11 Society – Page 139 – Public Intelligence Blog

Swedish Regime To Give Police, Customs, Tax Authorities Realtime Access to Citizens’ Phone, Mail, More

Posted: 19 Nov 2013 10:51 AM PST

Privacy: The Swedish citizens will get all their phone calls and e-mail traffic wiretapped in real time not just by the Swedish NSA branch, but also by police, customs, the tax authority, and others. These plans were revealed today by the Ny Teknik magazine, sending shockwaves among civil rights activists. This follows a previous law change that gave the Swedish NSA branch, the FRA, realtime access to all Internet traffic that crossed the country borders – effectively wiretapping everybody warrantlessly all the time.

Circumventing the entire legislative process and every democratic shred of oversight, the Swedish Police are demanding voluntary agreements from telecom operators to give the Police and other Swedish authorities direct and real-time access to phone call data, mail traffic, and much more. This is not just the slippery slope into an Orwellian society that civil rights activists have warned about: this is a slippery precipice.

We’re now officially past the point where “national security” (and the the ever-present disgusting child porn/terrorism argument) is used to justify bulk warrantless wiretapping of everybody, all the time. We’ve arrived at the point where the Police justify the complete elimination of entire classes of civil liberties with nothing more than “because it can be done, and we want it”.

The authorities that would get direct real-time access to most communications aren’t just the Police, but also the Customs Office, the Security Police, and the Tax Authority (!!).

A key difference between a functioning democracy and a police state is, that in a functioning democracy, the Police don’t get everything they point at. While the border between the two is arguably a lot of gray area, and subject to a lot of polemic, it can no longer be reasonably stated that police powers are under checks and balances.

According to the Ny Teknik article, followed up by many others in Swedish oldmedia, it’s not just real-time data on phone calls and mail that the Police are demanding. A sample of other things included in the proposed mass surveillance package:

How telecom bills are paid – cash, credit, direct deposit. If credit card, which one, and if direct deposit, from which bank account.
The subscriber’s PUK code, enabling a police authority to activate the cellphone’s SIM card without the subscriber’s PIN code.

There are hints in the article that many other items may be covered by the realtime wiretapping, referring to a wiretapping standard called ITS27.

The only telecom operator to say a blank never, this is completely unthinkable to the Police demands is the Swedish Tele 2.

The fact that the Swedish regime isn’t immediately firing everybody in the Police demanding this wholesale abolition of civil rights is practically an endorsement of the plans – and one that goes hand in hand with the much-criticized Swedish FRA Law that legalized warrantless bulk wiretapping in the first place.

2013/11/15

NIGHTWATCH: Syrian Kurds Holding North – Kurdistan Emergent + Kurd RECAP & Syria RECAP

05 Civil War, 08 Wild Cards, 11 Society, Peace Intelligence

Syria-Kurds: Islamist groups in northern Syria are weakening after months of fighting and Kurdish militias are gaining ground, a top Syrian Kurdish leader said on Wednesday.

Saleh Muslim, head of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), said in an interview that Tuesday's announcement of an interim Syrian Kurdish autonomous administration in northeastern Syria is only a provisional measure until the end of the Syrian fighting. Muslim said he would only join the Geneva talks if there was a separate Kurdish delegation.

Muslim said, “About 3,000 of those Salafists have been killed. At the beginning they were strong, but now they aren't so strong….We have found no allies and paid for our own bullets.”

Muslim admitted, however, the PYD had received aid, money and weapons from the Iraq-based Kurdistan Democratic Party and Patriotic Union of Kurdistan as well as the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which fought for greater Kurdish autonomy in Turkey for three decades.

Comment: Syrian Kurds number about two million people or 10% of Syria's population of 22.4 million, according to the CIA World Factbook. More than 25 million Kurds are dispersed among Syria, Turkey, Iran and Iraq.

The pro-Western and the jihadist groups reject the formation of an autonomous Syrian Kurdistan region. Nevertheless, one of the ripple effects of the Syrian fighting has been to galvanize the long-oppressed Syrian Kurds into taking action to defend their territory in northeastern Syria.

Muslim's admission that his group receives aid, money and weapons from other Iraqi and Turkish Kurds is significant because usually Kurdish leaders are more circumspect about linkages to other Kurdish regions, particularly the prosperous and highly autonomous Iraqi Kurds. None of the leaders of states with large Kurdish populations wants to see a Kurdish nationhood movement emerge.

For now, the Asad government owes the Kurds for preventing the jihadists from seizing northeastern Syria, as they have tried for much of the summer.

