Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NSA. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Has The Patriot Act Metamorphosed into The Freedom Act?

US Spy Architecture Pared Back as Part of Patriot Act Expires, shouts the Wall Street Journal. The New York Times claims a decade-long shift from focus on national security to a shift on civil liberties in the post Snowden era. Yes, the corporate owned mainstream media is doing its very best to hype the expiration of the Patriot Act while extolling the virtues of its replacement, the USA Freedom Act, in the words of the NY Times:

the strongest demonstration yet of a decade-long shift from a singular focus on national security at the expense of civil liberties to a new balance in the post-Snowden era.
Not so fast!   The spotlight is on one agency, the NSA and one expiring unconstitutional body of legislation, the Patriot Act. when they have all sorts of other ways to collect the same kind of intelligence laid out in the original Patriot Act, when there are countless other, even more powerful agencies than the NSA.  It's what the profit-seeking "news" media, owned and run by a tiny elite, obscures that leads to truth.


The massive US intelligence apparatus (see above) has already figured out how to get what it needs through other means. Broadcasting the curbing of the NSA Surveillance Program just gives we, the people false hope that's something is being done. In fact, under the Freedom Act, the program of domestic mass surveillance will only intensify. The NSA is only one of the alphabet agencies under the umbrella of the colossal Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA). 

It's all a game of smoke and mirrors to mask the ever-growing build-up of the surveillance and security industrial complex. This change they're trumpeting is purely cosmetic. It's basically the transference of responsibility for the retention of cell phone metadata from the NSA to telecommunication companies which now require the NSA to get a FISA stamp of approval before obtaining call records.

What about all of the spy planes equipped with technology capable of tracking and reviewing data from tens of thousands of phones in a single flight and provided to the Department of Justice, including agencies such as the FBI, DEA, ATF, etc.? 

From How you can track the FBI’s spy planes
The thing is, when you fly planes in the U.S., you have to fill out lots of official forms that become part of the public record. Because the FBI didn’t want to publicly acknowledge it was sending “spy planes” out to circle American cities (and potentially alert its targets), it created front companies for them. It seems the FBI is uncreative when it comes to spy craft; the fake companies tracked down by the AP and by Wiseman mainly had three-letter names, including FVX Research, KQM Aviation, NBR Aviation and PXW Services. Because flight records in the U.S. are public, and planes are trackable on radar, the AP was able to track down where these planes flew.
Even politicians who speak out against the ever growing surveillance state cannot be trusted. Take Rand Paul who claims victory of the expired Patriot Act "proposed hiring 1,000 new FBI agents to track potential terrorists."

Anyway, what do you need the NSA for when you've got Google and Apple and Amazon and Facebook?

Newsflash: Big corporations and government are in bed together and cozier than ever. They don't even try to hide it anymore, what with Citizens United, huge corporate bailouts,  not to mention corporations actually write the laws that government officials don't even read.   Of course, I could go on forever but that should be enough to make one, at the very least, suspicious.

Links:

Zombie Patriot Act Will Keep U.S. Spying—Even if the Original Dies

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
EPIC is an independent non-profit research center in Washington, DC. EPIC works to protect privacy, freedom of expression, democratic values, and to promote the Public Voice in decisions concerning the future of the Internet.

Also see: http://privacy.org/
Big Brother Inc

Bugged Planet

The body-worn “IMSI catcher” for all your covert phone snooping needs


National Security Analysis Center (NSAC),

NSA slides explain the PRISM data-collection program
The top-secret PRISM program allows the U.S. intelligence community to gain access from nine Internet companies to a wide range of digital information, including e-mails and stored data, on foreign targets operating outside the United States. The program is court-approved but does not require individual warrants. Instead, it operates under a broader authorization from federal judges who oversee the use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Some documents describing the program were first released by The Washington Post on June 6.

Read more...

Friday, March 14, 2014

The Gaping Holes in HTTPS and SSL Security!

Scott Ogrin, a blogger, who is a software engineer as well as an electrical and computer engineer with a BSEE and MSEE, breaks it down for you in the following article:

In this day and age of well-known NSA spying, everyone keeps saying that the only way to be safe is to use SSL/TLS, commonly known as "browsing with https://".

The sad reality is that HTTPS does virtually nothing to protect you from the prying eyes of alphabet soup agencies - or anybody else with enough knowledge about how these supposedly "secure" connections actually work.

It's true that connecting to web sites with SSL will certainly prevent "script kiddies" and other more winky opponents from eavesdropping on your surfing or otherwise interfering in your affairs. But as for the Real Bad Guys, forget it...

We shall begin by taking a brief dive down the rabbit hole of SSL, hopefully in a way that will make sense to even the least technically inclined among us.

This issue is, after all, so extremely important that I think everyone needs to understand what is really going on, and how web security actually works, without needing a PhD in cryptography, computer science, or engineering!

Our story begins with a little e-mail I received the other day. The basic message can be found here:
Microsoft Security Advisory (2880823)

Of course, the idea that Microsoft of all companies is warning me about security is kind of laughable, so I didn't pay much attention. Nevertheless, there was this little voice in the back of my mind that kept pestering me, so I decided to dig in and see what all the hoopla was about... or indeed if any hoopla was even warranted.
Microsoft is announcing a policy change to the Microsoft Root Certificate Program. The new policy will no longer allow root certificate authorities to issue X.509 certificates using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm for the purposes of SSL and code signing after January 1, 2016. Using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm in digital certificates could allow an attacker to spoof content, perform phishing attacks, or perform man-in-the-middle attacks.

