - who used the bathroom between July 24, 2013 and April 11, 2014, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Gonzalez is currently serving a 21-month sentence after pleading guilty last December to making a false statement to a federal official and seven counts of video voyeurism. He had faced a maximum of 12 years in prison.
The agent seeks compensatory and punitive damages against Gonzalez and a raft of federal defendants whom she claims knew about his on-the-job misconduct and may have been involved in a possible cover-up.
She also wants a suspension of federal funding given to the San Diego Police Department and the San Diego County District Attorney's Office until the departments are overhauled and reformed to ensure Gonzalez's conduct will never be repeated.
The agent says the border patrol and other government agencies failed to properly vet Gonzalez prior to his hiring, and failed to identify him as "a sexual predator who exploited his on-the-job access to private surveillance images of female citizens for the sexual and monetary gratification and gain of himself and others," according to her complaint.
She also says there is an "Honor First" policy which protected Gonzalez and allowed him to avoid getting caught.
"If faced with a report of police misconduct, defendants knew they could evade professional or legal consequences by simply claiming that they were 'just doing their jobs' or 'just trying to protect the public,'" the agent says in the complaint.
The agent claims there is a pattern and practice of cover-ups as evidenced by various national incidents. These include 142 complaints of wrong-doing by border patrol agents obtained by the ACLU of Arizona, 33 people that have died during encounters with border patrol agents since 2010 - with one agent facing criminal charges - and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General ordering Customs and Border Protection to cease working with the FBI on internal corruption cases.
In her complaint, the agent claims the defendants allowed, encouraged and participated in the destruction of evidence of Gonzalez's and other officers' misconduct and intimidated and retaliated against victims and witnesses in an attempt to suppress complaints of officer misconduct.
The agent claims she encountered illegal obstructions and hurdles while trying to seek judicial relief from agencies, which included the FBI, Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Patrol and their Office of Equal Employment Opportunity refusing to investigate her claims.
She says she has "endured remarks and comments" by supervisors, superiors and coworkers which has added to the "stress, fear, embarrassment and humiliation" she has endured in her work as a special agent with the FBI. She also claims she was forced to give up a higher priority assignment in exchange for a lower one and has had to work reduced hours, according to her complaint.
Other defendants named in the complaint include the United States; U.S. Department of Justice; U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch; the FBI and FBI Director James Comey; Department of Homeland Security and its Secretary Jeh Charles Johnson; U.S. Customs and Border Protection; U.S. Border Patrol; the City of San Diego through the San Diego Police Department; the San Diego County District Attorney; and the state of California.
The Justice Department did not respond to an email requesting comment. A representative at Customs and Border Protection was unaware of the lawsuit and declined to comment at this time.
Anonymous Agent is represented by attorneys Joseph Dicks and Linda Workman of San Diego, who did not respond to phone and email requests for comment.



2.



http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/m ... /80472926/


FBI used 'teen' to seduce terror suspect, lawyer says
February 17 2016


The defense attorney for the Dearborn Heights man accused of plotting an ISIS attack on a 6,000-member Detroit church charged Tuesday that his client was seduced into making violent boasts by a FBI undercover employee posing as a 19-year-old Iraqi-American Sunni Muslim girl.
close ad

The undercover FBI employee said her name was Jannah — paradise in Arabic — and urged Abu-Rayyan to stand up and fight for Islam and ISIS, according to Todd Shanker, the attorney for Khalil Abu-Rayyan, 21.

Abu-Rayyan had fallen in love with a person he thought was a Sunni teen in Detroit and wanted to marry her.

But the person was a FBI employee.

"He was lying and boasting" in order to impress what he thought was a young Muslim wom
an, Shanker said in federal court in Detroit at a detention hearing for Abu-Rayyan. Shanker wanted to get



3.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/pos ... to-create/

Tim Cook: U.S. government wants ‘something we consider too dangerous to create’




February 17 at 7:19 AM
Why Apple refuses to hack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone
Apple CEO Tim Cook released a statement arguing against the FBI's recent order to hack into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5c. See why he and Apple are refusing to do so. (Jhaan Elker/The Washington Post)

Hours after a federal judge ordered Apple to help the FBI unlock the iPhone used by one of the shooters who carried out the Dec. 2 terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., the technology giant’s chief executive declared that he would fight the government’s “unprecedented” demands.

“We have great respect for the professionals at the FBI, and we believe their intentions are good,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in a strongly worded open letter. “Up to this point, we have done everything that is both within our power and within the law to help them. But now the U.S. government has asked us for something we simply do not have, and something we consider too dangerous to create. They have asked us to build a backdoor to the iPhone.”
Locked phone is a 'big problem' for San Bernardino investigation
Play Video0:49
FBI Director James Comey said investigators have been unable to open the phone of one of the San Bernardino attackers, and called for tech companies to comply with court orders at a hearing on Feb. 9. (AP)

The order, signed Tuesday by a magistrate judge in Riverside, Calif., does not ask Apple to break the phone’s encryption but rather to disable the feature that wipes the data on the phone after 10 incorrect tries at entering a password. That way, the government can try to crack the password using “brute force” — attempting tens of millions of combinations without risking the deletion of
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Sun Feb 21, 2016 1:54 am

http://gizmodo.com/san-bernardino-count ... 1760317923


San Bernardino County Calls the FBI Liars Over Terrorist's iCloud Account

Late last night a Twitter account associated with San Bernardino County said that it worked under the direction of the FBI to reset Syed Farook’s iCloud password. Why does that matter? Because it would make the FBI liars.

As you probably know by now, the FBI has demanded that Apple break into the San Bernardino terrorist’s iPhone. Apple has refused, insisting that doing so would set a terrible precedent. But both the FBI and Apple are currently waging a fierce PR battle over one of the possible ways that information from the phone could’ve been retrieved in the early stages of the investigation: Hacking Farook’s iCloud password and causing his phone to push information to the cloud remotely.

In a filing yesterday the FBI claimed that the owner of the phone, San Bernardino County, had been the one who bungled the auto-backup of the phone to iCloud. San Bernardino County was Farook’s employer because he worked for the local Department of Health. The County technically owned the phone (emphasis mine):

Advertisement

[...] to attempt an auto-backup of the SUBJECT DEVICE with the related iCloud account (which would not work in this case because neither the owner nor the government knew the password to the iCloud account, and the owner, in an attempt to gain access to some information in the hours after the attack, was able to reset the password remotely, but that had the effect of eliminating the possibility of an auto-backup) [...]

But San Bernardino County’s Twitter account (which remains unverified but appears authentic) now claims that it was working under the FBI’s orders. Specifically the tweet said, “The County was working cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at the FBI’s request.”
San Bernardino County Calls the FBI Liars Over Terrorist's iCloud Account
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Wed Feb 24, 2016 2:22 pm

link du jour


http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com/

Bonus read




In 1974 Call to Abolish CIA, Sanders Followed in Footsteps of JFK, Truman
Jon Schwarz
Feb. 22 2016, 6:13 p.m.



https://theintercept.com/2016/02/22/in- ... fk-truman/

Jon Schwarz
Feb. 22 2016, 6:13 p.m.






According to an article in Politico, Bernie Sanders, during his 1974 campaign for the Senate on Vermont’s Liberty Union Party ticket, called the Central Intelligence Agency “a dangerous institution that has got to go.” Sanders complained that the CIA was only accountable to “right-wing lunatics who use it to prop up fascist dictatorships.”

Jeremy Bash, a former CIA chief of staff who is now an adviser to Hillary Clinton’s campaign, told reporter Michael Crowley that Sanders’ comment “reinforces the conclusion that he’s not qualified to be commander in chief.” Bash explained: “Abolishing the CIA in the 1970s would have unilaterally disarmed America during the height of the Cold War and at a time when terrorist networks across the Middle East were gaining strength.” Bash was chief of staff for Leon Panetta at both the CIA and Defense Department, and now runs a consulting firm called Beacon Global Strategies.

But Sanders’ position is not that radical: Many prominent politicians, including two previous Democratic commanders in chief, have called for the CIA to be dismantled or severely constrained.

John F. Kennedy famously described his desire to “splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds” after the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Peter Kornbluh points out in his book Bay of Pigs Declassified that the State Department at that same time proposed the CIA be stripped of its covert action capacity and renamed. However, the CIA escaped any serious repercussions — partly because, as Kornbluh explains, the CIA’s then-director, John McCone, made sure that most of the copies of a damning report on the Bay of Pigs by the agency’s own inspector general were literally burned.

Then in 1963, after Kennedy’s assassination, Harry Truman wrote a newspaper column explaining that “I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that it would be injected into peacetime cloak and dagger operations. … I, therefore, would like to see the CIA be restored to its original assignment as the intelligence arm of the president … and that its operational duties be terminated or properly used elsewhere.”

Beyond the two presidents, Truman’s Secretary of State Dean Acheson wrote in his 1969 memoirs that upon the CIA’s creation he “had the gravest forebodings about this organization and warned the president that as set up neither he, the National Security Council, nor anyone else would be in a position to know what it was doing or to control it.”

In 1975 — that is, after Sanders’ statement — a congressional investigation of the CIA by senators including Walter Mondale and Gary Hart declared that “policy and procedural barriers are presently inadequate to insure that any covert operation is absolutely essential to the national security. These barriers must be tightened and raised or covert action should be abandoned as an instrument of foreign policy.” (My italics. The Politico article does mention and quote the investigation’s findings.)

In both 1991 and 1995, then-Sen. Daniel Moynihan, D-N.Y., called for the CIA to be abolished. Hillary Clinton would later be elected to Moynihan’s senate seat, and on his death she stated, “We have lost a great American, an extraordinary senator, an intellectual and a man of passion and understanding about what really makes this country great.”

