Police State

Britain's GCHQ attacked Anonymous with DDoS attack. I thought law enforcement agencies were supposed to uphold the law not break it. Government hackers are just another group of black hat hackers.

FISA release by government's giant tech partners means nothing.

"Google, Yahoo, and other tech firms are offering some updated statistics about government requests for data. There's just one problem: under revised guidelines issued by the federal government, those companies can still only report a range, rather than a definitive number, for those requests. If that wasn't fuzzy enough, the range can only be reported after a six-month lag."

This is propaganda to make it appear government is doing something.

Journalist facing 100 years in prison for uncovering network of government's fascist cyber-security firms.

"The scheme originated when WikiLeaks threatened to download internal and highly incriminating documents detailing the crimes of Bank of America."

No surprise this all traces back to one of the big banks.

"As a recent piece in The Nation puts it, "Under Brown’s leadership the initiative began to slowly untangle a web of connections between the US government, corporations, lobbyists and a shadowy group of private military and information consultants." Together, this coven – including not only HBGary but also Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and something called Endgame Systems – came up with a scheme involving the planting of false documents, targeting friends, families, and associates, and the Sunstein-like "cognitive infiltration" of opponent organizations, all directed at WikiLeaks, Assange, and Greenwald."

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. Creating fake electronic trails is the next, logical step in government's corruption of the internet. Sure, the NSA collects blackmail material on every individual in the world including journalists, activists, politicians and plutocrats, but some people don't have anything they can be blackmailed over. For those people, government agents create fake electronic trails that are indistinguishable from real one. These can be used not only for blackmail but for phony prosecutions as well. It's terrifying.

"Soon thereafter a group of hackers liberated many thousands of emails from the account of Stratfor, a company that specializes in geopolitical commentary for big corporate clients. As The Nation puts it, "the contents of the Stratfor leak were even more outrageous than those of the HBGary hack. They included discussion of opportunities for renditions and assassinations." Brown posted a link to the Stratfor data dump on ProjectPM. – an act which later showed up on his charge sheet."

This sounds more pedestrian, not outrageous, to me.

"It’s when Brown began investigating "Endgame Systems" that the hammer of the State came down on him hard.
Endgame is in the business of what appears to be hacking, providing information on weak spots in computer software that could be used to compromise systems."

In other words, this company is NSA's hound dog. That's why it was specially protected.

"When FBI agents burst into Brown’s mother’s house they were clearly after his sources. As is common in authoritarian countries, they didn’t limit their attack to just one person, but also went after his mother, who was charged with hiding the "evidence" of Brown’s alleged "crime" in her house. (She says she had no idea the laptop was in her house: she has pled guilty, and faces up to a year in jail). "

Taking out families is as old as humanity.

"This isn’t just about Barrett Brown, although his fate is important: this is about preserving what’s left of our liberties. Calls by some members of Congress for the Justice Department to conduct an investigation of Team Themis have gone unanswered, but why doesn’t some enterprising congressman initiate hearings so we can have a public investigation of this case? I hear there are a few alleged libertarians in Congress: c’mon guys, let’s get a move on. "

Because they're controlled by NSA blackmail.

Judge rules flashing headlights to warn other drivers of cops ahead is free speech.

Feds warn of terrorist threats to flights to Russia. This illustrates the folly of government's security strategy and tactics. Whereever they set up the security check, people mass, creating targets. Terrorists don't have to attack the Olympic grounds. They can put toothpaste bombs on airplanes. A better strategy is to quit making enemies.

The double-standard in justice for cops has transformed them from neighborly people to oppressors. Sheriff Andy is long gone.

Police use gun registration rolls to plan SWAT raids.

Visitors to Sochi immediately hacked. I bet the same happened at the Super Bowl.

Google Glass gets facial recognition app. NSA is watching whether you have the app or not. As facial recognition glasses become more common, people will start wearing masks.

Four in ten government security breaches go undetected.

Post Office joins government agencies buying lots of ammunition.