Silent Screaming
Filed Under Bullshit, Orwellian, War & Politics | Leave a Comment
Irony is today’s word.
Just as ‘The Artist,’ an ode to silence, won Best Picture at last night’s Oscars, the organization known for anti-silence, WikiLeaks, dumped another load of classified files onto the public — this batch emails from US-based intelligence firm Stratfor, supposedly depicting the company’s “web of informers, pay-off structure, payment-laundering techniques and psychological methods.”
Thus to become more than a quiet riot.
(Illustration found here).
From WikiLeaks:
The Stratfor emails reveal a company that cultivates close ties with US government agencies and employs former US government staff.
It is preparing the 3-year Forecast for the Commandant of the US Marine Corps, and it trains US marines and “other government intelligence agencies” in “becoming government Stratfors”.
Stratfor’s Vice-President for Intelligence, Fred Burton, was formerly a special agent with the US State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service and was their Deputy Chief of the counterterrorism division.
Despite the governmental ties, Stratfor and similar companies operate in complete secrecy with no political oversight or accountability.
Stratfor claims that it operates “without ideology, agenda or national bias,” yet the emails reveal private intelligence staff who align themselves closely with US government policies and channel tips to the Mossad — including through an information mule in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Yossi Melman, who conspired with Guardian journalist David Leigh to secretly, and in violation of WikiLeaks’ contract with the Guardian, move WikiLeaks US diplomatic cables to Israel.
An example of Stratfor’s use of so-called ‘methods:’
“[Y]ou have to take control of him.
Control means financial, sexual or psychological control… This is intended to start our conversation on your next phase”
– CEO George Friedman to Stratfor analyst Reva Bhalla on 6 December 2011, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on the medical condition of the President of Venezuala, Hugo Chavez.
What a noisy mess.
Even worse, contrary to public disclosures, maybe bordering on near-sarcasm:
Ironically, considering the present circumstances, Stratfor was trying to get into what it called the leak-focused “gravy train” that sprung up after WikiLeaks’ Afghanistan disclosures :
“[Is it] possible for us to get some of that ’leak-focused’ gravy train ?
This is an obvious fear sale, so that’s a good thing.
And we have something to offer that the IT security companies don’t, mainly our focus on counter-intelligence and surveillance that Fred and Stick know better than anyone on the planet… Could we develop some ideas and procedures on the idea of ´leak-focused’ network security that focuses on preventing one’s own employees from leaking sensitive information…
In fact, I’m not so sure this is an IT problem that requires an IT solution.”
These files will be pored over in the coming days and a lot of disturbing, and most-likely illegal stuff will surface, and will once again display how ugly Americans can be when they think their shit doesn’t stink, or worse, they have no shit.
And it’s this American attitude that’s fueling the chaos in Afghanistan right now — seven US servicemen were injured this weekend in not-quiet-at-all riots over the supposed burning by American personnel of the Islam holy book, the Qur’an.
Although President Obama has publicly apologized for the Qur’an burnings, the GOP presidential nit-twits jumped Obama hard on it — Rick Santorum slobbering the move “shows weakness;” Newt Gingrich proclaiming the apology is akin to “surrender;” and Mitt Romney called it an “enormous error.”
Between them there’s not even a bird-sized shit for brains.
And there’s always more to a story that smacks the ears.
From the New York Times, though buried way down in the story:
Protesters in Kabul interviewed on the road and in front of Parliament said that this was not the first time that Americans had violated Afghan cultural and religious traditions and that an apology was not enough.
“This is not just about dishonoring the Koran, it is about disrespecting our dead and killing our children,” said Maruf Hotak, 60, a man who joined the crowd on the outskirts of Kabul, referring to an episode in Helmand Province when American Marines urinated on the dead bodies of men they described as insurgents and to a recent erroneous airstrike on civilians in Kapisa Province that killed eight young Afghans.
“They always admit their mistakes,” he said.
“They burn our Koran and then they apologize.
You can’t just disrespect our holy book and kill our innocent children and make a small apology.”
Sorry.
Glenn Greenwald adds this kicker-thought on the subject:
Along those lines, just imagine what would happen if a Muslim army invaded the U.S., violently occupied the country for more than a decade, in the process continuously killing American children and innocent adults, and then, outside of a prison camp it maintained where thousands of Americans were detained for years without charges and tortured, that Muslim army burned American flags — or a stack of bibles — in a garbage dump.