Microsoft recommends that certificate authorities no longer sign newly generated certificates using the SHA-1 hashing algorithm and begin migrating to SHA-2. Microsoft also recommends that customers replace their SHA-1 certificates with SHA-2 certificates at the earliest opportunity. Please see the Suggested Actions section of this advisory for more information.
Okay, so that's probably like trying to read a foreign language to most people. Even I didn't understand exactly how these hashing algorithms were used with SSL. So, I started digging. What I found nearly floored me:

MD5 considered harmful today: Creating a rogue CA certificate

Now, if you thought the M$ advisory was confusing, take a peek at the above link.

WOW! That's wild.

In summary, way back in 2008, some smart people figured out a way to make themselves a Fake SSL Certificate Authority, and they accomplished this feat by using a weakness in the MD5 hashing algorithm.  [...]
First, let's define some terms - hopefully in Plain English:

SSL Web Site Certificate

This is a digital certificate, with a digital signature, that verifies that a website is who they say they are. When you connect to a web site using SSL (HTTPS), your browser says, "Papers, please!" The remote site then sends the SSL Web Site Certificate to your browser. Your browser then verifies the authenticity of this "passport". Once verified, encrypted communications ensue. The point of the SSL Web Site Certificate is that under no circumstances should anyone else be able to create a valid, signed certificate for a web site that they do not own and operate. In order to obtain an SSL Web Site Cert, you must verify by varied means that you are the owner and operator of the web site involved. So, using HTTPS is not only for encryption of communications, but also a way to verify that the site you are communicating with is the Real Thing, and not an imposter. And of course you must pay for the certificate!

Certificate Authority (CA) Root Certificate

This is also a digital certificate, with a digital signature... But in this case, this certificate can be used to create and digitally sign normal SSL Web Site Certificates. This is the kind of certificate that a CA (Certificate Authority) has. These certificates also get passed to browser makers, and are then included in your web browser. This is so that when your browser receives an SSL Web Site cert, it can use the CA Root Certificate to verify that the Web Site Cert is in fact valid.

Certificate Authority (CA)

A CA is the kind of web site from which you would buy a valid, secure SSL Web Site Certificate to use for HTTPS on your site. For example: Verisign.com, RapidSSL.com, Geotrust.com, etc. are Certificate Authorities. They have CA Root Certificates for generating and signing valid SSL Web Site Certificates.

It's helpful to understand that with all these certificates, there is a "chain of command". SSL Web Site Certificates are validated and authenticated using CA Root Certificates. CA Root Certificates are validated with yet higher-authority certificates, all the way up the pyramid to The One Great Root Certificate, which is like the God of Certificates. Thus, each lower-ranking certificate is verified up the chain of command. This all happens behind the scenes, and you have no idea it's occurring.
Piece of cake, right?

Now, where do these hash algorithms like MD5, SHA-1, and SHA-2 come into play?

All certificates contain information, like:
  • Web site domain (www.mysite.com)
  • Site location (country, state, etc.)
  • Site owner info (company name)
  • Period of validity
This information is verified before a certificate is issued. Once verified, a hash of the data is generated. This hash acts as the digital signature for the certificate. The only thing you really need to understand about hash algorithms is that what is supposed to happen is this:
  1. Data of any length (30 characters, 3000 characters, 40MB, whatever) is passed into the hash algorithm
  2. The hash algorithm chops up the data and mathematically processes it, thereby spitting out a signature – or digital fingerprint – of the data
  3. The hash of no two chunks of data should ever be the same – just as the fingerprints of no two people should ever be the same
  4. The hash output is always the same size, regardless of the size of the input data (just like a fingerprint – no matter the size of the person)
Right. There is such a thing as a “hash collision”. This is when you have 2 hashes that are identical, but they were generated from different data. That’s like if you and your neighbor suddenly had the same thumbprint. OOPS!

Now, think about that for a minute... If the police were using these hashes, or thumbprints, to verify your identity, they might mistake you for your neighbor, or your neighbor for you, if you "had the same thumbprint". If they did no other checking, and just relied on that thumbprint, they might very well "authenticate" your identities completely incorrectly. BIG OOPS!

This is exactly what happened with the MD5 SSL attack outlined at the above link.

These smarty-pants people were able to carefully buy a valid SSL Web Site Certificate from RapidSSL in 2008. Before they did that, they created their own CA Root Certificate in such a way that the hash (fingerprint) of their valid, just-purchased Web Site Cert was identical to the hash of the FAKE CA Root Certificate that they created out of thin air.

Since RapidSSL had just said, "Dudes, this Web Site Certificate fingerprint is valid!", and since this was the same fingerprint on the fake CA Root Cert, the forged CA Root Certificate becomes valid.

Now, recall that a CA Root Certificate - as long as it has a valid hash/fingerpint that will validate up the "chain of authority" - can be used to generate a valid SSL Web Site Certificate for any web site in the world... And neither you, nor RapidSSL, nor your browser will ever know that anything is amiss.

