Yhdysvallat

[SJ]

En välttämättä yllättyisi etteikö Obama hieman omavaltaisuuksia harrastaisikin, onhan noita meilläkin sattunut. Mutta jotenkin veikkaan tuon älämölön vain johtuvan siitä, että jenkit koettavat pienentää puolustusmenoja ja kenraalikunta on juuri se, missä on eniten päällekäisyyksiä.

 

[ctg]

Today, 3 current U.S. Senators (Ron Wyden, Mark Udall and Martin Heinrich) who are all on the Senate Intelligence Committee – with top security clearance and access to classified NSA briefings – filed a “friend of the court” brief pointing out that the NSA’s mass spying hasn’t stopped a single attack:

Now that the government’s bulk call-records program has been exposed, the government has defended it vigorously. Amici [i.e. friends of the court ... the 3 Senators, along with numerous security experts] submit this brief to respond to the government’s claim, which it is expected to repeat in this suit, that its collection of bulk call records is necessary to defend the nation against terrorist attacks. Amici make one central point: As members of the committee charged with overseeing the National Security Agency’s surveillance, Amici have reviewed this surveillance extensively and have seen no evidence that the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records has provided any intelligence of value that could not have been gathered through less intrusive means. The government has at its disposal a number of authorities that allow it to obtain the call records of suspected terrorists and those in contact with suspected terrorists. It appears to Amici that these more targeted authorities could have been used to obtain the information that the government has publicly claimed was crucial in a few important counterterrorism cases.

***

As Amici and others have made clear, the evidence shows that the executive branch’s claims about the effectiveness of the bulk phone-records program have been vastly overstated and, in some cases, utterly misleading….

For example, the executive branch has defended the program by claiming that it helped “thwart” or “disrupt” fifty-four specific terrorist plots…. But that claim conflates the bulk-collection program with other foreign-intelligence authorities. In fact, as Amici know from their regular oversight of the intelligence community as members of the SSCI, “it appears that the bulk phone records collection program under section 215 of the USA Patriot Act played little or no role in most of these disruptions.” …. Indeed, of the original fifty- four that the government pointed to, officials have only been able to describe two that involved materially useful information obtained through the bulk call-records program…. Even the two supposed success stories involved information that Amici believe—after repeated requests to the government for evidence to the contrary—could readily have been obtained without a database of all Americans’ call records….

In both public statements and in newly declassified submissions to the SSCI, intelligence officials have significantly exaggerated the phone-records program’s effectiveness. Based on the experience of Amici, the public—and this Court—should view the government’s claims regarding the effectiveness of its surveillance programs with searching skepticism and demand evidence rather than assurances before accepting them.

Indeed, NSA spying is not very focused on terrorism at all. And even if some mass surveillance program were somehow necessary, counter-terror experts say we can keep everyone safe without violating the Constitution … more cheaply and efficiently than the current system.

The NSA’s whole domestic spying program is a sham …

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013...-americans-phone-records-provided-intell.html

• The American public doesn’t believe the NSA … and thinks that the government has gone way too far in the name of terrorism

• A huge majority of Americans wants the director of intelligence – Clapper – prosecuted for perjury

• Only 11% of Americans trust Obama to actually do anything to rein in spying

• Snowden is considered to be a hero by the American public

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/11/americans-skeptical-nsa-spying-ever.html

 

[ctg]

The United States and its key intelligence allies are quietly working behind the scenes to kneecap a mounting movement in the United Nations to promote a universal human right to online privacy, according to diplomatic sources and an internal American government document obtained by The Cable. American representatives have made it clear that they won't tolerate such checks on their global surveillance network

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/p...plan_to_kill_online_privacy_rights_everywhere

 

[SJ]

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/p...plan_to_kill_online_privacy_rights_everywhere

Liekkö tuo mikään ihme. Koko juttu vaikuttaisi olevan suunnattu nimenomaan jenkkejä vastaan ja jotenkin veikkaan, että maat kuten Kiina ja Venäjä eivät juurikaan välittäisi noista "oikeuksista" vaikka niistä jotain julistuksia annettaisiinkin.

 

[ctg]

Veteran CNN, New York Times and CBS Reporters: Obama Administration Is the Most “Manipulative”, “Control Freak”, “Secretive”, “Hostile to Media” In HISTORY

...

