In the United States we have the National Security Agency (NSA). The NSA collects all available metadata on almost all electronic devices worldwide that can be reached. Access to that database underpins the “Fourth Branch of Government,” the most powerful branch, the U.S. Intelligence Branch.
In addition to a global scraping of metadata, the NSA also collects the domestic private information of all Americans. This was the essential background story that NSA Contractor Edward Snowden broke several years ago. We now know this to be an accepted fact.
The United States internal political debate shifted from ‘should they do this’ to ‘how can we manage the people who do this‘?
The results over the last ten years of trying to manage the exploitation of this database have been a case study in failure.
Year after year, the NSA admits their control over the database is structurally flawed, essentially non-existent. The fourth amendment protections of U.S. citizens have been erased, and now even U.S. government contractors are using the NSA database to monitor whoever and whatever they want. Again, I repeat: ‘The Fourth Branch of government is a public-private partnership”.
However, beyond domestic exploitation, the NSA database is presumably only used by, accessed by and available to, the foreign allies that make up the “Five Eyes” partners. The U.S., U.K, Australia, Canada and New Zealand make up the allies within the Five Eyes intelligence apparatus. These allies have access to the same NSA database as U.S. operatives.
Putting aside how the NSA database is exploited inside the U.S. for a moment – if you are a government outside the Five Eyes system; and you wanted to spy on your own citizens and political enemies the way the NSA conducts surveillance on its own citizens; you would need some other access point to spy on your opposition. That’s where an Israeli company called NSO comes into the picture. {Guardian Report}
NSO creates tech software, spyware, that allows governments to spy on cell phones.
As the Guardian notes, [NSO] “sells surveillance technology to governments worldwide. Its flagship product is Pegasus, spying software – or spyware – that targets iPhones and Android devices. Once a phone is infected, a Pegasus operator can secretly extract chats, photos, emails and location data, or activate microphones and cameras without a user knowing.”
Due to the nature of the product they sell, NSO works with the Israeli government to vet the purchaser of the spyware they sell.
The Pegasus’ cell phone surveillance technology is a tool for governments who cannot build out the technology on their own, and they do not have access to the NSA database. Pegasus is marketed as an alternative to data collection that allows the government agency to specifically target individual cell phones and spy on what that phone is doing.
Returning to the Guardian report, “Claudio Guarnieri, who runs Amnesty International’s Security Lab, said once a phone was infected with Pegasus, a client of NSO could in effect take control of a phone, enabling them to extract a person’s messages, calls, photos and emails, secretly activate cameras or microphones, and read the contents of encrypted messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal.”
The Guardian, and a group of allied leftists in media, has been granted access to a leaked massive batch of 50,000 phone numbers that the Pegasus software was operating in. [Likely some Bradley Manning type leftist in the Israeli government leaked the information (my guess)] As a result, the media are going through the phone numbers to determine: (1) who was targeted; and (2) by whom? Many journalists are on the list [READ FULL ARTICLE].
As you read the article keep something in mind. The leftists doing the investigation, ie. “The Pegasus Project”, are quick to point out foreign governments they oppose who purchased the Pegasus software (Poland, Hungary, Mexico etc). The spin from the Guardian is that brutal governments are using the Pegasus spyware to monitor, track and even target for assassination enemies and journalists; as well as just monitor their domestic political opposition.
What the Pegasus group is claiming might actually be correct and true; however, I find myself shrugging at the incredulity they attempt to drum-up while simultaneously ignoring the fact the United States Government, via the NSA, has been doing this for years and it doesn’t seem like anyone cares.
President Trump was under almost every kind of intelligence surveillance including exploitation of the NSA database for years, even during his term in office. The Guardian didn’t care and all the leftists on the Pegasus Project didn’t flinch an inch….
The U.S, U.K, Australia, New Zealand and Canada do it all the time. However, as soon as Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Morocco, Rwanda, Saudi Arabia, Hungary, India and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), start doing it…. well, hell, the leftist media light their hair on fire.
