dkf
dkf's JournalAaron Alexis’ characteristics mirrored those of mass shooters
WASHINGTON — What are the factors that motivate a mass shooter?
Washington Navy Yard shooting suspect Aaron Alexis had several characteristics common among mass killers, experts say: aggression, difficulties on the job, paranoia and anger problems.
Alexis reportedly went on a rampage Monday, killing 12 people in a commando-style attack at the Navy Yard, where he was beginning work as a civilian contractor.
“He did have some of the common factors that we see in adult mass murderers,” said Kathy Seifert, a Maryland-based psychologist who’s studied mass shooters for more than 30 years.
“He had a history of aggression,” she said, noting police reports in Fort Worth, Texas, where Alexis reportedly shot through the ceiling of his apartment, nearly hitting his upstairs neighbor; in Seattle, where he shot out the tires of a construction worker’s car; and a disorderly conduct charge in DeKalb County, Ga. He wasn’t prosecuted in any of the incidents.
Seifert said common characteristics of the mass killers she’d studied included aggression, mental health issues, difficulties on the job, difficulty getting along with people, anger issues and emotional outbursts.
Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/17/202446/alexis-problems-mirrored-those.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_term=news#.Ujj8X-i9KSM#storylink=cpy
Major Belgian telco targeted by a foreign state, Brussels says
Belgium’s largest telecom, Belgacom, was hacked for at least a few years, according to national newspaper De Standaard.
The paper wrote on Monday that “everything suggests” (Google Translate) that the culprit was the National Security Agency (NSA). De Standaard reports that after an internal security check in June 2013, technicians found an “unknown virus” that had been installed across a “few dozen computers," and that the malware seemed to be targeting traffic on Belgacom International Carrier Services (BICS), a subsidiary that works primarily with other telcos in the Middle East and Africa.
How long was the malware present on majority-state-owned Belgacom’s systems? "We have no idea,” Belgacom CEO Didier Bellens told reporters (Google Translate) in Brussels on Monday.
However, Belgacom itself and the Belgian government are being a bit more cagey about who they suspect. "If this hypothesis of cyber-espionage is confirmed, the government will firmly condemn this intrusion and violation of a public company's integrity," Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo wrote in a statement (Google Translate). "The goal of intrusion wasn't sabotage, but collection of strategic data."
"The inquiry has shown that the hacking was only possible by an intruder with significant financial and logistic means," the Belgian state prosecutor told Reuters, declining to name a specific country. "This fact, combined with the technical complexity of the hacking and the scale on which it occurred, points towards international state-sponsored cyber espionage."
Belgacom isn't pointing fingers either. “We cannot comment on this, it is up to the Federal Prosecutor’s investigation to bring clarity on this,” the telecom firm wrote.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/major-belgian-telco-targeted-by-a-foreign-state-brussels-says/
Graham readying use of force authorization against Iranian regime
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday he's working on legislation that would give the president the green light to attack Iran if negotiations over the country's alleged nuclear weapons program stall.
Graham, one of the GOP's most prominent hawks, told reporters on Tuesday that he's worried the administration's failure to get congressional approval for a strike against Syria has emboldened Iran. He said he'll be working with Democrats and Republicans on legislation that would encourage diplomacy, threaten more sanctions and authorize military action as a last resort.
“I do believe without the threat of credible military force by us, the Iranians are going to just slow-walk,” Graham said. “So I'm trying to create the dynamic that there is bipartisan support for continued diplomacy, sanctions and the use of force as a last resort.”
Graham said Iran has been pursuing its weapons program while the Obama administration – and the rest of the world – has been focused on Syria. He said U.S. policymakers should urgently refocus their attention.
Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/global-affairs/middle-east-north-africa/322835-graham-preparing-use-of-force-authorization-against-iran#ixzz2fCEaOg7S
Secret court declassifies opinion providing rationale for metadata sharing
Secret court declassifies opinion providing rationale for metadata sharing
FISC relies on a 1970s-era case that established "third-party doctrine."
by Cyrus Farivar - Sept 17 2013, 12:00pm HST
For the first time, the United States’ most secret court, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), has published its legal rationale as to why the telecom metadata sharing program under Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act is legitimate. The 46-page opinion was authored August 29, 2013, but was not published on the FISC’s website until Tuesday.