Continue reading “NIGHTWATCH: Syrian Kurds Holding North – Kurdistan Emergent + Kurd RECAP & Syria RECAP”

2013/11/14

Penguin: Wikileaks Exposes the Trans-Pacific Partnership for What It Is — Secret Predatory Corporate Corruption Enabled by Secret Government Complicty in Looting the Public Purse

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 09 Justice, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Government

WikiLeaks releases major trade agreement draft chapter

The TPP, based on the draft chapter, seems set to be yet another boon for corporate interests

Natasha Lennard

Salon, Wednesday, Nov 13, 2013

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement — an international trade agreement some years in the making between major world powers including the U.S., Canada and Japan — has seemed in some minor jeopardy over revelations that the NSA has secretly been spying on ally world leaders. Secretary of State John Kerry has been in damage control mode to keep the deal afloat and on schedule.

On Tuesday, WikiLeaks offered a peak into the trade agreement, publishing a leaked draft chapter. Predictably, the TPP promises to be a deal in the interest of major corporations above consumers. Having received an exclusive early view of the draft from WikiLeaks, the Sydney Morning Herald called it a “bitter medicine.”

Via the Sydney Morning Herald:

Read full article.

2013/11/142013/11/14

Marcus Aurelius: CSIS Rambles on US Security Policy

07 Other Atrocities, 10 Security, 11 Society, Cultural Intelligence

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Introduction | The Deterioration of Government John j. Hamre

PART 1: GETTING OUR HOUSE IN ORDER
Can We Rebuild a National Security Consensus? Kathleen h. Hicks
The Snowden Effect: Can We Undo the Damage to American Power? James a. Lewis
What Battlefield Lessons Have We Learned from 12 Years of War? Maren Leed
What Has Syria Taught Us about the Right Time to Use Force? Clark a. Murdock
How Can We Develop a Sustainable Resource Strategy for Defense? David j. Berteau

PART 2: THE CHANGING ORDER IN THE MIDDLE EAST
What Should the United States and its Allies Expect from the Middle East? Anthony h. Cordesman
What Should the Middle East Expect from the United States and its Allies? Jon b. Alterman
Is Russia Back as a Power in the Middle East? Andrew c. Kuchins
Can We Stop Violent Extremism from Going Mainstream in North Africa? Haim Malka

PART 3: SUSTAINING THE RE BALANCE
Should We Change Our Security Approach in Asia? A conversation with Michael j. Green , Victor Cha, and Christopher k. Johnson moderated by Zack Cooper
How Important Is TPP to Our Asia Policy? A conversation with Ernest z. Bower ,
Matthew Goodman , and Scott Miller moderated by Murray Hiebert
How Will the Shifting Energy Landscape in Asia Impact Geopolitics? Sarah o. Ladislaw
How Should We Address Nuclear Risks in Asia? Sharon Squassoni

PART 4: NONTRADITIONAL SECURITY APPROACHES
Are There Opportunities to Bolster Regional Security Cooperation? A conversation with Heather a. Conley, Jennifer G. Cooke , Carl Meacham , aram nerguizian, and Ralph a. Cossa moderated by Samuel Brannen
What Can Civilian Power Accomplish in Foreign Crises? A conversation with j. Stephen Morrison, Daniel f. Runde, and Johanna Nesseth tuttle moderated by Robert d. Lamb
Can We Adapt to the Changing Nature of Power in the 21st Century? Juan Zarate

PDF (76 Pages): (U) CSIS 2014 Global Forecast

Phi Beta Iota: CSIS means well, but it does not know what it does not know, and that makes its “analysis” inherently unreliable. By this point in time CSIS could — if it wanted to — have a holistic analytic model (ten threats, twelve policies, eight demographics), and also have embraced a cradle to grave true cost economic methodology. This is a mixed group of essays, some of which are outrageously out of touch with both ethics and reality.

2013/11/13

SmartPlanet: Staggering Costs of Fukushima Clean Up (Never Mind Toxicity Blowing East) + Fukushima RECAP

03 Environmental Degradation, 07 Health, 07 Other Atrocities, 08 Proliferation, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Earth Intelligence, Government, Idiocy, Ineptitude

The staggering costs to clean up Fukushima

More than two years since the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, the Fukushima power plant meltdown is still a major, global environmental problem. And the staggering price tag for cleaning it up continues to rise.

