Among the millions of records, the NSA‘s Tracfin’s also contained data from the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT). Used to conduct business operations “with speed, certainty and confidence”, this global financial service is used by more than 10,000 banking organizations in 212 countries.

Hill also said “intelligence sources reported that Saudi Arabia is based in the effort to destabilize the government of [Iraqi] Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.”

This spring, one militia leader affiliated with the FSA—his brigade has since been kicked out—was filmed eating a dead soldier‘s heart. „This stuff happens rarely, but it‘s unfortunate,“ Layman says. „With the guy who was eating a heart, he was part of a moderate faction…We work with Idriss and let him know that he needs to prevent these things.“

On January 23, 1961, a B-52 packing a pair of Mark 39 hydrogen bombs suffered a refueling snafu and went into an uncontrolled spin over North Carolina. In the cockpit of the rapidly disintegrating bomber (only one crew member bailed out safely) was a lanyard attached to the bomb-release mechanism. Intense G-forces tugged hard at it and unleashed the nukes, which, at four megatons, were 250 times more powerful than the weapon that leveled Hiroshima. One of them „failed safe“ and plummeted to the ground unarmed. The other weapon‘s failsafe mechanisms—the devices designed to prevent an accidental detonation—were subverted one by one, as Eric Schlosser recounts in his new book, Command and Control:

by Ray McGovern

The just announced U.S.-Russia agreement in Geneva on a “joint determination to ensure the destruction of the Syrian chemical weapons (CW) program in the soonest and safest manner” sounds the death knell to an attempt by Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to get the U.S. into the war in Syria.

We have more to fear from contaminated cantaloupe than from al-Qaeda, yet the United States spends $75 billion per year spread across 15 intelligence agencies in a scattershot attempt to prevent terrorism, illegally spying on its own citizens in the process.

Mann überlebte seinen Unfall nur kurze Zeit und starb durch ungerechtfertigte Polizeischüsse

A fresh wave of bombs has killed at least 21 people across Iraq – mostly targeting Shia areas – officials say.

In its statement Tuesday, NIST acknowledged that the NSA participates in creating cryptography standards “because of its recognized expertise” and because NIST is required by law to consult with the spy agency.

Die Zentrale des Information Dominance Center habe er in seiner Zeit als kommandierender General des U.S. Army Intelligence and Security Command in Fort Belvoir einrichten lassen. Neben Kapitänssessel und den aus „Star Trek“ bekannten Konsolen, habe es auch die obligatorischen Schiebetüren mit authentischen Zischgeräuschen gegeben.

(23.08.) According to the Independent, the clandestine base is used to hoover up huge amounts of data, such as emails, telephone calls and web traffic.

(02.08.) Fears of customer backlash over breach of privacy as firms give GCHQ unlimited access to their undersea cables

(12.09.) One of the world’s largest corporations has been hit with a widespread data breach: Vodafone Germany said that personal information on more than two million mobile phone customers has been stolen, possibly by a company insider.

Alicia Calzada, an Austin-based attorney and former photojournalist, noted: „Any time you need that many exceptions to a bill, it‘s a sign you‘re going down the wrong road.“

Texas has recently become one of the states that has limited the use drones by citizens in civilian airspace tipping the scales in favor of law enforcement use of unmanned surveillance.

Die Offensive werde östlich der Aleppo beginnen und sich gegen „Agenten des syrischen Regimes aber auch gegen jene Mitglieder der Freien Syrischen Armee richten, die die Angriffe auf Aktivisten des ‚Islamstaates‘ organisieren“, zitiert die arabische Zeitung „Al-Watan al-Arabi“ aus einer Erklärung der Extremistengruppe.