"The
government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it
cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong,
and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey
orders, not originate them..." -- Mark Twain
"It's
important to realize that whenever you give power to politicians or
bureaucrats, it will be used for what they want, not for what you
want." - Harry Browne
"In
the end, more than they wanted freedom, they wanted security. They
wanted a comfortable life, and they lost it all -- security, comfort,
and freedom. When ... the freedom they wished for was freedom from
responsibility, then Athens ceased to be free." -- Sir Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
"A
popular Government, without popular information, or the means of
acquiring it, is but a Prologue to a Farce or a Tragedy; or, perhaps
both." - James Madison
From Arab Spring to global revolution
5 Feb 2013:
In an excerpt from his book Why It's Still Kicking Off
Everywhere, Paul Mason argues that a global protest movement, based on
social networks, is here to stay
The US Federal Reserve bank has confirmed one of its internal websites was broken into by hackers after the hacktivist group Anonymous was claimed to have stolen details of more than 4,000 bank executives.
"The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," a spokeswoman for the US central bank said.
"Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system," the spokeswoman said, adding that all individuals affected by the breach had been contacted.
The admission follows a claim that hackers linked to Anonymous struck the bank on Sunday. The technology news site ZDNet separately reported that Anonymous appeared to have published information said to containing the login information, credentials, internet protocol addresses and contact information of more than 4,000 US bankers.
The claim was made via Twitter using an account registered to OpLastResort, which is linked to Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on other government and corporate sites.
OpLastResort is a campaign some hackers linked to Anonymous have started to protest against government prosecution of the computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, who killed himself on 11 January.
The bank declined to identify which website had been hacked. But information it provided to bankers indicated that the site, which was not public, was a contact database for banks to use during a natural disaster.
A copy of the message sent by the bank to members of its Emergency Communication System (ECS) and obtained by Reuters warned that mailing address, business phone, mobile phone, business email and fax numbers had been published. "Some registrants also included optional information consisting of home phone and personal email. Despite claims to the contrary, passwords were not compromised," the bank said.
The website's purpose is to allow bank executives to update the Fed if their operations have been flooded or otherwise damaged in a storm or other disaster. That helps the bank assess the overall impact of the event on the banking system.
Hackers identifying themselves as Anonymous infiltrated the US sentencing commission website in late January to protest against the government's treatment of Swartz.
Swartz was charged with using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer networks to steal more than 4m articles from Jstor, an online archive and journal distribution service. He faced a maximum sentence of 31 years if convicted.
"The Federal Reserve system is aware that information was obtained by exploiting a temporary vulnerability in a website vendor product," a spokeswoman for the US central bank said.
"Exposure was fixed shortly after discovery and is no longer an issue. This incident did not affect critical operations of the Federal Reserve system," the spokeswoman said, adding that all individuals affected by the breach had been contacted.
The admission follows a claim that hackers linked to Anonymous struck the bank on Sunday. The technology news site ZDNet separately reported that Anonymous appeared to have published information said to containing the login information, credentials, internet protocol addresses and contact information of more than 4,000 US bankers.
The claim was made via Twitter using an account registered to OpLastResort, which is linked to Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for attacks on other government and corporate sites.
OpLastResort is a campaign some hackers linked to Anonymous have started to protest against government prosecution of the computer prodigy Aaron Swartz, who killed himself on 11 January.
The bank declined to identify which website had been hacked. But information it provided to bankers indicated that the site, which was not public, was a contact database for banks to use during a natural disaster.
A copy of the message sent by the bank to members of its Emergency Communication System (ECS) and obtained by Reuters warned that mailing address, business phone, mobile phone, business email and fax numbers had been published. "Some registrants also included optional information consisting of home phone and personal email. Despite claims to the contrary, passwords were not compromised," the bank said.
The website's purpose is to allow bank executives to update the Fed if their operations have been flooded or otherwise damaged in a storm or other disaster. That helps the bank assess the overall impact of the event on the banking system.
Hackers identifying themselves as Anonymous infiltrated the US sentencing commission website in late January to protest against the government's treatment of Swartz.
Swartz was charged with using the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's computer networks to steal more than 4m articles from Jstor, an online archive and journal distribution service. He faced a maximum sentence of 31 years if convicted.
