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● 05.03.15

● Links 3/5/2015: Black Lab 6.5 RC2

Posted in News Roundup at 11:57 am by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

=> ↺ CBI gets specialised lab to decode Apple devices

• The specialised lab is focussed on extracting information from Apple devices using forensic softwares from devices such as iMAc, Mac book pro, iPad, iPhone and iPods as well as from Linux devices which are basically Android-based devices

=> ↺ CBI well equipped, can crack your Apple device now

• The CBI says that training is being imparted in cracking these devices. We are also giving emphasis to Linux based systems as well.

=> ↺ CBI gets new forensic lab to crack Apple, Linux devices

• CBI today got a new specialised forensic lab to decipher and recover data from Apple devices seized from suspects during investigation of cases.

=> ↺ New CBI lab to decode data from Apple, Linux devices

Kernel Space

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ A Lot Of Improvements Are Coming For Mir 0.13, Including Work Towards Libinput

• We’ve known since March that Mir 0.13 would be a very large release and it’s certainly panning out that way.

=> ↺ ATI Rage128 Driver Now Has RandR Support

• For anyone still using the ATI Rage 128 graphics card, there’s been a rare update to the xf86-video-r128 X.Org driver.

=> ↺ Wayland 1.8 Alpha Release Delayed

• Bryce Harrington has delayed the Wayland/Weston 1.8 Alpha release by a few days.

Applications

=> ↺ Kodi 15.0 “Isengard” Alpha 1 Has Been Released. Install Kodi 15 Beta 1 On Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ Git v2.4.0

=> ↺ Git 2.4 Release Improves The BSD Experience

• Junio Hamano has ended out the month by releasing Git 2.4.0, the latest feature update to the popular distributed version control system.

=> ↺ Improvements On The Way For GNOME’s Nautilus File Manager

• GNOME 3.18 is shaping up to be another super exciting GNOME 3 update. Aside from GTK+ improvements, better Wayland support, and various other additions being worked on for GNOME 3.18, there’s also significant improvements planned for the Nautilus file manager.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ HOWTO: Mikrotik OpenVPN server

=> ↺ How To Install Kodi 14.2 On Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivative Systems

=> ↺ Replace systemd With Upstart On Ubuntu 15.04 Or An Official Flavor

=> ↺ How To Install Systemd On Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn And Official Flavors

Wine or Emulation

=> ↺ Wine 1.7.42 Implements More Of Direct2D

• Wine 1.7.42 was released this morning as the latest bi-weekly Wine development release.

Games

=> ↺ Godot Game Engine 1.1 Up To RC State

• One month after Godot 1.1 went into public beta, the release candidate of this open-source game engine is now available.

=> ↺ Valve Releases OpenVR SDK

• Valve Software today released the OpenVR SDK, an API and runtime that allows accessing virtual reality hardware from multiple vendors without requiring the applications be specifically targeting that platform.

=> ↺ Endless Runner Canabalt Released On Steam For Linux

• Canabalt was originally released as a Flash game on developer Adam Saltsman’s website in 2009, and is the game that popularized the endless runner platformer genre. The game is now available on Steam for the first time, with a new engine and 8 new game modes.

=> ↺ Hero Siege, A Hack ‘n’ Slash RPG Now On Steam For Linux, Some Initial Thoughts

• Hero Siege is a good looking 2D hack ‘n’ slash RPG that recently released for Linux, I took a quick look so you know what to expect.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Wayland & Other Tasks Being Worked On For KDE Plasma 5.4

• Now that KDE Plasma 5.3 was released this week, KDE developers are starting to plan out and work on the new material intended for KDE Plasma 5.4.

=> ↺ Interview with Wolthera

• My name is Wolthera, I am 25, studied Game Design and currently studying Humanities, because I want to become a better game designer, and I hope to make games in the future as a job. I also draw comics, though nothing has been published yet.

• [...]

• After I played a lot with MyPaint, I heard from people that Krita 2.4 was the shit. When I went to the website at the time (which is the one before the one before the current) it just looked alien and strange, and worse: there was no Windows version, so I couldn’t even try it out. So I spent a few more years having fun with MyPaint alone, but eventually I got tired of its brush engine and wanted to try something more rough. When I checked Krita again, it had two things: a new, considerably more coherent website (the one before this one) and a Windows build. Around that time it was still super unstable and it didn’t work with my tablet. But MyPaint also had tablet problems, so I had no qualms about dual booting to Linux and trying it out there.

=> ↺ GSoC with KDE

• So, my project is titled: Better Tooling for Baloo. Let me begin by explaining what Baloo is. According to its wiki page it is “Baloo is a metadata and search framework by KDE.” What exactly does it mean? Baloo is responsible for providing full text search capabilities to KDE applications. It doesn’t end there it also provides searching on basis of metadata of various types of files. To acomplish this it indexes file contents and metadata using various plugins ,called extractors, to handle different types of files. It then exposes the data it has indexed with the help of various API’s. So thats a very high level view of how it works. Now, my project, as the title states will provide better tools for Baloo. These tools will mainly be:

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME’s Evince Document Viewer Adds Search Support to the Browser Plugin

• The GNOME Project is about to release the first development version towards the GNOME 3.18 desktop environment, due for release on October 23, 2015, and various package managers have started to update their projects with new features and improvements.

Distributions

New Releases

=> ↺ Ubuntu-Based Black Lab Linux Enterprise Desktop 6.5 RC2 Released with KDE 4.14, MATE 1.8

• Roberto J. Dohnert, the lead developer of Black Lab Linux and owner of Black Lab Software, announced the immediate availability for download and testing of the second and last Release Candidate (RC) version of the forthcoming Black Lab Enterprise Desktop 6.5 computer operating system based on Ubuntu.

=> ↺ Black Lab Linux Will Standardize on the KDE Desktop Environment

=> ↺ Entroware Announces Aura, a Tiny PC That Runs Ubuntu or Ubuntu MATE 15.04

• Entroware introduced today, May 2, their first mini-PC called Aura and powered by Canonical’s recently released Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) computer operating system, or the popular Ubuntu MATE 15.04 flavor.

