Daily Archives: 11. Oktober 2013


11.10.2013 - 22:29 [ ACLU ]

The Global Suppression of Protest

This week the International Network of Civil Liberties Organizations released a report about the crackdown on peaceful protests in democracies around the world – the tactics include excessive (sometimes deadly) police force and the criminalization of dissent. This is the introduction to the study, „Take Back the Streets,“ which details cases of suppression in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Israel, Egypt, Argentina, South Africa, Kenya, and Hungary.

11.10.2013 - 22:25 [ Informationsstelle Militarisierung e.V. ]

Sicherheitspolitischer Workshop des DGB: Ein Schlag ins Gesicht der Friedens- und Antikriegsbewegung

Im Februar 2013 kam es zu einem „denkwürdigen“ Treffen zwischen DGB-Chef Michael Sommer und Verteidigungsminister Thomas de Maiziere, das von vielen Seiten heftig kritisiert wurde, weil dort eine engere Kooperation beider Institutionen vereinbart wurde. Zunächst hatte es daraufhin den Anschein, als würde die DGB-Spitze aufgrund der mannigfaltigen Kritik von ihrem Kuschelkurs gegenüber der Bundeswehr wieder abrücken. Dass dem nicht der Fall ist, zeigt jedoch ein prominent angekündigter „Sicherheitspolitischer Workshop“, der am 30. Oktober 2013 in Berlin stattfinden wird. Das Programm kann nicht nur getrost als ein Schlag ins Gesicht der Friedens- und Antikriegsbewegung gewertet werden, es zeigt auch, dass jetzt Widerstand gegen diese Entwicklung dringend notwendig ist.

11.10.2013 - 22:23 [ Global Research ]

Syria: Pro-attack Media Commentators had Undeclared Defence Industry Links

Nearly two dozen of the commentators who appeared on major media outlets to discuss a possible US military strike on Syria had relationships with contractors and other organizations with a vested interest in the conflict, according to a new report.

The Public Accountability Initiative, a non-profit research group dedicated to “investigating power and corruption at the heights of business and government,” determined that 22 of the pundits who spoke to the media during the public debate over whether the US should bomb Syria appeared to have conflicts of interest. Seven think tanks with murky affiliations were also involved in the debate.

11.10.2013 - 20:13 [ Techdirt ]

NSA Staff Whining That President Obama Isn‘t Defending Them Enough

Foreign Policy magazine has an article highlighting how NSA employees are pissed off that President Obama hasn‘t been defending the NSA strongly enough these past few months. While many (including us) have been quite critical of President Obama‘s weak defense of the NSA programs, folks inside Ft. Meade are pissed off that he‘s not out there defending them more strongly:

11.10.2013 - 20:06 [ Techdirt ]

More Examples Of How The House Intelligence Committee Limits Oversight, Rather Than Does Oversight

More evidence keeps surfacing showing Intelligence Committee members are simply jerking around their fellow Senate and Congress members when it comes to providing the documents needed to provide oversight for the NSA. Tony Romm‘s engrossing article for Politico refers to this deliberate obfuscation (tactfully) as „some limits,“ but adding what‘s been newly discovered to what we already know shows that the heads of the Intelligence Committees aren‘t really interested in collaborating with their colleagues to provide credible oversight.

11.10.2013 - 20:04 [ Reuters ]

Libyan PM calls brief abduction a ‚coup‘ by foes

„They wanted to overthrow the government,“ Zeidan said in a national address. „This was not an attempted kidnapping only of a prime minister, but of the government.“

He accused members within the General National Council, the country‘s national assembly, of plotting the abduction.

11.10.2013 - 20:03 [ Reuters ]

Tunisia Islamists ready to hand over power, see spring election

„What we said to the opposition is very simple: Return to the assembly so you finish your work in finalizing the constitution and the election commission and we will give up government in return,“ he told Reuters.

„Give the Tunisian people who elected you the constitution they elected you to produce, and we will give up the government.“

11.10.2013 - 19:11 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

Dear Google, Commit Your Broad Patents to a Defensive License

There has been quite a bit of news lately that you have applied for a patent on bill splitting. It‘s a helpful tool—we‘ve all been to restaurants or lived with housemates and have needed a convenient way of calculating and tracking who owes what. But this technology already exists—and it has existed for a while. The fact that you feel compelled to file for this patent only further proves how broken the system is.

11.10.2013 - 19:07 [ deathandtaxes ]

YACHT to play anti-NSA rally in Washington D.C.

On October 26, the Rally Against Mass Surveillance is being held in Washington D.C. A broad coalition groups, from Demand Progress, Mozilla and EFF to Stop Watching Us and the Center for Democracy and Technology are organizing the event. Once assembled, the coalition plans to deliver a half-million petitions to Congress calling for an end to mass electronic surveillance.

11.10.2013 - 18:56 [ Electronic Frontier Foundation ]

New Report Finds Obama’s Policies Threaten an Independent Press

The Committee to Protect Journalists has released its first-ever special report on freedom of the press in the United States. For many years, CPJ has documented attacks on journalists in many countries around the world. The report focused on how policies and practices of the Obama administration disrupt relationships between journalists and government sources, allow officials to circumvent scrutiny by the press, and create a chilling environment for whistleblowers who might otherwise serve as journalistic sources. The report also discusses the ramifications of NSA surveillance, which leaves journalists and their sources reluctant to communicate electronically.

11.10.2013 - 18:01 [ Radio Utopie ]

Ovadias Wahl

ALS RABBI Ovadia das erste Mal‭ ‬auf der politischen Bühne erschien,‭ ‬stieß ich einen tiefen Seufzer der Erleichterung aus.‭

11.10.2013 - 18:00 [ Global Security Newswire ]

United States

This article provides an overview of the United States’ historical and current policies relating to nuclear, chemical, biological and missile proliferation.

