Secret To Prism Program: Even Bigger Data Seizure
AP | Stephen Braun | 06/15/13

... Americans who disapprove of the government reading their emails have more to worry about from a different and larger NSA effort that snatches data as it passes through the fiber optic cables that make up the Internet's backbone. That program, which has been known for years, copies Internet traffic as it enters and leaves the United States, then routes it to the NSA for analysis. ... Read more

Fisa court oversight: a look inside a secret and empty process
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 06/18/13/span>

Since we began publishing stories about the NSA's massive domestic spying apparatus, various NSA defenders -- beginning with President Obama - have sought to assure the public that this is all done under robust judicial oversight. "When it comes to telephone calls, nobody is listening to your telephone calls," he proclaimed on June 7 when responding to our story about the bulk collection of telephone records, adding that the program is "fully overseen" by "the Fisa court, a court specially put together to evaluate classified programs to make sure that the executive branch, or government generally, is not abusing them". ...

Edward Snowden's live Q&A: eight things we learned
The Guardian | Glenn Greenwald | 60/18/13

On Monday the whistleblower Edward Snowden gave an exclusive live Q&A to the Guardian to answer questions about the biggest intelligence leak in NSA history and revelations about government surveillance. Here are some key things we learned:

There's A Plan To Bury Nuclear Waste A Kilometre Away From Lake Huron
Vice Magazine | Michael Toledano | date

Choosing a site to permanently store Canada's nuclear waste is all about finding the community that is most willing to host it. Ontario Power Generation and the federal Nuclear Waste Management Organization are planning to build two underground storage facilities called Deep Geological Repositories, fill them with radioactive waste over approximately 40 years, and then abandon them until the waste is decommissioned 100,000 years from now. ... Read more

Medical group recognizes obesity as a disease
USAToday | Nanci Hellmich | 06/19/13

The American Medical Association decided Tuesday to recognize obesity as a disease, requiring a range of medical interventions to advance obesity treatment.

... About a third of adults in this country are obese, which is roughly 35 or more pounds over a healthy weight. A third of children and teens are overweight or obese. Obesity increases the risk of many other diseases including type 2 diabetes, heart disease and some types of cancer. ... ... If obesity continues to grow, about 42% of Americans may end up obese by 2030, according to a projection from researchers with RTI International, a non-profit organization in North Carolina's Research Triangle Park. ... Read more

Incredible 3D Chalk Art: The Best Apocalyptic Pavement Murals
HP | author | 06/18/13

Nothing spices up an average stroll down the sidewalk like the sudden feeling you're about to plummet into an unexpected, fiery inferno, right? ... Read/See more
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3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so
USA Today | author | 06/16/13

When a National Security Agency contractor revealed top-secret details this month on the government's collection of Americans' phone and Internet records, one select group of intelligence veterans breathed a sigh of relief

Thomas Drake, William Binney and J. Kirk Wiebe belong to a select fraternity: the NSA officials who paved the way. ... Read more

Inside 'Prism' Success: Even Bigger Data Seizure
HP | Stephen Braun | 06/15/13

In the months and early years after 9/11, FBI agents began showing up at Microsoft Corp. more frequently than before, armed with court orders demanding information on customers. ...

... But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort.   Americans who disapprove of the government reading their emails have more to worry about from a different and larger NSA effort that snatches data as it passes through the fiber optic cables that make up the Internet's backbone. ... Read more

New Leak Indicates Britain and U.S. Tracked Diplomats
NYTimes | Scott Shane | 06/16/13

A new set of classified documents disclosed Sunday suggested that Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who has provided a trove of documents to The Guardian newspaper, had obtained a wider range of materials about government surveillance than had been known, including one document revealing how American and British intelligence agencies had eavesdropped on world leaders at conferences in London in 2009. ... Read more

G20 summits: Russia and Turkey react with fury to spying revelations
TheGuardian | Julian Borger | 06/17/13

Turkey, South Africa and Russia have reacted angrily to the British government demanding an explanation for the revelations that their politicians and senior officials were spied on and bugged during the 2009 G20 summit in London.

... The Guardian revealed that the UK secret wiretapping agency, GCHQ, targeted Mehmet Simsek, the Turkish finance minister and a former Merrill banker, during a G20 economics meeting hosted in London in September 2009. It also considered monitoring the communications of 15 named members of his staff and of Turkey's central bank. ...

