Exiled in the Cause of Liberty

Brits Taught NSA How to Spy on Facebook, Twitter et al.

From RT News –

British intelligence officials can infiltrate the very cables that transfer information across the internet as well as monitor users in real time on sites like Facebook without the company’s consent, according to documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

The internal documents reveal that British analysts gave instruction to members of the National Security Agency in 2012, showing them how to spy on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube in real time and collect the computer addresses of billions of the sites’ uploaders.

The leaked documents are from a GCHQ publication titled ‘Psychology: A New Kind of SIGDEV’ (Signals Development). Published by NBC News on Monday, the papers detail a program dubbed ‘Squeaky Dolphin,’ which was developed for analysts working in “broad real-time monitoring of online activity.”

Sources told NBC that the British have proven their ability to both directly monitor the world’s web traffic cable and use a third party to view the data stream and extract information from it.

Excerpt from http://rt.com/usa/gchq-taught-nsa-real-time-267/

If readers object to learning the truth about the NSA from a Russian news source, we’d be happy to publish an American source. Unfortunately, American media is too well controlled for the truth about somethings ever to come out.

Who Has the Ability to Steal Data from a Secure Computer System?

Who knows? The Shadow knows, ba-hah-hah-haaaah!

CARLTON MEYER, a former Marine Corps officer, maintains a military-oriented blog which is highly critical of the Brass called The Empire in Decline. He reports that the FBI approached a developer of security software being marketed to business to ask them to engineer a backdoor so that the Feds could enter at anytime to gather information. This is a standard practice for the FBI and the NSA thus giving these federal agencies even more metadata on us.

Meyer wonders, as do I, if the latest brouhaha regarding the theft of Target’s customers financial data is just the NSA up to its old tricks. Edward Snowden, where are you? We need you!

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Readers can peruse Carlton Meyer’s blog at http://www.g2mil.com/decline1.htm

Snowden Leaks U.S. Secrets to . . . . . Obama !?!?

The revelation from the Snowden Papers that the NSA had Chancellor Merkel’s cell phone under surveillance has produced a central fallout. Dueling leaks over the international embarrassment have forced the White House to a key admission: President Barack Obama did not know what the NSA was up to.

Ever since the Snowden revelations of the massive, world-girdling extent of NSA electronic surveillance surfaced, I have been wondering two things: Did they tell Obama about it when they took office in 2009? And, do they have something on Obama?

Outgoing NSA head Keith Alexander or his circle leaked to a German tabloid that Alexander told Obama about the tap on Merkel’s personal phone in 2010 and that Obama asked for more information on Merkel at that time.

That leak forced the White House (and the NSA) to deny the allegation and to see Alexander his leak and raise the ante.

The White House leaked that the Snowden revelations provoked a review of NSA programs and procedures, and the fact that the NSA had Merkel’s and 35 other world leaders’ personal phones under surveillance was revealed to the White House. Someone there then ordered this summer that the personal spying on Merkel and “some” other leaders be halted (the halt wasn’t ordered on all 35?).

In attempting to repair Obama’s reputation with his colleagues at the G-20, however, the White House counter-leakers have made an epochal and very serious revelation: The President wasn’t in the know. (Even in the best case scenario that he was told in 2010, he wasn’t in the know for the first 18 months of his presidency!)

Edward Snowden’s critics have alleged that he revealed classified US secrets to the enemies of the US. But it seems increasingly likely that he revealed them to   . . . Barack Obama.

Excerpt from Juan Cole’s column in Informed Comment (October 28, 2013)

Edward Snowden – The Official Politically Correct Party Line

On the Sunday morning of the 7th of July 2013, the American people have received the official line on how to think about Edward Snowden. This, of course, relieves us of the terrible burden of thinking too closely or rigorously about the content of Snowden’s revelations: (1) that the CIA contracts out spy work to a private for-profit industry, (2) that the Government is spying on its friends, the nations of the European Union, among others allied by treaty and shared heritage, and, (3) the most damning, that the Government is spying on the American people.

