Public Intelligence Blog – Page 3856 – The truth at any cost lowers all other costs — curated by former US spy Robert David Steele.

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Published: August 17, 2009

Scientists in Israel have demonstrated that it is possible to fabricate DNA evidence, undermining the credibility of what has been considered the gold standard of proof in criminal cases.

. . . . . . .

Tania Simoncelli, science adviser to the American Civil Liberties Union, said the findings were worrisome.

“DNA is a lot easier to plant at a crime scene than fingerprints,” she said. “We’re creating a criminal justice system that is increasingly relying on this technology.”

. . . . . . .

From a pooled sample of many people’s DNA, the scientists cloned tiny DNA snippets representing the common variants at each spot, creating a library of such snippets. To prepare a DNA sample matching any profile, they just mixed the proper snippets together. They said that a library of 425 different DNA snippets would be enough to cover every conceivable profile.

2009/08/182009/08/18

Journal: Starting this year, Americans will have to get government approval to travel by air….

Ethics, Government, Law Enforcement

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Starting this year, Americans will have to get government approval to travel by air. As Privacy Journal revealed last fall, henceforth “Permission Now Needed to Travel Within U.S.” Getting a reservation and checking-in for air travel will soon require Transportation Security Administration authorization. That permission is by no means assured: For example, if your name matches a “no-fly” list, even mistakenly, you can be denied the right to a reserve a seat on a flight. If your name is on a “selectee” list, you and your possessions will be searched more thoroughly before you can board. What is going on here?

Phi Beta Iota Editorial Comment: The USA still does not have a reliable watch list.

Continue reading “Journal: Starting this year, Americans will have to get government approval to travel by air….”

2009/08/182009/08/18

Journal: Washington Post Continues to Die….

09 Terrorism, 10 Transnational Crime, Government, Law Enforcement, Military

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Meet Walter Pincus. He has “covered” the U.S. Intelligence Community for over two decades.

Fine Print: U.S. Intelligence and Afghan Narcotics

By Walter Pincus

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Click on the story title to read the story. The entire story is built arouind an Air Force contracting announcement, and everything there-in is taken at face value including the absurd claim electronic processing of Dari information not only allows it to accept locally generated Afghan intelligence but to also return finished intelligence reports in Dari to the Afghan counternarcotics police.

Continue reading “Journal: Washington Post Continues to Die….”

2009/08/17

Journal: Special Forces Collect, But Cannot Process

Military

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Phi Beta Iota: Tip of the Hat to Steven Aftergood and the Federation of American Scientists.

“Ongoing SOF operations demonstrate the ability to collect significant amounts of pocket litter, hard copy documents, hard drives, cell phones, and other important hard copy and electronic media with significant intelligence value. However, without specialized expeditionary processing, this information becomes inaccessible and of no value to SOF in immediate urgent operational missions, and over the longer term to the war fighter, the intelligence community and others in need of access.” The Committee recommended additional resources to remedy this deficiency.

Read the full story, including two links at Secrecy News.

2009/08/17

Journal: Information Sharing as a Form of Secrecy

10 Security, Government

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Phi Beta Iota: Tip of the hat to Steven Aftergood and the Federation of American Scientists.

“Although information sharing might seem like the antithesis of secrecy, the term has come to be used to refer exclusively to sharing within the government, including state and local officials and certain selected private partners. Unlike “transparency,” which is a different policy portfolio, information sharing does not extend to members of the general public even in principle. To the contrary, it implies their exclusion– there is no need to “share” information that is generally available to all. And so “information sharing” is emerging as a modified form of official secrecy.”

Read the full story at Secrecy News.

2009/08/172009/08/18

AFRICOM Week in Review Ending 17 August 2009

Uncategorized

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Hot Topics

AA: Should the AU outsource security operations? 08/14/09

BI: Burundi urged to punish perpetrators of human rights violations … 08/14/09

BW: ‘Botswana economy is going down the drain' 08/13/09

CD: DR Congo's Bemba released before war crimes trial 08/14/09

ET: Ethiopia's resilient prime minister The two sides of Meles Zenawi 08/13/09

GH: Ghana's Vice President Says Focus on Security and Development 08/14/09

KE: The plight of ethnic Somalis 08/12/09

SO: Somalia tells all visitors to seek government approval 08/14/09

SO: Commentary: Al-Qaida's navy? 08/12/09

UG: Uganda's military injustice system 08/12/09

ZA: SAs Zim arms shame 08/16/09

ZW: Zimbabwe: Poverty By Force, Dependency By Design 08/13/09 Continue reading “AFRICOM Week in Review Ending 17 August 2009”

2009/08/17

Journal: UK Conservatives Get it Right–David Cameron announces ‘right to data’ plans

Collective Intelligence, Communities of Practice

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We watched a replay last night of a June speech by David Cameron, 40-year leader of the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. That led us to search for a story to share, and this is it, followed by a photo of David Cameron and a link to the full text of the speech.

David Cameron announces ‘right to data' plans

Highlights from the anticipatory story:

In a speech at Imperial College London, Cameron is expected to say: “A radical redistribution of power also means increasing our power over the state, which means advancing political accountability.

“Information is power – because information gives people the tools to hold the powerful to account.”