... oscow Russian officials said the Guardian revelation that US spies had intercepted top-secret communications of Dmitry Medvedev at a G20 summit in London in April 2009 would further harm the struggling US-Russia relationship and cast a shadow over the G8 summit in Northern Ireland on Monday and Tuesday. ... Read more

The Making of a Global Security State, The Five Uncontrollable Urges of a Secrecy-Surveillance World
TomDispatch | Tom Engelhardt | 06/16/13

1. The Urge to be Global
2. The Urge to Make You Transparent
3. The Urge to Make Themselves Opaque
4. The Urge to Expand
5. The Urge to Leak
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Fracking Is Already Straining U.S. Water Supplies
ThinkPrograss | Tom Kenworthy | 06/15/13

As the level of hydraulic fracturing of oil and gas wells in the United States has intensified in recent years, much of the mounting public concern has centered on fears that underground water supplies could be contaminated with the toxic chemicals used in the well-stimulation technique that cracks rock formations and releases trapped oil and gas. But in some parts of the country, worries are also growing about fracking's effect on water supply, as the water-intensive process stirs competition for the resources already stretched thin by drought or other factors.   Every fracking job requires 2 million to 4 million gallons of water, according to the Groundwater Protection Council. ... Read more

PRISM Is Just Part Of A Much Larger, Scarier Government Surveillance Program
AP | BusinessInsider | Stephen Braun | 06/15/13

Around the world, government spies and eavesdroppers were tracking the email and Internet addresses used by suspected terrorists. Often, those trails led to the world's largest software company and, at the time, largest email provider.   The agents wanted email archives, account information, practically everything, and quickly. Engineers compiled the data, sometimes by hand, and delivered it to the government.

... Inside Microsoft, some called it "Hoovering" -- not after the vacuum cleaner, but after J. Edgar Hoover, the first FBI director, who gathered dirt on countless Americans.   This frenetic, manual process was the forerunner to Prism, the recently revealed highly classified National Security Agency program that seizes records from Internet companies. As laws changed and technology improved, the government and industry moved toward a streamlined, electronic process, which required less time from the companies and provided the government data in a more standard format. ...

... But interviews with more than a dozen current and former government and technology officials and outside experts show that, while Prism has attracted the recent attention, the program actually is a relatively small part of a much more expansive and intrusive eavesdropping effort. ... Read more

DN | Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Tuesday, June 18 [14:15]

*DN | Glenn Greenwald: As Obama Makes "False" Surveillance Claims, Snowden Risks Life to Spark NSA Debate (06/18/13) []

*Charlie Rose | President Obama On NSA leaks, Syria, Iran & China. (06/17/13) [50:47]

*USAToday | 3 NSA veterans speak out on whistle-blower: We told you so (06/17/13) [9:11]

*Bill Moyers | Lawrence Lessig: Big Brother's Prying Eyes (06/14/13) [56:47]

PBS Frontline | Syria Behind the Lines (04/03/13) [53:41]

*60 Minutes | Taking down Colombia's "super cartel" (06/16/13) [13:03]

*Rotting, Decaying And Bankrupt -- If You Want To See The Future Of America Just Look At Detroit
ZeroHedge | author | 06/17/13

Eventually the money runs out. Much of America was shocked when the city of Detroit defaulted on a $39.7 million debt payment and announced that it was suspending payments on $2.5 billion of unsecured debt, but those who visit my site on a regular basis were probably not too surprised. Anyone with half a brain and a calculator could see this coming from a mile away.

But what Detroit is facing is not really that unique. In fact, Detroit is a perfect example of what the future of America is going to look like. We live in a nation that is rotting, decaying, drowning in debt and racing toward insolvency. Already there are dozens of other cities across the nation that are poverty-ridden, crime-infested hellholes just like Detroit is, and hundreds of other communities are rapidly heading in that direction. So don't look down on Detroit. They just got there before the rest of us. ...

'Dirty Wars' Is Our Responsibility
HP | Dawn V. Woollen | 06/14/13

... Since 9/11 we have largely trusted the government to keep us "safe" with actions in plain sight, including invading Iraq and airport body scanners. But mostly we have trusted the government with actions we don't know about, actions that exist in the shadowy no-man's-land of "Top Secret" and "National Security." We have been largely content with this arrangement as long as we are kept safe from the "bad guys."   But at what cost to us, to the people targeted and to our shared humanity? Who exactly determines who the bad guys are? And is there such a thing as a "clean" war, as President Obama claims?

