WikiLeaks: The Spy Files

It sounds like something out of Hollywood, but as of today, mass interception systems, built by Western intelligence contractors, including for ’political opponents’ are a reality. Today WikiLeaks began releasing a database of hundreds of documents from as many as 160 intelligence contractors in the mass surveillance industry. Working with Bugged Planet and Privacy International, as well as media organizations form six countries – ARD in Germany, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism in the UK, The Hindu in India, L’Espresso in Italy, OWNI in France and the Washington Post in the U.S. Wikileaks is shining a light on this secret industry that has boomed since September 11, 2001 and is worth billions of dollars per year. WikiLeaks has released 287 documents today, but the Spy Files project is ongoing and further information will be released this week and into next year.

Selling Surveillance to Dictators

When citizens overthrew the dictatorships in Egypt and Libya this year, they uncovered listening rooms where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.

Surveillance companies like SS8 in the U.S., Hacking Team in Italy and Vupen in France manufacture viruses (Trojans) that hijack individual computers and phones (including iPhones, Blackberries and Androids), take over the device, record its every use, movement, and even the sights and sounds of the room it is in. Other companies like Phoenexia in the Czech Republic collaborate with the military to create speech analysis tools. They identify individuals by gender, age and stress levels and track them based on ‘voiceprints’. Blue Coat in the U.S. and Ipoque in Germany sell tools to governments in countries like China and Iran to prevent dissidents from organizing online.

Trovicor, previously a subsidiary of Nokia Siemens Networks, supplied the Bahraini government with interception technologies that tracked human rights activist Abdul Ghani Al Khanjar. He was shown details of personal mobile phone conversations from before he was interrogated and beaten in the winter of 2010-2011.
How Mass Surveillance Contractors Share Your Data with the State

In January 2011, the National Security Agency broke ground on a $1.5 billion facility in the Utah desert that is designed to store terabytes of domestic and foreign intelligence data forever and process it for years to come.

Telecommunication companies are forthcoming when it comes to disclosing client information to the authorities – no matter the country. Headlines during August’s unrest in the UK exposed how Research in Motion (RIM), makers of the Blackberry, offered to help the government identify their clients. RIM has been in similar negotiations to share BlackBerry Messenger data with the governments of India, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Weaponizing Data Kills Innocent People

There are commercial firms that now sell special software that analyze this data and turn it into powerful tools that can be used by military and intelligence agencies.

For example, in military bases across the U.S., Air Force pilots use a video link and joystick to fly Predator drones to conduct surveillance over the Middle East and Central Asia. This data is available to Central Intelligence Agency officials who use it to fire Hellfire missiles on targets.

The CIA officials have bought software that allows them to match phone signals and voice prints instantly and pinpoint the specific identity and location of individuals. Intelligence Integration Systems, Inc., based in Massachusetts – sells a “location-based analytics” software called Geospatial Toolkit for this purpose. Another Massachusetts company named Netezza, which bought a copy of the software, allegedly reverse engineered the code and sold a hacked version to the Central Intelligence Agency for use in remotely piloted drone aircraft.

IISI, which says that the software could be wrong by a distance of up to 40 feet, sued Netezza to prevent the use of this software. Company founder Rich Zimmerman stated in court that his “reaction was one of stun, amazement that they (CIA) want to kill people with my software that doesn’t work.”
Orwell’s World

Across the world, mass surveillance contractors are helping intelligence agencies spy on individuals and ‘communities of interest’ on an industrial scale.

The Wikileaks Spy Files reveal the details of which companies are making billions selling sophisticated tracking tools to government buyers, flouting export rules, and turning a blind eye to dictatorial regimes that abuse human rights.

see the rest of the article and search through files of intelligence providers at wikileaks. 

and check out this article from the electronic frontier foundation: 

Next Step: Identifying Customers of Surveillance Technology Companies and Turning Up the Heat

In the past month—thanks to reporting from the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, as well as WikiLeaks and its media partners—a little sunlight has finally exposed a large but shadowy industry: Western technology companies selling mass spying software to governments. The amazing and dangerous capabilities of these tools are described in hundreds of marketing documents that were recently leaked to the media organizations.

