Daily Archives: 16. Januar 2014


16.01.2014 - 21:00 [ James Bamford / Book Armor ]

The Shadow Factory: The Ultra-Secret NSA from 9/11 to the Eavesdropping on America

(2008) Retired Brigadier General Hanan Gefen, a former commander of Unit 8200, noted his former organization’s influence on Comverse, which owns Verint, as well as other Israeli companies that dominate the U.S. eavesdropping and surveillance market. “Take NICE, Comverse and
Check Point for example, three of the largest high-tech companies, which were all directly influenced by 8200 technology,” said Gefen. “Check Point was founded by Unit alumni. Comverse’s main product, the Logger, is based on the Unit’s technology.”

Check Point, a large Israeli-based company that sells firewalls and other Internet security software from an office in Redwood City, California, was founded by Unit 8200 veteran Gil Shwed. Today the four years he spent in the Unit go virtually unmentioned in his official biography. In 2006, the company attempted to acquire the firm Sourcefire, whose intrusion-prevention technology is used to protect the computer assets of both the Pentagon and NSA. Because of the potential for espionage, the deal set off alarm bells at the NSA and FBI and it was eventually killed by the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S., an oversight board.

Alan T. Sherman, a specialist in information assurance at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, noted the potential for “information warfare” was likely. “It’s easy to hide malicious [software] code. Sometimes it just takes a few lines of malicious code to subvert a system.” Nevertheless, despite the fact that many of the NSA’s and the Pentagon’s sensitive
communications—like those of the rest of the country—travel across the tapping equipment of Verint and Narus, their links to Israel seem to have slipped below the radar.

16.01.2014 - 20:44 [ James Bamford / wired ]

Shady Companies With Ties to Israel Wiretap the U.S. for the NSA

(03.04.2013) According to a former Verizon employee briefed on the program, Verint, owned by Comverse Technology, taps the communication lines at Verizon, which I first reported in my book The Shadow Factory in 2008. Verint did not return a call seeking comment, while Verizon said it does not comment on such matters.

At AT&T the wiretapping rooms are powered by software and hardware from Narus, now owned by Boeing, a discovery made by AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein in 2004.

16.01.2014 - 20:42 [ Forbes ]

The Unit

(07.02.2007) “Take Nice, Comverse and Check Point for example, three of the largest high-tech companies, which were all directly influenced by 8200 technology,” says Gefen. “Check Point was founded by Unit alumni. Comverse’s main product, the Logger, is based on the Unit’s technology. Look at Metacafe, one of the hottest companies today. Eyal Herzog, one of the founders, is also an 8200 alumnus and he accumulated a huge amount of relevant experience in the Unit.”

16.01.2014 - 20:29 [ Piratenpartei Schweiz ]

«Agur 12» will Internet zensurieren, Inhalte sperren und löschen

(06.12.2013) Die Vorschläge von «Agur 12» verunmöglichen die Erstellung einer Privatkopie durch Herunterladen. In Deutschland führte die Novellierung des Urheberrechts zur totalen Abschaffung des Rechts auf Privatkopie. Nur so gelang es, Internet-Downloads widerspruchsfrei unter Strafe zu stellen. Es scheint vorhersebar, dass die Medienindustrie in der Schweiz ähnliche Ziele verfolgt.

16.01.2014 - 20:16 [ Radio Utopie ]

Analyse und Anleitung zur Neutralisierung des psychologischen Kriegsbegriffs “Verschwörungstheorie”

Gesamtgesellschaftliche Zielwirkung des Begriffs:

