Law Enforcement – Page 114 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/08/242013/08/24

John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Corruption, Director of National Intelligence et al (IC), Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement, Military

Three Illusory “Investigations” of the NSA Spying Are Unable to Succeed

By Mark M. Jaycox

Since the revelations of confirmed National Security Agency spying in June, three different “investigations” have been announced. One by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), another by the Director of National Intelligence, Gen. James Clapper, and the third by the Senate Intelligence Committee, formally called the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI).

All three investigations are insufficient, because they are unable to find out the full details needed to stop the government's abuse of Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The PCLOB can only request—not require—documents from the NSA and must rely on its goodwill, while the investigation led by Gen. Clapper is led by a man who not only lied to Congress, but also oversees the spying. And the Senate Intelligence Committee—which was originally designed to effectively oversee the intelligence community—has failed time and time again. What's needed is a new, independent, Congressional committee to fully delve into the spying.

The PCLOB: Powerless to Obtain Documents

The PCLOB was created after a recommendation from the 9/11 Commission to ensure civil liberties and privacy were included in the government's surveillance and spying policies and practices.

But it languished. From 2008 until May of this year, the board was without a Chair and unable to hire staff or perform any work. It was only after the June revelations that the President asked the board to begin an investigation into the unconstituional NSA spying. Yet even with the full board constituted, it is unable to fulfill its mission as it has no choice but to base its analysis on a steady diet of carefully crafted statements from the intelligence community.

As we explained, the board must rely on the goodwill of the NSA's director, Gen. Keith Alexander, and Gen. Clapper—two men who have repeatedly said the NSA doesn't collect information on Americans.

Continue reading “John Perry Barlow: Electronic Frontier Foundation Calls for New [Congressional] Church Committee to Probe NSA Violations of Constitution, Law, and Regulation”

2013/08/22

Greg Palast: Larry Summers the Sum of All Evil — the “End-Game” Memo Proposing the Destruction of Financial Regulation Across the Globe

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Law Enforcement, Media

Larry Summers and the Secret “End-Game” Memo

By Greg Palast for Vice Magazine

When a little birdie dropped the End Game memo through my window, its content was so explosive, so sick and plain evil, I just couldn't believe it.

The Memo confirmed every conspiracy freak's fantasy: that in the late 1990s, the top US Treasury officials secretly conspired with a small cabal of banker big-shots to rip apart financial regulation across the planet. When you see 26.3% unemployment in Spain, desperation and hunger in Greece, riots in Indonesia and Detroit in bankruptcy, go back to this End Game memo, the genesis of the blood and tears.

The Treasury official playing the bankers' secret End Game was Larry Summers. Today, Summers is Barack Obama's leading choice for Chairman of the US Federal Reserve, the world's central bank. If the confidential memo is authentic, then Summers shouldn't be serving on the Fed, he should be serving hard time in some dungeon reserved for the criminally insane of the finance world.

The memo is authentic.

To get that confirmation, I would have to fly to Geneva and wangle a meeting with the Secretary General of the World Trade Organization, Pascal Lamy. I did. Lamy, the Generalissimo of Globalization, told me,

“The WTO was not created as some dark cabal of multinationals secretly cooking plots against the people…. We don't have cigar-smoking, rich, crazy bankers negotiating.”

Then I showed him the memo.

It begins with Summers’ flunky, Timothy Geithner, reminding his boss to call the then most powerful CEOs on the planet and get them to order their lobbyist armies to march:

“As we enter the end-game of the WTO financial services negotiations, I believe it would be a good idea for you to touch base with the CEOs….”

To avoid Summers having to call his office to get the phone numbers (which, under US law, would have to appear on public logs), Geithner listed their private lines. And here they are:

Continue reading “Greg Palast: Larry Summers the Sum of All Evil — the “End-Game” Memo Proposing the Destruction of Financial Regulation Across the Globe”

2013/08/22

Berto Jongman: Michael Hastings’ Dangerous Mind – Journalistic Star Was Loved, Feared and Haunted

07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

Michael Hastings' Dangerous Mind: Journalistic Star Was Loved, Feared and Haunted

EXTRACT

There's a sign tacked to the tree where Hastings crashed that night, reading, “This was not an accident.” Taken down several times, it always gets put back up. Another sign says, “Didn't have to know you to know the truth of what happened.”

After the Fourth of July, someone gathered up about 30 mini American flags and planted them around the memorial site.

Read full story.

2013/08/222013/08/22

Rickard Falkvinge: The French government is dumber than a squirrel with broccoli in its socks…

Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

…when it comes to anti-terror laws. I am currently in Paris, and I have seen really stupid things around the world, but this takes the cake.

I’m sitting in a Starbucks and logging on to their wi-fi, and I’m greeted with this login screen, where I must fill in my name and address before going online. This is to make sure that terrorists can be tracked. About this point, the French parliament must have run out of oxygen.

Read full post with screen shots.

2013/08/202013/08/20

4th Media: Escalation of Attacks on News-gathering Process and Journalism by US-UK Gov’t

07 Other Atrocities, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, IO Deeds of War, Law Enforcement

Escalation of Attacks on News-gathering Process and Journalism by US-UK Gov’t

Detaining My Partner: A Failed Attempt At Intimidation At 6:30 am this morning my time – 5:30 am on the East Coast of the US – I received a telephone call from someone who identified himself as a “security official at Heathrow airport.” He told me that my partner, David Miranda, had been “detained” at the London airport “under Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act of 2000.” David had spent the last week in Berlin, where he stayed with Laura Poitras, the US filmmaker who has worked with me extensively on the NSA stories. A Brazilian citizen, he was returning to our home in Rio de Janeiro this morning on British Airways, flying first to London and then on to Rio. When he arrived in London this morning, he was detained.

2013/08/182013/08/18

SchwartzReport: Rolling Back the Insanely Criminal Militarization of US Local Police Forces

07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

I got an email this morning from a reader who told me about a police break-in near her home which she witnessed that she described as “a dawn assault by Nazis.” One of the unintended consequences of the insane wars of Dick Cheney and the Neocons, is the dispersal of vast quantities of military supplies to American police departments so that more and more they resemble not law-enforcement but special ops. The tendency ha! s always been present. People become police because they like being armed and in authority. The positive is being a person respected for being of service to their community. But lurking beneath that, in some, is something darker. And the militarization of the police feeds that. This is a major trend in the U.S., and not a happy one.

Why Are SWAT Teams Answering Routine Police Calls?
S. E. SMITH – Truthout

Here is a reasonable approach to reversing the trend of militarizing the police. Can we muster sufficient political will amongst citizens to demand it? We'll see.

Drawing Down: How To Roll Back Police Militarization In America
RADLEY BALKO, Senior Writer and Investigative Reporter – The Huffington Post

2013/08/162013/08/16

Berto Jongman: US Government Prepares for Internal (Domestic) Collapse and Widespread Disorder

05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Security, 11 Society, Corruption, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, Law Enforcement

Marine Colonel Speaks Out: “We're building a domestic army”

StormCloudsGathering August 15, 2013

Four videos below the line, the last one sums up a common public concern.

Continue reading “Berto Jongman: US Government Prepares for Internal (Domestic) Collapse and Widespread Disorder”