The Wall Street Journal laid out many of the tools in detail, explaining how they can be used to spy on millions of the world’s citizens, most of whom are completely innocent. It’s also easy to see how tools can be used to track and repress those working for human rights and fundamental freedoms:

“The techniques described in the trove of 200-plus marketing documents, spanning 36 companies, include hacking tools that enable governments to break into people’s computers and cellphones, and “massive intercept” gear that can gather all Internet communications in a country.”

Much of what this software does would be considered malicious “black-hat hacking” if used by a private citizen. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal reported, many of these companies market their products as the kinds “often used in ‘malware,’ the software used by criminals trying to steal people’s financial or personal details.”

One program manufactured the company FinFisher, reportedly falsifies updates to popular software like iTunes, and when the user downloads it, the perpetrator can monitor the user’s every move—even see into their webcam, according to this promotional video. Another company, Packet Forensics, brags about its “man in the middle attack” capabilities, in which it can get in between two parties communicating and read the contents of any message, even when encrypted.

WikiLeaks and OWNI put together an excellent interactive map that details, country-by-country, which companies are operating where and what forms of communication are potentially being monitored. The list is long and worrisome.

attacks in norway leave at least 87 dead

80 killed in youth camp shooting spree

Police say at least 80 people were killed in a shooting spree at the youth camp of Norway’s Labour Party.

Police director Oystein Maeland told reporters early Saturday they had discovered many more victims after initially reporting the death toll at 10.

Maeland couldn’t say how many people were injured in the shooting.

Hundreds of youth were attending the summer camp organized by the youth wing of Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg’s Labour Party on the island of Utoya.

Explosion near PM’s office in Oslo, seven dead

A powerful bomb tore into the heart of Norway on Friday, killing at least seven people and injuring 15 as it ripped open buildings including the prime minister’s office. It was the deadliest bombing ever in Oslo, normally associated with the Nobel Peace Prize that is awarded there.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was working at home on Friday and was unharmed, according to senior adviser Oivind Ostang.

The square where the bomb exploded was covered in twisted metal and shattered glass, and carpeted in documents expelled from the surrounding buildings, which house government offices and the headquarters of some of Norway’s leading newspapers. Most of the windows were shattered in the 20-floor high rise where the prime minister and his administration works.

Oslo police said the explosion was caused by “one or more” bombs, but declined to speculate on who was behind the attack. They later sealed off the nearby offices of broadcaster TV 2 after discovering a suspicious package.

“So far, police cannot say anything about the scope of the damage, aside from that there’s been one or several explosions,” a police statement read.

An AP reporter who was in the office of Norwegian news agency NTB said the building shook from the blast and all employees evacuated as the alarm went off. Down in the street, he saw one person with a bleeding leg being led away from the area.

Public broadcaster NRK showed video of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris.

Witness Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop 100 meters (yards) from the government high-rise at 3:30 p.m. (1330 GMT) when the explosion occurred.

“I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later,” Pedersen told AP.

The blast comes as Norway grapples with a homegrown terror plot linked to al-Qaida. Two suspects are in jail awaiting charges.

Last week, a Norwegian prosecutor filed terror charges against an Iraqi-born cleric for threatening Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported from the Scandinavian country. The indictment centered on statements that Mullah Krekar – the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam – made to various news media, including American network NBC.

 

 

WiFi FBI Surveillance?

from portland indymedia:

I just witnessed something creepy!

Hi,

I know you folks don’t like Starbucks, but they have good wifi and coffee.

However, I am in in Starbucks right now. When I clicked to see the various wifi networks in the area, one of them was called “FBI Surveillance Van #32″ It disappeared about fifteen minutes later. Isn’t that weird? Do you think it’s someone who just named their nearby home network that in order to deter people using their wifi? Are those real names for FBI surveillance van networks?

