Archive for April, 2009
Obama Gets His Blackberry Back — Hackers Get Ready!
President Obama will soon get his souped-up, high-security BlackBerry for use in and around the White House and during presidential travel, said Obama administration officials.
The top-secret BlackBerry 8830 is in the final stages of development by the National Security Agency, which will soon begin checking to make sure its encryption software meets federal standards. The device could be ready for use in the next few months.
Once in hand, the president will be able to send text and email and make phone calls to others with the secure software loaded on their devices. Others expected to get secure BlackBerrys likely include top aides as well as first lady Michelle Obama.
The software being used to secure the personal digital assistant is called SecureVoice, developed by the Genesis Key, Inc. of Washington. It can turn any BlackBerry 8830 or Curve into a top-secret device for handling phone calls, e-mail and video streaming, as…
87,215 Iraqis Dead Due to Violence Since 2005 Says Iraq’s Government
AP (BAGHDAD) — Iraq’s government has recorded 87,215 of its citizens killed since 2005 in violence ranging from catastrophic bombings to execution-style slayings, according to government statistics obtained by the Associated Press that break open one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war.
Combined with tallies based on hospital sources and media reports since the beginning of the war and an in-depth review of available evidence by The Associated Press, the figures show that more than 110,600 Iraqis have died in violence since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
The number is a minimum count of violent deaths. The official who provided the data to the AP, on condition of anonymity because of its sensitivity, estimated the actual number of deaths at 10 to 20 percent higher because of thousands who are still missing and civilians who were buried in the chaos of war without official records.
The Health Ministry has tallied death certificates…
U.S. Soldier Killed Herself — After Refusing to Take Part in Torture
Greg Mitchell, HuffPost: With each new revelation on U.S. torture in Iraq, Afghanistan and Gitmo (and who, knows, probably elsewhere), I am reminded of the chilling story of Alyssa Peterson, who I have written about numerous times in the past three years but now with especially sad relevance. Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, she refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003.
Of course, we now know from the torture memos and the U.S. Senate committee probe and various new press reports, that the “Gitmo-izing” of Iraq was happening just at the time Alyssa got swept up in it.
Alyssa Peterson was one of the first female soldiers killed in Iraq. A cover-up, naturally, followed.
Peterson, 27, a Flagstaff, Ariz., native, served with C Company, 311th Military Intelligence BN, 101st Airborne. Peterson was an Arabic-speaking interrogator assigned to…
Arizona Attempting to Make Salvia Illegal to the Under 21 Crowd
Ray Stern, Phoniex New Times: A bipartisan group of state lawmakers want to make it a crime to sell salvia to anyone under age 21.
The little-known herb for sale at some local head shops reportedly produces hallucinations and out-of-body experiences when smoked or eaten. YouTube videos of users under the influence of the “drug” have gained attention recently. According to the Las Vegas Sun, there’s a movement afoot nationally to outlaw the stuff.
Also today, a North Dakota man earned the distinction of becoming the first person sentenced for possessing salvia.
The black market can’t be too far behind.
Is Copycat Behavior Driving Murder-Suicides?
Maia Szalavitz, TIME: On March 30, a Santa Clara, Calif., man shot five people to death, including three children, before killing himself. On April 3, a gunman went on a shooting rampage in an immigration center in Binghamton, N.Y., killing 13 people before taking his own life. And on April 20, employees of a Sheraton Hotel in Maryland found the bodies of a husband and wife and two daughters, victims of another apparent murder-suicide.
These are only the most publicized of the recent murder-suicide crimes in the U.S. Since March 10, 2009, at least 43 people have been killed in murder-suicides, and there is no telling why the crimes occurred in such rapid succession. It is also not clear whether the spate of recent deaths represents an escalation in the typical murder-suicide death toll. But it has got some observers wondering why. Past research suggests that factors ranging from the time…
Torture and SERE From a Veteran’s Perspective
Speaking from personal knowledge and experience, I say to you that the current popular notion that the torture and killing of foreign nationals is something new is completely erroneous: This country has been employing these brutal methods for a long time.
