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In the continuing saga of data security firm HBGary, a new caveat has come to light: not only did they plot to help destroy secrets outlet WikiLeaks and discredit progressive bloggers, they also crafted detailed proposals for software that manages online “personas,” allowing a single human to assume the identities of as many fake people as they’d like.
Revealed: Air Force ordered software to manage army of fake virtual people | The Raw Story
Open Secrets: WikiLeaks, War, and American Diplomacy - The New York Times
On April 5, 2010 WikiLeaks released cockpit video footage from a U.S. helicopter gunship in Baghdad.
Department of Defense employees who downloaded classified documents from Wikileaks onto unclassified government computer systems may delete them without further “sanitizing” their systems or taking any other remedial measures, the Pentagon said in a policy memo (pdf) last week.
DoD Takes Flexible View on Deleting Wikileaks Docs | Secrecy News
The new memoir by former Pentagon chief Donald Rumsfeld has drawn wide criticism for his failure to accept any blame on the Iraq and Afghanistan fiascoes, and his claims that when he and others promoted falsehoods about Iraq WMD they were merely minor "misstatements," not lies.
WL vs. Donald Rumsfeld's Lies
When you really think about it, it’s simply inconceivable that the U.S. Government gets away with doing this. Seizing someone’s laptop, digging through it, recording it all, storing the data somewhere, and then distributing it to various agencies is about the most invasive, privacy-destroying measure imaginable. A laptop and its equivalents reveal whom you talk to, what you say, what you read, what you write, what you view, what you think, and virtually everything else about your life.
laptop seizures: Interview with Rep. Sanchez
Obama officials caught deceiving about WL
I’d like to ask Chuck Todd: if Bush had John Yoo write a memo opining that it was perfectly legal for Bush to deploy hit squads within the U.S. to assassinate American citizens without any due process, would it be wrong to investigate and prosecute that, too, on the ground that everyone had permission slips from a DOJ lawyer and that’s just what lawyers do? The current President has, of course, obtained his own DOJ permission slip to assassinate American citizens without due process. Since that permission slip is too secret for us to see, we do not know whether the authorized assassination power is confined to foreign soil or extends to the U.S., although once one embraces the Bush-Cheney-Yoo theory that the entire world is a “battlefield,” there is no coherent way to limit those asserted powers to foreign soil.
WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTION
WASHINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) - Internal U.S. government reviews have determined that a mass leak of diplomatic cables caused only limited damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite the Obama administration's public statements to the contrary.
US officials privately say WikiLeaks damage limited
Treasury Says It Cannot Sanction WL Or J.A.
By Samuel Rubenfeld The Treasury Department said it doesn’t have enough evidence to place sanctions on Wikileaks or its leader Julian Assange, Dow Jones Newswires reported. Responding to Rep.
INVESTIG. COLLAB.
JACOB APPELBAUM (IOERROR)
BIRGITTA
WikiLeaks cables show the Central Intelligence drew up information wishlist. Photograph: Getty Images
UN spying wishlist
Fear 'Guantanamo' Or 'Death Penalty'
In a "skeleton defense" posted on his lawyers' website today, Julian Assange's team posits that he could be subject to "being detained at Guantanamo Bay" or subject to the death penalty were he to be extradited to Sweden, which could lead to extradition to the U.S. The WikiLeaks founder appeared in court today to schedule his extradition hearing for questioning in Sweden over alleged sex crimes. His defense claims that extradition to Sweden could lead to a subsequent extradition "and/or illegal rendition" to the U.S.
FBI seizes server
The FBI has seized a server in Texas as part of its hunt for the groups behind the pro-WikiLeaks denial-of-service attacks launched in December against PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and others, according to a report. During a December 16 raid, agents seized a server at Tailor Made Services, a Dallas-based co-location, or server-hosting, facility, and copied two of its hard drives, according to The Smoking Gun Web site, which said it has obtained the FBI affidavit in support of a search warrant for the seizure. It's not clear what was found on the drives, The Smoking Gun reported, saying that search warrant records showed agents were authorized to seize material related to the attacks or to other illegal activities involving the groups Anonymous or 4chan. Anonymous has claimed responsibility for deluging the Web sites of PayPal and others with data in order to bring the sites down.A 13-page memo detailing the new policy urges senior civil servants to beef up cyber security and hire teams of psychiatrists and sociologists who can "detect behavioural changes". They will then monitor the moods and attitudes of staff who are allowed to access classified information. The move is designed to prevent further embarrassing disclosures of the sort which have dominated the news in recent months.
US fears over Wikileaks
Internet Freedom Promise
The conflict between Wikileaks and the U.S. Government reminds me of something we've been experiencing for some years now in the private sector of corporate activity and social enterprises.Inciting the Whackers
Further to my open letter on those inciting murder upon Julian Assange, this op ed style post again responds to those who say that Julian Assange should be kidnapped, executed, murdered or otherwise be "whacked", to use a favourite Hollywood gangster expression. It is a much expanded variant of the open letter to the inciters at Wikileaks Central.Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S.