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● 05.24.15

● Links 24/5/2015: CrossOver 14.1.3, NTFS-3G Vulnerability

Posted in News Roundup at 6:28 pm by Dr. Roy SchestowitzContentsGNU/LinuxGNU/Linux

Desktop

=> ↺ Consumers Continue to Buy Chromebooks as Secondary PCs, Enterprise Still Uninterested

Server

=> ↺ Video: LXD containers vs. KVM

• Since I’m such a big container fan (been using them on Linux since 2005) and I recently blogged about Docker, LXC, and OpenVZ… how could I pass up posting this? Some Canonical guys gave a presentation at the recent OpenStack Summit on “LXD vs. KVM”. What is LXD? It is basically a management service for LXC that supposedly adds a lot of the features LXC was missing… and is much easier to use. For a couple of years now Canonical has shown an interest in LXC and has supposedly be doing a lot of development work around them. I wonder what specifically? They almost seem like the only company who is interested in LXC.. or at least they are putting forth a publicly noticeable effort around them.

=> ↺ Ubuntu’s LXD vs. KVM For The Linux Cloud

• LXD is usable with Ubuntu 15.04 albeit not many have yet fully experimented with this new technology from Canonical given its early state. The LXD Linux container hypervisor allows for rapid provisioning, very fast performance, a REST API, and other functionality. If you’re wishing to learn more about LXD, this week at the OpenStack Summit in Vancouver was a talk about LXD vs. KVM for Linux hypervisors.

=> ↺ Cloud Driving HP’s Server Business Forward

• HP announced is second quarter fiscal 2015 earnings on May 21, with company executives enthusiastic about the company’s upcoming split, and continued prospects in the cloud.

Kernel Space

=> ↺ The Latest Linux Kernel Git Code Fixes The EXT4 RAID0 Corruption Problem

• An EXT4 file-system corruption problem was uncovered with Linux 4.0 that turned out to be an MD RAID0 issue with the Linux kernel in the latest stable series. This RAID corruption issue has now been fixed in the latest kernel Git code.

=> ↺ The Latest Features For Linux Performance Management + Benchmark Monitoring

• There’s numerous recent features to talk about this weekend for those interested in tracking Linux system performance, monitoring upstream projects for performance regressions, and carrying out other similar work using open-source software on Linux / BSD / OS X / Solaris.

Graphics Stack

=> ↺ Features Added To Mesa 10.6 For Open-Source GPU Drivers

• Mesa 10.6 is up to a release candidate state and should be officially released in early June. If you’re not up to speed on this quarterly update to the open-source user-space graphics drivers, here’s an overview of the new features for Mesa 10.6.

=> ↺ Nvidia driver modeset kernel module

=> ↺ NVIDIA’s Proprietary Driver Is Moving Closer With Kernel Mode-Setting

• NVIDIA has been working out plans for their graphics driver to support Mir and Wayland. As part of that, besides their recent EGL support, they’ve been tackling kernel mode-setting.

Applications

=> ↺ 3 Open Source Python Shells

• Python is a high-level, general-purpose, structured, powerful, open source programming language that is used for a wide variety of programming tasks. It features a fully dynamic type system and automatic memory management, similar to that of Scheme, Ruby, Perl, and Tcl, avoiding many of the complexities and overheads of compiled languages. The language was created by Guido van Rossum in 1991, and continues to grow in popularity.

=> ↺ Google Chrome 44 (Dev) Brings Interesting New Features

Proprietary

=> ↺ CodeWeavers CrossOver 14.1.3 has been released

• I am delighted to announce that CodeWeavers has just released CrossOver 14.1.3 for both Mac OS X and Linux. CrossOver 14.1.3 has important bug fixes for both Mac and Linux users.

=> ↺ Vivaldi Web Browser Gets New Update and Options

• Vivaldi, a web browser based on Chromium built by Opera founder that’s aimed mostly at power users, has been updated one more and is now available for download.

Instructionals/Technical

=> ↺ HOWTO: No SSH logins SFTP only chrooted server configuration with OpenSSH

=> ↺ Install Flacon 1.0.1 On Ubuntu 15.04, Ubuntu 14.10, Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 12.04 And Derivatives, Via PPA

=> ↺ How To Install Filezilla 3.11.0.1 On Ubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet Or Ubuntu 14.10 Utopic Unicorn, Via PPA

=> ↺ Install Filezilla 3.11.0.1 On The Most Popular Linux Systems

=> ↺ How to install Drupal on Ubuntu VPS

=> ↺ Ubuntu PPA Management

=> ↺ Secure SSH with Google Authenticator Two-Factor Authentication on CentOS 7

=> ↺ How to quickly migrate mail from Evolution to Thunderbird with Dovecot

=> ↺ A neat UNIX trick for your bash profile

Games

=> ↺ Open Source Development Environment Godot Engine 1.1 Out

• After half a year of work, Godot, the most advanced open source self-contained game development environment reached version 1.1. This game engine is a community developed effort to produce an open (and no strings attached) alternative to large commercial software such as Unity and Unreal. This release focuses on improvements to the 2D engine so all features used by modern 2D games are implemented.

=> ↺ Classic Platformers Prehistorik 1 & 2 Released On GOG For Linux

• GOG have done it again folks, Prehistorik 1 & 2 which are both games from my childhood have been published on GOG and both support Linux.

=> ↺ Steam for CentOS / RHEL 7

• The Steam repository now contains the Steam client package plus the S3 texture compression library for Open Source drivers for CentOS and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.

=> ↺ Steam isn’t helping gaming grow on Linux, usage drops to less than 1%

• The rise of Linux on the desktop is always just around the corner, right? Most recently it was Valve’s new focus on Steam-powered Linux gaming that was supposed to boost the open source OS to new heights. However, the most recent Steam Hardware & Software Survey shows a big drop for Linux. It’s now less than 1% of Steam systems.

=> ↺ Interloper, A New Small Scale Real Time Strategy Released For Linux, It’s Good

• Interloper is a small scale real time strategy that recently released for Linux, and it managed to capture my interest for being a bit different.

=> ↺ Point & Click Adventure Game ‘Zak McKracken: Between Time And Space’ Released For Linux

• Seven years after the unofficial fan sequel to the 80s classic Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders was released in German for Windows, a director’s cut has been made available in English for Linux.

Desktop Environments/WMs

K Desktop Environment/KDE SC/Qt

=> ↺ Interview with Mary Winkler

• LOVE the blending tools. I’m used to those of Paint Tool SAI, and finding a program whose brushes are far more customizable and can do more is digital art heaven. Especially an open source one!

=> ↺ Reminder: Evolving KDE survey milestone on May 31st

• Evolution is a powerful concept and tool. When harnessed properly, humans have been able to tailor and adapt crops and domesticate animals. We’ve been able to grow the Dutch unnecessarily tall and create beautiful and consequence-free theme parks as shown in the Jurassic Park documentary series on the BBC. However, when not monitored closely or left to nature’s own devices, the result is the terrifying land based sharks that have caused such recent devastation across most of Australia.

GNOME Desktop/GTK

=> ↺ GNOME Shell It is!!

• It’s been a while since my last post, I was busy with my university exams and didn’t get much time to work on my GSoC project. But during whatever time I got I tried to get myself familiar with GNOME Shell coding style and get a hang of the way it works, since GNOME Shell is the main module I will be working with in this project. But things weren’t as simple as I initially thought them to be. It has been a struggle trying to find out some structured documentation for GNOME Shell code-base mainly the JavaScript part.

Distributions

Reviews

=> ↺ Xubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet – Fabulous

• I have to say, Xubuntu 15.04 Vivid Vervet shattered my expectations. Obliterated them. Overall, I was expecting a distro that would be about as good as its parent. Instead, I got this fine piece of digital machinery, which purrs and meows and growls like a turbo-charged tiger, if this silly metaphor makes any sense. Or is it an analogy?

• Now, one tiny software glitch, plus one big regression that affects the entire family. That’s the sum of my complains. On the plus side, Xubuntu fully supports the hardware, including the tricky UEFI stuff, it’s fast, robust, elegant, rich in software and features, simple and fun to use, and it works well with anything I’ve thrown at it. By far the best distro of this year. I don’t give out 10/10 lightly, but I’m inclined to do that right now, even though the few tiny problems we’ve had prevent me from doing that. However, the whole package reminds me of Fuduntu, really. Pure and simple and just good. 9.99999/10. Try it, you won’t be disappointed. We’re done here.

Arch Family

=> ↺ You Should Not be Afraid of Arch Linux, Here’s Why

• I don’t know why, but I always had this desire of installing new operating systems and discover by myself how they work, how software packages are installed, removed, updated, and how they differ from other OSes.

Red Hat Family

Fedora

=> ↺ Fedora Server 22 Benchmarks With XFS & The Linux 4.0 Kernel

• Fedora 22 is shaping up quite well across the Fedora Workstation, Server, and Cloud offerings. Out of curiosity, this week I ran some initial comparison tests of Fedora Server 21 vs. Fedora Server 22.

• Fedora Server 22 notably switches its default file-system over to XFS from EXT4 for new installations. Fedora Server 22 also has the other same updated packages to Fedora 22 like the Linux 4.0.2 kernel and GCC 5.1.1.

=> ↺ Attention Fedora 22 prerelease users

=> ↺ Fedora 21 chrooted on an aarch64 Nexus 9

• A while back I bought a Nexus 9, mainly because it has a weird processor that emulates a 64 bit ARM (aarch64). Google seem to have abandoned this platform entirely, just 6 months after I got it, so fuck you too Google. Anyway …

Debian Family

Derivatives

=> ↺ Meet SparkyLinux, a Debian-based Linux distribution

• SparkyLinux features customized lightweight desktops (like E19, LXDE and Openbox), multimedia plugins, selected sets of apps and own custom tools to ease different tasks.