Why is this a problem? For starters, consider a man-in-the-middle attack.


 You want to go to https://www.gmail.com. But some "hackers" have used another type of hack to insert their server between you and Gmail. Normally, this would not be possible, because you're using HTTPS! You're SAFE!

WRONG!

As far as anyone knows, you are connected to gmail.com over HTTPS. But in reality, what's happening is this:
  1. You try to connect to https://www.gmail.com
  2. The attacker diverts your request (perhaps using DNS cache poisoning or some other such attack) to a fake server
  3. Since Attacker's Server contains a falsely generated, perfectly valid SSL Web Site Certificate using the tricks outlined above, your browser doesn't know any better. Everything appears to be legit.
  4. You begin doing e-mail, but all your data is actually going encrypted to Attacker's Server, being decrypted and recorded/modified, and then Attacker's Server then passes the data on to the real https://www.gmail.com (using Gmail's actual, valid SSL cert).
  5. You have absolutely no clue that your "secure" communications are not secure in the least!
In other words, SSL / HTTPS means that the connection between your browser and the destination server at the URL you're visiting is supposed to be encrypted. But due to the fact the certain types of SSL certificates (which help handle the encryption) can be forged, an attacker could set up their fake server that pretends to the be the real destination server, and thus insert themselves in the middle of the connection. When that is done, the attacker has control over the connection and the data, and can thus decrypt your data, manipulate it, and/or pass it on to the real intended destination server.

Now, isn't that a daisy?

"But wait!" you say. "Isn't it therefore good for Microsoft to recommend changing the hash function to SHA-256 if SHA-1 has the same potential problem as MD5 did back in 2008?"

An excellent question! Unfortunately, yes and no. Even if you, as a web site owner, change your SSL Web Site Certificate from one that is signed using SHA-1 to a new cert that is signed using SHA-2, you are still unsafe.

Why?

Because all it takes is for ONE Certificate Authority to use a "weak" hash algorithm, and someone who is up to no good can generate a forged CA Root Certificate. Once they have that, they can generate as many SSL Web Site Certs as they want - using any hashing algorithm they please - including a fake-yet-valid cert that they can use to impersonate your "secure" site!

In other words, the weakness in the hashing algorithm is just the tip of the iceberg. Due to the hierarchical "chain of authority" in the whole certificate system, if anyone manages to create a false CA Root Cert, they are more or less god in terms of creating false SSL Web Site Certs.

Thus, in order for Microsoft's words to have an effect, there must not be ANY Certificate Authority (Web Site Cert issuer) in the whole world that still uses SHA-1. In order for the "security" to actually be more secure, everyone must upgrade right now. But this isn't going to happen.

Now, if that isn't bad enough, think about all the NSA spying. Think about how many people said, "Naw, man, I just surf using HTTPS, and I'm totally safe!"

You think so?

I don't. You know why? Well, you should, by now... But there's more!

Guess who invented the SHA-1 hash algorithm in 1995?

The NSA.

Guess who invented SHA-2 in 2001?

The NSA.

So, why should all the Certificate Authorities switch from the NSA's SHA-1 to the NSA's SHA-2? Why, because the NSA created it the way they did for a reason!

SHA-1 already has been theoretically breached, and there are a few indications that SHA-2 isn't quite as super-duper-safe as everyone thinks.

Imagine you are the NSA. You want to spy on everyone, everyone's grandmother, the grandmothers' cats, and the mice that are currently being digested inside the cats. SSL is kind of a problem... It can use pretty annoying encryption. Well, hell! No problem. Just compromise the "certificate authority chain" by forging one little CA Root Certificate, and blammo! You can eavesdrop and man-in-the-middle anybody you darn well please, SSL or not!

Web sites over SSL? No problem.

E-mail over SSL? No problem.

I have said it before, and I'll say it again: There never was security or privacy on the internet, there is no security or privacy on the internet now, and most likely there never will be. Not unless some very big changes are made...

And do you know why all this (and much, much more) is possible?

Because just like you, I had no knowledge of the gaping holes in SSL. Awareness of this and many other issues - technological, political, psychological, social, etc. - is absolutely essential.

Otherwise, frankly, we're screwed.
Links:

Fake SSL certificates deployed across the internet


The Most Dangerous Code in the World: Validating SSL Certificates in Non-Browser Software

Read more...

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

A Giant Step Towrd the National Security State: The Dirty Secrets of George H. W. Bush

Although, I'm always a little leery of ex-CIA or ex-intelligence, as I find it hard to believe former intelligence officials are allowed to expose anything, this documentary on former President George H. W. Bush is very interesting.

Recorded December 10, 1988



Here are some of the questions that former CIA Station Chief in Angola under Director George H. W. Bush, and author of "In Search of Enemies", John Stockwell addresses:

How does the United States economic and political system really work?

Why doesn't anyone expose the corruption/scandal?

How did the establishment ensure Jesse Jackson's failure in the 1988 primaries?

Ronald Reagan gave us the most corrupt administration in history with almost 200 people indited or jailed for corruption, so why didn't the Democrats--Governor Michael Dukakis--fight harder to win the 1988 election?

