Hissyspit
Hissyspit's JournalAl Gore: Snowden 'Revealed Evidence' of Crimes Against US Constitution
Source: The Guardian
Al Gore: Snowden 'revealed evidence' of crimes against US constitution
Speaking at McGill University in Montreal, Gore said the NSA's efforts to monitor communications had gone to 'absurd' lengths
Adam Gabbatt in New York
theguardian.com, Wednesday 6 November 2013 18.12 EST
- Snip -
Gore, speaking Tuesday night at McGill University in Montreal, said he was in favour of using surveillance to ensure national security, but Snowden's revelations showed that those measures had gone too far.
"I say that as someone who was a member of the National Security Council working in the White House and getting daily briefings from the CIA," Gore said, in comments reported by the Canadian Press.
Gore had previously said he believed the practice of the NSA collecting US citizens phone records was unlawful and "not really the American way", but his comments on Tuesday represent his strongest criticism yet.
Asked about Snowden, the NSA whistleblower whose revelations have been reported extensively by the Guardian, Gore said the leaks had revealed uncovered unconstitutional practices.
"He has revealed evidence of what appears to be crimes against the Constitution of the United States," Gore said.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/al-gore-snowden-revealed-evidence-crimes-nsa
FBI Monitored Anti-War Website in Error for Six Years (Antiwar.com)
Source: The Guardian
FBI monitored anti-war website in error for six years, documents show
Monitoring began after antiwar.com editor passed along to the bureau a threat he received against his own website
Spencer Ackerman in Washington
theguardian.com, Wednesday 6 November 2013 13.02 EST
The FBI monitored a prominent anti-war website for years, in part because agents mistakenly believed it had threatened to hack the bureau’s own site.
Internal documents show that the FBI’s monitoring of antiwar.com, a news and commentary website critical of US foreign policy, was sparked in significant measure by a judgment that it had threatened to “hack the FBI website” and involved a formal assessment of the “threat” the site posed to US national security.
But antiwar.com never threatened to hack the FBI website. Heavily redacted FBI documents, obtained through the Freedom of Information Act and shared with the Guardian, show that Eric Garris, the site’s managing editor, passed along to the bureau a threat he received against his own website.
Months later, the bureau characterized antiwar.com as a potential perpetrator of a cyberattack against the bureau’s website – a rudimentary error that persisted for years in an FBI file on the website. The mistake appears to have been a pillar of the FBI’s reasoning for monitoring a site that is protected by the first amendment’s free-speech guarantees.
“The improper investigation led to Garris and Raimondo being flagged in other documents, and is based on inappropriate targeting and sloppy intelligence work the FBI relied on in its initial memo,” said Julia Mass, an attorney with the ACLU of northern California, which filed the Freedom of Information Act request, and shared the documents with the Guardian.
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/06/fbi-monitored-anti-war-website-in-error-documents
Report: Swiss scientists find at least 18 times normal levels of Polonium in Arafat's Bones
Source: Al Jazeera
@BreakingNews: Report: Swiss scientists find at least 18 times normal levels of Polonium in Yasser Arafat's remains - @ajam http://t.co/H6dG3nE483
Exclusive: Swiss study says Polonium found in Arafat's bones
November 6, 2013 9:46AM ET
By David Poort and Ken Silverstein
PARIS – Swiss scientists who conducted tests on samples taken from Yasser Arafat’s body have found at least 18 times the normal levels of radioactive polonium in his remains. The scientists said that they were confident up to an 83 percent level that the late Palestinian leader was poisoned with it, which they said “moderately supports” polonium as the cause of his death.
A 108-page report by the University Centre of Legal Medicine in Lausanne, which was obtained exclusively by Al Jazeera, found unnaturally high levels of polonium in Arafat’s ribs and pelvis, and in soil stained with his decaying organs.
The Swiss scientists, along with French and Russian teams, obtained the samples last November after his body was exhumed from a mausoleum in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank.
Dave Barclay, a renowned U.K. forensic scientist and retired detective, told Al Jazeera that with these results he was wholly convinced that Arafat was murdered.
“Yasser Arafat died of polonium poisoning,” he said. “We found the smoking gun that caused his death. What we don’t know is who’s holding the gun at the time.”
Read more: http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2013/11/6/swiss-study-poloniumfoundinarafatasbones.html
Toronto Mayor Ford Admits He Smoked Crack
Source: Associated Press
TORONTO MAYOR ADMITS HE SMOKED CRACK
By ROB GILLIES
— Nov. 5, 2013 12:35 PM EST
TORONTO (AP) — The mayor of Toronto is saying he smoked crack "probably a year ago" when he was in a "drunken stupor."
Rob Ford's admission to reporters Tuesday follows months of accusations during which the embattled mayor refused to step down. The allegations that he had been caught on video smoking crack surfaced in May.
"Yes, I have smoked crack cocaine," Ford told reporters Tuesday outside his office. "There have been times when I've been in a drunken stupor. That's why I want to see the tape. I want everyone in the city to see this tape. I don't even recall there being a tape or video. I want to see the state that I was in."
Read more: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/toronto-mayor-admits-he-smoked-crack
Breaking: Abortion-Rights Groups Ask Supreme Court to Halt Texas Law
Source: Reuters
Abortion-rights groups ask Supreme Court to halt Texas law
Mon Nov 4, 2013 9:57am EST
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Abortion-rights groups in Texas on Monday filed an emergency request with U.S. Supreme Court to strike down newly enacted abortion restrictions, the groups said in a statement.