So is it starting to sound to you a bit less like a scandal, and a bit more like effective oppo research?

It’s unclear how Crowley, Politico’s senior foreign affairs correspondent, obtained Sanders’ 1974 remarks. In a phone conversation, I asked him several times whether he had received them from anyone connected with Hillary Clinton’s campaign. Crowley responded: “I had primary sources for everything I wrote about in that story. … I’ve written several stories about Bernie’s foreign policy and national security views. This is something I’ve been digging into independently for almost a month now. … I would just refer you to the stories I’ve been writing the last several weeks, I’m not going to talk about how I report my articles.”

If in fact the Clinton campaign is distributing Sanders’ remarks from many years ago, there’s obviously nothing wrong with that — just as there would be nothing wrong with the Sanders campaign distributing hers. Moreover, it’s standard operating procedure for campaigns to disseminate information they believe will make their opponents look bad while trying to keep their fingerprints off it. But that doesn’t mean reporters should collude with them to make it possible.


1.




http://completecolorado.com/pagetwo/201 ... 31-months/

Criminal Justice, Immigration, National, Open Records
US Dept. of Homeland Security loses 1,300 badges and credentials in 31
months
January 27, 2016 11:05 AM·




According to a spreadsheet of lost, damaged and destroyed items,
various agencies inside the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
reported over 1,300 badges and credentials lost or stolen, and no
fewer than 165 firearms lost or stolen over the course of 31 months*.




2.




https://news.vice.com/article/cocaine-c ... -locked-up


Crime & Drugs
Cocaine, Corrupt Cops, and the Supreme Court: Why Detroit’s 'White Boy
Rick' Is Still Locked Up

February 23, 2016 |

As a teenager in Detroit in the 1980s, Richard Wershe Jr. ran with
some of the city's biggest crack kingpins. Before he was even old
enough to vote, Wershe was having cocaine shipments flown in from
Miami, taking weekend trips to Vegas, and cruising the streets in a
white Jeep with "The Snowman" inscribed on the back. He was young and
white, an anomaly in the city's drug trade, which earned him an
infamous nickname: White Boy Rick.

Wershe was busted in 1987 — at age 17 — for possession of eight kilos
of cocaine with intent to distribute. Twenty-eight years later, he's
still locked up. He was sentenced under the state's draconian "650
Lifer" law, which mandated life in prison for anyone caught with more
than 650 grams of cocaine. He has now spent more time behind bars than
any non-violent juvenile offender in Michigan history.

On January 25, the Supreme Court ruled that juveniles serving life in
prison should be allowed to have


3.

--------------------------------------------
On Tue, 2/23/16, EFFector List <editor@eff.org> wrote:

Subject: What you're not hearing about Apple and the FBI | EFFector
29.05

Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2016, 9:48 PM

_______ _______
_______


(_______)(_______)(_______)
_

_____ _____ _____
_____ ____ _| |_ ___
____
| ___) | ___) | ___)| ___ | /
___)(_ _)/ _ \ / ___)
| |_____ | | | | | ____|(
(___ | |_| |_| || |
|_______)|_| |_| |_____)
\____) \__)\___/ |_|

EFFector Vol. 29, No. 5 Tuesday February 23,
2016 editor@eff.org

A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
ISSN 1062-9424

effector: n, Computer Sci. A device for producing a
desired change.

: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

In our 693rd issue:

* It's Not Just About Apple. It's About All of Us.

Note: In most issues of EFFector, we give an overview of
all the work we're doing at EFF right now. This week, we
present a deep dive on the FBI's fight with Apple over its
customers' privacy.

A U.S. federal magistrate judge has ordered Apple to
undermine the security of an iPhone that was used by one of
the perpetrators of December's San Bernardino shootings. If
carried out, the order would compromise the security of
every Apple customer in the world. Fortunately, Apple is
fighting back and standing up for its users, and EFF is
filing an amicus brief in support of Apple's position.

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/e ... ion-battle

The government is doing more than simply ask for Apple's
assistance. For the first time ever, the government is
telling Apple to write brand new code that eliminates the
security features of its own products—features that
benefit everyone who uses Apple products or even
communicates with iOS users. Essentially, the government is
asking Apple to create a master key so that it can open a
single phone. And once that master key is created, we're
certain that both our government and others will ask for it
again and again.

There's been a lot of confusion about what exactly the FBI
is asking Apple for. In short, the FBI wants Apple to do
three things:

* iOS can be set to erase its keys after 10 incorrect
passcode guesses. The FBI wants software with this feature
disabled.
* iOS imposes increasingly long delays after consecutive
incorrect passcode guesses to slow down guessing. The FBI
wants software that accepts unlimited guesses with no
delays.
* iOS requires individual passcodes to be typed in by hand.
The FBI wants a means to electronically enter passcodes,
allowing it to automatically try every possible code
quickly.

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/t ... phone-case

The FBI's goal is to guess Syed Rizwan Farook's passcode to
unlock his phone. If it just tries entering passcodes,
though, it might erase the device's keys, at which point
the data may never be recoverable. Hence, it's telling
Apple to write special software to allow unlimited guesses.
The FBI claims that it has the right to make this request
under the 1789 All Writs Act, a claim that many legal
experts have questioned.

The problem with the FBI's request is twofold. First, the
risk of this piece of software getting into unauthorized
hands is very high, and the damage that it could do is
obvious.

Second, writing this code would probably encourage more
government requests--potentially from other governments
around the world. Even if you trust the U.S. government,
once this master key is created, governments you don't
trust will surely demand that Apple undermine the security
of their citizens as well.

Speak Out

Last year, thousands of you signed a petition urging
President Obama to speak out for uncompromised security.
The President has not given a real response, but the need
to defend encryption is more urgent than ever.

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/w ... ion-policy

Fight for the Future has organized a series of rallies in
many major cities across the country. There will be rallies
at most Apple Stores today at 5:30 pm local time.

This case is not about FBI vs. Apple. It's about every
consumer's right to use secure technologies, and every
technology company's right to protect its customers'
privacy. Join us.

Read more:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2016/02/a ... ity-vs-fbi


: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

miniLinks

~ PBS: Judge's order to Apple over attacker phone
encryption unlocks privacy concerns
"We know who the shooters were. We know who they were
talking to. The FBI already has the metadata. They chose
this case because they want precedent that they can order a
company to design a particular feature at their whim."
EFF's Nate Cardozo explains why the FBI's order has very
little to do with Farook's phone and everything to do with
setting a new precedent.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/judges-o ... -concerns/

~ New York Times: An Unprecedented Order That Puts Us All
at Risk
There is no such thing as a master key that only the good
guys can use. EFF attorney Sophia Cope shows how carrying
out the FBI's order could open iPhone users to large-scale
threats, both from criminals and from authoritarian world
governments.
http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/20 ... ll-at-risk

~ PBS Frontline: Who's Right In Apple's Fight with the FBI?
"Privacy nihilism is seductive, but deeply misguided.
Privacy is not dead, and only those who wish to kill it
claim otherwise." EFF attorney Nate Cardozo debates James
Andrew Lewis of the Center for Strategic and International
Studies, explaining why it's so important that Apple fight
the FBI order.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/artic ... h-the-fbi/

: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

Announcements

* Don't Break Our Phones
Join Fight for the Future today at Apple stores around the
country to stand up for your privacy.
February 23, 2016
Many U.S. Cities
https://www.dontbreakourphones.org/

* EFF at the JPEG Privacy & Security 2nd Workshop
EFF is attending the meeting to express civil liberties
concerns with proposals to add digital cryptographic
capabilities to the JPEG image format. We will explain our
vision for how JPEG can implement security, securely.
February 23, 2016
La Jolla, California
https://www.eff.org/event/eff-jpeg-priv ... d-workshop

* Programming the Law: Privacy, Security, and Innovation
The symposium will focus on the latest developments in the
US-EU Safe Harbor Framework, the roles of startups and
businesses in the expansion of the Internet of Things into
homes, and the evolving jurisprudence around the right to
anonymity. EFF's Jamie Lee Williams will speak.
February 26, 2016
San Francisco
https://www.eff.org/event/programming-l ... innovation

* EFF at BSides SF
EFF staffers including General Counsel Kurt Opsahl, Staff
Attorney Andrew Crocker, Staff Technologist Cooper Quintin,
and Director of Grassroots Advocacy Shahid Buttar will
share short presentations about EFF's ongoing work before
opening the floor for questions from the audience at
BSides.
February 28, 2016
San Francisco, CA
https://www.eff.org/event/ask-eff

* ABA TECHSHOW Conference and Expo
EFF Executive Director Cindy Cohn will deliver the keynote
address at the ABA TECHSHOW Conference and Expo.
March 18, 2016
Chicago, IL
https://www.eff.org/event/aba-techshow- ... e-and-expo

* Tyranny of the Algorithm? Predictive Analytics &
Human
Rights
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Jennifer Lynch will speak on a
panel defining key terms and framing the conversation about
data-driven risk assessment.
March 21, 2016
New York, NY
https://www.eff.org/event/tyranny-algor ... man-rights

: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

Our members make it possible for EFF to bring legal and
technological
expertise into crucial battles about online rights. Whether
defending
free speech online or challenging unconstitutional
surveillance, your
participation makes a difference. Every donation gives
technology users
who value freedom online a stronger voice and more
formidable advocate.

If you aren't already, please consider becoming an EFF
member today.

Donate: https://supporters.eff.org/join/effector


: . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . : . :

* Administrivia

Editor:
Elliot Harmon, Activist
editor@eff.org

EFFector is published by:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation
https://www.eff.org/

Membership & donation queries:
membership@eff.org

General EFF, legal, policy, or online resources queries:
info@eff.org

Reproduction of this publication in electronic media is
encouraged. MiniLinks do not necessarily represent
the views of EFF.

