Archiv: deflection / fogging / secrecy / cover / cover-up / covert operations


16.12.2024 - 16:36 [ Middle East Monitor ]

The FBI‘s mysterious case against Dr Aafia Siddiqui

The website of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is brimming with advice and useful information should you need help. There’s even a bright red button to press if you want to report a crime. I pressed it and reported the crime of perjury involving the complex case of US Prisoner Dr Aafia Siddiqui who is currently serving 86 years in a Texas prison for attempting to kill US soldiers. She didn’t do anything of the sort. Yes, there was a shooting incident in Ghazni Province’s National Police station in Afghanistan, but it was the soldiers who nearly killed her.

(…)

During the past 20 years, some very powerful senior figures in America, Pakistan and elsewhere have lied to and deceived the US authorities to ensure that the rather brilliant academic Dr Aafia Siddiqui remains behind bars. In 2023, her sister described her as looking like a “living corpse”.

05.12.2024 - 11:20 [ DNSSEC-Deployment.org ]

DNSSEC History Project

DNS Security Prehistory

Few technologies are more critical to the operation of the Internet than the Domain Name System (DNS). The initial design of DNS did not take security into consideration, which was not unusual for protocols designed in the early 1980s. At the time of its development, and for many years there after, DNS had functioned without many formal security mechanisms, thereby making it vulnerable to DNS spoofing and other malicious attacks.

Determining the Need for DNSSEC

[What drove the work? Big picture issues. Surely this includes the demonstrations of cache poisoning by Steve Bellovin and Tsutomu Shimomura in the early 1990s and the similar work by Dan Kaminsky in 2008, but it may include much other activity.]

(…)

Cache Poisoning

The earliest known security problem with DNS was DNS cache poisoning, also sometimes called DNS spoofing. DNS cache poisoning happens when a DNS server downstream from the authoritative one returns incorrect data to queries for names or IP addresses. This occurs because an attacker has ‘poisoned’ the cache of the downstream DNS server to return the malicious response. DNS cache poisoning is a subset of a group of problems computer scientists often classify as cache invalidation.

This problem, known to the Computer Science Research Group(CSRG) at U.C. Berkeley since 1989, was finally described in a paper by Steve Bellovin in 1993. Bellovin initially put off publishing the paper out of fear the information would be exploited.

(…)

Concern over DNS cache poisoning, specifically that the leak would become publicly known, existed from 1989 to 1995.

20.11.2024 - 16:26 [ Consortium News ]

RAY McGOVERN: Will Gabbard Be Able to Direct the Intelligence ‘Community’?

On July 22, 2004, immediately after the 9/11 Commission report was released, I found myself with 9/11 commissioner (and former senator from Washington) Slade Gorton in the BBC blue room in Washington. I had the temerity to remind him that it was far from the case that “no one was in charge” of the intelligence community; that Tenet had all the authority he needed.

Gorton turned to me, smiled and said: “Of course we know all that; but we in the Commission and in Congress just had to do something so the American people would see that we were doing something.”

Yuck.

The national intelligence director, and the newly created bureaucracy, is what it is. Maybe Tulsi Gabbard can take the reins and make the community work. It will take a miracle; let’s hope for one.

17.11.2024 - 18:31 [ DNSSEC-Deployment.org ]

DNSSEC History Project

DNS Security Prehistory

Few technologies are more critical to the operation of the Internet than the Domain Name System (DNS). The initial design of DNS did not take security into consideration, which was not unusual for protocols designed in the early 1980s. At the time of its development, and for many years there after, DNS had functioned without many formal security mechanisms, thereby making it vulnerable to DNS spoofing and other malicious attacks.

Determining the Need for DNSSEC

[What drove the work? Big picture issues. Surely this includes the demonstrations of cache poisoning by Steve Bellovin and Tsutomu Shimomura in the early 1990s and the similar work by Dan Kaminsky in 2008, but it may include much other activity.]

