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WillyT
WillyT's Journal
WillyT's Journal
September 26, 2013
Operation Minaret set up in 1960s to monitor anti-Vietnam critics, branded 'disreputable if not outright illegal' by NSA itself
Ed Pilkington in New York - GuardianUk
theguardian.com, Thursday 26 September 2013 09.19 EDT
<snip>
The National Security Agency secretly tapped into the overseas phone calls of prominent critics of the Vietnam War, including Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and two actively serving US senators, newly declassified material has revealed.
The NSA has been forced to disclose previously secret passages in its own official four-volume history of its Cold War snooping activities. The newly-released material reveals the breathtaking – and probably illegal – lengths the agency went to in the late 1960s and 70s, in an attempt to try to hold back the rising tide of anti-Vietnam war sentiment.
That included tapping into the phone calls and cable communications of two serving senators – the Idaho Democrat Frank Church and Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee who, puzzlingly, was a firm supporter of the war effort in Vietnam. The NSA also intercepted the foreign communications of prominent journalists such as Tom Wicker of the New York Times and the popular satirical writer for the Washington Post, Art Buchwald.
Alongside King, a second leading civil rights figure, Whitney Young of the National Urban League, was also surreptitiously monitored. The heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, was put on the watch list in about 1967 after he spoke out about Vietnam – he was jailed having refused to be drafted into the army, was stripped of his title, and banned from fighting – and is thought to have remained a target of surveillance for the next six years.
The agency went to great lengths to keep its activities, known as operation Minaret, from public view. All reports generated for Minaret were printed on plain paper unadorned with the NSA logo or other identifying markings other than the stamp "For Background Use Only". They were delivered by hand directly to the White House, often going specifically to successive presidents Lyndon Johnson who set the programme up in 1967 and Richard Nixon.
The lack of judicial oversight of the snooping programme led even the NSA's own history to conclude that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal".
<snip>
More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk
Declassified NSA files show agency spied on Muhammad Ali and MLK - GuardianUK
Declassified NSA files show agency spied on Muhammad Ali and MLKOperation Minaret set up in 1960s to monitor anti-Vietnam critics, branded 'disreputable if not outright illegal' by NSA itself
Ed Pilkington in New York - GuardianUk
theguardian.com, Thursday 26 September 2013 09.19 EDT
<snip>
The National Security Agency secretly tapped into the overseas phone calls of prominent critics of the Vietnam War, including Martin Luther King, Muhammad Ali and two actively serving US senators, newly declassified material has revealed.
The NSA has been forced to disclose previously secret passages in its own official four-volume history of its Cold War snooping activities. The newly-released material reveals the breathtaking – and probably illegal – lengths the agency went to in the late 1960s and 70s, in an attempt to try to hold back the rising tide of anti-Vietnam war sentiment.
That included tapping into the phone calls and cable communications of two serving senators – the Idaho Democrat Frank Church and Howard Baker, a Republican from Tennessee who, puzzlingly, was a firm supporter of the war effort in Vietnam. The NSA also intercepted the foreign communications of prominent journalists such as Tom Wicker of the New York Times and the popular satirical writer for the Washington Post, Art Buchwald.
Alongside King, a second leading civil rights figure, Whitney Young of the National Urban League, was also surreptitiously monitored. The heavyweight boxing champion, Muhammad Ali, was put on the watch list in about 1967 after he spoke out about Vietnam – he was jailed having refused to be drafted into the army, was stripped of his title, and banned from fighting – and is thought to have remained a target of surveillance for the next six years.
The agency went to great lengths to keep its activities, known as operation Minaret, from public view. All reports generated for Minaret were printed on plain paper unadorned with the NSA logo or other identifying markings other than the stamp "For Background Use Only". They were delivered by hand directly to the White House, often going specifically to successive presidents Lyndon Johnson who set the programme up in 1967 and Richard Nixon.