Back issues of EFFector are available via the Web at:
https://www.eff.org/effector/



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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Sat Feb 27, 2016 2:21 pm

Link du jour


http://www.davisvanguard.org/2016/02/sn ... aw-school/


http://www.nextgov.com/cio-briefing/201 ... ms/126204/


https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/ra ... llery.html


1.

FBI Director Ducks the Most Important Question in the Apple Fight

—By Max J. Rosenthal
| Thu Feb. 25, 2016 1:00 PM EST

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2016/02 ... -fbi-fight

If Apple is forced to help unlock the iPhone used by San Bernardino
shooter Syed Farook, what else can the government make private
companies do? Don't ask FBI Director James Comey.

Members of the House Intelligence Committee repeatedly asked Comey
that question during a committee hearing on Thursday. It was Comey's
first public appearance before Congress since a Los Angeles court
ordered Apple last week to help the FBI by writing new code that would
bypass security features on Farook's phone. Apple refused, and the
battle between the company and the FBI is now major national news.

The fight centers on whether Apple, by complying with the court order
to write new code for the FBI's use, would set a precedent allowing
the government to request essentially anything from tech companies to
aid investigations, whether it was cracking encryption or sneaking
surveillance tools into software updates. But when faced with several
questions on the topic, Comey pleaded ignorance.

"I think the answer would best come from a technical expert and a good
lawyer. I'm neither of those," he said in response to a question from
Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee, about the potential limits on the government's
powers to demand help from tech companies. Comey is in fact a good
lawyer—he received a law degree from the University of Chicago in 1985
and served as deputy attorney general, the second-in-command at the
Department of Justice, during the Bush administration.

Another committee member, Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn.), later tried again.
"Where does this authority end?" he asked Comey. "Can you paint a very
bright line for us with respect to where you think that authority
ends?"

"I don't think I can," Comey replied. "I'm really not qualified as
someone to give you a good answer to that one." When Himes attempted
to clarify, asking if the FBI thought its ability to request help
stopped with just Farook's iPhone—a position Comey has taken over the
past week—Comey again ducked. "I actually have not thought of it," he
told Himes. "The FBI focuses on case and then case and then case."

Comey did acknowledge that the Apple case "would be instructive for
other courts," but he argued that the order would be limited because
it applied only to an iPhone 5c—the model Farook used—running a
specific version of Apple's iOS operating system. Many tech experts
disagree with that argument, saying the FBI's request for new code
could be demanded for almost any device.

While Comey did not directly address the notion of precedent, some of
the FBI's supporters in law enforcement have said publicly that the
Apple case could give them the ability to demand that companies
provide them access to the phones of criminal suspects for any number
of crimes. Apple is currently fighting at least 12 other similar
orders for help gaining access to phones held by law enforcement, and
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, a leading advocate for giving
government access to encrypted devices, says his office has 175 phones
that law enforcement officials want to access.

Max J. Rosenthal is a reporter at the Mother Jones DC bureau covering
national security, surveillance, and occasional sports shenanigans.
Send him tips, ideas or



2.




EXCLUSIVE: CCRB chairman says police unions are ‘squealing like a
stuck pig’ for calling for his removal
Updated: Thursday, February 25, 2016, 9:14 AM

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/ccr ... -1.2543106


Richard Emery, the chairman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board,
says police unions won't drive him out of office.

Those, Mr. Chairman, are fighting words.

The embattled chairman of the Civilian Complaint Review Board lashed
out Wednesday at police unions, likening their calls for his removal
to “squealing like a stuck pig.”

In his first public response to a controversy over his law firm
representing a man suing a sergeant and a cop who were investigated by
the CCRB, Richard Emery vowed that the Patrolmen’s Benevolent
Association and the Sergeants Benevolent Association are “not going to
drive me out.”

“I was chosen by Bill de Blasio because of my extensive knowledge of
police cases,” Emery told the Daily News.

POLICE UNION BOSS URGES DE BLASIO TO REMOVE CCRB CHAIRMAN

“I’m not going to deprive the public and people who are abused by
police officers of having access to excellent lawyers because some
union is squealing like a stuck pig.”
Civilian Complaint Review Board Chairman Richard Emery, pictured along
with Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch on the
front page, characterizes the PBA as "squealing like a stuck pig."
Senate GOP leaders sign letter vowing to defy Constitution and ignore
ANY Supreme Court nomination.
Five firefighters' families in 2005 Black Sunday blaze case to share
$183 million.
Cops blame Akai Gurley for his own death in their defense in $50M
suit.
View Gallery NYDN front pages of 2016

Emery said the unions have seized on the lawsuit issue revealed by The
News like “some small scrap of meat” to undermine the improvements
he’s made to CCRB, including a 60% increase in substantiated
complaints.

“I take their criticism as a sign of respect,” he said. “They’re
taking us seriously.”

The presidents of the two police unions expressed outrage over Emery’s
use of the word “pig,” which carries the inflammatory sting of an
epithet against cops.

“Mr. Emery’s reference to police officers as ‘pigs’ betrays his
unshakable contempt for the men and women of the NYPD who have risked
their lives to make New York the safest big city in the world,” said
sergeants union leader Ed Mullins.

NYPD SERGEANTS AND CCRB IN STANDOFF OVER COP CASES PROBED BY CHAIRMAN
RICHARD EMERY'S LAW FIRM



3.





https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/pu ... story.html


Justice Dept. to expand review of FBI forensic techniques beyond hair
unit


February 25 at 6:20 PM

The Justice Department will expand its review of forensic testimony by
the FBI Laboratory in closed criminal cases nationwide to ensure it
has not overstated evidence against defendants, Deputy Attorney
General Sally Yates announced.

In March, the department will lay out a framework for auditing samples
of testimony that came from FBI units handling pattern-based evidence,
such as tracing the impressions that guns leave on bullets, shoe
treads, fibers, soil and other crime-scene evidence, department
officials said this week. The FBI and other crime labs nationwide
conduct more than 100,000 such examinations each year.

Justice Department officials left open questions of which techniques
and how many cases would be reviewed, using what standard over what
time period, and whether convicted defendants would be notified if any
errors are found.

Yates linked the move to an FBI and department finding last year that
nearly all FBI hair examiners overstated testimony about hair matches
incriminating defendants during the two decades before 2000.

[FBI admits flaws in hair analysis over decades]

“We are undertaking this quality-assurance review because we think it
is good operating procedure — and not because of specific concerns
with other disciplines,” Yates said Wednesday in an address to the
American Academy of Forensic Scientists’ annual meeting in Las Vegas.

Hundreds of convicted defendants in hair-match cases have been
notified of the testimony errors, and the bureau and the department
are offering them new DNA testing and lowering barriers to appeals.

Determining “whether the same kind of ‘testimonial overstatement’
. . . could have crept into other disciplines” would help “ensure the
public’s ongoing confidence in the work we do,” Yates said.

[Convicted defendants left uninformed of forensic flaws found by
Justice Dept.]

A spokesman for the FBI Laboratory declined to comment.

In a statement, Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), ranking Democrat on the
Senate Judiciary Committee, applauded the Justice Department “for
taking responsibility and launching a full review so that the public
can learn exactly what went wrong and how we can prevent this from
ever happening again.”

Yates’s proposal is among the broadest responses yet to a National
Academy of Sciences panel report in February 2009 that questioned
subjective comparisons of evidence by experts. The panel concluded
that although examiners had long claimed to be able to match pattern
evidence to a source with “absolute” or “scientific certainty,” only
DNA analysis had been validated through statistical research.

[Forensic techniques not as reliable as you may think]

The Obama White House in 2013 appointed a National Commission on
Forensic Science to respond to the National Academy of Sciences’ call
to strengthen standards for research, labs and examiners. Yates said
the department plans to submit a suggested framework for the testimony
review at the commission’s March 21



4.

Homeland Security is spilling a lot of secrets
February 26 2016


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns- ... story.html


The Department of Homeland Security suffered over 100 "spills" of
classified information last year, 40 percent of which came from one
office, according to a leaked internal document I obtained. Officials
and lawmakers told me that until the Department imposes stricter
policies and sounder practices to better protect sensitive
intelligence, the vulnerabilities there could be exploited. Not only
does this raise the threat that hostile actors could get their hands
on classified information, it may lead to other U.S. agencies keeping
DHS out of the loop on major security issues.

A spill is not the same as an unauthorized disclosure of classified
information. A Homeland Security official explained that spills often
include "the accidental, inadvertent, or intentional introduction of
classified information into an unclassified information technology
system, or higher-level classified information into a lower-level
classified information technology system, to include non-government
systems."

Examples include: using a copier not approved for the level of
classified information copied; failing to properly mark a classified
product; transmitting classified information on an unclassified system
like Gmail; or sending classified information to someone who, while
having the proper level of clearance, is not authorized to read a
section of information sent to them, the official said.

There were 119 of these classified spills reported throughout the
Homeland Security Department in fiscal year 2015, according to the
internal document, which itself is unclassified. The section with the
most spills by far was the Office of Intelligence and Analysis,
headquartered at building 19 of the Nebraska Avenue Complex in
Washington, led by retired General Francis Taylor. This office is
composed mostly of intelligence analysts assigned to produce and
review classified reports that are often the work of other
intelligence agencies, including the Central Intelligence Agency and
the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

One senior Homeland Security official told me that the intelligence
and analysis office at DHS suffers from lax enforcement of the
established policies and practices to protect classified information.
This official said the numbers of classified spills in the internal
report only represents those incidents that were officially reported,
and the actual number is much higher.