Canonical/Ubuntu

=> ↺ New Linux Kernel Vulnerability Patched in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr)

• After only three days from the last kernel update for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS (Trusty Tahr), Canonical published today details about a recent security flaw that was patched in the Linux kernel packages of the distribution.

=> ↺ Yet Another Convergence Demo: Desktop, Phone And Tablet All Running Ubuntu

• Canonical’s endgame is to create a full desktop-mobile convergent system, to run the same code-base on Ubuntu Desktop, Ubuntu Phone and Internet of Things devices. Also, the user interface is responsive, adjusting itself to fit best the screen.

=> ↺ Is Canonical going to have an IPO?

=> ↺ Ubuntu Touch to Get Improved Desktop Mode with Next Update

• Canonical is preparing a major new update for Ubuntu Touch, but it will take a while until it’s going to be ready. From the looks of it, the devs are preparing some interesting improvements and updates.

=> ↺ NTFS-3G Vulnerability Closed in Ubuntu 15.04

• Details about a NTFS-3G vulnerability that has been found and fixed in Ubuntu 15.04 (Vivid Vervet) have been published by Canonical in a security notice.

Devices/Embedded

Phones

Android

=> ↺ Red Alert! Second-Hand Android Phones May Contain Retrievable Data

• According to the latest research of the Cambridge University, selling your Android phone could put you at risk of losing your most personal information to any stranger.

=> ↺ How to Install Resurrection Remix Android v5.1.1 Lollipop Custom ROM Update on Samsung Galaxy S4 [Tutorial]

=> ↺ Top Android news of the week: Factory reset failures, Note 5, phone calling on the watch

=> ↺ Android M rumored to include update guarantees for supported devices

=> ↺ I spent a week without Android Wear or how I turned into a savage without my smartwatch

• I’ve been living like a savage barbarian the past week and I don’t like it one bit. In fact, my life has been inconvenienced more times than not, it’s been filled with various frustrations, and from time to time certain tasks that were once simple have been much harder.

=> ↺ Android Lollipop 5.2: Update to fix OS issues, and improve battery performance and memory

• Experts have argued that the recently released Android Lollipop is the best performing operating software that Google has ever produced. The software, which was first released in October 2014 and updated with Android 5.1 in February 2015, boasts a sleeker, faster and more beautiful display. Its kinder on the battery and is fit to be used not only on phones and tablets, but also on watches.

=> ↺ [Update: OTA URL] The Nexus 6′s Android 5.1.1 OTA Is Rolling Out Now On T-Mobile (Build LYZ28E)

• We suspected it was going to be released this weekend and here it is, the Android 5.1.1 OTA is starting to roll out to some T-Mobile users. The update’s approval was confirmed by the operator’s product evangelist Des on Twitter and Google+ a few hours ago and it has appeared on T-Mobile’s product support pages.

=> ↺ Quick tip: Get video on demand with Twitch for Android

• Twitch is now offering video-on-demand (VOD) service to users of their mobile apps. However, if you’re using the Android version, you actually need to do more than just receive an update from the Google Play store.

=> ↺ Android M rumors, features, release date, and all we know so far

• In less than a week, San Francisco’s Moscone Center will host Google’s annual I/O developer conference – geeks from all around the world will gather to polish their coding skills and see Google’s latest technologies in action. Needless to say, we’ll be also keeping a close eye at the event as many of the announcements made there will be of great interest to us and our readers. To be more specific, Google is likely to preview a new version of its Android operating system. Major announcements regarding Android Wear, Android TV, and Android Auto, among other Google products and services, are being rumored as well.

=> ↺ Why I am happy downgrading from a $500 to a $75 smartphone

• This phone has a 1.2 Ghz Dual core processor, 1 GB of RAM, 4 GB of internal storage with option to add a microSD card, a 5 megapixels camera and a 4.3 inches 540p display running stock Android.

=> ↺ Jide Remix ultra-tablet with Remix OS

• This 11.6-inch tablet is now listed at Amazon.com for $399,- USD and comes with Remix OS pre-installed. This Remix OS is a heavily tweaked version of Android (version 4.4.2) optimized for desktop use.

=> ↺ Nvidia Shield Tablet Android 5.1 Lollipop Update Improves Responsiveness…

=> ↺ Everything we know about Google’s next massive Android update

• It’s been almost one year since Google officially unveiled its current version of Android, called Lollipop, which means it’s just about time to see what the next major update will bring.

=> ↺ Nexus 6 on T-Mobile starts getting Android 5.1.1 with Wi-Fi calling

• T-Mobile has begun rolling out its Android 5.1.1 update for the Nexus 6. The release was finally approved by Google just two days ago, and it brings Wi-Fi calling as well as plenty of bug fixes.

=> ↺ Clip-on adds gesture control to Pebble Time and Android Wear watches

=> ↺ Google’s Internal Code Name For Android M Is Macadamia Nut Cookie (MNC)

• Google will be unveiling the successor to Lollipop at Google I/O in just a few days, but we won’t get a real name. It will likely just be called Android M until it’s released, but Google has an internal code name just as it did for L and K. It’s called Macadamia Nut Cookie (MNC), a name which is already being referenced in AOSP.

=> ↺ Criminality, banker style

• The Times goes on to point out, however, that besides the criminal label and the fines, nothing much has changed for the banks. In a memo to employees this week, the chief executive of Citi, Michael Corbat, called the criminal behavior “an embarrassment” — a euphemism for crime that wouldn’t pass muster if it were to be expressed by a person accused of benefit fraud, say.

Free Software/Open Source

=> ↺ Akanda Pledges to Keep SDN Tech for OpenStack Open-Source

• Rosendahl emphasized that Akanda was born as open-source software and will remain open-source. From a commercial perspective what Akanda provides to enterprises is support and professional services.

Web Browsers

Mozilla

=> ↺ A New Firefox OS phone

• Last Monday, I bought the phone anyway. I must say that I am very pleased by its performance and very cheap price. One can swap the SIM card to use the phone with another carrier here, too.

=> ↺ Mozilla shifts gears: $25 phones out, Android apps in

=> ↺ Mozilla Changes Firefox OS Strategy Due To Android’s Popularity

• Mozilla’s chief executive announced major switch of strategy to boost Firefox OS market share. Unlike its previous program with focus on price, Firefox will finally deliver “quality.”

SaaS/Big Data

=> ↺ OpenStack Summit Showcases ‘Big Tent’ Plans, Containers and More

=> ↺ How Cisco Enabled Comcast to Be an OpenStack Contributor

=> ↺ OpenStack Governance Bridges and Hierarchies in the ‘Big Tent’

BSD

=> ↺ Linksys NSLU2 adventures into the NetBSD land passed through JTAG highlands – part 1

FSF/FSFE/GNU/SFLC

=> ↺ GCC 6 Gets Support For The IBM z13 Mainframe Server

• The latest GNU Compiler Collection code now has proper optimization targeting/tuning support for the IBM z13.

Openness/Sharing

=> ↺ News for open source virtual reality, popular Linux game distros, and more

Leftovers

Science

=> ↺ 20 First Photos from the History of Photography

• Photography has been a medium of limitless possibilities since it was originally invented in the early 1800s. The use of cameras has allowed us to capture historical moments and reshape the way we see ourselves and the world around us. To celebrate the amazing history of photography and photographic science, we have assembled twenty photographic ‘firsts’ from over the past two centuries.

Defence/Police/Secrecy/Aggression

=> ↺ Fascists Flipping Burgers in Saigon or Stalingrad

• These legends have some fundamental similarities. They are based on deliberate misrepresentations of the war and obfuscation with regard to the interests involved. In order to explain the deceptions behind the Vietnam Syndrome it is necessary to examine the “other war”. Contrary to much official history of US involvement in Indochina—the stuffing of almost all the films made—whether documentary or feature—the war began and ended as a CIA operation. The confusion as to war aims, strategy, tactical and operational effectiveness arise entirely from the fact that more than probably any other war fought with conventional forces—up to that time (except Korea but that war hasn’t ended yet)—the war in Vietnam was initiated, managed, funded, advertised and ultimately waged by the invisible army of US capitalism.

=> ↺ Unlike Chavez, Chavistas Appealed To A Powerless US President Who Works For Investors In Genocide!

• Yet, Obama is known to be just another powerless US president serving war industrialized Wall Street and at present dutifully ordering lethal multi nation bombings.

=> ↺ Congress must not abdicate its duty to authorize or declare war

• Despite the fact that the US plans on conducting airstrikes on Isis in Iraq and Syria for years, the Chicago Tribune reported on Monday that key members in the House and Senate have resigned themselves to the fact that there’s virtually no chance of Congress agreeing on any sort of bill to constrain or legalize the Obama administration’s bombing campaign in the Middle East.

=> ↺ Pentagon sham: Defense Dept altered books in long-awaited audit, reports claim

• The US Defense Department’s watchdog knowingly turned a blind eye to financial irregularities, leading to the Pentagon signing off on an audit. This has led to questions regarding just how transparent the government auditing process actually is.

• A special investigation by Reuters revealed that a senior member of the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Inspector General team had colluded with an independent auditing company, Grant Thornton LLP, to falsely keep the US Marine Corps books clean.

=> ↺ Inside the fall of an Army Green Beret hero

=> ↺ Is the US-UK’s special relationship in decline?

• Is Anglo-America a failed state? In the realm of intelligence and national security, the special relationship is being tested.

• As he spoke to a crowd of Americans, Britain’s defence minister, Michael Fallon, had a US-UK flag pin on his lapel.