The lack of judicial oversight of the snooping programme led even the NSA's own history to conclude that Minaret was "disreputable if not outright illegal".
<snip>
More: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/26/nsa-surveillance-anti-vietnam-muhammad-ali-mlk
September 25, 2013
For The 2014 Mid-Terms... A Gauntlet Has Been Thrown...
If I were a Democratic Strategist... I would start an ad campaign as soon as possible, using this guys words, with images of GOP anitcs... Defund ACA, Government Shutdown, racist, misogynist, homophobic rants, etc...
And I'd make various versions, and run them as often as possible from now until election day 2014.
**************************************************************
Nevada GOP leader: 2014 a good year for GOP because minorities won’t vote
By Aaron Blake - WaPo
Published: September 25 at 3:46 pm
<snip>
Nevada state assembly Republican Leader Pat Hickey said in a radio interview this week that the 2014 election will be good for Republicans because minorities and young voters won't turn out like they did in the 2012 presidential election.
"Probably where we had a million voters turn out in 2012, we'll have like 700,000," Hickey told a local conservative talk radio host on Tuesday. "A lot of minorities and a lot of younger people will not turn out in a non-presidential -- it's a great year for Republicans."
What Hickey is saying is generally true -- that turnout in a midterm election is usually more favorable to Republicans and that minority voters and young people tend to vote in lower numbers than presidential years.
But the state Democratic Party says the comments are proof that Republicans want to suppress the vote.
"Mr. Hickey’s comments were insulting and out-of-touch," state Democratic party spokesman Zach Hudson said in a statement. "But it reflects a broader problem – Republicans will do whatever they can to suppress the vote next year."
<snip>
Link (w/Video): http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/09/25/nevada-gop-leader-2014-a-good-year-for-gop-because-minorities-wont-vote/
September 25, 2013
By Ellen Nakashima - WaPo
Wednesday, September 25, 8:52 AM
<snip>
The head of the National Security Agency delivered a vigorous defense Wednesday of his agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records for counterterrorism purposes, asserting that the program was helpful in investigations into the Boston Marathon bombings and the suspected plots against U.S. diplomatic outposts this summer.
“It provides us the speed and agility in crises, like the Boston Marathon tragedy in April and the threats this summer,” said Gen. Keith Alexander at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, a gathering of business and government officials.
Alexander’s address follows calls by some leading lawmakers to end the program over concerns that it invades Americans’ privacy without having proven its value as a counterterrorism tool.
In a brief interview after his talk, Alexander said the program did not help identify the Boston suspects, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But he said that by using the database of domestic phone call records, the NSA was able to determine that fears about a follow-up attack in New York City were unfounded.
“We did use <Section> 215,” he said, referring to the Patriot Act provision that the government has claimed a federal court has agreed gives it the authority to collect data on practically all calls made in the United States. “We used it to support the FBI in their investigation.”
Similarly, he said the records database...
<snip>
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-chief-defends-collecting-americans-data/2013/09/25/5db2583c-25f1-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
NSA Chief Defends Collecting Americans’ Data - WaPo
NSA chief defends collecting Americans’ dataBy Ellen Nakashima - WaPo
Wednesday, September 25, 8:52 AM
<snip>
The head of the National Security Agency delivered a vigorous defense Wednesday of his agency’s collection of Americans’ phone records for counterterrorism purposes, asserting that the program was helpful in investigations into the Boston Marathon bombings and the suspected plots against U.S. diplomatic outposts this summer.
“It provides us the speed and agility in crises, like the Boston Marathon tragedy in April and the threats this summer,” said Gen. Keith Alexander at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit, a gathering of business and government officials.
Alexander’s address follows calls by some leading lawmakers to end the program over concerns that it invades Americans’ privacy without having proven its value as a counterterrorism tool.
In a brief interview after his talk, Alexander said the program did not help identify the Boston suspects, brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. But he said that by using the database of domestic phone call records, the NSA was able to determine that fears about a follow-up attack in New York City were unfounded.
