Communities of Practice – Page 795 – Public Intelligence Blog

2013/07/11

Mini-Me: Fracking Causes Earthquakes. Any Questions?

03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Law Enforcement

Huh?

U.S. earthquake increase tied to disposal well boom

Wastewater, increasingly injected into deep disposal wells amid the energy boom, appears to be the culprit in an increase in U.S. quakes.

EXTRACT:

In a study out today that provides the strongest link to date between wastewater wells and quakes, seismologists and geologists say U.S. earthquakes have become roughly five times more common in the past three years. They warn about inadequate monitoring of deep wastewater disposal wells that are setting off these small quakes nationwide.

There are more than 30,000 such deep disposal wells nationwide. They're increasingly used as mile-deep dumping grounds for fluids left over from the more shallow hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” wells responsible for surging U.S. natural gas production. The earthquakes have been linked to the wastewater wells but not the fracking drilling wells themselves.

Read article with large graphic.

2013/07/11

Owl: Microsoft Lied — Sold All Customers Out to NSA Years Ago

Commerce, Corruption

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian.

The files provided by Edward Snowden illustrate the scale of co-operation between Silicon Valley and the intelligence agencies over the last three years. They also shed new light on the workings of the top-secret Prism program, which was disclosed by the Guardian and the Washington Post last month.

The documents show that:

• Microsoft helped the NSA to circumvent its encryption to address concerns that the agency would be unable to intercept web chats on the new Outlook.com portal;

• The agency already had pre-encryption stage access to email on Outlook.com, including Hotmail;

• The company worked with the FBI this year to allow the NSA easier access via Prism to its cloud storage service SkyDrive, which now has more than 250 million users worldwide;

• Microsoft also worked with the FBI's Data Intercept Unit to “understand” potential issues with a feature in Outlook.com that allows users to create email aliases;

• Skype, which was bought by Microsoft in October 2011, worked with intelligence agencies last year to allow Prism to collect video of conversations as well as audio;

• Material collected through Prism is routinely shared with the FBI and CIA, with one NSA document describing the program as a “team sport”.

More:

Revealed: how Microsoft handed the NSA access to encrypted messages

2013/07/11

Owl: GOVERNMENT DEFENCE ANTI- CORRUPTION INDEX 2013

Corruption, Government, Military

This Government Defence Anti-Corruption Index is the first ever review of corruption risk and corruption vulnerability in Defence Ministries and Armed Forces. It offers governments, armed forces, civil society organisations, and citizens detailed knowledge and understanding of the corruption risks in their national defence and security establishments. This Index is novel, as it is open to governments providing information and reviewing results. We have been encouraged by how many governments have provided input, and welcome further engagement to help us correct inaccuracies in the research, and work with us to develop reform plans. There are many countries whose defence ministry remains secretive and closed, and where it can be dangerous even to ask questions about corruption. Bringing transparency to this sector, and accountability to citizens, is another main purpose of this Index. Many of these countries are important players on the world stage, and major exporters and importers of arms. It is to the benefit of the whole world that they be more open and accountable
about their defence establishments.

Download a free pdf copy of the 52 page GOVERNMENT DEFENCE ANTI- CORRUPTION INDEX 2013

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2013/07/11

Owl: US Doctors Harvesting Organs from Live Unwitting Donors

07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, Commerce, Corruption

Is there anything the rich and their rich enabling servants – in this case, Medical Doctors – won't do for a buck or personal advantage at the cost of another human being's life? Apparently not: add trafficking in human organs from people who are still alive to the list.

“I've warned Natural News readers about this several times over the last decade: Do NOT become an organ donor! Although you may wish to help others out of the goodness of your (literal) heart, the sinister truth is that doctors routinely harvest organs from LIVING patients right here in the USA. And here's yet more proof. This true story will astound you. A woman named Colleen Burns recently opened her eyes to find herself on an operating table in a hospital in Syracuse, NY. Looking around, she noticed that she was the subject of the operation. It turns out doctors were about to harvest her organs and send them to other waiting surgeons who would transplant them into other patients This isn't fiction. It was covered by ABC News and several other news sources. It really happened.

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2013/07/11

Chuck Spinney: Has the US Lost Its Grand Strategic Mind?

02 Diplomacy, 04 Inter-State Conflict, 05 Civil War, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 08 Wild Cards, 10 Security, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude, IO Deeds of War, Military, Misinformation & Propaganda, Officers Call, Power Behind-the-Scenes/Special Interests, Secrecy & Politics of Secrecy

As Esam Al-Amin explained here, Mohamad Morsi made some colossal blunders during his one year rule of Egypt, as its democratically elected president. He was elected in what most observers regard as a reasonably fair election.

But the exclusive report by Al Jazeera (also attached below) reveals that the United States — which claims to support democracy in the Middle East and elsewhere — has been actively involved in bankrolling Morsi's opposition, and in so doing has continued its long policy of subverting Islamist democratic victories when they win fair elections (Hamas in 2006) or threaten to win fair elections (Algeria 1991).

Al Jazeera reveals how stark contradictions continue to rip through the three legs of the moral triangle that is US foreign policy — i.e., the contradictions between (1) the values we profess to to the world that we uphold, (2) the values we actually hold as demonstrated by our actions abroad as well as at home (don't forget the neo-fascist, non-accountable, hidden hand the emerging American deep state exemplified by the NSA scandal) and (3) the world we have to deal with deal with (in this case epitomized by the changing conditions of the Arab Spring).

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2013/07/112013/07/11

David Isenberg: 70% of the US Intelligence Community — Contractors — Reasonably Subject to Question on Both Legal and Efficiency Grounds

Corruption, Government

From Boox Allen to James Bond

EXTRACT (CONCLUSION):

Ms. Windsor’s bottom line is this:

When the government forms contracts for core governmental functions, particularly in the area of national security, the consequences of problems arising under those contracts can be severe. Preventing those harms is in the United States’ interest, under the two-pronged policy of supporting wise, efficient use of taxpayer dollars while maintaining government control over sovereign activities. Because of the barriers to litigation of such contracts after-the-fact when things go wrong, it is even more important to prevent the contracting out of such functions a priori. The three approaches outlined above recommend that the government use inherently-governmental-functions law to prevent unwise contracting of activities that are core to the United States’ national security, and also to deter similar future cases. This will allow contractors to continue to support government activities efficiently while maintaining a proper balance with government authority and oversight.

Read full commentary with quotes.

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2013/07/102013/07/10

Owl: Trans-Pacific Partnership A Worst Case View

Commerce, Corruption, Government

Another Cog Coming Into Machinery of US Destruction: The Trans-Pacific Partnership

This trade pact is vile beyond words. If passed, it will devastate the US economy, health, well-being and workplace like nothing that has ever come before it, making Clinton's NAFTA look benign by comparison. This may become Obama's greatest and most hostile anti-99% accomplishment as president of the United States.

“Did you know that Barack Obama has been secretly negotiating the most important trade agreement since the formation of the World Trade Organization? Did you know that this agreement will impose very strict Internet copyright rules, ban all “Buy American” laws, give Wall Street banks much more freedom to trade risky derivatives and force even more domestic manufacturing offshore?

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