(…)

Cache Poisoning

The earliest known security problem with DNS was DNS cache poisoning, also sometimes called DNS spoofing. DNS cache poisoning happens when a DNS server downstream from the authoritative one returns incorrect data to queries for names or IP addresses. This occurs because an attacker has ‘poisoned’ the cache of the downstream DNS server to return the malicious response. DNS cache poisoning is a subset of a group of problems computer scientists often classify as cache invalidation.

This problem, known to the Computer Science Research Group(CSRG) at U.C. Berkeley since 1989, was finally described in a paper by Steve Bellovin in 1993. Bellovin initially put off publishing the paper out of fear the information would be exploited.

(…)

Concern over DNS cache poisoning, specifically that the leak would become publicly known, existed from 1989 to 1995.

15.11.2024 - 13:32 [ Middle East Eye ]

UK urged to share Gaza spy planes footage with ICC war crimes probe

(October 30, 2024)

The defence ministry told Middle East Eye: “As a matter of principle, we only provide intelligence to our allies where we are satisfied that it will be used in accordance with International Humanitarian Law, and in this instance, only information relating to hostage rescue is passed to the Israeli authorities.”
(…)
Brendan O’Hara, the Scottish National Party’s spokesperson for the Middle East, told MEE it was “inconceivable”, given the scale of the destruction and death in Gaza, that the flights “do not contain footage which would be of significant interest to the investigators from the International Criminal Court”.
(…)
Labour MP Rachael Maskell told MEE: “It is crucial that any intelligence of breaches of international law are shared with the courts so they can assess the evidence and secure justice.”

“I trust that the UK government is working with the international courts to aid them in their work.”

15.11.2024 - 13:10 [ DeclassifiedUK.org/ ]

Revealed: UK military has flown 200 spy missions over Gaza in support of Israel

(May 8, 2024)

British spy planes have recorded up to 1,000 hours of footage over Gaza, including from the day Israel assassinated three UK aid workers.

10.11.2024 - 14:44 [ Statista.com ]

1.25 Million Have ‚Top Secret‘ Access in the U.S.

(April 14, 2023)

Peo0le with clearance and access to „Top Secret“ U.S.federal government information, by employee type
Government 605.579
Contractor 472.576
Other 173.803
Total 1.251.958

As of Oct.1, 2019
Source: Office of the Director of National Intelligence via Federation of American Scientists

10.11.2024 - 14:30 [ Washington Post ]

TOP SECRET AMERICA: National Security Inc.

(July 20, 2010)

The Post investigation uncovered what amounts to an alternative geography of the United States, a Top Secret America created since 9/11 that is hidden from public view, lacking in thorough oversight and so unwieldy that its effectiveness is impossible to determine.

It is also a system in which contractors are playing an ever more important role. The Post estimates that out of 854,000 people with top-secret clearances, 265,000 are contractors. There is no better example of the government‘s dependency on them than at the CIA, the one place in government that exists to do things overseas that no other U.S. agency is allowed to do.

(…)

Contractors kill enemy fighters. They spy on foreign governments and eavesdrop on terrorist networks. They help craft war plans. They gather information on local factions in war zones. They are the historians, the architects, the recruiters in the nation‘s most secretive agencies. They staff watch centers across the Washington area. They are among the most trusted advisers to the four-star generals leading the nation‘s wars.

10.11.2024 - 13:35 [ New York Times ]

When Did Liberals Become So Comfortable With War?

First, history has shown that governments and bureaucracies tend to become addicted to a war footing, with failure sucking them in further — think of America’s war on terror, or Vietnam. War encourages a perverse cycle of escalation in which huge financial and political gains accrue for governments and the military-industrial complex while the costs tend to be borne by weaker parties — before they start to come home in some shape or form.