The opinion was only now published due to FISC judge Reggie Walton, who ordered the government to conduct a declassification review of such decisions and related orders in the wake of the leaks provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. As a result, this August 2013 order and two others have now been declassified. Walton's declassification order was made at the request of Judge Claire Eagan, who herself authored those opinions.
In her opinion (PDF), Judge Eagan wrote that because terrorists use phones (or in legal-speak: “telephonic systems”) and some of those phones traverse the United States’ phone network, metadata is therefore considered the business records of the telecoms involved.
In 1976, the Supreme Court ruled in a landmark case, known as Smith v. Maryland, that when someone calls a telephone number, that number has been disclosed to a third party (the phone company). Therefore, the Supreme Court held, it is not private (because it was disclosed through the act of making the call), and the government can have easy access to those call records—this is the origin of the "third-party doctrine." So, Judge Eagan concluded, if the handover of one person's phone records in one instance is legal, so too is the wholesale handover of phone metadata en masse.
"It's just showing that [the Department of Justice] is continuing its pattern of if you give them an inch they'll take a mile," Kurt Opsahl, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Ars. "They've relied so heavily on [the Smith decision] that if Smith were narrowed [by a future court], then they would have to redo the analysis of this and a lot of the other bulk collection programs."
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/09/secret-court-declassifies-opinion-providing-rationale-for-metadata-sharing/
MSNBC, Pew found, had by far the most pro-strike sentiment, with a whopping 64%
Poll after poll after poll has found that a large majority of Americans opposed a strike on Syria.
But Pew found that, "in the week studied, the overall percentage of cable stories conveying a message that America should get involved (47% ) solidly outnumbered stories with messages counseling against a strike (27%)."
The breakdowns are striking. For Al Jazeera, pro-strike messages outnumbered anti-strike ones by 43-24%. On CNN, it was 45-23. On Fox News, it was 45-20.
MSNBC, Pew found, had by far the most pro-strike sentiment, with a whopping 64%. But the network also had far more messages of opposition (39%) than its counterparts.
Even so, Americans tuning in to their news networks saw a debate that was far more skewed in favor of the pro-strike view than the debate happening off-screen.
http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/3940141?ref=topbar
Sugar is 'addictive and the most dangerous drug of the times'
Soft drinks should carry tobacco-style warnings that sugar is highly addictive and dangerous, a senior Dutch health official has warned.
Paul van der Velpen, the head of Amsterdam's health service, the Dutch capital city where the sale of cannabis is legalised, wants to see sugar tightly regulated.
"Just like alcohol and tobacco, sugar is actually a drug. There is an important role for government. The use of sugar should be discouraged. And users should be made aware of the dangers," he wrote on an official public health website.
"This may seem exaggerated and far-fetched, but sugar is the most dangerous drug of the times and can still be easily acquired everywhere."
Mr Van der Velpen cites research claiming that sugar, unlike fat or other foods, interferes with the body's appetite creating an insatiable desire to carry on eating, an effect he accuses the food industry of using to increase consumption of their products.
"Sugar upsets that mechanism. Whoever uses sugar wants more and more, even when they are no longer hungry. Give someone eggs and he'll stop eating at any given time. Give him cookies and he eats on even though his stomach is painful," he argued.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/netherlands/10314705/Sugar-is-addictive-and-the-most-dangerous-drug-of-the-times.html
Exclusive: Embattled Syria Expert Elizabeth O'Bagy Says She Made 'Many Mistakes'
Her research on Syria influenced key lawmakers—but Dr. Elizabeth O’Bagy wasn’t who she said she was. For the first time, she tells Josh Rogin she was never even in a PhD program.
Elizabeth O’Bagy, the Syria researcher at the center of a week-long controversy surrounding her academic credentials and her work with the Syrian opposition, admitted for the first time to The Daily Beast she was never enrolled in a Ph.D. program despite representations she made to the press and multiple organizations for whom she worked.
O’Bagy, whose work on the Syrian opposition was hailed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), was fired from her job as the lead Syria researcher at the Institute for the Study of War on Sept. 10 after it was revealed that she misled her bosses by telling them she had completed a dissertation defense for a Georgetown Ph.D. Subsequently, questions arose as to whether or not O’Bagy was ever enrolled in the joint MA/Ph.D. program that she claimed in her official biography.