Why did Bush choose Dan Quayle? Impeachment insurance?



Read more...

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Universal Human Control System: Defining Us Against Them.

In the battle of  Us against Them, we are led to believe "Us" is the United States, while "Them" is any country who "hates us for our freedom". Nothing could be further from the truth. The  NSA snooping scandal , the tip of a very dark and very large iceberg, makes that very clear. 

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA),   Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), and Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China (MSS), amongst many other global powers, have spent decades working together to spy on the whole world and they don't give a damn about you or your right to privacy. So who is "Them"? They, the fraction of a percent of international rulers working together to spy on us, the 99.9%, and that's the way it's always been. The only difference is now, they are allowing us in on the big secret. Why? Because it's too late to do anything about it. The grid designed to control and incarcerate Us is already in place, its tentacles deeply embedded. There is no place left to hide.

Now, the ACLU filed a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the NSA phone spying program, but that's like applying a band-aid to a sliced jugular vein. It will only attack one tentacle of this giant octopus. Aside from the NSA, who has over 50 unaccountable subcontractors that do most of the dirty work, the NSA being only a small part of the huge intelligence apparatus.  The DIA has a budget ten times the size of the budgets of the CIA and FBI combined and has 100 times the employees of the CIA and FBI combined. There are 13 intelligence agencies in the community and all but two or three are military intelligence. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marine, National Reconnaissance Organization--in charge of designing, building, launching, and maintaining America’s intelligence satellite--the National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Industrial Securities Command, the largest internal police force in the US, started to guard the Manhattan Project.

And let's not forget about L.U.C.I.D. (Langton Ultimate Cosmic ray Intensity Detector), or as Dr. Jean-Paul Creusat, L.U.C.I.D.'s designer said, Logical Universal Communication Interactive Databank. an advanced computer technology, global control system. It will be ready for launch " in the Autumn of 2013," according to Langston Star Centre.

Why are they creating this huge Big Brother monster?  Well, to make us happy, of course.

To make the people happy, their ideas must be reconstructed, laws must be changed, morals must be changed, men must be changed, things must be changed, yes everything must be destroyed, since everything must be remade." -- Frenchman Rabaud de Saint Etienne, a French revolutionary.
Remade into what? A system of universal slavery? An electronic prison camp or electronic internment camps to incarcerate us all as human resources for the state?  

In other words, it's us, the global 99%, against them, the mostly unelected international ruling .01%.
In the booming surveillance industry they spy on whom they wish, when they wish, protected by barriers of secrecy, fortified by billions of pounds worth of high, high technology. Duncan Campbell reports from the United States on the secret Anglo-American plan for a global electronic spy system for the 21st century capable of listening in to most of us most of the time
Links:

Attacks from America: NSA Spied on European Union Offices

Read more...

Friday, May 24, 2013

On Behalf of National Interest: Shining a Light on Black Operations

America's budget for its 16 intelligence agencies is $75 billion, These 16 agencies employ more than 200,000 operatives worldwide, many of whom are mercenaries. There is no oversight, no accountability.

Part 1: Counter-Intelligence: The Company: Shining a Light on Black Operations



Some highlights:

What does “National Interest” really mean?

National interest or national security doesn't really have meaning, other than to be a political tool for keeping the public uninformed. It’s a “highly flexible frame of reference” where simple explanations, or jingles are used to justify actions taken on behalf of this “national interest”. If one boils it down, “national interest” and/or “national security” means protecting the profits of western corporations.

The U.S. Intelligence Apparatus:

The Office of Strategic Services (OSS) was a US intelligence agency formed during World War II. It was the wartime intelligence agency, and it was a predecessor of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The OSS was formed in order to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines for the branches of the US Armed Forces.

Truman didn’t trust the OSS because he thought it was dominated by parts of the Democratic party that he didn’t align himself with, so he abolished it. Subsequently,  a smaller intelligence agency was formed from the remains of the OSS called the Central Intelligence Group (CIG).   It was focused on analyzing intelligence rather than covert operations.

Two years later, in 1948, many of the agents who worked on the covert operations side--the paramilitary operations, black operations--were reestablished in an outfit called The Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) which eventually grew to have 5,000 agents in the early Cold War years. The existence of this office was entirely top-secret. It had no public existence at all. Several years later the OPC was folded into the CIA, which had both a black operations arm and a intelligence analysis arm.

At the same time, the OPC became operational, the National Security Council (NSC) approved a radical new policy. It secretly authorized the CIA to conduct programs which were officially non-existent, thereby passing the U.S. Congress. The NSC ordered that the new operations be deniable: “Planned and executed so that any U.S. government responsibility for them is not evident to unauthorized persons and that for those uncovered the US government can plausibly disclaim any responsibility.” (N.S.C. 10/2, 1948)  The OPC was set up to organize propaganda, economic warfare, preventive direct action, sabotage, demolition, subversion against hostile states, including assistance to underground resistance groups and support of indigenous anti-Communist elements in threatened countries of the free world (NSC 10/2, 1948)

Frank Wisner, former head of OSS, and a prominent Wall Street lawyer later became chief of black operations, and Allen Dulles, who prior to WWII, was an international trader became CIA director. From the beginning the CIA was steeped in elitism. Its top leadership were mostly Wall Street lawyers while new recruits were sought through the top Ivy League Universities.

