NoTricksZone
"Today I’m going off topic to write about an explosive issue – the NSA. Spiegel has uncovered and reported explosive material that for now is only being superficially reported back in the States. Obama, and the free world, have a mega-crisis on their hands.In Europe, especially Germany, the NSA scandal is taking on ever increasingly huge dimensions with each passing day. While the American media are pretty much low-key or even silent on the NSA scandal, in Europe it is taking on alarming dimensions and threatening to become a foreign policy catastrophe.
News magazine Spiegel has received documents revealing that NSA activity also included bugging European offices, including the Chancellor of Germany. .......Washington’s and London’s relationship with mainland Europe is now so damaged that they are being compared to the Cold War. This is not a foreign policy scandal, rather it is a foreign policy debacle of historical proportions."
Sunday, 30 June 2013
Wednesday, 26 June 2013
Billionaires Dumping Stocks, Economist Knows Why
Money News
"So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies? After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized. It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%. One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock."
"So why are these billionaires dumping their shares of U.S. companies? After all, the stock market is still in the midst of its historic rally. Real estate prices have finally leveled off, and for the first time in five years are actually rising in many locations. And the unemployment rate seems to have stabilized. It’s very likely that these professional investors are aware of specific research that points toward a massive market correction, as much as 90%. One such person publishing this research is Robert Wiedemer, an esteemed economist and author of the New York Times best-selling book Aftershock."
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Britain's foreign aid madness: Cuts at home, but we STILL hand out more than every other G8 country
Daily Mail
"Tory MP for Shipley, Philip Davies, a longstanding critic of the Government's foreign aid commitments, said: 'Other countries are making more sensible decisions about their priorities given the tough economic times we are in. We are now the mugs of the world. We're spending money we haven't got."
"Tory MP for Shipley, Philip Davies, a longstanding critic of the Government's foreign aid commitments, said: 'Other countries are making more sensible decisions about their priorities given the tough economic times we are in. We are now the mugs of the world. We're spending money we haven't got."
Friday, 14 June 2013
Barack Obama is leading from behind in Syria - and can't see where he is going
Telegraph
" So slow has Mr Obama been to act, however, that there is a worse danger: that Russia and Iran will be quite happy to see America sink to its neck, humiliated by ever closer association with the jihadists who are supposed to be its sworn enemy. This is the nature of asymmetrical warfare. Could Mr Obama have acted any differently? Perhaps the world was still not ready after the George W. Bush years for America to take the lead in the Middle East. The terrible option can still be better than all the others. But it remains the case that if you consciously lead from behind, as Mr Obama wants to do, you sometimes cannot see where you are going."
" So slow has Mr Obama been to act, however, that there is a worse danger: that Russia and Iran will be quite happy to see America sink to its neck, humiliated by ever closer association with the jihadists who are supposed to be its sworn enemy. This is the nature of asymmetrical warfare. Could Mr Obama have acted any differently? Perhaps the world was still not ready after the George W. Bush years for America to take the lead in the Middle East. The terrible option can still be better than all the others. But it remains the case that if you consciously lead from behind, as Mr Obama wants to do, you sometimes cannot see where you are going."
Sunday, 9 June 2013
Labour still won’t admit that it got us into this mess
Telegraph
"The shadow chancellor has refused categorically to apologise for Labour’s fiscal indiscipline. He has admitted that not every pound was spent judiciously and – a separate point – expressed regret for the last government’s inadequate regulation of the financial sector. But (in the Prime Minister’s eyes) Balls personifies Labour’s collective refusal to accept that they spent too much, borrowed too much and left the Coalition with a structural deficit that will take at least two parliaments to wipe out."
"The shadow chancellor has refused categorically to apologise for Labour’s fiscal indiscipline. He has admitted that not every pound was spent judiciously and – a separate point – expressed regret for the last government’s inadequate regulation of the financial sector. But (in the Prime Minister’s eyes) Balls personifies Labour’s collective refusal to accept that they spent too much, borrowed too much and left the Coalition with a structural deficit that will take at least two parliaments to wipe out."