S.Y. Lee, a department spokesman, told me that DHS does not comment on
reports of leaked information, but that the department is currently
having mandatory employee training sessions on the handling of
classified and sensitive information.
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Mon Mar 07, 2016 5:51 pm

1.



Secret Service Investigating Radio Host Glenn Beck Over Alleged Threats to Donald Trump
Glenn Beck

http://ticklethewire.com/2016/03/07/sec ... ald-trump/

The Secret Service is investigating conservative radio host Glenn Beck following comments he made on his radio show about Donald Trump.

Beck said his remarks were not directed at the GOP front-runner.

On his radio show Friday, Beck responded to his producer’s mocking statements about Beck being in the shoes of Trump’s rivals: “Was it gigantic shoes?” producer Stu Burguiere asked.

“If I was close enough and I had a knife. Really. I mean the stabbing just wouldn’t stop,” Beck responded.

Beck wasn’t referring to Trump, Burguiere said on Facebook.

“It was reported that Glenn had threatened to stab a presidential






2.


http://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/n ... /80604400/


Congress probes former Greenville Secret Service agent's actions


Editor’s note: The Greenville News has a policy of not identifying
victims in cases of sexual assault. The newspaper is identifying the
accuser in this story, Kristen Anderson, because she publicly came
forward as a named plaintiff in a federal lawsuit leveling accusations
that did not result in criminal charges. The paper discussed this
decision in advance of publication with both the woman and her lawyer.

COLUMBIA ─ Seated at the dining room table of her father's Greenwood
home, tears welling in her eyes, Kristen Miles Anderson described the
night she says she was coerced into having sex with a U.S. Secret
Service agent investigating her as a suspect in a bank embezzlement.

It’s been almost six years to the day since that night at the U.S.
Secret Service office in Greenville. Anderson long ago pleaded guilty
to embezzling about $90,000 and served 10 months of a 15-month
sentence at a federal prison in West Virginia.

A judge citing legal grounds in January threw out her lawsuit filed in
2012 against the agent, the federal government and others. A federal
grand jury investigation spawned by her allegations went no where.

However the U.S. House Committee on Oversight investigating wrongdoing
among the Secret Service is now interested in her story. Last month
the panel asked the inspector general for Homeland Security for a copy
of its investigation report.

Anderson wants the world to know what she says happened to her that
night in March 2010.

“I stood up and took the blame, told them what I did and paid the
price,” Anderson said during an exclusive interview with The
Greenville News. “Then to go back and learn they didn’t even charge
him, that’s just devastating. I can’t even tell you.”

Richard Kerns Jr., the agent who first denied the incident took place
and later described the sex as consensual, resigned after the
allegations came to light. Kerns, who was not charged with any crime,
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby coffin_dodger » Tue Mar 08, 2016 5:51 pm

1

Greatest Thread Title Eva

#####

2.





Love the way your posts so often end on a comma, or simply cut off half way thr




######


:hug1:
User avatar
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Mon Mar 14, 2016 3:49 pm

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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Wed Mar 16, 2016 9:08 pm

Welcome our new sponsor

KY Jelly






Link du jour

http://thehill.com/policy/cybersecurity ... bi-hearing


http://www.camdenarknews.com/news/2016/ ... tary-club/


J Edgar Hoover Alert
FBI CIP
(coverup in progress)

2 stories

1.

http://www.fbicover-up.com/hillary-clinton.html


Hillary Clinton "was in complete shock and

disbelief at the thought of Foster committing suicide"
Ken Starr appeared to be enemy of HIllary Clinton

According to an FBI interview of James Rutherford, Hillary Clinton
"was in complete shock and disbelief at the thought of Foster
committing suicide."


"Of a thousand people who might commit suicide, I would never pick
Vince." Hillary Clinton, quoted in The New Yorker, The Suicide, by
Sidney Blumenthal, August 9, 1993.

"Also under suspicion for espionage was the president's wife, Hillary
Rodham Clinton, who may have been providing Foster with the sensitive
binders from the super-secret National Security Agency that Foster's
executive assistant testified he had." -James Norman, former Senior
Editor at Forbes


Webster Hubbell a close friend of Hillary and Foster said, "Don't
believe a word you hear. It was not suicide. It couldn't have been."
Esquire, November 1993


"...Hillary Rodham Clinton, provided sworn testimony ...to the special
prosecutor about the death of a White House lawyer..." New York Times,
June 14, 1994


The report of the FBI interview of Tom Castleton contradicted
Hillary's testimony of when she last saw Vincent Foster.


Hillary's initial doubts were abandoned as she agreed with Kenneth
Starr, "...Starr had finally conceded that Vince Foster really had
committed suicide." Living History by Hillary Clinton

Chris Ruddy cast suspicion by falsely accusing the Clintons of keeping
the FBI out of the Foster death investigation.


"[I]ntelligence guys in the CIA...found names there that they
identified as being Foster and Hillary. They put them under
surveillance actually before they went to the White House. They had
been surveilling these [Swiss] accounts for a while, and when Foster
on July 1, 1993, bought a ticket to Geneva" -James Norman, former
senior editor of Forbes Magazine, Dec. 7, 1995


An FBI document and a handwritten note from the Office of Independent
Counsel refer to Foster and the Swiss bank account as mentioned above
by James Norman.


Foster cancelled a flight to Switzerland, with seats for two other
people, just before his death according to an Office of Independent
Counsel document.


An Office of Independent Counsel note lists the name of Robert Maxwell
along with the initials WLH, VF, HRC, (Webster Lee Hubbell, Vince
Foster, Hillary Clinton) and the word "Systematics."


Deborah L. Gorham testified to the Senate Special Committee that Vince
Foster had National Security Agency documents.


NewsMax, the conservative news media organization founded by Chris
Ruddy, donated $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Ruddy rose to
fame writng about "Clinton scandals" and casting suspicion on Foster's
"suicide."


The morning after Vince Foster died President Clinton spoke to the
White House staff, "In the first place no one can know why this
happened. Even if you had a whole set of objective reasons, that
wouldn't be why it happened bcause you could get a different, bigger
more burdensome set of reasons that are on someone else in this room.
So what happened was a mystery about something inside of him...and I
hope when we remember him and this we'll be a little more anxious to
talk to each other and a little less anxious to talk outside our
family."


Christopher Ruddy wrote, "Still other concerns might have influenced
the Foster family. For one thing, published reports claim or intimate
that Vince Foster and Hillary Clinton had a romantic affair." The
Strange Death of Vincent Foster, 1997

Others are asking, "Is Hillary Clinton a lesbian?"

2.

http://freebeacon.com/issues/prosecutor ... ail-probe/

Prosecutor in Pollard Spy Case Predicts Espionage Act Charges in
Clinton Email Probe
DiGenova expects FBI to recommend 'series of criminal charges'



Other News

1.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/rape-kit ... eriff-says

Sheriff Says Most Rape Claims False, Rape Kits Unnecessary
Opposing Views-
... were harmful and stressed the need for education on sexual
assault, pointing out that only 33 percent of rape victims report
their attacks according to the FBI.
2

Did Apple just imply the NSA can hack iPhones?
BGR-1 hour ago
In a new court brief filed this week, Apple once again makes its case
that the FBI's request to force it to unlock the San Bernardino
shooter's iPhone 5c isn't ...
Story image for fbi from 9 to 5 Mac
Steve Wozniak says complexity of Apple Watch lineup 'worries' him ...
9 to 5 Mac-1 hour ago
Wozniak, who also gave a video interview for Reddit's new Formative
series, discussed things such as Tim Cook, Apple's battle with the
FBI, Apple Watch, and ...
3.



Investigation into LaVoy Finicum's killing raises questions of FBI ...
The Guardian-

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016 ... g-cover-up

Jeanette Finicum, widow of rancher LaVoy Finicum who was killed by FBI
agents on 26 January, says she rejects that the shooting was
justified. “There's been a ...

Wednesday 16 March 2016 19.34 EDT
Last modified on Wednesday 16 March 2016 19.36 EDT



An official investigation into the fatal shooting of Oregon militia
leader LaVoy Finicum has raised questions about whether federal agents
lied about their actions and removed bullet casings from the scene,
adding to accusations that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
engaged in a cover-up.

Evidence that FBI agents failed to disclose that they had fired shots
at Finicum and queries about whether critical evidence was removed
comes from the local Deschutes county sheriff’s office investigation,
lending credence to claims previous dismissed as conspiracy theories.
'We want Cliven free!': protesters make noise at scene of Bundy court
hearing


Finicum, a 54-year-old Arizona rancher and one of the leaders of the
rightwing militia that occupied an Oregon wildlife refuge, was shot
and killed by state troopers on a remote highway on 26 January. The
confrontation also resulted in the arrests of key protesters and
marked the beginning of the end of the 41-day standoff.

Further bolstering theories of evidence removal, law enforcement
sources told the Oregonian this week that they had seen an FBI video
that showed an agent appear to bend over twice and pick up something
near where the two shots likely occurred.

The sheriff’s office, responsible for investigating the shooting,
recently determined the shooting was justified and released close-up
footage of the final moments before Finicum exited his vehicle and was
killed.

From the start of the investigation, Finicum’s supporters across the
west have hailed him as a martyr for the conservative land-use rights
movement, arguing that the FBI planned and executed

4.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... reats.html


March 16 2016

Feedback
Wednesday, Mar 16th 2016 8PM 42°F 11PM 40°F 5-Day Forecast


Pentagon will pay $130,000 for homemade weapons: 'Improv' project plans to reveal how terrorists could turn household items into threats

US nationals can submit their idea to Darpa on March 30
Darpa is hoping to test prototypes and create countermeasures
Follows a rise in the use of off-the-shelf equipment to create weapons



Published: 15:13 EST, 16 March 2016 | Updated: 16:47 EST, 16 March 2016



If you think you can turn a toaster into a weapon, then the US military wants to hear from you.

