Petraeus says U.S. tried to avoid tipping off terrorists

Nov 162012
 

By Eric Schmitt (NY Times)  David H. Petraeus, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, told lawmakers on Friday that classified intelligence reports revealed that the deadly assault on the American diplomatic mission in Libya was a terrorist attack, but that the administration refrained from saying it suspected that the perpetrators of the attack were Al Qaeda affiliates and sympathizers to avoid tipping off the groups.

Mr. Petraeus, who resigned last week after admitting to an extramarital affair, said the names of groups suspected in the attack — including Al Qaeda’s franchise in North Africa and a local Libyan group, Ansar al-Shariah — were removed from the public explanation of the attack immediately after the assault to avoiding alerting the militants that American intelligence and law enforcement agencies were tracking them, lawmakers said.

via Petraeus Says U.S. Tried to Avoid Tipping Off Terrorists – NYTimes.com.

 November 16, 2012  Posted by at 9:19 pm Comments Off

Israeli TV claims military refused orders for attack on Iran

Nov 092012
 

By Samuel Burke (CNN) A sensational story is rocking Israel this week – alleging that the Israeli military defied orders from its commander in chief, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Leading Israeli journalist Ilana Dayan is reporting that Netanyahu ordered his military to prepare for an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities nearly two years ago. Dayan’s story documents that both the army chief and the head of Mossad (Israeli intelligence) refused to comply with Netanyahu’s order.

In an interview with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour Thursday, Dayan said the information came from officials who were in the room with Netanyahu when the conversations took place, during a meeting of Israeli ministers.

via Did the Israeli military defy PM Netanyahu? – Amanpour – CNN.com Blogs.

 November 9, 2012  Posted by at 1:09 pm Comments Off

WND: Drones will hunt right wingers down like dogs if Obama is re-elected

 Government, Marching Morons, Meltdowns, Paranoia, Politics, The Future, The Ruling Class  Comments Off
Nov 042012
 

By Booth Gunter (Salon) Hunted Down Like Dogs. Joseph Farah, who leads the far-right, conspiracy-mongering website WorldNetDaily, is under no delusions about his fate. “If [Obama is] re-elected, it’s gonna be war,” said Farah, who swears he saw a drone surveilling his Northern Virginia property. “We will be hunted down like dogs.”

via Six most paranoid fears for Obama’s second term – Salon.com.

Rent-to-own laptops secretly photographed users having sex, FTC says

Sep 262012
 

By David Kravets (Wired) Seven rent-to-own companies and a software maker are settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission that rental computers illegally used spyware that took “pictures of children, individuals not fully clothed, and couples engaged in sexual activities.”

As per the course, the FTC slapped the hand of DesignerWare of North East Pennsylvania and the rent-to-own companies. The settlement, announced Tuesday, only requires them to halt using their spy tools, which have been employed on as many as 420,000 rentals.

The software, known as Detective Mode, didn’t just secretly turn on webcams. It “can log the keystrokes of the computer user, take screen shots of the computer user’s activities on the computer, and photograph anyone within view of the computer’s webcam. Detective Mode secretly gathers this information and transmits it to DesignerWare, who then transmits it to the rent-to-own store from which the computer was rented, unbeknownst to the individual using the computer,” according to the complaint.

Under the settlement, the companies can still use tracking software on their rental computers, so long as they advise renters, the FTC said.

via Rent-to-Own Laptops Secretly Photographed Users Having Sex, FTC Says | Threat Level | Wired.com.

 September 26, 2012  Posted by at 11:29 am Comments Off

Here's what Facebook sends the cops when they subpoena your information

Apr 082012
 

By Carly Carioli (Phlog) One of the most fascinating documents we came across was the BPD’s subpoena of Philip Markoff’s Facebook information. It’s interesting for a number of reasons — for one thing, Facebook has been pretty tight-lipped about the subpoena process, even refusing to acknowledge how many subpoenas they’ve served. Social-networking data is a contested part of a complicated legal ecosystem — in some cases, courts have found that such data is protected by the Stored Communications Act.

In fact, we’d never seen an executed Facebook subpoena before — but here we have one, including the forms that Boston Police filed to obtain the information, and the printed (on paper!) response that Facebook sent back, which includes text printouts of Markoff’s wall posts, photos he uploaded as well as photos he was tagged in, a comprehensive list of friends with their Facebook IDs (which we’ve redacted), and a long table of login and IP data.

This document was publicly released by Boston Police as part of the case file. In other case documents, the police have clearly redacted sensitive information. And while the police were evidently comfortable releasing Markoff’s unredacted Facebook subpoena, we weren’t. Markoff may be dead, but the very-much-alive friends in his friend list were not subpoenaed, and yet their full names and Facebook ID’s were part of the document.

via When the cops subpoena your Facebook information, here’s what Facebook sends the cops – Phlog.

 April 8, 2012  Posted by at 2:46 pm Comments Off
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