While Obama says he’s running the most transparent administration ever, he’s actually running the most secretive administration ever (background).

The government has taken to protecting criminal wrongdoing by attacking whistleblowers … and any journalists who have the nerve to report on the beans spilled by the whistleblowers. (The government has also repealed long-standing laws against using propaganda against Americans on U.S. soil, and the government is manipulating social media – more proof here and here).

The Obama administration has prosecuted more whistleblowers than all other presidents combined.

And it goes out of its way to smear whistleblowers, threaten reporters who discuss whistleblower information and harass honest analysts.

Journalism is not only being criminalized in America, but investigative reporting is actually treated like terrorism.

The government admits that journalists could be targeted with counter-terrorism laws (and here). For example, after Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Chris Hedges, journalist Naomi Wolf, Pentagon Papers whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg and others sued the government to enjoin the NDAA’s allowance of the indefinite detention of Americans – the judge asked the government attorneys 5 times whether journalists like Hedges could be indefinitely detained simply for interviewing and then writing about bad guys. The government refused to promise that journalists like Hedges won’t be thrown in a dungeon for the rest of their lives without any right to talk to a judge

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013...ma-white-house-hostile-media-u-s-history.html
http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013...ma-white-house-hostile-media-u-s-history.html

 

[Tvälups]

rasisteja obamaa pilkkaamassa, obama on ylösnoussut pelastaja, kysykää vaikka Nobel-lautakunnalta.

 

[SJ]

Mikään ei vituta mediaa enemmän, kuin tyypit jotka olettavat pystyvänsä toimimaan ilman median hyväksyntää. Mutta Opaman tapauksessa nuo ylempänä olevat jutut vaikuttavat tosilta, on tuosta merkkejä ollut jo aikaisemmin.

 

[ctg]

Obama Refuses to Rule Out Jail Time for People Who Dont Buy Health Insurance

Embedded media from this media site is no longer available

 

[SJ]

Opama saa uhitella ihan mitä tahtoo, se on toisen kauden pressa jolla on suosio pohjalukemissa eikä kauttakaan ole hirveästi jäljellä. Kumpikin jenkkien valtapuolue alkaa jo valmistautua vaaleihin ja tekevät omia johtopäätöksiä.

 

[ctg]

Is the NSA Blackmailing Its Overseers In Washington?

Are the Intelligence Committees Being Blackmailed?
During the Vietnam war, the NSA spied on two prominent politicians – Senators Frank Church and Howard Baker – as well as critics of government policy Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, and a Washington Post humorist.

A recently declassified history written by the NSA itself called the effort “disreputable if not outright illegal.”

The main whistleblower who revealed the Vietnam-era spying was Christopher H. Pyle. Pyle told Rob Kall of OpEdNews:

They targeted Sen. Frank Church and Sen. Howard Baker. It could mean they were trying to get information or dirt on senators involved in the Church committee and Watergate committee investigations respectively — either to learn something about their investigations or to discredit them.

***

We still need more information about what happened then. But more critically, we need more information about what’s happening now. These revelations raise the obvious question: If the NSA was targeting people like Sen. Frank Church, who were in a position to oversee the NSA — is that happening now? That is, are people like intelligence committee chairs Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and other congressional leaders — who are supposed to be providing oversight themselves — compromised in some way by the NSA? If so, as seems quite certain from the recent Edward Snowden revelations, then how can they conduct genuine oversight of the NSA with their committees?”

***

If I were a member of congress, I would be terrified that NSA would do to them what J. Edgar Hoover did to members back during his time.

Sound paranoid?

Maybe. But remember:

• The NSA has been tracking people’s porn in order to discredit them. The New York Times reports that this type of behavior has been going on for a long time: “J. Edgar Hoover compiled secret dossiers on the sexual peccadillos and private misbehavior of those he labeled as enemies — really dangerous people like … President John F. Kennedy, for example”.

• A high-level NSA whistleblower says that the NSA is spying on – and blackmailing – top government officials and military officers, including Supreme Court Justices, high-ranked generals, Colin Powell and other State Department personnel, and many other top officials

• Another very high-level NSA whistleblower – the head of the NSA’s global intelligence gathering operation – says that the NSA targeted CIA chief Petraeus

• Blackmail of Congress members may be common

Postscript: Of course, there’s always the carrot.