Darpa has announced
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Tue Mar 22, 2016 3:24 pm

March 22 2016




City & Region
Bookstore owner turns tables, questions why he was target of FBI probe
Bookstore owner was target of 2-year investigation



Theresa Baker-Pickering and her husband, Leslie Pickering, have learned that they were the subjects of an FBI investigation.
on March 17, 2016 - 8:06 PM, updated March 18, 2016 at 6:29 AM

http://www.buffalonews.com/city-region/ ... e-20160317


Pickering, long a target of the FBI, turns his story into an art exhibit
FBI asked for tracking of Pickering mail in 2012
Former Earth Liberation Front spokesman files federal suit for information from FBI



The FBI kept tabs on a Buffalo bookstore owner for two years.

Agents watched Leslie Pickering’s home and store, monitored his mail and used grand jury subpoenas to gather information about him.

At the core of the investigation was the allegation, still unproven, that Pickering, a longtime environmental activist, was operating an eco-terrorism cell out of Burning Books, his West Side bookstore.

The investigation turned up no evidence of a threat and was shut down after a confidential informant recanted part of her story, according to newly released FBI documents
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Thu Mar 24, 2016 4:11 pm

3 stories




1.

https://consortiumnews.com/2016/03/23/u ... t-torture/

US Intel Vets Warn Against Torture
March 23, 2016

Exclusive: Experienced intelligence professionals reaffirm that torture – while popular with “tough” politicians – doesn’t work in getting accurate and actionable information, says ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern.

By Ray McGovern

To those living “outside the Beltway” it may seem counterintuitive that those of us whose analysis has been correct on key issues that the U.S. government got criminally wrong – like the invasion of Iraq in 2003 – would be blacklisted from “mainstream” media and ostracized by the Smart People of the Establishment. But, alas, that’s the way it is.

Forget the continuing carnage in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and millions made refugees. Within the mainstream U.S. media and around Washington’s major policy circles, there is little serious dialogue, much less debate about what went so hideously wrong; and Americans still innocently wonder – regarding the people on the receiving end of the blunderbuss violence – “why they hate us.”
President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney receive an Oval Office briefing from CIA Director George Tenet. Also present is Chief of Staff Andy Card (on right). (White House photo)

President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney receive an Oval Office briefing from CIA Director George Tenet. Also present is Chief of Staff Andy Card (on right). (White House photo)

After more than 13 years of presenting thoughtful critiques to senior officials – and having little discernible impact – we Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity are strongly tempted to take some solace in having made a good-faith effort to spread some truth around – and, now, go play golf. But the stakes are too high. We can’t in good conscience approach the first tee without having tried one more time.

Accordingly, we repeat the offer we extended on Feb. 26 – this time to the winnowed candidate roster of Hillary Clinton, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump – to make our deep experience and proven expertise available to those of you interested in the tell-it-like-it-is analysis that has been our niche for so many years.

Given our 13-year record for accuracy and insight, we had hoped that at least one or two of you would take us up on the offer, especially since a few of you have faced criticism for a paucity of foreign policy and national security experts.

Of more immediate importance to the nation and the world, statements by some of you in reaction to the Monday bombings in Brussels, seem to betray:

A) Gross naiveté about how to counter terrorism;

B) Demagogic disregard for the civil liberty protections embodied in the U.S. Constitution; or

C) Both of the above.

We can help round out your understanding of terrorism, its causes and its possible cures – but with respect to “A” above, you may wish to begin by reading VIPS memorandum #15 (of June 18, 2007), How Not to Counter Terrorism, drafted by our VIPS colleague, former Special Agent Coleen Rowley, who was FBI Division Counsel, Minneapolis, during 9/11. (Rowley later blew the whistle about the ineptitude at FBI headquarters that thwarted the simple steps that would have prevented those terrorist attacks.)

On Torture, Pols & Polls

Based on our lengthy experience in intelligence, we know that torture doesn’t “work.” So we confess to a certain disgust with the “new normal,” fostered not only by some presidential candidates but also






2.

Retired Marine, FBI agent to sign books

March 24 2016

Emerald Isle will host a book signing on Thursday, March 31, with a retired Marine and FBI agent who has written a tale that will hit home to many area residents.
Munden Instory + Mobile

John Ligato, who lives in North Carolina, will sign his new book, Dirty Boys, from 6:30-8 p.m. in the town hall.

According to publicity material, the novel “documents the steady decline of the United States as a world power. It answers the question of, ‘What happens if America continues down its current path of political correctness in dealing with our sworn enemies.’”

Dirty Boys is the tale of a maverick FBI undercover agent ordered back into the office and assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force. He uncovers an international terrorist plot to destroy America without firing a single bullet.

Unable to convince his bosses that this sleeper cell exists, former Marine John Booker goes rogue and must battle both terrorists and the bureaucracy. Mr. Booker forms a task force of misfits who are comfortable working “off the books.” They realize that the government does not understand our enemies.

Mr. Ligato originally hails from south Philadelphia. He attended Slippery Rock University, earning a degree in secondary education and a master’s in educational psychology.

In his 23 years in the FBI, his assignments included, Pittsburgh, Memphis, New York City, Buffalo and Cleveland. The 2006 movie, “10th and Wolf” was loosely based on his life. It featured Val Kilmer, Dennis Hopper, Tommy Lee, Brad Renfro, Giovanni Ribisi, James Marsden and Lesley Ann Warren.

As a young man, Mr. Ligato was with the lead contingent of Marines into Hue City, Vietnam, during the 1968 TET offensive. He received three Purple Hearts for wounds suffered in Vietnam.

He has been an adjunct college professo



3.

Nichols says bombing was FBI op | Deseret News
www.deseretnews.com/article/.../Nichols ... p.html?p...
Feb 21, 2007 - Potts retired from the FBI under intense pressure and criticism for the ... Trentadue said he plans to seek that deposition of Nichols, but "I expect ...
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:14 pm

March 25 2016
http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com



Former Israeli Intel Operatives Run Security at Brussels Airport

March 23rd, 2016 by Kevin

But wait, there’s more.

Via: sott.net:

The aviation and general security services firm ICTS handles security operations at Brussels airport, the scene of a bomb attack yesterday morning.



This will not, however, be the first time that ICTS has come under scrutiny for possible security lapses leading to a ‘Muslim terror attack’.

As the provider of security services to Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport and United Airlines and US Airways, the firm’s security system was criticized for somehow allowing erstwhile ‘underwear bomber’, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, to “slip through” and board Northwest Airlines Flight 253 to Detroit with explosive materials on Christmas day 2009.



But ICTS’ security faux pas’ don’t end there. In December 2001, they somehow managed to let deranged shoe bomber Richard Reid, onto his Miami-bound flight in Paris, and this was after ICTS had cleared Reid through security at Amsterdam airport on a flight to Tel Aviv in July 2001 for what was apparently an all-expenses paid week-long trip to the Israeli city.



ICTS also somehow missed several of the alleged 9/11 hijackers who allegedly flew out of Boston’s Logan airport on September 11th 2001. ICTS also handled security for London’s bus network during the July 7, 2005, ‘suicide’ bomb attacks. In fact, two of its subsidiaries, ICTS UK and ICTS Europe Systems, are based at Tavistock House, Tavistock Square in London, scene of the London Stagecoach bus bombing that day.

That’s quite a record, all in all.

Posted in Coincidence?, Covert Operations, False Flag Operations, Outsourced
[&&]{**}[##]

http://www.ictseurope.com/

http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/ICTS.html

http://www.ictseurope.com/global-locations/belgium

[&&]{**}[##]

‘Mason’ Present at Brussels, Paris and Boston Terror Attacks

March 23rd, 2016 by Kevin

Don’t look at me. I just work here.

Via: Metro:

A teenager who survived the Brussels airport attack was a block away from the Boston Marathon finish line at the time of the bombing and was in Paris on November 13 last year.

Mason Wells, 19, was hit by shrapnel when the bombs, which were hidden in suitcases, detonated. He ruptured his Achilles tendon and suffered second- and third-degree burns on his face and hands.

Remarkably, Mason, a Mormon missionary, also survived the Boston Marathon bombing on April 15, 2013, and the Paris attacks last November.

Posted in [???], Coincidence?, False Flag Operations, Religion
[&&]{**}[##]

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2016/ ... tacks.html

[&&]{**}[##]

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2016/ ... orism.html

[&&]{**}[##]

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2016/ ... ssels.html

[&&]{**}[##]

http://robinwestenra.blogspot.com/2016/ ... th-of.html
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Sat Apr 02, 2016 3:10 pm

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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Wed Apr 06, 2016 10:38 pm

NSA hacking secrets are revelead by former NSA agent – Austin Daily Science

http://www.albanydailystar.com/technolo ... 15906.html


(Usenix Enigma 2016 Conference Video Added)Inside the notoriously secretive National Security Agency is an elite unit made up of some of the best hackers on the planet, charged with breaking into computer networks around the world.When the National Security Agency hacks into a computer network, it generally relies on tried-and-true methods widely known in the security industry.

NSA’s Tailored Access Operations are revelead
Exactly how the Tailored Access Operations (TAO) cell works is a closely-held secret — despite some recent leaks — but in a rare public appearance, TAO’s chief shed some light on how America’s top cyber spies do their thing.