On the CNN program hosted by Fareed Zakaria, the apostles of Establishment thinking appeared to set us straight on what to think. The guest panel was blueribbon: Zbig Brzezinski, Richard Haass and some flunky from the Wall Street Journal. “Zbig” is the foreign policy heavy weight who staffed the creation of the Trilateral Commission and then served as the Trilateralist handler for the Presidency of Jimmy Carter. As Carter’s handler, Zbig is the one who initiated the joint project of the CIA and its Islamist friends to overthrow the secular leftist Afghan government and bog its Russian sponsors in its own Afghan debacle. The commencement of what has become a Thirty Year War on the Afghan people leading to Afghanistan hosting CIA contract agent Osama bin Laden and then to America’s longest war ever began as a bright bulb in Brzezinski’s over-active brain.

Zbig was seconded by Richard Haass, chief staffer for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), the capstone of the foreign policy establishment in the United States. Since its founding early in the 20th century, the CFR has provided every Presidency, Republican or Democrat, with its marching orders. Every intervention, every assassination, every loan or grant, every coup in which the United States has participated has the fingerprints of the CFR and its minions. If one were to answer the question, “What’s wrong with American foreign policy?”, the answer could be reduced to three letters, “CFR”.

This is what we learned. Snowden is a traitor and the only folks supporting him are “outliers”. It was further  opined that unlike Daniel Ellsberg, the whistleblower who released the Pentagon Papers, Snowden wasn’t man enough to stay within American jurisdiction and face the music. And that we should ostracize Snowden because he chose to seek the safety of China and then Russia.

Let’s take a look at these arguments:

• Is Snowden a traitor? Treason consists in aiding the enemies of the country in wartime. Edward Snowden revealed that the United States Government was using the telecommunications industry to acquire massive amounts of data ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. The Government wasn’t spying on the Chinese, or the Russians or even the Taliban, the Government was spying on we, the people.
• Snowden ran instead of facing the music? When Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers in 1971, he actually sought to be imprisoned. He saw a virtue in the willingness of draft-evaders to be imprisoned in order to end a war. However, in those innocent days, the Government did not maintain secret prisons and did conduct open trials. We’ve learned now that anyone branded an enemy by the Empire could be “disappeared”, may not receive benefit of a trial or could easily be the victim of an accident in custody. Snowden was wise to avoid the tender mercies that he could encounter in Obama’s Gulag.
• Did Snowden favor China, or Russia? Edward Snowden chose to relocate to Hong Kong. Hong Kong was a British colony for decades and is governed under a legal system favorable to due process and which provides asylum to those running from tyranny. When the British ceded the colony back to China it did so only with China’s adherence to a treaty which guaranteed the continuance of the rule of law for the next 100 years. Snowden fled to Hong Kong, and not to China, because it was free, or at least free-er than what may be found elsewhere. Russia was merely a stopover to asylum in a country not subject to the Imperial reign.
• Bolivia, Venezuela, and Nicaragua have offered Snowden asylum and for doing so, they were dismissed by the imperial mouthpieces as “outliers”. We can suppose as well that we too would be so dismissed. What is an outlier? Simply, an outsider. Yes, the above-named countries are outsiders. But then again, the American people, those who are the spied-upon are very much outside the Imperial System. This is a Government of the Elite, for the Elite and by the Elite. The People are Outside.

So Mr Snowden, on behalf of outsiders everywhere, thank you for your service. We wish we could offer more but if you find yourself in Minnesota, you can have our couch to sleep on. It’s the best we can do but we do hope you may find asylum from some country not intimidated by the power of the Empire.