Hypocrisy much?
Oh, wait, that’s right…. ‘Ideology much’.
They need a new iPhone that will vaccinate the sheep at will.
Are you sure Apple isn’t putting subliminal visual cues on Iproducts? Why wouldn’t they?
If they don’t get caught, well, business as usual. If they get caught, well, then sell the service to the highest bidder.
No one will go to jail, not in this era of DOJ.
I know someone that thinks the same way.
Does anyone have principles they aren’t willing to violate anymore? Or are “principles” a thing of the past?
Trust no-one, and verify.
I’ll go with the trust no one but am leery of the verify. Exactly how?
They’re “White” therefore racist.
Kinda hard to maintain principles without adherence to some sort of objective standard.
Moral relativism is decidedly not a basis for anything that does not eventually end in nihilism.
Moral relativism is used by all to rationalize their “ethical compromises”, whether they recognize it as such or not.
Even those who profess conservative Christian values based on the moral standards of the Bible, although they try to veil it. (This common hypocrisy turns many away from Christianity, or at least from the corporate aspect. Once we realize that all are sinners including Christians, and that this does not negate the truth of God’s word and the gospel, we are better prepared for what we find in the church.)
Pure nihilism doesn’t care about anything. How can it, if everything is ultimately meaningless?
Back to sin: All are sinners, this explains much, including the current events signifying what appears to be a nation in terminal decline. The decline is driving more visible “ethical compromise”.
Donald Trump has principles and you see what they have done to him.
Not anymore. Even our country has been sold out to China for $$$$$$$$.
Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others.—Groucho Marx
We are now a Third World country with a nuclear capability believed to be in the hands of the President but we know Pelosi and her DoD/DoJ/DoS lapdogs are really running things.
…this cannot turn out good….
#0bamagate
Mayorkas’ criminal activity and alignment with the Clinton cabal goes back decades. When he was US Attorney for Southern Cal, be got caught trying to arrange a pardon (for a major drug trafficker) in exchange for a $200,000 donation to Roger Clinton.
His next assignment (as head of USCIS) was to sell investor visas. Then, after being caught, Deputy Secretary DHS.
He is nearly untouchable as Hunter Biden. But likely paints better.
….keep it coming
The dude is a danger to this nation….
Mayorkas must be removed….he must be stopped
So distasteful when those people think they can be a member of the club.
smh
So if Pegasus is a product from Israel, then why wouldn’t Netanyahu have used it against the US leftists as their (Israel) own blackmail tool or insurance policy?
And if indeed they did use it against the US far left then wouldn’t that mean they have the communications and documentation that could prove all of this?
After all, the Russian Fraud, the Impeachment fraud, the election fraud, the Jan 6 fraud and the Covid plan, most likely was all directed by the same people at the top. Get some of the COMMS and it could be like dominoes.
The question is if they have all the communications why have they not exposed any of it yet?
Could they be waiting until we are closer to Nov 22 when the American people will be very ripe and very ticked off to hear and read the truth of these planned frauds just before the Nov election?
Hard to believe if this technology truly exists that a white hat company or government doesn’t have it as well.
Maybe I missing something but wanted to throw this out.
Many of us here, probably you too, were constantly wondering where the FBI whistle blowers were.
The NSA database is a U.S. government program…. Do you think President Trump could utilize it?
There’s your answer.
The intelligence apparatus operates on an ideological level above, and in controlling interest of, the government.
… and apparently foreign governments as well.
Has it been forgotten , or was it never publicly known , that isreal was first granted partial access to the nsa database , then full unfettered access ? It’s been too long since those details came to me and I’d have to look back at records , and those may have been on a laptop I accidentally shot. Anywho, just surprised not to find comments on the israel-nsaDb situation in the late 2000’s.
So from 2008-2016 “certain people” in the WH at the time did not know about or were not provided indirectly NSA info?
Also, where do we think that infamous database that Maxine Waters references came from? And who is alleged to have owned that database?