I also just noticed a dude in a black t-shirt and jeans walking around Starbucks. He’s outside right now. He has a gun attached to his pants, and handcuffs hanging out of his pocket. Yet, he is wearing a t-shirt and jeans. What the fuck?

unrelated image, from epic fail

 

US, Pakistan relations sour – moving closer to war?

from AP:

Tough Line: US Suspends Military Aid To Pakistan

The Obama administration’s decision to suspend $800 million in aid to the Pakistan’s military signals a tougher U.S. line with a critical but sometimes unreliable partner in the fight against terrorism.

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff, William Daley, said in a broadcast interview Sunday that the estranged relationship between the United States and Pakistan must be made “to work over time,” but until it does, “we’ll hold back some of the money that the American taxpayers are committed to give” to the country’s powerful military forces.

The suspension of U.S. aid, first reported by the New York Times, followed a statement last week by Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Pakistan’s security services may have sanctioned the killing of Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad who wrote about infiltration of the military by extremists. His battered body was found in June.

The allegation was rejected by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment, including the Inter-Services Intelligence Agency, which has historic ties to the Taliban and other militant groups and which many Western analysts regard as a state-within-a-state.

George Perkovich, an expert on Pakistan with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington, said Mullen’s comments and the suspension of aid represent “the end of happy talk,” where the U.S. tries to paper over differences between the two nations.

Daley, interviewed on ABC’s “This Week,” suggested the decision to suspend military aid resulted from the increasing estrangement between the U.S. and Pakistan. “Obviously there’s still a lot of pain that the political system in Pakistan is feeling by virtue of the raid that we did to get Osama bin Laden,” Daley said.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told reporters traveling with him to Afghanistan on Saturday that the U.S. would continue to press Pakistan in the fight against extremists, including al-Qaida’s new leader, Ayman al-Zawahri.

“We have to continue to emphasize with the Pakistanis that in the end it’s in their interest to be able to go after these targets as well,” Panetta said. “And in the discussions I’ve had with them, I have to say that, you know, they’re giving us cooperation in going after some of these targets. We’ve got to continue to push them to do that. That’s key.”

The U.S. has long been unhappy with Pakistan’s evident lack of enthusiasm for carrying the fight against terrorists to its tribal areas, as well as its covert support for the Taliban and anti-Indian extremist groups.

some background:

April 22, 2011

Deadly Drone Strike by U.S. May Fuel Anger in Pakistan

By JANE PERLEZ and ISMAIL KHAN
New York Times

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An American drone attack killed 23 people in North Waziristan on Friday, Pakistani military officials said, in a strike against militants that appeared to signify unyielding pressure by the United States on Pakistan’s military amid increasing opposition to such strikes.

The strike came a day after the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, met with the Pakistani military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, and asked that Pakistan do more to fight militants who use North Waziristan as a base from which to attack United States and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

The assault was the second show of the United States’ determination to continue drone attacks since the head of Pakistan’s spy agency, Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shuja Pasha, met this month in Washington with Director Leon E. Panetta of the Central Intelligence Agency to request a halt to the strikes.

Friday’s attack could further fuel anti-drone sentiment among the Pakistani public. A government official in North Waziristan told Pakistani reporters that five children and four women were among the 23 who were killed.

bp says gulf residents need no compensation for ruined lives

The economy in the Gulf region is strong and “there is no basis to assume that claimants, with very limited exceptions, will incur a future loss related to the oil spill”, the oil giant said in a paper filed with the Gulf Coast Claims Facility (GCCF) , which is handling compensation claims. The letter was sent to Kenneth Feinberg, administrator of the GCCF fund, which was set up at the behest of President Barack Obama.

BP

The tourism industry is booming, all federal fishing grounds have reopened and the shrimp catch has been plentiful, BP added.

“The current economic data do not suggest that individual and business claimants face a material risk of future loss caused by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill,” BP said in the 29-page letter.

However, the oil company conceded that future payments may be appropriate for oystermen, where their beds had been destroyed in the crude spill, which started in April last year.

