Operation Aztec Silence. US European Command (EUCOM) established Joint Task Force Aztec Silence (JTFAS) under the Commander of the US Sixth Fleet in December 2003 to counter trans-national terrorism in the under-governed areas of Northern Africa (and later Western Africa) and to build closer alliances with those governments as part of Operation Aztec Silence. In support of this, US Navy intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) assets based in Sigonella, Sicily were used to collect and share information with partner nations and their militaries. This robust cooperative ISR effort was augmented by the release of intelligence collected by national assets.
EUCOM continued coordination with the services to increase ISR assets and analytical resources to effectively prosecute the Global War on Terrorism. Persistent ISR would improve the ability to find, track and interdict mobile and technically competent terrorist groups operating within the vast, ungoverned regions of the area of responsibility. » Homeland Security to Assume Control of Surveillance Blimps Alex Jones. Federal agency ignores Fourth Amendment within 100 mile “constitution free zone” Paul Joseph Watson Infowars.com August 20, 2013 The Department of Homeland Security is to assume control of surveillance blimps used to monitor the US-Mexico border, a disconcerting development given that the federal agency considers all areas 100 miles inland of the border to be ‘constitution-free zones’ within which the Fourth Amendment does not apply.
Image: YouTube DHS will now oversee the giant tethered blimps, used ostensibly to look out for drug smugglers, which are located in Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. “Spokesman Bill Brooks of the Customs and Border Protection told the Yuma Sun that the department accepted the Aerostat system from the Air Force earlier this summer and will manage and maintain it for the foreseeable future,” reports the Arizona Daily Star. See a map of the “constitution-free zone” below. Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. Breaking! Timeline of Edward Snowden's revelations. The Military’s Surveillance Blimp Can Spy Constantly for Nearly Three Weeks. A blimp might not be the most stealthy of warfare equipment, but it is what’s coming to the nation’s capital to act as a defense watchdog. The Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defense Elevated Netted Sensor System (JLENS) developed by Raytheon will provide extensive, long-term surveillance in a trial where it will watch over the Washington, D.C. area.
JLENS completed a testing phase that brings it closer to being used by soldiers. (Image: Raytheon) The JLENS recently completed a set of complex scenarios by the U.S. Army and also proved in an endurance test it could run constantly for 20 days, according to Raytheon’s announcement about its early user testing. “Completing EUT proved both the maturity of JLENS and that our soldiers are ready to employ this system wherever and whenever their nation needs them,” Dean Barten, the U.S. The Aberdeen Proving Ground is a military facility located just outside of Baltimore in Maryland.
Soldiers testing JLENS. JLNES (Image: Ratheon) The Israeli “art student” mystery. In January 2001, the security branch of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency began to receive a number of peculiar reports from DEA field offices across the country. According to the reports, young Israelis claiming to be art students and offering artwork for sale had been attempting to penetrate DEA offices for over a year. The Israelis had also attempted to penetrate the offices of other law enforcement and Department of Defense agencies.
Strangest of all, the “students” had visited the homes of numerous DEA officers and other senior federal officials. As a pattern slowly emerged, the DEA appeared to have been targeted in what it called an “organized intelligence gathering activity.” But to what end, and for whom, no one knew. Reports of the mysterious Israelis with an inexplicable interest in peddling art to G-men came in from more than 40 U.S. cities and continued throughout the first six months of 2001. The “art students” followed a predictable modus operandi. Hrwgjhu.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/2012-11-13-hrwg-statement-on-drone-research-at-hopkins.pdf. Does Classified Research Corrupt an Academic Institution? | Ten Miles Square. September 12, 2013 12:50 PMDoes Classified Research Corrupt an Academic Institution?
By Rachel Cohen This week Johns Hopkins University received quite a bit of bad press for asking one of their faculty members, Matthew D. Green, to take down a blog post he wrote regarding recent encryption revelations associated with the National Security Agency (NSA). The incident raised major concerns about academic freedom and the role of classified government and military research on campus. As an undergraduate enrolled at Hopkins, I followed the story closely, beginning with Green’s initial tweets midday Monday, to eventually much larger national news coverage in places like ProPublica, The Atlantic, and The Huffington Post by Monday evening. While Douglas’ apology was enough to resolve this particular incident , it raises a host of questions.
But over the years the tension between academia—known for its openness and collegiality—and classified government projects has repeatedly surfaced. JHU Politik - Interview With Graduate Student of Political Science: Derek Denman. The Human Rights Working Group at the Johns Hopkins University is comprised of professors, graduate students and undergraduates bound by a shared interest in discussing and preventing human rights abuses at all levels of society. We interviewed Derek Denman, a Political Science graduate student involved in the Human Rights Working Group’s current campaign against drone research at the Applied Physics Laboratory, a JHU campus in Laurel Maryland.