Saturday, 8 June 2013
Revealed: Google and Facebook DID allow NSA access to data and were in talks to set up 'spying rooms' despite denials by Zuckerberg and Page over PRISM project
Daily Mail
- Mark Zuckerberg and Larry Page both issued blustery statements over recent media reports they gave the National Security Agency officials access to their troves of user information
- Now sources say both tech giants were in discussion about specific ways to give U.S. officials access to their data using virtual classified information reading rooms
- Companies are all compelled by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to hand over any information requested under the law, but they're not required to make access easier
- PRISM data-mining program was launched in 2007 with approval from special federal judges
- Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and PalTalk are involved in spying program
- The UK has had access to the PRISM data since at least 2010
- Details of data collection were outlined in classified 41-slide PowerPoint presentation that was leaked by intelligence officer
Inside America's $1.9billion data mine: How all your private details will soon be stored in this vast NSA nerve center in Utah Valley
Daily Mail
"The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley. Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security. The Utah Data Center which is being constructed on Camp Williams on the Salt Lake-Utah County line will be completed in October - but officials have been tight-lipped about what will be stored there."
"The personal data and private online conversations that the National Security Administration is accused of mining could be stashed in a one million square-foot, $1.9 billion facility in the Utah Valley. Concerns over what the government will store at the Utah Data Center have been reinvigorated by the revelation that U.S. intelligence agencies have been extracting audio, video, photos, e-mails, documents and other information to track people's movements and contacts. Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, YouTube, Skype, AOL and the lesser known Internet company PalTalk are all involved with the PRISM program, which the government insists is for national security. The Utah Data Center which is being constructed on Camp Williams on the Salt Lake-Utah County line will be completed in October - but officials have been tight-lipped about what will be stored there."
Friday, 7 June 2013
PRISM scandal: Big Obama is watching you browse the web. Even Bush wasn't this power mad
Telegraph
"No one is suggesting that this all began under Obama. Nixon had his dirty tricks, Teddy Kennedy was an enthusiast for wiretapping mobsters, and George W Bush’s administration created most of the apparatus currently being exploited by Obama’s. But we should reserve special anger for Big Barack for the following reasons:
1. He was for surveillance before he was against it. Obama opposed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the 2008 primaries when he was trying to look all civil libertarian. Once he had the nomination in the bag, he was suddenly for it.
2. He’s a liberal and liberals aren’t supposed to do this sort of thing. That’s presumably why the New York Times – the New York Times! – has produced such a hurt-sounding op-ed stating that he’s “lost all credibility” on civil liberties.
3. Obama has broadened the scope of the Bush plan. Take phone record surveillance. Bush used it to unearth phone calls overseas with the specific goal of tackling terrorism – and when his misdeeds were exposed he created a new programme with judicial oversight to appease liberals. By contrast, Obama’s administration has been monitoring all Verizon domestic calls with an indiscrimination that is an abuse even of the authoritarian Patriot Act.
Finally, Michelle Malkin raises a very good question. On the one hand, Obama recently declared that the War on Terror was basically over. On the other hand, he has stepped up efforts to carry out domestic surveillance. So, why the contradiction? Malkin concludes that while it’s possible that the NSA has a counter-terrorism motive, its moral cause is undermined by the attacks on political enemies and the crazy scope of the snooping. Big government likes power – and it wants more."
"No one is suggesting that this all began under Obama. Nixon had his dirty tricks, Teddy Kennedy was an enthusiast for wiretapping mobsters, and George W Bush’s administration created most of the apparatus currently being exploited by Obama’s. But we should reserve special anger for Big Barack for the following reasons:
1. He was for surveillance before he was against it. Obama opposed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act during the 2008 primaries when he was trying to look all civil libertarian. Once he had the nomination in the bag, he was suddenly for it.