The Japanese government just announced that it’s borrowing about $30 billion more to cover costs related to Fukushima, bringing the total amount the Japanese government has borrowed to clean up the mess to around $80 billion, more than three times the amount BP spent to clean up the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. That money will go into cleanup, along with compensation for the people who may never go back to their homes near the contaminated area, and the decommissioning of the nuclear reactors. But it’s not money that the government is on the hook for, Reuters reports:

Tokyo Electric Power, or Tepco, the owner of the Fukushima plant, remains responsible for covering the costs of compensation and paying to clean up the surrounding areas under a framework set by the previous government.

But the government has issued bonds to pay the related costs up front. The embattled utility remains on the hook for paying back the money spent to the government over a period of decades under current arrangements.

But it should hardly come as a surprise that the cleanup is proving so costly. Independent estimates put the total economic cost of the disaster at $250-$500 billion. Tepco has said it will need $137 billion to cover costs related to Fukushima. And if Chernobyl is any indication, the costs will likely continue for decades to come. And the real issue might not even be the cleanup costs or health concerns, but the fact that a large, productive area of land (of which Japan doesn’t have much to begin with) is now essentially useless and will be for many years, decades, or possibly centuries to come.

Fortunately, in the shadow of Fukushima, there is some good news. Just about 12 miles off the coast of the Fukushima prefecture, a symbolic floating wind turbine switched on for the first time on Monday. The turbine alone will send 2,000 kilowatts to Tohoku Electric Power Co. It’s a small step in the country’s push toward more renewable power, but the wind farm is expected to eventually have 143 turbines with a generating capacity of one gigawatt. But it’s just one of the ways Japan looking to make up for the lost energy production from its nuclear reactors, which accounted for about 30 percent Japan’s electricity capacity.

Continue reading “SmartPlanet: Staggering Costs of Fukushima Clean Up (Never Mind Toxicity Blowing East) + Fukushima RECAP”

2013/11/13

Chuck Spinney: Wanna Start a Revolution? Watch Fed Feed Wall Street While Looting Main Street…

03 Economy, 07 Other Atrocities, 10 Transnational Crime, 11 Society, Commerce, Commercial Intelligence, Corruption, Cultural Intelligence, Government

…. Read this obscene description of the “let them eat cake” policies of the Fed (and by extension, the President and Congress) that feed Wall Street at the expense of Main Street.

Andrew Huszar: Confessions of a Quantitative Easer

We went on a bond-buying spree that was supposed to help Main Street. Instead, it was a feast for Wall Street.

By ANDREW HUSZAR

I can only say: I'm sorry, America. As a former Federal Reserve official, I was responsible for executing the centerpiece program of the Fed's first plunge into the bond-buying experiment known as quantitative easing. The central bank continues to spin QE as a tool for helping Main Street. But I've come to recognize the program for what it really is: the greatest backdoor Wall Street bailout of all time.

Five years ago this month, on Black Friday, the Fed launched an unprecedented shopping spree. By that point in the financial crisis, Congress had already passed legislation, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, to halt the U.S. banking system's free fall. Beyond Wall Street, though, the economic pain was still soaring. In the last three months of 2008 alone, almost two million Americans would lose their jobs.

The Fed said it wanted to help—through a new program of massive bond purchases. There were secondary goals, but Chairman Ben Bernanke made clear that the Fed's central motivation was to “affect credit conditions for households and businesses”: to drive down the cost of credit so that more Americans hurting from the tanking economy could use it to weather the downturn. For this reason, he originally called the initiative “credit easing.”

Continue reading “Chuck Spinney: Wanna Start a Revolution? Watch Fed Feed Wall Street While Looting Main Street…”

2013/11/12

Jon Rappoport: Why GMO Labeling Failed in Washington State

01 Agriculture, 03 Economy, 04 Education, 06 Family, 07 Health, 09 Justice, 11 Society, Commerce, Corruption, Government

Why GMO labeling really failed in Washington State: stop whining

by Jon Rappoport

November 12, 2013

www.nomorefakenews.com

Here's a question for you. During the campaign for prop 37 in California, and the campaign for Prop 522 in the state of Washington, the ballot measures to label GMO food, did you see political ads like this:

“Hello. My name is… I'm a researcher with a long track record. I study what's in your food. I know that Monsanto, the company that puts genes in your food and sells a toxic herbicide called Roundup, which is also in your food, wants Prop 522 to fail. They don't want you to know what's in your food. I'm willing to debate Monsanto anytime, anywhere. Their GMOs and their Roundup are toxic, unhealthy. Vote Yes on 522, so you don't have to eat Monsanto.”

No, you didn't see an ad like that.

So why did Prop 522 go down to defeat?

Continue reading “Jon Rappoport: Why GMO Labeling Failed in Washington State”

Category: 11 Society

Rickard Falkvinge: Sweden Gives Up Its Integrity