“We did use <Section> 215,” he said, referring to the Patriot Act provision that the government has claimed a federal court has agreed gives it the authority to collect data on practically all calls made in the United States. “We used it to support the FBI in their investigation.”
Similarly, he said the records database...
<snip>
More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/nsa-chief-defends-collecting-americans-data/2013/09/25/5db2583c-25f1-11e3-b75d-5b7f66349852_story.html
September 25, 2013
HuffPo
Posted: 09/23/13 EDT | Updated: 09/23/13 EDT
<snip>
Photographer Michael Pharaoh is only 22 years old. Yet already, he possesses the uncanny ability to capture the story written on a stranger's face.
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23/michael-pharaoh_n_3962167.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
Also Wow... (Homelessness)
Seven Gripping Photos Of Homeless Los Angelenos Will Change The Way You Look At A StrangerHuffPo
Posted: 09/23/13 EDT | Updated: 09/23/13 EDT
<snip>
Photographer Michael Pharaoh is only 22 years old. Yet already, he possesses the uncanny ability to capture the story written on a stranger's face.
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/23/michael-pharaoh_n_3962167.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular
September 25, 2013
The death toll from firearms in the US suggests that the country is gripped by civil war
Henry Porter - The Observer/TheGuardian
Saturday 21 September 2013 17.12 EDT
<snip>
Last week, Starbucks asked its American customers to please not bring their guns into the coffee shop. This is part of the company's concern about customer safety and follows a ban in the summer on smoking within 25 feet of a coffee shop entrance and an earlier ruling about scalding hot coffee. After the celebrated Liebeck v McDonald's case in 1994, involving a woman who suffered third-degree burns to her thighs, Starbucks complies with the Specialty Coffee Association of America's recommendation that drinks should be served at a maximum temperature of 82C.
Although it was brave of Howard Schultz, the company's chief executive, to go even this far in a country where people are better armed and only slightly less nervy than rebel fighters in Syria, we should note that dealing with the risks of scalding and secondary smoke came well before addressing the problem of people who go armed to buy a latte. There can be no weirder order of priorities on this planet.
That's America, we say, as news of the latest massacre breaks – last week it was the slaughter of 12 people by Aaron Alexis at Washington DC's navy yard – and move on. But what if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis – a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention? As citizens of the world, perhaps we should demand an end to the unimaginable suffering of victims and their families – the maiming and killing of children – just as America does in every new civil conflict around the globe. The annual toll from firearms in the US is running at 32,000 deaths and climbing, even though the general crime rate is on a downward path (it is 40% lower than in 1980). If this perennial slaughter doesn't qualify for intercession by the UN and all relevant NGOs, it is hard to know what does.
To absorb the scale of the mayhem, it's worth trying to guess the death toll of all the wars in American history since the War of Independence began in 1775, and follow that by estimating the number killed by firearms in the US since the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot in 1968 by a .22 Iver-Johnson handgun, wielded by Sirhan Sirhan. The figures from Congressional Research Service, plus recent statistics from icasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.
<And...>
About their own safety, Americans often have an unusual ability to hold two utterly opposed ideas in their heads simultaneously. That can only explain the past decade in which the fear of terror has cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars in wars, surveillance and intelligence programmes and homeland security. Ten years after 9/11, homeland security spending doubled to $69bn . The total bill since the attacks is more than $649bn.
One more figure. There have been fewer than 20 terror-related deaths on American soil since 9/11 and about 364,000 deaths caused by privately owned firearms. If any European nation had such a record and persisted in addressing only the first figure, while ignoring the second, you can bet your last pound that the State Department would be warning against travel to that country and no American would set foot in it without body armour.
<snip>
More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/american-gun-out-control-porter
Holy Crap !!! - In Case You Missed This...