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Twitter Followers Threaten To Kill Talk Host & Rape Cancer-stricken Wife;
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Bob Menendez, prostitution, and the security-industrial complex
The Theory & Practice of Predictive Programming, with Tom Secker (podcast)
Texas military units received warning before Navy SEAL was killed
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Huge victory against fluoride in Australia
Aspartame Linked to Leukemia & Lymphoma in Landmark Study on Humans
Tough Love: You DO Have Enough Money to Prep
Ahmadinejad: Iran already nuclear state - no intention launching Israel attack
Interesting Photos: Aerosol Refracted-Pulse Wave Post Chemtrail Saturation
Postal Service to stop delivering mail on Saturdays
EPA Scientists Oppose Water Fluoridation
Guilt, Not PTSD, Is What Afflicts War Veterans
Amazon wants its own currency to help users avoid sales taxes
Groundbreaking encryption app set to revolutionize privacy & freak out feds
UK police use dead children's IDs to infiltrate activist groups
Asteroid will come super close to Earth on Feb 15
PM's daughter blows whistle on 54 nations that helped US detention scheme
Aaron Swartz Prosecutor facing Congressional scrutiny
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Zeptonics zapped
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Tax crime squad pounced on bogus businesses in dawn raid
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Analysis Sold 'adaptable' ships which couldn't be adapted
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Current commish: Data protection reforms must target crooks, not biz
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Analysis Influential parliamentarians sniffs around packet-sniffing draft law
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Gesture will help Pentagon gain trust of hacking community, says Arquilla
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Sod that, Beyoncé is a member of the ILLUMINATI
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The downside? It's still owned by Oracle
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Open ... and Shut Lessons of the Nginx v Apache slug fest
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Ambitious OS wasn't explosive, admit top bods
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Slow-burning stars may host civilizations far more advanced than our own
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US Air Force backs Wu Feng for fluid dynamics modelling
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100th birthday sketch of humanity's detective
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New theory - not involving Office 2007 - might be the answer
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257885161-1 takes crown as biggest prime ever found
Israel Plans Attack To Create And Occupy 10 Mile "Buffer Zone" Inside Syria
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv
The
plan envisages two Israeli infantry brigades and a tank battalion
being based at outposts in Syrian territory. The current border, which
is not internationally recognised, was redrawn after the 1973 Yom
Kippur War.
In Case You Missed It
Israel's Post-American Future
By Leon T. Hadar
We
cannot exist alone." President Shimon Peres said during an address in
Jerusalem "For our existence we need the friendship of the United
States of America,"
NYC Officials Threaten Funding of Brooklyn College Over Israel Event
By Glenn Greenwald
The
threat to academic freedom posed by this growing lynch mob is obvious:
if universities are permitted to hold only those events which do not
offend state officials and "pro-Israel" fanatics such as Alan
Dershowitz, then "academic freedom" is illusory.
Justice Department Memo Reveals Legal Case for Killing Americans
By Michael Isikoff
The U.S.
government can order the killing of American citizens if they are
believed to be "senior operational leaders" of al-Qaida or "an
associated force" -- even if there is no intelligence indicating they
are engaged in an active plot to attack the U.S.
Neither Justice Nor Morality: Just Impunity From Crimes Against Humanity
By William A. Cook
The world is not ruled
by justice or morality, it is ruled by power. Israel knows this. They
have taken control of the greatest military machine the world has ever
known, the United States .
The People v. Tony Blair:
How Mass Murderers Get Away With War Crimes and How to Stop Them
By Chris Nineham
We need to remind
ourselves of the sheer criminality of George W Bush and Tony Blair, to
try and explain what was behind it and how they got away with it.
Rogue Elements Within US Military: Defense Nominee Hagel Had Warned Obama
By Steve Watson
Bob Woodward writes in
the Post that on a visit to the White House in 2009, Hagel warned
Obama that he should look out for rogue elements within the Pentagon
that were leading a 'new world order':
U.S. To Become a Second-rate Power
By Mike Ferner
That is exactly what
Outgoing Secretary of War Panetta said in a Feb. 1 exit interview with
USA Today, when asked what effects looming cuts will have on the War
Department.
The Trickery of the US Military Budget
By Paul R. Pillar
A key federal budget
trick is using words to confuse citizens, such as labeling U.S.
military spending as "defense" though much is for "offense" and sliding
costs for wounded soldiers under "veterans affairs" and nuclear bombs
under "energy,"
The Paranoia of the Superrich and Superpowerful
By Noam Chomsky
Is America over? It's a
kind of paranoia, but it's the paranoia of the superrich and the
superpowerful. If you don't have everything, it's a disaster.
Breaking the Chains of Debt Peonage
By Chris Hedges
Workers who are unable
to meet their debts, who are victimized by constantly rising interest
rates that can climb to as high as 30 percent on credit cards, are far
more likely to remain submissive and compliant.
Obamacare: A Deception
Introduction by Paul Craig Roberts
How Obamacare works for the insurance companies but not for you.
White House zeros in on Medicare
By Patrick Martin
Both President Obama
and a top economic adviser have confirmed that Medicare, the federal
program that underwrites the cost of health care for more than 50
million elderly and disabled people in the United States, is a prime
target in the budget-cutting negotiations now going on behind the
scenes in Washington.