Rob Joyce, the NSA’s chief of tailored access o
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Re: Frogger sodomizes Donkey Kong on a Commodore 64

Postby fruhmenschen » Sat Apr 09, 2016 12:12 pm

Bonus Read

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/crime/ar ... 236986.php

MenuSections
Judge: FBI-tied child porn collector 'not a danger' to school
Seattle man gets $1,000 fine, isn't banned from home across from Ballard school

BY LEVI PULKKINEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF Updated 3:06 pm, Friday, April 8, 2016





1.
from Matt Connolly retired Mass Assistant DA
http://mattofboston.com/

2.

This just in from attorney Mike Kuzma

http://www.dailypublic.com/articles/040 ... ing-vs-usa

--
Michael Kuzma, Esq.
1893 Clinton Street
Buffalo, NY 14206
(716) 822-7645-office
(716) 474-3824-cell
(716) 823-1815-fax


3.

http://www.occurrencesforeigndomestic.com


1297822734775_ORIGINAL
America’s heart of darkness
April 8, 2016 Uncategorized black people, boar, bores, Clintons, Cruz,
Mossack Fonseca, poor people, prisons, profits, rascals, rich people,
rogues, Sanders, super-predators, Syria, tokens, Ukraine
America’s heart of darkness

“… The lies here are much, much deeper. They go back much longer, and
take us all the way into America’s heart of darkness…..”

[&&]{**}[##]

music from https://www.youtube.com

{**}

I could write a book about the genocidal targeting of the
African-American community during the Clinton Administration.

In fact, I did.

It is called Dillon, Read & Co and the Aristocracy of Stock Profits.

by Catherine Austin Fitts

More here:

https://solari.com/blog/unanswered-ques ... community/

[&&]{**}[##]

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/2/29 ... e-Clintons

[&&]{**}[##]

One of the more controversial provisions of the Violent Crime Control
and Law Enforcement Act overturned a section of the Higher Education
Act of 1965 permitting prison inmates to receive a Pell Grant for
postsecondary education while incarcerated.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Violent_C ... cement_Act

[&&]{**}[##]

“… There are so many ways that the Clinton Presidency was toxic to
black people in particular and people of color in general. … Today I
want to focus on one piece of legislation that the U.S. Congress
passed in 1994 which is still reverberating in 2012. The 1994 Omnibus
Crime Bill (spearheaded by Joe Biden and Bill Clinton) cost $30
billion dollars and helped to accelerate the growth of the prison
industrial complex in ways that we are only just beginning to
understand. The bill’s provisions included:

1. $10.8 billion in federal matching funds to local governments to
hire 100,000 new police officers over 5 years.

2. $10 billion for the construction of new federal prisons.

3. An expansion of the number of federal crimes to which the death
penalty applied from two to fifty-eight (the bill also eliminated an
existing statute that prohibited the execution of mentally
incapacitated defendants).

4. A three strikes proposal that mandated life sentences for anyone
convicted of three “violent” felonies.

5. A section that allowed children as young as thirteen to be tried as
adults.

6. The creation of special courts able to deport noncitizens alleged
to be “engaged in terrorist activity” on the basis of secret evidence.

7. Established guidelines for states to track sex offenders. Required
states to track sex offenders by confirming their place of residence
annually for ten years after their release into the community or
quarterly for the rest of their lives if the sex offender was
convicted of a violent sex crime. [This sex offender registry law has
caused havoc in the legal system]

These are just a few of the greatest hits from the 1994 Crime Bill…..”

http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/201 ... ck-people/

[&&]{**}[##]



https://static01.nyt.com/images/2015/07 ... ter675.jpg

“I signed a bill that made the problem worse,” Mr. Clinton said. “And
I want to admit it.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/16/us/po ... r-too-long

By PETER BAKER JULY 15, 201

[&&]{**}[##]

Reuters

See realtime coverage

Bill Clinton confronts protesters who say his crime reforms hurt
blacks

Reuters

2000 hours GMT-7 4/7/16

NEW YORK Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday faced down
protesters angry at the impact his 1994 crime reforms have had on
black Americans and defended the record of his wife, Hillary Clinton,
who is relying on the support of black voters in her …

Rorschach’s Crime Bill The Atlantic

‘Tell the truth:’ Bill Clinton clashes with Black Lives Matter
protesters Fox News

Opinion:Bill Clinton defends wife’s ‘super predator’ comment to
protestersJerusalem Post Israel News

[Ed.: It’s going to be interesting to see which city/convention
gathers the most confrontation, heat, police state intervention, paid
protestors (Philadelphia or Cleveland) and just how the mainstream
media, the social media, and the alternative media cover them. Both
events beg for an organized and coordinated coalition involving live
blogging teams.]

[&&]{**}[##]

Los Angeles Times

See realtime coverage

Wild police pursuit in rain includes ‘doughnuts’ on the 101, hugs and
a TMZ tour bus

Los Angeles Times

It had all the ingredients for a classic, made-for-Los-Angeles police
chase: a convertible with its top down performing doughnuts on Sunset
Boulevard, people cheering from the sidewalk, a leisurely cruise past
the Hollywood Walk of Fame and a close …

Related

Los Angeles police chase ends with burglary suspects taking selfies,
chatting Fox News

Burglary Suspects in Mustang Convertible Lead Wild Police Chase in LA
ABC News

Opinion:After a High-Speed Chase in LA, Suspected Burglars Have Time
to Pose for Selfies Before Cops Arrive
[&&]{**}[##]

Col. Lang has updated commentary on both Syria and the Ukraine.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/

[&&]{**}[##]

http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/04/no-co ... ert-grave/

[&&]{**}[##]

Hillary Clinton Made More in 12 Speeches to Big Banks Than Most of Us
Earn in a Lifetime

Posted by Michele Kearney at 6:45 PM
[&&]{**}[##]

Definitely worth a fast scan re: Sanders/Clinton

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/04/ ... 72016.html

[&&]{**}[##]

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/20 ... otic-navy/

[&&]{**}[##]

April 7-8. 2016 — Was the father of presidential hopeful Cruz
involved in the JFK assassination? (in: GENERAL ARCHIVES April 2016)
[WayneMadsenReports]

Apr 7, 2016

Evidence mounts that Rafael Cruz, Sr. was in New Orleans in 1963 and
that he knew anti-Castro CIA agents, including Lee Harvey Oswald, Clay
Shaw, Guy Banister, Carlos Bringuier, and Sergio Arcacha Smith.

[&&]{**}[##]



http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politic ... oken-gaffe

{**}

Political Substance



http://s3.amazonaws.com/media.wbur.org/ ... 0/sand-500×333.jpg

http://onpoint.wbur.org/2015/10/01/tran ... -interview

{**}

http://cctaride.org/wordpress/wp-conten ... map_03.pdf

{**}

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/ ... r-commuter

{**}


subway tokens is her doing a fast photo-op to demonstrate her point;
she showed up at a subway station– reminiscent of Bush’s appearance at
a supermarket after he couldn’t name the price of a gallon of milk —
to demonstrate her connection with the common people and immediately
documented it — with entourage (including Huma in close proximity)
announcing her as the next President. But it took her five attempts to
swipe the access card correctly. Can you imagine her riding the subway
without the entourage and the security and getting trampled by a herd
of New Yorkers as she fumbled at the turnstile?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcrbsewFI5w

[&&]{**}[##]





https://desertpeace.files.wordpress.com ... =477&h=244

http://memoryholeblog.com/2016/04/07/us ... data-dump/

[&&]{**}[##]

What the Panama Papers Tell Us

The Panama papers revealed only one of the vast networks used by
criminals, corrupt politicians and tax evaders to hide wealth from
scrutiny. There are many, many more.

My friend, Tom Barnett, at his new digs on resilient.com explains why
this leak is important:

There’s nothing new in tax evasion through parking one’s financial
assets “offshore.” That’s been around for a very long time. Instead,
what’s truly stunning here is the routinization and systematizing of
these nefarious practices. It reminds me of the leap from a pogrom to
the Holocaust: a massacre you can attempt to blame on particular
circumstances, timing, leaders, etc., but a genuine effort at genocide
is something operating on an entirely different level. The former,
because it’s short-lived, can be sustained by emotion, but the latter,
because it takes years of consistent effort, requires something far
worse – a truly deformed sense of morality.

I concur.

This is the same reason I found the financial crisis of 2007-2016 so
troubling (others found it troubling too since it launched both the
Tea party and Occupy):

This financial crisis demonstrated, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that
the entire US system from Wall Street to Washington is an elaborate
fraud.

A morally bankrupt system we can’t (read: won’t) dismantle because it
has become routine and accepted.

A system that is actively destroying the socioeconomic fabric of the
US and strangling our future.

A truly deformed sense of morality that has become disturbingly
pervasive.

Have fun,

John Robb

Posted by John Robb on Thursday, 07 April 2016 at 11:15 AM | Permalink

[&&]{**}[##]

The Panama Papers: This Is the Consequence of Centralized Money and
Power

If we don’t change the way money is created and distributed, we will
never change anything.

Fiat Chrysler cuts 1,300 workers in Michigan, scraps shift

War on Cash: JPMorgan Chase limiting cash withdrawals at U.S. ATM
machines

US Senator Wants Billions in Emergency Aid for Mideast

Graham Seeks Funds for Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon and Mideast
‘Marshall Plan’

A presidential decree says Russia’s new National Guard will be given
broad powers to suppress riots

Russia’s newly-created National Guard to have no right to shoot at
crowd — bill

Dutch Voters Reject Ukraine Deal

Dutch voters struck a blow against the E.U.’s Ukrainian association
agreement – and the incessant Russia-bashing that has surrounded it –
creating hope for less belligerence in Europe.