• “Just as together we broke the bonds of totalitarianism and tyranny in the Second World War,” he said at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in March, “so we faced down the threat of communism in the cold war”.

=> ↺ TribuneDrones, jets and sovereignty

• There is no independent identification of the casualties or any explanation as to why they were targeted.

=> ↺ Lindsey Graham Literally Says U.S. Drones Should Kill Americans Who Consider Joining ISIS

=> ↺ Lindsey Graham’s comments on drones were very blunt

• It’s springtime, and Republicans are feeling hawkish again. See how Sen. Rand Paul’s views on foreign policy have shifted as he’s adopted a more aggressive stance. It wasn’t that long ago when the Kentucky Republican was staging a talking filibuster against the Obama administration’s drone policy, warning the American people that the president might deploy a drone against an American citizen on American soil without judicial process.

=> ↺ Lindsey Graham Will Drone You for Thinking About Joining ISIS

• At the Lincoln Day Dinner dinner in Des Moines Saturday night, Senator and probable 2016 candidate Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would have no problem droning potential ISIS recruits, and was so excited to do so he reckoned he might could skip the whole due process part.

=> ↺ Women and children targeted by US drones: Pundit

=> ↺ Why Elites Love Drones

• Elites want more violence. They are unconcerned that innocent civilians are killed.

=> ↺ Good Kill – American Sniper with Drones

=> ↺ Drone strikes take a terrible toll in innocent lives

• The truth is that we can never be certain who is in the target zone of any drone strike. Even though drones spent a week watching this compound, it is obvious that drones cannot see everything in the area.

=> ↺ Drone Warfare’s Costs and Benefits

• Lethal drones are President Obama’s weapon of choice in striking at suspected Al-Qaeda terrorists in remote areas, but – as with any weapon of war – there must be a cost-benefit analysis, including whether drone strikes create more enemies than they kill, as ex-CIA analyst Paul R. Pillar explains.

=> ↺ US drone complex bureaucratizes murder

• Machinery of lethal strikes enjoys moral and legal impunity – as intended

=> ↺ Justice Department issues policy on domestic drone use

• The Justice Department is acknowledging that the FBI, DEA and other federal law enforcement agencies are likely to make increasing use of unmanned aerial drones in the United States.

=> ↺ The Future of War

• MALE VOICEOVER (Good Kill, Voltage Pictures): The remotely-piloted aircraft is not the future of war. It is the here and now. Make no mistake about it: this ain’t PlayStation. We are killing people.

=> ↺ Why the Drones Keep Firing

• President Obama’s announcement last month that earlier this year a “U.S. counterterrorism operation” had killed two hostages, including an American citizen, has become a fresh occasion for questioning the rationales for continuing attacks from unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at presumed, suspected, or even confirmed terrorists. This questioning is desirable, although not mainly for hostage-related reasons connected to this incident. Sometimes an incident has a sufficient element of controversy to stoke debate even though what most needs to be debated is not an issue specific to the incident itself. More fundamental issues about the entire drone program need more attention than they are getting.

=> ↺ Interview: Robotics Professor Noel Sharkey

• TONY JONES, PRESENTER: All this talk of killer drones raises some very profound questions. For instance, are nations more likely to go to war if there’s less risk of their civilians being killed? And what does it mean if you take human decision-making out of the loop? Can a machine tell the difference between a civilian and a combatant?

=> ↺ Mission Unstoppable: Why Is the CIA Running America’s Foreign Policy?

• The programs in question involved such activities as the CIA’s efforts to derail Iran’s nuclear program and the agency’s use of drones to kill militants inside Pakistan. Again, the cracks in Blair’s authority were revealed: The DNI, as determined by the 2004 legislation that created the position, was to be the focal point for intelligence support to the president and other senior government leaders, and was allowed some say in budgetary matters, but was not granted command over any covert missions abroad.

=> ↺ Why can’t we handle the truth?

• Don’t expect any news you read or watch today or in the future to tell you that. The fact that President George W. Bush knowingly lied us into a disastrous war in Iraq cannot be told. Our media systems even now cannot report this story.

=> ↺ Iraq’s phantom army

• These are the choices facing Washington, all stemming from the events of just one weekend. The path of this war has changed, leaving western powers with ever less room for manoeuvre.

=> ↺ 9 depressing predictions for the future of America

• Remind me who, even among opponents and critics of the Bush administration’s invasion of Iraq, ever imagined that the decision to take out Saddam Hussein’s regime and occupy the country would lead to a terror caliphate in significant parts of Iraq and Syria that would conquer social media and spread like wildfire. And yet, don’t think that the future is completely unpredictable either.

=> ↺ Local View: What we knew then

• On top of this evidence, known to the Bush White House but not the general public or Congress, was the public evidence from the international weapons inspectors on the ground in Iraq. They found no WMD, yet the Bush administration insisted the weapons must be there and only by invading Iraq and deposing Saddam Hussein could America be safe.

=> ↺ The War In The Shadows

• In which we examine the shadowy death of democracy, where we’ve come from and where we may still go.

=> ↺ Rachel Maddow slams Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio’s half-assed Iraq answers: “They weren’t duped by the CIA!”

=> ↺ Marco Rubio crashes and burns on Iraq question, says war was “not a mistake”

• So when Jeb Bush gave four answers in four days last week to the same question — “Knowing what we know now, would you have invaded Iraq?” — one would expect that his primary opponents realized that they were about to get asked the same question, and spent all of five minutes coming up with a better answer than “yes.”

• If Marco Rubio’s appearance yesterday on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace is any indication, he did not take those five minutes.

=> ↺

• Yet plans call for guns-blazing war games on Pagan at least 16 weeks a year. Hundreds of Marines, potentially joined by troops from Japan, Australia and South Korea, would storm ashore in landing craft, firing mortars and small arms, backed by naval bombardments, swarms of helicopters, drones, fighter jets and perhaps B-52s dropping real bombs.

• The plan has sparked an outpouring of resentment toward the U.S. military, fueled by strong sentiment that Pagan’s future should be determined by the people of the islands, not by Washington.

• “We love our island. We don’t want to give it up,” said Jerome Aldan, the 40-year-old elected mayor of the Northern Mariana Islands. “This proposal is going to turn it into a wasteland.”

• Aldan was 6 when the eruption of Mt. Pagan forced the island’s residents — about 100 families in all — to evacuate 200 miles south to Saipan, capital of the Northern Marianas, a U.S. commonwealth territory. The military, he fears, will turn Pagan into a war zone and kill the families’ decades-old dream of returning.

=> ↺ US Lacks Transparency on Drone Policy Despite Children’s Deaths – NGO

• Pentagon’s admitted partial responsibility in the death of two children was meant to divert attention from more widespread abuses, critics of the US government’s drone strikes claim.

=> ↺ What the accidental drone killing of an American ‘traitor’ says about the power of visual weapons

• This designation, I suggest, was less a reflection of the seriousness of Gadahn’s actions and more an indication of how much they perplexed the state. Gadahn never killed anyone, never blew up a building; the closest he ever came to actual operational significance was when he petitioned bin Laden, offering his services as a media strategist. Ultimately, the real threat was not so much Gadahn as his image. With his undeniable American-ness and (renounced) Jewish heritage, Gadahn confounded prevailing understandings of who “terrorists” are, where they come from and what they look like.

=> ↺ German court to hear case brought by relatives of Yemen drone attack victims

• A German court is to hear a case against the government brought by relatives of victims of a US drone attack in Yemen in a groundbreaking action that has the potential to interrupt the American strikes.

=> ↺ German court to consider evidence from Yemeni drone victim

• A court in Germany is set to take evidence from a Yemeni victim of the USA’s secret drone programme following revelations that military bases on German soil play a key role in the strikes.

• Faisal bin Ali Jaber, an environmental engineer from Sana’a who lost two relatives to a 2012 drone strike, has won the right to have his evidence heard as part of a constitutional claim filed in Germany.

=> ↺ US Drone Program Fails to Reduce Terrorism, Violence

• KnowDrones.com Coordinator Nick Mottern claims that the US Army and Air Force program to use unmanned aerial systems in combat has had catastrophic results because the drones have killed large numbers of civilians, but have not had significant impact on the scale of terrorist activities.

=> ↺ Scrutiny of CIA drones necessary

• No miraculous leap of faith is necessary to believe that U.S. officials did not know that the hostages were at the target site. And, still, it raises the question of whether the CIA really knows who it is killing when it launches strikes.

=> ↺ Saudi-led coalition pounds Yemen rebels in three cities

• Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition pounded Shiite rebels across three Yemeni cities today, as Riyadh reported the death of a Saudi child from cross-border fire.

=> ↺ Two Saudis killed in rocket attacks launched from Yemen – SPA

• Cross border rocket attacks launched from inside Yemen have killed two people in southern Saudi Arabia over the last 24 hours, Saudi Arabia’s state news agency SPA reported on Friday.

• SPA quoted a Civil Defence official in the southwestern province of Jizan as saying that a child was killed and three other children were wounded on Friday in the al-Tawal region.

=> ↺ Whoopi Goldberg mocks ‘dummy’ Lindsey Graham and GOP contenders: They all want to be action heroes

• Whoopi Goldberg lit into Republican presidential candidates on The View on Tuesday for their attempts to sound tough on foreign policy.

• “The Republican candidates are kind of sounding more like action heroes,” Goldberg said. “Chris Christie wants to pump up the military. Marco Rubio says he will find and kill terrorists like Liam Neeson in Taken. You’re too short to be Liam Neeson, find somebody else.”

=> ↺ ‘Children died’ in US air strike

• A US air strike on Syria last year probably killed two children, officials say – the first admission of civilian casualties in the campaign.

