Daily Archives: 28. Februar 2023


28.02.2023 - 20:44 [ BigBrotherWatch.org.uk ]

Guide: Respond to the consultation on the government’s digital ID verification system

The UK government has announced a proposed digital government identity verification system under the banner ‘GOV.UK One Login’. This new system will replace the number of existing ways we log into government websites to access public services online. It could give the government a blank cheque to share the personal information of millions of users between government departments.

Seven decades after Winston Churchill’s government scrapped ID cards, we cannot accept plans that will take us closer to becoming a database state now. It is vital that we respond with our concerns.

28.02.2023 - 20:37 [ BBC ]

Signal would ‚walk‘ from UK if Online Safety Bill undermined encryption

(24.02.2023)

Critics say companies could be required by Ofcom to scan messages on encrypted apps for child sexual abuse material or terrorism content under the new law.

This has worried firms whose business is enabling private, secure communication.

Element, a UK company whose customers include the Ministry of Defence, told the BBC the plan would cost it clients.

28.02.2023 - 20:31 [ BigBrotherWatch.org.uk ]

The end of end-to-end encryption: how the Online Safety Bill threatens your right to privacy

24 years ago, the Human Rights Act was passed and the right to privacy was declared a fundamental right in the UK. Today, in times of rapidly expanding online public spheres, this human right is under grave threat.

Something fundamental is at stake: our ability to hold private conversations.

A combined total of about 47 million people in the UK use messaging apps like Whatsapp and Signal. It is clear that the UK is online and connected. However, the privacy of our online conversations is under threat. So who is trying to undermine our ability to speak without large corporations and governments snooping on our conversations and why?

Enter the Online Safety Bill…

28.02.2023 - 20:18 [ Netzpolitik.org ]

Online Safety Bill in Großbritannien: Threema lässt es auf Rausschmiss ankommen

Der Messenger Threema beteiligt sich nicht am von WhatsApp und Signal angekündigten „Walk-Out“ aus Großbritannien wegen des geplanten Überwachungsgesetzes. Den Anforderungen des „Online Safety Bills“ wird das Schweizer Unternehmen allerdings auch nicht nachkommen.

28.02.2023 - 12:10 [ Barbara Lee / actblue.com ]

I’m asking: Will you chip in to help me become California’s next Senator?

From my segregated hometown to the halls of Congress, I’ve never stopped fighting for what’s right. Our country needs bold, progressive solutions to the problems we’re facing, and I’m prepared to deliver them.

But right now, experts say I’m facing a fundraising disadvantage – so I can’t win this race and become the only Black woman in the Senate without your help.

Donate now to send a true progressive to the Senate!

28.02.2023 - 11:50 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

Die “Authorization For Use of Military Force” vom 14. September 2001 im Wortlaut

(29. August 2014)

Seit Beginn des weltweiten Terrorkrieges in 2001 herrschten in den Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika zwei Personen als Kriegspräsidenten und “mächtigste Männer der Welt”, George Bush Junior und Barack Obama. Der Kern ihrer Legitimation für

– fast jede seit dem 14. September 2001 angeordnete militärische Aktion, Operation und Invasion, wie der Eroberung von Afghanistan (2001), Irak (2003), Libyen (2011), Luftangriffen bzw Bodenoperationen z.B. in Somalia, Jemen, Pakistan, Kenia, etc, etc, pp,

– den versuchten Aufbau einer “Totalen Informationskenntnis” (“Total Information Awareness”) über alle Menschen, Gruppen, Strömungen und Organisationen im Macht- bzw Einflussbereich der U.S.A. (also dem, was die Gesellschaft heute als “Totalüberwachung” versteht),

– die folgende Erschaffung eines informationstechnologischen, Privatleben fressenden Frankensteins, eines weltweit vernetzten Golem der “Nationalen Sicherheit AG” bzw dem “sicherheitsindustriellen Komplex”, der allein 800.000 Personen (Stand: 2010) Zugang zu “streng geheimen” Informationen und damit Zugang zu praktisch allen u.a. aus Telekommunikationssystemen wie dem Internet gesammelten bzw geraubten Daten von Bürgerinnen und Bürgern in ungezählten Datenbanken und Tauschbörsen der Spione, Militärs und (Geheim)Polizeien und Behörden allein in den U.S.A. gibt, samt einer bis heute nicht verifizierten Zahl assoziierter Kräfte und Stellen, z.B. in der Republik Deutschland,

