This page permanently redirects to gemini://gemini.techrights.org/2014/12/21/china-and-linux/.

● 12.21.14

● Links 21/12/2014: China and Linux, GNOME Shell 3.15.3

Posted in News Roundup, Site News at 12:30 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ Imitate Fake Hollywood Terminal Hacking Melodrama with This Amazing App for Ubuntu

• We all know that Hollywood movies are the worst place to see some accurate depiction of anything from real life and that includes computer terminals. Well, there is a solution for that now and we can only hope that some misguided producer will see the new “hollywood” package made for this exact purpose.

• Hollywood movie producers invest a lot of time and money in custom interfaces and GUIs that don’t really do anything, but they think they’re nice and interesting on film. Most of the time, someone is hacking away by typing frenetically while windows with crazy stuff open and close. This is why this kind of image is now seared into the public’s consciousness and hacking looks more exciting than in real life. It isn’t.

=> ↺ China is Planning to Purge Foreign Technology and Replace With Homegrown Suppliers

• The orders from Chinese banking and military commissions coincided with the trial of domestic computer systems in Siping, a city of 3.4 million people in Jilin province. Other cities and agencies in Jilin will now begin testing whether NeoKylin, a Linux-based operating system from China Standard Software Co., can substitute for Windows and servers made by Inspur can replace IBM’s, the two people familiar with the plan said. The trial will then expand across the country, they said.

=> ↺ Microsoft and Google in a Post-Snowden World

Server

=> ↺ Why Docker, Containers and systemd Drive a Wedge Through the Concept of Linux Distributions

• The announcement of Rocket by CoreOS was perceived by many to be a direct challenge to Docker, particularly as it came on the eve of DockerCon Europe and threatened to overshadow news coming out at the event. Docker, Inc. CEO Ben Golub was quick to fire back with his ‘initial thoughts on the Rocket announcement’. This piece isn’t about the politics of ecosystems and VC funded startups, which I’ll leave to Colin Humphreys (and note an excellent response from Docker Founder and CTO Solomon Hykes). It also isn’t about managing open source community, which I’ll leave to Matt Asay. Here I want to look at systemd, which lies at the heart of the technical arguments.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ Linux 3.19: ThinkPad Muting Redone, New Dell Backlight Support, Acer Is Banging

• The x86 platform driver changes for the Linux 3.19 kernel have been submitted and they include some noteworthy improvements for many Linux laptop owners.

=> ↺ Intel Skylake Audio Support For Linux 3.19

• Intel’s next-generation Skylake processors are starting to take shape with the Linux 3.19 kernel.

• Linux 3.19 lands initial Skylake graphics support within the Intel DRM drivers (there’s already initial support on the user-space side too within Mesa) and there’s Skylake MPX support among other Skylake related work that’s been merged for 3.19.

=> ↺ Linux 3.19 Merge Window Closes Ahead Of Schedule

• Linus announced on Friday night that he’s closing the merge window early for 3.19. Torvalds said that he’s pulling the last of the pull requests on Saturday — related to KBuild and the READ_ONCE split-up — but is planning to then close the merge window.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ X.Org Server 1.16.3 Released To Fix Security Issues

• Julien Cristau of Debian announced the X.Org Server 1.16.3 release on Saturday morning. The primary focus of this release is on correcting the security issues within the GLX, DIX, XV, DRI3, RENDER, and other areas of the xorg-server code-base affected by outstanding security problems.

Applications

=> ↺ cwcp: Learn to walk before you run

=> ↺ morsegen and morse2ascii: Since we’re on the subject

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ How to rename multiple files on Linux

Games

=> ↺ Civilization: Beyond Earth Linux GPU/Driver Benchmarks

• With now having the automated testing capabilities in place for the Linux build of Civilization: Beyond Earth, next week I should have out a large Linux GPU/driver comparison for this popular game.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ kdepim 4.14 + unittest

• As you saw I continue to work on 4.14 branch, in parallel I work on KF5 porting.

=> ↺ On Domain Models and Layers in kdepim

• Each application has a “domain” it was created for. KOrganizer has for instance the calendar domain, and kmail the email domain, and each of those domains can be described with domain objects, which make up the domain model. The domain model of an application is essential, because it is what defines how we can represent the problems of that domain. If Korganizer didn’t have a domain model with attendees to events, we wouldn’t have any way to represent attendees internally, and thus couldn’t develop a feature based on that.

=> ↺ nOS Infinity Is a Unique-Looking OS Powered by KDE – Gallery

• nOS Infinity is a Linux distribution based on Ubuntu that uses the KDE desktop environment. It’s built for old and new computers and it’s quite different from what you might expect.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME Shell 3.15.3

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ SparkyLinux 3.6 Enlightenment19, JWM, Openbox & CLI

• SparkyLinux 3.6 Enlightenment19, JWM, Openbox and CLI is out.

• ISO images of Sparky 3.6 e19, JWM and Openbox belong to the Base Edition.

Arch Family

=> ↺ Manjaro 0.8.11 Brings Support for Linux Kernel 3.18

• Manjaro 0.8.11 is a Linux distribution based on Arch Linux, which is also 100% compatible with the repositories of the base system. It’s been out for a short time, but developers have already pushed a second major update for it.

Red Hat Family

=> ↺ Red Hat claims the ‘grinch’ issue isn’t a Linux vulnerability

• The official reply noted that “this report incorrectly classifies expected behavior as a security issue,” through a Red Hat Bulletin released on Wednesday just one day after the report being made public. This was in response to Alert Logic claiming that this Grinch issue may be as large as the previously seen Heartbleed bug, noting that they believe it is a serious design flaw in how Linux handles user permissions.

=> ↺ Red Hat’s success aside, it’s hard to profit from free

• Red Hat, which just reported a profit of $47.9 million (or 26 cents a share) on revenue of $456 million for its third quarter, has managed to pull off a tricky feat: It’s been able to make money off of free, well, open-source, software. (It’s profit for the year-ago quarter was $52 million.)

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 21 Desktop Installation Steps with Screenshots

• Fedora is an open source Linux based operating system. As Fedora is free so end users can use it , modify it as per their requirements and distribute it. Fedora Operating system is available for Desktops, Servers and cloud. Fedora project is supported by RedHat. Most of the new softwares and technologies are developed and tested by Redhat in Fedora and then later on these softwares are used in Redhat Stable Versions.

• In this post we will discuss Fedora 21 Desktop or workstation (64 bit) Installation Steps with Screenshots. Below are the minimum requirements to install Fedora 21.

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ Elive 2.5.0 beta released

• The Elive Team is proud to announce the release of the beta version 2.5.0

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ Ubuntu Phone launch delayed until early 2015

• Earlier this year, I reported on the forthcoming release of Ubuntu phones. Ubuntu for phones had just hit “release to manufacturer” status and phones were supposed to launch before the end of 2014.

• Bad news: The phones clearly won’t be here this year. But good news! Canonical told me they’ll be out in early 2015, after a slight delay to clean up some lingering interface and manufacturing snags.

=> ↺ Can Ubuntu Click Address Linus Torvalds’ Binary Problems?

• Linux is a dominant player in almost every industry segment, minus one: desktop. We heard Linus Torvalds’ pain when he uttered these words at LinuxCon North America this year, “I still want the desktop”.

=> ↺ UNITY TO GET AN OPTION TO ALWAYS SHOW THE MENUS [UBUNTU 15.04 VIVID VERVET]

• Marco’s work involves adding an option to always show the Unity menus (in Unity, the menus are currently displayed on mouse over). Furthermore, this option will work with both the regular Appmenu / global menu, displayed on the top Unity panel, as well as LIM (locally integrated menus), displayed in the application titlebar:

=> ↺ Ubuntu 15.04 Alpha, Tanglu 2 Review, and More Red Hat

• Just when you thought you couldn’t get anymore Red Hat news, it once again was the talk of the techtown. An interest blog post from Hanno Böck today says quit using NTP if you care about security. Jack M. Germain discusses the work of Open Invention Network and Jamie Watson reviews Debian-derivative Tanglu 2. Dedoimedio.com shares their best distro of 2014 and Ubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 was released.