American gun use is out of control. Shouldn't the world intervene?The death toll from firearms in the US suggests that the country is gripped by civil war
Henry Porter - The Observer/TheGuardian
Saturday 21 September 2013 17.12 EDT
<snip>
Last week, Starbucks asked its American customers to please not bring their guns into the coffee shop. This is part of the company's concern about customer safety and follows a ban in the summer on smoking within 25 feet of a coffee shop entrance and an earlier ruling about scalding hot coffee. After the celebrated Liebeck v McDonald's case in 1994, involving a woman who suffered third-degree burns to her thighs, Starbucks complies with the Specialty Coffee Association of America's recommendation that drinks should be served at a maximum temperature of 82C.
Although it was brave of Howard Schultz, the company's chief executive, to go even this far in a country where people are better armed and only slightly less nervy than rebel fighters in Syria, we should note that dealing with the risks of scalding and secondary smoke came well before addressing the problem of people who go armed to buy a latte. There can be no weirder order of priorities on this planet.
That's America, we say, as news of the latest massacre breaks – last week it was the slaughter of 12 people by Aaron Alexis at Washington DC's navy yard – and move on. But what if we no longer thought of this as just a problem for America and, instead, viewed it as an international humanitarian crisis – a quasi civil war, if you like, that calls for outside intervention? As citizens of the world, perhaps we should demand an end to the unimaginable suffering of victims and their families – the maiming and killing of children – just as America does in every new civil conflict around the globe. The annual toll from firearms in the US is running at 32,000 deaths and climbing, even though the general crime rate is on a downward path (it is 40% lower than in 1980). If this perennial slaughter doesn't qualify for intercession by the UN and all relevant NGOs, it is hard to know what does.
To absorb the scale of the mayhem, it's worth trying to guess the death toll of all the wars in American history since the War of Independence began in 1775, and follow that by estimating the number killed by firearms in the US since the day that Robert F. Kennedy was shot in 1968 by a .22 Iver-Johnson handgun, wielded by Sirhan Sirhan. The figures from Congressional Research Service, plus recent statistics from icasualties.org, tell us that from the first casualties in the battle of Lexington to recent operations in Afghanistan, the toll is 1,171,177. By contrast, the number killed by firearms, including suicides, since 1968, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI, is 1,384,171.
<And...>
About their own safety, Americans often have an unusual ability to hold two utterly opposed ideas in their heads simultaneously. That can only explain the past decade in which the fear of terror has cost the country hundreds of billions of dollars in wars, surveillance and intelligence programmes and homeland security. Ten years after 9/11, homeland security spending doubled to $69bn . The total bill since the attacks is more than $649bn.
One more figure. There have been fewer than 20 terror-related deaths on American soil since 9/11 and about 364,000 deaths caused by privately owned firearms. If any European nation had such a record and persisted in addressing only the first figure, while ignoring the second, you can bet your last pound that the State Department would be warning against travel to that country and no American would set foot in it without body armour.
<snip>
More: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/american-gun-out-control-porter
September 25, 2013
NBCNews
9/24/13
<snip>
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — For many a teenage girl in Latin America, a quinceañera party is a cherished rite of passage, a traditional coming-out celebration for 15-year-olds.
Not all families can afford the colorful gowns and other niceties for such parties, though. So for each of the past five years, Nicaragua's Association of Mothers and Fathers of Children with Cancer and Leukemia has put on a quinceanera for girls from poor, rural families — teens who have the added burden of dealing with cancer.
This year's party feted 37 girls between ages 14 and 16 on Saturday night at a hotel in Nicaragua's capital, Managua.
Esteban Felix / AP
Mayerling Rivera, who has leukemia, looks through a window before the party.
<snip>
More: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/24/20676067-cancer-no-barrier-to-nicaraguan-teens-colorful-quinceaera-celebration?lite
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Wow...