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/12/nsa-blackmailing-overseers-washington.html

 

[Tvälups]

yle 17.12.2013 klo 2:46
Jeh Johnsonista uusi Yhdysvaltain kotimaan turvallisuusministeriön johtaja
Johnson on ensimmäinen afrikkalaisamerikkalainen henkilö, joka nousee turvallisuusministeriön johtajaksi.

Yhdysvaltain senaatti varmisti maanantaina, että Jeh Johnsonista tulee maan seuraava kotimaan turvallisuusministeriön johtaja. Hän on entinen puolustusministeriön johtava lakimies, jolla oli tuhansia alaisia.

Johnsonin tehtäviin Pentagonissa kuului kaikkien presidentin ja puolustusministerin määräämien sotilasoperaatioiden laillisuuden arviointi.

Johnson on ensimmäinen afrikkalaisamerikkalainen henkilö, joka nousee turvallisuusministeriön johtajaksi. George W. Bush perusti kotimaan turvallisuusministeriön vuonna 2002.

Johnson voi vannoa virkavalansa jo tällä viikolla, jotta hän pääsee välittömästi aloittamaan ministeriön priorisoimat hankkeet kuten esimerkiksi rajaturvallisuuden kiristämisen, lentokenttien turvallisuuden päivittämisen ja maahanmuuton valvomisoperaatioiden parantamisen.

Yhdysvaltain turvallisuusministeriö koostuu 22:sta erillisestä virastosta, joilla on yhteensä 240 000 työntekijää.

Lähteet:
AFP, Reuters

 

[Tvälups]

yle 21.12.2013 klo 2:23
Obama valmis tarkastelemaan NSA:n toimintatapoja
Yhdysvaltojen presidentin Barack Obaman mukaan turvallisuusviraston kykyyn varastoida valtavia tietomääriä voidaan puuttua. Aikaisemmin tällä viikolla liittovaltion tuomari julisti NSA:n tietokannat perustuslain vastaisiksi.

Barack Obama Kuva: Brendan Smialowski / AFP
Yhdysvaltojen presidentti Barack Obama saattaa olla valmis puuttumaan turvallisuusvirasto NSA:n toimintaan. Loppuvuoden lehdistötilaisuudessa puhunut Obama sanoi, että joitakin viraston toimintatapoja on tarkasteltava, mutta täysin järjestelmää ei voida purkaa.

Obama aikoo seuraavien viikkojen aikana perehtyä Valkoisen talon tilaamaan selvitykseen, jossa kehotetaan rajoittamaan NSA:n valtuuksia. NSA:n toimintaa selvittänyt työryhmä on luovuttanut Obamalle 300-sivuisen esityksen turvallisuusviraston toiminnan muokkaamisesta. Esitys sisältää 46 ehdotusta NSA:n toiminnan muuttamiseksi.

Obama vihjasi puheessaan, että hän saattaa rajoittaa NSA:n kykyä ylläpitää ja varastoida puhelutietojen metadatasta koostuvia valtavia tietokantoja. Hän kuitenkin painotti, ettei asiasta ole tehty vielä yhtäkään päätöstä.

Liittovaltion tuomari Richard Leon määräsi aikaisemmin tällä viikolla, että NSA:n valtavat tietokannat ovat perustuslain vastaisia. NSA on kerännyt tiedot jokaisesta Yhdysvalloissa soitetusta puhelusta. Tiedot pitävät sisällään soittajan ja vastaajan numerot sekä puhelun ajankohdan ja keston. Leon kuvaili NSA:n toimintaa "orwellimaiseksi".

Obama totesi puheessaan, että tietovuotaja Edward Snowdenin paljastukset ovat johtaneet tärkeään keskusteluun turvallisuuden ja yksityisyyden välisestä suhteesta. Tästä huolimatta Obama katsoo Snowdenin paljastuksien vahingoittaneen Yhdysvaltojen etuja.

Obama kieltäytyi vastaamasta kysymykseen Snowdenille mahdollisesti myönnettävästä koskemattomuudesta.