Yale has influenced the CIA more than any other university, giving the CIA the atmosphere of a class reunion.”—Gaddis Smith
What does “National Interest” “National Security” really mean?

National interest/security is a "highly flexible frame of reference", a political tool for keeping the public uninformed, where simple explanations, or jingles are used to justify actions taken on its behalf. If one boils it down, “national interest” and/or “national security” can be defined as protecting the profits of western corporations.

Mercenaries and Dyncorp International

When Obama announced the withdraw of troops from Iraq, many Americans did not realize that thousands of mercenaries, funded by the U.S. taxpayer would remain in place. Far from saving cost, these private contractors have repeatedly robbed the U.S. taxpayer for millions of dollars. But from a military intelligence perspective, they serve multiple purposes: establish plausible deniability, further minimize congressional oversight, bypass rules of war such as the Geneva Convention, and create enormous profits for their benefactors.

A case in point is the extremely dangerous paramilitary, mercenary, private corporation named DynCorp International, who receives half its revenue from the DOD. Since its beginnings in 1946, it advertises itself as “a major government contractor for data processing, military operations and intelligence work.” DynCorp lists its primary “public sector clients” as: The Center for Disease Control (CDC), Department of Defense (DoD), Bureau of Census, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), U.S. Air Force (USAF), U.S. Army, U.S. Navy, and the U.S. Postal Service (USPS).

DynCorp International also provides training for police forces worldwide. It is the primary “private security force” in Iraq and provides top security for the CIA’s extensive poppy fields in Afghanistan. It also provided the security for New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. It is responsible for patrolling the U.S./Mexican Border, performs “essential services” in Colombia to known drug cartels, and of course – is deeply involved in the international “sex slave” trade.

In 2002, DynCorp was found to be working with the Serbian mafia in the trafficking of sex slaves including children. While all of this was going on Dyncorp kept its contracts with American government. In 2009, DynCorp was arranging sex parties for Afghan politicians involving small boys.

CIA/Nugan-Hand Operation

In Australia, in December 1972, the Labor Party was elected into office for the first time in 23 years, but the it would be brought down in a coup d'etat by the CIA in conjunction with MI6 and Australia’s own intelligence.

Unbeknownst to elected leader Prime Minister Gough Whitlam--who had enacted a series of reforms, including raises in wages, pension and unemployment benefits, free national health care, equal pay for women, the abolishment of tuition fees, new services for aboriginal peoples, and the replacement of “God Save the Queen” with Australia’s own national anthem in the first 100 days in office--Australian's intelligence security organization was working closely with the CIA, illegally passing on dossiers, concerning every member of the Labor Party as well as union leaders, peace activists and other Australian citizens. Most disturbing to Washington was the withdraw of Australia’s troops from Vietnam, the support of Palestinian rights, and the proposal of an Indian Ocean zone of peace. Worst of all Whitland hinted that he might shut down American military bases including Pine Gap.
We were to become the paymasters of the CIA around the world. In other words, we were putting ourselves in the position to disburse funds for the CIA to whoever they directed... The idea was that the money would be deposited into the Nugan Hand Bank by the CIA through various channels, and also that the Nugan Hand Bank would be the repository for funds coming in for various CIA enterprises, namely drugs...then the Nugan Hand bank would be responsible for re-routing that money to an account in America ." -- Neil Evans, Former Bank Executive, Nugan Hand Bank, who claimed the CIA made millions to finance its secret projects

CIA director, William Colby petitioned his counterpart, Sir Maurice Oglefield stressing that Australia was traditionally Britain’s domain, and that if Pine Gap were closed the alliance would be blinded strategically.
Australia is going to be increasingly important to the United States, and so long as Australians keep electing the right people then there'll be a stable relationship between the two countries." – ((A Secret Country,, p. 353).

Australia gained the distinction of becoming the only country in the world to have supplied uranium for nuclear bombs which its Prime Minister allowed to be dropped by a foreign power on his own people without adequate warning." (A Secret Country, p. 168).
CIA How to Assassinate Guide:

Beginning with the ironic disclaimer, “Murder is not justifiable…” the agency’s “how to guide” on assassination goes on to state that
Killing a political leader whose burgeoning career is clear and present danger to the cause of freedom may be held necessary…Persons who are morally squeamish should not attempt it .”
From there, the guide highlights potential methods:
...the simplest local tools are often the most efficient… a hammer, a screwdriver, a fire poker, a kitchen knife, a lampstand, or anything hard, heavy and handy will suffice, like a rope, a wire, or a belt will do if the assailant is strong and agile.
For secret assassination, a contrived accident is the most effective technique. Once successfully executed, it causes little excitement and is only casually investigated. The most efficient accident is a fall of 75 feet or more onto a hard surface--elevator shafts, stairwells, unsecured windows and bridges will serve. Falls into the sea, or swiftly falling river can suffice if the subject cannot swim. Arson can cause accidental death if the subject is drugged and left in a burning building. Reliability is not satisfactory unless the building is isolated and highly combustible. If the subject drinks heavily, morphine or narcotic can be injected at the passing out stage and the cause of death will often be attributed to acute alcoholism....
Puncture wounds of the body cavity may not be a reliable unless the heart is reached. The heart is protected by the ribcage and is not always easy to locate. Absolute reliability is obtained by severing the spinal cord in the cervical region. This can be done with the pont of a knife. Or a hatchet. Another reliable method is the severing of both jugular and carotid blood vessels on both sides of the wind pipe…”.