We’ve called this bipartisan pattern “wreckonomics” and have found it especially present in wars or conflicts with costs that Western politicians can largely outsource — from fighting terrorism, drugs and smugglers to quasi-colonial interventions during the Cold War.

10.10.2024 - 04:33 [ Jerusalem Post ]

Saudi nuclear program can be secretly managed – top Israeli sources

(September 14, 2023)

Top Israeli sources have told the Jerusalem Post that there are secret technological ways to ensure that the Saudis do not misuse civilian nuclear items, which the US may give them as part of a three-way normalization deal, for military purposes.

Although there are no guarantees, because the issue is highly technical and there are issues to address regarding the Palestinians and highly complex politics, these technological fixes could be key to locking in a normalization deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem, under Washington’s auspices.

10.10.2024 - 03:10 [ Reuters ]

U.S. approved secret nuclear power work for Saudi Arabia

(March 27, 2019)

Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)

Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

10.10.2024 - 00:12 [ JNS.org ]

US ‘highly vigilant’ of future Iranian attacks on Israel, Sullivan says at Oct. 7 memorial

“The challenge going forward is to turn tactical wins in battle into a strategy that secures Israel’s people and its future,” Sullivan said. “That takes real discipline. It takes courage. It takes foresight to match the conduct of war to a clear and sustainable set of objectives and to turn tactical advantage into enduring strategic gains.”

10.10.2024 - 00:08 [ Axios ]

Scoop: White House loses trust in Israeli government as Middle East spirals

Two U.S. officials told Axios that during a call on Friday White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told Israel‘s minister for strategic affairs Ron Dermer that the U.S. expects „clarity and transparency“ from Israel about its plans to retaliate against Iran because it will have implications for U.S. forces and interests in the region.

17.09.2024 - 18:40 [ Nachrichtenagentur Radio Utopie ]

And the dumbass award of the decade goes to…: the United Nations and the „Palestinian Authority“

One of the most important UN resolutions – we mentioned it yesterday – is to be voted on today or tomorrow (unclear). But it is still hidden by those who bring it into the UN General Assembly and by the United Nations Organization itself.

That is bonkers. Mildly spoken.

15.09.2024 - 16:08 [ UltimasNoticias.com.ve ]

Cabello on terrorist plan: María Corina Machado is behind the entire operation

“They went with this tropicalized character,” Cabello said in relation to the US intentions to use a person with the same Latin American phenotype, seeking not to repeat the gringo mercenaries of Caucasian morphology.

“It is important to know that this person worked in special Navy SEAL units focused on Latin America, because they are made up of people who speak Spanish perfectly, like this person,” he explained.

The Minister of the Interior, Justice and Peace added that two citizens of Spanish origin, a Czech citizen and an American expert in computer hacking are also in custody.

15.09.2024 - 15:30 [ UltimasNoticias.com.ve ]

Terrorist plot led by active US military officer revealed

„We know that the United States Government is linked to this operation because during the investigation we have found out how, in Orlando, Florida, in one of these parcel services, in the warehouses, the FBI was there and we have that video (…) they allowed that operation to continue,“ he said.

(…)

“A few days ago we captured some people who were talking about throwing grenades and explosives at the Argentine Embassy, ​​where some terrorists and criminals from the opposition are taking refuge. This perfectly reversed the fact that if the Argentine Embassy, ​​where some gentlemen and ladies from the opposition are, were attacked, it was immediately obvious that the person who would be blamed would be the Government of Venezuela,” he warned.

15.09.2024 - 14:42 [ CNN ]

Venezuela says US Navy SEAL among foreigners arrested over alleged CIA ‘operation’ to assassinate Maduro

“The CIA is at the forefront of this operation,” Cabello said in the news conference, claiming that Spain’s National Intelligence Center was also involved. “That does not surprise us at all,” he said.

He alleged that the operation had “very clear objectives of assassinating President Nicolás Maduro” and other high-ranking Venezuelan politicians including himself and the vice president.