## The candidates ##

Hillary Clinton linked to ‘Panama Papers’ through lobbying firm,
Russian bank

Blast From the Past – Hillary Clinton vs. Bernie Sanders on Panama

Hillary Clinton Fundraiser Hosted by All-Star Cast of Financial
Regulators Who Joined Wall Street

Wall St is pretty certain Hillary Clinton will be president

Yes, the Panama Papers Could Really End Hillary Clinton’s Campaign

http://ricefarmer.blogspot.com/2016/04/ ... -2016.html

[&&]{**}[##]

Documents dubbed the ‘Panama Papers’ have revealed the names of over
200 US residents who used the services of Panamanian firm Mossack
Fonseca. Among them are several businessmen charged with financial
crimes, or already convicted of wrongdoing.

Some of the names on the list appear to be retired Americans seeking
to buy real estate in Panama and Costa Rica, according to the
International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the
US-based group that is publishing revelations from the documents
obtained by an anonymous hacker in 2015.

Initial revelations by ICIJ have sought to implicate celebrities and
politicians across the world. It has since emerged that Mossack
Fonseca had registered over 1,000 businesses in the US – primarily in
Nevada and Wyoming – and that it had many US clients in Panama as
well.

READ MORE: ‘Panama Papers’ company set up 1000+ businesses in USA

Among the company’s US clients listed in the documents are four
businessmen who have been convicted of financial crimes, as well as
one who is currently facing serious charges. Their identities were
first made public by McClatchy Newspapers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KzqRHwcXXw

Robert Miracle of Washington was sentenced in 2011 to 13 years in
prison for mail fraud and tax evasion, over his role in a $65 million
Ponzi scheme involving an oil field in Indonesia. In 2008, John
Michael “Red” Crim of Pennsylvania was convicted to eight years in
prison, for involvement in a plot to cheat the US tax authorities of
$10 million in revenue using fraudulent trusts. The same year,
Jonathan Kaplan of Massachusetts received a 5-year probation sentence
for accepting a bribe from a client of his prepaid telephone card
business. In 2007, California real-estate mogul Igor Olenicoff was
sentenced to two years of probation and a $52 million fine, for tax
evasion and use of offshore shell companies.

Wall Street financier Benjamin Wey was indicted in September 2015, on
charges of securities fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy and money
laundering. The government claims he used family members to secretly
gain control of large blocks of stock in companies through “reverse
mergers” between Chinese corporations and US shell companies –
incorporated by Mossack Fonseca, according to McClatchy. Wey’s
indictment says he accumulated tens of millions of dollars in illegal
profits by manipulating the companies’ stock prices.

Announcing the indictment, US Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern
District of New York called Wey a “master of manipulation.” Wey,
president of the New York Global Group, told USA Today there was no
evidence he’d ever owned or controlled a foreign account.

The leaked documents have been of great interest to the US government,
which said it would use them in prosecuting financial crimes as well
as upholding the sanctions regime against countries such as Russia.

“The US government intently focuses on investigating possible illicit
activity, including violations of US tax laws or sanctions, using all
sources of information, both public and non-public,” the Department of
Treasury told Bloomberg News in an emailed statement.

Ernst Wolff, a journalist and author of ‘Pillaging the World: The
History and Politics of the IMF,’ says the US is using the scandal to
cause upheaval around the world and redirect the flow of money into
tax havens in America.

“Of course, they have to put in some American individuals and some
American companies in order to kind of camouflage the whole thing,”
Wolff told RT. “But those are only minor people in there. The big
people in there are non-American citizens: they are Europeans; they
are people from different countries all over the world.”

“This is this anti-Russian, anti-China, anti-Iran campaign that just
keeps beating in America,” Gerald Celente, publisher of the Trends
Journal, told RT. “I believe that this might be a push back from Soros
for Russia last year banning a number of American NGOs. So, this could
be payback.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4l4WAZdWOWQ

https://www.rt.com/usa/338834-panama-papers-sanctions/

[&&]{**}[##]

2016

OOPS! BILL CLINTON SAYS HE ACCIDENTALLY TOOK $500,000 FROM ALGERIA
DURING KEY ARMS NEGOTIATION WITH STATE DEPARTMENT Downtrend (Sherry).
The Clinton Foundation bribe machine is finally starting to be
exposed.

Hillary Clinton Fundraiser Hosted by All-Star Cast of Financial
Regulators Who Joined Wall Street Intercept (resilc)

Sanders: Clinton ‘Not Qualified’ to Be President New York Magazine.
Ooh, I hope she takes the bait. But his critique needs to be much
broader.

The best evidence I’ve seen that Bernie Sanders’s political revolution
might be possible Vox (furzy)

Clinton Campaign Attacks Intensify To Halt Sanders’ Win Streak
ShadowProof (martha r). This is beautiful. Sanders raises more money
every time she attacks, and that’s before you get the fact that many
(most) of her salvos backfire.

The Problem With Hillary Clinton Isn’t Just Her Corporate Cash. It’s
Her Corporate Worldview. Naomi Klein, Nation (martha r)

Some Democratic Lawmakers Are Open to Removing Lobbyists as
Superdelegates Intercept (martha r)

Bernie Sanders: “Israel’s ‘positive’ US ties hinge on bettering
relations with Palestinians” Jewish Telegraphic Agency (Judy B)

TRUMP LEADS IN PENNSYLVANIA AS CLINTON EDGES SANDERS, QUINNIPIAC
UNIVERSITY POLL FINDS; BOY NEXT DOOR KASICH RUNS BEST IN NOVEMBER
MATCHUPS Quinnipiac Press Release

Poll: Hillary Clinton Plummets in Crucial Pennsylvania Primary, Lead
Falls From 22 to 6 latest.com

Roger Stone: ‘They Ought to Put the Handcuffs On’ Ted Cruz for Vote
Fraud Breitbart (furzy). Wow, just wait for the ugliness to get even
worse as the Republican convention approaches. As Lambert likes to
say, “Pass the popcorn.”

Ivanka Trump China-made scarves recalled Financial Times

Donald Trump snubs Europe’s far-right Politico

Cruz Explains ‘New York Values’ to New Yorkers New York Magazine

Gunz

Facebook Groups Act as Weapons Bazaars for Militias New York Times
(furzy)

Don Blankenship Gets 1 Year for Mining Disaster – BP Oil Spill
Engineer Gets Probation Charles Pierce, Esquire

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/04/links-4716.html

[&&]{**}[##]

April 6-7, 2016 — ICIJ shows its U.S. government slip

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ),
which receives its funding from the CIA-connected U.S. Agency for
International Development (USAID) and Ford Foundation, as well as
George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, has “shown its slip” by
declaring that it will not make available the entire cache of hacked
documents from the Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca public.
Instead, ICIJ maintains that it does not want to expose “sensitive
information of innocent private individuals along with the public
figures.”

We have heard this type of language before with massive leaks,
including the classified National Security Agency documents leaked by
Edward Snowden. In that case, EBay and PayPal billionaire Pierre
Omidyar effectively “bought back” the NSA documents from advocacy
journalist Glenn Greenwald for a $250 million bribe that funded
Greenwald’s new journalistic contrivance “First Look.” After the deal,
NSA documents released by Greenwald and his associates were redacted
in the traditional style of NSA and U.S. Intelligence Community
Freedom of Information Act censors.

In the case of ICIJ, it is clear that government financial regulators
around the world will be entitled to access any of the over 4.8
million emails, 3 million database files, and 2.1 million PDFs
contained in the ICIJ’s 2.4 terrabytes tranche of Mossack Fonseca
documents. And it is very likely that since the documents were
obtained by criminal hackers, governments will shy away from
subpoenaing the documents but will use their connections with USAID,
the CIA, Soros, and the Council on Foreign Relations-linked Ford
Foundation to arrange for unofficial document access.

WikiLeaks also cut side deals when it obtained over 250,000 classified
State Department cables. Working with the corporate media in the same
style that ICIJ coordinated its release of Mossack Fonseca documents
with over 100 corporate media outlets and some 400 journalists around
the world, WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange worked with The
New York Times and Le Figaro to ensure that the initial release of
classified information was focused on Iran and, for example , not on
Israel.

Ironically, WikiLeaks is now condemning ICIJ for not releasing all of
the Mossack Fonseca documents in its possession. The scene is similar
to two vagabonds who stumble over a suitcase full of money and fight
each other for the lion’s share of the currency notes.

http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/articles/20160406

[&&]{**}[##]

https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress. ... rn-powers/

By Brandon Turbeville
[&&]{**}[##]

THURSDAY, APRIL 07, 2016

Pistons popping, ain’t no stopping now!

“”The Cat Is Out Of The Bag” – In Interview Mossack Fonseca Founders
Admit It’s Over… To Rothschild’s Delight” This is very simple legal
work. Pulling shelf companies off the shelf and serving up a standard
trust agreement. This isn’t the kind of fancy ‘tax planning’ the
really big guys would get from white shoe law firms or accounting
offices in New York or London (that’s why the really big guys are
missing from the list). The only thing you get from Mossack Fonseca is
the expectation of utter privacy, and that has been blown up. The
Panama City base just adds a veneer of sleaziness which would appeal
to a certain class of punter. Despite the fact that the Soros stooges
are trying to use this, with no evidence whatsoever (so what else is
new?), as an attack on enemies of World Jewry doesn’t alter the fact
that this incident does not look anything like real investigative
journalism directed at fraudster tax evaders, but does look like an
attack on the business of Mossack Fonseca by a competitor , a
competitor that happens to have access to the abilities of a national
intelligence operation.

