RIP Jim Kelly

Black Belt Jones - Intro - YouTube

Secret documents viewed by SPIEGEL reveal that the American intelligence service monitors around half a billion telephone calls, emails and text messages in the country every day.

NSA Spies on 500 Million German Data Connections - SPIEGEL ONLINE

Back in 2005, when the New York Times reported that the NSA was engaged in probably-illegal wiretapping, it ignited a nationwide firestorm...

One of a string of outrages that Senator Barack Obama used to denounce in his campaign speech as a sort of incantation when he was running for the presidency in 2008. And that’s why, for a certain sort of idealistic liberal, this man Obama was the most desirable presidential candidate imaginable, and why so many greeted his election as something like a deliverance from evil.

And today it is Obama himself who countenances something very similar to “warrantless wiretaps...” He has flown in the face of what he seemed to stand for—of what he promised in fact: open government, a respect for privacy and for the rule of law.

Those who wonder why a politician would do such a thing must remember how statesmanship is practiced, American-style. To snub and even to wound your most zealous supporters, as Obama has done, is regarded as a mark of maturity in Washington. This is not because snubbing or wounding them is a brave thing to do, but exactly the opposite: Because the righteous attitude of the idealist is repugnant to the men of power, who know that idealists are, in fact, men of weakness, entitled to neither courtesy nor respect.

Freedom: The Big American Lie - Debatten - FAZ

The two programs violate both the letter and the spirit of federal law. No statute explicitly authorizes mass surveillance.

The Criminal N.S.A. - NYTimes.com

Binney explains that how ThinThreat was built to track electronic activities — phone calls, emails, banking and travel records, social media , etc. — and map them to collect "all the attributes that any individual has" in every type of activity and build a real-time profile based on that data.

NSA Whistleblower William Binney Was Right - Business Insider

June 20, 2013

The American Civil Liberties Union will be in federal court tomorrow asking a judge to declare unconstitutional the government's practice of banning people from flying without giving them any notice, reasons, or meaningful way to clear their names.

Federal Judge None Too Impressed With Government's Defense Of Its 'No Fly' List | Techdirt

"They certainly have the technical capacity and assert they have the authority," said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a privacy advocacy group. "Given the history of deceptive and misleading statements from the [national intelligence director], I cannot take the government at its word that, despite its technical capacity and belief in its authority, it simply chooses not to track location."

NSA didn't collect cellphone location data, U.S. officials say - latimes.com

"It is clear that revelations about NSA surveillance programs have damaged Obama's standing with the public, although older controversies like the IRS matter may have begun to take their toll as well," adds Holland.

Details on NSA-thwarted plots coming, lawmaker says

Six in 10 disapprove of how Obama is handling government surveillance of U.S. citizens, which is higher than the 52% who disapproved of George W. Bush on the same issue in 2006, when government surveillance was also in the headlines.

CNN Poll: Obama approval falls amid controversies – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs

The aim was to "gain access to South African MFA [ministry of foreign affairs] network", to "collect intelligence from target machines" and to "find more access points to increase reliability".

In the corporate-tinged jargon that is pervasive at GCHQ, the desired "customer outcomes" did not involve any suspected nefarious activities by South African diplomats.

This was about spying on their normal work. The objective of the operation was described as acquiring "retrieved documents, including briefings for South African delegates to G20 and G8 meetings".

The primary ethical objection that the US makes about Chinese computer espionage (The APT) is that the purpose of US spying is to protect people's security whereas the purpose of Chinese spying is to gain leverage in economic negotiations - IE for a profit.

The use of a surveillance apparatus in the context of economic negotiations between peaceful nations is unethical. This isn't about protecting people from terrorist attacks - this is about making your friends rich.

I hope to god that the vast domestic surveillance infrastructure in the United States that was unveiled over the past few weeks is not being used by our own politicians to directly benefit the private economic interests of the corporations who fund their campaigns, against the interests of other Americans.

How GCHQ stepped up spying on South African foreign ministry | World news | The Guardian

Hong Kong is an unbelievably dense city, where much of the world can be accessed at your fingertips. But in a city where you can access the material world in a matter of seconds, it also has the ability to isolate you from the 8 million people around you as well.

With this piece, I hope that you are able to engage in this contradiction.

Your Moment of Zen