=> ↺ Robolinux, The Linux System With Native Support For Windows Apps Has Reached Version 7.9.1

• Robolinux is an open-source, Debian based operating system that permits the users to run Windows software inside a virtual machine, being among the first Windows compatible Linux systems (without having to use compatibility layers as Wine).

Screenshots/Screencasts

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Beta KDE Plasma 5.3 Screencast

Red Hat Family

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora 22 Beta Now Available For AArch64 & POWER

• Last week Fedora 22 beta was released for the primary architectures while out now are the spins for the alternative architectures: 64-bit ARM (AArch64) and POWER.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Android 5.1 Lollipop OTA for Nexus 9 imminent, Nexus 10 gets Android 5.1.1 OTA

=> ↺ Samsung Galaxy Smartphone Android 5.0 Lollipop Update Roundup: S6, S5, S4, Alpha, Active And Mini

Free Software/Open Source

Events

=> ↺ OSCAL: the international conference focused on decentralized technologies and free libre open source cultures

• OSCAL (Open Source Conference Albania) is the first annual international tech conference in Albania organized by the open source community in Albania to promote software freedom, open source software, free culture and open knowledge, a global movement that originally started more than 25 years ago.

=> ↺ Final Numbers on LinuxFest Northwest, Riding Hurd on Debian & More…

=> ↺ Kolab Summit – Day 1

• Today, the Kolab Summit began. Georg Greve kicked things off by sharing the vision for Kolab this year (slides here).

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ First Look at the New Tab-Based Preferences in Mozilla Firefox 38.0

• Today we take a closer look at the number one feature of the upcoming Mozilla Firefox 38.0 web browser, due for release on May 12, 2015, an all-new tab-based Preferences page that many other modern browsers already have for some time now.

=> ↺ Mozilla Moves Forward With Deprecating Non-Secure HTTP

• Earlier this month I wrote about plans being drafted for Mozilla to deprecate non-secure HTTP support moving forward. Those plans have been firmed up and they announced their intent to phase out non-secure HTTP support.

BSD

=> ↺ PC-BSD 10.1.2-RC1 Now Available

• The PC-BSD team is pleased to announce the availability of RC1 images for the upcoming quarterly 10.1.2 release.

• Please test these images out and report any issues found on our bug tracker.

=> ↺ PC-BSD Works Out Big Improvements For Its Lumina Desktop

• PC-BSD developers have worked out some May Day releases of the first release candidate to PC-BSD 10.1.2 and they’ve also released a new version of their custom Lumina Desktop.

=> ↺ PC-BSD 10.1.2 RC1 Is Out with Lumina Desktop 0.8.4, Firefox 37, and Nvidia Driver 346.47

• While not a Linux kernel-based operating system, PC-BSD is one of the coolest and user-friendly BSD distributions around. The latest version, 10.1.2, is in the works, and PC-BSD development team just announced that the first Release Candidate (RC) version is now available for download and testing.

=> ↺ OpenBSD 5.7 Released, Finally Brings USB 3.0 Support

• OpenBSD developers are celebrating May Day by releasing OpenBSD 5.7, as previously planned.

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GNU Guix welcomes three students for GSoC

• GNU Guix got 3 slots for the Google Summer of Code (GSoC), as part of GNU, which participates as an organization.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ Intel Offers Access to Optimized Versions of Open-Source Solutions for Life Sciences Space

Open Hardware

=> ↺ Open Source Neutrino 32-bit Miniature Arduino Zero (video)

• Arduino makers, developers and hobbyists that have been searching for a development board that is smaller than the Arduino Zero, are sure to be interested in the Neutrino that has been created by Rabid Prototypes.

=> ↺ KADE miniConsole+ Open Source Retro Game Controller Connector (video)

• Jon Wilson, Kevin Mackett, Bruno Freitas have created a new open source of retro gaming device called the KADE miniConsole+ that is open source and capable of allowing you to play retro games on a wide variety of platforms using your preferred game controller.

Leftovers

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Obama to make new push to shift control of drones from CIA to Pentagon

=> ↺ John McCain: drone strikes should be run by US military, not the CIA

=> ↺ John McCain eager for military to run drone strikes

=> ↺ McCain: Defense bill could move drones to Pentagon

=> ↺ Kasich: CIA Shouldn’t Drop Drones

• “I would not have it in the CIA. I would have it located in the Pentagon,” Kasich, a second-term Republican, said Friday during a moderated interview at the New America conference in Washington. “They’re not the target experts. The experts in targeting is the Pentagon, the Air Force. The CIA’s supposed to give us the intelligence to figure out whether the targeting makes sense.”

=> ↺ Why The New York Times Is Naming Names In CIA Drone Story

• The New York Times reported across the top of Sunday’s front page that Congress is doing little to oversee the CIA’s targeted killing program. In the process, the paper identified three high-ranking CIA officials with key roles in secret drone operations.

• The CIA asked the Times to withhold the names in its report, a request that executive editor Dean Baquet told The Huffington Post on Monday that he took seriously, but decided not to honor.

=> ↺ Michael D’Andrea: New York Times names former head of CIA’s drone and counter-terrorism programme

• A wide-sweeping story on the CIA’s drone programme and its deep congressional support in Washington has made waves, after the New York Times named top officials linked with the operation – despite requests the agency that it not do so.

• At the centre of the story was former counter-terrorism chief Michael D’Andrea. Mr D’Andrea, in addition to overseeing the growth of the drone programme, was also heavily influential in the creation of the agency’s detention and interrogation operations.

=> ↺ ‘We played God’: Saigon’s chaotic fall still haunts CIA strategist

• Vietnam unfurled a massive celebration on Thursday to mark the 40th anniversary of the end of its long war with the United States. Thousands of soldiers, sailors, police, firefighters and students marched through the streets of Ho Chi Minh City, formerly Saigon, brandishing flags and flowers. On the steps of Reunification Palace, once the grandiose home of South Vietnam’s U.S.-backed president, honors were bestowed on aging “heroes of the revolution.”