Hard News
Twenty-two killed in suicide bomb near Baghdad:
A
suicide bomber blew himself up near a group of anti-Al-Qaeda fighters
as they were receiving salaries north of Baghdad on Monday, killing 22
people, the second bloody attack to hit Iraq in as many days.
Suicide bomber kills four Iraq anti-Qaeda fighters:
A
suicide bomber on Monday blew himself up near a group of anti-Qaeda
militiamen as they were receiving their salaries in the town of Taji,
killing four of them, an interior ministry official said.
Gunmen storm police' headquarters, 30 killed:
A
suicide car bombing, followed by an assault by grenade-throwing gunmen
on a police headquarters in a disputed city in north Iraq, killed at
least 30 people Sunday.
Fact or fiction?
Six children killed in air raid near Damascus: activists:
Syrian
warplanes launched a deadly raid Monday on the outskirts of the
rebel-held town of Douma northeast of Damascus, killing seven
civilians, among them six children, a monitoring group said.
Russia opposes humanitarian corridor in Syria, citing int'l air intervention fears:
"Russia
does not support the idea of a humanitarian corridor in Syria. Any use
of military power is unacceptable, and not just because we still
remember what it lead to in Libya,"
White House rebuffed Clinton-Petraeus plan to arm Syrian rebels: report:
A
plan developed last summer by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
and then-CIA Director David Petraeus to arm and train Syrian rebels was
rebuffed by the White House, The New York Times reported on Saturday.
Fact or fiction?
Assad 'Deploys' Scud Missiles Targeting Tel Aviv:
Syrian
President Bashar al-Assad has deployed scud-type missiles targeted at
Tel Aviv following the Israeli airstrike on a research centre on the
outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus.
Israeli regime will regret attacking Syria: Iran's Jalili:
"As
the Zionist regime [of Israel] regretted its aggression and hostility
during its 33-day, 22-day and 8-day wars, it will also regret this
attack [on Syria]," Jalili said during a press conference in the Syrian
capital, Damascus, on Monday.
Iran optimistic on future nuclear talks:
Foreign
Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says he sees positive signs the United
States is rethinking its approach to Tehran in the protracted dispute
over the Islamic republic's nuclear drive. "I feel this new (US)
administration is really this time seeking to at least divert from its
previous and traditional approach vis-a-vis my country."
Iranian FM says Tehran to resume talks after nuclear equipment upsets Israel, US:
Iran
has installed new centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear plant - and Israel
isn't happy about it. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says
the new equipment will complicate plans to prevent Tehran from
developing nuclear weapons.
McCain refers to Iran's president as a 'monkey'; GOP rep calls jab 'racist';
Republican
Sen. John McCain on Monday called Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad a "monkey." The blunt-speaking Arizona lawmaker leveled the
jab-swiftly condemned as "racist" by a Republican representative-via
Twitter:
Yadlin: Israel's threat to strike Iran 'unhelpful':
Israeli
threats to strike Iran's nuclear program and send shock waves
throughout the world are "unhelpful," and Jerusalem should lower its
profile on the issue, director of the Institute for National Security
Studies, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin, said Monday.
Problems with Israeli cellular networks prompt suspicions of cyber-attack:
Cellular
phone users throughout the country report problems sending and
receiving calls and text messages, mostly on the Pelephone network;
security officials checking whether problems due to technical
malfunction or malicious attack;
Israel arrests 22 Hamas members ahead of Fatah-Hamas talks:
Israel
has a history of arresting Palestinian politicians and legislators,
mainly targeting members of the pro-Hamas Change and Reform bloc since
2006, when Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian parliament.
Hamas: Israel sabotaging reconciliation efforts:
Hamas
leaders in the Gaza Strip said that the arrest of the movement's
political representatives in the West Bank by the IDF was designed to
sabotage efforts to achieve reconciliation with Fatah.
Iran awaiting government to provide evidence for arms shipment claims:
Iranian
officials in Sana'a said they are awaiting the Yemeni government to
provide evidence for their claims that Iran sent arms to the port of
Aden.The arms shipment included a number of surface to air missiles.
22 killed in clash of Filipino extremists, rebels:
A
Muslim rebel group said Monday it attacked Abu Sayyaf gunmen after the
al-Qaida-linked militants refused to free hostages, sparking fierce
jungle clashes that left up to 22 combatants dead in the southern
Philippines.
Witness describes Mali forces 'executing' students:
An
eyewitness told BBC Newsnight he saw three Islamic students shot dead
in a public place because they failed to show identity papers.
Benghazi, Libya, deteriorating into security nightmare:
Security
in Benghazi has decayed to the point where Westerners are fleeing,
assassinations and kidnappings are rife and residents worry that U.S.
drone strikes on jihadist targets are imminent.