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch to Land with Bq Aquaris e4.5 Phones in February

• The first two companies that have been confirmed to release phones with Ubuntu Touch are Meizu and Bq. Until now, only Meizu showed any kind of involvement with Ubuntu Touch and they were the first to announce a launch window. On the other hand, Bq has been silent, but it seems to have been very busy and to be the first one out the door.

=> ↺ Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) Gets Linux Kernel Regression Fix

• A Linux kernel regression for Ubuntu 14.10 (Utopic Unicorn) has been identified by Canonical and the developers have issued a patch that should be available through regular channels.

Flavours and Variants

=> ↺ Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 Is Out and Still Uses LXDE – Gallery

• Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1 (Vivid Vervet) has been officially released and it follows its Kubuntu and Ubuntu GNOME brethren. Users can now download and test this latest installment.

=> ↺ Ubuntu GNOME 15.04 Alpha 1 Prepares for GNOME 3.14, Go Forth and Test

• The Ubuntu GNOME developers have released the first version of the 15.04 branch for their Linux distribution and it looks like this operating system is also going through some interesting changes, just like Ubuntu, although not on the same scale.

Devices/Embedded

=> ↺ Google building full Android IVI stack, says report

• If Android M is for real, the technology would go far beyond its Android Auto initiative announced earlier this year. Android Auto offers Apple CarPlay-like extensions to existing Android apps for customized interactions with a wide variety of IVI navigation and multimedia systems. IVI systems that support Android Auto should begin to appear in cars sometime in 2015.

Phones

Tizen

=> ↺ Tizen IVI 3.0 Gains GENIVI 7.0 Compliance

• It’s not news that open source is rolling through many industries like a well-oiled machine, so of course automotive is no exception. Organizations like GENIVI are helping to move this along, by creating specifications for open source platforms that provide a consistent foundation for the use of open source for In-Vehicle Infotainment systems.

Android

=> ↺ The best Android phones, tablet, and watch of 2014

• The best thing about Android is that there are lots of choices. The worst thing about Android is that there are lots of choices. There are just too many damn phones to choose from!

=> ↺ This is the world’s most stunning new Android phone – and it’ll only cost you $5,000

• While there’s no question that the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are beautiful smartphones, some might argue that Apple’s 2012 iPhone 5 and last year’s iPhone 5s feature an overall look that is more sleek and sophisticated. Now, imagine that sophisticated design was given harder lines, darker tones and a 5-inch full HD display, and it was built out of titanium and 18k gold instead of aluminum.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Most important open source news of the year

• In 2014, we have seen continued growth for both use and adoption of open source software in the enterprise software market. Cloud takes a big part of that obviously, with project likes Docker and OpenStack who have been in the news frequently. But growth wasn’t limited to increased use and adoption. We also noticed a lot of big names open sourcing their own solutions. Facebook announced a new branch of MySQL built for scalability, NASA released source code for many software projects, GitHub released the Atom text editor under a MIT license, and Google open sourced an email encryption tool and it’s Chrome PDF engine. The biggest news this year when it comes to open sourcing software has been Microsoft with .Net. This list of new open source releases goes on, with companies like LinkedIn, organizations such as DARPA, and more. If this trend continues, we can expect a lot more to be released under an open source license in 2015.

CMS

=> ↺ WordPress 4.1 for Debian

• Release 4.1 of WordPress came out on Friday so after some work to fit in with the Debian standards, the Debian package 4.1-1 of WordPress will be uploaded shortly. WordPress have also updated their themes with a 14-day early theme called twentyfifteen. This is the default theme for WordPress 4.1 on-wards.

BSD

=> ↺ bsdtalk249 – Netflix Update with Scott Long

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ FSF’s High Priority Project List Now Has A Committee

• The Free Software Foundation has now built up a committee to review their “High Priority Projects” list and they’re looking for more feedback from the community.

• Nearly ten years ago is when the Free Software Foundation began listing what they viewed as the High Priority Free Software Projects in a list. This list has over time contained some definite high-priority projects related to freeing Java and Adobe PDF support and open graphics drivers to some more obscure projects of high priority like a free version of Oracle Forms, a replacement to OpenDWG libraries for CAD files, automatic transcription software, etc. I’ve personally called out many of the FSF HPP for what they’re worth with my thoughts over the years.

=> ↺ GnuCash 2.6.5 released

Project Releases

=> ↺ Latest Calibre eBook Reader and Converter Now Support Latest Kobo Firmware

• The Calibre eBook reader, editor, and library management software has just reached version 2.13 and the developer has added an important driver and made quite a few fixes and improvements.

Public Services/Government

=> ↺ Uganda Adopts Free And Open Source Software For E-Governance

• The population in Uganda has been growing rapidly. The country now has 35 million people. In order to provide quality services to its citizens and to improve the national competitiveness through administration innovation, the government has adopted free and open source software as the preferred mode of operation for electronic government (e-government) services and platforms.

Licensing

=> ↺ As Hollywood Funds a SOPA Revival Through State Officials, Google (And The Internet) Respond

• Almost three years ago, millions of Internet users joined together to defeat the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), a disastrous bill that would have balkanized the Internet in the name of copyright and trademark enforcement. Over the past week, we’ve been tracking a host of revelations about an insidious campaign to accomplish the goals of SOPA by other means. The latest development: Google has filed a federal lawsuit seeking to block enforcement of an overbroad and punitive subpoena seeking an extraordinary quantity of information about the company and its users. The subpoena, Google warns, is based on legal theories that could have disastrous consequences for the open Internet.

Openness/Sharing

Open Access/Content

=> ↺ Librarians Are Continuing To Defend Open Access To The Web As A Public Service

• Librarians have built up quite a reputation for activism in all the right ways. Whether taking a stand against DRM, expanding libraries’ catalogs to include new digital media and art, or embracing indie authors, librarians come off as much more of a hip crowd than you might expect. These stances occasionally put them at odds with some in the community that they serve, perhaps most notably with parents who have pushed for restrictions on internet access within libraries. It gets all the more unfortunate when a subsection of the citizenry sees fit to ramp up the rhetoric against an institution simply attempting to serve the greatest public good. This typically, unfortunately, devolves into the supposed accusation of librarians “defending” the right for visitors to view “pornography.”

=> ↺ Libraries ‘Need To Be More Like Coffee Shops’, Says Government Report

• Better Wi-Fi connectivity, alongside hot drinks and comfier seating, could be the key to saving Britain’s libraries

• A government inquiry has called for a “complete reinvigoration” of the UK’s library network, including plans to make the facilities more welcoming by offering free Wi-Fi and hot drinks.

Programming

=> ↺ Google Announces Open-Source Availability of Cloud Dataflow SDK

• The goal is to let developers integrate applications more easily with its managed data analytics service.

=> ↺ Libscore Promises Easy Open Source Code Tracking

• Open source software theoretically ensures that the best code becomes the most widely shared and used code. But how can open source developers know how many other projects are actually making use of their handiwork? An interesting new tool called Libscore aims to provide an answer — at least for Web developers.

=> ↺ MIPS R6 Architecture Now Supported By GCC

• As of yesterday, there’s MIPS32R6 and MIPS64R6 support in GCC. The new MIPS R6 CPU architecture support was contributed by Imagination Technologies themselves. MIPS Release 6 features new instructions aimed for enhancing performance for JIT, JavaScript, browsers, PIC for Android, and large workload applications. The MIPS R6 architecture was announced a few months ago and the first products based on the updated MIPS ISA are their new Warrior processors.

Standards/Consortia

=> ↺ Google Drive now supports ODF

• What a brilliant end of the year for ODF, Google have decided to add support for the file type to it’s Drive service. The new update allows users to edit and save documents on Drive and also import ODF files and edit them from Drive. Prior to this you could only import ODF files to the service but you would have to edit download and edit them locally.

Leftovers

=> ↺ Calls growing for referendum on Greater Manchester having elected mayor

• Salford mayor Ian Stewart has already said he is ‘inclined’ towards favouring a public vote on the issue, with his council voting in favour of a motion calling for residents to have their say

Security

=> ↺ Hackers hit OPM background investigations contractor

• Hackers have gone after KeyPoint Government Solutions and its main customer, the Office of Personnel Management, is issuing a warning that nearly 50,000 people may have had their information compromised.

