Wednesday, 9 October 2013

USAHitman | Conspiracy News

NSA spying continues while oversight stopped by shutdown

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:57 PM PDT

A review panel established by the White House to assess the country’s intelligence programs is due to report its findings to the president this Friday. Days before deadline, though, that board has become a voluntary casualty of the government shutdown.
President Barack Obama announced in August that the unauthorized disclosure of national security documents and the subsequent discussions it sparked warranted the creation of an independent panel, the Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies.
“The Review Group will assess whether, in light of advancements in communications technologies, the United States employs its technical collection capabilities in a manner that optimally protects our national security and advances our foreign policy while appropriately accounting for other policy considerations, such as the risk of unauthorized disclosure and our need to maintain the public trust,” the president said two months ago.
Practically one week before a 60-day deadline to deliver a report to the White House, however, the group has put itself on ice. Politico’s Josh Gerstein and Mike Allen reported over the weekend that one member of the five-personal panel — former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Morell — decided to pull the plug on the board until the government shutdown that started last Tuesday morning comes to a close.
“I simply thought that it was inappropriate for our group to continue working while the vast majority of the men and women of the intelligence community are being forced to remain off the job,” Morell told Politico on Saturday. “While the work we’re doing is important, it is no more important than – and quite frankly a lot less important – than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown, both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community.”
“How could this be more important than kids starting cancer trials at NIH?”Morell asked the DC-based news outlet, referring to another government program that was put on hold when the federal shutdown started last week.
On day two of the shutdown last Wednesday, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper told lawmakers at a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act oversight hearing that he couldn’t guarantee the safety of the American people amid the shutdown, as furloughs caused roughly 70 percent of the US intelligence community’s civilian workforce to be shuttered until the government is up and running again.
During that same hearing, Clapper said that leaked national security documents — a whole trove that has steadily been circulated among the media by former contractor Edward Snowden starting this past June — has jeopardized the safety of the US as well.
“People’s lives are at risk here because of data that Mr. Snowden purloined,” Clapper said.
But whereas the commander-in-chief created a review panel to see if the programs publicized by Mr. Snowden should be scaled back, 100 percent of that board is on break while the intelligence community continues to operate, at least in part. Although Clapper said that 70 percent of the intelligence community’s civilian workers were furloughed as of last week, National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander testified to Congress that only around 6,000 NSA employees had been sent home.
According to the Washington Post’s estimate, that means only around 15 percent of the NSA has actually been furloughed, leaving maybe 30,000 or so employees on the job.
The Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies has until this Friday to provide their interim findings to Pres. Obama through DNI Clapper, who has been tasked by the White House to facilitate the panel’s operations. News of Clapper’s alleged role within the board raised concern last month after it was reported that the majority of the five-person panel, originally described by Obama himself as “independent” of the White House, is composed of former administration officials and/or influential Democrats.
The group’s final report and recommendations —should they finally convene in time in lieu of the shutdown — is due to the DNI and White House by December 15.
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Hunt for Silk Road users and Bitcoin fortunes intensifies