Lähteet:
Reuters, AFP, AP

 

[Tvälups]

yle 2.1.2014 klo 17:26
Kiinan konsulaattia vastaan tuhopolttoisku San Franciscossa
Konsulaatin mukaan sen rakennus kärsi pahoja vahinkoja, kun iskun tekijä sytytti tuleen bensiinillä valelemansa konsulaatin etuoven.

Kiinan konsulaattirakennus San Franciscossa Yhdysvalloissa on kärsinyt pahoja vahinkoja tuhopolttoiskussa, konsulaatti kertoo nettisivuillaan.

Konsulaatin mukaan hyökkäjä kaatoi keskiviikkoyönä kaksi sangollista bensaa konsulaatin etuovelle ja sytytti sen tuleen. Lähetystön mukaan SanFranciscon poliisi ja paloviranomaiset saapuivat nopeasti paikalle.

Ei ole tiedossa, kuka hyökkääjä oli tai mikä oli teon motiivi. Konsulaatin mukaan hyökkääjä oli pysäköinyt pakettiauton konsulaatin edustalle ennen tuhopolttoa.

Poliisi tutkii hyökkäystä.
Lähteet:
AFP, Yle Uutiset
http://www.chinaconsulatesf.org/eng/zlghd/t1114016.htm

 

[ctg]

“Monkey Business” Surrounding the Repatriation of Germany’s Gold Stored at the NY Federal Reserve Bank.

By Bill Holter


As you know, Germany has reported that 37.5 tons were delivered last year, which is about 50 tons shy of what was the announced plan last January and was expected to be delivered over the course of 2013. Peter Boehringer (Germany’s equivalent of GATA’s Chris Powell here in the States) asked many questions of the Bundesbank, the most central being: Why was this gold “recast” before being returned? http://www.globalresearch.ca/monkey...stored-at-the-ny-federal-reserve-bank/5364090

 

[aj77]

“Monkey Business” Surrounding the Repatriation of Germany’s Gold Stored at the NY Federal Reserve Bank.

By Bill Holter

As you know, Germany has reported that 37.5 tons were delivered last year, which is about 50 tons shy of what was the announced plan last January and was expected to be delivered over the course of 2013. Peter Boehringer (Germany’s equivalent of GATA’s Chris Powell here in the States) asked many questions of the Bundesbank, the most central being: Why was this gold “recast” before being returned? http://www.globalresearch.ca/monkey...stored-at-the-ny-federal-reserve-bank/5364090

Olen suurella mielenkiinnolla seurannut tuota Saksan kultansa perään huutelua jenkeistä-. Silloin taannoinhan Usa sanoi että saatte kyllä kultanne ,mutta siinä menee 7-vuotta ainakin.Johtunee siittä että niillä ei ole sitä enään.
Näin videopätkän jonkun keskuspankin johtajan Kongressin kuulustelusta liittyen ihan toiseen asiaan, missä kaveri sivulauselle totesi että heillä ei ole yhtään kultaa varastossa . Onko siis Fort Knox maailman vartioiduin tyhjä tila?
Tuo ei tiedä hyvää pitkässä juoksussa.

 

[ctg]

We’ve Known for Some Time that the NSA Is Spying On Congress
Posted on January 8, 2014 by WashingtonsBlog
What It Really Means
The NSA pretty much admitted to spying on Congress this week.

It’s not the first time. David Sirota notes:

When I asked U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) if the NSA was keeping files on his colleagues, he recounted a meeting between NSA officials and lawmakers in the lead-up to a closely contested House vote to better regulate the agency:

“One of my colleagues asked the NSA point blank will you give me a copy of my own record and the NSA said no, we won’t. They didn’t say no we don’t have one. They said no we won’t. So that’s possible.”

Grayson is right: presumably, if the NSA wasn’t tracking lawmakers, it would have flatly denied it. Instead, those officials merely denied lawmakers access to whatever files the agency might have. That suggests one of two realities: 1) the NSA is keeping files on lawmakers 2) the NSA isn’t keeping files on lawmakers, but answered vaguely in order to stoke fear among legislators that it is.

Sirota notes the danger of even the threat of spying on the legislature:

Regardless of which of these realities happens to be the case, the mere existence of legitimate fears of congressional surveillance by an executive-branch agency is a serious legal and separation-of-powers problem. Why? Because whether or not the surveillance is actually happening, the very real possibility that it even could be happening or has happened can unduly intimidate the legislative branch into abrogating its constitutional oversight responsibilities. In this particular case, it can scare congressional lawmakers away from voting to better regulate the NSA.