So why couldn’t Netanyahu indirectly have used Pegasus while Prime Minister of Israel unless you are saying the Israeli intelligence agency is also rogue like ours?
Rogue? Or, too powerful to be entrusted to politicians?
Israel’s intelligence community, in possession of such a powerful tool/weapon, may be following–even seeding–the strategy of MAD (mutually assured destruction) which has (so far) gotten the civilized world safely through the possession of nuclear weapons. It was probably the nuclear genie being out of the bottle that led to the creation of this latest genie.
Israel knows better than to trust the United States for its own national security.
It’s easy to follow that not-unsound reasoning to imagine how the Fourth Branch of our govt might have ascended, benignly at first.
The problem in principle is that there is no “balance of powers” against omniscience. But, if one were to attempt it, it might follow the concept of, “Okay, you can know–but you can’t tell.” That opens the door to monitoring and controlling media–whether its the NYT or Twitter.
And it only further empowers the intel group because the only way to know if someone is telling is to know what there is that can be told. Thus, intel logically has to monitor and potentially control everything. That puts the balance of powers also within the intel community.
FISA could only fail, as its gatekeepers are also subject to the powers and reach of intel’s omniscience.
Snowden saw the best available means to balance that power was to spread the knowledge broadly. Depth of knowledge led to silos which could be compartmentalized and controlled. So why not try breadth of knowledge? A logical act of desperation.
I don’t see how anyone within “the community” will be able to resist this, who doesn’t believe in transcendent truth and the promise of individual accountability beyond this life.
“Snowden saw the best available means to balance that power was to spread the knowledge broadly, A logical act of desperation.”
Snowden sits in Russia, JoBama sits in the WH, Trump was de-seated by The Coup, and Durham is waiting for the earlier “What’s his Name” Investigation, and Kamela’s Kackle replaced Hilarity Clintoon’s Cackle, Life in the DC Swamp still Stinks to the Peasants and Sweet to the Elites.
Information is power. The IC has all the information.
during the cold 2 nations that had viable communist parties, were Israel and Italy. Far left Jews, and far left Italians
Why would you expose the information? If you expose it you lose blackmail potential and the information becomes worthless. Stop looking for a white hat. The controllers are sure to vet them out of the system.
Everyone looking for White hats, to do our dirty work for us, and make it all go away.
There ARE no “White hats”, and if anyone is going to make it go away, it is US.
And its going to be a long, hard slog, and probably bloody; look at history of overcoming marxist tyrannies, …its not pretty.
We the People are the white hats.
If not us who? If not now, when?
The answer lies in scripture.
Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28
The reality is this, how can you explain when you talk about things and then you are fed information about or the product.
that is just routine google spying
I first heard about NSO in 2019 when 60 Minutes did a hit piece on them in connection with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
Lesley Stahl accused NSO of selling Pegasus to Saudi Arabia and that it was then used in the murder of Khashoghi.
She all but accused the Israeli government of being complicit in the murder.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/interview-with-ceo-of-nso-group-israeli-spyware-maker-on-fighting-terror-khashoggi-murder-and-saudi-arabia-60-minutes/
Thank you for that information. Remember hearing about Pegasus, a while back..
I had almost successfully forgotten about the Khashoggi murder. The media made such a big deal about it, saying how horrible the Arabs are, and implying that Trump needed to do something. This was, of course, while Trump had been having relatively friendly relations with the Saudis. Why should we have cared much about Khashoggi’s murder? Islamic and communist nations kill people all the time, and nobody says “boo”. They only made a big deal about Khashoggi to try to make Trump look bad.
Khasshoggi was an enemy of the US. There is no reason to mourn his loss.
Mayorkas decides nothing, except where to park and where to eat lunch.
Bullshit
Call it Pegasus, Omega, Zeus or hominy grits. It’s about power. Always about power.
“Satanic” if we were doing truth in labeling.
Some have said:
The important thing to understand here is that this Pegasus exposé is just the tip of the surveillance iceberg.