• “We regret the unintentional loss of lives,” said Lieutenant General James Terry, head of the US-led campaign.

• US Central Command said the strike on 5-6 November, near Harim City, targeted the al-Qaeda-linked Khorasan Group.

=> ↺ Six Months Later, Pentagon Admits (Maybe) We Killed Some Kids in Syria

• While notable for admitting the possibility it killed two young children, admission called “too little, too late” by expert who says deathtoll of innocent people far exceeds Pentagon statement.

=> ↺ U.S. military and civilians are increasingly divided

• The segregation is so pronounced that it can be traced on a map: Some 49% of the 1.3 million active-duty service members in the U.S. are concentrated in just five states — California, Virginia, Texas, North Carolina and Georgia.

=> ↺ Making sense of Hersh’s Bin Laden blockbuster

• The capture and killing of the world’s most wanted man was always going to be an enthralling story, considering how he challenged and punctured the pride of the sole global superpower as well as evade arrest for a decade before being liquidated.

=> ↺ How Was Bin Laden Killed?

• Some might argue that knowing exactly how Osama bin Laden was killed really doesn’t matter. Some might even argue that he is still alive, which, if nothing else, would demonstrate the persistence of urban legends relating to conspiracies allegedly involving the U.S. government. JFK’s assassination has the grassy knoll and second gunman, plus Mafia, CIA, and Cuban connections as well as a possible Vietnamese angle. 9/11 had the mystery of the collapse of Building 7. More recently still, the Texas State Guard was mobilized to monitor a military training exercise because it was rumored to be a ploy to impose martial law. Demonizing Washington as one large conspiracy is good business all around.

=> ↺ World Bank: Gaza economy on ‘verge of collapse’

• Gaza’s economy is on the “verge of collapse,” a new World Bank report warned Friday, saying the unemployment rate there is now the highest in the world and calling on Israel and international donors to remedy the situation.

=> ↺ FO condemns NWA drone strike

• Pakistan has strongly condemned the US drone strike in North Waziristan on May 16, and has called for cessation of such strikes.

• “Such strikes are a clear violation of Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Foreign Office spokesman Qazi Khalilullah said.

=> ↺ 3 EU nations pledge cooperation on developing ‘Euro-drone’

• Germany, France and Italy have pledged cooperation to jointly develop a “Euro-drone” for intelligence-gathering and surveillance of the skies.

=> ↺ As Long as the War on Terror Continues, There Will be More Dzhokhar Tsarnaevs

• Last week, just over two years since that note was written, a jury sentenced Tsarnaev to death for his role in the bombing. Speaking to the press outside the John J. Moakley courthouse in Boston, U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz said, “We are not intimidated by acts of terror, or radical ideals,” and described the marathon bombing as “a political crime, designed to intimidate and coerce the United States.”

=> ↺ Freedom and Death

• On May 12, 2015, Ananta Bijoy Das (32), a progressive writer, blogger, editor of science fiction magazine Jukti, and an organizer of Gonojagoron Mancha (People’s Resurgence Platform), was hacked to death, using machetes, by four assailants at Subidbazar Bankolapara residential area of Sylhet city, for writing against religious fundamentalism.

=> ↺ Nepal quake death toll becomes highest on record

=> ↺ How Seeing Argo Helped Me Uncover a Top Secret Operation to Save My Dad

• In 1979, my father was arrested and tried as a CIA agent in Iran.

=> ↺ Morsi’s Death Sentence Reminds Us of Our System

• It would be difficult to find a better example of tyranny than the U.S.-supported military dictatorship that has ruled Egypt for decades. In many ways, it mirrors the brutal U.S.-supported military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in Chile. No legislature. No independent judiciary. No due process of law. And lots of round-ups, kidnappings, torture, and execution of people who protest or who just hold the “wrong” beliefs.

=> ↺ Drones best weapon against Al-Qaeda despite collateral damage – ex-CIA deputy

• Drone use against terrorists causes collateral damage, but it remains “the most effective weapon” in the United States’ arsenal, former Deputy Director of the CIA Michael Morell told RT in a wide-ranging interview.

=> ↺ Is U.S. Foreign Policy Making Americans Less Safe?

• In summary, the most likely—though not most lethal—terror threats to Americans come from individuals living within the United States who are partially motivated to undertake self-directed attacks based upon their perception that the United States and the West are at war with the Muslim world.

=> ↺ Secrets, the C.I.A. and The New York Times

• Since 9/11, the United States’ “war on terror” has become the overarching news story of our time.

• As the nation’s dominant news organization, The Times deserves, and gets, intensive scrutiny for how it has handled that story. The grades, clearly, are mixed. Its role in the run-up to the Iraq War has been rightly and harshly criticized. Its early reporting on surveillance, though delayed, was groundbreaking. Its national-security reporting has been excellent in many ways and, at times, is justifiably slammed for allowing too much cover for government officials who want to get their message out.

• Nearly 14 years after 9/11, a reckoning finally is taking place. The Times’s executive editor, Dean Baquet, has said repeatedly in recent months that he thinks it’s time to toughen up and raise the bar.

=> ↺ Matt Taibbi on the Journalist & Politician Cheerleaders for Iraq War, Then & Now

• In this web-only conversation with journalist Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone, we turn to Iraq. He recently wrote a piece for Rolling Stone titled “Forget What We Know Now: We Knew Then Iraq War Was a Joke.” Taibbi wrote the piece after Jeb Bush’s infamous interview on Fox News. Megyn Kelly asked Bush “knowing what we know now, would you have authorized the invasion?” Bush responded, “I would have.” Jeb Bush later reversed his stance.

=> ↺ VIDEO: Former CIA Deputy Director Grilled on Falsehoods That Led to Iraq War

• In a heated 10-minute exchange, MSNBC host Chris Matthews confronts CIA Deputy Director Mike Morrell with the question of why, during the run-up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq, he let Vice President Dick Cheney get away with saying Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein was building nuclear weapons.

=> ↺ Ex-CIA Official, Intel Briefer: Bush Admin Made False Claims on Iraq

• A former top CIA official and intelligence briefer to President George W. Bush before the Iraq War has acknowledged Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney falsely presented information to the public. In an interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, Michael Morell was asked about Cheney’s claim that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons.

=> ↺ Here’s how George W. Bush handled the big question that’s dogging Jeb

• Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R) could learn a lesson from his older brother on how to field questions about the Bush family political dynasty.

=> ↺ Ex-CIA Leader Endorses Freedom Act and Mass Collection of Email Metadata

• Michael Morell, twice acting director of the CIA and a member of President Barack Obama’s five-member surveillance review panel, said he supports the latest version of the USA Freedom Act, which backers say would end the dragnet collection of domestic call records.

=> ↺ The CIA is dropping Burmese bombs on China

• Mystery bombs have fallen twice on China, from Myanmar. The first time, March 13, killed five Chinese and injured eight. On May 14th, another one was dropped, injuring five villagers.

=> ↺ Turkey Hires Ex-CIA Director to Lobby US Congress

=> ↺ Ex-CIA director hired by Turkey

• Goss registered through Dickstein Shapiro law firm which is his new employer. The company has long-lasting relations with the Turkish government in its turn.

=> ↺ Cheney Thought al Qaeda was Bluffing

• So it’s not just that Cheney is cartoonishly evil, it’s that he’s monstrously incompetent; in fact, his monstrous incompetence is a large part of why he’s so cartoonishly evil. He was overwhelmingly powerful, but with no understanding of reality, and so blundered around the world strewing destruction wherever he went.

Transparency Reporting

=> ↺ Ralph Nader on Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Bid & His Unanswered Letters to the White House

• Since independent Senator Bernie Sanders announced his presidential candidacy in April, polls in Iowa show support there for him has increased to 15 percent among Democrats, up from five percent in February. This compares to about 60 percent backing for former secretary of state, senator and first lady Hillary Clinton. Sanders is the longest-serving independent member of Congress in U.S. history, yet he is going to run in the Democratic Party for the Democratic nomination. We discuss Sanders’ plans with former presidential candidate, Ralph Nader, author of the new book, “Return to Sender: Unanswered Letters to the President, 2001-2015.”

=> ↺ Murderous spooks drive journalism project to WikiLeaks

• Just two weeks after its launch, Transparency Toolkit’s ICWatch project, which documents more than 100,000 job profiles associated with the US “intelligence community” has been rehoused at WikiLeaks due to death threats and DDoS attacks on its infrastructure.

=> ↺ Bernie Sanders has been against the CIA’s role in destroying democracy since his early days

• As Independent Senator Bernie Sanders ramps up his campaign for the presidency, his focus has been on issues like economic inequality, the corrupting influence of money in politics, and stopping global climate change. Yet questions have remained about his views on the realm of policy most relevant to the commander in chief’s job: foreign affairs.

• A televised CSPAN interview Sanders gave in 1989, when he was mayor of Burlington, Vermont, offers a look into his thinking about the world. At one point, the interviewer asked Sanders about the distinction between socialism in Latin American countries and the authoritarian government of the Soviet Union.

=> ↺ Treat leakers like Edward Snowden, David Petraeus equally

• Earlier this month, a federal judge sentenced Jeffrey Sterling, a former CIA analyst convicted of leaking information about a secret anti-Iran plot, to three-and-half years in prison. It was a strikingly heavy sentence. If it were part of a serious crackdown on all government employees who violate their oaths, it might be justifiable. Instead, it is something quite different: further evidence of the wildly different ways leakers are treated, depending on who they are.

=> ↺ The war on whistleblowers continues

• Even worse, the feds claimed that Sterling, who is black, did it out of resentment over a failed racial discrimination lawsuit against the agency — in effect using Sterling’s willingness to stand up for his rights against him.