“The GCCF welcomes any and all input from any interested sources, including BP,” Mr Feinberg said. “We take all of the submissions ‘under advisement’.

from the telegraph,  BP wants to stop ‘future losses’ payouts from $20bn Gulf of Mexico oil spill fund

With Friends Like Feinberg, Who Needs Enemies?

Kenneth Feinberg, the point man in charge of BP’s $20 billion compensation fund, is commencing to wind down BP’s compensation operations in the Gulf Coast with only 20% of the total fund having been paid out [19]. Do you remember Part One’s memorable Feinberg exchange with Elmer Rogers, et al [20]? This should cause all who want justice to be carried out, to have extreme reservations about who is in charge of carrying out the compensation efforts. Ken Feinberg is the same man who denied 911 First Responder’s claims of impaired lung functioning leading to an inability to work (see Michael Moore’s portrayal in the movie Sicko). This is the same Ken Feinberg who “sentenced “ several homeless Katrina survivors to be forcibly evacuated by Blackwater and forced to live in Formaldehyde infested FEMA trailers resulting in severe lung impairments.

“I’ve used just over $4 billion,” said Mr. Feinberg, who also processed payments for families of victims of the 9/11 terror attacks and Hurricane Katrina. “I don’t envision a flood of new claims [19].” This begs the question for Mr. Feinberg, why then isn’t BP paying the existing claims?

Feinberg has stated “I’m not prepared to commit to or predict how much of that $20 billion will be used [19].” What about the BP-caused declining real estate values? What about the catastrophic pandemic of chemical agent induced illnesses which are beginning to emerge in horrific numbers in the Gulf? Why not do the right thing, Mr. Feinberg, and use the entire $20 billion dollar compensation fund? And when the money runs out, the Gulf Coast residents should go back to President Obama and press BP for even more money. It should be noted that Feinberg is paid by BP. Where is the government oversight and who is protecting the interest of the people? Does the phrase, “The Fox is watching the hen house” come to mind? Feinberg adds “But I continue to believe that BP’s financial commitment is sufficient to pay the claims.” With the BP paid Ken Feinberg at the helm of the compensation fund, his last statement is no doubt his most accurate in this whole compensation debacle.

Rules for Thee but Not for Me

Seems like everyone in the Gulf is losing money except for BP and its corporate Gulf Coast partners consisting of Goldman Sachs [21], former BP CEO Tony Hayward [22], TransOcean [23] and of course the infamous Halliburton [24] have all experienced major gains in corporate profits as a result of the spill in this unconscionable act of profiteering off of the misery of millions of people.

from news with views,  THE GREAT GULF COAST HOLOCAUST – PART 2

 

U.S./Pakistan relations continue to sour, over American drone base

US told to vacate Shamsi airbase: Mukhtar

The Defence Ministry Chaudhry Ahmad Mukhtar has said that trust deficit between Pakistan and the United States has increased after the Abbottabad raid on 2nd of May, the US has withheld the payments of Coalition Support Fund (CSF) while Pakistan has asked Washington to vacate the Shamsi airbase.

In an interaction with media persons here on Wednesday, the Defence Minister said it was not only Pakistan which had not been taken into confidence by the United States before raid at the hideout of Osama bin Laden, but key ally United Kingdom was also kept in the dark.

He said the United States has sought some time to shift its equipment from the Shamsi airbase. He said Pakistan is not in a position to enter into war with America but Islamabad will have a review afresh its relationship with Washington.

The Defence Minister said Pakistan was fighting the war against terror through its meagre resources as America has stopped payment of CSF. He said it would be difficult for Pakistan to continue this war for long as it has already suffered immensely in economic terms as well as in the loss of precious lives.

Ch Ahmad Mukhtar said Senator John Kerry was the first American leader to visit Pakistan after May 2 attack and he assured Pakistan that he was ready to give in writing with his blood that there was no danger to Pakistani nuclear assets from the United States. He categorically stated that nuclear assets were completely secure and there is no danger to them from any side.

US Rejects Pakistani Demand to Leave Air Base
 Officials Insist US Will Retain Control Over Shamsi Base

Fresh off of the public demand by Pakistani Defense Minister Chaudhry Mukhar that the United States must immediately vacate the Shamsi Air Base, a small airfield in Pakistani Balochistan which the US has been using for drone attacks, the Obama Administration has officially rejected the demand.