=> ↺ Vietnam Was No Business of the U.S. Government

• It was all a lie. North Vietnam never attacked the rights and freedoms of the American people. Its military actions were limited to their own country in an attempt to unify their country. And no, North Vietnam never had any interest — or even the financial or military means — in crossing the Pacific and invading, conquering, and occupying the United States.

=> ↺ CIA Vets Smell B.S. in Super-Spy Memoir

• In a new memoir Jamie Smith claims to have worked for the CIA and help found Blackwater. Even as CIA veterans question his tale, his publisher is doubling down.

=> ↺ Rebels Backed by CIA Join al-Qaeda in Fight Against Assad in Syria

• With the United States struggling to find capable “moderate” rebel forces that it can support in Syria, Washington has secretly started backing brigades that fight alongside al-Qaeda groups against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

=> ↺ CIA-Backed Rebels Fight Alongside al-Qaeda Wing in Syria

• Hardline Islamists fighting side-by-side with groups backed by the United States have made gains in northern Syria in recent weeks while showing rare unity, which some fear may be short-lived.

• An Islamist alliance calling itself Army of Fatah, a reference to the conquests that spread Islam across the Middle East from the seventh century, has seized northwestern towns including the provincial capital Idlib from government forces.

=> ↺ President Obama Relaxed Drone Rules For CIA Operations In Pakistan

• In 2013, President Obama tightened rules for drone strikes in order to reduce civilian casualties. NPR’s Audie Cornish talks to Wall Street Journal correspondent Adam Entous who learned that the president secretly waived the new rules for CIA operations in Pakistan.

=> ↺ Polish MEP: Kiev Snipers Trained by CIA, Polish Secret Service

• Dolgov, the Foreign Ministry’s Special Representative on Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law, tweeted Tuesday about Polish MEP Janusz Korwin-Mikke’s remarks that the Maidan snipers were trained in Poland:

• “A Polish Member of European Parliament has acknowledged that the Maidan snipers were trained in Poland, and not in Russia. The truth is finding its way!”

=> ↺ Obama gave CIA flexibility for drone strikes in Pakistan

=> ↺ Waiving the “Imminent Threat” Test for CIA Drone Strikes in Pakistan?

• Adam Entous has an important story in the Wall Street Journal tonight, one that I suspect will get a lot of attention Monday morning. It certainly should. He reports that a much-discussed May 2013 Presidential Policy Directive adopting various policy constraints for the use of lethal force outside areas of “active combat operations” also included a classified annex exempting CIA drone operations in Pakistan from at least one of those constraints. Specifically, it exempted CIA from the requirement that force be used in such places “only against a target that poses a continuing, imminent threat to U.S. persons.”

Transparency Reporting

=> ↺ Ex-CIAer disputes leak damage

• A former CIA officer is disputing the U.S. government’s claims that a fellow CIA spy’s leak of an agency operation targeting Iran’s nuclear program did grave damage to U.S. national security.

=> ↺ Why you should be grateful to convicted leaker and noted liar, Gen. David Petraeus

• Why should you be grateful to lying liar David Petraeus? The barely-there slap on the wrist he received for leaking classified information to his his mistress Paula Broadwell reveals how extreme the double standard of justice is for the handling of classified information.

=> ↺ Is the US government unfairly targeting whistle-blowers?

• On Friday, April 23, General David Petraeus, former Director of the CIA was fined $100,000 and given two years probation for leaking several ‘black books,’ containing important military information, to his biographer, Paula Broadwell with whom he was also having a relationship. The books included code word information, intelligence capabilities, war strategy and details of classified White House meetings.

• Civil liberties organisations say his sentence is too lenient and amounts to a double standard when compared to the fate of whistle-blowers like Edward Snowden, Jeffery Sterling, John Kiriakou and Chelsea Manning.

=> ↺ The glamorous exceptions to Obama’s war on whistleblowers

• The Obama administration is notoriously hardline on whistleblowers. CIA officer John Kiriakou revealed the CIA’s use of torture, and served two years’ jail, having been released in February. He remains the only person in the US government to be punished for the CIA’s illegal use of torture.

=> ↺ News organizations push to unseal Petraeus documents

=> ↺ Media Sues to Get Letters from Top Officials in Support of Petraeus

=> ↺ U.S. news organizations unite to demand release of classified Petraeus case docs

=> ↺ ‘Unparalleled’ public interest: US media unite to demand classified Petraeus case docs

=> ↺ Charlotte Observer, others ask to unseal David Petraeus documents

=> ↺ Report: Journalists Sue for Release of Petraeus Documents

=> ↺ Press sues for disclosure of recommendations for leniency in David Petraeus plea deal

=> ↺ Petraeus Got ‘Bubble Bath’ From Hypocritical Obama Administration, Whistleblower Attorneys Say

• Former CIA Director David Petraeus was sentenced Thursday to two years probation for leaking highly classified information to a biographer with whom he was having a sexual relationship – exposing what attorneys for whistleblowers prosecuted by the Obama administration say is a glaring double standard.

• The U.S. “clearly has a two-tiered justice system when it comes to classified information,” says Jesselyn Radack, a Government Accountability Project lawyer who has represented several people prosecuted during the administration’s crackdown on leaks by low-level officials. “If you’re a person in a position of power or you’re politically well connected, you can leak with impunity.”

• Petraeus acknowledged last month in plea deal documents that he gave mistress Paula Broadwell – author of his biography, “All In” – access to eight “black books” that contained classified information from his time leading military efforts in Afghanistan, and that he then lied about it to the FBI.

=> ↺ Petraeus gets no real punishment for sharing vital CIA Intel; others go to prison for life

• It’s obvious that Petraeus only got this deal because of his position. If he had simply been a lower-ranking soldier – as evident by the prosecution of Manning, he would be facing decades in jail too. At least the whistleblowers were disclosing information for public interest, not just sharing secrets with their mistresses.