Read more...

Monday, March 18, 2013

Sonny Bono, Iran Contra, and Animal Puppets.

In the early 1980s Bob Fletcher owned a toy factory, called "Animal Factory" that created hand puppets made from real rabbit fur, called spring animals that became very popular in the early 1980s. He moved into a full manufacturing facility, a brand new building laid out exclusively for his company, in the Marietta Georgia area about 15 miles north of Atlanta.

Soon after, Fletcher went to New York City to a giant marketing show with 35,000 buyers from all over the world. After arriving home, he noticed a business card with an address not 40 feet from his business  in Georgia, close to the Lockheed Dobbins Air Force base. He contacted the guy on the business card, Gary Best, and later merged his operations with Best's company, VISTA USA.  Best also had another company called VISTA Distributions where he imported and sold watches to 7-11 stores, as well as many other companies prefaced with the word, VISTA,  functioning out of this one building

So "Animal Factory” became "VISTA Animal factory."  The reason for the  "VISTA" preface--Fletcher later found out--was  to kite, bounce checks, etc., between all of these different companies without raising suspicion

Anyway, Best introduced Fletcher to high ranking military officers including: Major General John Kirk Singlaub, a founding member of the CIA; Brigadier General Harry Clay (Heinie) Aderholt, who ran Air America, the covert drug smuggling and weapons branch during the Vietnam war, and Lt Col. James Gordon "Bo" Gritz. It turned out that Gary Best was an arms dealer who supplied weapons for covert operations, worldwide for the NSA, CIA wars that were/are carried on constantly since Vietnam and the Generals were his partners in that business. Fletcher also found out Best also stole a $13 million oil company (amongst many other companies) in order to set up in Azerbaijan later on.

Finally, after Fletcher consistently saw that this merger had nothing to do with the sale of his toys, he went to see Best, who told him, “we sell armament”and handed him a brochure for a hell-fire missle. About a year and a half after the original merger, Fletcher wanted to sue for the quarter of a million dollars they owed him laid out in the contract they both signed. His lawyer did a FOIA search which came back with a presidential executive order classifying his toy factory and all of the information out of the toy factory as a national security threat.

At the same time, Fletcher began to hear the beginning of the Iran Contra investigations on the radio, mentioning the same generals in his toy factory. He contacted John Kerry’s office and reported what had happened to him. He was told he was right in the middle of it. He then became a federal witness in the Iran Contra hearings He later discovered that the main investigator was completely in bed with the biggest Iran Contra operatives and that's why nothing much came of the hearings.

For the next decade, in addition to running for Congress in 1990 in Orlando, Florida, Fletcher wore the hat of investigator, assisting Henry Gonzales with the banking fraud, Senator John Kerry in Iran Contra, Congressman Dante Fissel of Miami with the October surprise, and later appeared before the Senate Intelligence committee with Bill Alexander from Arkansas, regarding drugs, money laundering. While there he met Sonny Bono’s administrative director, Frank Cohen, relative to the WACO investigations which supposedly freaked Sonny out.

In 1997 Fletcher gathered together all the documentation and information in VHS format--because he had some of the biggest drug operators in the world naming names on video--  from over the last decade and gave it to Sonny Bono and Congresswoman Maxine Waters in 1997. When Sonny finally got a chance to go over the report, in December of 1997, he was livid, so he decided that he would use his brand new position on the intelligence committee of Congress, which gave him subpoena power to summon the witnesses mentioned in Fletcher’s report. Sonny was going to start right away when Congress convened in January. Ten days later Sonny Bono was dead. The official story: a freak skiing accident.

Since 1987, Fletcher had seen huge numbers of witnesses who were about to step forward suddenly die right before they were about to testify. Lots of strange accidents. Ron Brown, dead on an aircraft with a bullet in the middle of his head, Senator John Tower, who was about to spill the beans on the October Surprise, and who had just written a book, died in a plane crash; Senator Hunt died in a plane crash, Bill Casey former head of the CIA, had a stroke the day before he was to testify on Iran Contra. Casey had made the statement “I’m tired of the whole thing…I’m just going to come clean and get this off my chest.” The next day he had a stroke, dying a few days later.

After Sonny supposedly ran into the tree of death, Frank Cullen, Fletcher's main contact and friend, refused his phone calls. Now remember, it was just ten days earlier that Cullen was very eager to pursue the witnesses listed in Fletcher’s report. Fletcher then tried to get Sonny’s autopsy report. He couldn’t. He found out Sonny’s mother couldn’t get it until she got a lawyer. It took Fletcher a year before he could get the autopsy

The autopsy:

Sonny’s wounds were reported to be over his right eye, the right side of his forehead and to his right temple, yet blood soaked through four layers of clothing, including his coat, to his back, but there were no wounds on his back. The autopsy also reported no trauma to his neck, internally or externally. Moreover, he had no contra coup injury, which is an injury that occurs to the opposite side of the brain from impact, for example, when someone's head hits the windshield in a car accident when the body strikes a solid object like a tree at 30mph. It’s not common when someone strikes another person with an object. In addition, Sonny did not put his hands up in front of his face, an involuntary reaction to stop the blow. Ski instructors teach that if you’re losing control, to sit down.