11.10.2013 - 16:53 [ Radio Utopie ]

Bevor Sie jubeln …

Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika sind ein Signatarstaat von Abkommen, die Entführung verbieten, ungeachtet des Bedarfs der Regierung an dem Opfer. Fragen Sie nur Robert Seldon Lady, den ehemaligen CIA-Chef in Mailand, der in Abwesenheit vor ein paar Jahren in Italien wegen der Entführung eines muslimischen Imams verurteilt und diesen Sommer aufgrund eines internationalen Haftbefehls in Panama verhaftet wurde. Und Präsident George W. Bush selbst und andere wurden in Abwesenheit für Kriegsverbrechen letztes Jahr in Malaysia verurteilt.

11.10.2013 - 16:44 [ Epoch Times ]

(8.10.13) China: Kinder von KP-Bonzen bei Investmentbanken heiß begehrt

nternationale Investmentbanken stellen in den vergangenen Jahren vermehrt Nachwuchs oder Verwandte von hohen Funktionären der Kommunistischen Partei Chinas ein. Durch die guten Verbindungen ihrer Väter – in China nennt man das „Guanxi“ – kamen viele der Investmentbanken so bei den Börsengängen chinesischer Staatsunternehmen in den USA oder Hongkong bevorzugt zum Zug.

11.10.2013 - 16:11 [ audiotool ]

User Party/Convention audiotool:com

We are happy to announce that on Saturday 12th of October 2013 we will be holding our first user convention! This event will be taking place in our hometown of Cologne and will include a keynote about the future of Audiotool, an artist panel and Q&A session, followed by a party at a nearby location.

11.10.2013 - 15:34 [ Occupy.com ]

Global Power Project: Exposing the Institute of International Finance, Part 1

Founded in 1983, the Institute of International Finance (IIF) describes itself as “the world’s only global association of financial institutions” with a membership that includes “most of the world’s largest commercial banks and investment banks,” along with sovereign wealth funds, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, law firms, multinational corporations, development banks, multilateral agencies, credit ratings agencies and an assortment of other global financial and economic organizations. In short, the Institute of International Finance is the very visible hand of the global financial markets.

As the IIF notes on its website, its „main activities“ include providing so-called “impartial analysis and research” to its members in order to “shape regulatory, financial, and economic policy issues….influence the public debate on particular policy proposals….[and work] with policymakers, regulators, and multilateral organizations… with an emphasis on voluntary market-based approaches to crisis prevention and management.“

11.10.2013 - 15:16 [ The Atlantic ]

Here Are the Countries Where Internet Freedom Has Declined Most

Freedom House‘s annual Freedom on the Net report is out, and like in most such reports, the actual rankings are largely unsurprising. Iceland, the frozen whistleblower nirvana, ranked first, and second was Estonia, the tiny Baltic country that gave us Skype. China, Cuba, and Iran came in last, obviously.

11.10.2013 - 15:09 [ DESMOGBLOG ]

Over 865,200 Gallons of Fracked Oil Spill in ND, Public In Dark For Days Due to Government Shutdown

Over 20,600 barrels of oil fracked from the Bakken Shale has spilled from a Tesoro Logistics pipeline in Tioga, North Dakota in one of the biggest onshore oil spills in recent U.S. history.

Though the spill occurred on September 29, the U.S. National Response Center – tasked with responding to chemical and oil spills – did not make the report available until October 8 due to the ongoing government shutdown.

11.10.2013 - 15:06 [ Dailymail ]

Revealed: How Pentagon FAKED repatriation of fallen soldiers for years with phony ceremonies, decommissioned planes and bodies that had spent months in labs

Rick Stone who once worked for JPAC said the agency has always known of their deceit.

‘It‘s an open fraud inside JPAC,’ he said of the bogged down agency. ‘But it‘s more than just the arrival ceremony. The fraud is really their inability to bring closure to more families. Our noble mission is to go find some of these kids, and this thing is so fouled up we don‘t even recognize the mission.’

The military stands by the spirit of the ceremonies, however.

11.10.2013 - 13:17 [ Wikipedia ]

Mosh

„Mosh“ is a protest song by Eminem released on October 26, 2004 as a digital single, just prior to the 2004 presidential election.

The video for the song is available for free on the Internet and encouraged voters to vote George W. Bush out of office.

11.10.2013 - 13:08 [ Washingzon Post ]

In Egypt, a campaign to promote an ‘Egyptian Islam’

“This is the new regime trying to create an official Islam, a state Islam, which doesn’t exist within the Islamic tradition,” said Emad Shahin, a professor of public policy at the American University in Cairo. “It’s providing a religious justification to tolerate the killing of possibly thousands of people, and it is sending alarming signals into many segments of society. This is exactly what you call fascism.”

11.10.2013 - 13:00 [ DoD Buzz ]

Pentagon Builds Aegis Ashore MD Sites in Romania

The Missile Defense Agency is working with Lockheed Martin to build a land-based Aegis Ashore ballistic missile defense site in Romania as part of a broader strategy to widen the ballistic-missile defense protective envelope over Europe and other areas by drawing upon historically ship-based Aegis radar technology, Pentagon officials said.

11.10.2013 - 12:43 [ Washington Post ]

T-Mobile wants to take over world, or at least make it cheaper to talk to

“This is a great plan for businesses, from a number of standpoints” he said, adding that T-Mobile has heard from firms that say they spend thousands of dollars — sometimes thousands per day — on roaming costs so that employees can use data overseas.