=> ↺ Our View: Justice and transparency

• What makes the light sentence even more striking is that President Barack Obama’s Justice Department is notorious for hunting down leakers and whistleblowers and sending them to prison. Despite a fervent campaign from some quarters to equate them, Petraeus’ actions don’t rise to those of Chelsea (formerly Bradley) Manning or Edward Snowden. Manning, an army soldier who released material about the Iraq War, is serving 35 years in prison. Snowden, a system administrator who revealed how the National Security Agency was constantly collecting private data from cellphones and the Internet, fled America and is now living in Russia.

=> ↺ General Petraeus avoids jail for leaking classified information to girlfriend

=> ↺ A Tale of Two Leakers: Punishment Discrepancies in the Military

=> ↺ McClatchy Washington Bureau reporters reach Pulitzer Prize finals for CIA coverage

• The McClatchy Washington Bureau’s coverage of the CIA interrogation program and ensuing Senate investigation earned accolades Monday, with three bureau reporters getting the nod as a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

=> ↺ CIA Reviews “Operational Files” Exemptions from FOIA

• The CIA Information Act of 1984 authorizes the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency to designate certain Agency records as “operational files.” Doing so makes them exempt not only from disclosure, but even from search and review under the Freedom of Information Act.

• The 1984 Act also requires the Agency to perform a “decennial review” at least every ten years in order to determine whether any of the designated operational files exemptions can be rescinded, so that the affected files would become subject to a regular FOIA search and review.

• The third such decennial review is now underway.

Finance

=> ↺ Big business guides US policy on Thailand

• Like many other countries in the world, Thailand has been treated by the US as a market rather than as a sovereign country.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Rupert Murdoch berated Sun journalists for not doing enough to attack Ed Miliband and stop him winning the general election

• Rupert Murdoch berated journalists on his tabloid papers for not doing enough to stop Labour winning the general election and warned them that the future of the company depended on stopping Ed Miliband entering No 10.

=> ↺ Pinochet-Era Chilean Media Mogul Was a CIA Propagandist – Journalist Union

• United States documents show that the CIA paid a Chilean media mogul to smear President Salvador Allende in the run-up to the September 11, 1973, military coup in which Allende died, the country’s journalist union alleges.

• On Tuesday, Chile’s National Journalists Association cited the documents in kicking out Agustín Edwards Eastman, the 87-year-old owner and columnist of El Mercurio, the country’s largest newspaper. His family’s media group owns dozens of papers, magazines and other outlets, making him one of the richest people in Chile.

=> ↺ DHS is influencing America’s TV shows, movies, electric cars and much more!

• After a whistleblower stepped forward, DHS’s inspector general looked into whether Mayorkas, former director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, gave special treatment to politically-connected applicants and exerted improper influence in the adjudication of the EB-5 program. A core part of the investigation looked into Mayorkas’ order reversing a decision denying funding of Sony movie projects. He’s also said to have handpicked a review board to review a separate series of Time Warner movie projects.

Censorship

=> ↺ In 1960, CIA stopped Miami Herald scoop about Bay of Pigs invasion

• There were a lot of bad days during the Cold War, but 54 years ago this weekend was one of the worst, at least for the United States. President John F. Kennedy sent an army of anti-Castro exiles backed by the CIA onto the beach at Cuba’s Bay of Pigs to suffer bloody, catastrophic defeat. It was “the beating of our lives,” the despondent Kennedy would say a few days later as he wondered aloud why nobody had talked him out of it.

Privacy

=> ↺ The CIA Built a Special Helicopter to Sneak Into North Vietnam

• On a dark night in 1972, a special helicopter operated by the Central Intelligence Agency slipped into North Vietnam. The crew’s mission was to tap phones lines to key government buildings.

=> ↺ Cunningham: Is Merkel a CIA Asset?

• Merkel’s take on Ukraine and Russia is so completely at odds with reality and against the national interests of her own people, the question of just who is she serving comes to the fore. The recent industrial spying scandal on German companies carried out by the US — with German federal collusion — and the long-time surveillance of the chancellor’s personal life points to Merkel being a compromised leader. Or, in a word: bought.

=> ↺ Report: Facebook Chat Messages Monitored by CIA-Backed Company

• Considering Facebook’s record regarding users’ privacy, the social network giant’s claims ring a little hollow.

=> ↺ CIA-Backed Company May Be Reading Your Facebook Chats

=> ↺ How Private Are Your Facebook Conversations? Facebook Chat Tracked By CIA, NSA, Google: Report

• The revelation, which was made by the Bosnadev-Code Factory, is reported to have come about accidentally. According to a Bosnadev blog post, a group of developers were attempting to test a new application that was being developed when they sent a link for the app via Facebook chat and noticed that the IP address was unusual, Sputnik News reported.

=> ↺ In Obama’s world, ‘transparency’ means tracking our smartphones

• Most of the noise in the press and social media about the lenient sentencing of disgraced former four-star U.S. Army general and CIA director David Petraeus for revealing classified information to his biographer (and lover) has focused on the inequality of it all.

• That issue is worthy of some noise. But there ought to be a lot more noise about how this case and others are evidence that government power, combined with our modern digital world, is eliminating personal privacy. That is going to have a much more profound effect on everybody in America than whether Petraeus spends time in prison.

=> ↺ Bipartisan coalition introduce legislation to ban bulk collection under Section 215

Civil Rights

=> ↺ Unverified ‘Threats,’ Uncritically Reported: A Tradition as Old as Protest

• “Social media functioned as a sort of virtual riot gear,” Carpenter wrote—“manufacturing the narrative of violence in the digital realm as the police were escalating it on the ground.”

=> ↺ Defense Asks Court to Sentence Former CIA Officer Jeffrey Sterling as Leaker, Not a Spy or Communist

• The defense for former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling, who was convicted of violations of the Espionage Act and other offenses, has asked a court in Alexandria, Virginia, to “see” Sterling “not as a spy or a communist who committed espionage” but as someone who leaked information to a reporter.