Cancer no barrier to Nicaraguan teens' colorful quinceañera celebrationNBCNews
9/24/13
<snip>
MANAGUA, Nicaragua — For many a teenage girl in Latin America, a quinceañera party is a cherished rite of passage, a traditional coming-out celebration for 15-year-olds.
Not all families can afford the colorful gowns and other niceties for such parties, though. So for each of the past five years, Nicaragua's Association of Mothers and Fathers of Children with Cancer and Leukemia has put on a quinceanera for girls from poor, rural families — teens who have the added burden of dealing with cancer.
This year's party feted 37 girls between ages 14 and 16 on Saturday night at a hotel in Nicaragua's capital, Managua.
Esteban Felix / AP
Mayerling Rivera, who has leukemia, looks through a window before the party.
<snip>
More: http://photoblog.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/24/20676067-cancer-no-barrier-to-nicaraguan-teens-colorful-quinceaera-celebration?lite
:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
September 24, 2013
By Marice Richter, Reuters/MSNBC
9/23/13
Patrick, a 430-pound gorilla at the Dallas Zoo. The Dallas Zoo on Monday announced they planned transfer the anti-social gorilla to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C. for a more solitary existence. His response to female gorillas ranged from indifference to aggression.
<snip>
DALLAS — A gregarious male gorilla at the Dallas Zoo will be sent to South Carolina for therapy after he bit one female gorilla and sneered at others, zoo officials said on Monday.
Patrick, a 430-pound Western lowland gorilla, will be moving to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will live the bachelor life in his own digs.
The South Carolina zoo is known for working with gorillas with behavior problems.
Dallas Zoo officials said Patrick gets along fine with humans but not with other gorillas.
They said they have tried repeatedly to socialize him with the other gorillas, particularly the females, in the hopes that he might get along and even breed. Instead, he bit one female and sneered and nipped at others.
"It's not like we haven't tried, he's been here for 18 years" said Laurie Holloway, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo.
<snip>
More: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/23/20664221-male-dallas-zoo-gorilla-to-get-therapy-for-sexist-attitude?lite
Male Dallas Zoo Gorilla To Get Therapy For Sexist Attitude - Reuters/MSNBC
Male Dallas Zoo Gorilla To Get Therapy For Sexist AttitudeBy Marice Richter, Reuters/MSNBC
9/23/13
Patrick, a 430-pound gorilla at the Dallas Zoo. The Dallas Zoo on Monday announced they planned transfer the anti-social gorilla to the Riverbanks Zoo and Garden in Columbia, S.C. for a more solitary existence. His response to female gorillas ranged from indifference to aggression.
<snip>
DALLAS — A gregarious male gorilla at the Dallas Zoo will be sent to South Carolina for therapy after he bit one female gorilla and sneered at others, zoo officials said on Monday.
Patrick, a 430-pound Western lowland gorilla, will be moving to the Riverbanks Zoo and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, where he will live the bachelor life in his own digs.
The South Carolina zoo is known for working with gorillas with behavior problems.
Dallas Zoo officials said Patrick gets along fine with humans but not with other gorillas.
They said they have tried repeatedly to socialize him with the other gorillas, particularly the females, in the hopes that he might get along and even breed. Instead, he bit one female and sneered and nipped at others.
"It's not like we haven't tried, he's been here for 18 years" said Laurie Holloway, a spokeswoman for the Dallas Zoo.
<snip>
More: http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/23/20664221-male-dallas-zoo-gorilla-to-get-therapy-for-sexist-attitude?lite
September 24, 2013
Reuters | HuffPo - By Nate Raymond
Posted: 09/24/2013 9:12 am EDT | Updated: 09/24/2013 2:25 pm EDT
<snip>
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp heads to trial this week over allegations its Countrywide unit approved deficient home loans in a process called "Hustle," defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. government enterprises that underwrite mortgages.
In what would be the government's first financial crisis case to go to trial against a major bank over defective mortgages, jury selection is set to begin in federal court in New York on Tuesday, barring a last-minute settlement.