• An OPM spokeswoman said that the agency has concluded an investigation of the breach and is notifying 48,439 people whose personally identifiable data may have been breached.

• The agency is taking the action “out of an abundance of caution,” the spokeswoman said.

=> ↺ Lessons from the Sony Hack

• Earlier this month, a mysterious group that calls itself Guardians of Peace hacked into Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems and began revealing many of the Hollywood studio’s best-kept secrets, from details about unreleased movies to embarrassing emails (notably some racist notes from Sony bigwigs about President Barack Obama’s presumed movie-watching preferences) to the personnel data of employees, including salaries and performance reviews. The Federal Bureau of Investigation now says it has evidence that North Korea was behind the attack, and Sony Pictures pulled its planned release of “The Interview,” a satire targeting that country’s dictator, after the hackers made some ridiculous threats about terrorist violence.

• Your reaction to the massive hacking of such a prominent company will depend on whether you’re fluent in information-technology security. If you’re not, you’re probably wondering how in the world this could happen. If you are, you’re aware that this could happen to any company (though it is still amazing that Sony made it so easy).

=> ↺ OpenHardware Random Number Generator

• Before I spend another night reading datasheets; would anyone be interested in an OpenHardware random number generator in an full-size SD card format? The idea being you insert the RNG into the SD slot of your laptop, leave it there, and the kernel module just slurps trusted entropy when required.

=> ↺ New fear: ISIS killers use ‘digital AK-47′ malware to hunt victims

• Malware has emerged from war-torn Syria targeting those protesting the rule of ISIS (ISIL, Islamic State, whatever the murderous humanity-hating fanatics are calling themselves these days.)

• The trivial Windows spyware, analyzed by University of Toronto internet watchdog Citizen Lab, was sent out in a small number of emails aimed squarely at members of the group Raqqah is being Slaughtered Silently (RSS) – which is holed up deep in ISIS-controlled territory and campaigning against the medieval terror bastards.

=> ↺ North Korea Calls BS on Sony Hacking Scandal

• The offer comes as the FBI formally accused Pyongyang of the attack on Friday and US President Barack Obama promised to “respond proportionally” to the online breach.

=> ↺ Obama: North Koreans did it

• US President Barack Obama has declared that Sony “made a mistake” in shelving a satirical film about a plot to assassinate North Korea’s leader, and he pledged that the United States would respond “in a place and manner and time that we choose” to the hacking attack on Sony that led to the withdrawal.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ US drone attack kills at least five Taliban fighters in Pakistan – report

• A US drone fired two missiles at a militant hideout in northwestern Pakistan on Saturday, killing at least five Taliban fighters, two security officials said.

=> ↺ Six Militants Killed in US Drone Attacks in Pakistan

=> ↺ Drone strikes counterproductive, says secret CIA report

• Drone strikes and other “targeted killings” of terrorist and insurgent leaders favoured by the US and supported by Australia can strengthen extremist groups and be counterproductive, according to a secret CIA report published by WikiLeaks.

=> ↺ Wikileaks Reveals CIA Admitted Drone Strikes Ineffective

• The Taliban hasn’t broken a sweat replacing leaders killed by drones, according to a secret CIA report.

• Controversial U.S. drone strikes may be helping rather than hindering the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to a leaked CIA document released by Wikileaks Thursday.

=> ↺ Yemen: Whose Law?

=> ↺ Drone explosion kills volunteer in Lviv region

• “The drone exploded during its demonstration at the Yavoriv firing ground at around 09.00 on December 18. The blast fatally wounded a volunteer from Kyiv region, which was in the area [of the explosion],” the head of the media center, Oleksandr Poroniuk, said. The causes of the incident are being established. Law enforcers and members of the military prosecutor’s office are working at the scene.

=> ↺ In revenge, Pakistani Taliban strike school, killing at least 141

• Pakistan suffered the worst terrorist attack of a seven-year Taliban insurgency Tuesday when militants rampaged through an army-run high school in the northern city of Peshawar, killing at least 141 people, mostly students, in what the militants described as revenge for months of airstrikes on their tribal-area strongholds by Pakistan warplanes and CIA drones.

=> ↺ Yemen: Whose Law?

• Yemen’s transitional government, according to analysts and human rights groups, continues to condone extrajudicial killings of people it could arrest, detains people without due process and turns to tribal law to cover up its mistakes.

=> ↺ Judge Vacates Order Hushing Up Drone Strike

• A federal judge vacated as moot an order that prevented government disclosure of information about the targeted drone strike that killed U.S. citizen Anwar al-Awlaki in 2011.

=> ↺ COMMENTARY: People of faith have legitimate questions about use of lethal drones

• These “targeted” killings are conducted remotely in countries against which we have not declared war. Lethal drone strikes occur without warning, target for death specific individuals who are secretly selected, and are operated remotely by individuals thousands of miles away.

=> ↺ The Senate Drone Report of 2019

• Though it was a Friday afternoon, normally a dead zone for media attention, the response was instant and stunning. As had happened five years earlier with the committee’s similarly fought-over report on torture, it became a 24/7 media event. The “revelations” from the report poured out to a stunned nation. There were the CIA’s own figures on the hundreds of children in the backlands of Pakistan and Yemen killed by drone strikes against “terrorists” and “militants.” There were the “double-tap strikes” in which drones returned after initial attacks to go after rescuers of those buried in rubble or to take out the funerals of those previously slain. There were the CIA’s own statistics on the stunning numbers of unknown villagers killed for every significant and known figure targeted and finally taken out (1,147 dead in Pakistan for 41 men specifically targeted). There were the unexpected internal Agency discussions of the imprecision of the robotic weapons always publicly hailed as “surgically precise” (and also of the weakness of much of the intelligence that led them to their targets). There was the joking and commonplace use of dehumanizing language (“bug splat” for those killed) by the teams directing the drones. There were the “signature strikes,” or the targeting of groups of young men of military age about whom nothing specifically was known, and of course there was the raging argument that ensued in the media over the “effectiveness” of it all (including various emails from CIA officials admitting that drone campaigns in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Yemen had proven to be mechanisms not so much for destroying terrorists as for creating new ones).

=> ↺ Are drone strikes more defensible than torture?

• There are lots of hypocrisies surrounding the recently released executive summary of the Senate Intelligence Committee report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation program. But they pale in comparison to the current Democratic silence about President Barack Obama’s policy of targeted drone assassinations.

=> ↺ Impunity will persist on CIA torture, killings

• 1. CIA director John Brennan vehemently defends the agency – lauding the interrogators as “patriots” and refusing to call their methods torture;

• 2. President Obama backs up Brennan (his previous chief counter-terrorism adviser, his choice to head the CIA); and

• 3. His administration has desisted from filing charges against those responsible for the torture.

=> ↺ To Improve Assassination Operations, CIA Studies Failures of Colonial Powers to Combat Resistance

• In other words, according to the CIA, the white South African apartheid government may have fared better against the struggle for equality and justice if it had assassinated Mandela. Governments, including the US, should murder inspirational leaders if they want to defeat insurgencies.

=> ↺ US prepared to veto UN plan for Israeli occupation

• The U.S. is prepared to veto a United Nations Security Council proposal that calls for an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands in 2017.

• State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the resolution, offered by Jordan and pushed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, is unlikely to face an immediate vote.

=> ↺ World War II bomb defused in German city

• A World War II bomb has been successfully defused in an eastern German city after some 9,700 people were evacuated from the surrounding area and a meeting of a state legislature was interrupted.

=> ↺ John Prescott: Torture by Bush regime is shocking but not surprising

• Former deputy prime minister John Prescott says there’s more to the UK and US “special relationship” than meets the eye

=> ↺ Saudi says oil decisions not linked to politics

• Saudi Arabia’s oil chief said in comments published Thursday that there are no links between the kingdom’s decision to oppose production cuts and political objectives – an apparent response to accusations last week from Shiite powerhouse Iran.

• Petroleum Minister Ali Naimi was quoted by the official Saudi Press Agency as saying that there are “incorrect information and analyses … linking petroleum decisions with political objectives.”

