● 03.10.14

●● Weekend News: Surveillance, Drones, CIA, and Ukraine

Posted in News Roundup at 4:29 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: More weekend news (plus early Monday news) about issues scarcely covered in the wider media/press

NSA/Surveillance

EFF Fights National Security Letter Demands on Behalf of Telecom, Internet CompanyThe Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed two briefs on Friday challenging secret government demands for information known as National Security Letters (NSLs) with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. The briefs—one filed on behalf of a telecom company and another for an Internet company—remain under seal because the government continues to insist that even identifying the companies involved might endanger national security. Change Agents: The Curious Case of the “Responsible” NSA RevelationsHas it only been 10 months since Edward Snowden’s NSA revelations changed the world? Can you even remember what the world was like, before he gave 50,000 — no, 200,000 — no, wait, 2 million– secret documents to Glenn Greenwald: smoking guns that exposed Washington’s global surveillance state, which far outstripped the wildest, wettest dreams of the Stasi, of Stalin, yea of Orwell himself? NSA’s use of the internet a ‘military occupation’ – AssangeSpeaking over Skype from the Ecuadorian embassy in London, fugitive WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said his living situation is a bit like prison – with a more lenient visitor policy.[NSA] It turns out people don’t like being spied on after all…NSA’s ‘Ask Zelda’ Advice Columnist Won’t Help You Find a TriforceWe never knew the National Security Agency were such fans of the Master Sword. Google (GOOG) Eric Schmidt ‘Pretty Sure’ Personal Data Is Safe from NSA in USGoogle Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt wants you to know he’s “pretty sure” your data is safe from surveillance.Introducing the Era of SurveillanceThere are also other eras I could proclaim, the Era of Severe Money Troubles, since some of the surveillance is justified by lack of monetary responsibility, and the Era of Complacency, because of people not doing anything about the mounting surveillance when they could. I could even call this the Era of Cyber Warfare. But one thing at a time.Snowden: NSA Pressured EU To Create ‘European Bazaar’ Of Spy NetworksNational Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden answered questions before the European Parliament on Friday, saying that the United States spy agency pressures its allies to take steps towards further enabling widespread and indiscriminate surveillance.How the NSA Made Your Legal Defense IllegalWe have seen how the NSA’s phony court system has acted as a substitute for genuine judicial review, allowing the NSA to build up precedents purporting to assist its constitutional claims. We have also seen that the NSA is able to obtain surveillance authorization through misrepresentations to the court, without any genuine consequence to the agency, even when discovered. In this Part, we now examine how the NSA shields its activities from review by the public court system, through the control of secret information that could be used as evidence against them. Assange says NSA reporters ‘new kind of political refugee’Addressing thousands of audience during a teleconference interview at South by Southwest, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said that Americans in exile were fast emerging as new age National security reporters.Wikileaks whistleblower Chelsea Manning ‘happy and doing well’ say Pembrokeshire familyCHELSEA Manning is ‘happy’ and ‘doing well’, according to her Pembrokeshire family who travelled to the US last month. WikiLeaks founder hints at ‘upcoming’ info leak during South by Southwest addressJulian Assange, who has been at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since 2012 to avoid extradition, addressed attendees of SXSW via Skype, where the confirmed ‘there is upcoming material’ that will be released and made mention of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.WikiLeaks to release more secret data, Julian Assange saysWikileaks’ Assange says group will release new secret data

Drones

Controversy Brews Over Role Of ‘Killer Robots’ In Theater of WarThe idea of a killer robot, as a coalition of international human rights groups has dubbed the autonomous machines, conjures a humanoid Terminator-style robot. The humanoid robots Google recently bought are neat, but most machines being used or tested by national militaries are, for now, more like robotic weapons than robotic soldiers. Still, the line between useful weapons with some automated features and robot soldiers ready to kill can be disturbingly blurry.Will We Ever Get Over 9/11?Will we rescue our character, our culture, and our Constitution from a sort of 9/11 P.T.S.D?How Obama Became a Publicist for His Presidency (Rather Than the President)As an adapter to the thinking of men of power, Obama was a quick study. It took him less than half a year as president to subscribe to Dick Cheney’s view on the need for the constant surveillance of all Americans. This had to be done for the sake of our own safety in a war without a visible end. The leading consideration here is that Obama, quite as much as George W. Bush, wants to be seen as having done everything possible to avoid the “next 9/11.” He cares far less about doing everything possible to uphold the Constitution (a word that seldom occurs in his speeches or writings). Nevertheless, if you ask him, he will be happy to declare his preference for a return to the state of civil liberties we enjoyed in the pre-2001 era. In the same way, he will order drone killings in secret and then give a speech in which he informs us that eventually this kind of killing must stop. China & US to enhance military exchanges

CIA

The CIA has brought darkness to America by fighting in the shadowsA month later, at a meeting sponsored by Schwab Capital markets, CIA executive director “Buzzy” Krongard laid out for investors what such a war would entail. “[It] will be won in large measure by forces you do not know about, in actions you will not see and in ways you may not want to know about,” he said.CIA: Way Out of Bounds!Investigators for the Senate Intelligence Committee, working in the basement of a C.I.A. facility in Northern Virginia, had obtained an internal agency review summarizing thousands of documents related to the agency’s detention and interrogation program. Parts of the C.I.A. report cast a particularly harsh light on the program, the same program the agency was in the midst of defending in a prolonged dispute with the intelligence committee.Our View: Maine senators must help make CIA report publicEditorial: Reports on CIA’s past tactics should be public

Ukraine

As China and India Back Russia, Ukraine Crisis Is OverForeign Minister Andriy Deshchysta on March 8th said the Ukraine is ready to negotiate with Russia “at any level” over the Crimea issue, the move followed announcements by India and China that they were officially backing Russia’ right to intervene in the Crimea. Deshchysta added that international mediation efforts over the issue have made some small steps forward, including progress in efforts to establish a contact group. He also said the mediation group membership had yet to be settled, and progress is fragile. But with over a third of the world’s population backing Russia, the Ukrainian Crisis is over.The hypocrisy of some nationsDouble standards are on display as Western leaders attack Russia regarding Ukraine, while they themselves commit or endorse worse aggression on other countries.Radio Free Russia In her March, 2011 testimony before Congress, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, lamented that the US propaganda mill was losing ground to its rivals for lack of funding. In an informal interview she went further, stating that when abroad she got her news from RT, since CNN had become obsessed with celebrity trials and failed to cover international developments. So the US Secretary of State declared publicly that her most trusted news source was….(drum roll ) Russia Today . Is the U.S. Backing Neo-Nazis in Ukraine? [a little old]As the Euromaidan protests in the Ukrainian capitol of Kiev culminated this week, displays of open fascism and neo-Nazi extremism became too glaring to ignore. Since demonstrators filled the downtown square to battle Ukrainian riot police and demand the ouster of the corruption-stained, pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovich, it has been filled with far-right streetfighting men pledging to defend their country’s ethnic purity.Ukraine: No easy answersThe Russian invasion of Crimea occurred in a place little known to Americans, for reasons rooted in a tangled and bloody history. The showdown between President Vladimir Putin and the new Ukrainian government is a fight about tangible matters of intense mutual interest.But many Americans can’t address international crises without sounding like a Toby Keith song: “I Wanna Talk About Me.”Ukraine Ethnic Purity Extremists [Neo Nazis] threaten Russians, Jews, non-whites

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