[&&]{**}[##]

Rothschild Humiliates Obama, Reveals That “America Is The Biggest Tax
Haven In The World”

Submitted by Tyler Durden on 04/06/201

In his speech yesterday, following the Treasury’s crack down on
corporate tax inversions, Obama blamed “poorly designed” laws for
allowing illicit money transfers worldwide. Since the speech came at a
time when the entire world is still abuzz with the disclosure from the
Panama Papers, Obama touched on that as well: “Tax avoidance is a big,
global problem” he said on Tuesday, “a lot of it is legal, but that’s
exactly the problem” because a lot of it is also illegal.

There is one major problem with that: of all the countries in the
world, it is none other than the country of which Obama is president,
the United States, that has become the world’s favorite offshore “tax
haven” destination.
As Bloomberg, which first broke the story about Nevada’s use as a
prominent tax haven early this year, writes, “Panama and the U.S. have
at least one thing in common: Neither has agreed to new international
standards to make it harder for tax evaders and money launderers to
hide their money.”

Over the past several years, amid increased scrutiny by journalists,
regulators and law enforcers, the global tax-haven landscape has
shifted. In an effort to catch tax dodgers, almost 100 countries and
other jurisdictions have agreed since 2014 to impose new disclosure
requirements for bank accounts, trusts and some other investments held
by international customers — standards issued by the Organization for
Economic Cooperation and Development, a government-funded
international policy group.

In short: while Obama is complaining about corporate tax avoidance and
slamming Panama, he is encouraging it in the U.S.

Places like Switzerland and Bermuda are agreeing, at least in
principle, to share bank account information with tax authorities in
other countries. Only a handful of nations have declined to sign on.
The most prominent is the U.S. The other ona is, of course, Panama,
and we just saw what happened there.



The latest reporting “underscores the secrecy in Panama,” said
Stefanie Ostfeld, the acting head of the U.S. office of the
anti-corruption group Global Witness. “What’s lesser known, is the
U.S. is just as big a secrecy jurisdiction as so many of these
Caribbean countries and Panama. We should not want to be the
playground for the world’s dirty money, which is what we are right
now.”

For Obama, however, it is important to not let facts get in the way of
a good speech, or welcoming the dirty, laundered money of the world’s
uber wealthy, be they criminals or not, as they transfer their wealth
from Panama to Nevada, Wyoming and other tax sheltering destinations
in the U.S.

To be sure, the US has taken steps to keep track of US assets abroad,
but not of foreign assets in the US.

In 2010, Congress passed the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act, or
Fatca, as the U.S. Justice Department began prosecuting Swiss banks
for enabling tax evasion. Fatca forces certain financial firms to
disclose to the Internal Revenue Service any foreign accounts held by
U.S. citizens.



Fatca doesn’t, however, bind banks to provide information on
foreigners with U.S. accounts to regulators abroad. The U.S. has
entered into agreements with some other countries requiring such
exchange with foreign regulators, but tax planners say they are
considered relatively easy to avoid.



That’s where the OECD came in, with its own international take on
Fatca that the U.S. declined to sign.

Panama has been one country which has done everything in its power to
delay and dilute its compliance with OECD regulations.

In a January interview, an official at Trident Trust Co., a big
provider of offshore vehicles, said it was seeing a large number of
accounts moving into Panama because of its weak commitment to the OECD
regulations. “The Panama office was extremely overworked, because a
lot of people are re-domiciling to Panama from BVI and Cayman,” said
Alice Rokahr, a Trident official based in South Dakota. In late
February, OECD officials said publicly that Panama had been “removed
from the list of committed jurisdictions” that agreed to share
information.



The latest coverage of shell companies created by a Panamanian law
firm could give the OECD new ammunition to put pressure on the country
to sign onto the information-sharing agreements, some tax experts
said.

But while one can criticize Panama, and with cause, for enabling tax
evasion, at least its leaders don’t pretend to be saints, who do
precisely what they condemn. Far less can be said about Obama.

“The U.S. doesn’t follow a lot of the international standards, and
because of its political power, it’s able to continue,” said Bruce
Zagaris an attorney at Berliner Corcoran & Rowe LLP who specializes in
international tax and money laundering regulations. “It’s basically
the only country that can continue to do that. Others like Panama have
tried, but Panama can’t punch as high as the U.S.”

And confirming just that, in a statement issued Monday by OECD
secretary general Angel Gurria, the OECD said “Panama is the last
major holdout that continues to allow funds to be hidden offshore from
tax and law-enforcement authorities.”

The statement didn’t mention the U.S., which is the OECD’s largest
funder.

And there it is: the US, simply because it is the biggest – and
wealthiest – bully in the yard, can dispense morality all day long,
but just don’t ask it to practice what it preaches.

Meanwhile, advisers around the world are increasingly using the U.S.
resistance to the OECD’s standards as a marketing tool – attracting
overseas money to U.S. state-level tax and secrecy havens like Nevada
and South Dakota, potentially keeping it hidden from their home
governments.

Advisors such as Rothschild , profiled initially by Bloomberg’s Jesse
Drucker.

Rothschild, the centuries-old European financial institution, has
opened a trust company in Reno, Nev., a few blocks from the Harrah’s
and Eldorado casinos. It is now moving the fortunes of wealthy foreign
clients out of offshore havens such as Bermuda, subject to the new
international disclosure requirements, and into Rothschild-run trusts
in Nevada, which are exempt.



* * *



For financial advisers, the current state of play is simply a good
business opportunity. In a draft of his San Francisco presentation,
Rothschild’s Penney wrote that the U.S. “is effectively the biggest
tax haven in the world.” The U.S., he added in language later excised
from his prepared remarks, lacks “the resources to enforce foreign tax
laws and has little appetite to do so.”

And that is all you need to know.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-0 ... ax-evasion

[&&]{**}[##]

U.S. power grid alert: “Aggressive foreign government hackers broke
into American companies 17 times between October 1, 2013, and
September 30, 2014,” according to a Department of Homeland Security
intelligence assessment from late January. “In two cases they snuck
into U.S. petroleum organizations, and hackers are ‘suspected of
exfiltrating data’ from one of them,” CNN reported Wednesday.

They hack “primarily to conduct cyber espionage … to conduct a
damaging or disruptive attack in the event of hostilities with the
United States,” the assessment read, adding, damaging cyberattacks
against the American energy sector is “possible but not likely.” More
from CNN here, or check out the assessment for yourself, here.

Who will be the next DNI? Not Mike Hayden, likely. The former CIA
chief and media-friendly general has been whispered for the job for
months in our ear, but now he’s come out endorsing… John Kasich?
Doesn’t really help his chances with frontrunners Clinton and Trump.
So, who’s it gonna be? Tell us who you’d like to see take over for Jim
Clapper by emailing us here.

Your Thursday #LongRead: American government surveillance planes are
working the U.S. skies, but don’t worry: they “usually take the
weekends off,” Buzzfeed reported Wednesday. “ Each weekday, dozens of
U.S. government aircraft take to the skies and slowly circle over
American cities. Piloted by agents of the FBI and the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS), the planes are fitted with high-resolution
video cameras, often working with ‘augmented reality’ software that
can superimpose onto the video images everything from street and
business names to the owners of individual homes. At least a few
planes have carried devices that can track the cell phones of people
below. Most of the aircraft are small, flying a mile or so above
ground, and many use exhaust mufflers to mute their engines — making
them hard to detect by the people they’re spying on.” Loads of data
visuals on the topic, here.

How do the world’s far-flung militants acquire heat-seeking missiles,
machine guns and more? Facebook, of course, NYT‘s C.J. Chivers
reports. “The weapons include many distributed by the United States to
security forces and their proxies in the Middle East. These online
bazaars, which violate Facebook’s recent ban on the private sales of
weapons, have been appearing in regions where the Islamic State has
its strongest presence. This week, after The New York Times provided
Facebook with seven examples of suspicious groups, the company shut
down six of them.”

Chivers’s findings “were based on a study by the private consultancy
Armament Research Services about arms trafficking on social media in
Libya, along with reporting by The Times on similar trafficking in
Syria, Iraq and Yemen.” Catch his report here, or the ARS report,
here.

Lastly today—there’s been too much caution and too few experienced
voices inside the Obama administration, former SecDefs Robert Gates,
Leon Panetta and Chuck Hagel told Fox News as part of Bret Baier’s
report “Rising Threats: Shrinking Military.” Hagel went a bit further,
adding National Security Adviser Susan Rice’s inexperienced White
House staff held meetings on international affairs that “descended
into nonsense.”

Hagel: “I don’t think there’s one veteran on [President Barack
Obama’s] senior staff at the White House. I don’t believe there’s one
business person. I don’t believe there’s one person that’s ever run
anything… Other than Vice President [Joe] Biden, none of them have
ever been elected to anything.”

His bottom line: “The world becomes more dangerous, not less
dangerous, when America gets less involved in the world. I don’t mean
invading and occupying and imposing—but leading, engaging.” Watch the
rest, including a rant against 35-year-old Ph.Ds whom Hagel said
talked too much to simply show how smart they are, here.

http://link.govexec.com/view/DBrief/ThusApr07

[&&]{**}[##]

http://snuffysmithsblog.blogspot.com/20 ... ering.html

Ed.: Assuming Alzheimer’s has not snuck in the side door and my memory
is still functional, I recall that Snuffy’s brilliant son (a graduate
of a small school at the intersection of history, foliage and a massif
with a glacial cirque) went on to grad school at MIT.

What goes on at MIT always warrants attention — SecDef Carter went up
to the great historical incubator of textile arts, computer science
and biotechnology to seed a challenge for “advanced functional fibers”
— which reminds me of an old item once seen in Sports Illustrated
about the people who make fun of the club football team at MIT.

When the opposing team would score, the few fans in attendance (those
not in the labs, the library or the study hall) would render a
weak-voiced rendition of a this cheer:

“It’s alright'
fruhmenschen
 
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