• Sterling’s defense requests that he be treated similarly to other leakers, who have been prosecuted like Stephen Kim, John Kiriakou and, most recently, David Petraeus. How the government has exaggerated the harm done by the leak he was convicted of committing is rebutted by a twenty-year CIA veteran as well.

=> ↺ Petraeus case shows how power tips scales of justice

• A few years ago, David Petraeus, then the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, spoke out after a CIA officer was charged with disclosing sensitive government information.

• “Oaths do matter,” he said, “and there are indeed consequences for those who believe they are above the laws that protect our fellow officers and enable American intelligence agencies to operate with the requisite degree of secrecy.”

• At the time, Petraeus was fully aware that he was under investigation for providing classified information to his biographer, with whom he was having an affair. Evidently, the retired four-star Army general realized that people at his level don’t need to worry much about “consequences.”

=> ↺ Leaking CIA secrets

• The problem with the lenient treatment of former CIA Director, David Petraeus, isn’t that he was lightly punished for his leaks. It is that other whistleblowers are punished at all.

• It’s a tale of two CIA employees. The first, Jeffrey Sterling, has just been convicted of leaking information about a bungled agency sortie to James Risen, a reporter. The operation took place almost 20 years ago, around the time everyone was doing the Macarena and Tom Cruise’s first Mission Impossible movie was released. Federal prosecutors are calling for a 24-year prison sentence for Sterling.

=> ↺ ​Leaking CIA secrets leads to severe punishment, unless you are the boss

• The problem with the lenient treatment of former CIA Director, David Petraeus, isn’t that he was lightly punished for his leaks. It is that other whistleblowers are punished at all.

• It’s a tale of two CIA employees. The first, Jeffrey Sterling, has just been convicted of leaking information about a bungled agency sortie to James Risen, a reporter. The operation took place almost 20 years ago, around the time everyone was doing the Macarena and Tom Cruise’s first Mission Impossible movie was released. Federal prosecutors are calling for a 24-year prison sentence for Sterling.

=> ↺ CIA Manager Ousted for Abusive Behavior Given Top Position in Drone Program

• A top manager at the Central Intelligence Agency who had been removed from his position for abusive behavior has been relocated to a senior position in the drone strike program, the Associated Press reports.

=> ↺ CIA manager ‘removed from his job for abusive management’ is back and in charge of drone strikes

• A top CIA manager who had been removed from his job last year for abusive management has been named to a senior role in the agency department that conducts drone strikes.

=> ↺ CIA manager who had been ousted over abusive conduct now holds important counter terror post

=> ↺ Romania Is a US ‘Vassal State’ – Former CIA Analyst

• Former Romanian President Ion Iliescu allowed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate torture sites within his country because he was the leader of a puppet state whose marching orders came from Washington, former CIA analyst Raymond McGovern told Sputnik.

=> ↺ Former president: I approved US request for CIA center in Romania

=> ↺ Rights Group Urges Investigation Into Suspected CIA Prison in Romania

=> ↺ Former Romania president admits allowing CIA site

• A former Romanian president has acknowledged approving the CIA’s request for a site in Romania, but said he would have refused had he known how it would be used.

• Ion Iliescu, president from 2000 to 2004, wrote on his blog on Monday that he believed Romania had hosted CIA “black sites” where prisoners were held and subjected to torture.

=> ↺ Ex-president OK’d CIA site, denies knowing what it was for

=> ↺ Ex-Romanian president OK’d CIA site, denies knowing what it was for

• Ion Iliescu, president from 2000 to 2004, suggested he believed Romania had hosted CIA “black sites” – prisons outside the U.S. where suspected terrorists were held and subjected to harsh interrogation.

=> ↺ Former president of Romania admits approving CIA site, denies he knew its purpose

• A former Romanian president has acknowledged approving the CIA’s request for a site in Romania, but said he would have refused had he known how it would be used.

• Ion Iliescu, president from 2000 to 2004, suggested he believed Romania had hosted CIA “black sites” — prisons outside the U.S. where suspected terrorists were held and subjected to harsh interrogation.

=> ↺ Ex-president distances himself from CIA prison in Romania

=> ↺ Ex-president denies confirming existence of CIA prison in Romania

• Romania’s former President Ion Iliescu on Monday firmly denied that he had confirmed the existence of a CIA secret prison in his country in his recent interview given to a German magazine.

=> ↺ Ex- president Iliescu denies confirming existence of CIA prison in Romania

• Romania’s former President Ion Iliescu on Monday said he has in no way confirmed the existence of an illegal CIA prison in Romania in an interview he has recently given to the German publication Der Spiegel.”I am unpleasantly surprised by the way in which my statements in a recent interview to German publication Der Spiegel are being reflected and especially commented on. I want to be as clear as possible: in no way have I confirmed the existence of an illegal CIA prison in Romania, a prison where illegal interrogation techniques such as torture would have been used. I was equally clear when I said that had I known the destination of the facility asked of us by the US I would have certainly taken a different decision. Knowing what I had approved, namely headquarters for a CIA representation office in Romania, justifies that fact that all these years I have denied the existence of any CIA prison in Romania. I am firmly rejecting the interpretation of my gesture, which is a natural one among partners and allies, would have been my bribing the US into NATO welcoming Romania in. So far as I remember, the approval was issued AFTER the November 2002 NATO Summit meeting in Prague decided to let Romania in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization,” Iliescu says in a post on his blog.

=> ↺ Pakistan drops case against ex-CIA chief, agency’s lawyer

• Pakistani police dropped a case that was recently registered against a former CIA station chief and a former agency lawyer over a 2009 drone strike that killed two people in a tribal region, police said Thursday.

=> ↺ Pakistan drops case against ex-CIA station chief over drone attack

=> ↺ Case registered against ex-CIA chief

• The capital police on Thursday registered a murder case against former CIA station chief Jonathan Banks, who is currently heading the US agency’s counter terrorism programme in Langley, Virginia.

=> ↺ Emails Reveal Close Relationship Between Psychology Group and CIA

• Newly released emails show a close relationship between the American Psychological Association and the psychologists who helped create the architecture of the CIA’s torture program.