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:10 PM PDT

Officials in Britain, Sweden and the US have arrested eight more people in connection with Silk Road, the website for criminal services, as the search for millions of dollars in bitcoins – the currency of choice for online users – steps up a gear.
Britain’s newly unveiled National Crime Agency (NCA) flexed its muscles Tuesday when it detained four suspected drug offenders who used the “anonymous” services provided by Silk Road, dubbed the “Amazon.com of illegal drugs.”
The agency’s director general, Keith Bristow, gave fair warning to other Internet drug dealers to be prepared for further crackdowns.
“These latest arrests are just the start,” he said. “There are many more to come.”
The British investigation also promises to take a bite out of bitcoin, the virtual on-line currency used by Silk Road customers to buy and sell illicit goods and services. The NCA said it had seized millions of pounds worth of the electronic currency.
Meanwhile, the FBI reportedly seized the equivalent of $3.6 million in bitcoins in last week’s raid, but is still searching for over 600,000 bitcoins, worth about $80 million, that suspected Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht is believed to have amassed while running the online drug operation, The Guardian reported.
Although initially it was thought that Ulbricht’s activities led to the physical location of Silk Road’s servers, rumors in hacker circles now point to the government itself hacked into the servers via Tor, and ran a program that allowed them to locate the real servers by using the everyday version of the Internet.
It now remains to be seen how the FBI will treat the seized bitcoins.
“At this early point in the history of bitcoin, I would be very surprised if the government has existing written policy on what to do if you seize digital currency,” Jean-Jacques Cabou, a partner with the international law firm Perkins Coie, told Wired magazine.
Furthermore, no one even knows what “seized” means where Bitcoin is concerned, as all the FBI has said until now is that it “downloaded” the money from an online wallet on Silk Road.
Either way, the longer the FBI allows the “imaginary” money to just sit there, the more it will grow in value and the harder it will be to let go, Cabou said, adding: “With this much valuable property at stake… they certainly will want to get the money.”
Ulbricht, 29, was arrested while using the Internet at a public library in San Francisco last week.
In a court appearance last Friday, Ulbricht’s lawyer said his client denied all charges brought against him.
Officials say Ulbricht ran Silk Road under the alias “Dread Pirate Roberts.”
The arrests emphasize the international scope of the crackdown, which began in earnest last week when the FBI conducted a raid on Silk Road, which has been described as the largest online drug dealing portal.
In Sweden, two men from the coastal city of Helsingborg were arrested on suspicion of distributing cannabis over Silk Road, local newspaper Helsingborgs Dagblad reported Tuesday.
US officials have brought charges against a couple from Bellevue, Washington, with one of them identified as the top 1 percent of sellers on the site.
“Steven L. Sadler allegedly sold cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine through Silk Road…and used the Postal Service as a major delivery system for his illegal enterprise,” according to the Bellevue Reporter.
In the last four months of sales documented, the criminal complaint alleges Sadler, who went by the user name “Nod,” sold more than 2,600 grams of cocaine, nearly 600 grams of heroin and 105 grams of methamphetamine.
Silk Road was used for more than just drug purchases, authorities say.
The FBI suspects thousands of people accessed Silk Road in its 2 1/2 years’ existence to buy and sell illicit drugs, acquire forged documents, and possibly even order assassinations. The total value of the trades exceeded $1.2 billion, the FBI says.
Meanwhile, British officials are describing the recent arrests as just the beginning of a broader crackdown on underground Internet crime.
“This is only the start of a wider campaign for the NCA to tackle the ‘dark’ or ‘deep’ web and the criminals exploiting it,” Andy Archibald, head of the UK agency’s National Cyber Crime Unit, said in a statement.
“These criminal areas of the Internet aren’t just selling drugs; it’s where fraud takes place, where the trafficking of people and goods is discussed, where child abuse images are exchanged and firearms are traded,” he added.
Bristow warned Internet users who think their activity could be hidden with the help of technical applications.
“The hidden Internet isn’t hidden and your anonymous activity isn’t anonymous. We know where you are, what you are doing and we will catch you,” he said in his statement.
Bristow revealed that hidden or anonymous online use were a main priority for the NCA, which employs some 4,000 officers to track criminal activity on the Internet.
According to an FBI affidavit filed in San Francisco, there were 957,079 user accounts on Silk Road.
Around 30 percent of the total users were located in the United States, with the next highest number of users based in the UK. The FBI did not disclose how many users there were in the UK.
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Anonymous plans Million Mask March on Washington