These are some of the questions I left the movie theater asking myself after seeing Dirty Wars, the incredible documentary by Jeremy Scahill and Rick Rowley. Dirty Wars is a detective story that unfolds in countries we know in name only, places we hear about but will likely never visit, and from the people who populate these faraway lands from which we are so disconnected. In the movie we discover what our government is doing covertly, without our knowledge, while glimpsing the impact on those affected... and on our future. ... Read more

'Dirty Wars' uncloaks U.S. forces
SF Examiner | Anita Katz | 06/14/13

In "Dirty Wars," journalist Jeremy Scahill examines the ascent and actions of the Special Joint Operations Command, the super-secret military force that performs drone strikes, targeted assassinations and other lethal operations in its function as a paramilitary arm of the U.S. president.

It begins in Gardez, Afghanistan. A night raid has killed a police commander and two pregnant women.   Interviews with the family, plus some sleuthing, reveal that American fighters performed the attack and the victims were not terrorists. Scahill discovers that the then-unknown SJOC conducted the raid. The attack was one of about 1,700 such incidents.

A picture emerges of SJOC as a deadly force that acts with approval from the U.S. government and NATO without accountability or congressional oversight. It operates in 75 countries, including many where no war exists. ... Read more

Atmospheric carbon dioxide reaches 400 parts per million concentration milestone
WashingtonPost | Jason Samenow | 05/10/13

For the first time in human history, the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has reached 400 parts per million (ppm). The arrival at this threshold represents a powerful symbol of the growing human influence on the Earth's climate.

Manmade emissions of carbon dioxide have increased the atmospheric concentration of CO2 from around 270 to 280 ppm in the late 1700s to today's record high level of 400 ppm. Measurements of CO2 trapped in air bubbles from ice cores in Antarctica indicate today's levels are unsurpassed in at least 800,000 years. Read more
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How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Power
TheNation | Lee Fang | 06/11/13/span>

I reread this article again yesterday... it is really reveling on how contractors are misusing the information they are gathering

Colorado Is Burning Even Worse Than Last Year
MotherJones | James West | 06/13/13

The Black Forest fire is the most destructive fire in the state's history, and has completely destroyed at least 379 homes, according to the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. At least two people have been killed.

... Is climate change making wildfires worse? Big wildfires like Colorado's thrive in dry air, low humidity, and high winds; climate change is going to make those conditions more frequent over the next century. We know because it's already happening: A University of Arizona report from 2006 found that large forest fires have occurred more often in the western United States since the mid-1980s as spring temperatures increased, snow melted earlier, and summers got hotter, leaving more and drier fuels for fires to devour. ... Read more

US spy operation that manipulates social media
TheGuardian | Nick Fielding | older 03/17/11

Military's 'sock puppet' software creates fake online identities to spread pro-American propaganda

The US military is developing software that will let it secretly manipulate social media sites by using fake online personas to influence internet conversations and spread pro-American propaganda.   A Californian corporation has been awarded a contract with United States Central Command (Centcom), which oversees US armed operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, to develop what is described as an "online persona management service" that will allow one US serviceman or woman to control up to 10 separate identities based all over the world. ... Read more

'Top Secret America': A look at the military's Joint Special Operations Command
WashingtonPost | Dana Priest | 09/02/11

The CIA's armed drones and paramilitary forces have killed dozens of al-Qaeda leaders and thousands of its foot soldiers. But there is another mysterious organization that has killed even more of America's enemies in the decade since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

CIA operatives have imprisoned and interrogated nearly 100 suspected terrorists in their former secret prisons around the world, but troops from this other secret organization (JSOC) have imprisoned and interrogated 10 times as many, holding them in jails that it alone controls in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Since 9/11, this secretive group of men (and a few women) has grown tenfold while sustaining a level of obscurity that not even the CIA has managed. "We're the dark matter. We're the force that orders the universe but can't be seen," a strapping Navy SEAL, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said in describing his unit. ... Read more

Everything is Rigged: This Time, It's Currencies
RollingStone | Matt Taibbi | 06/13/13

I'll get into this in more detail later (I'm on deadline for a magazine feature), but this story just landed. Given the LIBOR story, the Interest Rate Swap manipulation story, the Euro gas price manipulation story, the U.S. energy price manipulation story, and (by now) countless others of the "Everything is Rigged" variety, this screams out for immediate notice. Via Bloomberg:

... This time the rates allegedly being rigged are in the foreign-exchange or "FX" markets, meaning that if this story is true, it would almost certainly trump LIBOR for scale/horribleness.