Might we see some extremely angry protests breaking out from Americans against them?
Would American pundits be denouncing those protesters as blinkered, primitive fanatics?
Indeed again.
And the shooting on Saturday of two US military officers in a supposedly secure Afghan government ministry has also displayed US compassion — NOT!
Juan Cole this morning enlightens a bit:
Two US military advisers to the Ministry of the Interior were shot dead on Saturday by an Afghan security man.
It turns out, according to recovered security tapes, that they were watching footage of the protests and cursing out the protesters, then speaking badly of the Qur’an.
The Afghan argued with them that they should be more respectful, and when the argument escalated, he drew on them and shot them both dead.
If this story is true, it distills the arrogance and bigotry of some US personnel in Afghanistan (they are in someone else’s country).
They didn’t deserve to meet that end, but cursing the Qur’an in a Muslim country in front of a local Muslim is about the most foolhardy act I can imagine.
The strong evangelical element in some parts of the US military makes it particularly unsuited to more or less running a largely illiterate Muslim nation that is deeply religious.
Evangelicals are the American group that has the highest disapproval of Islam.
Is the GOP listening, or in a cone of don’t-give-shit silence.
And what makes the whole Afghan situation even worse is the horrible horse shit heaved up by hard-case military assholes.
In this instance, Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, who called the shooting of the two officers as “outrageous,” without any background on it.
And claimed in his air of authority, the incident reveals the “shallow impact [the United States] has on this primitive society.”
A total jerk — one must remember McCaffrey was among those so-called ‘military analysts‘ that bullied the fog-brained US public into supporting the Iraq invasion — the New York Times won a Pulitzer Prize in 2008 for exposing the Pentagon Message Machine, on which Barry was a major player.
From the NYT story on the good general: Two of NBC’s most prominent analysts, Barry R. McCaffrey and the late Wayne A. Downing, were on the advisory board of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq, an advocacy group created with White House encouragement in 2002 to help make the case for ousting Saddam Hussein. Both men also had their own consulting firms and sat on the boards of major military contractors.
Silence as we can see is not golden, though, one has to be an artist of some type in order to keep a lid on, or maintain the DL, of any news that might filter down to the US’ unwashed, near-ignorant masses.
Do we live in a vacuum, and if so, can anyone hear us screaming?
Watchers/Listeners
Filed Under Bullshit, Orwellian, Technology, War & Politics | Leave a Comment
“Even the Catholic Church of the Middle Ages was tolerant by modern standards.
Part of the reason for this was that in the past no government had the power to keep its citizens under constant surveillance.
The invention of print, however, made it easier to manipulate public opinion, and the film and the radio carried the process further.
With the development of television, and the technical advance which made it possible to receive and transmit simultaneously on the same instrument, private life came to an end.”
– George Orwell, 1984 (quote found here)
(Illustration found here).
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange spoke Monday during a panel discussion at London’s Bureau of Investigative Journalism — he was announcing another WikiLeaks dump, this time the files concern private surveillance companies who have worked with various world governments to track whoever via monitoring software integrated into electronic devices.
“Who here has a BlackBerry?
Who here uses Gmail?
Well you are all screwed!” Assange exclaimed.
“The reality is intelligence contractors are selling right to countries around the world mass surveillance systems for all of those products.”
Meanwhile, just yesterday, Sen. Al Franken demanded an explanation on how the so-called ‘Carrier IQ,’ installed all new Android smartphones, really works — this hidden software is supposedly meant to help mobile carriers monitor and diagnose problems with their devices, but in reality may transmit personal information.
In a letter to Carrier IQ President and CEO Larry Lenhart, Franken wanted more information on the capabilities of the device.
Via Raw Story:
“I am very concerned by recent reports that your company’s software—pre-installed on smartphones used by millions of Americans—is logging and may be transmitting extraordinarily sensitive information from consumers’ phones…
“I understand the need to provide usage and diagnostic information to carriers,” he continued.
“I also understand that carriers can modify Carrier IQ’s software.
But it appears that Carrier IQ’s software captures a broad swath of extremely sensitive information from users that would appear to have nothing to do with diagnostics—including who they are calling, the contents of the texts they are receiving, the contents of their searches, and the websites they visit.”