Sean Hannity Offers To Be Waterboarded For Charity
Jason Linkins | HuffPost: Oh, well. This is, I believe, a “golden moment” in the history of televised media. Sean Hannity had actor Charles Grodin on his show tonight, and the two men actually had some genuinely good natured sparring with each other over the news of the week. Hannity asked Grodin if he’d ever accept a book from Hugo Chavez or listen to a speech by a “brutal thug murdering dictator like Daniel Ortega.” Grodin’s respective ripostes were “I’d hand him my book!” and “I’d listen to anybody. I’m listening to you.” But that’s not the fun part:
GRODIN: You’re for torture.
HANNITY: I am for enhanced interrogation.
GRODIN: You don’t believe it’s torture. Have you ever been waterboarded?
HANNITY: No, but Ollie North has.
GRODIN: Would you consent to be waterboarded? We can waterboard you?
HANNITY: Sure.
GRODIN: Are you busy on Sunday?
HANNITY: I’ll do it for charity. I’ll let you do it. I’ll do it for the troops’ families.
…
Vice Mag Tries Out ‘The Anarchist Cookbook’
OBLIGATORY DISCLAIMER: What follows contains details of how to create very bad things that are extremely dangerous and probably illegal wherever you live. DO NOT attempt to re-create anything you see or read here unless you want to go to jail or die. If you blow someone’s face off and try to blame it on “an article in Vice magazine,” we will be very disappointed. To be unmistakably clear: After you read the next few pages, this publication is not responsible for how and when you injure yourself or anyone else at any point in time from now until infinity. You fucking morons.
At the tender and impressionable age of 19, William Powell wrote the original print edition of The Anarchist Cookbook. It was 1971 and the young man felt compelled to create an instructional catalyst for civic unrest resulting from the Vietnam War. He researched military and Special Forces manuals at…
Shepard Smith Goes Off the Reservation
Shepard Smith had an attack of rationality when he unleashed a righteous attack on two Fox News colleagues trying to justify torture. He shouted, “I don’t give a rat’s ass if it helps. We are AMERICA! We do not fu*king torture!!” Truer words were never said on Fox and in that moment I found myself cheering for a Foxer.
Indian Business Students Snap Up Copies of ‘Mein Kampf’
Booksellers told the Daily Telegraph that while it is regarded in most countries as a ‘Nazi Bible’, in India it is considered a management guide in the mould of Spencer Johnson’s “Who Moved My Cheese”.
Sales of the book over the last six months topped 10,000 in New Delhi alone, according to leading stores, who said it appeared to be becoming more popular with every year.
Several said the surge in sales was due to demand from students who see it as a self-improvement and management strategy guide for aspiring business leaders, and who were happy to cite it as an inspiration.
“Students are increasingly coming in asking for it and we’re happy to sell it to them,” said Sohin Lakhani, owner of Mumbai-based Embassy books who reprints Mein Kampf every quarter and shrugs off any moral issues in publishing the book.
“They see it as a kind of success story where one man can…
Naked Wizard Taser Brawl At Coachella
The police officers beg and plead for the man to put on his robes, but all the Naked Wizard wants to do is be free of his wizard sleeves and hang in the breeze. He throws his colorful garb onto the grass.
“It doesn’t have to stop,” the Naked Wizard says.
“I’ll tell you what,” the cop says. “You can have a great time — but you can have an even better time if you put your clothes on … Can I get them for you?”
The officer grabs the gown and tosses to the Naked Wizard, but he casts it away again. Then the cops put on their rubber gloves, and things get ugly.
Herewith, the best Tasering video since “Don’t Tase me bro!” WATCH (Video contains Naked Wizard nudity):
A Cyber-Attack On An American City
Just after midnight on Thursday, April 9, unidentified attackers climbed down four manholes serving the Northern California city of Morgan Hill and cut eight fiber cables in what appears to have been an organized attack on the electronic infrastructure of an American city. Its implications, though startling, have gone almost un-reported.