As one friend of mine who works on Wall Street put it, "It's endless! This is the biggest market in the world." Bloomberg suggested the story is just the tip of the iceberg: ... Read more

NSA head: Leaks have caused U.S. 'great harm'
Washington Post | Ellen Nakashima | 06/12/13

The head of the National Security Agency defended his agency's broad electronic surveillance programs Wednesday, saying that they have helped thwart dozens of terrorist attacks and that their recent public disclosure has done "great harm" to the nation's security.

Facing his first public grilling since it was revealed that the NSA has secretly collected millions of telephone records as well as e-mails and other Internet data, Gen. Keith Alexander sought to aggressively rebut congressional and other criticism of the Obama administration's anti-terrorism tactics. ... Read more

Connecting the Dots on PRISM, Phone Surveillance, and the NSA's Massive Spy Center
Wired Magazine | James Bamford | 06/12/13

Physically, the NSA has always been well protected by miles of high fences and electrified wire, thousands of cameras, and gun-toting guards. But that was to protect the agency from those on the outside trying to get in to steal secrets. Now it is confronting a new challenge: those on the inside going out and giving the secrets away. ... Read more

How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Power
TheNation | Lee Fang | 06/11/13

"I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal email." --Edward Snowden, Booz Allen Hamilton whistleblower, during his interview with The Guardian.   Could the sprawling surveillance state enable government or its legion of private contractors to abuse their technology and spy upon domestic political targets or judges?

This is not a far off possibility. Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions and political organizations. The plans-- one concocted in concert with lawyers for the US Chamber of Commerce to sabotage left-leaning critics, like the Center for American Progress and the SEIU, and a separate proposal to "combat" WikiLeaks and its supporters, including Glenn Greenwald, on behalf of Bank of America-- fell apart after reports of their existence were published online. But the episode serves as a reminder that the expanding spy industry could use its government-backed cybertools to harm ordinary Americans and political dissident groups. ... Read more

You Wouldn't Believe Bank of America's Latest Scam
AlterNet | Thom Hartmann | 06/12/13

The American banking industry is back and more dangerous than ever before.   According to the FDIC, U.S. banks posted a record $40.3 billion profit in the first three months of the year.   This staggering profit tops the previous first-quarter profit record that was set more than six years ago, before the financial crisis and big-bank caused Bush Great Recession.

So, now that the big banks have fully recovered from the financial crisis that they themselves caused, and are raking in massive profits yet again, you would think that they'd be extra careful not to cause another financial meltdown, right?   Wrong.

It's appears that big bank Bank of America is up to the same old dirty tricks that helped contribute to America's financial meltdown in the first place.   According to the American Banker magazine, Bank of America is using a misleading sales pitch and a flood of fine print to sell you and me on mortgage refinancing plans. ...

... The mailer talks about annual savings of more than $4,000 if borrowers refinance their mortgages, but according to National Consumer Law Center attorney Andrew Pizor, the refinancing offer would actually add more than $37,000 to the cost of a borrower's loan. ... Read more

Edward Snowden: US government has been hacking Hong Kong and China for years
South China Morning Post | Lana Lam | 06/13/13

US whistle-blower Edward Snowden yesterday emerged from hiding in Hong Kong and revealed to the South China Morning Post that he will stay in the city to fight likely attempts by his government to have him extradited for leaking state secrets.

In an exclusive interview carried out from a secret location in the city, the former Central Intelligence Agency analyst also made explosive claims that the US government had been hacking into computers in Hong Kong and on the mainland for years. ... Read more

NSA: Senators Who Back NSA Spying Oppose Gun Background Checks For Infringing Rights
HP | Michael McAuliff | 06/12/13

Just months after many U.S. senators opposed tougher background checks for gun buyers on the grounds that they would tread on Americans' liberties, many of them are standing behind the far more intrusive intelligence-gathering programs of the National Security Agency.

Senators -- mainly Republicans -- argued during the debate after the Newtown, Conn., school massacre that instituting broader background checks would violate the Second Amendment, infringe on privacy, and be the first step toward taking away people's guns. ... Read more

NSA Director Says Programs Key to Stopping Attacks
WSJ | Siobhan Hughes | 06/12/13

WASHINGTON--National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander said that he would work to try to declassify secret court opinions that make possible the agency's collection of most Americans' phone records, while also defending the government's controversial surveillance programs as critical to stopping terrorist attacks.

