Monthly Archives: August 2013
German people to jealously guard internet privacy
Continuing revelations, based on documents leaked by Edward J. Snowden, of sweeping American digital surveillance around the world are rattling the close ties between the United States and Germany. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/europe/surveillance-revelations-shake-us-german-ties.html?ref=world In a country scarred by Nazi and Communist pasts, the issue is prompting not just a debate about privacy and data protection, but also […]
Israeli refugee camp raid leaves 3 Palestinians dead
Israeli security forces shot and killed three Palestinian men early Monday when violent clashes broke out during a raid in the Qalandia refugee camp, between Jerusalem and the West Bank city of Ramallah, according to witnesses and Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/world/middleeast/israeli-raid-on-palestinian-camp-turns-deadly.html?hp The raid was the deadliest episode in the West Bank in […]
Egypt military uses propaganda to thwart defections
The Egyptian military has enlisted Muslim scholars in a propaganda campaign to persuade soldiers and policemen that they have a religious duty to obey orders to use deadly force against supporters of the ousted president, Mohamed Morsi. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/26/world/middleeast/egypt.html?hp generals are worried about insubordination in the ranks, after security forces have killed hundreds of their fellow […]
Captured CIA operative claims to be photojournalist in Syria
Matthew Schrier, 35, was a prisoner in Syria of jihadi fighters opposed to President Bashar al-Assad. Held in bases and prisons run by two Islamist rebel groups, he said, he was robbed, beaten and accused of being an American spy. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/world/middleeast/american-tells-of-odyssey-as-prisoner-of-syrian-rebels.html?hpw Mr. Schrier was new to war photography (and was never a professional photographer). Born […]
US intelligence and banksters feed private spy companies
In 2012, more than $1 billion in venture financing poured into security start-ups, more than double the amount in 2010, according to the National Venture Capital Association. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/23/technology/the-pentagon-as-start-up-incubator.html?src=recg For years, the Pentagon has knocked on Silicon Valley’s door in search of programmers to work on its spying technologies. But these days, it’s the Pentagon that […]
Non-violent man on roof tased and killed by AZ police
A 44-year-old man climbed onto the roof of his apartment and began acting strangely. Police arrived to help him down, but instead ended up killing him with a series of offensive maneuvers including tasing him while in a choke-hold, and finally dragging his lifeless body down a staircase, with his skull banging against every step. […]
Egypt military allows Islamists to attack churches
Egypt’s security forces, which have taken center stage in Egyptian political life in recent weeks, have made little effort to protect churches and other Christian property, leaving Christians in many parts of Egypt to fend for themselves. A majority of the attacks have happened in Upper Egypt, the country’s poorer and more conservative southern and […]
Fukushima on the verge of irreparably polluting the Pacific
The Japanese nuclear energy watchdog raised the incident level from one to three on the international scale that measures the severity of atomic accidents. This was an acknowledgement that the power station was in its greatest crisis since the reactors melted down after the tsunami in 2011. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-23779561 Some nuclear experts are concerned that the […]
NSA lied about scope of 4th amendment violations for years
A federal judge sharply rebuked the National Security Agency in 2011 for repeatedly misleading the court that oversees its surveillance on domestic soil, including a program that is collecting tens of thousands of domestic e-mails and other Internet communications of Americans each year, according to a secret ruling made public on Wednesday. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/us/2011-ruling-found-an-nsa-program-unconstitutional.html?hp&_r=0 The 85-page […]
EU bank deal gives Cyprus, warm water port to Russia
European leaders engineered a harsh bailout deal for this tiny Mediterranean nation in March and the Russians are now in a position to get something that has previously eluded even Moscow’s most audacious oligarchs: control of a so-called systemic financial institution in the European Union. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/world/europe/russians-still-ride-high-in-cyprus-after-bailout.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world “They wanted to throw out the Russians but in […]
UK bullies journalists: “there’s no need to write any more”
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian newspaper, said that two months ago he was contacted by “a very senior government official claiming to present the views of the prime minister,” David Cameron. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/world/europe/british-news-organization-has-advantages-in-secrets-battle-with-government.html?pagewanted=1&ref=world There were two meetings in which officials “demanded the return or the destruction of the material we were working on,” and in […]
Water safety analysis after BP gulf spill erroneous
An analysis of water, sediment and seafood samples taken in 2010 during and after the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has found higher contamination levels in some cases than previous studies by federal agencies did, casting doubt on some of the earlier sampling methods. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/science/earth/new-analysis-of-gulf-oil-spill.html?ref=us The lead author, Paul W. Sammarco of the […]
UK authorities destroy computers at The Guardian over NSA leaks
The editor of The Guardian, Alan Rusbridger, disclosed on Monday that the British government had sent officials from Government Communications Headquarters, which is known as GCHQ and is the British version of the National Security Agency, to the newspaper’s offices in London to destroy computers containing documents leaked by Mr. Snowden. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/21/world/europe/britons-question-whether-detention-of-reporters-partner-was-terror-related.html?ref=world Mr. Rusbridger said […]
In the East as in the West, perils for tyranny
Several perils were enumerated in a memo, referred to as Document No. 9, that bears the unmistakable imprimatur of Xi Jinping, China’s new top leader. The first was “Western constitutional democracy”; others included promoting “universal values” of human rights, Western-inspired notions of media independence and civic participation, and “nihilist” criticisms of the party’s traumatic past. […]
CIA admits overthrowing democracy in Iran because of oil
The C.I.A. has admitted orchestrating the 1953 coup that toppled democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh of Iran after he tried to nationalize his country’s oil wealth, which was controlled by Britain, according to a declassified document. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/20/world/middleeast/cia-orchestrated-1953-coup-in-iran-document-confirms.html?ref=world The agency’s role in the coup has long been known, but George Washington University’s National Security Archive, […]
Even more bad news from Fukushima
The operator of Japan’s tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant said Tuesday that about 300 tons of highly radioactive water have leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks there — its worst leak yet from such a vessel. http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2013/08/20/world/asia/ap-as-japan-nuclear.html?hp&_r=0 Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the contaminated water leaked from a steel storage tank at the […]
UK detains Greenwald associate on terrorism to seize NSA info
The partner of Glenn Greenwald, the journalist for The Guardian who has been publishing information leaked by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden, was detained for nine hours by the British authorities under a counterterrorism law while on a stop in London’s Heathrow Airport during a trip from Germany to Brazil. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/world/europe/britain-detains-partner-of-reporter-tied-to-leaks.html?hp&_r=0 […]
US: We can’t spy on you if your not on the internet
The Obama administration has poured billions of dollars into expanding the reach of the Internet, and nearly 98 percent of American homes now have access to some form of high-speed broadband. But tens of millions of people are still on the sidelines of the digital revolution. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/19/technology/a-push-to-connect-millions-who-live-offline-to-the-internet.html?pagewanted=1&ref=us Barack Obama took office as president in […]
Dirty Babylon 