The consequences of this unprecedented stance remain to be seen, but US officials insist that Shamsi is not being vacated, nor will it be vacated, and that the US will rather continue to use the base. If they assume that the Pakistani government will simply let the matter drop or not, they seem intent on occupying the base outside of the Zardari government’s consent.

Pakistani Air Force officials say that the military has already informed the US personnel operating at the base that no security will be provided to them, though the district’s MP insists that there has been no local indication of removal since the government first broached the subject nearly two months ago.

The Shamsi air base has been the source of CIA drone strikes across Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas and the demand to vacate the base comes amid repeatedly Pakistani demands to stop unilateral drone strikes, which the US has repeatedly refused to do. Other Pakistani military officials say two bases were originally given over to the US, and that the US had already vacated the Jacobabad base some time ago.

financial speculators grabbing land in africa and india, displacing millions, endangering world food supply

Financial backers – including U.S universities and pension funds – are lured by high returns and turn a blind eye to theft of land, displacement of people.

Hedge funds and other foreign speculators are increasing price volatility and supply insecurity in the global food system, according to a series of investigative reports released today by the Oakland Institute. The reports are based on the actual materials from these land deals and include investigation of investors, purchase contracts, business plans and maps never released before now.

The “Understanding Land Investment Deals in Africa” reports also reveal that these largely unregulated land purchases are resulting in virtually none of the promised benefits for native populations, but instead are forcing millions of small farmers off ancestral lands and small, local food farms in order to make room for export commodities, including biofuels and cut flowers.

“The same financial firms that drove us into a global recession by inflating the real estate bubble through risky financial maneuvers are now doing the same with the world’s food supply,” said Anuradha Mittal, executive director of the Oakland Institute. “In Africa this is resulting in the displacement of small farmers, environmental devastation, water loss and further political instability such as the food riots that preceded the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions.”

Mittal added that for people living in developed countries, the conversion of African small farms and forests into a natural-asset-based, high-return investment strategy can drive up food prices and increase the risks of climate change.

“The research exposed investors who said it’s easy to make a land deal – that they could usually get what they want in exchange for giving a poor, tribal chief a bottle of Johnny Walker,” Mittal said. “When these investors promise progress and jobs to local chiefs, it sounds great – but they don’t deliver, which means no progress and relocating people from their homes.”

New reports and materials on these deals examine on-the-ground implications in several African nations including Ethiopia, Mali, Sierra Leone, Mozambique, Tanzania and South Sudan – and expose contracts that connect land grabs back to institutional investors in these nations and others. In addition to publicly sharing – for the first time — the paperwork behind these deals, the reports demonstrate how common land grabs are and how quickly this phenomenon is taking place. Investors in these deals include not only alternative investment firms like Emergent Asset Management – that works to attract speculators, but also universities including Harvard, Spellman and Vanderbilt.

Contracts also reveal a bonanza of incentives for speculators ranging from unlimited water rights to tax waivers.

“No one should believe that these investors are there to feed starving Africans, create jobs or improve food security, Obang Metho of Solidarity Movement for New Ethiopia said. “These land grab agreements – many of which could be in place for 99 years – do not mean progress for local people and will not lead to food in their stomachs. These deals lead only to dollars in the pockets of corrupt leaders and foreign investors.”

In 2009 alone nearly 60 million hectares – an area the size of France – was purchased or leased in these land grabs. Most of these deals are characterized by a lack of transparency, despite the profound implications posed by the consolidation of control over global food markets and agricultural resources by financial firms.

“We have seen cases of speculators taking over agricultural land while small farmers, viewed as “squatters” are forcibly removed with no compensation,” said Frederic Mousseau, policy director at the Oakland Institute. “This is creating insecurity in the global food system that could be a much bigger threat to global security than terrorism. More than one billion people around the world are living with hunger. The majority of the world’s poor still depend on small farms for their livelihoods, and speculators are taking these away while promising progress that never happens.”