If this tool as described, sold commercially, can infect a phone without any user interaction needed, what do you think the US govt deploys?
With advances in AI systems fusing broad spectrum surveillance inputs, including covert “apps” like this on phones, the old problem of data overload is solved. That means that it is now viable to expand deployment of tools like Pegasus to millions of phones. The only limitation might be the risk of discovery, but the US govt colluding with Apple and Google (Android) using “National Security” gag orders are probably capable of keeping it hidden from the public with high confidence.
Some may believe that putting the phone into airplane mode temporarily pauses surveillance. But data can be recorded and uploaded when the phone is connected again.
Can we do without these phones? That’s what it takes to stop this.
(Difficult to say how much of this I believe. Hi Big Brother!)
First phone numbers I would want to know if anyone purchased were………
Roberts, Kavanaugh and ACB.
Pegasus, is the poorer nations surveillance toy. As opposed to the five eyes.
Wonder if this is part of the Saudi Arabia Orb. Recall that PDJT, went there first for his foreign trips.
Wonder if PDJT knew that the Intelligence Community was completely Deep State. Just saying
couple things
the guardian is attempting to gain relevance that peaked when glen greenwald was on point.
there IS a reason why glen left…and why he severed with the intercept.
none of these two rags are worth respecting…in one, the g, for certain, Leigh did a setup and framed Assange for uncrated raw Intel that risked and probably did get people killed.. Leigh is a KNOWN mi6 asset!!
there are rumours that the US and UK are brokering some kind of legal deal that allows Assange to go free and not face the kinds of charges that are sealed (UK has a very solid law that prevents extradition to countries who have capitol punishment…and apparently some of the federal charges contain that possible sentence… although remote, it is a stocking point even to the royal class who would prefer not to be associated with the bad press of handing over a political prisoner to the US for crucifixion.
point is, the guardian is to the UK state ic as the wapost is to our three letter deadbeats.
so it’s not surprising they drop this now staking out some new brand or moral enlightenment.
and of course, the guardian supports the agenda of obiden. taking a shot at Israel is taking a shot at the former populist president whom had favor with Trump..
AND there is the nasty business in cybersecurity and cybersurveiilance that is very competitive down to virtual warfare…( remember Kaspersky and stuxnet?)
the guardian has always been in a position to broker and sell IC level for consumption content.
who do you thinks pays the bills…conde master? lol
nope…it’s an arm of the UK IC…
I take anything they report with that cat mug
Yeah but also, the Left is always shocked and astonished when what comes around goes around and they fall out of the cocoon of their double-standard.
Agreed, the Guardian is a propaganda tool of the highest order.
Interestingly as a boy growing up in the U.K. I remember that the Guardian was regarded as the go to paper for the “ caviar socialists.”
Knowing that I have been lied to and deceived by governments of all persuasions over my lifetime of 60 plus years.
While disappointing, the confirmation of my many suspicions is somehow comforting.
Fortunately my cynicism has proven to be most useful. As regards to finances and family
Now I can be even more cynical and put this cynicism to good use.
All the while, remembering “that a power greater than myself” is running the show.
However.I must do my part.
Cheers to all, and God Bless PDJT
Snowden was intimately involved in this expose…
Snowden is not to be trusted.
I thought Snowden was a good guy for exposing the NSA’s mass surveillance. Can you please explain more?
Snowden is a GOOD GUY! If it wasn’t for him we’d still be being “Humped” daily but we just wouldn’t know it!
Snowden heavily defends B L M & has come against Assange when he released the Podesta emails…
But I thought Israel was our greatest ally? People thought the same thing when they intentionally targeted the USS Liberty and some of our sailors came home in body bags
Fun historical fact: my dad’s ship, the Papago, is the one that escorted the Liberty back to port. He was a young ensign at the time.
I’m grateful for your father’s service to our nation. God bless!
