Thursday, June 6, 2013

Documents: U.S. mining data from 9 leading Internet firms; companies deny knowledge

Via Ryan

 

The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio and video chats, photographs, e-mails, documents, and connection logs that enable analysts to track foreign targets, according to a top-secret document obtained by The Washington Post.

The program, code-named PRISM, has not been made public until now. It may be the first of its kind. The NSA prides itself on stealing secrets and breaking codes, and it is accustomed to corporate partnerships that help it divert data traffic or sidestep barriers. But there has never been a Google or Facebook before, and it is unlikely that there are richer troves of valuable intelligence than the ones in Silicon Valley.

Equally unusual is the way the NSA extracts what it wants, according to the document: “Collection directly from the servers of these U.S. Service Providers: Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, Facebook, PalTalk, AOL, Skype, YouTube, Apple.”

PRISM was launched from the ashes of President George W. Bush’s secret program of warrantless domestic surveillance in 2007, after news media disclosures, lawsuits and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court forced the president to look for new authority.

Congress obliged with the Protect America Act in 2007 and the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which immunized private companies that cooperated voluntarily with U.S. intelligence collection. PRISM recruited its first partner, Microsoft, and began six years of rapidly growing data collection beneath the surface of a roiling national debate on surveillance and privacy. Late last year, when critics in Congress sought changes in the FISA Amendments Act, the only lawmakers who knew about PRISM were bound by oaths of office to hold their tongues.

IWI To Produce Weapons In Vietnam

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Nguoiduatin.vn Reports That Israeli Weapons Industry is Looking to Open A factory in Vietnam to Produce Weapons for the Far East Market. They could invest up to $ 100 million int he plant. The Vietnamese military have adopted a wide range of Israeli small arms including the Tavor, Negev LMG, Galil SAR rifle and Galil Sniper rifle.

More @ TFB 

Oath Keepers holds Lexington oath ceremony in spite of rally ban

Via avordvet

 Oath Keepers gather to pledge their support to the Constitution.

Oath Keepers and rally permit holder Gun Rights Across America-Massachusetts were unsuccessful in a motion filed yesterday to overturn the permit revocation for their planned event today on Lexington Green, but went ahead and conducted a brief oath ceremony anyway, the group’s founder Stewart Rhodes informed Gun Rights Examiner this afternoon.
“Due to the emergency nature of the moratorium in light of recent events, significantly the Boston bombing on April 15, 2013, the Plaintiff has failed to convince the court of its likelihood of success on the merits and any potential irreparable harm it may suffer therefore the motion is denied,” a handwritten margin notation explains on the Motion for Temporary Restraining Order and Emergency Interlocutory Injunction in the Middlesex Superior Court Department of the Trial Court in Woburn.
An appeal could not be filed due to the Supreme Judicial Court in Boston being closed, Rhodes explained, but despite the rally itself being cancelled, his group went ahead with a ceremony where about 200 members reaffirmed their oaths to uphold the Constitution. In spite of the concerns expressed by the Lexington Board of Selectmen in their revocation of the rally permit, people were freely gathered at nearby Concord Bridge, he observed, which seemingly proves the concerns were groundless.

More @ Examiner

*******************************

 "Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America."

A good man.

"Chuck Baldwin, who was also scheduled to appear, could not make it due to a snowstorm canceling his flight, Rhodes said."

Damn, global warming in June.......

Benghazi: Special Ops Officers Demand Deposition Of Former Joint Chiefs Of Staff Chairman

 Michael Mullen,  James Cartwright

On Wednesday, military veterans and retired special operations officers demanded, in an open letter released by OPSEC, that former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen be deposed by Congress. The reason they are making the demand is to find out why U.S. forces were not ordered to rescue the four American men who were under attack and died in Benghazi, Libya on September 11, 2012.

Mullen and former Ambassador Thomas Pickering, who gave a lengthy, closed-door deposition on Tuesday, were responsible for issuing the State Department’s Accountability Review Board (ARB) report.

