Monthly Archives: January 2016

After JFK was killed, Truman letter called for the abolition of CIA covert ops

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“Four months later, former CIA director Allen Dulles paid Truman a visit. Dulles tried to get Truman to retract what he had written in the Post.  ‘No dice, said Truman,’ according to McGovern/Marcus.  But four days later, in a formal memo for Lawrence Houston, the CIA’s general counsel, Dulles fabricated a retraction. He claimed that Truman told him the Washington Post article was ‘all wrong,’ and that Truman ‘seemed quite astounded at it.’  Truman denied it. In a June 10, 1964, letter to Look magazine, Truman restated his critique of covert action, emphasizing that he never intended the CIA to get involved in ‘strange activities.'”

http://jfkfacts.org/assassination/on-this-date/dec-22-1963-truman-calls-for-abolition-of-cia/

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FBI built 1800-page file on singer Pete Seeger over 20-year period

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“The bureau’s spies first took an interest in the singer in 1943. Seeger, a 23-year-old army private at the time, had written denouncing a plan for mass deportation drafted by the California chapter of the American Legion, a veterans’ association.  His angry letter prompted close scrutiny of his political views and associations by the bureau that ran on into the early 1970s. The suspicion was that Seeger, who died in early 2014, was a security risk with close connections to the Communist party.  The FBI file on him has nearly 1,800 pages – 90 of them are still withheld for security reasons.  An agent sent out to his Connecticut high school found evidence that he had worn ‘bohemian’ clothes.”

http://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/dec/20/fbi-spied-on-pete-seeger-20-years-communist-links

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NSA Helped British Spies Find Security Holes In Juniper Firewalls

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“A top-secret document dated February 2011 reveals that British spy agency GCHQ, with the knowledge and apparent cooperation of the NSA, acquired the capability to covertly exploit security vulnerabilities in 13 different models of firewalls made by Juniper Networks, a leading provider of networking and Internet security gear.  The six-page document, titled ‘Assessment of Intelligence Opportunity – Juniper,’ raises questions about whether the intelligence agencies were responsible for or culpable in the creation of security holes disclosed by Juniper last week.”

https://theintercept.com/2015/12/23/juniper-firewalls-successfully-targeted-by-nsa-and-gchq/

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The ‘No Fly List’ operates in secret, and its power to exclude is vast

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“It operates in secrecy, from an undisclosed location, administered by an office – the Terrorist Screening Center – that doesn’t accept public inquiries.  Few realize how many watchlists already exist until they find themselves in their crushing grip. There is, of course, a watchlist for maritime travel. And this month President Obama urged the use of the No Fly List to deny access to firearms.  Whatever one’s views of the second amendment to the constitution, the evidence is unmistakable. A list once confined to stopping hijackers and 9/11 style bombers has grown into the go-to tool for government officials who don’t like their predictive judgments questioned by lawyers and judges.”

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/dec/23/no-fly-list-operates-in-secret-power-to-exclude

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TSA Can Now Refuse Travelers Who Opt Out Of Airport Body Scanners

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“Quietly, on December 18, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced a change of the rules for the use of body scanning technology at airport security systems across the country. Now, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) can opt out of letting you opt out of using the body scanners. That is to say, they can decide—for reasons!—that you must go through the body scanners.  The report does not indicate what sort of ‘security considerations’ may prompt the TSA to decide who may or may not opt out of screenings, so add yet another element of pure randomness to your adventures through security theater.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/23/ho-ho-ho-get-your-ass-in-that-body-scann

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TSA Will Stop Accepting Driver’s Licenses From Nine States On Jan. 10

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“A decade ago, Congress passed The Real ID Act which was supposed to make it easier for law enforcement to share information on driver’s licenses issued by the states and territories. Even during a period of heightened fear of terrorism, there was massive and continuing pushback because everyone realized that when the federal government (or any other centralized authority) concentrates information, it just makes it that much easier for it to get hacked or misused (here are 22.1 million examples of the former and one representative example of the latter).  A dozen states actually have laws banning their divisions of motor vehicles from complying with Real ID requirements.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/29/tsa-says-it-will-stop-accepting-drivers

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Want My Blood? Get a Warrant.

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“‘Probable cause,’ a phrase used by the Fourth Amendment itself, has never been precisely defined, but it is not a very high standard. According to the Supreme Court, it may amount to no more than a ‘substantial chance’ or a ‘fair probability.’  Nor is getting a judge to certify probable cause much of a burden in an age of instantaneous mobile communications and electronic warrants. But police tend to take short cuts when they are available, so it is not surprising that the cops who arrested Birchfield, Beylund, and Bernard for driving under the influence (DUI) made no attempt to obtain warrants authorizing chemical testing of the alcohol in their blood.”

https://reason.com/archives/2015/12/21/want-my-blood-get-a-warrant

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Give a Drunk (or Anyone) a Free Ride Home, Face $500 Fine

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“It’s always amusing, if only bitterly, when government shows its true colors of obdurate opposition to human safety and happiness in the name of its bogus authority.  Let’s look at the reaction of local police to the news that libertarian/Free State Project activist Christopher David plans to launch a non-Uber tip-only ride service called ‘Arcade City’ for Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on New Year’s eve.  Anyone trying to help some (possibly or likely) drunk person off the road on the cheap (or for whatever amount someone might choose) on New Year’s eve in Portsmouth faces powerful punishment for daring to do so without having filed a fee and application with the city and following its rules.”

https://reason.com/blog/2015/12/30/give-a-drunk-or-anyone-a-free-ride-home

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Flytenow Shuts Down After Court Rules Against Flightsharing Startups

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“Airplane ridesharing startup Flytenow today announced that it is shutting down after a court recently upheld the FAA’s power to regulate what does (and does not) constitute a commercial aviation operation.  This is pretty much the end of the road for services like Flytenow. Ridesharing startups like Uber were able to muscle their way into virtually every city, even when local regulations didn’t always allow them to operate there. Unsurprisingly, the FAA wasn’t going to just let this one go. Even though the Flytenow team says it plans to look into ways to appeal this decision, it seems rather unlikely that the FAA’s rules around flightsharing will get disrupted anytime soon.”

http://techcrunch.com/2015/12/22/flytenow-shuts-down-after-court-rules-against-flightsharing-startups/

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