The State Department denied the claims. A spokesperson confirmed on Saturday a member of the US military had been arrested in Venezuela, and that the department was “aware of unconfirmed reports of two additional US citizens detained” in the country.

01.09.2024 - 17:07 [ Middle East Eye ]

Hamas says captives killed by Israeli fire

The group also blamed Netanyahu for the deaths of Israeli captives, saying they „were killed by his army‘s bullets„.

(…)

Izzat al-Risheq, a member of Hamas‘ political bureau, said the six captives found dead by the Israeli army „were only killed by Zionist bombing„.

01.09.2024 - 17:02 [ Times of Israel ]

Bodies of 6 hostages, murdered by Hamas just days ago, found in Rafah – IDF

Their bodies were found with gunshot wounds to the head and other parts of their bodies, the Ynet news site reported. An autopsy found they were murdered in the 48 hours prior to the discovery of their bodies, the report said.

27.08.2024 - 19:50 [ New York Post ]

Trump rally counter-sniper backs bombshell ‘evidence tampering’ claims by House GOPers

Washington Regional SWAT counter-sniper Ben Shaffer said it was “absolutely” concerning that the roof of the AGR International building had been quickly scrubbed and gunman Thomas Matthew Crooks’ body disposed of before an official autopsy report could be released.

Five House Republicans — Reps. Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona, Matt Gaetz and Cory Mills of Florida, and Chip Roy of Texas — hosted the panel discussion with Shaffer and other witnesses at the conservative Heritage Foundation.

09.04.2024 - 11:05 [ TeenVogue.com ]

What Was the Iran-Contra Affair? A Political Scandal That Engulfed the Reagan White House

(18.11.2021)

An exiled Iranian arms dealer named Manucher Ghorbanifar claimed to have contacts with a moderate faction inside Iran, and further alleged that weapons sales would improve that faction’s standing. Ghorbanifar collaborated with Israel, which proved to be an important intermediary. While Israel was no ally of Iran, it was also no ally of Iraq, and the ongoing war between the two countries kept them both distracted. Israel began selling U.S.-made weapons to Iran in 1981, even after the U.S. State Department began an effort to end arm sales, known as Operation Staunch, in 1983.

08.04.2024 - 20:20 [ CNN ]

Inside President Biden’s pointed phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu

(April 7, 2024)

The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the exchange. The White House declined to comment for this story.

19.03.2024 - 23:00 [ theNationalNews.com ]

Hamas political leaders were unaware of Israel incursion plan, Egypt officials say

(Oct 09, 2023)

Most of the movement‘s political leaders have lived in exile outside the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for years, deepening the divide between them and the group‘s military wing known as the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, who are spearheading the continuing fighting with Israel.

The political leaders have mostly been living in Qatar, Turkey, Lebanon, Iran and Egypt.

Speaking to The National, the officials said a handful of Gaza-based Hamas leaders, reportedly as few as three who once served in the Al Qassam Brigades, knew of the attack in advance. As a precaution, they were made to believe that the operation would begin 48 hours after it got under way on Saturday.

19.03.2024 - 22:55 [ Times of Israel ]

Deif’s alleged death certificate sparks online debate

(21 August 2014)

However, Israeli intelligence sources told Fox News Wednesday that the Hamas leader was believed to have been killed.

Addressing the public on Wednesday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dodged the question of Deif’s fate, saying only that “the commanders of terror organizations are a legitimate target, of the highest priority… No one is immune,” he said. Asked again, he refused to elaborate.

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, in a Hamas TV interview earlier Wednesday, described Deif as “the dead man” in an apparent slip of the tongue.

19.03.2024 - 22:36 [ Economist.com ]

Hamas’s deadly “phantom”: the man behind the attacks

(Oct 20th 2023)

Yet hardly anything is known about Deif. For years, Western spies would respond to questions about him with a shrug. Only a handful of photographs have ever appeared in the media – grainy images from his youth. Some speculate that he died long ago and is nothing more than a mythical figurehead cultivated for propaganda purposes.