“These actions may violate federal privacy laws, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act,” Franken warned.
“This is potentially a very serious matter.”
Serious indeed.
Franken was responding to a claim from Trevor Eckhart, a 25-year-old electronics expert, that the Carrier IQ operation can be used in nefarious ways.
On Eckhart’s blog he explains how this works, and despite a lot of geek shit (non-sensible to me), he concludes:
The fact that it’s embedded into the shipped device raises very serious security and privacy concerns.
…
The CIQ application is embedded so deeply in the device that it can’t be fully removed without rebuilding the phone from source code.
This is only possible for a user with advanced skills and a FULLY unlocked device.
…
If a bad actor discovered a vulnerability or used malware, he could potentially exploit that opportunity to become a “CIQ operator,” leaving many users helpless against the extensive collection and misuse of their own information and no way to stop it.
With so much moving code across the operating system, I would say the chances of malware looking here isn’t that far-fetched.
Of course, Carrier IQ got pissed at Eckhart, fired off a cease-and-desist letter and demanded he issue an apology for calling its software a”rootkit,” but back-tracked when Electronic Frontier Foundation became involved.
The EFF is an US-based non-profit digital rights advocacy and legal organization.
From CNET News:
Just days later, Carrier IQ did an about face after the Electronic Frontier Foundation responded to its cease-and-desist letter, saying that Eckhart’s comments and research are protected under the Copyright Act’s fair use provision.
“Our action was misguided and we are deeply sorry for any concern or trouble that our letter may have caused Mr. Eckhart,” the company said in response to the EFF’s letter.
“We sincerely appreciate and respect EFF’s work on his behalf, and share their commitment to protecting free speech in a rapidly changing technological world.”
In dumping the surveillance logs, termed “The Spy Files,” WikiLeaks on its Web site explains:
International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world.
This industry is, in practice, unregulated.
Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers.
Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.
…
When citizens overthrew the dictatorships in Egypt and Libya this year, they uncovered listening rooms where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.
…
The CIA officials have bought software that allows them to match phone signals and voice prints instantly and pinpoint the specific identity and location of individuals.
Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc., based in Massachusetts — sells a “location-based analytics” software called Geospatial Toolkit for this purpose.
Another Massachusetts company named Netezza, which bought a copy of the software, allegedly reverse engineered the code and sold a hacked version to the Central Intelligence Agency for use in remotely piloted drone aircraft.
And this is beyond just the old ‘looking over you shoulder‘ routine — be aware and be watchful, they are.
Big Bro, Indeed
Filed Under Bullshit, Lying | Leave a Comment
“Listen, if anything happens to Yoko and me, it was not an accident.”
– John Lennon (The FBI assembled around 300 pages of files on John Lennon in 1971-72, part of President Nixon’s effort to deport Lennon to silence him as a critic of the war in Vietnam).
(Illustration found here).
Yesterday, I posted about the nefarious undercover operations of the FBI into US Muslim communities and how these investigations are dumb-ass bogus while overlooking one case staring me straight in the face — the FBI investigated/continues to investigate antiwar.com for activities which constitute a threat to National Security on behalf of a foreign power.
Another coughed-up pile of bullshit.
And from all indications, the FBI were including antiwar.com in investigations because of either a jab at a search for Israeli spies, or another jab at finding out who had posted terrorist watch lists online — either way, the whole thing smells of shit.
Along with the site itself, writer/editor Justin Raimondo, along with the site’s Webmaster, Eric Garris, where under the FBI spotlight.
One of the best investigative journalists around, Marcy Wheeler, checks out the situation at emptywheel.
Wheeler wonders at this from the FBI file:
There are several unanswered questions regarding antiwar.com.
It describes itself as a non-profit group that survives on generous donations from its readers.
Who are these contributors and what are the funds used for?
[two lines redacted] on www.antiwar.com.
If this is so, then what is his true name?
Two facts have been established by this assessment.
Many individuals worldwide do view this website including individuals who are currently under investigation and [one line redacted].
And concludes:
Now, it’s bad enough the FBI doesn’t consider Antiwar.com a journalistic site at all.
It’s also pretty appalling that they used pretty unnecessary questions to justify further investigation.
And remember, the bar for the FBI to use First Amendment “protected” reasons to investigate someone have been lowered since 2004.