• One email between CIA psychologist Kirk Hubbard and an executive from the American Psychology Association, or APA, makes a thinly cloaked reference to the role in interrogations of the now-infamous CIA contractors James Mitchell and Bruce Jessen.

=> ↺ Psychologists met in secret with Bush officials to help justify torture – report

• The leading American professional group for psychologists secretly worked with the Bush administration to help justify the post-9/11 US detainee torture program, according to a watchdog analysis released on Thursday.

=> ↺ Study accuses psychologists group of complicity in CIA torture program

• The American Psychologists Association, the largest professional scientific organization of its kind, was secretly complicit in the adoption of torturous interrogation tactics used by the United States against detainees, a new report suggests.

• A study released this week by noteable anti-torture critics reveals that an analysis of emails from the inbox of a deceased US government contractor demonstrates compliance on behalf of the APA with regards to the drafting of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, or EITs, developed under President George W. Bush.

=> ↺ American Psychological Association Bolstered C.I.A. Torture Program, Report Says

• The American Psychological Association secretly collaborated with the administration of President George W. Bush to bolster a legal and ethical justification for the torture of prisoners swept up in the post-Sept. 11 war on terror, according to a new report by a group of dissident health professionals and human rights activists.

• The report is the first to examine the association’s role in the interrogation program. It contends, using newly disclosed emails, that the group’s actions to keep psychologists involved in the interrogation program coincided closely with efforts by senior Bush administration officials to salvage the program after the public disclosure in 2004 of graphic photos of prisoner abuse by American military personnel at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

• “The A.P.A. secretly coordinated with officials from the C.I.A., White House and the Department of Defense to create an A.P.A. ethics policy on national security interrogations which comported with then-classified legal guidance authorizing the C.I.A. torture program,” the report’s authors conclude.

=> ↺ Emails Reveal American Psychological Association’s Role in CIA Torture

=> ↺ American Psychological Association Played Critical Role in CIA Torture Program

=> ↺ Report: Top American Psychologists Aided CIA Torture Program

=> ↺ Report Suggests Top Psychologists Worked With the C.I.A. on Torture Program

=> ↺ APA hit with new torture allegations

=> ↺ Did the American Psychological Association Help Legitimize CIA Torture?

=> ↺ America’s largest psychological organization allegedly worked with the CIA on torture in secret

=> ↺ Op-Ed: Psychologists, psychiatrists, the military and the CIA

=> ↺ Report says top US psychologists collaborated with torture program architects

=> ↺ US Psychologists Sponsored CIA Torture Program

=> ↺ American Psychological Assn. Awaits Report on CIA Torture Involvement

=> ↺ American Psychological Association Secretly Helped Justify CIA Torture

=> ↺ Elite American psychologists aided CIA in its torture tactics

=> ↺ US Torture Program Secretly Supported by World’s Most Prestigious Psychology Organization

=> ↺ Torture is Okay, Says American Psychological Association

=> ↺ Report: American Psychological Association secretly helped justify torture under George W. Bush

=> ↺ Psychologists ‘met in secret with Bush officials’ to help justify post 9/11 torture

=> ↺ Psychological Association Accused Of ‘Complicity’ In Bush-Era Torture

=> ↺ Report Exposes American Psychological Association Complicity In US Torture

=> ↺ Report: Psychologists helped Bush officials craft harsh interrogations

=> ↺ Interrogations advisor urges Bush-era torture probe

=> ↺ Psychologists Participated in President Bush’s Torture Program

=> ↺ Why Did the American Psychological Association Approve Its Members to Oversee Torture?

=> ↺ Did Psychologists Help the Government Torture?

=> ↺ APA Goes Silent on Torture Ties; Plans PR Push

=> ↺ Report: Psych Group Helped Bush Justify Torture

=> ↺ Psychologists Accused of Assisting in Torture

=> ↺ Report: APA Coordinated with Bush Admin to Enable Torture Program

=> ↺ New report: American Psychological Association bolstered Bush-era torture

=> ↺ Report: American Psychological Association Secretly Conspired With Bush Torture Regime

=> ↺ Egypt sentences 22 members of Muslim Brotherhood to death

=> ↺ Egyptian President a-Sisi Meets with CIA Head John Brennan in Cairo

=> ↺ Open Letter to EU Genocide Network requesting special meeting on findings of US Senate CIA Torture Report

=> ↺ Poland’s CIA probe: road to nowhere

=> ↺ Renewed suspicions US was ‘lobbied’ to leave UK out of CIA torture report

=> ↺ Case transferred against ex-CIA chief to FATA secretariat

=> ↺ CIA station chief’s case transferred to FATA secretariat

• The primary Law Enforcement Agency (LEA) of federal capital, Islamabad Police on Thursday dismissed the high profile case as discarding the First Information Report (FIR) registered Against Jonathan Banks was Central Investigation Agency (CIA) station chief in Islamabad.

=> ↺ Case against ex-CIA station chief shifted to NWA

• Complying with the court orders, Islamabad police on Wednesday registered a case against former CIA station chief Islamabad Jonathan Banks over the death of three Pakistanis in a US drone strike in North Waziristan Agency (NWA) back in 2009 but immediately referred the matter to the concerned police station in NWA for registration of the same case and subsequent investigation over there, arguing the incident in question did not occur in its jurisdiction.

=> ↺ Drone attacks: Case against ex-CIA station chief transferred to secretary Fata

• Police subsequently transferred the case to the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) Secretariat.

• The case against Banks was registered at the Secretariat police station upon directions of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) last night.

=> ↺ US Will Continue Deadly Drone Strikes in Pakistan

• The United States Congress continues to support the White House’s lethal drone program, Defense One reports. Despite the repeated killing of innocent civilians, including recently an American citizen, the controversial counterterrorism tactic is facing little public criticism or scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers.

