February 29, 2012

DHS Tracked Occupy Wall Street to ‘Control Protesters’

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/29/dhs-tracked-occupy-wall-street-to-control-protesters/

DHS tracked Occupy Wall Street to ‘control protesters’

By David Edwards
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 11:24 EST

Leaked documents reveal that federal government tracked Occupy Wall Street protesters because it feared the movement could turn violent.

An internal Department of Homeland Security report (PDF) titled “SPECIAL COVERAGE: Occupy Wall Street” was part of 5 million leaked documents published by WikiLeaks and examined by Rolling Stone contributing editor Michael Hastings.

The report indicates that the department monitored protesters’ social media activities to assess the movement’s impacts in individuals sectors, including financial services, commercial facilities, transportation, emergency services and government facilities.

February 29, 2012

Reuters FLASH: James Murdoch Steps Down as Executive Chairman of News International

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-newscorp-murdoch-idUSTRE7AM18E20111123

James Murdoch quits UK newspaper boards

Wed, Nov 23 2011Analysis & OpinionFacebook is starting to lose its touch
LONDON | Wed Nov 23, 2011 5:15pm EST

LONDON (Reuters) - James Murdoch has resigned from the boards of the publishing units within News Corp's British newspaper arm, which used to include the now-defunct News of the World tabloid at the center of the phone hacking scandal, regulatory filings show.

Murdoch, son of media mogul Rupert and deputy chief operating officer of News Corp, remains chairman of News International, the News Corp unit that houses its British newspapers, and a member of the Times editorial board.

The News International unit has been damaged this year by the revelation that people working for the popular Sunday tabloid hacked into the phones of thousands to generate news.

Slow-burning investigations into the matter became front-page national news when it was revealed in July that one of the victims was missing schoolgirl Milly Dowler, who appeared to have been picking up voicemails but was later found murdered.

Ex-News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks resigned as chief executive of News International the following week, and was replaced by Tom Mockridge, the former head of News Corp-owned Sky Italia, on July 15.

February 29, 2012

Gen Y May End Up 'Intellectual Lightweights' Because of Technology: Pew

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/29/gen-y-may-end-up-intellectual-lightweights-because-of-technology-pew

Gen Y may end up ‘intellectual lightweights’ because of technology: Pew

By Reuters
Wednesday, February 29, 2012 3:34 EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There is a good chance young people growing up in today’s always-wired world will eventually become bright, nimble decision makers – if they don’t wind up intellectual lightweights unable to concentrate long enough to chew over a good book.

So say 1,021 technology insiders, critics and students surveyed by the Pew Research Center who were fairly evenly split about how always-on technology will impact the teenagers and twenty-somethings of “Generation Y.”

In the survey, released on Wednesday, 55 percent agreed with a statement that in 2020 the brains of young people would be “wired” differently from those over 35, with good results for finding answers quickly and without shortcomings in their mental processes.

But 42 percent were pessimistic, agreeing with a second statement that in 2020 young technology users would be easily distracted, would lack deep thinking skills and would thirst only for instant gratification.

MORE AT LINK IF YOU ARE NOT TOO DISTRACTED TO READ IT[p]

February 29, 2012

Supreme Court Appears to Back Corporations in Torture Cases

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-court-torture-20120229,0,1578783.story

Supreme Court appears to back corporations in torture cases
Conservative justices indicate that multinational firms and political groups should be shielded from lawsuits in the U.S. over atrocities overseas.

By David G. Savage, Washington Bureau
February 28, 2012, 6:55 p.m.

Reporting from Washington— The Supreme Court's conservative justices said they were inclined to shield multinational corporations as well as political groups such as the Palestine Liberation Organization from being sued in this country for torture or other atrocities around the world.

At issue is whether human rights lawsuits can target not just torturers and tyrants but the corporations and political groups that support them.

Though several liberal justices said they saw no reason to limit such lawsuits, the court's conservatives said they were skeptical of allowing American courts to become the world's forum for overseas violations of international law.

Corporations are sued every day in this country and accused of violating state or federal laws. But Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Samuel A. Alito Jr. said it was quite different to permit suits here based on allegations that a multinational corporation conspired with a brutal regime in Africa or Asia.

February 29, 2012

Robert Reich: No Longer Home Sweet Home - The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the End of an Era

http://robertreich.org/post/18439504925

No Longer Home Sweet Home: The Ongoing Housing Crisis and the End of an Era

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 2012

- snip -

Houses are the major assets of the American middle class. Most Americans are therefore far poorer than they were six years ago. Almost one out of three homeowners with a mortgage is now “underwater”, owing more to the banks than their homes are worth on the market.