"We need to bring as many facts as we can out to the American people," Mr. Alexander told the Senate Appropriations Committee. "We want to tell you what we're doing….but I don't want to jeopardize the security of our country or our allies." ... Read more

NSA surveillance played little role in foiling terror plots, experts say
TheGuardian | Ed Pilkington | 06/12/13

Lawyers and intelligence experts with direct knowledge of two intercepted terrorist plots that the Obama administration says confirm the value of the NSA's vast data-mining activities have questioned whether the surveillance sweeps played a significant role, if any, in foiling the attacks. ... Read more

Earlier Denials Put Intelligence Chief in Awkward Position
NYTimes | Scott Shane | 06/11/13

For years, intelligence officials have tried to debunk what they called a popular myth about the National Security Agency: that its electronic net routinely sweeps up information about millions of Americans. In speeches and Congressional testimony, they have suggested that the agency's immense power is focused exclusively on terrorists and other foreign targets, and that it does not invade Americans' privacy.

But since the disclosures last week showing that the agency does indeed routinely collect data on the phone calls of millions of Americans, Obama administration officials have struggled to explain what now appear to have been misleading past statements. Much of the attention has been focused on testimony by James R. Clapper Jr., the director of national intelligence, to the Senate in March that the N.S.A. was not gathering data on millions of Americans. ... Read more

Bond bubble threatens financial system, Bank of England director warns
TheGuardian | Jill Treanor | 06/12/13

Andy Haldane fears the bursting of 'the biggest bond bubble in history' after electronic money printing exercises by the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve in the US.

A key Bank of England policymaker has warned of the risks to global financial stability when "the biggest bond bubble in history" bursts.   In a wide-ranging testimony to MPs, Andy Haldane, Bank of England director of financial stability, admitted the central bank's new financial policy committee is taking too long to force banks to hold more capital and appeared to criticise the bank's culture under outgoing governor Sir Mervyn King.Haldane told the Treasury select committee that the bursting of the bond bubble -- created by central banks forcing down bond yields by pumping electronic money into the economy - was a risk "I feel acutely right now". ... Read more

RBS resignation of Stephen Hester causes debate to rage
TheGuardian | Jill Treanor | 06/12/13

City surprise at chief executive's exit as politicians are accused of getting 'sticky little paws' on bank's future

The debate about the future of Royal Bank of Scotland was raging on Wednesday night after the surprise resignation of the bailed out bank's chief executive Stephen Hester. His departure is intended to clear the way for what will be one of the biggest ever public sell-offs.

The business secretary, Vince Cable, who opposes a rapid sale of the taxpayer's 81% stake, said the bank needed to focus more lending to small businesses and supporting the economy. ... Read more

Meet the contractors analyzing your private data
Salon | Tim Shorrock | 06/10/13

Private companies are getting rich probing your personal information for the government. Call it Digital Blackwater

From Narus, the Israeli-born Boeing subsidiary that makes NSA's high-speed interception software, to CSC, the "systems integrator" that runs NSA's internal IT system, defense and intelligence, contractors are making millions of dollars selling technology and services that help the world's largest surveillance system spy on you. If the 70 percent figure is applied to the NSA's estimated budget of $8 billion a year (the largest in the intelligence community), NSA contracting could reach as high as $6 billion every year. ...

1. Booz Allen Hamilton
2. SAIC
3. Northrop Grumman
4. Raytheon
5. CACI International
6. Palantir Technologies Inc.

How Spy Agency Contractors Have Already Abused Their Power
Nation | Lee Fang | 06/11/13

"I, sitting at my desk, certainly had the authorities to wiretap anyone, from you, or your accountant, to a federal judge, to even the president if I had a personal email." --Edward Snowden, Booz Allen Hamilton whistleblower, during his interview with The Guardian.   Could the sprawling surveillance state enable government or its legion of private contractors to abuse their technology and spy upon domestic political targets or judges?