05.03.2024 - 00:05 [ New York Times ]

Commando Network Coordinates Flow of Weapons in Ukraine, Officials Say

(June 25, 2022)

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, which before the war had been training Ukrainian commandos at a base in the country’s west, quietly established a coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops. The cell has now grown to 20 nations.

22.02.2024 - 20:04 [ theNationalnews.com ]

US says it cannot independently verify Israel‘s UNRWA claims

The intelligence report‘s findings are in stark contrast to US Secretary of State Antony Blinken‘s remarks in January, in which he said that the accusations against UNRWA were “highly, highly credible”.

The Journal also reported that Israel has not “shared the raw intelligence behind its assessments with the US” despite the strong security relationship between the two countries.

Israel has shared a dossier of sorts outlining its accusations, alongside details of where their evidence stems from, with the US and several western news organisations.

22.02.2024 - 19:46 [ DrALJONES / mastodon.social ]

A US intelligence report has said that Israel‘s claims that UNRWA staff took part in Oct 7 „cannot be independently verified“, & that it had “low confidence” in the allegation.

Major UNRWA donors, incl the US, have frozen vital funds bcz of Israel‘s allegations.

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini says „the UN has never, never, ever received any written dossier, despite our repeated call.“

20.02.2024 - 21:15 [ Middle East Eye ]

Beatings, theft and murder: The day Israeli soldiers came to Gaza‘s Yarmouk Stadium

After weeks of dodging Israeli bombs in the Shuja‘iyya neighbourhood of northern Gaza, Youssef Hamdan al-Mubayyed took refuge with his family in Yarmouk stadium in Gaza City with hundreds of other Palestinians.

Mubayyed thought it would be the safest place for him to be in Gaza, as the stadium was exclusively used by those displaced by Israel’s military offensive since 7 October.

Instead it became somewhere he would be tortured, humiliated and threatened with death alongside dozens of other Palestinians.

Middle East Eye has spoken to Mubayyed and others who gave similar accounts, a sports stadium turned into a makeshift “interrogation and torture camp”.

A place that became the scene of numerous atrocities, including murder….

15.02.2024 - 17:43 [ RT.com ]

Kremlin responds to rumors of Russian space nukes

Western media reports claiming that Russia could place nuclear weapons in space are nothing more than a ploy by the White House to convince US lawmakers to approve further military aid to Ukraine, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said.

Citing sources, several US media outlets reported this week that American intelligence had obtained information on purported Russian plans to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite system in space, although the idea supposedly remains at the developmental stage.

14.02.2024 - 20:15 [ Fox News ]

House Intel Chair Turner warns of ‚serious national security threat,‘ urges Biden to declassify

Fox News Digital obtained the notice sent to congressional members Wednesday, which pointed to „an urgent matter with regard to a destabilizing foreign military capability that should be known by all Congressional Policy Makers.“

Turner‘s office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital‘s request for comment and more information.

White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Wednesday at the White House press briefing that earlier in the week, he reached out to the Gang of Eight to offer himself for a personal briefing on the matter.

07.02.2024 - 21:40 [ Craig Murray / Twitter ]

The British Government attempts to hide the Assange extradition appeal – a „public hearing“ – behind a baroque set of Kafkaesque rules. My latest article on the latest government stitch-up.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2024/02/state-secrecy-and-public-hearings-part-one/

07.02.2024 - 14:20 [ Sophal Ear / theConversation.com ]

Henry Kissinger’s bombing campaign likely killed hundreds of thousands of Cambodians − and set path for the ravages of the Khmer Rouge

(November 30, 2023)

To Kissinger, Cambodia was a “sideshow,” to use the title of William Shawcross’ damning book exposing the story of America’s secret war with Cambodia from 1969 to 1973.