– die Errichtung des Lagers Guantanamo, sowie einer unbekannten Zahl geheimer Folterkammern und Kerker auf eigenem Territorium, in Besatzungszonen und / oder in kollaborierenden Staaten, in denen Menschen willkürlich eingesperrt, gequält oder ermordet wurden,

sowie weitere offene oder klandestine Maßnahmen, wie z.B. die “Uminterpretation” von geltendem Recht zu faktischem geheimen Kriegsrecht in ungezählten Staaten, ist ein am 14. September 2001 bei alleiniger Gegenstimme von Barbara Lee durch den Kongress gejagter und, zumindest in der Geschichte der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, präzedenzloser Gesetzestext: die “Authorization for Use of Military Force”.

Hier dessen gerade einmal 60 Worte und keinerlei zeitliche oder räumliche Einschränkung enthaltende Wirkungstext, beschlossen am 14.09.2001 von beiden Kammern des Kongresses, Repräsentantenhaus und Senat:

28.02.2023 - 11:38 [ Barbara Lee / LA Times ]

Op-Ed: Three days after 9/11, I was the lone vote in Congress against war

(Sept. 13, 2021)

My vote against the 2001 military force authorization remains the most difficult vote I’ve cast in my career in Congress. But I knew the last thing the country needed was to rush into war after 9/11, or ever, without proper deliberation by the people — represented by Congress — as the Constitution intended.

My father was a retired Army lieutenant colonel who fought in World War II and Korea. He was the first person who called me after that lonely vote. He reminded me that we should never send our troops into harm’s way without a clear plan, objective and exit strategy. Instead, we were asked to approve an authorization that gave the executive branch a blank check to carry out global war in perpetuity.

28.02.2023 - 11:18 [ postnewsgroup.com ]

Rep. Barbara Lee Joins Competitive Race to Replace Sen. Dianne Feinstein

(February 25, 2023)

Both Porter and Schiff, like Lee, have progressive voting records. Both Democratic competitors have already amassed tens of millions of dollars, respectively, in campaign donations. Their early fundraising places them in a stronger position than Lee to win the 2024 Democratic primary which will be held about a year from now.

28.02.2023 - 11:14 [ CNBC.com ]

Dianne Feinstein, 89, won’t seek re-election, opening up a California Senate seat in 2024

(Feb 14, 2023)

Feinstein, who at 89 is the oldest sitting U.S. senator and the longest-serving senator from her state, said she intends to “accomplish as much for California as I can through the end of next year when my term ends.”

“Even with a divided Congress, we can still pass bills that will improve lives,” Feinstein said in a statement.

28.02.2023 - 11:11 [ San Francisco Standard ]

Guess How Much Money Feinstein’s Reelection Campaign Has Raised So Far

(Feb. 06, 2023)

Senator Dianne Feinstein has reported a mere $558 in contributions to her 2024 reelection campaign last quarter, raising new questions about her readiness for a reelection bid.

28.02.2023 - 10:35 [ theGuardian.com ]

Dianne Feinstein statement on CIA torture report ‚cover-up‘ – full text

(March 11, 2014)

Let me say up front that I come to the Senate Floor reluctantly. Since January 15, 2014, when I was informed of the CIA’s search of this committee’s network, I have been trying to resolve this dispute in a discreet and respectful way. I have not commented in response to media requests for additional information on this matter. However, the increasing amount of inaccurate information circulating now cannot be allowed to stand unanswered.

The origin of this study: The CIA’s detention and interrogation program began operations in 2002, though it was not until September 2006, that Members of the Intelligence Committee, other than the Chairman and Vice Chairman, were briefed. In fact, we were briefed by then-CIA Director Hayden only hours before President Bush disclosed the program to the public.