=> ↺ Obama Gave CIA Waiver on Drone Strike Rules for Attacks in Pakistan

• When President Barack Obama created a new set of rules for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) drone strikes in an effort to reduce the killing of innocent people, he exempted the agency’s operations in Pakistan from the new restrictions.

• The Wall Street Journal has reported Obama “secretly approved a waiver” that gave the CIA “more flexibility in Pakistan than anywhere else to strike suspected militants.”

• Under the 2013 rules the president created, the CIA was required to show that the proposed target of a drone strike represented “an imminent threat to the U.S.” This standard, however, was not imposed when it came to Pakistan.

=> ↺ Commander in Drone

• If it looks like a terrorist from thousands of feet above, FIRE! Last year, of 41 people targeted by drones, 1,147 were killed. A ratio like that is not going to go a long way in winning over hearts and minds. With drones on the rise, it’s time to investigate if this sort of warfare actually works or is beneficial in the long run— a decidedly difficult task with so much of the US drone program shrouded in secrecy. Enjoy your Commander in Drone, like, share and check out the links behind the cartoon!

=> ↺ If Obama apologized for 1 civilian death from drone every day, it would take him 3 years

• Last week, President Obama expressed regret for two western hostages held by Al Qaeda and accidentally killed in an “anti-terrorist operation.”

• The deaths of these two men — American consultant Warren Weinstein and Italian aid worker Giovanni Lo Porto, both of whom had been held by Al Qaeda for several years — were indeed tragic.

• It would be bad enough if they were the only innocent victims killed by the US in the war on terror. But they aren’t.

• Over a thousand civilians – including dozens of Westerners – are among the thousands of people who have died in US drone strikes conducted outside its declared war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, according to independent estimates.

=> ↺ Amnesty International condemns U.S. failure to act on torture report

• Amnesty International on Tuesday accused President Barack Obama’s administration of granting “de facto amnesty” to people involved in a CIA program that detained and tortured militants captured after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

• The human rights group said that since the release in December of a Senate report on the use of what the Central Intelligence Agency called “enhanced interrogation techniques,” the administration had done nothing to end impunity for those who mistreated prisoners.

• Amnesty researcher Naureen Shah said the administration was effectively granting immunity from prosecution by failing to thoroughly investigate conduct that came to light in the five-year investigation.

=> ↺ New report criticises US government silence over CIA torture revelations

• Amnesty International has strongly criticised the Obama administration’s silence in the wake of last year’s Senate torture report and has called on the US Department of Justice to reopen and expand its investigation into CIA interrogations.

• In a 140-page report – Crimes and Impunity: full Senate Committee report on CIA secret detentions must be released – the organisation calls for the full version of the Senate Committee’s report to be published. The full version – some 13 times longer than the 500 page summary version published (with redactions) in December – remains unpublished and is instead still marked “Top Secret”.

=> ↺ U.S. Inaction Following CIA Torture Report is De Facto Amnesty for Perpetrators

• Amnesty International released a report on April 21 (see PDF) criticizing the Obama administration’s silence in the wake of the Senate torture report, calling it de facto amnesty for those responsible for CIA torture. The government inaction following the December publication of the summary report on the CIA’s secret detention program is outlined in detail in the new report, Crimes and Impunity. The document also highlights the lack of accountability for enforced disappearance and the failure to recompense victims of the CIA’s programs.

=> ↺ USA: Crimes and Impunity

• More than four months after publication of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s summary report on the secret detention program operated by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the US administration has done nothing to end impunity for the torture and enforced disappearances committed in the program. Indeed, it has failed to meaningfully respond to the report in any way whatsoever.

=> ↺ The American Torture Story Being Ignored

• The Amnesty International USA (AIUSA) cites these incidents in its campaign against tortures.

=> ↺ Human Rights Group Rips Obama Response To Torture Report

• Amnesty International blasted the Obama administration on Tuesday for failing to act months after receiving a Senate report on the CIA’s secret interrogation techniques, saying that the silence constitutes de facto amnesty for torture.

=> ↺ Could America Torture Again?

• “Rather than another reason to refight old arguments, I hope that today’s report can help us leave these techniques where they belong—in the past.” That was President Obama, last December, after the release of a Senate panel report on the CIA’s use of torture against terrorism detainees. Obama’s statement encapsulated both his confidence that the brutal interrogation techniques of the Bush era had been brought to an end by the executive order he issued banning them upon taking office, and his reluctance to probe more deeply into abuses that occurred or prosecute any of the offenders.

=> ↺ As the Senate Torture Report Gathers Dust, Is the Obama Administration Giving Torturers De Facto Amnesty?

• It has been more than four months since the Senate Intelligence Committee (SSCI) published the summary of its report on the secret detention program operated by the CIA after the 9/11 attacks. Yet today, the official record of what happened in the CIA’s “black sites” is still under wraps. The Committee’s full report sits gathering dust in secure facilities, with even the Justice Department failing apparently to read it, let alone act upon it.

=> ↺ Obama Maintains Bush-Era Policies on Torture Cover-Ups – Amnesty

• Amnesty International has accused the Obama administration of continuing a policy of shielding people who tortured detainees at secret CIA sites from prosecution.

=> ↺ Obama giving ‘amnesty’ to torturers, human rights group claims

• “Failure to end the impunity and ensure redress not only leaves the USA in serious violation of its international legal obligations, it increases the risk that history will repeat itself when a different president again deems the circumstances warrant resort to torture, enforced disappearance, abductions or other human rights violations,” the authors concluded.

=> ↺ Rendition expert fears police were too quick to clear CIA over torture flights landing in Scotland

• DR SAM RAPHAEL wants to know if the flights which landed at Prestwick and Glasgow Airports violated Scottish law and if Holyrood or Westminster was aware of what was going on on board.

=> ↺ Revelation That Sheriff Arpaio Hired Informant For CIA Investigation Raises New Legal Questions

• The investigation appears to have been very unorthodox and the details are still murky. The sheriff and his chief deputy’s testimony seemed to describe it as an attempt to expose alleged bank fraud, computer tampering and surveillance by the Central Intelligence Agency and DOJ.