Furthermore, the skiing conditions that day were excellent and Sonny was considered an excellent skier. His body was found approximately 125 feet into the tree line and away from the path, as if Sonny accidentally veered off the path hundred feet. 10 feet…20 feet…maybe, but 125 feet, for an expert skier, no way. Also, he was lying on his stomach, to the right side, with his right head, where he was injured, down in the snow, close to the tree, with his right arm, with the ski pole attached, up and around the tree. Wouldn't you think, at the speed he was supposedly going, he would've been knocked backwards?

The autopsy reported no debris in his wounds. As a kid, I ran into a tree in the dark, and particles of the bark were embedded into the skin on my face. Not only that, there were indentured curvature wounds to the bone of his skull in a couple of places indicating, according to Fletcher, that he was probably hit with a fairly small rounded curved object, something like the barrel of a pistol, either a .45 or a 9mm. The size of the configurations described in the autopsy would fit perfectly if let's say he was pistol whipped to death. So, where did the blood from his back come from? Perhaps, Sonny bloodied somebody’s nose in a scuffle, maybe he gave an elbow to the nose, and someone else's blood drenched and soaked through four layers of clothing.

The bottom line is they, the evil ones, had to stop Sonny before the investigation began because if it began it would’ve had continue in some shape or form. Not to mention, everyone's heard of Sonny Bono, even children. If Sonny carried through with his promise, far too many people would tune in.

Sonny Bono grills former Attorney General Janet Reno over the death of the children at Waco.

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Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Risking Everything to Warn Americans About the Dangers of NSA Domestic Spying.

Following 9/11, the National Security Agency (NSA) began a top-secret surveillance program to spy on U.S. citizens without warrants. Code named "Stellar Wind" or "The Program," the full scope of the surveillance has not been made public.

William Binney, one of the whistle blowers risking everything to warn Americans about the domestic spying program worked for the NSA for 32 years and was known as the best mathematician and code-breaker in NSA's history. In July 2007, the FBI raided the homes of William Binney and two other NSA whistle blowers. Currently, the NSA is  building the country's largest data storage facility in Bluffdale, Utah, and Binney estimates that this structure will have the capacity to store over 100 years of the world's electronic communications.

The "USSID 18" stands for United States Signals Intelligence Directive. It is the is the NSA's top-secret manual of definitions and legal directives, the regulations which govern signals intelligence operations conducted by the United States government. According to USSID 18, you can spy on Americans--if it's approved by the Attorney General and there are very few occasions where the AG is allowed to grant permission. Think terrorist acts and grave dangers to lives, limbs and private property and there are no alternatives to  direct emergency efforts. Well, since 9/11 violations of this strict charter abound.



Links:

The Growth of Homeland Security’s Domestic Intelligence Enterprise


Fusion Centers Map, Locations, Contact Information


DHS Social Media Monitoring and Situational Awareness Initiative Privacy Compliance Review

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Friday, April 27, 2012

The New Inquisition?

In 1208 Pope Innocent III launched the Albigensian Crusade, and for two decades the Catholic Church warred against, and eventually crushed the heretical Cathars, aka, the Albigensians. The Cathars believed in Christ; however, they saw the Church as corrupt and hypocritical, so they created their own society to worship God, apart from the Church, a big no no.

Anyway, after the bloody crusade, the Church tried to recruit the straggling Cathars into the Chruch  without success.  When that mission failed, Pope Gregory IX concluded that other tactics must be employed to eradicate those few remaining Cathars. Hence, the creation of the Inquisition, which was formally established in 1232.

Amongst the many interrogation techniques at the disposal of the inquisitors, included three forms of torture: the pulley, the rack and a technique that can only be called water-boarding. Yes, water-boarding is torture, despite what Bush says to the contrary.  Initially, Dominican priests set out to interrogate people, bringing many in front of tribunals.  These tribunals would mete out punishments, sometimes fatal, sometimes - and for the most part - not.

So, how did the Inquisition last so long? After all, it wasn't officially abolished until 1908, the last execution, 1826.  We know this because there are vast archives of meticulous documentation of this period on record at the Vatican - and throughout Europe - including revelations and first-person descriptions of torture that were opened to scholars for the first time in 1998 by then, Cardinal Josef Ratzinger; he was then prefect of the Congregation of the Defense of the Faith, the bureaucratic successor to the organization that oversaw the Inquisition.

Now, back to the question, how did the Inquisition last so long?  According to Cullen Murphy, author of God’s Jury: The Inquisition and the Making of the Modern World, the answer lies in its system of administration: a formal, hierarchical organization with many levels in which tasks, responsibilities, and authority are delegated among individuals, offices, or departments, held together by a central administration, designed to dispose of a large body of work in a routine manner; in other words, an impersonal force dominating the lives of individuals, or in short, a bureaucracy.  Moreover, Murphy adds moral certainty to the equation.  A moral certainty so powerful that those in power believe they have the right to impose their view/belief on everyone for the so-called "greater good".