=> ↺ CIA report reveals failure of Israel’s targeted killing policy

• A secret CIA review published recently by WikiLeaks reveals that Israel has been among the least successful countries regarding the targeted killing of opponents, Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported on Thursday. The review shows that the killings carried out by the US and its ally Israel have been the least successful among a list of eight countries; the American and Israeli authorities usually laud such assassinations.

=> ↺ UK drone net got torture-grade CIA comms

• A computer network that the US Central Intelligence Agency began using a decade ago to conduct the kidnap and torture of terrorist suspects has become an integral part of the system now operating drone strikes in the Middle East and Africa.

• The means to send ‘above top secret’ intelligence communications around the globe without exposure empowered the CIA’s Rendition and Detention Program to snatch and interrogate suspects in the US ‘war on terror’. The same network system became the principal mechanism behind the intelligence-led “targeted killing” of suspected enemies using drone strikes today.

• The technological link between the two sinister programmes, signposted in passing detail by the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Study of the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and Interrogation Program last week, further confirms that a US military network routed via the UK carried intelligence vital to the US targeted killing programme, and presents evidence that may sway officials deciding whether contractor British Telecommunications Plc should be held to account for building a part of the network used to transmit drone targeting intelligence since 2012.

=> ↺ Journalist Robert C. Koehler says: Abolish the CIA!

• BK: The U.S. launched its disastrous war on Iraq based largely on the false intelligence the CIA produced via torture.This intelligence was, of course, what the neocon cabal, which had a pre-9/11 interest in invading Iraq, wanted. So yes, the CIA was just doing its job, but its job wasn’t, and isn’t, to keep American citizens safe.The torture techniques detailed in the report are horrific to read about. They include beatings and waterboarding and something called “rectal rehydration.” They include sleep deprivation, hideous stress (one detainee was chained to the wall in a standing position for 17 days.) They include threats to harm or murder the detainees’ children or wife or mother. As I say, the Senate Intelligence Committee report makes clear that the information extracted by these techniques had no accuracy, belying all justification of them. But more to the point, torture and murder are utterly immoral acts, which rouse fury and hatred that come back to haunt the perpetrators: the American people.

=> ↺ Fox News hosts use Sydney siege to defend CIA

• Fox News has plunged itself into the centre of controversy once again for referencing the Sydney siege in an apparent justification for the CIA’s use of “enhanced interrogation”.

=> ↺ Wikileaks Releases CIA Report on High Value Targeting

• Wikileaks has released a CIA document from 2009 analyzing the positive and negative effects of strikes against high value targets.

=> ↺ Secret CIA report: Drone strikes and targeted killings ‘boost support for terror groups’

• Drone strikes and “targeted killings” of terror targets by the United States can be counterproductive and bolster the support of extremist groups, the CIA has admitted in a secret report released by WikiLeaks.

=> ↺ Wikileaks: Classified report detailed assassination shortcomings

=> ↺ Leaked report reveals CIA terror strategy

=> ↺ Leaked CIA report: Targeting Taliban leaders ‘ineffective’

• he removal of senior Taliban leaders has had little impact on the organisation, a CIA report released by Wikileaks has said.

• The 2009 report analyses “high value targeting” in a number of conflicts – the assassination of senior insurgents.

• It said the Taliban’s ability to replace lost leaders has hampered the effectiveness of coalition operations against its leadership.

• The CIA would not comment on the leaked documents.

=> ↺ CIA report reveals setbacks in ‘high value’ targeted assassinations

=> ↺ Leaked CIA report says targeted killing programs could backfire

=> ↺ The CIA’s Secret Killers

• Some time in early or mid-1949 a CIA officer named Bill (his surname is blacked out in the file, which was surfaced by our friend John Kelly back in the early 1990s) asked an outside contractor for input on how to kill people. Requirements included the appearance of an accidental or purely fortuitous terminal experience suffered by the Agency’s victim.

=> ↺ Obama taps CIA No. 2 Haines for White House job

• President Barack Obama is naming the CIA’s second-ranking official to a top White House national security post.

• Obama says Avril Haines is a “model public servant” who is respected across the government. He says that as deputy national security adviser, she will play a critical role in keeping the country save and promoting American interests around the world.

Transparency Reporting

=> ↺ ISIS Leaders Killed as WikiLeaks Publishes Docs on CIA Doubts About “High-Value” Assassinations

• U.S. military leaders say three top figures from the Islamic State have been killed by U.S. airstrikes, including a military chief and a deputy of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The news comes as the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has published an internal CIA document which reveals the agency’s doubts about the effectiveness of such killings. The document, which is from 2009, describes both the positive and negative impacts of assassinating so-called high-value targets. It warns that such operations can “[increase] the level of insurgent support,” “[strengthen] an armed group’s bond with the population,” “[radicalize] an insurgent group’s remaining leaders.” WikiLeaks notes, “After the report was prepared, U.S. drone strike killings rose to an all-time high.”

=> ↺ Freedom under US arrest

• The US policy exposed by Julian Assange and Edward Snowden through the dissemination of classified information gained vital importance for the entire world.

=> ↺ Assange: US prosecuting Barrett Brown for quoting assassination threats against me

• The charges against journalist and activist Barrett Brown, accused of threatening an FBI agent, are partially based on his quoting another person’s threat to assassinate the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange said.

• Brown, 33, whose sentencing was delayed until January on Tuesday, faced federal charges including computer-related crimes, obstruction of justice and publicly threatening an FBI agent performing his duty. He’s now looking at up to eight years in prison for aiding hackers in breaching corporate computers, after pleading guilty in April to being an accessory.

=> ↺ WikiLeaks’ Assange Expresses Support for US Journalist Accused of Hacking

• Julian Assange wrote in a statement that the case of Dallas journalist Barrett Brown involves him personally and the work of WikiLeaks.

=> ↺ Brought to You by Wikileaks: Mandela Shows Better to Kill Than Imprison

• A study by the Central Intelligence Agency that evaluated the pros and cons of assassination programs has revealed significant insights into the agency’s thinking about targeted killings, including potential backlash. The study was published by Wikileaks on Thursday.

=> ↺ WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange weighs in on Barrett Brown sentencing delay

• Brown has been in federal custody since his arrest more than two years ago.

=> ↺ Wikileaks pins accused spy Rolando ‘Roly’ Sarraff Trujillo as Cuban political prisoner

• Rolando “Roly” Sarraff Trujillo was arrested on espionage charges in Cuba in 1995.

Finance

=> ↺ China proposes broadening use of Yuan for trade with Russia: report

• China’s trade minister proposed more use of China’s currency in settling trade with Russia in the face of a falling rouble to ensure safe and reliable trade, Hong Kong broadcaster Phoenix TV reported on Saturday.

=> ↺ Foreign Bankers Rape Ukraine

• If it were not for the fact that the lives of some 45 million people are at stake, Ukrainian national politics could be laughed off as a very sick joke. Any pretenses that the October national elections would bring a semblance of genuine democracy of the sort thousands of ordinary Ukrainians demonstrated for on Maidan Square just one year ago vanished with the announcement by Victoria Nuland’s darling Prime Minister, “Yat” Yatsenyuk, of his new cabinet.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Sailing through a scandal

• Why the phone-hacking affair has left Rupert Murdoch better off

• IT MUST all seem like a distant nightmare now. After the revelations of phone-hacking at the News of the World emerged in 2011, Rupert Murdoch was hauled before Parliament, calling it “the most humble day of my life”. Executives and journalists were arrested. The scandal prompted Mr Murdoch’s News Corp to drop a cherished plan to buy out the other investors in BSkyB, a satellite broadcaster (since renamed Sky). Some predicted that the affair, which included the hacking of a murdered schoolgirl’s voicemails, could be Mr Murdoch’s and his firm’s undoing.

=> ↺ Pew Admits Flaw In Poll Being Used To Attack Stronger Gun Laws

• The research group whose misleading poll question was heavily touted by the media to suggest “growing public support for gun rights” has acknowledged that the question was flawed.

• Last week, the Pew Research Center released the results of a survey that asked respondents whether it is more important to “control gun ownership” or to “protect the right of Americans to own guns.” The poll showed increased support for the gun rights answer and a drop in support for regulating guns. The results were reported by numerous media outlets, especially by the conservative press.