Report: Panetta disclosed top secret info to filmmaker

 

Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta revealed the name of the ground commander who carried out the Osama bin Laden raid at a 2011 CIA awards ceremony attended by “Zero Dark Thirty” filmmaker Mark Boal, according to a draft inspector general (IG) report.

The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) published a leaked draft report from the Defense Department’s inspector general, which found that Panetta had revealed information labeled “top secret” at the awards ceremony.

The report does not indicate whether Panetta knew that Boal was at the event, and Panetta was not interviewed by the inspector general.

“'During this awards ceremony, Director Panetta specifically recognized the unit that conducted the raid and identified the ground commander by name,'” the draft report said. “'According to the DOD Office of Security Review, the individual’s name is protected from public release' under federal law.”


Panetta was director of the CIA during the bin Laden raid in 2011, and he then ran the Pentagon until he retired earlier this year.

The report will add fuel to Republican criticisms that the Obama administration leaked classified information to Boal and director Kathryn Bigelow for “Zero Dark Thirty,” a fictional film based on the hunt for bin Laden.

Republicans had accused the administration last year of working with the filmmakers in order to boost President Obama’s reelection prospects. The film’s release date was moved until after the election in response to the criticisms, although the final version included little about the president’s role. \

More @ The Hill

Texas Triggers - 1000 yd SHOT standing w/ .50 cal


This took place at one of our Texas Triggers spring events. The instruction/explanation footage of the M107 was during the long range portion of the weekend. Ryan's actual shot came at the end of the day after constant urging and egging on by our guests and staff to see him shoot the Barrett off-hand. He agreed to do it, but really didn't want to be filmed. I coaxed him into allowing us to roll tape... Now he's glad I did. - Colby Donaldson

Army smacks soldier for serving Chick-fil-A


The Pentagon apparently has little liking for Chick-fil-A sandwiches and the Defense of Marriage Act.

The U.S. Army has reportedly punished a master sergeant for hosting a party to celebrate both his personal promotion and the legislation supporting traditional heterosexual marriages.

According to the Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, the unidentified soldier was investigated, reprimanded, threatened with judicial action and given a bad efficiency report.

“They say he is no longer a team player and was not performing up to standards,” Chaplain Alliance Executive Director Ron Crews told Fox News. “This is just one little example of a case of a soldier just wanting to express his views and now he’s been jumped on by the military.”

The soldier was promoted to master sergeant last summer, at the time of a national controversy over Chick-fil-A’s support of traditional marriage.

As WND reported Aug. 1, Americans flocked to Chick-fil-A restaurants in a national show of support for the eatery after the company’s president publicly stated his support for the biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

More @ WND

Syrian rebels to Christians: Flee or die!

 syrian-rebels

A new report from a ministry worker who visited a remnant of Syria’s Christian community confirms the worst: Rebels battling President Bashar al-Assad for control are imposing Islamic law, giving Christians the choice to flee or die.

The report is from the Religious Freedom Coalition, the faith-based organization run by William J. Murray, author of “My Life Without God.”

Murray explained that the report on persecution of Christians in Syria by jihadists was by Martin Janssen, who visited Amman, Jordan, for a prayer walk held for two Syrian church leaders kidnapped by Syrian rebels, Greek Orthodox Archbishop Paul Yazigi and Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim.

The report, in Dutch, was translated by Mark Durie, an Anglican vicar in Melbourne, Australia, and an associate fellow at the Middle Eastern Forum.

After the prayer walk, Syrian Christian refugees told Janssen they had been attacked by the rebels fighting in Syria, where Christians had been allowed to worship and live under Assad’s regime.

The report comes after Republican Sen. John McCain’s recent trip to Syria, where he was photographed with two men who, according to Beirut news reports, were involved in kidnapping people from Lebanon just months ago.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., criticized McCain, noting that the “pro-Western people” he visited weren’t well vetted.