These reports, as well as briefs on other aspects of land grabs, are available at oakland institute.

India’s land issues

In India, the land grab is facilitated by the toxic mixture of the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894, the deregulation of investments and commerce through neo-liberal policies – and with it the emergence of the rule of uncontrolled greed and exploitation. It is facilitated by the creation of a police state and the use of colonial sedition laws which define defence of the public interest and national interest as anti-national.

The World Bank has worked for many years to commodify land. The 1991 World Bank structural adjustment programme reversed land reform, deregulated mining, roads and ports. While the laws of independent India to keep land in the hands of the tiller were reversed, the 1894 Land Acquisition Act was untouched.

Thus the state could forcibly acquire the land from the peasants and tribal peoples and hand it over to private speculators, real estate corporations, mining companies and industry.

Across the length and breadth of India, from Bhatta in Uttar Pradesh (UP) to Jagatsinghpur in Orissa to Jaitapur in Maharashtra, the government has declared war on our farmers, our annadatas, in order to grab their fertile farmland.

Their instrument is the colonial Land Acquisition Act – used by foreign rulers against Indian citizens. The government is behaving as the foreign rulers did when the Act was first enforced in 1894, appropriating land through violence for the profit of corporations – JayPee Infratech in Uttar Pradesh for the Yamuna expressway, POSCO in Orissa and AREVA in Jaitapur – grabbing land for private profit and not, by any stretch of the imagination, for any public purpose. This is rampant in the country today.

These land wars have serious consequences for our nation’s democracy, our peace and our ecology, our food security and rural livelihoods. The land wars must stop if India is to survive ecologically and democratically.

While the Orissa government prepares to take the land of people in Jagatsinghpur, people who have been involved in a democratic struggle against land acquisition since 2005, Rahul Gandhi makes it known that he stands against forceful land acquisition in a similar case in Bhatta in Uttar Pradesh. The Minister for the Environment, Mr Jairam Ramesh, admitted that he gave the green signal to pass the POSCO project – reportedly under great pressure. One may ask: “Pressure from whom?” This visible double standard when it comes to the question of land in the country must stop.

Violation of the land

In Bhatta Parsual, Greater Noida (UP), about 6000 acres of land is being acquired by infrastructure company Jaiprakash Associates to build luxury townships and sports facilities – including a Formula 1 racetrack – in the guise of building the Yamuna Expressway. In total, the land of 1225 villages is to be acquired for the 165km Expressway. The farmers have been protesting this unjust land acquisition, and last week, four people died – while many were injured during a clash between protesters and the police on May 7, 2011. If the government continues its land wars in the heart of India’s bread basket, there will be no chance for peace.

In any case, money cannot compensate for the alienation of land. As 80-year-old Parshuram, who lost his land to the Yamuna Expressway, said: “You will never understand how it feels to become landless.”

see the original article, from al jazeera – The great land grab: India’s war on farmers 

Yuma shootings: 5 people killed; gunman dead

Yuma authorities said five people were killed in a series of shootings.

A 73-year-old Yuma man on Thursday shot and killed five people, including an attorney who was clearing his office for retirement, before turning the gun on himself, authorities said. A sixth person was reportedly wounded and taken to a Phoenix-area hospital.

Authorities identify the gunman as Carey Hal Dyess, and said he was found about 11:30 a.m. — some two hours after reports of the first shooting — in the area of Blaisdell Road and U.S. 95, with what appeared to be a have been a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Questions abound, including the relationship between Dyess and the others who were shot, the sequence of events and a motive.

Yuma police Sgt. Clint Norred said four of the fatal shootings happened in the county and one happened in the city of Yuma. The southwestern Arizona city is some 185 miles southwest of central Phoenix.

The shootings forced a lockdown of several elementary schools and the Yuma County Courthouse.

Norred said police responded to a shooting call around 9:30 a.m. Thursday at an office in the 300 block of South Second Avenue, where one person was shot and killed.

via Yuma shootings: 5 people killed; gunman dead.