A requirement that physicians who provide abortions have admitting privileges in local hospitals caused at least a dozen clinics and surgery centers across the state to stop offering abortion services after the law went into effect on Friday, clinic employees said.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9A30KM20131104
TOM TOMORROW: Doctor Hand! ("How Can They Stay in Business if They Have To Insure Sick People?")
DAILY KOS LINK: http://www.dailykos.com/blog/comics
Media Matters: CBS "Eyewitness" Admits He Lied About Benghazi Attack While Bashing Critics
http://mediamatters.org/mobile/blog/2013/11/03/cbs-eyewitness-admits-he-lied-about-benghazi-at/196725CBS "Eyewitness" Admits He Lied About Benghazi Attack While Bashing Critics
25 minutes ago ››› HANNAH GROCH-BEGLEY
CBS News' source for their discredited report on the Benghazi attack, Dylan Davies, accused Media Matters of conducting a coordinated smear campaign against him, while simultaneously admitting he falsified statements about his experience of the Benghazi attack.
On October 27, CBS' 60 Minutes featured "Morgan Jones," -- The Washington Post later revealed his real name, Dylan Davies -- a supposed "eyewitness" of the September 2012 attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities, who claimed that during the attack he scaled a wall of the compound, personally struck a terrorist in the face with his rifle butt, and later went to the Benghazi hospital to see Ambassador Chris Stevens' body.
The story he told CBS wildly diverged from the account he gave his superiors in an incident report that was obtained by The Washington Post. According to the Post, Davies had previously filed a report with his security contractor employer saying that he "could not get anywhere near" the compound the night of the attack.
- snip -
But in the same interview, Davies admitted to falsifying his incident report of the Benghazi attacks, undermining his credibility and calling into question his various accounts of the attack.
According to The Daily Beast, Davies explained that he had lied to his supervisor at the security contracting company Blue Mountain Group, "because he did not want his supervisor to know he had disobeyed his orders":
MORE[p]
British Accuse David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald's Partner, Of 'Terrorism'
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/02/david-miranda-terrorism-glenn-greenwald-british_n_4199838.htmlBritish Accuse David Miranda, Glenn Greenwald's Partner, Of 'Terrorism'
Reuters
Nov 02, 2013
By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - British authorities claimed the domestic partner of reporter Glenn Greenwald was involved in "terrorism" when he tried to carry documents from former U.S. intelligence contractor Edward Snowden through a London airport in August, according to police and intelligence documents.
- snip -
At a London court hearing this week for Miranda's lawsuit, a document called a "Ports Circulation Sheet" was read into the record. It was prepared by Scotland Yard - in consultation with the MI5 counterintelligence agency - and circulated to British border posts before Miranda's arrival. The precise date of the document is unclear.
"Additionally the disclosure, or threat of disclosure, is designed to influence a government and is made for the purpose of promoting a political or ideological cause. This therefore falls within the definition of terrorism..."
- snip -
A key hearing on Miranda's legal challenge is scheduled for next week. The new details of how and why British authorities decided to act against him, including extracts from police and MI5 documents, were made public during a preparatory hearing earlier this week.
British authorities have said in court that items seized from Miranda included electronic media containing 58,000 documents from the U.S. National Security Agency and its British counterpart, Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ).
MORE[p]
UK Phone-Hacking Trial Hears Editor Wrote 'Do His Phone'
Source: Reuters
UK phone-hacking trial hears editor wrote 'do his phone'
By Michael Holden
Fri Nov 1, 2013 8:21am EDT
LONDON (Reuters) - Andy Coulson, then editor of Rupert Murdoch's News of the World, instructed a journalist working on a story about a celebrity to "do his phone", a jury trying Coulson and others for phone-hacking was told on Friday.
Coulson, fellow former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks, and two senior employees of Murdoch's British group News International are accused of conspiring to intercept voicemails for stories.
Coulson, who after leaving the News of the World went on to be Prime Minister David Cameron's media chief, and Brooks, who rose to be chief executive of News International, also face two charges each of making illegal payments to public officials.
In total, eight defendants are in the dock on various charges related to phone-hacking, illegal payments for stories, and hindering police investigations. They all deny the charges.
Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSBRE9A00DH20131101
Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson Comes Ashore
Source: The Age (Australia)
Sea Shepherd's Paul Watson comes ashore
by ANDREW DARBY - 01/11/13, 2:15 PM
The extraordinary maritime odyssey of Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson has ended with him coming ashore to join former Australian Greens leader Bob Brown in fighting a US court case.
Mr Watson, the anti-whaling activist who jumped bail in Germany last year ahead of a Japanese extradition order, avoided authorities by staying at sea for 15 months, most of which he spent in the South Pacific.
He arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday on the Australian-registered Sea Shepherd multihull Brigitte Bardot, the group said. Supporters, including lawyer Robert Kennedy jnr, surrounded him on the dock.
Sea Shepherd Australia director Jeff Hansen said in a statement that, after many months at sea and a life in exile, Mr Watson was safely back on land in the US. Mr Watson said in a Facebook post that Costa Rica, which originally sought his extradition from Germany, had dropped an Interpol "Red Notice" seeking his arrest.
Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/whale-watch/sea-shepherds-paul-watson-comes-ashore-20131101-2wpo2.html
Profile Information
Member since: Fri Nov 12, 2004, 08:39 AMNumber of posts: 45,788