The trial is also a reminder of the billions of dollars in legal liabilities Bank of America has incurred as a result of its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp, which became a poster child of the mortgage meltdown.
The U.S. Justice Department filed the civil lawsuit in 2012, blaming the bank for more than $1 billion in losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which bought mortgages that later defaulted. Since then, new evidence and pre-trial rulings by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff have pared the case back.
Bank of America has said the lawsuit's claims are "simply false" and that it "can't be expected to compensate every entity that claims losses that actually were caused by the economic downturn."
A spokesman for the bank declined comment ahead of the trial, which is expected to last five weeks.
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/bank-of-america-mortgage-fraud-charges_n_3981355.html?utm_hp_ref=business
Bank Of America Goes To Trial Over Mortgage Fraud Charges - Reuters/HuffPo
Bank Of America Goes To Trial Over Mortgage Fraud ChargesReuters | HuffPo - By Nate Raymond
Posted: 09/24/2013 9:12 am EDT | Updated: 09/24/2013 2:25 pm EDT
<snip>
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp heads to trial this week over allegations its Countrywide unit approved deficient home loans in a process called "Hustle," defrauding Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the U.S. government enterprises that underwrite mortgages.
In what would be the government's first financial crisis case to go to trial against a major bank over defective mortgages, jury selection is set to begin in federal court in New York on Tuesday, barring a last-minute settlement.
The trial is also a reminder of the billions of dollars in legal liabilities Bank of America has incurred as a result of its 2008 acquisition of Countrywide Financial Corp, which became a poster child of the mortgage meltdown.
The U.S. Justice Department filed the civil lawsuit in 2012, blaming the bank for more than $1 billion in losses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which bought mortgages that later defaulted. Since then, new evidence and pre-trial rulings by U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff have pared the case back.
Bank of America has said the lawsuit's claims are "simply false" and that it "can't be expected to compensate every entity that claims losses that actually were caused by the economic downturn."
A spokesman for the bank declined comment ahead of the trial, which is expected to last five weeks.
<snip>
More: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/24/bank-of-america-mortgage-fraud-charges_n_3981355.html?utm_hp_ref=business
September 24, 2013
Grant Gross, IDG News Service - PCWorld
Sep 24, 2013 10:50 AM
<snip>
The U.S. Congress should appoint an independent committee to investigate possible surveillance abuses by the U.S. National Security Agency, two high-profile former senators said Tuesday.
The current process of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approving massive data collection requests from the NSA isn’t protecting privacy and civil liberties, said former Senators Walter Mondale and Gary Hart, both Democratic members of the so-called Church Committee that investigated intelligence abuses in the mid-1970s.
The intelligence reforms set up after the Church Committee found many questionable intelligence practices have been twisted into weaker protections than many of the committee members originally intended, Hart and Mondale said during a Georgetown University Law Center forum.
Congress, through a new independent committee, needs to “restore a sense of protection of our First Amendment rights” to free speech, Hart said.
Hart and Mondale, both former U.S. presidential candidates, called for new reforms following revelations this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about massive data collection efforts at the NSA. The NSA has been collecting large numbers of U.S. phone records and overseas Internet communications for years, according to leaks from Snowden.
A new, independent committee needs to look at...
<snip>
More: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049319/former-senators-say-congress-needs-to-rein-in-the-nsa.html
Former Senators Say Congress Needs To Rein In The NSA - PCWorld
Former senators say Congress needs to rein in the NSAGrant Gross, IDG News Service - PCWorld
Sep 24, 2013 10:50 AM
<snip>
The U.S. Congress should appoint an independent committee to investigate possible surveillance abuses by the U.S. National Security Agency, two high-profile former senators said Tuesday.
The current process of the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court approving massive data collection requests from the NSA isn’t protecting privacy and civil liberties, said former Senators Walter Mondale and Gary Hart, both Democratic members of the so-called Church Committee that investigated intelligence abuses in the mid-1970s.