O’Bagy confirmed to The Daily Beast that she was only enrolled in a master’s program at Georgetown and had applied to join the joint MA/Ph.D. program but was never accepted.
“I would like to deeply apologize to every person with whom I have worked, who has read and depended upon my research, and to the general public,” O’Bagy said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “While I have made many mistakes and showed extremely poor judgment, I most particularly regret my public misrepresentation of my educational status and not immediately disclosing that I had not been awarded a doctorate in May, 2013.”
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/09/16/embattled-syria-expert-was-never-in-phd-program.html
Civil liberties group accuses FBI of misusing new authorities
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. government legal opinions that interpret the powers that the FBI has to conduct surveillance should be declassified and released to the public, a civil liberties group said.
In a report set for release on Tuesday, the American Civil Liberties Union said the proliferation of secret legal interpretations threatened the rights of U.S. citizens to be free from warrantless government searches.
The ACLU launched the criticism just as new FBI Director James Comey settled in at the bureau charged with preventing militant attacks and investigating major U.S. crimes.
The report listed numerous complaints against the expansion of the FBI's authority during the 12 years since the September 11 attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/civil-liberties-group-accuses-fbi-misusing-authorities-010102970.html
Suspected U.S. shooter had 'secret' clearance, employer says
Reuters – 54 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Aaron Alexis, the 34-year-old suspect in Monday's shooting rampage at the Washington Navy Yard, had "secret" clearance and was assigned to start working there as a civilian contractor with a military-issued ID card, his firm's chief executive told Reuters.
"He did have a secret clearance. And he did have a CAC (common access card)," said Thomas Hoshko, CEO of The Experts Inc, which was helping service the Navy Marine Corps Intranet as a subcontractor for HP Enterprise Services, part of Hewlett-Packard Co.
"We had just recently re-hired him. Another background investigation was re-run and cleared through the defense security service in July 2013," Hoshko said.
Hoshko said he believed that Alexis' "secret" security clearance dated back to 2007.
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/suspected-u-shooter-had-secret-clearance-employer-says-010927653.html
Apple May Have Just Killed NFC And Revolutionized Another Major Industry
One of the biggest new features of iOS 7 are "iBeacons". Apple (AAPL) said nothing about iBeacons in either June or the more recent September presentation. However beacons were mentioned in at least 3 WWDC sessions. iBeacons may explain why Apple has been ignoring NFC (Near Field Communication) technology.
Beacons are a small wireless sensors placed inside any physical space that transmit data to your iPhone using Bluetooth Low Energy (also known as Bluetooth 4.0 and Bluetooth Smart).
BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) uses the same 2.4Ghz radio spectrum as classic Bluetooth, it's not backwards compatible but Bluetooth 4.0 can support both classic Bluetooth and BLE. Apple first introduced BLE in the iPhone 4S (In mid-2011 Apple joined the board of directors of the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) and hardly anyone noticed. The difference now is that iOS 7 is introducing a new level of integration and possibilities.
How it Might Work
You walk in range of a sensor (beacon) in a shop and you are sent personal notifications and actions. These might be personalised deals or coupons, or recommendations based on your past purchase history. You can then pay for your items much faster perhaps without even needing to queue. The benefits to both the user and retailer are clear.
According to Retail-Week
Joel Blackmore, senior innovation manager at mobile consultancy Somo, says: "iBeacons will be the biggest change for retailers since smartphones. Within the space of a month or so there will be 700 million iOS devices with iBeacons, enabling indoor positioning, micro-location and a new form of contactless payment."
Another useful feature of beacons is that iOS devices can act as beacons themselves. The potential for iBeacons goes well beyond retail. An iBeacon user could potentially trigger events around them such as turning lights on or opening doors. Apple's WWDC presentation showed how beacons could be used throughout a museum.
http://seekingalpha.com/article/1696142-apple-may-have-just-killed-nfc-and-revolutionized-another-major-industry-part-1?source=email_rt_article_readmore
Profile Information
Member since: 2003 before July 6thNumber of posts: 37,305