Stigmatisierung, Isolierung und Neutralisierung von Gegenmeinungen zu Darstellungen, Thesen oder Behauptungen, die durch vermeintliche oder tatsächliche institutionelle oder gesellschaftliche Autoritäten und Mehrheiten aufgestellt bzw akzeptiert werden. Stigmatisierung, Ächtung oder Ausgrenzung derjenigen Personen, die solche vermeintlichen oder tatsächlichen Autoritäten und Mehrheiten und / oder ihre Darstellungen, Thesen oder Behauptungen in Frage stellen. Niederschlagung von geistigen Strömungen, juristischen, parlamentarischen, journalistischen, polizeilichen, nachrichtendienstlichen oder militärischen Untersuchungen oder Ermittlungsergebnissen, die von diesen Autoritäten und Mehrheiten nicht erwünscht sind und deren Position gefährden könnten. Dienlich zur Kontrolle, Führung und / oder Neutralisierung jedweder gesellschaftlichen, politischen, parlamentarischen, informellen, militärischen, polizeilichen, nachrichtendienstlichen Opposition sowie von deren Repräsentanten und “Leuchttürmen”.

16.01.2014 - 20:14 [ Techdirt ]

EU Commission Redefines Corporate Lobbyists As ‚Civil Society‘ To Pretend To Be Transparent In TAFTA/TTIP

The fact that the USTR continues to peddle the line that TPP is „the most transparent trade negotiation in history,“ despite a dogged refusal to reveal its negotiating positions to the public (to say nothing of any draft texts), indicates that the US government is acutely aware that its attitude towards transparency in TPP and TAFTA/TTIP is both unpopular and unjustifiable. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Atlantic, the European Commission too is desperately trying to convince people that it is conducting the TTIP negotiations in a fully open way. For example, earlier this week, the Commission held what it called an „Outreach“ session in Brussels:

16.01.2014 - 18:56 [ Buenos Aires Herald ]

Kissinger gave ‘green light’ to military killings

Former US secretary of State Henry Kissinger knew perfectly well about the repression being committed during Argentina’s military dictatorship and in 1976 gave the junta led by late former dictator Jorge Rafael Videla a year to put an end to “the terrorist problem,” according to a former US official.
US president Jimmy Carter’s assistant secretary for human rights, Pat Derian, reignited the discussion over the role played by the US in the last Argentine dictatorship in a recently published interview.

16.01.2014 - 18:41 [ Strafrechtsblogger ]

Im Zweifel für den Humor – Bildervortrag‘500 Jahre Karikatur und Justiz‘ von Philipp Heinisch und Univ.-Prof. Dr. Götz Schulze

Philipp Heinisch und Univ.-Prof. Dr. Götz Schulze laden in die Räumlichkeiten der Juristischen Fakultät der Universität Potsdam zum Bildervortrag „500 Jahre Karikatur und Justiz“ ein. Dabei will der Künstler eine andere Perspektive auf die Juristerei eröffnen. Unter dem Motto: Anspruch und Wirklichkeit.

16.01.2014 - 18:07 [ Guardian ]

Edward Snowden isn‘t the only truth teller who deserves clemency

The author is the US attorney for Julian Assange and WikiLeaks.

Last week, both the New York Times and the Guardian released editorials supporting clemency for NSA leaker Edward Snowden. Considering the important nature of Snowden‘s revelations, clemency is definitely in order – and it‘s about time that major outlets recognize that.

However, the focus on Snowden‘s singular case seriously deflects from the fact that the Obama administration has been a nightmare for whistleblowers and truth tellers, and that several others currently in prison or in exile deserve the same clemency or clear assurances they will not be prosecuted.

16.01.2014 - 18:04 [ Think Progress ]

Here’s Walmart’s Internal Guide To Fighting Unions And Monitoring Workers

Leaked internal documents show that Walmart’s strategy for fighting to keep its workers from forming unions includes instructing managers to report suspicious activity and warning workers that joining OUR Walmart could hurt them.

In two Powerpoint presentations, published by OccupyWallSt.org and confirmed as authentic by a Walmart spokesman, the company depicts OUR Walmart organizers as money-hungry exploiters looking to fleece Walmart associates without providing any material benefit to the workers, and it urges managers to nudge workers away from unions while taking care to frame their comments in ways that don’t violate the letter of U.S. labor laws.