Top NSA Official Has a Lucrative Side-Business

Top NSA Official Has a Lucrative Side-Business

A new report suggests that a high-ranking NSA official may have a profitable side-gig in the “electronics” business. Last month a Buzzfeed’s Aram Roston published a story documenting potential self-dealing by the head NSA’s Signals Intelligence Directorate, Teresa O’Shea. O’Shea happens to be married to the Vice President of DRS Signal Solutions – a company which circumstantial evidence>>

Russian Interest in Ukraine Now Includes Cyber Warfare

A hacker group in Russia exploited a security flaw in Microsoft Windows software to spy on NATO, the Ukraine, and a number of other targets, according to a report this week from a Texas cybersecurity firm.

What ‘Democracy’ Really Means in U.S. and New York Times Jargon: Latin America Edition

What ‘Democracy’ Really Means in U.S. and New York Times Jargon: Latin America Edition

One of the most accidentally revealing media accounts highlighting the real meaning of “democracy” in U.S. discourse is a still-remarkable 2002 New York Times Editorial on the U.S.-backed military coup in Venezuela, which temporarily removed that country’s democratically elected (and very popular) president, Hugo Chávez. Rather than describe that coup as what it was by definition - a direct attack on democracy by a>>

Egypt’s U.S-Backed Military Regime is Brutalizing Student Protestors

Just a few short months after John Kerry disingenuously congratulated Egypt’s military junta for “transitioning to democracy”, the young students who helped galvanize the 2011 Egyptian Revolution are back protesting its increasingly draconian rule.

New Zealand Cops Raided Home of Reporter Working on Snowden Documents

New Zealand Cops Raided Home of Reporter Working on Snowden Documents

Agents from New Zealand’s national police force ransacked the home of a prominent independent journalist earlier this month who was collaborating with The Intercept on stories from the NSA archive furnished by Edward Snowden. The stated purpose of the 10-hour police raid was to identify the source for allegations that the reporter, Nicky Hager, recently published in a book that caused a major>>

Black Op Turns To Bedlam As Navy Silencer Scandal Unfolds

Black Op Turns To Bedlam As Navy Silencer Scandal Unfolds

A former Navy intelligence officer is slated to go on trial in federal court next week on charges he conspired with a California auto mechanic to manufacture untraceable silencers for automatic rifles, ship them cross-country, and defraud the feds of nearly $1.7 million in the process. The strange and soap operatic tale of Pentagon-centered intrigue>>

Local Cops Say Your Driving History Is Public — Unless You Want a Copy

Local Cops Say Your Driving History Is Public — Unless You Want a Copy

What’s public for me is private for thee. At least that’s what Monroe County, N.Y. believes when it comes to where you drive your car. Monroe police have been using high-speed cameras to capture license plates in order to log vehicle whereabouts. As of July, the County’s database contained 3.7 million records, with the capability>>

Obama Knew Arming Rebels Was Useless, But Did It Anyway

Obama Knew Arming Rebels Was Useless, But Did It Anyway

What’s worse: Launching a disastrous military campaign under false pretenses to achieve goals you wrongly believe are attainable? Or launching a disastrous military campaign you know is doomed in order to help your party win an election? I ask in light of today’s New York Times story about how President Obama asked the CIA a>>

Revisionist History 101: Bush Was Right About Iraq WMD!

Revisionist History 101: Bush Was Right About Iraq WMD!

Perhaps the most movingly pitiful exercise in American politics is the periodic attempt by Iraq War advocates to grasp at new developments that might somehow vindicate their disastrous, criminal support of that endeavor. The latest attempt came yesterday, when The New York Times published an explosive new story on American soldiers who were wounded while handling corroded munitions extracted>>

UN Report Finds Mass Surveillance Violates International Treaties and Privacy Rights

It’s “indiscriminately corrosive of online privacy.”