Vienna’s a fabled city for spying — and now its cloak-and-dagger legend has a 21st-century twist.
A stately villa in a leafy district of the Austrian capital is at the center of a ruckus over whether the NSA is snooping on the city’s residents, with allegations flying that the building serves as a sophisticated a U.S. intelligence listening post.
In an important decision, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government to review for release the court‘s opinions on the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act. The ruling is on a motion filed by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of the Nation‘s Capital, and Yale Law School‘s Media Freedom and Access Information Clinic. Section 215, which authorizes the government to obtain „any tangible things“ relevant to foreign-intelligence or terrorism investigations, is the claimed legal basis for the NSA‘s mass phone records collection program.
The Edward Snowden leaks may have helped the ACLU win a victory in America’s most secretive courtroom Friday.
Court cases before the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court — the court that reviews requests by the NSA to wiretap suspected terrorists’ communications — are generally classified. But Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordered the government to review the court’s opinions on the meaning, scope, and constitutionality of Section 215 of the Patriot Act, which authorizes the government to obtain “any tangible things” relevant to foreign-intelligence or terrorism investigations.
The fight for these policies is being led by a diverse and bipartisan alliance of civil liberties and communications-rights organizations, including the ACLU, EFF, Free Press and Public Knowledge.
We’re not alone. Millions joined the call for Net Neutrality in 2010; millions more stood up to defend the Internet against the PIPA and SOPA Web-censorship bills in 2012. The battle to protect users’ privacy has engaged new audiences as we‘ve learned more about the extent of the NSA‘s mass surveillance.
As we‘ve noted before, Edward Snowden‘s revelations about the globe-spanning spying being conducted by the NSA are have all sorts of interesting knock-on consequences. Here‘s another: people are starting to worry about being tracked by online advertisers, and taking action to avoid it, as this story in Adweek explains:
Verbringe einen Tag im Landtag und verliere den Glauben an die parlamentarische Demokratie. So oder so ähnlich lässt sich die gestrige Sitzung des Innenausschusses im Thüringer Landtag zusammenfassen.
However, the joint announcement, on the third day of intensive talks in Geneva, also set the stage for one of the most challenging undertakings in the history of arms control
The task group left the port of Severomorsk and has already covered 2,000 nautical miles, crossing the Barents, Kara and Laptev seas.
Greece’s civil service union, Adedy, said the perk stemmed from a decision in the 1990s to give employees 20 minutes off per day to protect them from eye damage from staring at a computer screen.
Since the July Egyptian coup, the Israelis have ignored the Nov 2012 ceasefire that was brokered by the previous Morsi Egyptian government. There’s been a sad litany of recent violations against Palestinian fishers:
Video
A French attempt to sneak language authorizing military action into the UN Security Council resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons disarmament, a plan backed by US and British officials, has failed, and the US is resigned to the resolution moving forward without any military option built in.
Hours after Secretary of State John Kerry announced an agreement between the U.S. and Russia on the framework for handling Syria‘s chemical weapons, President Barack Obama said he welcomes the progress.
The death of a child — any child — is always painful and shocking
Russian President Vladimir Putin has accepted Iran’s invitation to visit Tehran to work out a strategy for the Islamic regime’s nuclear program, Fars News Agency reported Saturday. The West believes the Iranian program is a front for developing nuclear weapons.
The system — named Hydra, after the mythological many-headed sea-monster — would be deployed in international waters by the Navy for weeks or months, and would be a way to relieve “resource strain,” states DARPA program manager Scott Littlefield, as well as extend military capabilities.
Laut Istoé ist die Basis in Ascensión, einem winzigen britischen Überseeterritorium, Teil des „Echelon-Projektes“, an dem außer den USA auch die Regierungen Großbritanniens, Kanadas, Neuseelands und Australiens beteiligt waren.
„Solidarität, gegenseitige Unterstützung, Respekt und ein ebenbürtiger Umgang sind die Vorrausetzungen der Arbeit von Petrocaribe“, sagte Martelly dazu.
In einem Kommuniqué beschreiben die Bewohner von San José Nacahuil den Vorgang des Massakers.
HIER IST wieder ein jüdischer Witz: Ein hungriger junger Jude sieht ein Ankündigungsplakat außerhalb eines lokalen Zirkus: Jeder, der auf die 50 Meter hohe Stange klettert und auf die Zeltplane unten springt, wird einen Preis von 1000 Rubeln gewinnen.
Jonathan Trappe, 39, lifted off at 6.20am EDT in heavy fog from Caribou, Maine, with the intention of making the 2,500 mile trip across the Atlantic to Europe.
Should he succeed, he would be the first ever person to cross the ocean by cluster ballooning. The journey is expected to take between three to five days, although the final destination could be anywhere.
No, the headline you did see was something like this: Canadian Household Debt-To-Income Ratio Hits Record High. Canadian Household Debt Climbs. Canadians Go Deeper Into Debt.
The protest on Catalonia’s National Day by people dressed in yellow and waving the regional flag demonstrated the strength of an Independence movement that is demanding a Scottish-style referendum.