More @ WND

Boy Suspended For Merely Saying 'Gun'

 

An 11-year-old boy who hopes to become a Navy SEAL was suspended from a Maryland school after he used the word ‘gun’ in a conversation on board a school bus.

The sixth-grader at Northern Middle School in Owings was talking with a group of friends about the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre when the bus driver overheard the conversation.

“He said, ‘I wish I had a gun to protect everyone from the bad guys,’’ said Bruce Henkelman, the boy’s father. “He wanted to be the hero.”

Henkelman told Fox News that his son was interrogated by the principal and a deputy sheriff – without their knowledge or permission.

“The principal told me if you say the word gun in my school – you will face a ten day suspension,” he said.

The incident happened just after the Sandy Hook shootings. Henkleman said he finally decided to speak out after a 5-year-old boy in their county was suspended for 10 days after he brought a toy cap gun onto a school bus.

Since the incident happened a day before winter break, the principal reduced the suspension to one day. But the family was ordered to complete an ‘intrusive’ four page questionnaire and the deputy sheriff said he would have to search their home --- without a warrant.

More @ Townhall

Allen West: Holder a 'bigger threat to our republic' than al Qaeda


 

Former congressman Allen West (R-Fla.) called Attorney General Eric Holder "a bigger threat" to the country than al Qaeda in a fundraising email obtained Wednesday by The Washington Post.

"Al Qaeda is a very serious and persistent threat, but I trust the U.S. military to protect us from future attacks," West writes. "I cannot say the same about President Obama and his Justice Department."

The email also features a picture of Holder next to al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. The email asks supporters "which of these men scares you most?"

"As a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and a civilian-military advisor in Afghanistan, I'll tell you flat out — Eric Holder is a bigger threat to the Republic," West writes.

More @ The Hill

Muslims and “distributed denial of service.”

Via Billy


5 June 2013

Delegates and Friends of the SNC:

Last evening, the Obama-appointed us attorney for the eastern district of Tennessee Bill Killian and FBI agent Kenneth Moore spoke at an “informational” meeting in Manchester, Tennessee at the request of the “American Muslim Advisory Council of Tennessee.” The topic was “Public Disclosure in a Diverse Society.”

Approximately two thousand citizens turned out, but the meeting room could accommodate only about half of them. Killian’s power-point presentation was a delivery of information about hate crimes, civil rights and the federal laws that prescribe violations and penalties. It appears that any disparaging remark about Christianity is OK but any similar remark against Islam is now a federal offence (freedom of speech does not apply).

I realize that none of the above is any surprise to y’all. Here is the rest of the story.
Outside the meeting, several speakers waxed eloquent about freedom of speech. One of the speakers was a lady who has a blog reviewing English literature on which she make an occasional reference to the truth about Islam.

About 2am this morning her site was hit with what is called a “distributed denial of service.” This is new to me, so I am relating as I understand it: certain organizations and countries have taken the time to distribute little programs into personal computers around the world. Because they are not “viruses” which affect the computer’s operation, most people don’t even know they are there.

Those little “bots” lie dormant until given a command which contains a web address. Upon the command, the programs begin to “hit” the named web address repeatedly, until the system overloads and shuts down—a distributed (because it comes from all over) denial of service (nobody else can get through).

The host of her site (also that of theSNC.org) told me that it temporarily affected every one of their sites. By mid-morning, their tech people had installed over a thousand new firewalls to protect their clients and expected to install that many more before being finished. The lady’s site is still down temporarily.

That is the kind of people we are dealing with--troublemakers with no regard for the freedom of speech. They targeted an individual and her ability to speak to the public with a significant overkill.

There is no such thing as a “safe” or “secure” web hosting service. Fortunately, the owner of this particular hosting service vowed that he was just as determined to help first and second amendment groups as well as everyone who desires to advance the cause of liberty. 

He will not back down.

Christ's servant,
David O Jones
Chairman
Chairman@theSNC.org