A little more than a year later, on December 6, 2007, a New York Times article revealed the troubling fact that the CIA had destroyed videotapes of some of the CIA’s first interrogations using so-called “enhanced techniques.” …

28.02.2023 - 10:03 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

C.I.A.-Affäre: Der Offenbarungseid von Dianne Feinstein – Video, Zusammenfassung, Einschätzung

(12. März 2014)

Die Rede von Senatorin Dianne Feinstein vor dem Senat der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika über die Sabotage der verfassungsmäßigen Kontrolle des Parlaments über die Central Intelligence Agency durch die Central Intelligence Agency ist vielleicht das Erbärmlichste, was ich in meinem Leben je gesehen und gehört habe. Es ist nicht nur der Offenbarungseid eines Ausnahmezustands, eines über sich selbst und die Welt verhängten Kriegsrechts des mächtigsten Imperiums auf dem Planeten, in seinem Krieg „on terror“, weltweit geführt mit seinen „Einflussgebieten“, „Alliierten“, Ablegern, schlechten Kopien und Kolonien. Es ist der Offenbarungseid seiner bis auf die Knochen korrupten, feigen, abgetakelten, unfähigen Zuträger, Mitwisser, Kollaborateure und Funktionäre.

Was Senatorin Feinstein hier zeigt, was sie da zeigt, ist so unbeschreiblich, das sogar mir die Worte fehlen um es zu beschreiben. Ich will hier den Inhalt ihres Statements nur deshalb zusammenfassen, weil ich davon ausgehe dass die ganzen Feinsteins der deutschsprachigen Presse dies alles weder hören, lesen, geschweige denn darüber berichten wollen, genauso wie deren KundInnen.

28.02.2023 - 09:51 [ New York Times ]

Doctor Describes and Denounces C.I.A. Practice of ‘Rectal Feeding’ of Prisoners

(Feb. 24, 2023)

In December 2014, the Obama administration released a 500-page summary of a classified Senate study of the C.I.A.’s so-called black site program. It revealed the agency’s practice of using “rectal rehydration” and “rectal feeding” to punish prisoners.

At the time, the C.I.A. defended it as a sound medical procedure. The group Physicians for Human Rights then condemned the practice as “sexual assault masquerading as medical treatment.”

But this week the agency declined a request for a comment on the descriptions that were attributed to the C.I.A. in open court. Nor would an agency spokeswoman respond to Dr. Crosby’s testimony that Mr. Nashiri also told her that he was sodomized with a broom stick while the C.I.A. held him in a cell, nude with his wrists shackled above his head.

28.02.2023 - 09:19 [ theHill.com ]

China accuses US of ‘outright bullying’ with Russia-linked sanctions

“While the U.S. has intensified its efforts to send weapons to one of the parties to the conflict, resulting in an endless war, it has frequently spread false information about China’s supply of weapons to Russia, taking the opportunity to sanction Chinese companies for no reason. This is outright bullying and double standards,” Mao Ning told reporters, as reported by The Associated Press.

28.02.2023 - 09:10 [ GlobalTimes.cn ]

China will not provide weapons to the Ukrainian battlefield as the US has done

The US falsely accuses China of „preparing to provide lethal weapons to Russia,“ which is a political rogue approach. China is trying to strike a balance and will not provide weapons to the Ukrainian battlefield as the US has done.

28.02.2023 - 09:06 [ ORF.at ]

Geheimdienstchef: Keine Waffen aus China für Moskau

US-Geheimdienstchef William Burns hatte am Wochenende gesagt, dass Washington „überzeugt“ davon sei, dass die Führung in Peking Waffenlieferungen an Russland in Betracht ziehe. Laut einem Bericht des „Wall Street Journal“ erwägt China, Drohnen und Munition zu liefern.

28.02.2023 - 08:55 [ France24.com ]

Live: Ukraine intelligence chief sees no sign China plans to arm Russia

But when asked about the possibility in a lengthy interview with Voice of America published on Monday, Ukrainian military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said: „I do not share this opinion.“

„As of now, I do not think that China will agree to the transfer of weapons to Russia,“ he said. „I do not see any signs that such things are even being discussed.“

28.02.2023 - 08:50 [ Hong Kong Free Press ]

Video: CIA chief says US ‘confident’ China is mulling arms for Russia’s war on Ukraine

(27 February 2023)

The United States is “confident” that China is considering providing lethal equipment to support the Russian forces invading Ukraine, according to CIA director William Burns.

Such a step by China would be “a very risky and unwise bet,” the intelligence chief said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

28.02.2023 - 08:33 [ Morgan Fairchild / Nitter ]

Russia shoots down China‘s peace plan for the Ukraine war as Beijing becomes more entangled in the conflict a year into the fighting