=> ↺ eBay Becomes 100th Company to Cut Ties to “Controversial” ALEC

• The Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) had joined the climate change awareness group Forecast the Facts, Credo Action, and others in asking eBay to leave what Reuters called the “controversial political group ALEC” in recent weeks. A Twitterstorm on December 17 was followed by the delivery of a petition containing nearly 100,000 petitions to eBay’s headquarters in San Jose, California on December 18. eBay’s announcement came shortly after.

Censorship

=> ↺ Ukraine just created its own version of Orwell’s ‘Ministry of Truth’

• The Ukraine government has established a department that critics are calling the “Ministry of Truth” — borrowing a term from George Orwell’s classic dystopian novel 1984.

=> ↺ Spain’s New ‘Gag Law’ Brings Thousands to the Streets in Several Cities

• Thousands of people have gathered in several Spanish cities to protest against a new ‘Gag Law’ that sets hefty fines for offences such as photographing the police, peaceful disobedience and demonstrating without a permit or outside parliament buildings, banks or strategic installations. The largest protests were in Barcelona, Bilbao and Madrid; others were held in cities including Almeria, Granada and Valencia.

=> ↺ Alternet: 8 Ways Facebook Is a Cult Just Like Scientology

• Like all cults, Facebook and Scientology have diabolical means of controlling their members. Facebook updated its Terms of Use this past month, in an attempt to clarify its privacy policies. But the pages of information and infographics just serve as a reminder that the social media company basically owns us, and has access to all our most personal information. Yet we are willing participants in this pillaging of our private lives. Being a member of Scientology is all about surrendering one’s power to self-determination. We voluntarily allow Facebook to have more power over our lives than the science fiction cult from the Planet Xenu—and here’s how.

=> ↺ Facebook should stop cooperating with Russian government censorship

=> ↺ Facebook blocks Russian page supporting Navalny, Putin’s biggest critic

=> ↺ It Looks Like Facebook Just Caved to the Kremlin

• The social network has shut down a page that was set up to rally behind Alexei Navalny, a critic of Vladimir Putin who is about to be sentenced to jail

=> ↺ Facebook Censors Page in Support of Putin’s Critic Navalny

• Facebook complied with an official request to ban a page in support of Russia’s leading opposition activist, triggering a wave of censorship allegations.

=> ↺ Google accuses Hollywood of reviving ‘censorship’ war

=> ↺ MPAA Hits “Shameful” Google Over Sony Hacking Revelations – Update

=> ↺ Hollywood Has Caved Before: Guest Column

=> ↺ When the Government Says, “Shhh!”

• HOWELL RAINES remembers a call from Ari Fleischer not long after the 9/11 attacks on the United States.

• Mr. Raines, then the executive editor of The Times, says that Mr. Fleischer, President George W. Bush’s press secretary, made a startling request. He “asked for a promise that we would contact the White House in advance on any national security matter we were reporting.”

Privacy

=> ↺ Pew: Internet privacy is a fantasy, will merely be a ‘fetish’ by 2025, according to experts

• If you’re still holding out hope for the preservation of “Internet privacy,” you may need to adjust your ideals a bit. The future of online privacy is cloudy, and policymakers and technology innovators have a weighty task on their hands – one they’re likely to fumble. This is one of the overarching findings of a recent canvassing of more than 2,500 experts by Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.

=> ↺ Judge questions evidence on whether NSA spying is too broad

• Judge Jeffrey White heard oral arguments by attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which filed the suit, and the government, during a hearing in a federal district court in Oakland, California. The EFF says its suit is the first challenge in public court to the government’s upstream data program, which copies online data from the main cables connecting Internet networks around the world.

=> ↺ NSA to defend Internet collection in court

=> ↺ Privacy Advocates Battle DOJ in NSA Spying Case

• The National Security Agency is illegally searching and seizing Americans’ Internet communications, privacy advocates told a federal judge at a hearing on Friday.

=> ↺ It’s a Big Day in Court for Privacy and Surveillance

• On Friday, privacy advocates at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are attempting a new strategy in their six-year-old lawsuit against the National Security Agency. Filed in 2008, Jewel v. NSA is a suit calling for the end of the surveillance of millions of AT&T customers’ internet traffic and emails. Despite evidence provided by an AT&T whistle-blower, the US district court, under pressure from the federal government defendants, has delayed and avoided judgment, suggesting that the case raises issues too secret for the federal courts even to rule upon and too important for national security to shut down anyway.

=> ↺ Global Privacy Fears Increase After NSA Leaks

• An international survey shows a growing demand for privacy and Internet access.

=> ↺ Digital Rights Group Goes After NSA

• In its ongoing public relations struggle, the NSA will soon have to defend itself in court. A digital rights group, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is bringing forth a motion against the National Security Agency on Friday over the agency’s Internet data collection program.

=> ↺ NSA’s internet surveillance faces constitutional challenge in court

• The Electronic Frontier Foundation says the government’s upstream data collection violates the Fourth Amendment

=> ↺ NSA and EFF to square off in court over internet surveillance

• ​A digital rights group in the United States plans to argue in federal court this week that the National Security Agency’s internet surveillance operations violate the US Constitution’s ban against unlawful searches and seizures.

=> ↺ Google Says 2015 Will Be the ‘Moment’ To Reform NSA Spying

• Google is already beginning to lay the groundwork for another push next year to rein in government spying ahead of a crucial summer deadline to some of the National Security Agency’s surveillance authority.

=> ↺ Snowden’s surveillance disclosures helping change user behaviors

• Millions of Internet users have changed their Internet behavior and are doing more to keep their own personal data secure from possible surveillance, according to a survey from the Center for International Governance Innovation (CIGI). The survey revealed 64 percent of respondents have increased privacy worries over just one year ago, as the NSA, GCHQ, and other organized surveillance programs target Web users.

=> ↺ After the Snowden leaks, 700m act to avoid NSA spying

• Nearly 700 million people worldwide have taken steps to protect their privacy from NSA surveillance, according to an international internet security survey

=> ↺ More people may be dodging NSA surveillance than you think – Open thread

• In November, a study released by the Canadian Centre for International Governance claimed that while 60% of internet users had heard of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden, only 39% of those people had taken additional steps to protect their online privacy as a result.

=> ↺ Snowden spying leaks prompt millions to protect data

• Recent revelations about government-backed surveillance have prompted millions of people to do more to keep their data private, suggests a survey.

• Many people now regularly change passwords or avoid certain websites or apps, said the Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI).

• It also found that 64% of the 23,000 people questioned are more worried about their privacy than a year ago.

=> ↺ Congress expands NSA domestic spying programs and nobody cares

• While the media was busy lining up to congratulate Obama for lawlessly granting amnesty to millions of illegal immigrants and cuddling up to one of the six state sponsors of terrorism in the world, Congress passed legislation that, according to one House Republican, “grants the executive branch virtually unlimited access to the communications of every American.” Republican leadership in the House inserted language into the Intelligence Authorization bill at the very last minute which includes a phrase to allow for “the acquisition, retention, and dissemination” of U.S. phone and Internet data.

=> ↺ In 2007, One Judge Said No to the NSA

• Last week, the government quietly released a new cache of court filings and orders from late 2006 and early 2007 that together reveal a watershed moment in the government’s effort to secretly expand its authority to conduct surveillance on American soil—without ever asking Congress or the public. Instead, the government once again asked the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) to belatedly bless certain aspects of the President’s Surveillance Program, which was initiated by President Bush without judicial or legislative approval in 2001.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden and the NSA Disclosures

• Disclosures from the vast trove of NSA documents obtained by Edward Snowden were first published in The Guardian exactly 560 days ago, and it’s worth asking ourselves whether we have gained anything from the revelations since then. The answer to that question increasingly seems clear: no.

=> ↺ Looking for a Hoodie With NSA Documents on It? This Is Your Store

=> ↺ Edward Snowden gets human rights award in Berlin

• The trio responsible for breaking last year’s NSA spying scandal have been honored for defending human rights. Prominent Germans praised the work of Edward Snowden, journalist Glenn Greenwald and filmmaker Laura Poitras.

=> ↺ Troubled Ties: Snowden, Germany and the NSA

• The government argued by way of contrast that allowing Snowden onto German soil would hamper international relationships, notably with the United States. It would also corner the government in Berlin: extradite Snowden, or face the unpleasant transatlantic music.