The intelligence reforms set up after the Church Committee found many questionable intelligence practices have been twisted into weaker protections than many of the committee members originally intended, Hart and Mondale said during a Georgetown University Law Center forum.
Congress, through a new independent committee, needs to “restore a sense of protection of our First Amendment rights” to free speech, Hart said.
Hart and Mondale, both former U.S. presidential candidates, called for new reforms following revelations this year by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden about massive data collection efforts at the NSA. The NSA has been collecting large numbers of U.S. phone records and overseas Internet communications for years, according to leaks from Snowden.
A new, independent committee needs to look at...
<snip>
More: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2049319/former-senators-say-congress-needs-to-rein-in-the-nsa.html
September 24, 2013
By MICHELLE CASTILLO / CBS NEWS
September 20, 2013, 11:49 AM
<snip>
If you just can't get out of bed, NASA might have a mission for you.
A NASA study is recruiting volunteers to to lie in a bed that is tilted downward at a 6 degree angle for 70 days. Subjects who complete the entire bed rest project can earn up to $18,000.
The study is meant to test the conditions that astronauts might experience while traveling in space. NASA hopes to find out what physical changes occur to scientists on these missions and how much body function is required for a person to complete a specific task.The information will be used to develop methods that allow astronauts to have an easier time physically acclimating to daily life following space exploration.
Since there is no gravity in space, astronauts don't exert as much effort and might not get the necessary exercise they need to stay in shape.
Researchers are requiring participants to stay on a slight tilt which is intended to allow fluids to move towards the upper part of the body. That would allow researchers to study cardiovascular symptoms similar to what might be experienced during a space expedition.
The volunteers will be required to live in a bed rest facility located in NASA's Flight Analogs Research Unit (FARU) at the University of Texas Medical branch in Galveston, Texas. The subjects will be split into two groups. Some will be required to spend 105 days living in the facility and go through a variety of resistance and aerobic exercises while remaining on bed rest. The others will spend 97 days, and will not be required to do the exercises.
Data about the subjects...
<snip>
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57603872/need-some-time-off-your-feet-nasa-paying-volunteers
Link to apply: https://bedreststudy.jsc.nasa.gov/
Good luck !!!
Anybody Want To Work For NASA For Three Months ???
Need some time off your feet? NASA paying volunteers $18K to lie in bed for 70 daysBy MICHELLE CASTILLO / CBS NEWS
September 20, 2013, 11:49 AM
<snip>
If you just can't get out of bed, NASA might have a mission for you.
A NASA study is recruiting volunteers to to lie in a bed that is tilted downward at a 6 degree angle for 70 days. Subjects who complete the entire bed rest project can earn up to $18,000.
The study is meant to test the conditions that astronauts might experience while traveling in space. NASA hopes to find out what physical changes occur to scientists on these missions and how much body function is required for a person to complete a specific task.The information will be used to develop methods that allow astronauts to have an easier time physically acclimating to daily life following space exploration.
Since there is no gravity in space, astronauts don't exert as much effort and might not get the necessary exercise they need to stay in shape.
Researchers are requiring participants to stay on a slight tilt which is intended to allow fluids to move towards the upper part of the body. That would allow researchers to study cardiovascular symptoms similar to what might be experienced during a space expedition.
The volunteers will be required to live in a bed rest facility located in NASA's Flight Analogs Research Unit (FARU) at the University of Texas Medical branch in Galveston, Texas. The subjects will be split into two groups. Some will be required to spend 105 days living in the facility and go through a variety of resistance and aerobic exercises while remaining on bed rest. The others will spend 97 days, and will not be required to do the exercises.
Data about the subjects...
<snip>
More: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57603872/need-some-time-off-your-feet-nasa-paying-volunteers
Link to apply: https://bedreststudy.jsc.nasa.gov/
Good luck !!!
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