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:02 PM PDT

Demonstrators hope that one million masked activists will descend on Washington, DC next month to celebrate Guy Fawkes Day with a mass rally to remind the world “That fairness, justice and freedom are more than just words.”
That’s the mission statement of the “Million Mask March,” an event scheduled for November 5 in the nation’s capital that’s being arranged by affiliates of the hacktivism movement Anonymous, an international group of activists who’ve adopted the image of the infamous Englishman who unsuccessfully plotted to blow up Parliament in the early 1600s.
The group has been circulating flyers on the Web and in Washington, where they request that a million activists disguised as Fawkes march down the National Mall on November 5 for an array of causes that have been adopted in the past by self-proclaimed actors in the movement.
According to the event’s official Facebook page, topics to be discussed during the day include government reform, the pharmaceutical industry and the use of genetically modified foods, among others. An unofficial page that has been disavowed by the creators of the Facebook event asks for members of Anonymous, participants in the Occupy movement and supporters of WikiLeaks and whistleblowing to make the trip to DC next month.
For those unable to venture to Washington, however, other rallies have been scheduled to occur around the world on Guy Fawkes Day, including events tentatively slated to occur in locales ranging from Abuja, Nigeria and Athens, Greece to Zapata, Texas and Zurich, Switzerland.
One event scheduled to begin on the afternoon of Nov. 5 at London’s Trafalgar Square invites possible attendees “to a friendly gathering of the minds. A tea party, so to speak, as a collective we can trade our ideas and share them with the world.”
John Fairhust, the organizer of the DC rally, told IB Times that the march in Washington “is not only a protest showing our strength in numbers, it is as well the issuance of a warning to the powers that be.”
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Obama to nominate Janet Yellen to be next Federal Reserve chair

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:02 PM PDT

President Obama will nominate Janet L. Yellen to be the next head of the Federal Reserve, the White House said Tuesday. The historic appointment, if confirmed, would make the former UC Berkeley economist the first woman to lead the world’s most powerful central bank.
Yellen, the Fed’s vice chair, would replace Ben S. Bernanke, whose second four-year term as chairman expires Jan. 31. She would take over at a crucial time — the central bank is gearing up to reduce its unprecedented support for the economy without damaging the fragile recovery.
Obama will announce the nomination at the White House on Wednesday afternoon, joined by Yellen and Bernanke.
The Fed’s leadership and policy signals are being closely watched around the globe, especially in developing economies where many fear a too-rapid or poorly communicated pullback of stimulus would have severe consequences for global financial markets and the flow of capital.
The nomination was expected and culminates an unprecedented public campaign that included letters from congressional groups and extensive lobbying by economists and others in and out of Washington.
In naming Yellen, 67, a veteran central banker with a reputation as a consensus builder, Obama opted for consistency and a candidate favored by many economists and liberal Democrats. The president’s top choice, former Treasury secretary Lawrence H. Summers, withdrew from the running in September in the wake of mounting political opposition.
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Book by whistleblower at center of ‘Fast and Furious’ blocked by the ATF

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT

A book authored by an agent at the center of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ “Fast and Furious” gun running debacle has been rejected and barred from being published by the agency, citing concerns for morale.
Special Agent John Dodson, who became a whistleblower in 2011 when he approached Republican lawmakers in Congress with details of a botched attempt by the ATF to allow sales of firearms in order to build a case against Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa cartel, has already penned a book on the saga, though it was unclear on Monday whether it will ever see the light of day.
“This would have a negative impact on morale in the Phoenix [field division] and would have a detremental [sic] effect on our relationships with [the Drug Enforcement Administration] and FBI,” the ATF’s rejection letter stated.
Current restrictions prevent federal employees from profiting from “any source other than the government for teaching, speaking or writing that relates to the employee’s official duties,” ruling out the possibility for Dodson to cash in on any book deal.
According to officials who spoke with the Washington Post, the ATF is currently evaluating whether Dodson’s book divulges any “law enforcement sensitive” information. Dodson could be allowed to publish his book while receiving no monetary compensation.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing Dodson on the matter, filed a protest on Monday with the ATF’s Deputy Director Thomas Brandon over his agency’s efforts to block the book’s publishing, citing a violation of Dodson’s constitutional rights.
“It was Agent Dodson’s disclosures that helped bring the operational failures at the Phoenix field division to light. As a knowledgeable and informed ‘insider’ who was directly involved in Operation Fast and Furious, Agent Dodson will add significantly to the national conversation about gun policy,” writes the ACLU.
Senator Charles Grassley and Representative Darrell Issa, two Republicans who spearheaded a Congressional investigation into the ATF’s “Fast and Furious” operation, have written a foreword for Dodson’s book.
Responding to the ATF’s rejection of Dodson’s book, Grassley noted that “this isn’t the first time somebody from the ATF or another government agency has written a book.”
“Just because the ATF leadership doesn’t like the content of the book doesn’t mean they should be able to prevent the author from giving his side of the story,” adds Grassley.
Sen. Grassley, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member, and Rep. Issa, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, produced an expansive joint report on “Fast and Furious” consisting of over 2,000 pages of dozens of interviews and a review of more than 10,000 pages of documents.
That Congressional inquiry also led to accusations that the Justice Department had withheld documents and denied access to witnesses, which culminated in Attorney General Eric Holder being held in contempt of Congress in June of 2012. The investigation also led to the resignation of Arizona US Attorney Dennis Burke and the reassignment of ATF acting director Kenneth Melson.
Dodson, who began to write his book last year, sought permission for external employment allowing him to secure a publisher in June, according to the Washington Times.
A manuscript was presented to Dodson’s superior in Washington in May, and to an immediate superior in Arizona in July. According to documents first reported by the Washington Times his request was rejected first in Arizona in July, and backed by the ATF’s head in that office four days later.
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Passengers were too immersed in toys to spot murderer on train