What is the topic of your research and how did you become interested in it? Are there others doing similar research at other Universities? I’m a graduate student in the political science department and the way that I got into this research was through the Human Rights Working Group (HRWG). What can you tell us about the level of drone research and development at Johns Hopkins? What kind of public oversight, if any, is there for drone research?
Are we not better off having drone research in academic institutions? There are two parts to answer that. Why the NSA loves Google’s Chromebook. As Andrew Cunningham reported today, Intel and Google are announcing an upcoming onslaught of new Google Chromebooks based on Intel's Haswell architecture processors. The idea of a cloud-tethered notebook that can keep its owner connected over Wi-Fi and broadband all day long—in some cases for less than the price of a shiny new Apple iPhone—is going to be awfully appealing to many. And without a doubt, no one will be happier than the National Security Agency (NSA) and law enforcement. While Google's cloud computing has provided a platform for the company to grab a big chunk of the low-cost notebook market and upend Microsoft's Windows applecart, the recent NSA leaks by Edward Snowden have put the cloud under... a cloud.
There are some places where this isn't going to necessarily have much impact on Google's market ascension. Google has steamrollered the education market with Google Apps, and the low-cost Chromebook is a natural fit for the classroom. Stop NSA's PRISM! Save your privacy! | Buycott. The National Security Agency has obtained direct access to the systems of Google, Facebook, Apple and other US internet giants, according to a top secret document obtained by the Guardian.The program facilitates extensive, in-depth surveillance on live communications and stored information. The law allows for the targeting of any customers of participating firms who live outside the US, or those Americans whose communications include people outside the US.It also opens the possibility of communications made entirely within the US being collected without warrants.
Stop giving your information to the companies that are directly involved in NSA's unconstitutional wiretapping! There are many private and secure alternatives out there, I will try to add as much of them as possible here. Search: Startpage has exactly the same results as Google without privacy concerns Maps: OpenStreetMaps a collaborative maps project Email: iCloud/Google Sync for Calendar and Contacts Private notes Browsing Skype/VoIP. What Putin Has to Say to Americans About Syria. Reporter Had To Decide If Snowden Leaks Were 'The Real Thing' Hide captionAccording to Barton Gellman, Edward Snowden (above) specifically asked journalists not to make all the documents he leaked available to the public.
Getty Images According to Barton Gellman, Edward Snowden (above) specifically asked journalists not to make all the documents he leaked available to the public. Since the beginning of June, Barton Gellman has been reporting on classified intelligence documents given to him by Edward Snowden, a former National Security Agency contractor. As a result of the Snowden leaks, Gellman and reporter Laura Poitras broke the story of the PRISM program, which mines data from nine U.S. Internet companies, including Microsoft, Yahoo, Google and Facebook. Gellman, who has been writing for The Washington Post, also found that the NSA has broken privacy rules or overstepped its legal authority thousands of times each year since Congress expanded the agency's powers in 2008. Interview Highlights On how he began corresponding with and trusting Snowden.
NSA shares raw intelligence including Americans' data with Israel | World news. The National Security Agency routinely shares raw intelligence data with Israel without first sifting it to remove information about US citizens, a top-secret document provided to the Guardian by whistleblower Edward Snowden reveals. Details of the intelligence-sharing agreement are laid out in a memorandum of understanding between the NSA and its Israeli counterpart that shows the US government handed over intercepted communications likely to contain phone calls and emails of American citizens.
The agreement places no legally binding limits on the use of the data by the Israelis. The disclosure that the NSA agreed to provide raw intelligence data to a foreign country contrasts with assurances from the Obama administration that there are rigorous safeguards to protect the privacy of US citizens caught in the dragnet. The deal was reached in principle in March 2009, according to the undated memorandum, which lays out the ground rules for the intelligence sharing. NSA and Israeli intelligence: memorandum of understanding – full document | World news.
The Oath Keepers on Edward Snowden. New York City Council official urges Brooklyn College to hire 'professor from Israel' City Councilman Lew Fidler. (Photo via CSA-NYC.org) New York City Councilman Lew Fidler is still outraged over the Brooklyn College panel that took place in February on the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
The Assistant Majority leader, an ardent advocate for Israel, has sent a letter to the City University of New York (CUNY) to suggest the hiring of a “professor from Israel” at Brooklyn College to correct what he calls bias in the school’s Political Science department, which co-sponsored the panel. His latest effort comes over three months after he sparked a furor by sending a separate letter suggesting that funding for Brooklyn College could be affected if the event featuring BDS proponents went through. The late April missive also blasts the CUNY report on the Brooklyn College panel, which found that while the planning and execution of the event went haywire, there was no anti-Semitism at hand–contrary to what Israel advocates alleged.
Intellectuals as Subjects and Objects of Violence. (Image: Jared Rodriguez / Truthout)Edward Snowden, Russ Tice, Thomas Drake, Jeremy Scahill, and Julian Assange, among others, have recently made clear what it means to embody respect for a public intellectual debate, moral witnessing and intellectual culture. They are not just whistle-blowers or disgruntled ex-employers but individuals who value ideas, think otherwise in order to act otherwise, and use the resources available to them to address important social issues with what might be called a fearsome sense of social responsibility and civic courage.