=> ↺ CIA Interrogator Convicted For Torture Speaks Out

• In the long debate over torture, there remains only one instance when a CIA interrogator ever faced trial for torture – and he was convicted. That CIA contractor, David Passaro, is now speaking out in a new Retro Report documentary.

=> ↺ Jailed CIA interrogator describes torturing a prisoner to death

=> ↺ Convicted former CIA contractor speaks out about prisoner interrogation

=> ↺ Investigating CIA Torture: The Bureau and The Rendition Project publish first quarterly report

• The analysis, which is summarised in our first quarterly report, reveals 101 of the detainees were held by the CIA for more than a month, and 47 of these for more than a year. All detainees were held without access to lawyers, their families or the International Committee of the Red Cross.

=> ↺ CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou calls on journalists to tell ‘full story’ of US torture

• CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed the treatment of al Qaeda suspects held in secret prisons, told the Bureau today it was now down to journalists to “tell the full story” about the intelligence agency’s torture programme because politicians did not have the will.

• In a video interview on the last day of his house arrest recorded for the Bureau by film-maker Tarquin Ramsay, the former CIA counter-terrorism analyst called on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to release more details from its 6,000-page report on CIA torture completed last December.

=> ↺ “We Tortured Some Folks”: Why torture fails to deliver security

• A public lecture by Mark Fallon, expert in security and counterterrorism investigations and Chair of the US Government’s High Value Detainee Interrogation Group (HIG) Research Committee

=> ↺ How the Chinese Web Came to Believe the CIA Tried to Assassinate Snowden

• It’s official, at least according to Chinese authorities: Officers for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) did not kill several CIA agents sent to Macau and Hong Kong to assassinate NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.

• Wait, what?

• Over the last year or so — it’s difficult to date the rumor’s exact beginning — a segment of the Chinese Internet has been trying to figure out why in March 2014 China’s military bestowed a top honor on a group of special forces soldiers stationed in Macau in peacetime. And so one of the more popular explanations is that this group of soldiers earned the honor by dispatching a group of CIA operatives sent to kill the world’s most famous whistleblower.

=> ↺ Macao denies rumors of CIA agents killings

=> ↺ Bringing CIA torture to justice

• Since the US is clearly not pursuing prosecutions for the torture perpetrated by its citizens in Afghanistan, in detention centers such as Bagram or the CIA black site known as the “Salt Pit”, the US will face difficulties in demonstrating otherwise before the ICC. The Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC has already initiated the preliminary examination stage, using its proprio motu powers, with a view to opening a full formal investigation in the future. The examination phase includes allegations of crimes under the jurisdiction of the ICC committed by all parties to the conflict, including the Taliban and Afghan government forces as well as international forces. Regarding the US, the Office of the Prosecutor is currently focusing on torture and ill-treatment of conflict-related detainees by US armed forces between 2003 and 2008.

=> ↺ Meet the one and only person being punished over the Senate Torture Report

=> ↺ DC at Work; The Only Person to be Punished Over Torture Report is the Woman Who Reported It

=> ↺ Investigator who helped expose CIA’s post-9/11 torture program faces political backlash

=> ↺ The Exposure Of CIA Torture Is Finally Costing Someone A Job: Former Senate Staffer Alissa Starzak

• Oh, good. As if there was ever any doubt that the exposure of CIA torture was never going to result in anyone involved being held responsible, the current push to knock a former Senate staffer off her career path further confirms the government’s preference for shooting messengers.

=> ↺ Meet The Only Person Being Punished After The Senate Torture Report

• Five months after the Senate Intelligence Committee released its gruesome report on the CIA’s post-9/11 torture program, someone is finally paying steep professional consequences. Except it’s not the former torturers. Or their superiors. Or even the CIA officials who improperly searched the computers that Senate investigators used to construct the study.

=> ↺ This senator is waging a scorched-earth campaign to protect CIA torturers

• Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.) is chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which oversees the CIA. He is also that agency’s most devoted lapdog in Congress. Since he failed to prevent the 2014 release of the Senate report on the CIA’s torture program, he’s been looking for some way to punish the people responsible for embarrassing his beloved cabal of incompetent torturers. And he seems to have found his victim.

=> ↺ Sen. Burr deflects questions about calling for drone killing

• Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, declined on Wednesday to discuss whether during a closed-door hearing he called for a suspected terrorist to be killed.

• But Burr, who took over the committee in January, said it was better to capture terrorists when possible.

=> ↺ Joe Burton: Burr violated laws

• According to the April 28 news story “N.C.’s Burr chided after terror report,” in 2013 Sen. Richard Burr wanted the CIA to find and kill a U.S. citizen, Muhanad Al Farekh.

• One would think that a U.S. senator would believe in the rule of law and recognize that extrajudicial killing is illegal. He must know it is unlawful to target for killing persons who have not been accused and convicted of a crime. It violates International Human Rights Law and International Humanitarian Law. For a U.S. citizen, it also violates the U.S. Constitution, Amendment V.

=> ↺ Forced Disappearances, Brutality, and Communist China’s Politics of Fear

• China is being purged. An aggressive anti-corruption campaign that began after Xi Jinping became chief of the Chinese Communist Party in 2012 and the nation’s president the following year has shaken institutions from the army to the state television broadcaster. Hundreds of thousands of officials have already been detained. Unlike similar crackdowns of the past, the effort shows no signs of slowing.

• “China’s anti-graft campaign has moved beyond setting warning examples to deter others,” said a 2014 year-end report from state press agency Xinhua. “The scale of the investigations, as well as new initiatives and legal reform, indicate that the country intends to fight a protracted war.”

• Xi’s promise to eliminate both “tigers and flies” — the high-ranking officials who have stolen billions and the petty corruption that plagues everyday life — is genuinely popular among ordinary Chinese who saw graft worsen over the past decade. The president and his allies fear that corruption could lead to the overthrow of the Party itself if left unchecked. But while cleaning up, Xi also seems to be cleaning house, eliminating the power networks of former or potential rivals while preserving his own power bases.

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