A poll claimed 52% of Catalans would vote to break away from Madrid and form a Catalan state.
It was carrying a telescope that is being billed by Jaxa as the world‘s first space telescope that will remotely observe planets including Venus, Mars and Jupiter from its Earth orbit.
Police in Mexico City have clashed with protesters during an operation to clear a square occupied by striking teachers.
Thousands demonstrate in Athens after supporters of neo-Nazi party leave nine seriously injured amid fears of civil war
The 8200 unit collects and analyses electronic data, including wiretapped telephone calls and emails. It is the largest unit in the IDF.
Israel has invested in intelligence assets in Syria for decades, according to a senior government official. „We have an historic intelligence effort in the field, for obvious reasons,“ he said.
Die syrische Opposition hat die heutige Vereinbarung Russlands und der USA über eine Vernichtung der syrischen Chemiewaffen abgelehnt. „Diese Abmachungen gehen uns nichts an“, sagte der Befehlshaber der Freien Syrischen Armee, Selim Idris.
Die beiden Minister betonten, dass der Syrien-Konflikt nur auf dem Verhandlungswege beigelegt werden könne. „Wir haben entschieden, dass es keine militärische Lösung gibt“, sagte Kerry. Ein Unterhändlerteam müsse eingesetzt werden. Der russische Spitzendiplomat Lawrow äußerte, die Umsetzung des russisch-amerikanischen Plans würde ein militärisches Szenario abwenden.
Die Gespräche mit Kerry bezeichnete Lawrow als „exzellent“. Mit dem Verhandlungsergebnis seien die vom russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin und von US-Präsident Barack Obama gesetzten Ziele erreicht worden.
By Pepe Escobar
While the whole world was terrified by the prospect of the Obama administration bombing Syria, Chinese President Xi Jinping was busy doing the Silk Road.
Wir sprechen mit Dr. Kamal Sido, Nahost-Experte der Gesellschaft für bedrohte Völker und selbst kurdischer Syrer, über die akutelle Lage in seinem Geburtsland. Wir wollen u. a. die politische Lage und
The US will drop its insistence that a UN resolution on Syria must be backed by military force, officials say, after strong objections from Russia.
(08.09.)
(26.08.)
(28.08)
The joint U.S. Russian push to dismantle Syria‘s chemical weapons is starting to have ripple effects, focusing attention on the suspected arsenal of Israel.
“Iran understands today that there is nothing backing up all the threats against it,” Regional Cooperation Minister Shalom said. “If it is impossible to do anything against little Syria, then certainly not against big Iran.”
President Obama will not insist on a United Nations Security Council resolution threatening Syria with military action, senior administration officials said Friday, as American and Russian negotiators meeting in Geneva moved closer to an agreement that would seek to ultimately strip Syria of its chemical weapons.
Der Zusammenbruch von Lehman Brothers, dessen fünfjähriges Jubiläum auf den kommenden Sonntag fällt, hat die Welt in die Tiefen der Finanzkrise gestürzt, aber auch erhebliche Gewinne fürRechts- und Wirtschaftsprüfungsgesellschaf ten gebracht.
Authorities admit serious mistakes led to the suicide of Australian-Israeli Ben Zygier, after he was secretly held for „treason“.
Silvan Shalom, former Israeli Vice Premier and current Energy Minister, insisted that Israel has had a total ban in place since 1985 when Jonathan Pollard was arrested for such spying.
(29.08.) As I noted on Monday, a certain amount of spying between allies is expected.
“Wir lieben Krieg!” Antwort an die russische Nation durch Kriegspartei der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika in Vorbereitung und wird den Diplomaten weltweit viel Aufwand ersparen.
Despite assurances from President Obama, the scandal around the National Security Agency continues to grow. The Guardian reports the NSA has routinely passed raw intelligence to Israel about U.S. citizens. „The NSA was sharing what they call raw signals intelligence, which includes things like who you are calling and when you are calling, the content of your phone call, the text of your emails, your text messages, your chat messages,“ says Alex Abdo of the American Civil Liberties Union. „It sounds like all of that was handed over.“ Abdo also discusses the ACLU’s successful fight to force the government to declassify documents that show the NSA wrongly put 16,000 American phone numbers on an „alert list.“
TRANSCRIPT:
According to the Alaska Dispatch newspaper, which reported on the incident Sept. 3, „agents with the Alaska Environmental Crimes Task Force surged out of the wilderness around the remote community of Chicken wearing body armor“ and jackets, leaving residents stunned, confused and most likely a little ticked off.
Earlier on that very same day, Foreign Policy published an exclusive investigative report that shows for the first time that how the CIA helped Saddam Hussein as he gassed Iranian troops and civilians from 1983-1988. The fact that the US and Western European powers, particularly Germany, France, and Italy, assisted Saddam during the bloody 8-year war with Iran is not new.
Earlier this year, the director of national intelligence told Congress that cybersecurity is now a bigger threat to the security of this country than terrorism, echoing a similar point previously made by the head of the FBI. Members of Congress have heard this message loud and clear, holding numerous hearings, proposing legislation, and repeatedly stressing that cybersecurity is a high-priority issue.