=> ↺ A case of ‘selective prosecution’?

• There were no Blacks on the jury, and according to Mr. Solomon, “the evidence presented by the prosecution was circumstantial email and phone call metadata without content of any incriminating nature.”

• Despite pledging to be the most transparent presidential administration, Pres. Obama has expanded Bush era surveillance techniques, and has used the Espionage Act more than all previous administrations combined.

=> ↺ Louis: Clinton emails — A mix of conflicts?

• The mere fact that Hillary Clinton’s official emails were kept on her personal computer system is turning out to be one of the least important things about them. What matters most about this first batch of messages released by the State Department is that they reveal Clinton, as secretary of state, at the center of a tangled web of connections and conflicts of interest between public and private actors.

=> ↺ Clinton’s Benghazi emails show correspondence with adviser

• The messages show the role played by Sidney Blumenthal, who was working for the Clinton family foundation and advising a group of entrepreneurs trying to win business from the Libyan transitional government. Blumenthal repeatedly wrote dispatches about the events in Libya to Clinton, who often forwarded them to her aides at the State Department.

=> ↺ Britain hid secret MI6 plan to break up Libya from US, Hillary Clinton told by confidant

• Britain acted deceitfully in Libya and David Cameron authorised an MI6 plan to “break up” the country, a close confidante of Hillary Clinton claimed in a series of secret reports sent to the then-secretary of state.

• Sidney Blumenthal, a long-time friend of the Clintons, emailed Mrs Clinton on her personal account to warn her that Britain was “game playing” in Libya.

• Mr Blumenthal had no formal role in the US State Department and his memos to Mrs Clinton were sourced to his own personal contacts in the Middle East and Europe.

=> ↺ Alegedly US Officials Leak Worse Than Whistleblowers

• Unnamed US officials allegedly disclosed very sensitive information in a report on raid in Syria, published by New York Times.

Environment/Energy/Wildlife

=> ↺ Women and Biodiversity Feed the World, Not Corporations and GMOs

• The two great ecological challenges of our times are biodiversity erosion and climate change. And both are interconnected, in their causes and their solutions.

• Industrial agiculture is the biggest contributor to biodiversity erosion as well as to climate change. According to the United Nations, 93% of all plant variety has disappeared over the last 80 years.

=> ↺ Pesticides offer bees a risky allure

• Bees flit from flower to flower dining on nectar. Sometimes that nectar may contain traces of widely used pesticides. Yet the bees are unlikely to know which nectar is tainted. Indeed, they can’t taste these pesticides, a new study finds. However, the pesticides are similar to nicotine. This can encourage the bees to come back for more. And especially troubing: A second new study suggests the pesticides can harm some wild bees.

=> ↺ Survivor bees

• “We need that relationship with bees,” says author and beekeeper Crowder. “That’s how we need nature. We can’t live without nature and bees help us recognize that connection.”

=> ↺ The CIA Is Shuttering a Secretive Climate Research Program?

• So gushes Mother Jones, adding the enticing word “exclusive” to the story. But – weirdly enough, for a confection of spying and science reporting, both of which are normally so reliable – this appears to be a bit garbled. Firstly, the “climate research programme” looks to be more like the CIA had allowed civilian scientists to access classified data—such as ocean temperature and tidal readings gathered by Navy submarines and topography data collected by spy satellites. So, not CIA research at all: just data sharing. And presumably not CIA data mostly; if this is stuff routinely gathered by Navy subs, its presumably Navy data; which the CIA had been given the job of giving out? Hard to be sure. National Journal seems to support my interpretation.

=> ↺ CIA shuts down program using spy satellites to track climate change

• For most of the past two decades, a handful of climate change scientists have had the CIA’s MEDEA (Measurement of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis) program as an ace in the hole: they could draw on classified info from spy satellites and subs to study global warming in extreme detail. However, they’ll now have to make do with alternatives. The agency has shut down MEDEA, saying that its projects to study the security implications of climate change “have been completed.” While the CIA says it’ll still “engage external experts” on the subject, it won’t be providing consistent access to its extremely accurate and rare data.

=> ↺ The CIA Is Shutting Down Its Secretive Climate Change Research Project

• The Central Intelligence Agency has announced that it’s closing down MADEA, a decades-old research program that shared classified information with scientists to study how climate change might exacerbate global security risks.

=> ↺ CIA ends climate research program after Obama calls climate change a security risk

• Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis, or Medea, which began in the 1990s, allowed civilian scientists access to classified satellite data. The program was scrapped under former President George W. Bush, but reconstituted in 2010 under president Obama.

=> ↺ Britain sends biggest warship for NATO drills on Russian border

• Britain is ramping up its military rhetoric, sending its biggest warship for NATO drills in the Baltic, right off the Russian coast, in this latest show of force. The drills kick off on June 5 and will last for two weeks.

• The helicopter carrier HMS Ocean is expected to reach Russia’s city of Kaliningrad sometime this week, carrying aboard about 80 Royal Marines who are to join other NATO troops in Poland, the Sunday Times reports.

Finance

=> ↺ Bank of England’s EU exit strategy leaked to national newspaper – by its head of press

• A senior official at the Bank of England “inadvertently” sent research assessing the economic dangers of the UK leaving the European Union to an editor at a national newspaper.

• The Bank was left in an embarrassing situation on Friday after it accidentally emailed details – including how to fend off inquiries related to the report – directly to the Guardian newspaper.

PR/AstroTurf/Lobbying

=> ↺ Ira Glass Clarifies That Public Radio Is Ready for the GOOD Kind of Capitalism

• The context was “Hearing Is Believing,” an event sponsored by NPR and member stations WNYC and WBEZ to pitch public radio (and its podcasts) as an advertising vehicle (American Community Radio, 5/12/15).

=> ↺ Jeff Bezos’ Paper Assures Us System Isn’t Rigged for Amazon

• Actually, Border Books did close in large part because the economic system is rigged against ordinary Americans. One of the main reasons Amazon has been able to grow as rapidly as it did is that Amazon has not been required to collect the same sales tax as its brick-and-mortar competitors in most states for most of its existence. The savings on sales tax almost certainly exceeded its cumulative profits since it was founded in 1994.

• While there is no policy rationale to exempt businesses from the obligation to collect sales tax because they are internet-based, this exemption has allowed Amazon to become a huge company and made its founder, Jeff Bezos, one of the richest people in the world.

• Oh yeah—Jeff Bezos now owns the Washington Post.

=> ↺ War Propaganda. “Planting Stories” in the News Chain

• The most powerful component of the Fear and Disinformation Campaign (FDI) rests with the CIA, which, secretly subsidizes authors, journalists and media critics, through a web of private foundations and CIA sponsored front organizations. The CIA also influences the scope and direction of many Hollywood productions. Since 9/11, one third of Hollywood productions are war movies. “Hollywood stars and scriptwriters are rushing to bolster the new message of patriotism, conferring with the CIA and brainstorming with the military about possible real-life terrorist attacks.” “The Sum of All Fears” directed by Phil Alden Robinson, which depicts the scenario of a nuclear war, received the endorsement and support of both the Pentagon and the CIA.

=> ↺ The Infernal Cocktail Party Corruption of Washington’s Elite Media

• In particular, Allen frequently documents how intimately and seamlessly connected the members of the media aristocracy are with other members of Washington’s ruling elite, whether they come from the intelligence community, the super-wealthy, big banks, the lobbying community, or top levels of government.

=> ↺ Fox News confused about whether Allah and God are the same

=> ↺ The Accidental Operative

• Here is the shocking story of how the niece of former CIA director Richard Helms became an intermediary for the Taliban in Afghanistan and relayed an offer by the Taliban to the US government for the surrender of Osama Bin Laden months before the 9/11 attacks. The offer was refused. This story, written by my friend and Cockburn’s old partner at the Village Voice, James Ridgeway, and Camelia Fard, was published in the Voice on June 12, 2001, and promptly vanished from the cultural memory after 9/11. In the wake of Seymour Hersh’s recent revelations, Ridgeway asked me to re-run the article on CounterPunch. I was very happy to oblige him. It’s an astounding read. –Jeffrey St. Clair

=> ↺ The Misinformation Burnout. Media Fatigue with “Islamism” and “Terrorism”

• Every nation must create a bogey man or a group to crucify and persecute, in order to unify the public behind their leaders, help them act out their collective aggression, and dodge the important domestic issues that plague the day.

Censorship

=> ↺ The founder of ‘Russia’s Facebook’ explains how the Kremlin took his company away

• The founder of Russia’s most popular social network recently described to Mashable how he chose to flee his native Moscow after Kremlin loyalists wrested control of the company away from him.

=> ↺ Russian Dissident Looks to Raise ‘Rebel Army’ in Ukraine to Overthrow Putin

=> ↺ Russia Warns Google, Twitter and Facebook on Law Violations

• Russia’s media watchdog has written to Google, Twitter and Facebook warning them against violating Russian Internet laws and a spokesman said on Thursday they risk being blocked if they do not comply with the rules.

• Roskomnadzor said it had sent letters this week to the three US-based Internet firms asking them to comply with Internet laws which critics of President Vladimir Putin have decried as censorship.

Privacy

=> ↺ Paranoid defence controls could criminalise teaching encryption

• You might not think that an academic computer science course could be classified as an export of military technology. But under the Defence Trade Controls Act – which passed into law in April, and will come into force next year – there is a real possibility that even seemingly innocuous educational and research activities could fall foul of Australian defence export control laws.