2. He’s a liberal and liberals aren’t supposed to do this sort of thing. That’s presumably why the New York Times – the New York Times! – has produced such a hurt-sounding op-ed stating that he’s “lost all credibility” on civil liberties.
3. Obama has broadened the scope of the Bush plan. Take phone record surveillance. Bush used it to unearth phone calls overseas with the specific goal of tackling terrorism – and when his misdeeds were exposed he created a new programme with judicial oversight to appease liberals. By contrast, Obama’s administration has been monitoring all Verizon domestic calls with an indiscrimination that is an abuse even of the authoritarian Patriot Act.
Finally, Michelle Malkin raises a very good question. On the one hand, Obama recently declared that the War on Terror was basically over. On the other hand, he has stepped up efforts to carry out domestic surveillance. So, why the contradiction? Malkin concludes that while it’s possible that the NSA has a counter-terrorism motive, its moral cause is undermined by the attacks on political enemies and the crazy scope of the snooping. Big government likes power – and it wants more."
Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge
Washington Post
"The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley."
"The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post. The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley."
Internet Giants 'Tapped Into' By US Security
Sky News
"The Obama administration's secret surveillance programme allegedly extends to the monitoring of Americans' activity on the web."
"The Obama administration's secret surveillance programme allegedly extends to the monitoring of Americans' activity on the web."
Leak of NSA order against Verizon could cause irreversible harm to national security, says top intelligence officer
Daily Mail
"At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an 'ongoing, daily basis' the records of its customers' calls. Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other information. .......When the first revelation in the case came out Wednesday night about the order against Verizon, The American Civil Liberties Union put out an immediate statement calling for an end to the program - which is scheduled to run until July 19 - and a investigation into the order. 'From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming,' ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. 'It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. 'It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.'
"At issue is a court order, first disclosed Wednesday by The Guardian newspaper in Britain, that requires the communications company Verizon to turn over on an 'ongoing, daily basis' the records of its customers' calls. Separately, The Washington Post and The Guardian reported Thursday the existence of another program used by the NSA and FBI that scours the nation's main Internet companies, extracting audio, video, emails and other information. .......When the first revelation in the case came out Wednesday night about the order against Verizon, The American Civil Liberties Union put out an immediate statement calling for an end to the program - which is scheduled to run until July 19 - and a investigation into the order. 'From a civil liberties perspective, the program could hardly be any more alarming,' ACLU deputy legal director Jameel Jaffer said in a statement. 'It’s a program in which some untold number of innocent people have been put under the constant surveillance of government agents. 'It is beyond Orwellian, and it provides further evidence of the extent to which basic democratic rights are being surrendered in secret to the demands of unaccountable intelligence agencies.'
Thursday, 6 June 2013
Analysis: covert collection of phone records could be devastating for Barack Obama
Telegraph
"The Obama administration will be bracing itself for a torrent of hostile questions this morning following the apparent revelation that the National Security Agency has been data-mining the phone records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans."
"The Obama administration will be bracing itself for a torrent of hostile questions this morning following the apparent revelation that the National Security Agency has been data-mining the phone records of tens of millions of ordinary Americans."
Sunday, 2 June 2013
There's a problem within Islam, says Tony Blair. He should know. He helped create it
Telegraph
"... Blair's ministers and their courtiers in the police poured countless millions of pounds into subsidising some of the very Islamists whose influence they needed to contain. Please, Mr Blair, return to the Middle East, where your mission as a "peace envoy" is yielding what might politely be described as modest results. You've done enough damage here."
"... Blair's ministers and their courtiers in the police poured countless millions of pounds into subsidising some of the very Islamists whose influence they needed to contain. Please, Mr Blair, return to the Middle East, where your mission as a "peace envoy" is yielding what might politely be described as modest results. You've done enough damage here."
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