This is not a far off possibility. Two years ago, a batch of stolen e-mails revealed a plot by a set of three defense contractors (Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies and HBGary Federal) to target activists, reporters, labor unions and political organizations. ... Read more

Pentagon Five-Year Cybersecurity Plan Seeks $23 Billion
Bloomberg | Tony Capaccio | 06/10/13

A Pentagon cybersecurity budget outline calls for spending almost $23 billion through fiscal 2018, as efforts are expanded on initiatives from protecting computer networks to developing offensive capabilities.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this month cited "the growing threat of cyber-intrusions, some of which appear to be tied to the Chinese government and military." His predecessor, Leon Panetta, said last year that "a cyber-attack perpetrated by nation states or violent extremist groups could be as destructive as the terrorist attack of 9/11." ... Read more

NSA revelations put Booz Allen Hamilton, Carlyle Group in uncomfortable limelight
Washington Post | Jonathan Ernst/Reuters | 06/11/13

The Carlyle Group has spent years attempting to shed its image as a well-connected private equity firm leveraging Washington heavyweights in the defense sector. Instead, it nurtured a reputation as a financially sophisticated asset manager that buys and sells everything from railroads to oil refineries.

The recent disclosures involving National Security Agency surveillance on U.S. citizens by an employee of Booz Allen Hamilton, a Virginia consulting firm that is majority owned by Carlyle, has thrust two of Washington's most prominent corporate entities uncomfortably into the limelight, bound by the thread of turning government secrets into profits. ...

... Booz Allen, which employs 24,500, had a net profit of $219 million on revenue of nearly $5.8 billion for the fiscal year ended March 31. For the same period ending in 2010, the year the company went public, the company earned $25 million on $5.1 billion in revenue. ... Read more

27 Edward Snowden Quotes About U.S. Government Spying That Should Send A Chill Up Your Spine
ZeroHedge | author | 06/11/13

Would you be willing to give up what Edward Snowden has given up? He has given up his high paying job, his home, his girlfriend, his family, his future and his freedom just to expose the monolithic spy machinery that the U.S. government has been secretly building to the world.

There is a reason why government whistleblowers are so rare. And most Americans are so apathetic that they wouldn't even give up watching their favorite television show for a single evening to do something good for society. Most Americans never even try to make a difference because they do not believe that it will benefit them personally. Meanwhile, our society continues to fall apart all around us. ...

27 thinks that should scare you about the NSA... Read On ... Read more

Salmon Confidential--How a Canadian Government Cover-Up Threatens Your Health, and the Entire Ecosystem
mercola.com | Dr. Mercola | 04/13/13

Many environmental experts have warned about the unsustainability of fish farms for a decade now, and we have documented those objections in many previous articles. Unfortunately nothing has yet been done to improve the system.

Salmon Confidential is a fascinating documentary that draws back the curtain to reveal how the Canadian government is covering up the cause behind British Columbia's rapidly dwindling wild salmon population. A summary of the film reads: ... Read more

Boundless Informant: the NSA's secret tool to track global surveillance data
TheGuardian | Glenn Greenwald | 06/09/13

The National Security Agency has developed a powerful tool for recording and analysing where its intelligence comes from, raising questions about its repeated assurances to Congress that it cannot keep track of all the surveillance it performs on American communications.

The Guardian has acquired top-secret documents about the NSA datamining tool, called Boundless Informant, that details and even maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks. ... Read more

Boundless Informant NSA data-mining tool -- four key slides
TheGuardian | author | 06/08/13

The top-secret Boundless Informant tool details and maps by country the voluminous amount of information it collects from computer and telephone networks
Read more

Prior NSA Whistleblower Warns Edward Snowden: Government Will Seek "Revenge and Retaliation"
MotherJones | David Corn | 06/09/13

Thomas Drake, a National Security Agency whistleblower who several years ago provided information to the press about fraud, waste, and privacy abuses at the super-secret spy agency and who was prosecuted for doing so, has a warning for Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old whistleblower who on Sunday outed himself as the source of the blockbuster leaks revealing two sweeping NSA surveillance programs.

Drake says Snowden can expect to be targeted by the full force of the United States government. And Drake should know. The Justice Department pursued Drake fiercely, charging him with violating the Espionage Act--as if he had been a spy for a foreign power. Drake maintained that he had only conveyed unclassified information to a reporter. The government's case eventually fell apart, and it dropped the most serious charges. ... Read more

"Digital Blackwater": Meet the Contractors Who Analyze Your Personal Data
AlterNet | Tim Shorrock | 06/10/13

Amid the torrent of stories about the shocking new revelations about the National Security Agency, few have bothered to ask a central question. Who's actually doing the work of analyzing all the data, meta-data and personal information pouring into the agency from Verizon and nine key Internet Service Providers for its ever-expanding surveillance of American citizens?
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Well, on Sunday we got part of the answer: Booz Allen Hamilton. In a stunning development in the NSA saga, Guardian reporter Glenn Greenwald revealed that the source for his blockbuster stories on the NSA is Edward Snowden, "a 29-year-old former technical assistant for the CIA and current employee of the defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton." Snowden, it turns out, has been working at NSA for the last four years as a contract employee, including stints for Booz and the computer-services firm Dell. ... Read more