- snip -

What we’re witnessing is a fundamental change in the consciousness of Americans about their homes. Starting at the end of the second world war, houses were seen as good and safe investments because home values continuously rose. In the late 1960s and 1970s, early baby boomers got the largest mortgages they could afford, and watched their nest eggs grow into ostrich eggs.

Trading up became the norm. Homes morphed into automatic teller machines, as baby boomers used them as collateral for additional loans. By the rip-roaring 2000s, it was not unusual for the middle class to buy second and third homes on speculation. Most assumed their homes would become their retirement savings. When the time came, they’d trade them in for a smaller unit, and live off the capital gains.

The plunge in home values has changed all this. Young couples are no longer buying homes; they’re renting because they’re not confident they can get or hold jobs that will reliably allow them to pay a mortgage. Middle-aged couples are underwater or unable to sell their homes at prices that allow them to recover their initial investments. They can’t relocate to find employment. They can’t retire.

The negative wealth effect of home values, combined with declining wages, makes it highly unlikely the US will enjoy a robust recovery any time soon.

MORE[p]

February 28, 2012

Stratfor On Julian Assange: "Liberal Terrorist Arse"

http://wikileaks.org/Stratfor-Emails-US-Has-Issued.html

PRESS RELEASE - STRATFOR EMAILS: US HAS ISSUED SEALED INDICTMENT AGAINST JULIAN ASSANGE

Tuesday 28th February 2012 18:30 GMT

Confidential emails obtained from the US private intelligence firm Stratfor show that the United States Government has had a secret indictment against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for more than 12 months.

Fred Burton, Stratfor’s Vice-President for Counterterrorism and Corporate Security, is a former Deputy Chief of the Department of State’s (DoS) counterterrorism division for the Diplomatic Security Service (DSS).

In early 2011, Burton revealed in internal Stratfor correspondence that a secret Grand Jury had already issued a sealed indictment for Assange: "Not for Pub — We have a sealed indictment on Assange. Pls protect." (375123) According to Burton: "Assange is going to make a nice bride in prison. Screw the terrorist. He’ll be eating cat food forever." (1056988) A few weeks earlier, following Julian Assange’s release from a London jail, where he had been remanded as a result of a Swedish prosecutor’s arrest warrant, Fred Burton told SkyNews: "extradition (to the US is) more and more likely". (373862).

Emails from Fred Burton reveal that the US Government employs the same counterterrorism strategy against Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as against Al Qaeda: "Take down the money. Go after his infrastructure. The tools we are using to nail and de-construct Wiki are the same tools used to dismantle and track aQ (Al Qaeda). Thank Cheney & 43 (former US President George W. Bush). Big Brother owns his liberal terrorist arse." (1067796)

Ten days after the CIA reportedly assassinated Osama bin Laden, Burton writes in an email sent to Stratfor’s "Secure" mailing list that he "can get access to the materials seized from the OBL (Osama bin Laden)safe house." (1660854)

Burton states: "Ferreting out (Julian Assange’s) confederates is also key. Find out what other disgruntled rogues inside the tent or outside (sic). Pile on. Move him from country to country to face various charges for the next 25 years. But, seize everything he and his family own, to include every person linked to Wiki." (1056763)

MORE[p]

February 28, 2012

Occupy London Being Broken Up

@wikileaks: ALERT: Occupy London is, right now, under the cover of darkness, being broken up. Live stream: http://t.co/GJfMuWgZ #ows #occupy

February 28, 2012

Occupy London Being Broken Up

@wikileaks: ALERT: Occupy London is, right now, under the cover of darkness, being broken up. Live stream: http://t.co/GJfMuWgZ #ows #occupy

February 27, 2012

Russia Averts Plot to Assassinate Putin: State TV

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/02/27/russia-averts-plot-to-assassinate-putin-state-tv/

Russia averts plot to assassinate Putin: state TV

By Agence France-Presse
Monday, February 27, 2012 2:01 EST

Russia’s secret service has arrested two men in connection with a plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin after the March 4 presidential elections, Channel One state television said Monday.

The station showed two men who said they were acting on the orders of Chechen warlord Doku Umarov. They said they prepared the attack in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa and were planning to carry it out in Moscow.

The station said three plotters came to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey with “clear instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov.”

One of the men died in a blast in early January that prompted the investigation, the report said.

February 27, 2012

Dow Pays "Strategic Intelligence" Firm to Spy on Yes Men

Via Email:

Feb. 27, 2012
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MASSIVE LEAK REVEALS CRIMINALITY, PARANOIA AMONG CORPORATE TITANS
Dow pays "strategic intelligence" firm to spy on Yes Men and grassroots activists. Takeaway: movement is on the right track!

