Monthly Archives: June 2013
Fighting corruption with mass protests in Brasil
One politician was elected to Brazil’s Congress while under investigation for murder after having an adversary killed with a chain saw. Another is wanted by Interpol after being found guilty of diverting more than $10 million from a public road project to offshore bank accounts. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/world/americas/public-rage-catching-up-with-brazils-congress.html?hp&_r=0 a special ire has been reserved for Congress and […]
Pentagon Cyber Command hints at internet “kill switch”
The Pentagon is updating its classified rules for warfare in cyberspace for the first time in seven years. “If the nation’s critical infrastructure came under attack from poisonous code over a computer network from overseas, the first effort would be gathering information on the malware and the systems under attack. Network defenses would be in […]
Couldn’t have said it better: Criminal NSA
This Op-Ed piece in the NYT by Jennifer Stisa Granick, director of civil liberties at the Stanford Center for Internet and Society, and Christopher Jon Sprigman, professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, outlines the criminality of the surveillance state the US has become. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/the-criminal-nsa.html?_r=0 The twin revelations that telecom carriers have been […]
National identification law included in immigration bill
The sweeping immigration measure advancing rapidly in the Senate goes far beyond much-debated border security measures and a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants with a crucial requirement that could affect every American who takes a new job in the future. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/us/politics/bill-to-expand-us-database-to-verify-hires.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&hp The provision, a linchpin of the legislation, would require all employers in the […]
More evidence of corporate america supporting Hitler
The list of institutions and industries that have been accused of whitewashing their links to the Third Reich is long, including various governments, the Vatican, Swiss banks and American corporations like I.B.M., General Motors and DuPont. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/books/scholar-asserts-that-hollywood-avidly-aided-nazis.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0&ref=general&src=me In “The Collaboration: Hollywood’s Pact With Hitler,” Ben Urwand draws on a wealth of previously uncited documents to […]
War on Terror paves way for neo-imperalism in Africa
The United States and Niger will bring together in that West African nation police officers, customs inspectors and other authorities from a half-dozen countries in the region to hone their collective skills in securing lightly guarded borders against heavily armed traffickers and terrorists. Denmark has already forged a partnership with Burkina Faso to combat violent […]
US Supreme Court guts Voting Rights Act
The Supreme Court on Tuesday effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote, freeing nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval even though racial minorities continued to face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/us/supreme-court-ruling.html?ref=us […]
1 million in the streets of Brazil change policy
Brazil’s Congress has rejected a proposed constitutional amendment that was a key grievance of protesters who took to streets across the country. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-23058386 Demonstrators had argued PEC 37, which would have limited the power of federal prosecutors to investigate crimes, might open the way for more corruption. Congress also voted to use all the royalties […]
Greek austerity win win for banksters
The plan developed by the Greek government and its international creditors to recapitalize the country’s banks involves an unusual twist as stock offerings go: the new shares in the banks will give investors free and potentially lucrative warrants that will entitle them to buy many more shares in the future at a predetermined price. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/26/business/global/greek-bank-bailout-plan-may-reward-some-involved-in-collapse.html?ref=world […]
Divide and conquer working to cull Syrian populace
Syria’s widening civil war has killed more than 100,000 people in the 27-month-old conflict, with pro-government forces taking far more casualties than rebels seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad, while civilians accounted for more than one-third of the overall fatalities, the biggest single category. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/27/world/middleeast/syria.html?hp&_r=0 The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based […]
CBS Meet the Press insinuates Greenwald complicit
“To the extent that you have aided and abetted Snowden, even in his current movements, why shouldn’t you, Mr. Greenwald, be charged with a crime?” said CBS (Columbia Broadcasting System) news anchor David Gregory. Journalist and and attorney Glenn Greenwald replied that it was “pretty extraordinary that anybody who would call themselves a journalist would […]
Assange and journalists in the NWO crosshairs
No reporter had ever been successfully prosecuted on a conspiracy charge but that recent actions, like the investigation of a Fox News reporter, James Rosen, was evidence that the government was “moving toward criminalizing the reporting process.” http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/25/world/europe/wikileaks-back-in-news-never-left-us-radar.html?hpw&_r=0 The Justice Department “and its accompanying F.B.I. investigation are blinded by their zeal to get rid of […]
Google’s RFID pill: the difference between health and death
As society struggles with the privacy implications of wearable computers like Google Glass, scientists, researchers and some start-ups are already preparing the next, even more intrusive wave of computing: ingestible computers and minuscule sensors stuffed inside pills. http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/06/23/disruptions-medicine-that-monitors-you/?ref=technology Some people on the cutting edge are already swallowing them to monitor a range of health data […]
Central banks threaten to crash economy over EU labor costs
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a group representing central banks including the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank, on Sunday warned European political leaders that they should not expect central banks’ cheap-money policy to hold the global economy together forever. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/24/business/global/central-banks-criticize-europe-for-political-gridlock-on-economy.html?hp The B.I.S. report avoided singling out individual countries, but it was clear […]
Chinese dissident given spyware in electronics
Several electronic devices that were given to Chen Guangcheng, a Chinese legal advocate, soon after his arrival in the United States last year were loaded with spyware designed to track his family’s movements and their online activity. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/world/asia/chinese-advocates-devices-were-loaded-with-spyware-nyu-says.html?ref=world Two of those devices, an iPhone and an iPad, were given to Mr. Chen by China Aid, […]
DEA agent assassinated in Colombia
A Drug Enforcement Administration agent was killed in Colombia, the American ambassador, P. Michael McKinley, said Friday. Colombian authorities said the American agent, James Watson, 43, was stabbed four times. Mr. Watson left a meeting with friends at a Bogotá restaurant and got into a taxi. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/22/world/americas/dea-agent-in-colombia-is-killed-in-possible-attempt-at-robbery.html?ref=world Col. Camilo Cabana of the National Police said […]
Pentagon looks to aid foreign troops that violate human rights
The Pentagon is increasingly training and equipping local security services to combat militants in their countries. A 16-year-old law that bars American aid to foreign security forces that violate human rights is drawing unusual fire from some top military commanders who say it undermines their ability to train the troops to fight militants. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/21/us/politics/military-says-law-barring-us-aid-to-rights-violators-hurts-training-mission.html?ref=us The […]
Google keeps snatched wi-fi data in UK
Google has been given 35 days to delete any remaining data it “mistakenly collected” while taking pictures for its Street View service, or face criminal proceedings. The UK investigation into Google reopened last year after further revelations about the data taken from wi-fi networks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23002166 Google Street View, which launched in 2007, has been one […]
NSA and Tech companies are one entity
Max Kelly, the chief security officer for Facebook and the man who was responsible for protecting the personal information of more than one billion users from outside attacks, left the social media company in 2010 and went to work for another giant institution that manages and analyzes large pools of data: the National Security Agency. […]
FBI admits using drones over US
The FBI has used drones for surveillance in limited cases over US soil. The director, Robert Mueller, said the FBI was in the “initial stages” of developing drone policies. He said the agency had “very few” drones and had used them in “a very minimal way” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22976598 Mr Mueller described the drone use in testimony […]
Dirty Babylon 