500,000 contractors can access NSA data hoards
Salon | Natasha Lennard | 06/11/13

As Tim Shorrock pointed out as long ago as 2007 (and reminded us in light of the NSA leaks) "about 70 percent of our national intelligence budgets being spent on the private sector." The AP reported Tuesday that nearly 500,000 contractors -- employees like whistleblower Edward Snowden -- have access to the government's top secret programs.

Of the 4.9 million people with clearance to access "confidential and secret" government information, 1.1 million, or 21 percent, work for outside contractors, according to a report from Clapper's office. Of the 1.4 million who have the higher "top secret" access, 483,000, or 34 percent, work for contractors. ... Read more

The Program
NYTimes | Laura Poitras | 08/22/12

It took me a few days to work up the nerve to phone William Binney. As someone already a "target" of the United States government, I found it difficult not to worry about the chain of unintended consequences I might unleash by calling Mr. Binney, a 32-year veteran of the National Security Agency turned whistle-blower. He picked up. I nervously explained I was a documentary filmmaker and wanted to speak to him. To my surprise he replied: "I'm tired of my government harassing me and violating the Constitution. Yes, I'll talk to you." ... Read more

Amid Data Controversy, NSA Builds Its Biggest Data Farm
NPR | Howard Berkes | 06/10/13

As privacy advocates and security experts debate the validity of the National Security Agency's massive data gathering operations, the agency is putting the finishing touches on its biggest data farm yet.   The gargantuan $1.2 billion complex at a National Guard base 26 miles south of Salt Lake City features 1.5 million square feet of top secret space. High-performance NSA computers alone will fill up 100,000 square feet.

... Last summer, during a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a reporter asked NSA Director Gen. Keith Alexander, whether the Utah center "will hold the data of American citizens."   "No," Alexander responded. "While I can't go into all the details of the Utah Data Center, we don't hold data on U.S. citizens." ...

... The estimated power of those computing resources in Utah is so massive it requires use of a little-known unit of storage space: the zettabyte. Cisco quantifies a zettabyte as the amount of data that would fill 250 billion DVDs ... Read more

TRNN | Bill Black: Bank Profits Soar, Wages Suffer Sharpest Decline in 60 Years. (06/10/13) [10:28]

US in damage control mode after Edward Snowden's explosive NSA leaks
TheGuardian | Dan Roberts | 06/10/13

Washington was struggling to contain one of the most explosive national security leaks in US history on Monday as public criticism grew of the sweeping surveillance state revealed by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Political opinion was split with some members of Congress calling for the immediate extradition of a man they consider a "defector", but other senior politicians on both parties questioning whether US surveillance practices had gone too far.

Daniel Ellsburg, the former military analyst who revealed secrets of the Vietnam war through the so-called Pentagon Papers in 1971, described Snowden's leak as even more important and perhaps the most significant leak in American history. ... Read more

Key to government's monitoring power lies in war, technology
Washington Post | Craig Timberg | 06/07/13

Expanded government surveillance was cast as a price of war in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Yet nearly a dozen years later, the war on terrorism is showing signs of ebbing while the surveillance systems created to fight it continue unabated.   If anything, they are becoming more powerful.

That's because the nation went to a war footing at a time of profound technological change that fueled an explosion of personal data. Governments and businesses have developed the ability to mine, sort and analyze this information as never before -- and show little inclination to relinquish that power. ... Read more

How Congress unknowingly legalized PRISM in 2007
Washington Post | Timothy B. Lee | 06/06/13

On Sept. 11, 2007, the National Security Agency signed up Microsoft as its first partner for PRISM, a massive domestic surveillance program whose existence was reported by the Washington Post today. That's barely a month after Congress passed, and President George W. Bush signed, the Protect America Act.

The Bush Administration portrayed the PAA as a technical fix designed to close a gap in America's surveillance capabilities that had been opened by a then-recent ruling of the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). It proved to be much more than that. ... Read more

Better Late Than Never on Deeming Nonbanks Too Big to Fail
NYTimes | Agnes T. Crane | 06/04/13

New systemic-risk tags are better late than never. The American International Group, GE Capital and Prudential Financial are among the first nonbank firms to be deemed systemically important financial institutions by the Financial Stability Oversight Council.