Egyptian dies of wounds as toll from protests rises to 57:
An
Egyptian man shot during protests in Cairo died of his wounds on
Sunday, medics said, increasing to 57 the death toll in the bloodiest
week of President Mohamed Mursi's seven months in power.
Egyptian activist dies 'after torture from police':
AN
EGYPTIAN activist, who slipped into a coma following days in police
custody, has died, setting off a storm over police brutality in the new
Egypt. A preliminary medical report showed that he suffered beating
with hard objects, broken ribs and electric shocks, activists said.
Gang rape in Tahrir square -Video -
Girl alledgedly raped by mob in Tahrir Square
'US, France agree over UN Mali force':
Biden praised France's "decisiveness" in intervening in Mali and the "competence and capability" of French military forces.
Saudi preacher gets fine and short jail term for raping and killing daughter:
Public
anger has gripped Saudi Arabia after a prominent preacher who raped
and beat to death his 5-year-old daughter was sentenced to a few months
in jail and a $50,000 fine - known as 'blood money' - to compensate
the victim's relatives.
Urgent preparations in South Korea over North's third nuclear test fears:
South
Korean leader Lee Myung-Bak has urged the country's officials to
'stand well prepared' for a third nuclear test by North Korea,
according to Yonhap news agency. The test is believed to take place
before Lunar New Year starts on February 10.
Pentagon Expects U.S. to Retain Presence in Afghanistan:
The
Pentagon's top civilian and military officials on Sunday expressed an
expectation, even a desire, that American troops would remain in
Afghanistan after the NATO mission ends in December 2014, although they
emphasized that no decision had been made.
Afghanistan security better before British troops arrival: Karzai:
Karzai
also expressed doubts regarding foreign troops fight in the right part
of the country for the past 10 years and questionned whether western
forces were pulling out because they had realised the mission was a
mistake, or if they believed they had successfully broken up the
country's terrorist groups.
CIA chief admits use of torture in hunt for Bin Landen:
The
outgoing US defence secretary has admitted that intelligence obtained
using enhanced interrogation techniques or torture was used to "put
together the puzzle" that led the American military to Osama bin
Laden's compound in Pakistan.
Greek finance minister gets bullet in the mail:
Greece's
finance minister was sent a bullet and a death threat from a group
protesting home foreclosures, police officials said on Monday, in the
latest incident to raise fears of growing political violence.
Berlin eyes jail time for reckless bankers - source:
The
German government will discuss a new law to imprison bank executives
for up to five years if they are found guilty of reckless behaviour
that put a bank at risk.
Osborne backs break-up of banks that fail to reform:
The
UK's big banks will be broken up if they fail to follow new rules to
ring-fence risky investment operations from High Street outlets,
Chancellor George Osborne has announced. He has said taxpayers are
angry at banks' behaviour and will never again be expected to bail them
out.
Venezuela officials: Hugo Chavez's health 'improving':
National
Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello said he had visited Mr Chavez in
hospital, and that the president's health was "clearly improving".
The Venezuelan leader has not been seen or heard in public since he had surgery almost eight weeks ago.
Eighth Annual US, Citgo-Venezuela Heating Oil Program Launched:
The
program, which began as a single donation in 2005 in response to the
high prices of heating oil resulting from hurricanes Katrina and Rita,
has grown well beyond its original scope. Today, it has become a
humanitarian symbol of unity between the people of Venezuela and those
in need in the United States.
Fidel Castro votes in Cuba election:
State
TV showed the 86-year-old voting at a polling station where he is said
to have spent up to an hour talking to other voters and the media.
U.S. military expanding its war on drugs - :
In
the most expensive initiative in Latin America since the Cold War, the
U.S. has militarized the battle against the traffickers, spending more
than $20 billion in the past decade. U.S. Army troops, Air Force
pilots and Navy ships outfitted with Coast Guard counternarcotics teams
are routinely deployed to chase, track and capture drug smugglers.
Big Media Discovers US Special Ops are Targeting Mexican Crime Organizations:
The US has had special-forces boots on the ground inside Mexico for some time now.
UK: Police spies stole identities of dead children:
Britain's
largest police force stole the identities of an estimated 80 dead
children and issued fake passports in their names for use by undercover
police officers.
Gov. Gary Johnson
Honorary Chairman
"Ask Me Anything"
on Reddit, Tues., Feb. 12.
Reddit
Tuesday, February 12, 2013 at 3 p.m. PST / 6 p.m EST, Gov. Gary Johnson will host a Reddit AMA or "Ask Me Anything."
The 60-minute on-line event will give participants a chance to ask the former New Mexico Governor and Honorary Chairman of the Our America Initiative questions via the popular website, Reddit.com.
To ask a question, visit www.reddit.com at 3 p.m. PST / 6 p.m EST, Tuesday, and just search "Gov. Gary Johnson". Governor Johnson is anxious to hear from you!
Please join us!
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