Apparently, for the FBI, advocating for peace and making a publicly available PDF available constitutes sufficient threat to conduct a counterintelligence investigation.
Raimondo explained the problem in a column yesterday and reports the FBI files were posted out of the blue.
He says the content of those files can only be called ‘bizarre.’
According to a memo stamped “Secret,” marked as “routine,” and dated April 30, 2004, we apparently drew the attention of the feds when we posted a copy of a “terrorist suspect list” [.pdf] which had been supplied by the US government to various corporate and governmental agencies, both here and abroad.
These documents — including one posted on the web site of an Italian banking association — contained the names of those on a “watch list,” the product of an FBI operation dubbed “Operation Lookout.”
The memo acknowledges the list “was posted on the internet” in “different versions,” but says the FBI “assessment was conducted on the findings discovered on www.antiwar.com.”
These guys are using us a resource — so why haven’t they contributed to our fund drive?
Yes, indeed.
In a somewhat related piece at Mother Jones is an examination of FBI informants.
A collection of more bullshit.
Read the whole post (a long one but worth the time).
A money bit:
The bureau’s strategy has changed significantly from the days when officials feared another coordinated, internationally financed attack from an Al Qaeda sleeper cell.
Today, counterterrorism experts believe groups like Al Qaeda, battered by the war in Afghanistan and the efforts of the global intelligence community, have shifted to a franchise model, using the internet to encourage sympathizers to carry out attacks in their name.
The main domestic threat, as the FBI sees it, is a lone wolf.
The bureau’s answer has been a strategy known variously as “preemption,” “prevention,” and “disruption”—identifying and neutralizing potential lone wolves before they move toward action.
To that end, FBI agents and informants target not just active jihadists, but tens of thousands of law-abiding people, seeking to identify those disgruntled few who might participate in a plot given the means and the opportunity.
And then, in case after case, the government provides the plot, the means, and the opportunity.
Another sense of leaving keys in the car and walking away.
And in the Mother Jones/Investigative Reporting Program at the University of California-Berkeley look into this scheme found this:
Sting operations resulted in prosecutions against 158 defendants.
Of that total, 49 defendants participated in plots led by an agent provocateur — an FBI operative instigating terrorist action.
Where does the crime start?
Terror of terror.
And by the way, all the stories above can be found at the antiwar.com site — will the FBI now know when my bowels will move next?
‘Fear’ of the US
Filed Under Double Standard/Religious, Orwellian | Leave a Comment
Gone is that so-called “light on the hill” and that old-time “huddled masses” routine as the good-old US of A is now known as the hypocritical epicenter of life on the planet — if American authorities can’t arrest you, then you’ll be hunted down like a dog and assassinated, and if you are captured, you’ll be waterboarded until you scream out some sort of confession.
Julian Assange was released on bail from an UK jail Thursday and confessed his ultimate dread:
Speaking to reporters in London after his release from custody, Assange said: ‘I do not have too many fears about my extradition to Sweden. The much bigger fear is about extradition to the US.’
And into the hands of those without any sense of humanity.
(Illustration found here).
Maybe Assange has gotten wind of Bradley Manning’s situation.
Manning is the 23-year-old US Army private who has been changed with, but not yet convicted of passing classified information to Assange’s WikiLeaks operation — Manning has been held in horrible conditions since his arrest last May.
Another notice of US reality.
Via Raw Story:
Coleen Rowley, a former special agent/legal counsel at the FBI’s Minneapolis division, told MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann Wednesday that it appears Manning was receiving the same type of harsh treatment reserved for terrorism detainees.
“I’ve never heard of punishing someone pre-conviction like this in solitary confinement,” she said.
“It really sounds vindictive and in a way, it seems like some of the harsh interrogation tactics have kind of bled over now into the criminal process, which is just shocking.”
Read Glenn Greenwald’s most-excellent post on Manning’s position within the US legal system — it ain’t pretty.
And all this despite the law.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House judiciary committee, said Thursday that the prosecution of Assange and WikiLeaks goes against the standard of what the US has stood for and maintained for the last 200-plus years.
Again, via Raw Story:
“As an initial matter, there is no doubt that WikiLeaks is very unpopular right now.
Many feel that the WikiLeaks publication was offensive,” Conyers said, according to prepared remarks.