And the Atlantic points out:

Access to that telephone metadata would be extremely useful for manipulating the legislature.

***

Should anyone doubt how much mischief​

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2014/01/spying-congress.html

 

[Tvälups]

Kiusallinen paljastus USA:ssa - 34 ydinaseupseeria sai potkut
Torstai 16.1.2014 klo 02.37

Yhdysvaltain armeija on erottanut 34 ydinaseiden laukaisusta vastannutta upseeria, jotka huijasivat pätevyystestissä.


Kenraali Mark Welshiä kuultiin Washingtonissa marraskuussa ydinaseupseerien huume-epäilyihin liittyen. (AP)
Asiasta kertoi maan ilmavoimat keskiviikkona.

Huijaukset tapahtuivat Montanassa sijaitsevassa ilmavoimien tukikohdassa.

- Yhdet tekivät niin (huijasivat) ja toiset luultavasti tiesivät siitä, mutta eivät tehneet mitään tai eivät ainakaan tarpeeksi estääkseen sen tai kertoakseen siitä, ilmavoimia johtava Deborah Lee James sanoi.

Hänen mukaansa ydinaseet ovat olleet koko ajan turvassa.

Viranomaisten mukaan kyseessä oli laajin huijaus koskaan ydinasevoimissa, sillä siihen osallistui noin viidennes tukikohdan 190 sotilaasta.

Viranomaisten mukaan kaksi erotetuista upseereista on myös yhdistetty erilliseen huumejuttuun, jossa on 11 sotilasta kuudesta tukikohdasta.

IL-STT-AFP

 

[aj77]

Olisi kiva tietää tarkemmin tuosta "huumejutusta" pyöritettiinkö siinä jotain oikeiden huumeiden rinkiä, vai pössyttelivätkö pojat vain iltavapailla?

 

[ctg]

Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies are increasingly borrowing border-patrol drones for domestic surveillance operations, newly released records show, a harbinger of what is expected to become the commonplace use of unmanned aircraft by police.

Customs and Border Protection, which has the largest U.S. drone fleet of its kind outside the Defense Department, flew nearly 700 such surveillance missions on behalf of other agencies from 2010 to 2012, according to flight logs released recently in response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group.

The records show that the border-patrol drones are being commissioned by other agencies more often than previously known. Most of the missions are performed for the Coast Guard, the Drug Enforcement Administration and immigration authorities. But they also aid in disaster relief and in the search for marijuana crops, methamphetamine labs and missing persons, among other missions not directly related to border protection.

Because they have sophisticated cameras and can remain in flight for many hours at a time, drones create novel privacy challenges. Civil libertarians have argued that these aircraft could lead to persistent visual surveillance of Americans on private property. Government lawyers have argued, however, that there is no meaningful legal distinction between the use of unmanned and piloted aircraft for surveillance.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world...987af0-7d49-11e3-9556-4a4bf7bcbd84_print.html

An investigation by El Universal has found that between 2000 and 2012, the U.S. government had an agreement with Mexico’s Sinaloa drug cartel that allowed the organisation to smuggle billions of dollars of drugs in exchange for information on rival cartels.


Sinaloa, led by Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, supplies 80% of the drugs entering the Chicago area and has a presence in cities across the U.S.

There have long been allegations that Guzman, considered the “world’s most powerful drug trafficker,” coordinates with American authorities.

But the El Universal investigation is the first to publish court documents that include corroborating testimony from a DEA agent and a Justice Department official.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/the-us-government-and-the-sinaloa-cartel-2014-1

 

[baikal]

Minua on kiinnostanut jo yli 10 vuotta, miksi Afganistanin unikkotuotanto räjähti sananmukaisesti pilviin, kun Usa tuli rajoittamaan tuota paheksuttua elinkeinomuotoa?

Sotilaat ja huumeet...yhtä ikiaikainen ilmiö kuin sotilaatkin. Herättäähän se mietteitä, että ydinasearsenaalia komentaa ja valvoo joukko upseereita, jotka ovat töissä piristeissään....ja toisella puolen maapalloa lujasti votkissa. Hienoa, ihmiskunta, täältä tullaan.