Here's the thing, bureaucracies operate on cruise control, and seldom, if ever, do they pull back. Bit by bit, they expand, and gain more control and more power. Today, the ingredients for a modern day inquisition are here as bureaucracies, information technology, and surveillance keep expanding, especially post 9/11. As far as the moral certainty goes, What with the Guantanamo Bay, water-boarding, the Patriot Act, the creation of Homeland Security, and under it, the TSA, which, for an unfortunate few, have produced circumstances reminiscent of the Spanish Inquisition, and lastly, the "war on terror" providing the atmosphere of "moral certainty" the idea of a new Inquisition is not so far out.

Potential signs of modern day Inquisition:

2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA)- particularly noteworthy are sections 1031 and 1032, which allow the president to use U.S. military forces to indefinitely detain American citizens who are merely suspected of having involvement with a terrorist organization. Indefinite military detention without charge or trial.

A former high-ranking NSA official, who spent more than three decades within the spy agency asserted that more than 20 trillion of American citizens' communications have been intercepted -- mostly without a warrant or judicial review of any kind.

NSA Is Building the Country’s Biggest Spy Center  - $2 billion in taxpayer dollars are going toward spying on American citizens without warrant or court approval.

House of Representatives Passes Privacy-Busting Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA)


New Call for Internal DOJ Investigation of FBI’s Targeting of Religious and Ethnic Groups for Intel Gathering

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Monday, January 30, 2012

Domestic Use of Drones Already In Progress Surely to Increase Exponentially

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones were designed for military purposes; however, as the barrage of legislation unleashed since 9/11  that, for the most part, greatly empowers our government against us, leaving  the very distinct impression that United States, Inc. is at war with the United States of America, continues, and as "geriatric jihadists," or "waffle house terrorists" who can barely make it up a flight of stairs, are being spied on, assaulted and locked up for thought crimes they're not even capable of,  utilization of these "under the radar" aircraft in civilian airspace should come as no surprise.  If you happen to be a private pilot, watch out! These stealthy things could be lurking just about anywhere. 

Anyway, the Army issued a new directive to govern the growing use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) or drones within the U.S. for training missions and "domestic operations”  (the maps above and below, taken from this 2010 report, clearly show the present and future UAS locations). Army Directive 2012-02 is a revised policy on UAS operations to support “expanded UAS access to the National Airspace System.”

But this is nothing new.  Since 2010 the FAA had already issued hundreds of “certificates of authorization” (COAs) for the domestic use of drones.
“Right now, today as we sit here, we have 251 certificates of authorization for unmanned aircraft, 140 of them are DOD related. We have not rejected or denied any DOD COAs in 2010, and we keep moving forward.” -- Hank Krakowski of the FAA at an informative Senate hearing in September 2010.
As EFF attorney, Jennifer Lynch says, "The use of drones in American airspace could dramatically increase the physical tracking of citizens – tracking that can reveal deeply personal details about our private lives.”

Links:

The OTHER Assault on the Fourth Amendment in the NDAA? Drones at Your Airport?


Journal of National Security Law and Policy

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Thursday, May 05, 2011

Who Let the Pervs Out?



Well, it didn't take long. Now, that the Osama Bin Laden show is over, counter terrorism "experts" warn that retaliation attacks are inevitable. Terrorists are expected hit our shopping malls, movie theaters, museums, department stores, restaurants, churches and schools. Of course, they will. How else could the security state promote the use of porn scanners and/or let the pervs out.

Who let the pervs out

Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}

When church was nice, the church was singin' {Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo}
And everybody havin' a ball {Hah, ho, Yippie Yi Yo}
I tell the clerics "...start the name callin'..." {Yippie Yi Yo}
And the church ladies report to the call
The poor perv show down

Chorus:
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}

Rap 1:
I see ya' little pornscan head up our post
He really want to strip them down
Get back off me, beast off me
Get back you flea infested monger

Chorus:
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}

I'm gonna tell {Hey, Yippie, Yi, Yo}
To any ladies calling them stray swine {Yippie, Yi, Yo}
Tell the dummy "Hey Man, It's part of the service!" {Yippie Yi, Yo}
You fetch a women in front and her mans behind {Yippie, Yi, Yo}
Her bone runs out now

Chorus:
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}
Who let the pervs out {woof, woof, woof, woof}

Chant:
Say,
A pervy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone
All pervs hold ya' bone, all pervys hold it
A pervy is nuttin' if he don't have a bone
All pervy hold ya' bone, all pervy hold it

Meanwhile, putting aside the bullshit for a minute, according to international financial consultants Deloitte, it will be the first time since the 1870s that ‘real’ wages, the sum you earn after inflation has been taken into account, have fallen for four successive years, and one in seven people in the United States receive food stamps.

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Friday, February 23, 2007

"Vacuum Cleaner Technique"

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

Carnivore was set up to collect data which matched certain filters, whereas this new type of surveillance technology -- "vacuum cleaner method" -- collects data without the use of filters set up to target certain types of individuals or information.

“What they’re doing is even worse than Carnivore,” said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. “What they’re doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets.”

Read more...
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