Dayan ordered the false flag on the Liberty. The Israelis could have easily captured the nearly-unarmed vessel. But they needed a sunk ship, with no survivors. Our media cleaned it up pretty quick for the Johnson administration.
Israeli leaders have never been shy about false flag operations against the US. See, for example, the Levan
Affair (bombs in US facilities). In fact, the Stern Group attempted to kill President Truman with a letter bomb. Israel honors Stern with a stamp and a commemorative day.
Even Einstein called the Israeli Freedom Party(ancestor of Likud) facists and criminals.
Yes, Israel is currently our ally, and we need them to stave off the Iranian nuclear weapons development. But no, we should not trust them any more than any other nation.
With all due respect, we do not NEED Israel to do something we can do. We have the ability to turn Tehran into a lake. I’m no defender of Iran or other terrorist nations. But, they do not wield the influence in our country as Israel does. We provide them with everything but the air that they breathe. I personally know of how they have taken land from families, mostly Palestinian. Cutting their olive orchards to the ground and taking them over for settlements. As a Christian, I find it nauseating that many of my evangelical brothers and sisters use blind commitment to Israel becomes a litmus test to the Christian faith. While supporting them, they’ve spent considerable resources on espionage against our nation. A few years ago, we capitulated and released one of their spies…Jonathan Pollard.
Israel is the closest broker of a civilized western christian valued progressive state IN THE ENTIRE REGION.
so when you consider how it would happen the US FOREIGN POLICY IS SHAPED TO PREFER ISRAEL OVER Hamas, Lebanon, Iran, Iraq, etc…well, it should be obvious.
us foreign policy IS NOT REGULATED by main street Christians. it would be cool if that were the case.
because that would mean that 40 years ago the US would have helped Israel sink every single Islamic radical agency into the dust bin of history.
yet, restraint and I would add some sense of fair play and moral goodness has prevented the us foreign policy to evicerate the Islamic scourge that it certainly deserves.
Israel keeps a certain balance of power steady in the region. it’s not perfect, but it’s power while cruel at times is the only thing that prevents another full scale caliphate to take hold.
it is good that the US continues to support ISRAEL. and not simply because Israel is “the chosen people”, which has always been a strange way to shape alliances.
Israel stands on its own sovereign power and does throw gay men off tall buildings or stone women who have been the unfortunate wife of a cheating husband. it also happens to produce exceptionally sophisticated medicines and scientific research and weapons and of course very robust cyber tools.
tldr: not a good idea to decide Israel is not an ally
Thank you. Well stated.
I guess my definition of an ally differs from others. It appears to me that they’re our ally when it’s convenient. Meanwhile, their lobby extorts billions from our country. And I hear the phrase of “God’s chosen people” as a justification. Which is bs. That was the first covenant. I’m covered under the blood of Christ. They have leveraged this for decades. God loves all. Furthermore, I find it highly hypocritical for a faith that has denied Christ, to lecture me about my Christian obligations.
“I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan.”
Although the absolute amount of U.S. government aid to Israel is substantial, it is one of the most cost-effective investments that Americans make in support of their international interests; this is especially true because virtually the entire annual $1.2 billion economic aid returns to the United States in the form of debt repayment, while $1.325 of the $1.8 billion annual military aid must by law be spent in the United States, creating tens of thousands of American jobs. By comparison, U.S. expenditures in support of European allies in NATO are still many times the size of the aid to Israel: While the U.S. defense budget is divided functionally, not regionally, roughly 40 to 50 percent–or $80 to $112 billion–can be estimated to directly or indirectly support American defense commitments to Europe.15
The reduction or elimination of U.S. aid to Israel would undercut the vital U.S.-Israel relationship and thereby make it more difficult to achieve U.S. objectives of over four decades standing. Because aid to Israel contributes to stability in a key region full of real threats to U.S. security, it is hard to see a place where U.S. foreign assistance fulfills its mission more or is better spent.
End American Aid to Israel?: No, It Remains Vital :: Middle East Quarterly (meforum.org)
Here are just a few of the ways Israeli medical research blesses the US.