During that period, the U.S. bombing of neutral Cambodia saw an estimated 500,000 tons  of ordnance dropped on 113,716 targets in the country.

Kissinger and others in the White House tried to keep the campaign from the public for as long as they could, for good reason. It came as public opinion in the U.S. was turning against American involvement. The bombing campaign is also considered illegal under international law by many experts.

But to Kissinger, the ends – containing communism – seemingly justified the means, no matter the cost. And the cost to Cambodians was huge.

It resulted in the direct deaths of hundreds of thousands of Cambodians. With the U.S. government keeping the bombings secret at the time, comprehensive data and documentation are limited. But estimates on the number of deaths range from as few as 24,000 to as many as a million.

06.02.2024 - 11:29 [ Tory Fibs / Twitter ]

Breaking .. Channel 4 have finally been shown the dossier for Israel’s claims that UNRWA staff were behind Oct. 7th. Channel 4 concludes that “Israel provides NO evidence to support this claim”.

06.02.2024 - 11:21 [ France24.com ]

As donors suspend critical funding to UNRWA, allegations against staff remain murky

But Israel refuses to share either its evidence or the intelligence dossier – a summary of which was seen by FRANCE 24 – with UNRWA, posing a challenge for the UN agency to complete its inquiry.

20.01.2024 - 05:22 [ Dearbhla Minogue, Lawyer @GLAN_LAW / Twitter ]

Palestinian human rights organisation @alhaq_org has forced the gov’t to answer a legal challenge and tell the Court why it has kept granting weapons licences to Israel. The response shows why it was necessary. We @GLAN_LAW are proud to represent them – the pressure is building.

20.01.2024 - 05:11 [ Zarah Sultana MP, Proud to be the Labour MP for Coventry South / Twitter ]

NEW: The government hid from Parliament the Foreign Office‘s „serious concerns“ about Israel‘s compliance with International Humanitarian Law in Gaza, according to newly-released court papers. This should be national news – and it should end arms sales to Israel.

The papers show that at the start of the war the Foreign Office set up an internal International Humanitarian Law assessment process.

On 10 November it judged: “the volume of strikes, total death toll, as well as proportion of those who are children raise serious concerns”. 2/12

It also said: „the government’s current inability to come to a clear assessment on Israel’s record of compliance with International Humanitarian Law poses significant policy risks”.

But look at what Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell said to me just 4 days later… 3/12

In Parliament on 14 November, I asked Mitchell if British-made weapons had been used in violation of international law in Gaza.

He replied reassuring me of Israel‘s commitment to international law, even though just 4 days earlier his department registered serious concerns. 4/12

Mitchell said: „The member will know that the President of Israel has made it clear that his country will abide by International Humanitarian Law“.

These court papers reveal that his own department, the UK Foreign Office, doubted the Israeli President‘s words.

17.01.2024 - 20:21 [ Buzzfeed.com ]

60 Words And A War Without End: The Untold Story Of The Most Dangerous Sentence In U.S. History

(Jan 17, 2014)

By the end of the meeting, it was clear that this was the resolution, a single sentence and 60 words:

That the President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons in order to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States by such nations, organizations or persons.

That was it. After more than a day of negotiations between the White House and Congress, Republicans and Democrats, this is what had emerged. Congress could take it or leave it. There would be no going back to the drawing board.

13.01.2024 - 23:12 [ RTE.ie ]

Mysterious Houthi leader who created a defiant force

Mr al-Houthi is known for rarely staying long in one place, for never meeting the media and for an extreme reluctance to make scheduled public appearances.

Since the start of the Yemen war – widely seen as a proxy conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran – foreign officials who dealt with Mr al-Houthi have never met him in person, said a source familiar with the matter.

Many seeking meetings were asked to travel to the Houthi stronghold of Sanaa, where a Houthi security convoy would take them to safe houses and conduct security checks before leading them to an upstairs room where he would only appear on a screen.