=> ↺ NSA bulk phone records collection to end despite USA Freedom Act failure

• Even as the Senate remains at an impasse over the future of US domestic surveillance powers, the National Security Agency will be legally unable to collect US phone records in bulk by the time Congress returns from its Memorial Day vacation.

=> ↺ McConnell can’t save the NSA’s surveillance program

• Dysfunction in Congress has gotten so bad it might end up actually doing some good: the NSA’s mass surveillance powers under the Patriot Act are now on the verge of expiring after a dramatic 1am vote in the Senate on Saturday morning.

=> ↺ The Senate Fails to Reform NSA Spying, Votes Against USA Freedom Act

• A last-minute bid to reform NSA spying before lawmakers break for a week-long recess failed early Saturday morning after hours of debate and filibuster overnight when Senate lawmakers voted 57-42 against the USA Freedom Act.

=> ↺ US Senate blocks bill to end NSA phone data collection

• The US Senate has blocked a bill that would have ended the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records by the National Security Agency (NSA).

=> ↺ USA Freedom Act fails as senators reject bill to scrap NSA bulk collection

• Bill fails for the second time after vote in the small hours of Saturday morning, but Rand Paul thwarts Republican leaders’ attempts to extend Patriot Act

=> ↺ Last night NSA scare tactics finally stopped working

• There was drama in the Senate last night, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell struggled to extend a Patriot Act provision that supporters say allows the government to conduct mass surveillance of Americans’ calling records. (Opponents think the program is illegal regardless, but the legislative provision has become a focal point for the fight over the larger issue.) But his fellow Kentucky Republican senator, Rand Paul, led the charge to stop him.

=> ↺ Senate blocks House surveillance bill, 2-month extension

• The Senate struggled unsuccessfully to prevent an interruption in critical government surveillance programs early Saturday, blocking a House-passed bill and several short-term extensions of the USA Patriot Act.

• The main stumbling block was a House-passed provision to end the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of domestic phone records. Instead, the records would remain with telephone companies subject to a case-by-case review.

=> ↺ Snowden latest: NSA planned sneak attacks on Android app stores

=> ↺ NSA wants to hack your Android phone

=> ↺ NSA planned to infect phones with malware via Google Play store

=> ↺ ‘German intelligence dependent on NSA’ – Berlin’s spy chief

=> ↺ For US allies, paradigm shift in intelligence collection

=> ↺ Opinion: An ex-NSA chief and ACLU adviser can agree on surveillance reform. Why can’t Congress?

• Former National Security Agency Director Keith Alexander and law professor Geoffrey Stone say it’s time for Congress to put politics aside and act quickly to reform surveillance laws in order to protect American privacy and maintain an intelligence edge.

=> ↺ NSA ruling reveals the harm of secrecy to the nation

• It took a federal appeals court 97 pages to explain why the post-9/11 Congress, in allowing the National Security Agency to seize business records “relevant” to a terrorism investigation, hadn’t authorized the agency to scoop up records of every telephone call made in the United States.

=> ↺ John Oliver Explained His Very Special Feelings About NSA Reform on Last Week Tonight

• Before explaining how “farming chickens is like hooking up with James Franco,” due to the increasingly bizarre demands of chicken companies, Oliver talked about the latest on the USA Freedom Act, designed to curtail aspects of the NSA’s surveillance. Oliver had dived into the subject during his recent interview with Edward Snowden, but now some of the reforms he had advocated for have passed in the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has been reluctant to take up the bill, saying he would prefer brief extensions of the current system, an idea Oliver compared to the excuses someone makes to try and stave off a breakup. Meanwhile, the fact that a federal appeals court ruled that the NSA had never had the legal authority for its phone data collection at all inspired a more tactile analogy from Oliver.

=> ↺ NSA may need to begin winding down surveillance program this week

• A bitter ideological divide in Congress appeared destined Wednesday to at least temporarily end the bulk collection of Americans’ phone records as government officials warned they would have to begin shuttering the program after Friday if lawmakers do not act.

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: ‘If I Had Taken [the NSA] Documents to Congress, I Would’ve Gone to Jail’

• Addressing an audience at Stanford University via video chat on Friday, Edward Snowden discussed the moral conundrums he faced as a whistleblower. He also revealed the fears he still harbors about government surveillance, and he made some recommendations on how authorities should address whistleblowers and surveillance.

=> ↺ ‘I have to work a lot harder’ in Russia than at NSA – Edward Snowden

• Whistleblower Edward Snowden says he has been working harder and doing more significant things while in exile in Russia than he did while being a contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA).

=> ↺ Sen. Rand Paul Ends ‘Filibuster’ Over NSA Surveillance Program

• Paul says collecting the records is an assault on civil liberties.

=> ↺ On NSA Spying, Bernie Sanders, Not Elizabeth Warren, Is Pushing Hillary Clinton Left

• The Left’s favorite foil to an often-moderate Hillary Clinton has remained quiet on NSA reform.

=> ↺ Choose Deutsche Telekom for all your bargain spying needs

• An Austrian newspaper has published what it claims is evidence that Deutsche Telekom spied on Vienna for German spooks for the miserly sum of just €6,500 a year.

=> ↺ One in Three Germans Feels Deceived by Merkel Over NSA Spying Scandal

• A third of Germans believe Chancellor Angela Merkel intentionally lied when she vowed to end US spying on Germany, in a bid to shield herself from criticism ahead of the 2013 general election, a poll has shown.

=> ↺ NSA had ‘particular interest’ in Dutch internet traffic

• An Austrian green party politician is claiming the American secret service NSA had a particular interest in the Netherlands and that it was top of a NSA priority list.

=> ↺ Political Junkies: TPP, NSA, Police Militarization

=> ↺ Burr Preps NSA Backup Plan as House Threatens to Leave Town

• Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr is working on a “backup” plan to extend the Patriot Act’s surveillance authorities before they expire at the end of the month, even as House leaders threaten to jam the Senate with their spying-reform bill.

=> ↺ On Civil Liberties, the NSA Is a Latter-Day King George

• In an appearance on “The Campaign With Ernie Powell,” a radio show that deals with the question of how progressives can win political campaigns, Truthdig Editor-in-Chief Robert Scheer says the NSA is engaged in the same invasive behavior “that sparked the American Revolution.”

=> ↺ NSA Program has Long Converted Voice to Searchable Text

• …NSA has had the ability to transcribe the contents of phone call conversations into written—and searchable—formats…

=> ↺ Six tips for protecting your smartphone from hackers and the NSA

=> ↺ 140 companies write letter to Obama against NSA snooping

=> ↺ Reporting on the NSA Before It Was Cool

• As a reporter who covered the National Security Agency before before the Edward Snowden documents brought it to the mainstream, Patrick Radden Keefe of The New Yorker says it would be easy to feel jealous of the journalists breaking those stories now. “But I’ve sort of moved on,” Keefe says, “and I watch those stories with great interest.”

=> ↺ Edward Snowden: my work is not finished – video interview

• NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden speaks exclusively to the Guardian about why he’s working harder now than ever before; how good it feels to be a ‘small part of something important’; and why he believes there is still so much more he wants to accomplish. In regards to people’s privacy, he argues that it is about more than just changing laws and systems, but actually people’s values

=> ↺ US plotted to find Osama bin Laden by concealing tracking devices in medical supplies: report

• The United States plotted to find Osama bin Laden by concealing tracking devices in medical supplies, possibly through Red Cross hospitals, according to a report citing documents leaked by former security contractor Edward Snowden.

=> ↺ Suddenly it looks like we could have done with Osama bin Laden staying alive

• What an old softee he was, compared to the throat-cutting killers of the “Islamic State”. The black-bannered executioners are back at work in Ramadi and Palmyra and yet, back from the dead, old bin Laden returns once more, fished out of the Indian Ocean (if he was ever there) for one final re-appearance. He loves his wife, he wants his son to take over the whole al-Qaeda outfit, he studies – if he can read English – Noam Chomsky.

=> ↺ Germany’s SPD notches up pressure on Merkel to divulge U.S. spy list

• Chancellor Angela Merkel is coming under increasing pressure to divulge a list of targets, including the IP addresses of individual computers, that German intelligence tracked on behalf of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).

• Critics have accused Merkel’s staff of giving the BND foreign intelligence agency the green light to help the NSA spy on European firms and officials, triggering a scandal that has dented the chancellor’s popularity.

=> ↺ GCHQ’s Rainbow Lights: Exploiting Social Issues for Militarism and Imperialism

• Over the weekend, the British surveillance agency GCHQ — the most extremist and invasive in the West — bathed its futuristic headquarters with rainbow-colored lights “as a symbol of the intelligence agency’s commitment to diversity” and to express solidarity with “International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia and Biphobia.” GCHQ’s public affairs office proudly distributed the above photograph to media outlets.

=> ↺ Apple and Google Just Attended a Confidential Spy Summit in a Remote English Mansion

• At an 18th-century mansion in England’s countryside last week, current and former spy chiefs from seven countries faced off with representatives from tech giants Apple and Google to discuss government surveillance in the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks.

=> ↺ Apple, Google attend spy summit to talk aftermath of Snowden’s leaks

• Apple, Google and Vodafone reportedly attended highly confidential meetings with spy chiefs from seven countries last week to discuss the aftermath of Edward Snowden’s leaks.

• As Digital Spy reports citing The Intercept, executives from the firms debated privacy and security with the likes of the CIA, GCHQ and other spy agency chiefs of past and present from Australia, Canada, France, Germany and Sweden.

• The group attended the three-day conference organised by the Ditchley Foundation in an 18th-century mansion in Oxfordshire, where questions where raised about mass surveillance and intelligence operations, brought on by Snowden’s whistleblowing activities since the summer of 2013.