The top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances – ISRAEL21c
The top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances – ISRAEL21c
Click on the above comment and be amazed.
The top 12 most amazing Israeli medical advances – ISRAEL21c
I’ll never forget the image of Bibi Netanyahu greeting “national hero” Jonathan Pollard when he arrived in Israel on board one of Sheldon Adelson’s private jets.
Casper Weinberger once said that Jonathan Pollard did more harm to U.S. security than any other spy in history.
Yep. I recall what Caspar Weinberger said. This nation has been sold out to Israel by our political pimps and the Israeli lobby like a cheap prostitute
I remember that scene as well. I no longer am so sure that the USA has always been the good guy, with our CIA and NSA and the revelations of whistleblower Edward Snowden. We are a good people, who have had freedom, but we are waking up to see our enslavement.
How long have we been deceived by our government? If they lie to us about one thing, how can we trust them at all? Our Justice Department is corrupt.
Weinberger hadn’t met Biden???!!!
Without question GOD loves Israel. It’s the apple of His eye. But He is still quite displeased with the Rabbis rejection of His SON. Israel has a come to Jesus moment in their not to distant future. But that won’t happen until they suffer near total destruction. It seems Israel’s ally America may not be so helpful during that conflict or maybe if the kamalajobama junta remains in power they will be part of the invading hordes. Either way Christians, true believers that is, will be out of here. Yes I believe in a pre tribulation catching away. The Body of Christ was NOT meant for wrath. Look up for your redemption drawith nigh!
And we should have stomped their ass for that!
LBJ covered their ass – he actually called off the initial rescue mission. John McCain’s dad – Admiral McCain was in charge of the big cover-up “investigation”. Like father like son – both traitor’s to America
Yep, and LBJ was a pos as well
I agree with everything you said accept for “we need them to stave off the Iranian nuclear weapons development”.
Iran doesn’t seem interested in obtaining nukes despite the fact Israel has a few hundred nukes (that no one is allowed to talk about) pointed at Iran.
USS Liberty was a johnson the johnson false flag operation.
Jonathan Pollard was a spy for Israel. He stole US secrets, provided the information to Israel who then gave them to the Soviets in exchange for the release of Soviet jews to Israel. Many assets were compromised in the USSR and those assets included people for whom there was not a good ending.
You might be interested in this analysis.
Why Did Israel Attack USS Liberty? | RealClearHistory
Just bought stock in landline phone companies
What is the ROI
for purchasing postage stamps?
..relative privacy…?
Wrap the letter in aluminum foil.
I am not kidding.
maybe lead foil
I am sure we have all noticed that the mail service is not what it used to be. It got really bad last fall and winter. Initially, I thought it was all the mail-in ballots, but service continued to be slow after the election. Of course, December and January tend to be busy with delivery businesses due to holiday purchases and returns. Usually, the delivery businesses (including the post office) hire extra help at that time. This past winter we had the employment-suppressing extra unemployment payments so nobody wanted to work. While that may be one reason postal service became downright unreliable (I prefer to do my bills the old fashioned way – check in the mail because I prefer to have a small online footprint – and I wound up with lots of late fees as a result), I now feel that the real reason the postal service now sucks is because it is virtually the only way to communicate PRIVATELY!! In fact, the covid lockdowns exponentially increased communication via electronic devices, all spied on by NSA and NSO.
Many postal workers hate Trump. My local postal workers are mostly biden voters. You can bet your local mail carrier knows who you voted for just by any periodicals or political fundraising mail sent to you. I often wondered why my monthly Rush Limbaugh magazine was torn or crushed. This sort of damage happens to other periodicals I receive more times than should be “normal”.
Yes, that happens to mine too!
Some might agree that the covid lockdowns forced more communication online to be surveilled, and that in fact this appears to be yet another “benefit” of the plandemic as designed, for the designers.
They might suppose that it is more straightforward to collect data sent over the internet, than using the microphone and camera on the phone to spy on in-person conversations.