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT

Authorities have partially blamed gadget-absorbed commuters for failing to notice a gun-wielding assailant who calmly took his time before shooting a man point blank on a San Francisco train.
The man, 30-year-old Nikhom Thephakaysone, flashed his .45-caliber pistol several times in front of everyone, before proceeding to shoot San Francisco State University student Justin Valdez, 20, in the back of the head before leaving the train.
Police believe the attack to have been completely unprovoked.
The September 23 incident, as reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, involved security footage showing Thephakaysone pulling out the gun, raising and pointing it – even wiping his nose with the sleeve of that hand – before tucking the weapon away and drawing it again several more times with nobody any the wiser. He then simply shot Valdez and disembarked.
This incident highlights an increasing lack of attention from passers-by, authorities say, alluding to the spread of hi-tech toys. People are so engulfed by their hand-held entertainment devices that they pay almost zero attention to their surroundings.
District Attorney George Gascon believes technology has greatly hindered people’s ability to concentrate, leading to increased crime, as well as theft.
“These weren’t concealed movements — the gun is very clear,” he told the Chronicle. “They’re just so engrossed, texting and reading and whatnot. They’re completely oblivious of their surroundings.”
Following a speedy arrest, several charges were leveled at Thephakaysone, including murder and assault with a semi-automatic handgun. He pleaded not guilty.
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6 Fukushima workers exposed to radiation after pipe incident

Posted: 08 Oct 2013 05:00 PM PDT

Six people working at the site of crippled Fukushima power plant have been exposed to radiation after one of them mistakenly removed a pipe connected to a contaminated water treatment system. It’s the second incident at Fukushima in three days.
The accidental pipe detachment on Wednesday resulted in the leak of several tons of water, which Fukushima operator TEPCO uses to cool the reactors.
The water came from a system which removes salts from the cooling liquid after it comes out from the damaged reactors. The leakage continued for some 50 minutes. Reuters estimates that at least seven tons of water escaped the system.
The Nuclear Regulation Authority told the news agency that the incident was equivalent to “Level 0″ on the International Nuclear and Radiological Events Scale (INES), but did not give an official rating.
TEPCO would not immediately report on the conditions of the six workers exposed to the water following the incident.
Earlier this week a worker accidentally switched off a water pump used to channel water into the reactor building.
Leakages of contaminated water have been plaguing Fukushima in the latest months as TEPCO fails to prevent radiation from being released into the environment.
The Japanese government, which has been criticized for turning a blind eye of the problems, has recently pledged to lean in and tackle the crisis. On Sunday Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe admitted that his country needs foreign knowledge and expertise to deal with Fukushima disaster.
The power plant was disrupted in March 2011 by a massive earthquake and tsunami, resulting in one of world’s worst-ever nuclear accidents. Three reactor cores at Fukushima have melted down and need to be cooled down constantly to avoid possible catastrophic escalation.
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