WikiLeaks begins to publish today over five million e-mails obtained by Anonymous from "global intelligence" company Stratfor. The emails, which reveal everything from sinister spy tactics to an insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs (see below), also include several discussions of the Yes Men and Bhopal activists. (Bhopal activists seek redress for the 1984 Dow Chemical/Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal, India, that led to thousands of deaths, injuries in more than half a million people, and lasting environmental damage.)

Many of the Bhopal-related emails, addressed from Stratfor to Dow and Union Carbide public relations directors, reveal concern that, in the lead-up to the 25th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, the Bhopal issue might be expanded into an effective systemic critique of corporate rule, and speculate at length about why this hasn't yet happened—providing a fascinating window onto what at least some corporate types fear most from activists.

"[Bhopal activists] have made a slight nod toward expanded activity, but never followed through on it—the idea of 'other Bhopals' that were the fault of Dow or others," mused Joseph de Feo, who is listed in one online source as a "Briefer" for Stratfor.

"Maybe the Yes Men were the pinnacle. They made an argument in their way on their terms—that this is a corporate problem and a part of the a [sic] larger whole," wrote Kathleen Morson, Stratfor's Director of Policy Analysis.

"With less than a month to go [until the 25th anniversary], you'd think that the major players—especially Amnesty—would have branched out from Bhopal to make a broader set of issues. I don't see any evidence of it," wrote Bart Mongoven, Stratfor's Vice President, in November 2004. "If they can't manage to use the 25th anniversary to broaden the issue, they probably won't be able to."

Mongoven even speculates on coordination between various activist campaigns that had nothing to do with each other. "The Chevron campaign [in Ecuador] is remarkably similar [to the Dow campaign] in its unrealistic demand. Is it a follow up or an admission that the first thrust failed? Am I missing a node of activity or a major campaign that is to come? Has the Dow campaign been more successful than I think?" It's almost as if Mongoven assumes the two campaigns were directed from the same central activist headquarters.

Just as Wall Street has at times let slip their fear of the Occupy Wall Street movement, these leaks seem to show that corporate power is most afraid of whatever reveals "the larger whole" and "broader issues," i.e. whatever brings systemic criminal behavior to light. "Systemic critique could lead to policy changes that would challenge corporate power and profits in a really major way," noted Joseph Huff-Hannon, recently-promoted Director of Policy Analysis for the Yes Lab.

Among the millions of other leaked Stratfor emails are some that reveal dubious financial practices, including an apparent insider trading scheme with Goldman Sachs Managing Director Shea Morenz, who joined Stratfor's board of directors and invested "substantially" more than $4 million in the scheme, called StratCap. "What StratCap will do is use our Stratfor's intelligence and analysis to trade in a range of geopolitical instruments," wrote Stratfor CEO George Friedman in September 2011. StratCap was designed through a complex offshore share structure to appear legally independent, but Friedman assured Stratfor staff otherwise: "Do not think of StratCap as an outside organisation. It will be integral... It will be useful to you... We are already working on mock portfolios and trades." (StratCap has been due to launch in 2012, though that could now change.)

Other emails show Stratfor techniques of a truly creepy Spy vs. Spy sort: "[Y]ou have to take control of him. Control means financial, sexual or psychological control," wrote CEO Friedman recently to an employee, Reva Bhalla, on how to exploit an Israeli intelligence informant providing information on Chavez's cancer. (Stratfor's "confidential intelligence services" clients include, besides Dow and Union Carbide, the US Department of Homeland Security, the US Marines, the US Defense Intelligence Agency, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Raytheon.)

Perhaps most entertainingly of all, the email trove reveals that Stratfor's "Confederation Partners"—an unethical alliance between Stratfor and a number of mainstream journalists—are referred to informally within Stratfor as its "Confed Fuck House." (Another discovery: Coca Cola was spying on PETA. More such gems are sure to surface as operatives sift through the 5.5 million emails.)

A number of the remaining Yes Men-related emails take the form of reports on public appearances by the Yes Men, such as one that describes one audience comprised of "art students on class assignments and free entertainment." Another notes that "The Yes Men tweeted about the US Chamber of Commerce 'plotting forged emails, documents to trick (AND smear) opponents,'" a reference to an apparent plot to discredit Chamber opponents using forged documents, as revealed when thousands of emails were recently leaked by Anonymous from cyber-security firm HB Gary. Yet another discusses Alessio Rastani, the Wall Street trader widely mistaken for Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum, who proclaimed, live on the BBC, that "governments don't rule the world, Goldman Sachs rules the world."

"Rastani was right," said the real Andy Bichlbaum five months later. "But it's now very clear that it doesn't have to be that way anymore."

The Yes Men and representatives from the Bhopal Medical Appeal will join Julian Assange of Wikileaks at a press conference at noon today, Feb. 27, at the Frontline Club in London.