That attack demonstrated a severe fault in American infrastructure: its centralization. The city of Morgan Hill and parts of three counties lost 911 service, cellular mobile telephone communications, land-line telephone, DSL internet and private networks, central station fire and burglar alarms, ATMs, credit card terminals, and monitoring of critical utilities. In addition, resources that should not have failed, like the local hospital’s internal computer network, proved to be dependent on external resources, leaving the hospital with a “paper system” for the day.
In technical terms, the area was partitioned from the surrounding internet. What was the attackers goal? Nothing has been…
Missing Virus from Army Lab in Maryland
I can’t help but wonder if this could be tied into the mysterious deaths of all of those polo tournament horses in Florida earlier this week. Either way, there’s nothing like a few vials of random military pathogens floating around out there.
It’s About Time: Mac Targetted Malware!!
For all you smug Apple users — now excuse me while I listen to my iPod…
Threesomes? Foursomes? Moresomes?
Into threesomes? Foursomes? Moresomes? The co-author of a cult classic about open relationships talks sex communes, romantic one-night stands, and offering chicken soup to lovers.
An underground hit for years in sexually experimental circles, Dossie Easton’s and Janet W. Hardy’s The Ethical Slut: A Practical Guide to Polyamory, Open Relationships and Other Adventures makes the case that we should all enjoy an occasional threesome, foursome, and moresome with friends and strangers. “We believe it’s OK to have sex with anybody you love,” Easton and Hardy write, “and we believe in loving everybody.”
Newly updated, expanded, and blurbed by the likes of Margaret Cho and David Crosby, the book’s authors seek to help individuals and couples who “dream of freedom.” The Daily Beast spoke to Easton, a sex therapist outside San Francisco who “has been an ethical slut since 1969.”
Condoleezza Rice Personally Approved CIA’s Use Of Waterboarding
A Senate Intelligence Committee document has revealed that Condoleezza Rice personally approved the CIA’s use of waterboarding on al-Qaeda suspects.
The new narrative provides the most detailed timeline yet of the conception and top-level approval of the violent “enhanced interrogation” techniques employed by American officials.
The report describes a meeting between then-CIA Director George Tenet and Dr Rice in July 2002. The Secretary of State “advised that the CIA could proceed with its proposed interrogation” of alleged al-Qaeda terrorist Abu Zubaydah, the report said…
The new timeline shows that Dr Rice played a greater role in the acceptance of harsh interrogation techniques than she admitted last autumn in written testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Pirate Bay Judge Accused Of Pro-Copyright Bias And Conflict Of Interest
The judge in The Pirate Bay trial has been accused of bias, after Sweden’s national radio station revealed that Thomas Norström was a member of the same pro-copyright groups as several of the main entertainment industry reps in the case.
Sveriges Radio’s P3 news programme claimed Norström is signed up to the Swedish Copyright Association (Svenska föreningen för upphovsrätt), which also counts Henrik Pontén, Peter Danowsky and Monique Wadsted as members. All three represented the entertainment industry in the case against BitTorrent tracker site The Pirate Bay.
Additionally, the judge sits on the board of the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (Svenska föreningen för industriellt rättsskydd), which is lobbying for tougher copyright laws.
However, Norström insisted to the radio station that his membership of the various copyright protection groups did not “constitute a conflict of interest”.
More Washington Murder Conspiracies
It’s the nature of Washington to search for and usually find a politically charged subtext to any news event. But that instinct is never more ghoulish when the event is the sudden death of an important person by his own hand.
David Kellermann, the acting chief financial officer of the troubled Freddie Mac mortgage company, is the latest example of a particular — and particularly macabre — subset of human tragedy: the Washington suicide.
These happen often enough that they follow their own morbid rhythm. The normal human reaction — disbelief, horror, sympathy — is followed almost immediately by the kinds of reactions that are normal only in places suffused by politics and journalism: a rush of suspicion about the motives and speculation over the possible fallout.
Almost immediately after the news broke of Kellermann’s death, Internet rumors ran rampant, with some making references to Vince Foster, the Clinton White House lawyer whose…