=> ↺ Apple and Google met with spy chiefs at an 18th-century mansion in England to secretly discuss government surveillance

=> ↺ ‘The Google execs, the journalists, plus Brit and US spybosses in a cosy mansion confab’

• The attendee list is impressive. Key speakers apparently included former acting CIA boss John McLaughlin; former White House deputy chief of staff Mona Sutphen, the current and former heads of the UK’s GCHQ; the current or former heads of intelligence agencies in Britain, France, Canada, Australia, and Germany; and the EU’s counter terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove.

=> ↺ Apple and Google Execs met in English mansion to secretly discuss government surveillance plans

=> ↺ US Conducts High Risk Surveillance Into Chinese Claimed Territories

• United States has conducted a series of dangerous surveillance missions over a series of islands that Beijing is using to expand its regional influence. On Wednesday, a U.S. surveillance plane was detected by the Chinese Navy and was warned eight times.

=> ↺ Former Diplomat: US Has Right to Fly Over South China Sea

=> ↺ What Does Blumenthal Know About Obama?

• When Hillary Clinton was running against Barack Obama for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Blumenthal was acting as a Hillary adviser and circulated a memorandum about Obama’s communist connections. The political left was shocked.

=> ↺ Book reveals Gregg’s life in two Koreas

• Whenever Donald Gregg, former U.S. ambassador to South Korea [...] worked for the Central Intelligence Agency for 31 years, details in his succinct memoir the journey he has traveled as a politician, through Southeast and Northeast Asia, and the halls of power in Washington D.C. He spent ten years in the White House under George H. W. Bush, Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan.

Civil Rights

=> ↺ U.S. Ties with Mexico’s Military Have Never Been Closer: An Interview with Jesse Franzblau

• Unfortunately, all is not what it seems. As Jesse Franzblau reminds us, some of the aid has gone to rights-violating security units and even fallen into the hands of the cartels.

=> ↺ Cleveland officer not guilty over deaths of two people shot at 137 times by police

• A Cleveland police officer who stood on the hood of a car and fired his gun 49 times through the windshield at two unarmed passengers has been found not guilty on two counts of voluntary manslaughter.

• Michael Brelo was also found not guilty of felonious assault, and discharged.

• On Saturday morning, Cuyahoga County judge John P O’Donnell said prosecutors failed to prove without a reasonable doubt that bullets fired by officer Brelo were the cause of death of Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, or that Brelo had no fear for his own life during the volley of gunfire that ended a high-speed car chase on 29 November 2012.

=> ↺ “War On Cops”: Fox News Abandons Its Catchphrase When Bike Gangs Threaten Police

• After African-American communities in Baltimore and Ferguson, MO came together to demonstrate against the deadly and racially disparate policies of law enforcement, Fox News branded the protests a “war on cops.” But when the story became a mostly white Texas biker gang plotting to kill police with grenades and car bombs, the network took a decidedly less sensationalist approach in its reporting.

=> ↺ 12 worst ideas religion has unleashed on the world: Conflict, cruelty and suffering — not love and peace

• Chosen People –The term “Chosen People” typically refers to the Hebrew Bible and the ugly idea that God has given certain tribes a Promised Land (even though it is already occupied by other people). But in reality many sects endorse some version of this concept. The New Testament identifies Christians as the chosen ones. Calvinists talk about “God’s elect,” believing that they themselves are the special few who were chosen before the beginning of time. Jehovah’s witnesses believe that 144,000 souls will get a special place in the afterlife. In many cultures certain privileged and powerful bloodlines were thought to be descended directly from gods (in contrast to everyone else).

• Religious sects are inherently tribal and divisive because they compete by making mutually exclusive truth claims and by promising blessings or afterlife rewards that no competing sect can offer. “Gang symbols” like special haircuts, attire, hand signals and jargon differentiate insiders from outsiders and subtly (or not so subtly) convey to both that insiders are inherently superior.

=> ↺ How Somalia’s Al Shabaab Turned Against Its Own Foreign Fighters”

• U.S. COUNTERTERRORISM AGENCIES have long been preoccupied with the threat posed by the recruiting successes of the Somali terrorist group al Shabaab in Western countries. The group has managed to lure hundreds of foreign fighters — including some 40 Americans — to Somalia through online propaganda videos and word-of-mouth in disaffected immigrant communities.

=> ↺ Disarming warrior cops

• The American Civil Liberties Union found that the value of military equipment used by American police departments has risen from $1m in 1990 to nearly $450m in 2013. Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams (ie, paramilitary police units) were deployed about 3,000 times in 1980 but are now used around 50,000 times a year, often to handle relatively modest crimes, like breaking up poker games. Incidents of police violence and related protests in the past year have helped bring these practices to light.

=> ↺ Obama’s Ban on Military Gear for Police Won’t Fix the Real Problem

• American cities resemble war zones during times of protest. Now, Washington’s going to try to fix this problem by rolling back a 25-year-old program that supplied local police forces with free surplus military gear. It’s about damn time—but unfortunately, it’s not going to solve America’s police problems.

=> ↺ Militarization Is More Than Tanks and Rifles: It’s a Cultural Disease, Acclimating the Citizenry to Life in a Police State

• Only now—after the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security (DHS) and Defense have passed off billions of dollars worth of military equipment to local police forces, after police agencies have been trained in the fine art of war, after SWAT team raids have swelled in number to more than 80,000 a year, after it has become second nature for local police to look and act like soldiers, after communities have become acclimated to the presence of militarized police patrolling their streets, after Americans have been taught compliance at the end of a police gun or taser, after lower income neighborhoods have been transformed into war zones, after hundreds if not thousands of unarmed Americans have lost their lives at the hands of police who shoot first and ask questions later, after a whole generation of young Americans has learned to march in lockstep with the government’s dictates—only now does President Obama lift a hand to limit the number of military weapons being passed along to local police departments.

=> ↺ Submersible drones to render Australia’s new submarines obsolete: Pentagon adviser

• A key Pentagon adviser is warning Australia that its next submarine fleet purchase may be obsolete as a result of game-changing technology breakthroughs in drone warfare.

=> ↺ Rick Perry, as president, would authorize ‘enhanced interrogation techniques’

• Former Texas Governor Rick Perry today said, as president, it would be “inhumane” not to employ controversial “enhanced interrogation techniques” like waterboarding if a terror suspect might give up critical information that would save lives.

=> ↺ Cornel West, Eddie Conway and Rev. Sekou on Building a Mass Movement

• Three leaders of the struggle discuss the lessons of the 60′s and what’s needed today.

=> ↺ Russia Confirms S-400 SAM System for China

• Last month, the Russian MoD announced that servicemen from a newly re-equipped S-400 regiment deployed in the Far East had conducted missile launches in the Kapustin Yar firing range. “The servicemen succeeded in destroying drones that emulated a modern means of aerial attack,” the MoD said. Several regiments deployed in the Far East are scheduled to take delivery of new S-400s, replacing S-300s.

=> ↺ A Disaster Waiting to Happen:

• Western military intervention is not the way to solve the ISIS crisis. Thus far it has made few gains against the group and ISIS is still strong – despite the coalition being at war against them since the U.S. began carrying out airstrikes in August of last year. The coalition has gone on more than 3,700 bombing runs in Iraq and Syria but still ISIS holds important territories such as Mosul in Iraq and Deir Ezzor in Syria.

=> ↺ The CIA and the Myths of the Bin Laden Raid

• You probably have, and it was called Zero Dark Thirty, the film directed by Kathryn Bigelow, written by Mark Boal and backed with gusto by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA provided Bigelow and Boal with privileged access to officials and operators behind the hunt for Osama bin Laden — and not coincidently, their movie portrayed the CIA’s torture program as essential to the effort to find and kill the leader of al Qaeda. It grossed more than $132 million worldwide.

=> ↺ Secrets, Politics and Torture

=> ↺ What the CIA Did to Its Detainees

=> ↺ ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Was Filled With CIA Lies

=> ↺ A US senator walked out of ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ after 15 minutes because it was so ‘false’

=> ↺ “Frontline” broadcast documents CIA torture program

=> ↺ ‘Capture, detain, interrogate’: CIA ‘propaganda’ fed to US public examined in documentary

=> ↺ TV Review: Frontline’s ‘Secrets, Politics and Torture’

=> ↺ ‘Frontline’s’ Episode On Torture Makes A Case That ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ Was Government Propaganda

=> ↺ Michael Kirk On ‘Secrets, Politics and Torture’

=> ↺ “It was a toe-to-toe, behind-the-scenes battle”: Inside the war over the CIA torture report

=> ↺ PBS Documentary Weighs Claims On CIA’s Detainee Interrogation Programs

=> ↺ Does Torture Work?

=> ↺ Frontline Doc Takes on How Zero Dark Thirty Gave ‘CIA Version of History’

=> ↺ CIA Molded Film ‘Zero Dark Thirty’, Suggests PBS Documentary

=> ↺ ‘CIA put positive spin on torture for the movie Zero Dark Thirty’

=> ↺ How the CIA helped make ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ — and shape the torture debate

=> ↺ CIA Leaked Torture Details to ‘Zero Dark’ Filmmakers to Make It Look Like It Worked: Frontline

=> ↺ Why You Never Saw The CIA’s Interrogation Tapes

• That’s because the CIA was in possession of something that was potentially more explosive than the detainee abuse photos: hundreds of hours of videotaped “enhanced interrogations” of two Al Qaeda suspects in CIA detention, that included the use of techniques widely described as torture.

=> ↺ CIA Destroyed Torture Tapes Due to Fear of Backlash

=> ↺ I Went to Prison for Exposing the CIA’s Torture Program. Why Are the People Responsible for It Walking Free?