All three financial giants on Monday said they had been flagged for the stiffer oversight bestowed on systemically important institutions, but A.I.G. and GE Capital seem especially deserving. Uncle Sam had to swoop in to help both during the financial crisis, with A.I.G. receiving a $182 billion lifeline and GE Capital a federal guarantee for its new debt. ... Read more

Pressure in Britain Over What to Do With Bailed-Out Banks
NYTimes | Mark Scott | 06/06/13

The three stalwarts of the British establishment -- Justin Welby, Nigel Lawson and Mervyn King -- are all calling for the breakup of the part-nationalized Royal Bank of Scotland.

... Now, nearly five years after British taxpayers first took stakes in the lenders, the government is preparing to reduce its holdings before the next general election, which is expected in early 2015. The government owns 81 percent of R.B.S. and 39 percent of Lloyds. ... Read more

Debt Deal in Alabama Will Cost JPMorgan
NYTimes | Mary Williams Walsh | 06/05/13

Under the deal to settle the bankruptcy of Jefferson County, Ala., firms that invested in its distressed debt will have the most to gain, JPMorgan Chase will face a big loss, and residents will be wondering whether there will be any relief for them

When the dust finally settles, JPMorgan Chase, which many in the county hold responsible for the financial collapse in the first place, will have given up nearly $1.6 billion as a result of its dealings with the county and its ill-fated effort to finance sewer repairs. The new deal calls for the bank to forfeit $842 million on the $1.22 billion of sewer debt that it holds, which comes on top of $647 million it forgave in termination fees on derivatives contracts with the county and a $75 million penalty it paid to settle a complaint by the Securities and Exchange Commission. ... Read more

A Message From Your Friendly ECHELON/Total Awareness/Boundless Informant Surveillance System
ZeroHedge | author | 06/10/13

... In my routine search of your public records, and all 11,379 emails, texts, message board posts and phone calls you've made in recent years, I found a disturbing trend I am obligated to report to you: your affection for pepperoni pizza with hot chilis and olives (most often from Frank's Pizza Parlor, 1.34 miles from your home) appears to be negatively impacting your health, as your medical records indicate high blood pressure and high cholesterol. ...

BBC | Untold Story of the Iraq War, Dirty Wars and Col. James Steele (03/22/13) [51:08]

Democracy Now! National and Global News Headlines for Monday, June 10 [14:38]

*DN | "You're Being Watched": Edward Snowden Emerges as Source Behind Explosive Revelations of NSA Spying (06/10/13) [15:27]

*DN | Glenn Greenwald on How NSA Leaker Edward Snowden Helped Expose a "Massive Surveillance Apparatus" (06/10/13) [15:15]

*DN | "On a Slippery Slope to a Totalitarian State": NSA Whistleblower Rejects Gov't Defense of Spying (06/10/13) [11:27]

*1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World's highest resolution video surveillance platform by DARPA [4:41]

1. Named Jaguar for its speed, it clocked in at 1.75 petaflops, officially becoming the world's fastest computer in 2009.
2. But alas, by late 2011 the Jaguar (now with a peak speed of 2.33 petaflops) ranked third behind Japan's "K Computer," with an impressive 10.51 petaflops, and the Chinese Tianhe-1A system, with 2.57 petaflops.
3. Its next goal is to reach exaflop speed, one quintillion (10¹⁸) operations a second, and eventually zettaflop (10²¹) and yottaflop.

1. Total of all human knowledge created from the dawn of man to 2003 totaled 5 exabytes.
2. Global Internet traffic will quadruple from 2010 to 2015, reaching 966 exabytes per year.
3. A million exabytes equal a yottabyte.
4. Should the agency ever fill the Utah center with a yottabyte of information, it would be equal to about 500 quintillion (500,000,000,000,000,000,000) pages of text.

1. Initially Electricity will come from the center's own substation built by Rocky Mountain Power to satisfy the 65-megawatt power demand. Such a mammoth amount of energy comes with a mammoth price tag -- about $40 million a year, according to one estimate.
   When the computer gets to yottaflop size...
   
2. It will have an extraordinary appetite for electricity, eventually using about 200 megawatts, enough to power 200,000 homes. The computer will also produce a gargantuan amount of heat, requiring 60,000 tons of cooling equipment, the same amount that was needed to serve both of the World Trade Center towers.