Engelhardt, You Are Our Secret. [Note for TomDispatch Readers: Thank you for the donations that have already come in for signed copies of Rebecca Solnit’s spectacular new “memoir” -- it’s actually so much more! -- The Faraway Nearby. For the many Solnit fans among you, don’t miss the chance to have a personalized copy of her new book in return for a $100 (or more) donation to this site. Your help really does keep TomDispatch above the waves and is unbelievably appreciated. Check out the Solnit (and other book offers) at our donation page by clicking here.] The Making of a Global Security State The Five Uncontrollable Urges of a Secrecy-Surveillance World By Tom Engelhardt As happens with so much news these days, the Edward Snowden revelations about National Security Agency (NSA) spying and just how far we’ve come in the building of a surveillance state have swept over us 24/7 -- waves of leaks, videos, charges, claims, counterclaims, skullduggery, and government threats. 1. 2. 3.
With this goes another reality. 4. 5. America’s Black-Ops Blackout: Unraveling the Secrets of the Military’s Secret Military. January 12th, 2014 11:14 AM By Nick Turse Crossposted from TomDispatch “Dude, I don’t need to play these stupid games. I know what you’re trying to do.” With that, Major Matthew Robert Bockholt hung up on me. More than a month before, I had called U.S. And for more than a month, I waited for answers. Then, at the last moment, just before my filing deadline, Special Operations Command got back to me with an answer so incongruous, confusing, and contradictory that I was glad I had given up on SOCOM and tried to figure things out for myself. Click here to see a larger version U.S. I started with a blank map that quickly turned into a global pincushion. A review of open source information reveals that in 2012 and 2013, U.S. Despite the lack of official cooperation, an analysis by TomDispatch reveals SOCOM to be a command on the make with an already sprawling reach.
The Rise of the Military’s Secret Military In the post-9/11 era, the command has grown steadily. The Global SOF Network U.S. Stop Watching Us: The Video. Digital Passivity. La lucidez de Saramago. En el 2004, el novelista José Saramago vino a Bogotá y discutió ante una audiencia entusiasta la novela que acababa de publicar: Ensayo sobre la lucidez. Esta obra es una parábola política, que describe un país dominado por un aparato más o menos omnipotente, en la que los medios de comunicación, los políticos y los grandes poderes económicos logran manipular a la población para que vote y mantenga vivas las apariencias de una democracia que no puede expresar los intereses reales de la gente.
De pronto, sin planeación previa, sin que nadie lo proponga, sin partidos ni movimientos políticos que organicen un gesto de rebelión, sin organización, sin ponerse de acuerdo, el 83 por ciento de los electores vota en blanco. Esta idea se basaba en su convicción de que el poder económico es el que controla el mundo de la política y el mundo de las comunicaciones, y se manifestaba en su percepción de los nuevos medios de comunicación.
Jorge Orlando Melo Publicado en El Tiempo, 24 de junio de 2010. ‘Deep cold storage’ vault created for virtual currency bitcoin. Published time: January 11, 2014 13:27 Edited time: January 13, 2014 12:09 Photo from www.casascius.com A company in London has created a bank vault to cater for the virtual currency, bitcoin. The futuristic bank is offering so-called “deep cold storage” to protect the cyber money from hack attacks. The idea of making a vault for a virtual company may seem absurd, but the creators of the Elliptic Vault in London claim they have cornered the market in bitcoin banking. At present, no form of insurance exists to cover the cyber currency, so once they are gone there is no way of retrieving them. Carelessness can also lead to the loss of bitcoins.
The Elliptic Vault will use private encrypted keys to bitcoins which will be stored in offline servers. Marc Warne, the founder of the UK-based bitcoin purchase site, Bittylicious, told The Telegraph that the new vault would greatly benefit those with large bitcoin fortunes.
Drones over U.S. get OK by Congress. Look! Up in the sky! Is it a bird? Is it a plane? It’s … a drone, and it’s watching you. That’s what privacy advocates fear from a bill Congress passed this week to make it easier for the government to fly unmanned spy planes in U.S. airspace. The FAA Reauthorization Act, which President Obama is expected to sign, also orders the Federal Aviation Administration to develop regulations for the testing and licensing of commercial drones by 2015. Privacy advocates say the measure will lead to widespread use of drones for electronic surveillance by police agencies across the country and eventually by private companies as well. “There are serious policy questions on the horizon about privacy and surveillance, by both government agencies and commercial entities,” said Steven Aftergood, who heads the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American Scientists.
The agency projects that 30,000 drones could be in the nation’s skies by 2020. U.S. “It’s not all about surveillance,” Mr. The Resident: How 47% of Congress Became Millionaires.