Although, they may suspect that AI surveillance fusion advances running on supercomputers with no funding limit, are increasingly able to aggregate useful intel from the phones’ microphones too, using Pegasus-like tools.
They may guess that the mail slowdowns are perhaps part of an intentional effort to force even more communications online.
Others probably conclude that the USPS gross dysfunction is a simply a textbook case of decades of EEO quotas staffing all levels with unqualified low-performing people who feel entitled, including leadership. With the resentful entitlement mentality increasing further now with the growing metastasis of identity class Marxism under bidenpuppet.
Many seem to feel that we can expect everything to become more dysfunctional now, because that’s what happens when socialism takes over.
I have had mail that I never received …EOB’s among other things during 2020. My mail and packages sometimes show up looking dirty. Recently, I had mail returned to my HOA, as undeliverable. Luckily, they contacted me to verify my address hadn’t changed and upon second mailing I received it.
I also had 2 credit cards, that I rarely use and that were recently sold to another bank, ask for verification of my address in my online user profile. This was prior to the HOA incident and I was very puzzled until that happened. Mailings from them were probably returned as well.
Remember those lists the post office are building?
How far does a land line go before it is beamed into space and returns as a product from a foreign source?
I kept my old copper lines (no FIOS), I assume they are a little harder to spy on. Many years ago, my mother fought very hard to keep her old copper phone line. The phone company was constantly harassing her to change over to FIOS. I don’t remember what all her reasons were for not wanting FIOS, but when she finally did change to FIOS (due to my brother’s urging, so she could get internet access), she started having line outages proving she was right to want to keep the old lines. She was an old-fashioned, bleeding-heart type liberal (not progresive or totalitarian).
If you have a copper line, as soon as the line hits the local switch, it’s all digital. Having an old copper line does not give a person any privacy.
“The U.S., U.K, Australia, Canada and New Zealand make up the allies within the Five Eyes intelligence apparatus. These allies have access to the same NSA database as U.S. operatives.”
I’m thinking Six.
China
Is
Asshoe
Oh for the simpler days when we had to stop and use a pay phone.
I write one letter each week, just so my daughter knows what it means … really means when I tell her how much things have changed in my lifetime.
apparently outside of bills, she’s never received a single mailed hand written letter from anyone.
she of course replies by text msgs
sigh
I get it
I do hate it though
it is amazing how many young kids can’t read cursive. I have two grandsons age 16 and 18 that never learned in school.
That’s deliberately done. Cursive handwriting connects thoughts. So call educators know what and why they don’t teach cursive.
Sato- Without being able to write cursive, what is used for a signature? An X? With what will these kids sign legal documents? Your thoughts?
I asked that question of a young person working the register at a grocery store. She said she realized it could ultimately be a problem and even though she wasn’t taught cursive, she learned how to write and connect all the letters in her name so she could sign a check or documents in the future.
In my town one elementary school district taught cursive, the other did not. My kids did learn cursive and they enjoyed it. Learning cursive is like doing art class instead of school work. It brings a nice focus to fine motor skills.
For many years my comp students each week read a contemporaneous essay, or a recent one at least, from a list a couple hundred which I provided. They found the essay on line, formated it with fat margins, printed it, and heavily annotated it. I evaluated it by the volume of their comments, primarily.
Nearly all used cursive. It taught close reading, critical thinking, value development, argument, and the ability to combine ideas from different sources. It was a great way to get them thinking and they had to write, write, write. There were weekly quotas of words read and (typed) lines written.
In other words, they were getting an actual education. And exposure to current events. I don’t think any later moved to Portland.
Many chose to read right and right of center essays from a wide range of sources. Left wing writing is mostly crap and seldom made the list.
And yes, I got crankier as the decades passed.
Grades ranged in the first weeks from fair and good. In the later weeks they were getting very good and sometimes excellent.
In cursive.