Their anger is not treasonous or self-serving as some critics argue, it is the indispensable sensibility and righteous fury that fuels the meaning over what it means to take a moral and political stand and to continue the struggle to live in a substantive rather than fake democracy. Intellectuals of that older generation have become a rare breed who enriched public life. The Transnational Homeland Security State and the Decline of Democracy. This is Part 4 in the series, “When Empire Hits Home.” Part 1: War, Racism and the Empire of PovertyPart 2: Western Civilization and the Economic Crisis: The Impoverishment of the Middle ClassPart 3: The Global Economic Crisis: Riots, Rebellion and Revolution As the western world is thrown into debt bondage and the harsh reality of the draconian economic ‘reforms’ to follow, a social collapse seems increasingly inevitable.
We will soon witness the collapse of western ‘civilization’. The middle classes of the west will dissolve into the lower labour class. The state structure itself will be altering; nation-states will become subordinate to supra-national continental governance structures and global governance entities simultaneously. As society collapses, the social foundations of the middle class will be pulled out from under their feet.
The US Commission on National Security in the 21st Century The two Co-Chairs of the Commission were Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman. Johns Hopkins and the Case of the Missing NSA Blog Post. The university, which works closely with the NSA, apologizes to a professor after he was asked to remove his post. Sept. 10: This post has been updated [1]. Citing concerns about linking to classified material, Johns Hopkins University asked a professor this morning to remove a blog post [2] discussing last week’s revelations about the NSA’s efforts to break encryption. The post had linked to government documents [3] published by ProPublica, the Guardian, and the New York Times.
Several hours later, after computer science professor Matthew Green tweeted about [4] the request, the university reversed itself. Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins, which is short drive from the NSA’s headquarters at Fort Meade, works closely with the spy agency. The university’s Applied Physics Laboratory, which employs [5] about 5,000 people, does many projects [6] with the NSA. Green said [7] on Twitter that he had “been told” that someone from the Applied Physics Laboratory had first flagged his blog post. Gems Mined from the NSA Documents and FISA Court Opinions Released Today.
Today, in response to Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released hundreds of pages of documents about the NSA telephone call record program. The documents primarily concern events in 2009, when the FISA court first learned that the NSA had been misusing its phone records surveillance program for years. We're still reviewing the documents, but here are a few particularly interesting items we've uncovered so far. Clapper's Continued Trouble with the Truth On June 6, just days after the Guardian newspaper published the first of many articles on NSA spying, Director of National Intelligence Clapper attempted to reassure the public that the NSA telephone record program was limited and restrained.
Documents released today show this to be false. The Search for a Basis for Searching The Court noted that, nevertheless, the spying was approved, based on the Court's confidence in the NSA's assurances of a good process and strict controls. Gen. DNI Clapper Declassifies Intelligence Community... DNI Clapper Declassifies Intelligence Community... Docs: Officials misused US surveillance program.
NSA surveillance: The rest of the Snowden files should be destroyed. The NSA's next move: silencing university professors? | Jay Rosen. In 2009, the FISA Court Shut Down an NSA Program for 6 Months Because It Had "Frequently and Systemically" Violated the Rules. Supreme Court to rule on fate of indefinite detention for Americans under NDAA. Edward Snowden: Die englische Originalfassung. Johnston-rtcweb-zrtp-00 - Using ZRTP to Secure WebRTC. Brazil, Mexico ask U.S. to explain if NSA spied on presidents.
Brazil Angered Over Report N.S.A. Spied on President. NSA Targeted French Foreign Ministry. Drug Agents Use Vast Phone Trove, Eclipsing N.S.A.’s. An interview with LulzCart, Romania's most notorious hacker. Lulzcart & the fedz - part 1. US Cyber Offense is "The Best in the World" NSA Spying. The Fourth Amendment Implications of the Government's Use of Cell Tower Dumps in its Electronic Surveillance by Brian Owsley. Electronic Frontier Foundation | Defending your rights in the digital world. Your phone is blabbing your location to anyone who will listen - NBCNews. How Snowden did it. Ia601803.us.archive.org/22/items/gov.uscourts.nysd.413072/gov.uscourts.nysd.413072.27.0.pdf.
Open Secret About Google’s Surveillance Case No Longer Secret - Digits. Translate. ProPublica Joins NSA Chase. Report: Al-Qaeda made attempts to ‘infiltrate U.S. intelligence’ DEA Has Access to Billions of AT&T Phone Call Records. Snowden impersonated NSA officials, sources say. Tech Companies and Government May Soon Go to War Over Surveillance | Wired Opinion. NSA paying U.S. companies for access to communications networks.
DEA Has Access to Billions of AT&T Phone Call Records. Synopsis of the Hemisphere Project - Document. Synopsis of the Hemisphere Project - Document.