• After I blew the whistle on the CIA’s torture program in 2007, the fallout for me was brutal. To make a long story short, I served nearly two years in federal prison and then endured a few more months of house arrest.

• What happened to the torture program? Nothing.

• Following years of waiting for the government to do something, I was heartened when I read in my prison cell—in a four-day-old copy of The New York Times—that the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had finally released in December a heavily censored summary of its report on the CIA’s brutal “enhanced interrogation” techniques.

=> ↺ Judge Won’t Give Public Access to Senate Report on CIA Torture

=> ↺ Judge Won’t Give Public Access to Senate Report on CIA Torture

=> ↺ Court rules to keep classified ‘torture’ docs secret

• A district court judge on Wednesday blocked an effort by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to force the CIA to turn over classified records about brutal interrogation programs the agency used to run.

• While a 500-page declassified version of the Senate Intelligence Committee’s “torture report” was released last December, the full, 6,900-page version remains classified. So does a controversial set of CIA documents created as part of an internal review started by former Director Leon Panetta.

=> ↺ Court Follows Shutdown Of Jason Leopold’s Torture Report FOIA Request By Denying Same To ACLU

=> ↺ Court sides with CIA, ‘torture’ reports to stay secret

• The CIA can keep secret a nearly 7,000-page Senate report on harsh interrogation methods, as well as an internal agency review, a federal judge has ruled.

• The complete 6,963-page report compiled by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and the related “Panetta review,” are exempt from the dictates of the Freedom of Information Act, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg concluded.

=> ↺ Federal court blocks release of CIA torture report

• A US District Court judge has thrown out a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) that sought the release of the full Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report on torture by the Central Intelligence Agency, as well as an internal CIA report commonly referred to as the Panetta Review.

=> ↺ No obligation to release Senate interrogation report, judge rules

=> ↺ DC Court Rules US Can Keep Torture Docs Secret

=> ↺ CIA Torture Report Exempt From FOIA, Can Be Kept Secret, Judge Rules

=> ↺ A CIA Interrogator Said the Agency Punished Him For Cooperating With Torture Probe

=> ↺ Fugitive Facts Escape from APA Headquarters

• A distraught APA spokesperson advised that such facts are extremely dangerous on the loose. She warned that no one should approach them until they have been captured, tranquilized, and defanged by the APA’s public affairs office. “We need to turn them into mere allegations as quickly as possible,” she was overheard telling an unidentified colleague. “Obviously, we can’t refute facts!”

=> ↺ Hoekstra: Ready to give CIA, NSA room to fight terror, but also call them on cover ups

• Speaking to Hoekstra on the side lines of this week’s Israel Bar Association conference in Eilat, it is clear that he stands firmly behind the US using enhanced interrogation or torture techniques (depending who you ask) to extract intelligence information from certain terrorist detainees.

• He also strongly criticizes the US Senate’s December 2014 report that lambasted the techniques as illegal torture.

=> ↺ My Friend Alistair Carmichael

• While I worked for the FCO I saw really nice colleagues, decent men and women I worked with, go along with organising what they knew to be illegal war in Iraq, and with facilitating the torture and extraordinary rendition programmes. Because that was what paid their mortgage, looked after their children, and above all gave them social status as high British diplomats.

=> ↺ Punishing Poland for US Crimes

• While former U.S. officials continue to deny torturing “war on terror” detainees – and President Obama fails to enforce any meaningful accountability – countries from the old Soviet bloc are confronting their complicity in the CIA’s crimes, writes Nat Parry.

=> ↺ Poland Is Building an International Airport at a Former CIA Black Site

=> ↺ Poland’s New Airport is the Latest that Europe Doesn’t Need

• It’s easy to understand why Szymany, a former military airstrip set amid dense forest in northeastern Poland, would have appealed to the CIA. According to reports by European investigators—never formally confirmed by the U.S. or Polish governments—the CIA from 2002 to 2005 used clandestine charter flights to bring “high-value” al-Qaeda suspects to Szymany, where they were interrogated and tortured at a nearby detention center.

=> ↺ Polish Outrage to Paying Victims of CIA Black Sites—and What the Eur Court Said

=> ↺ Poland pays damages to CIA detainees

=> ↺ Poland Pays Compensation to Detainees Held at CIA Black Site

=> ↺ Polish Government Agrees to Pay Victims of CIA Torture

=> ↺ Poland pays damages to men detained in secret CIA prison

=> ↺ Scottish prosecutors demand unredacted CIA torture report to aid investigation

• Prosecutors investigating the use of Scottish airports by the CIA for rendition flights have called for an unredacted copy of the US Senate’s CIA torture report, it has emerged.

• The prosecutors have confirmed that investigations of airports in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen are under way, British anti-torture charity Reprieve revealed on Sunday.

=> ↺ Scottish Police Investigating CIA Torture Flights

• CIA aircraft which were used to transfer prisoners to secret sites around the world in order for them to be subjected to torture are known to have stopped over at Scottish airports – including Edinburgh, Glasgow, Prestwick and Aberdeen.

=> ↺ Scottish Police investigating rendition flights request un-redacted report

• Prosecutors have confirmed that police investigating the use of Scottish airports by CIA ‘rendition’ flights have asked that the US provide them with an un-redacted version of the Senate’s report on the detention and interrogation programme.

=> ↺ Loretta Lynch’s torture problem

• After months of partisan debate, the Senate finally confirmed Loretta Lynch as head of the U.S. Justice Department—but her delayed confirmation was just the beginning of the challenges she will face as attorney general. In addition to the turmoil in Baltimore, Lynch inherited a torture problem.

=> ↺ Torture that degrades an entire nation

• Subsequently, various forms of sexual abuse and sexual humiliation have been a signature of post-September 11 interrogations by US forces.

=> ↺ Man in court on abuse charges, accused of waterboarding boy

• A 30-year-old Michigan man has been arraigned on child abuse charges after authorities say he restrained his girlfriend’s 5-year-old son with belts, leaned him back over a footstool and poured water down his underwear-covered face.

• WEYI-TV (http://bit.ly/1HqkGJm ) says Michael Porter appeared in court Monday, and a judge set a $400,000 for Porter. It’ unknown if he has a lawyer.

=> ↺ McCain can’t end his fight against torture

• When Sen. John McCain’s Detainee Treatment Act was enacted in 2005, I was a junior enlisted Army interrogator getting Arabic language training in California. Two years later, McCain’s law directly impacted the way I conducted my interrogations.

• The Detainee Treatment Act, also called the McCain Amendment, prohibits cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of any prisoner in the custody of the U.S. government and requires military interrogations to be performed in accordance with the U.S. Army Field Manual.

=> ↺ Hacktivist sees too much, FBI lock him up on child-porn charges, produce no evidence

• Matthew DeHart, a veteran from a multi-generational military/intelligence family, ran a Tor hidden service server for his Wow guildies, members of his old army unit, and whistleblowers.

• DeHart once discovered an unencrypted folder of damning documents on his server, which quickly disappeared and was replaced with an encrypted folder of the same size, with the same name. The unencrypted docs detailed an FBI investigation into some very dirty CIA tricks, possibly involving the still-unsolved slew of anthrax-laced letters sent to Congress in 2001. Not long after, DeHart was spooked by a visit from the FBI to one of his contacts, and he destroyed all potentially compromising storage associated with his server.

• That’s when things got weird. DeHart’s house was raided and all his computers and storage were confiscated (his screenshots of the FBi/CIA docs were not caught up in the sweep – they were hidden on thumb-drives in his dad’s gun case). Eventually he was indicted on charges of inciting a minor to produce sexually explicit images, though the FBI found no evidence that he’d ever done this, or possessed the images in question.

=> ↺ The Case Against Matt DeHart

• Matt DeHart, a former drone analyst, might have seen something the FBI didn’t want him to see, and it wasn’t kiddie porn.

• [...]

• DeHart’s apparently psychotic ramblings in that ER weren’t delusional. He was being interrogated by the FBI, and those harrowing interrogations continued for almost a week. He wasn’t allowed to make a phone call until August 12, six days after the FBI nabbed him. “He was basically babbling on the phone,” his father, Paul, testified later in court. “It was apparent to me that he had been drugged in some way or another.”

=> ↺ JOHN KIRIAKOU: War on whistle-blowers

• Whatever the case, the worst Sterling can be accused of is exposing government failure and indiscretion. In that sense, he easily meets the legal definition of a whistle-blower. Whatever information he exposed, he did it in the public interest.

• But the Obama administration has abused whistle-blowers. I know a little something about that myself — I was charged with three counts of espionage for blowing the whistle on the CIA’s torture program several years ago.

=> ↺ Militarizing Ourselves Toward a New Dark Age

• The driving force is institutional: government, the mainstream media, the military-industrial economy. These entities are converging in a lockstep, armed obsession over various enemies of the status quo in which they hold enormous power; and this obsession is devolving public consciousness into a permanent fight-or-flight mentality. Instead of dealing with real, complex social issues with compassion and intelligence, our major institutions seem to be fortifying themselves – with ever-increasing futility – against their imagined demons.

=> ↺ The Forgotten Detainee of Guantanamo Bay

• …64 Guantanamo detainees who filed habeas petitions have seen their cases adjudicated.

Internet/Net Neutrality

=> ↺ Here’s how badly we’re getting ripped off by our mobile phone providers

• It is hard to overstate how much I love the British mobile provider Three and how I wish it would come to the United States.

• My fellow Americans, let me (again) re-iterate how badly we’re all getting overcharged: Three offers a 30-day prepaid plan with unlimited data, unlimited texts, and 200 minutes of domestic calling, all for £20 ($31). That’s about one-third less than what I pay right now Stateside.

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