“But being unpopular is not a crime, and publishing offensive information is not either.
And the repeated calls from politicians, journalists, and other so-called experts crying out for criminal prosecutions or other extreme measures make me very uncomfortable.”
…
“But let us not be hasty, and let us not legislate in a climate of fear or prejudice,” Conyers closed, referring to the calls for new laws criminalizing the actions of Wikileaks.
“For, in such an atmosphere, it is our constitutional freedoms and our cherished civil rights that are the first to be sacrificed in the false service of our national security.”
The House Judiciary Committee itself heard from legal experts on Thursday that going after Assange and Wikileaks is not only illegal, but also that ‘excessive government secrecy is a serious problem that needs to be fixed.’
The biggest impact from WikiLeaks is the exposure, once again, of how morally-corrupt the US has become, and the fear rest of the planet has of America.
A most-horrifying shame.
‘Chicken Crap’
Filed Under Bullshit, Politics | Leave a Comment
(Illustration found here).
Yesterday from the mouth of the heartless insane — via UPI:
U.S. Rep. John Boehner, the incoming House speaker, described a Democratic move Thursday to limit the extension of the Bush tax cuts as “chicken crap.”
…
“I’m trying to catch my breath so I don’t refer to this maneuver going on today as chicken crap, all right, but this is nonsense! We’re 23 months from the next election and the political games have already started trying to set up the next election,” Boehner said.
The Boner — not to be confused with The Dick — was talking shit through the hen-house hole.
Only the day before, The Boner had really stepped out to instigated some strong-armed procedures for allowing easier access for going literally into the toilet.
Speaker-to-be John Boehner announced Wednesday night that he’s ordered the Architect of the Capitol to transform space currently occupied by the Office of the Parliamentarian into a women’s restroom.
Until now, only congressmen have had a bathroom break convenient to the House floor; female members have had to trek across Statuary Hall to their loo in the Congressional Women’s Reading Room.
US peoples are in for a shit-room time the next two years as Republicans have already started their bowel-obstruction stance to bring the country down to the floor on its belly — America is already on its knees.
And beyond the tax for the super rich, but also a tax on just staying alive for the entire, whole human race: Republicans will eliminate a House panel designed to explore issues related to climate change, incoming House Speaker John Boehner announced on Wednesday, arguing that the committee is unnecessary and that its eradication would cut government waste.
“The global warming committee doesn’t need to be a separate committee,” Boehner told reporters. “We believe the Science Committee is more than capable of handling this issue, and in the process we’ll save several million dollars.”
The GOP is in reality full of chicken crap.
Never in my lifetime has it become so apparent one party in the US two-party system has vanished into a smoke-screen of total bullshit with any regard to how the country is doing, or feeling, or anything.
There is no agenda except chicken crap.
The Boner has no ethics (as witnessed by his 1995 distributing tobacco-lobby checks on the House floor) although one of his biggest concerns this coming year is the Congressional ethics apparatus itself: Yet, despite the ethics office’s strong track record, Boehner has suggested he may dismantle the office. This is not a new position for him. The GOP leadership fought vehemently against the OCE’s creation, and both Boehner and his deputy, Rep. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), voted against it.
Twisted, ironic chicken shit.
Andrew Sullivan at The Daily Dish spelled it out real-eloquently in a post on Wednesday.
Although Sullivan was discussing the GOP in reference to gay rights, the words could be taken to mean any-freakin’-thing to do with the Republican party.
The big nugget:
What we’ve observed these past two years is a political party that knows nothing but scorched earth tactics, cannot begin to see any merits in the other party’s arguments, refuses to compromise one inch on anything, and has sought from the very beginning to do nothing but destroy the Obama presidency.
I see no other coherent message or strategy since 2008.
Just opposition to everything, zero support for a president grappling with a recession their own party did much to precipitate, and facing a fiscal crisis the GOP alone made far worse with their spending in the Bush-Cheney years.
There is not a scintilla of responsibility for their past; not a sliver of good will for a duly elected president. Worse, figures like Cantor and McCain actively seek to back foreign governments against the duly elected president of their own country, and seek to repeal the signature policy achievement of Obama’s first two years, universal healthcare.
I like ‘not a scintilla‘ and ‘not a sliver of good will‘ — nails the bastards.
And that ain’t chicken shit.