=> ↺ The CIA Probably Won’t Get Punished For Spying On The Senate

=> ↺ CIA unlikely to penalise staff over search of Senate computers – report

• A panel investigating the CIA’s search of a computer network used by Senate staff will not recommend disciplining the agency officials involved in the incident, according to the New York Times.

• The review panel is looking into the search by agency officials of staffers from the Senate intelligence committee who were investigating the CIA’s use of torture in interrogations of detainees after the 9/11 attacks on the US.

• The Times, citing current and former government officials, said the panel was likely to fault the CIA for missteps. But the newspaper said the decision not to recommend anyone for disciplinary action was likely to anger members of the intelligence committee, who have accused the agency of interfering with its investigation of agency wrongdoing.

=> ↺ Missouri seeks to block NSA

• A bill filed today in Missouri would not only support efforts to turn off NSA’s water in Utah….

=> ↺ Interview: ‘Citizenfour’ Director Laura Poitras on Storytelling in Docs

=> ↺ Are Electronic ‘Back Doors’ Unintentionally Helping Hackers?

• For global insurance firms, cyberattacks have become the most threatening of all emerging risks, according to a survey conducted recently by Guy Carpenter & Co., the risk and reinsurance specialists. Over the past two years, hackers have infiltrated major airlines, energy companies and defense firms, among many other businesses.

=> ↺ The Global Cell Network Is Wildly Insecure. Anyone Could Be Listening To Your Calls.

=> ↺ German Researchers: Cellphone Calls, Messages Easy to Crack

=> ↺ German researchers discover a flaw that could let anyone listen to your cell calls.

• German researchers have discovered security flaws that could let hackers, spies and criminals listen to private phone calls and intercept text messages on a potentially massive scale – even when cellular networks are using the most advanced encryption now available.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ The Bureaucratic Nightmare That Cost Matt DeHart His Liberty — And His Family $10,000 CAD

• Matt DeHart faces a very depressing and lonely Christmas in jail this year for reasons that are at best down to an extreme bureaucratic SNAFU, and at worst (and more likely) down to collusion between the Canadian and American authorities to stop the whistleblower talking to the press.

=> ↺ FBI investigates suspicious death of North Carolina teen Lennon Lacy

• People who knew Lacy don’t think he committed suicide. Others are unsure what to believe. But many here say the possibility that Lacy, a popular high school senior who moved easily between black and white social circles, was the victim of a racially motivated killing demands more investigation.

=> ↺ The FBI told their story about North Korea attacking Sony. Before we retaliate, read what they didn’t tell you.

• While most journalists report official government statements, and cite only approving voices, there are a few who quote dissenters. We should pay attention to these few, considering the long list of government lies attributing evil deeds to designated foes. Learning from experience is the beginning of strength.

=> ↺ Is Torture a ‘Conservative’ Value?

• Conservatives who usually hail individual liberties are leading the televised defense of the U.S. government’s torture of terror suspects, including many who were completely innocent. But some conservatives are troubled by this knee-jerk defense of the Bush administration, as Independent Institute’s Ivan Eland explains.

=> ↺ The ‘Exceptionalism’ of US Torture

• Americans like to think of themselves as the ultimate “good guys” and anyone who gets in their way as a “bad guy.” Under this theory of U.S. “exceptionalism,” whatever “we” do must be moral or at least morally defensible, from sponsoring coups around the world to torture, as William Blum describes.

=> ↺ Torture scraps values US once held dear

• American exceptionalism has always maintained a moral imperative. The conduct of the world’s foremost liberal democracy is guaranteed by a fierce commitment to liberty and the security of individual rights.

=> ↺ US-Cuba thaw shows power of talking

• The world has often seemed on fire of late. There has been a horrific massacre in a Pakistani school. A cyber-hacking apparently organised by North Korea, which might come to look very familiar in years to come. The Sydney siege. The barbarians of Isis unbowed. Ebola continuing to spool out. Russia’s economy tumbling.

• So it’s well to note a milestone of huge positive significance when it occurs. The United States’ detente with Cuba, announced all of a sudden by the presidents of both countries late last week, was such a moment.

=> ↺ North Korea proposes joint investigation with U.S. into hacking attack against Sony

• Pyongyang warns of ‘serious’ consequences if Washington rejects a probe that it believes will prove North Korea had nothing to do with the cyberattack. An unidentified Foreign Ministry spokesman said North Korea knows how to prove it’s not responsible for the hacking, so the U.S. must accept its proposal for the joint investigation.

=> ↺ CIA torture report: Europe must come clean about its own complicity

• As the world awaited the US Senate report on the CIA’s detention and interrogation programme under the George W Bush administration, there was very little introspection in Europe. As if European countries had nothing to do with what went on in the hunt for al-Qaida in the years after 9/11. In fact, many of America’s European allies were deeply involved in the CIA programme. And they have managed to stay very quiet about it. Could this change now?

=> ↺ Victims of Diego Garcia base: Islanders forcibly evicted by UK plead to return home

• Residents of the Chagos Islands who were kicked out of their homes in the 1960s by the British government to make way for a US military base fear they may never return home, despite politicians’ promises, RT’s Polly Boiko reports.

• “You have to go back where you belong. That’s me, as a Chagossian,” says Bernard Nourrice, a former resident of Diego Garcia, one of the Chagos Islands, now a closed US military base.

• Diego Garcia has recently made headlines after the CIA torture report revealed the US used the so-called “black sites” based in other countries for detention. Though the report did not mention the names of the locations, it’s been alleged Diego Garcia could be one such site.

=> ↺ Torture’s Time for Accountability

• America’s reputation for cognitive dissonance is being tested by the Senate report documenting the U.S. government’s torture of detainees and the fact that nothing is happening to those responsible. Ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern says the nation must choose between crossing the Delaware or the Rubicon.

=> ↺ Why must we tolerate police spies in our midst?

• When you are in a radical movement, it’s wise to assume that the person arguing for the most extreme action is an agent provocateur. The question for opponents of fracking is on whose behalf are the agents provocateurs provoking.

• Nato and the Romanian and Lithuanian governments have alleged that Russia is urging on opponents of the new technology. Not because Putin gives a damn about global warming, but because he wants Europe to remain dependent on Russian gas. They have no conclusive proof. But the prominence the Kremlin’s apparatchik journalists on RT, the state-funded television channel, give to fracking protests suggests Russian agents may be seeking to manipulate the green movement.

=> ↺ Barrett Brown: why his sentencing hearing was sabotaged; his case should now be thrown out

• On Tuesday the sentencing of Barrett Brown, a US journalist, was delayed for a second time and postponed until January 22 of next year. At the hearing the prosecution dramatically presented 500 pages of new evidence, seemingly unrelated to the charges to which Brown was awaiting sentencing. The only explanation for this is that it was a clumsy attempt by the prosecution to provide the judge with a basis for awarding a maximum sentence at the January hearing. But the behaviour of the prosecution at the hearing revealed several important ambiguities that can only be described as (unintended) prosecutional sabotage. (See also video at end.)

=> ↺ Judge: Boy, 14, Shouldn’t Have Been Executed

• More than 70 years after South Carolina sent a 14-year-old black boy to the electric chair in the killings of two white girls in a segregated mill town, a judge threw out the conviction, saying the state committed a great injustice.

• George Stinney was arrested, convicted of murder in a one-day trial and executed in 1944 – all in the span of about three months and without an appeal. The speed in which the state meted out justice against the youngest person executed in the United States in the 20th century was shocking and extremely unfair, Circuit Judge Carmen Mullen wrote in her ruling Wednesday.

=> ↺ Cops’ last hope at credibility: Why an American crisis is teetering on the edge

• Police are killing unarmed teens, and demanding apologies from critics. Here’s the only way they will ever change

=> ↺ Incendiary footage emerges of NYPD officer repeatedly punching a 16-year-old black suspect in the back during street arrest as onlookers beg him to stop

• Footage has emerged of a plain-clothed New York police officer punching a teenage boy repeatedly in the back as he was being handcuffed by four other police on Monday.