Obama Appoints Child-killer to Head CIA

The following excerpt was taken from Medea Benjamin’s website:

MEDEA BENJAMIN

In October 2011, 16-year-old Tariq Aziz attended a gathering in Islamabad where he was taught how to use a video camera so he could document the drones that were constantly circling over his Pakistani village, terrorizing and killing his family and neighbors. Two days later, when Aziz was driving with his 12-year-old cousin to a village near his home in Waziristan to pick up his aunt, his car was struck by a Hellfire missile. With the push of a button by a pilot at a US base thousands of miles away, both boys were instantly vaporized­only a few chunks of flesh remained.

Afterwards, the US government refused to acknowledge the boys’ deaths or explain why they were targeted. Why should they? This is a covert program where no one is held accountable for their actions.

The main architect of this drone policy that has killed hundreds, if not thousands, of innocents, including 176 children in Pakistan alone, is President Obama’s counterterrorism chief and his pick for the next director of the CIA: John Brennan.

On my recent trip to Pakistan, I met with people whose loved ones had been blown to bits by drone attacks, people who have been maimed for life, young victims with no hope for the future and aching for revenge. For all of them, there has been no apology, no compensation, not even an acknowledgement of their losses. Nothing.

That’s why when John Brennan spoke at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington DC last April and described our policies as ethical, wise and in compliance with international law, I felt compelled to stand up and speak out on behalf of Tariq Aziz and so many others. As they dragged me out of the room, my parting words were: “I love the rule of law and I love my country. You are making us less safe by killing so many innocent people. Shame on you, John Brennan.”

Rather than expressing remorse for any civilian deaths, John Brennan made the extraordinary statement in 2011 that during the preceding year, there hadn’t been a single collateral death “because of the exceptional proficiency, precision of the capabilities we’ve been able to develop.”Brennan later adjusted his statement somewhat, saying, “Fortunately, for more than a year, due to our discretion and precision, the U.S. government has not found credible evidence of collateral deaths resulting from U.S. counterterrorism operations outside of Afghanistan or Iraq.” We later learned why Brennan’s count was so low: the administration had come up with a semantic solution of simply counting all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants.

The UK-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has documented over 350 drones strikes in Pakistan that have killed 2,600-3,400 people since 2004. Drone strikes in Yemen have been on the rise, with at least 42 strikes carried out in 2012, including one just hours after President Obama’s reelection. The first strike in 2013 took place just four days into the new year.

A May 29, 2011 New York Times exposé showed John Brennan as President Obama’s top advisor in formulating a “kill list” for drone strikes. The people Brennan recommends for the hit list are given no chance to surrender, and certainly no chance to be tried in a court of law. The kind of intelligence Brennan uses to put people on drone hit lists is the same kind of intelligence that put people in Guantanamo. Remember how the American public was assured that the prisoners locked up in Guantanamo were the “worst of the worst,” only to find out that hundreds were innocent people who had been sold to the US military by bounty hunters?

In addition to kill lists, Brennan pushed for the CIA to have the authority to kill with even greater ease using “signature strikes,” also known as “crowd killing,” which are strikes based solely on suspicious behavior.

When President Obama announced his nomination of John Brennan, he talked about Brennan’s integrity and commitment to the values that define us as Americans. He said Brennan has worked to “embed our efforts in a strong legal framework” and that he “understands we are a nation of laws.”

A nation of laws? Really?

Medea is a cofounder of http://www.codepink.org and http://www.globalexchange.org,  and the author DRONE WARFARE: KILLING by REMOTE CONTROL.

If We’re Going to Bomb Iran Then Let’s Bomb Halliburton Too!

9/11 ?

On September 11, 2001,

• Why did NORAD not respond to scramble jets to intercept the hijacked airliners?
• Why did hi-rise buildings expressly designed to withstand direct air collisions fall the way they did?
• Why did WTC-7, a building not hit by any plane, fall in the same manner as the buildings so hit?
• Why did 200-plus police officers, firefighters and explosives experts swear that they heard or felt explosions underground?
• Why was a thin coat of Thermite, an explosives-accelerant, found throughout Ground Zero?
• Why were Saudi royals and Bin Laden family members present in the United States provided air transport out of the country when no American was allowed to fly although this decision was made against the advice of the FBI?
• Why wasn’t the history of business relationships between the Bush and Bin Laden families reported?
• Why wasn’t it reported that a Bush brother was a principal in the security firm under contract to the World Trade Center? Or that a Bush cousin was in its management?
• Why wasn’t it reported that the WTC security cameras were down for a day on the weekend before 9/11?

No Conspiracy Theories. Just Questions.

More Happy News from the “Arab Spring” Brought to You Courtesy of the CIA

TUNISIA was one of the first Arab states to experience the supposed liberation of Arab Spring where secular, albeit tyrannical, states, where minorities were tolerated and women encouraged, were overthrown with the active involvement of the American CIA. As in past scenarios, the CIA in Tunisia aided Islamists who declare their hatred of Jews, Christians and the West, who upon their victory have initiated a process to create Islamist states. This model involving a coalition between the CIA and Al-Qaeda style Islamists was repeated in Libya, Egypt and Syria as it had in Iraq.

Now Islamist Tunisia is adopting a new law code prohibiting BLASPHEMY that is any criticism or ill-statement made of Muhammad, Islam, the Koran or the mullahs enforcing Islamic law. We don’t deny the right of other peoples to adopt their own laws and religions but we do wonder why the taxpayers of the USA should be subsidizing these changes throughout the Islamic world. Why has the CIA become an ally of Al-Qaeda, or has it always been an ally of Al-Qaeda?

The American Jihad

Everyone with an ounce of experience or study of the Middle East concludes that the region’s problems stem from Islamism. That is, not the practice of the religion of Islam but the extreme application of the religion to politics and government. To distinguish this application from the religion, the term Islamism is often used although Islamic extremism, Islamic fundamentalism or Jihadism are also common.

It is therefore all the more remarkable that the United States government and its intelligence operatives have consistently worked to promote Islamist partisans and, just as consistently, do everything in its power to undermine and destroy those in the Arab and Islamic worlds who adhere to a secular orientation.

When Afghanistan adopted a secular regime allied with Soviet Russia, the United States and Saudi Arabia assisted and funded Islamist guerrilla fighters. Ultimately, when the Islamists triumphed in Afghanistan, the U.S. treated the Taliban to excursions to the U.S., set up a CIA-funded Afghan institute in America and continued arms shipments until 9-11.

The United States has funded and provided technical assistance to Islamist terrorists in Bosnia and Kosovo and bombed their Serbian adversaries. The U.S. joined its ally Israel in encouraging the overturning of the secular leadership of the Palestinian Liberation Organization and the installation of Islamists. The source of Al Qaeda funding, and the planning of 9-11, is traceable to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates and yet neither nation suffered American intervention. Iraq, the most secular nation in the Middle East and the one that was the greatest impediment to Islamization of the region was invaded and government given to an Islamist coalition. Gaddafi, leader of the Sufi-oriented state of Libya, was bombed by the U.S. and its NATO allies and his Islamist opposition given aid and succor.

If one ignored statements and press conferences and relied only on actions, one could only conclude that the United States was a foremost ally, not adversary, of the Islamists regardless of the Jihad that erupted on 9-11.

Why?

Why does the United States government persist in working against American national interests.

We don’t know but the policy continues. Syria, influenced by secular nationalism and opposed to Islamism, is now the American target. Syria is a working secular state that has given shelter to Iraqi Christian refugees, entered Lebanon and ended the civil war there, and has covertly provided intel assistance to the United States. Its opposition is Islamist and if that opposition comes to power there will be such a bloodbath of Christians, secularists, and Islamic minorities as to defy comprehension. What is the U.S. doing? The U.S. ambassador to Syria is coordinating the rebellion against the government.

Things aren’t what they seem. Like the color revolutions in East Europe, the so-called Arab Spring uprisings may use masses of people in the street but the demos does not run the Revolution, they are run by it.