• Witnesses claim the suspect was just 12. The NYPD says he is actually 16 years old and has a history of arrests.

• The case has been referred to the Internal Affairs Bureau for investigation and the NYPD is saying very little about the details of the arrest.

• Scene caused outrage on the streets of the Lower East Side of Manhattan on Monday afternoon. The NYPD has come under increasing scrutiny for its use of force in the wake of the Eric Garner case.

=> ↺ Clueless cop targets liberal: NYPD union chief says mayor thinks he’s running “a f**ing revolution”

• If you thought nothing could top Cleveland police union chief Jeff Follmer’s brazen defense of police authority – “the nation needs to realize, when we tell you to do something, do it” – you need to read this story about New York Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association head Patrick Lynch’s meltdown in the wake of criticism over the NYPD’s killing of Eric Garner in Staten Island.

=> ↺ Officer Put On Leave For Tweeting To Bait Public Into Violence

• It seems like there are so many police-behaving-badly stories that have come out recently, it’s no longer all that noteworthy. Mind you, I don’t know that the policing situation is generally actually getting worse, as it might seem, or if there is just simply a greater willingness to shine a spotlight in some very uncomfortable places within our own society. That said, what does remain interesting is watching how police around the country react to this spotlight. Watching the unfortunate reactions to athletes showing support for protesters, for instance, would be hysterical if it weren’t so sad. Those stories appear to indicate that some within law enforcement appear to think that protecting some members of the population is a task with which they can be selective.

=> ↺ Deputies: Woman, 72, slapped over Facebook snub

• A 27-year-old woman is accused of slapping a 72-year-old woman who denied her friend request on Facebook.

• The Tampa Bay Times reports Rachel Anne Hayes became angry on Wednesday when the woman said the Facebook name she uses is inappropriate.

=> ↺ Ex-detectives who claimed VIP paedophiles were protected in cover-ups to present dossier to inquiry

• Ex-cops who claim VIP paedophile investigations were axed in a cover-up are to hand a dossier to Britain’s most senior police officer.

• They have agreed to ­compile formal statements on what they knew of ­operations being shut down.

• The file will be presented to Met Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe.

=> ↺ Finnish Police fired a gun only six times in 2013

• Chief Inspector Jukka Salminen says that the Finnish Police use guns very infrequently on a comparative scale. Last year in Finland, the police fired their weapons in an official capacity a total of six times.

=> ↺ Protesters Mass at Mall of America on Busy Shopping Day

• Parts of the massive Mall of America were temporarily closed Saturday following a demonstration against racial profiling and police brutality at one of the nation’s largest shopping centers. A large crowd gathered in the Bloomington, Minnesota, mall rotunda just before 2 p.m. local time and staged a “die-in,” despite warnings from mall officials that the protest was not permitted and could lead to arrests.

=> ↺ #BlackLivesMatter is shutting down the Mall of America

• “Join us at the Mall of America in solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter,” read a Facebook invitation to protest a year of police brutality this afternoon at the massive Bloomington, Minn., shopping center that bills itself as “the place for fun in your life.”

=> ↺ Police brutality protesters rally at Mall of America

• The group Black Lives Matter Minneapolis had more than 3,000 people confirm on Facebook that they would attend. Official crowd estimates weren’t immediately available, but pictures posted to social media by local news organizations showed the rotunda was full. Organizer Mica Grimm estimated about 3,000 people participated.

=> ↺ 15 reasons America’s police are so brutal

• Tamir Rice and Eric Garner aren’t anomalies. Cops aren’t properly trained and now routinely use maximum force

=> ↺ Nothing Changes: Cops Still Threatening Citizens, Breaking Laws To Shut Down Recordings

• The NYPD should know better. In August, it handed a $125,000 settlement to a man it arrested for recording officers performing a stop-and-frisk. A month earlier, the ACLU sued the NYPD in federal court to prevent the NYPD from arresting the people recording them. It’s even clearly stated in the NYPD policy manual that “bystanders are allowed to film [officers] as long as they’re not interfering with the officers’ duties and/or police operations.”

=> ↺ Should Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld & CIA Officials Be Tried for Torture? War Crimes Case Filed in Germany

• A human rights group in Berlin, Germany, has filed a criminal complaint against the architects of the George W. Bush administration’s torture program. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has accused former Bush administration officials, including CIA Director George Tenet and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, of war crimes, and called for an immediate investigation by a German prosecutor. The move follows the release of a Senate report on CIA torture which includes the case of a German citizen, Khalid El-Masri, who was captured by CIA agents in 2004 due to mistaken identity and tortured at a secret prison in Afghanistan. So far, no one involved in the CIA torture program has been charged with a crime — except the whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed it. We speak to Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and chairman of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, and longtime defense attorney Martin Garbus.

=> ↺ Obama asks US Congress to work for closure of Guantanamo base

=> ↺ Will a GOP Senate Let Obama Close Guantanamo?

=> ↺ Obama Wants to Close Guantanamo. Will a GOP Senate Let Him Do It?

=> ↺ Will Obama close Gitmo alone?

• President Obama is unlikely to go against the will of Congress and unilaterally shutter the prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, lawmakers from both parties predict.

• “I don’t know that he can,” Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) said. “I know that there are enough congressional restrictions on the books that limit his options.”

=> ↺ Fears build as CIA’s ‘ghost prisoners’ vanish into Afghan jails

• A CIA prisoner whose treatment set the torture template in the agency’s notorious Salt Pit jail outside Kabul, and another known as a “ghost prisoner” – held in such secrecy that for years even his name was classified information – have disappeared into Afghanistan’s prison system, where they are once more at risk of torture.

=> ↺ CIA interrogators didn’t just break detainees’ bodies — they also attacked their souls

• When reports about abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison first came out more than a decade ago, Michael Peppard started researching every account of mistreatment and torture he could find. He soon noticed a pattern missed by most journalists: American interrogators were using the religious faith of Muslim detainees as a weapon to abuse them.

=> ↺ John Yoo: If the Torture Report Is True, CIA Officers Are at Legal Risk

• The debate over the CIA interrogation program pits critics who insist illegal torture took place against defenders who say the treatment of prisoners was legal. These defenders cite guidance that the spy agency got from the Bush Administration. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden phrased it this way: “It needs be said that on multiple occasions all of the techniques were determined lawful by the Department of Justice and judged appropriate for the circumstances.”

=> ↺ Torture memo author John Yoo admits CIA may have gone too far

• John Yoo, the former Justice Department lawyer who authored a series of notorious memos cited by the Bush administration to justify the torture of terrorism detainees, acknowledged on Sunday that the CIA may have broken the law.

=> ↺ Jailed Former CIA Officer Thinks Interrogators Should Be Prosecuted

=> ↺ Why CIA torturers won’t be punished

=> ↺ Obama decision to withhold ‘thousands’ of pictures of prisoner torture abuse to be challenged in court

• Thousands of images depicting U.S. soldiers abusing prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan may be released this week following the Senate’s ‘torture report’.

=> ↺ Whitewashing the CIA torture regimen

• The logic that torture is a “stain” on U.S. history is the heart of the problem, since it blocks an honest reading of whatever “values” Washington actually stands for.

=> ↺ The CIA’s Covert War Against Fidel Castro

• Released in 1975 and 1976, the Church Commission report revealed that the CIA had been secretly trying to assassinate foreign leaders, including Fidel Castro, for years. It’s a murky chapter in American history that’s worth looking back at this week, as America prepares for an epochal shift in its relationship with the Cuban leader and Cuba itself.

=> ↺ Letters: CIA violations must not be ignored

=> ↺ Sturgeon backs calls for inquiry into Scots and UK part in CIA flights

• The First Minister has backed calls for a judicial inquiry into the possibility of Scottish and British involvement in the torture or rendition of terror suspects.

• The UK Government is facing pressure for a judge-led inquiry after new revelations in a US Senate report on CIA interrogation.

=> ↺ Nick Clegg: Tony Blair should face charges if he collaborated in CIA torture

=> ↺ Tony Blair said to be prepared to face inquiry over CIA torture report

=> ↺ ​Blair whitewash? Ex-PM prepared to face CIA torture inquiry into UK complicity

=> ↺ Thailand Says It Was Unaware Of CIA ‘Black Site’ On Its Soil

• Thailand’s prime minister says his government had no knowledge of a secret location inside the country where the CIA is said to have waterboarded top al-Qaida operatives in 2002.

• Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha was responding to the so-called “torture report” released by the Senate Intelligence Committee earlier this month that detailed the treatment of terrorism suspects at secret locations — black sites– around the world.

=> ↺ Not just the CIA: special forces in Iraq fought a shadow war that led to rise of IS

• The controversy over the CIA torture report has moved on to calls for the UK government to be open about its own involvement. The arguments have also been widened to include other elements of CIA activities, especially in Iraq.

=> ↺ Former US Army psychiatrist says CIA questioning was driven by pressure link Saddam to 9/11 to justify invasion of Iraq

=> ↺ CIA ‘torture report’: Agency conduct was driven by pressure to link Iraq to al-Qaeda following 9/11

• The CIA tortured al-Qaeda suspects because it wanted evidence that Saddam Hussein was linked to 9/11 in order to justify the invasion of Iraq in 2003. The agency was under intense pressure from the White House and senior figures in the Bush administration to extract confessions confirming co-operation between the Iraqi leader and al-Qaeda, although no significant evidence was ever found.

=> ↺ Outsourced Terror

• The horrific stories of CIA-sponsored torture that aren’t in the Senate report.

=> ↺ The CIA torture report: through Arab eyes

• The fear that the US has lost its moral compass is vastly exaggerated, for the simple reason that the US – at least in the Arab World – never possessed this moral legitimacy in the first place.

=> ↺ Torture program linked to discredited, illegal CIA techniques

• Torture methods employed by the CIA under the guise of its “enhanced interrogation techniques” program can be traced back — through personnel and decades of research — to human experiments designed to induce the subjugation of prisoners through use of isolation, sleep and sensory deprivation, psychoactive drugs and other means, according to details contained in the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report, a summary of which was released last week.

=> ↺ MFÍK Urges Investigation Of Iceland’s Role In CIA Torture

• “Being an accomplice to torture is a war crime,” says MFÍK Chair Þórhildur Sunna Sævarsdóttir

=> ↺ White House oversight of CIA program lacking

• In July 2004, despite growing internal concerns about the CIA’s brutal interrogation methods, senior members of George W. Bush’s national security team gave the agency permission to employ the harsh tactics against an al-Qaida facilitator whom the agency suspected was linked to a plot to disrupt the upcoming presidential election.

=> ↺ CIA interrogation report: Just what did the UK know?

• In March 2004, a Boeing 737, registration number N313P, lifted off from Baghdad International Airport with two prisoners on board – captured by the SAS after a shoot-out in the city.

=> ↺ Romania agreed to host CIA ‘black sites’ to be accepted into NATO – ex spy chief

• Romania allowed the CIA to use a number of sites on its territory, a former head of the country’s intelligence confessed. He added that Bucharest’s bid to join NATO at the time prevented it from asking the US about the purposes of the sites.

=> ↺ Romanian ex-spy chief acknowledges CIA had ‘black prisons’ in country

• A top official from Romania has for the first time confirmed that the CIA had “at least” one prison in the country.

• Ioan Talpes, the former head of the country’s intelligence service said the CIA had “centres” in Romania, including a transit camp or compound, where prisoners were kept before being moved to other locations. He is the first Romanian official to confirm the information in the CIA torture report last week, which stated the existence of at least one “black site” in which prisoners were held and probably tortured.

=> ↺ The CIA tortured Abu Zubaydah, my client. Now charge him or let him go

• Abu Zubaydah has now been held incommunicado for 12 years without trial. This is gross injustice

=> ↺ CIA torture report: UK intelligence agencies questioned over redactions

• The British parliament’s intelligence and security committee (ISC) has started to question intelligence agencies over whether they requested redactions in the explosive US Senate report on CIA torture.

• The ISC has already been investigating broader allegations of UK agencies’ involvement in torture or mistreatment.

=> ↺ UK torture inquiry could summon Blair and Straw

=> ↺ North Korea Calls for U.N. Probe of CIA ‘Torture Crimes’

=> ↺ Accused of rights abuses, N.Korea urges UN meeting on CIA torture

=> ↺ North Korea asks UN to ‘urgently’ investigates CIA torture claims

=> ↺ North Korea asks United Nations to investigate CIA torture ‘crimes’

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ It Doesn’t Matter Who Does the Lobbying: Trade Agreements Aren’t the Place for Internet Regulations

• The Associated Whistleblowing Press released portions of draft text proposed by the United States for the Trade in Services Agreement (TISA) this week, revealing some alarming provisions that indicate how tech companies have been involved in influencing a secret international deal. The language of the leaked treaty shows provisions that could impact privacy online, and net neutrality—with no public consultation or opportunities for open debate. What is dispiriting is some of the language of these Internet regulations almost certainly comes from tech companies, who have joined the many other lobbyists fighting for their special interests behind closed doors.

DRM

=> ↺ Be Cautious About ‘Digital Handcuffs’, Says Stallman

• Cautioning the tech-savvy people about the universal snooping propaganda of the technology giants, president of Free Software Foundation Richard Stallman spoke about the unholy nexus of the states with the corporates, in the city.

• Stallman, a reputed cyberspace activist and a champion of the free software movement, lashed out at the malpractices of technology giants like Apple and Microsoft, who, according to him, take the users hostage using ‘digital handcuffs’.

• Advocating freedom of computing and the Internet, he said that the apparent technology providers often exercise ‘Orwellian Justice’, which peeps into the privacy of users. “Amazon’s Kindle, the e-reader application, is infamous for remotely erasing the purchased copies of the book ‘1984’,” said Stallman.

Intellectual Monopolies

=> ↺ TTIP Update XLV

• The TTIP negotiations are in trouble. After 18 months of talks, the EU and US have precious little to show for all their jetting to and fro across the Atlantic. And external factors such as the imminent Presidential race in the US means that time is running out to get the deal signed and sealed. Against that background, there are signs of a (rather feeble) attempt to put “rocket boosters” under the negotiations, as David Cameron likes to phrase it – although he forgets that rocket boosters can also explode on take-off, destroying their cargo completely.

=> ↺ EU-Canada Trade Agreement May Be Incompatible With EU Law

• Of course, this is just one legal opinion, and doubtless the European Commission would beg to differ. But it does indicate that the very ambition of CETA — and therefore also TAFTA/TTIP, which is very similar in this respect — may be its downfall. By seeking to move “behind the borders”, tackling “non-tariff barriers” that are actually regulations protecting health, safety, the environment, etc., these agreements may interfere with too many core functions of how a democracy works, and be struck down by the courts as a result.

Copyrights

=> ↺ Pirate Bay alternatives

• As you may have heard, the Pirate Bay was raided and is down as I write this post. The closure of the Pirate Bay has generated a lot of discussions online, and many people have been looking for alternative torrenting sites. Fortunately, there was an interesting thread on Reddit about that very topic and one redditor was kind enough to post a list of alternative torrent sites:

=> ↺ Hollywood v. Goliath: Inside the aggressive studio effort to bring Google to heel

• To get the same results in a post-SOPA world, MPAA has hired some of the nation’s most well-connected lawyers. The project is spearheaded by Thomas Perrelli, a Jenner & Block partner and former Obama Administration lawyer. Perrelli has given attorneys general (AGs) across the country their talking points, suggesting realistic “asks” prior to key meetings with Google. Frustrated with a lack of results, Perrelli and top MPAA lawyers then authorized an “expanded Goliath strategy” in which they would push the AGs to move beyond mere letter writing. Instead, they would seek full-bore investigations against Google.

=> ↺ Update On Ten-Year Campaign To Give Copyright Industry Another Monopoly: WIPO’s Broadcasting Treaty

• Say what you will about the copyright industry, but it certainly doesn’t give up. No matter how many times a bad idea is fought off, sooner or later, it comes back again. The best example of this is probably WIPO’s Broadcasting Treaty, which Techdirt has been covereing for a decade: in 2004, 2005, 2008, 2011 and 2013.

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. Permalink  Send this to a friend

=> Techrights

➮ Sharing is caring. Content is available under CC-BY-SA.