The real reason they quit teaching cursive is they don’t want the new batch of morons to be able to read the Founding Documents! This Country’s history is written in cursive and if the SCUM Traitors can eliminate the capability of our children to read and understand our history, then it will be a cinch they’ll be able to just forge, modify or eliminate the TRUTH written in those documents and nobody will ever know the difference. ?
Is it the cursive itself or is it more a matter of teaching/learning proper grammar, spelling, conjugation, punctuation, syntax?
And just think of the side bonus to our educators and politicians, they could not read our Founding Documents in there original text.
Many historical documents are in cursive.
Deleting history in a way.
The only reason I have a cellphone is because there are no payphones anymore.
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/10/activists-phones-targeted-by-one-of-the-worlds-most-advanced-espionage-apps/
unless pegasus has been upgraded (not out of the question), the primary means for exfil of mobile devices requires access to cell towers or network switches/hubs or directly the physical device…malware apps alone could possibly allow the exfil but that isn’t how the operation is described…in 2019 by Dan Godwin, a pretty well regarded cyber researcher and author.
the means to exfil is a sophisticated man in middle attack… DNS redirects…or faked/stolen certs. pretty vanilla by today’s standards of exfil.
given NSO and a group out in Italy (and if course a few in Ukraine) possess similar “products”, it’s reasonable to assume the exfil not longer depends on traditional man in middle techniques.. likely all of it done with a text msg wit some Unicode malformed to exploit a zero day..and android has plenty of them still not patched…and iOS has their share also not attended.
still relevant
https://github.com/fox-it/quantuminsert
I don’t own a smart phone. No reason to own such a thing. Can anyone still read a map? Does anyone remember landlines? The good old days when you depended on your own skill to get there, or that when you clocked out of work, you had really clocked out until the next day?
I use a PC, but all apps are disabled. I know that doesn’t keep me safe, and every time I turn it on all I see, is the two minutes of hate…1984
I’ve always assumed any app on my phone is vacuuming up any info it can to sell. I’m guessing that is where the real
money is for them, maybe I’m wrong.
What’s to prevent an authorized contractor is has access to the NSA database, from accepting outside requests from
buyers worldwide? Is there anyone left in Washington who would even object?
if you are not paying for the product, YOU are the product. No Such Thing As Free Lunch!
Looks like the Hammer Whistleblower had it right all along when he said this back in 2015…….
I produced 600 million pages. If you printed out each page it would be thirty miles high stacked one on top of another. The information is very sensitive information.
They collected google searches, credit cards, phone retcords, images, pictures, anything and everything, and they did it for one reason: LEVERAGE. They didn’t know when, but they knew sooner or later they would need that information to use for leverage against a person …
The amount of information is mind-boggling, and I gave all of that to FBI.
OOCRP is a group of international investigative journalists.
Here is a link to the story they just released on Pegasus Project.
https://www.occrp.org/en/the-pegasus-project/israeli-made-spyware-used-to-monitor-journalists-and-activists-worldwide
My wife gets irritated with me as I absolutely refuse to use a cellphone. Every month Google sends her a report telling her everywhere she has been. That alone violates her rights. The answer of course is to get rid of the damn things. Do you REALLY need to carry your own personal transponder?
My nephew (a teacher) noticed that when the guys get out of the car they don’t hang up on their girl until she says good bye. The girls hang up the second they get out of the car.
Get a sleeve for your phone that blocks everything. Of course, the phone won’t work that way, but it will after you take it back out of the sleeve. That way, they can’t track you violating quarantine or something. Shortly after smartphones became popular (I have only had mine for about 3 years), I told people they should store them in a lead box.
Faraday cage or bag. It’s lined with wire mesh & plastic. I read that the way to check if it works is try to call the phone when it’s inside and if the call drops, it works.
There’s a specific method to that madness. If your phone isn’t tracking you, your car is, and if your car isn’t tracking you, then cameras on every street corner are, every time you swipe a card etc… the surveillance is mind boggling.
To not be “tracked”, we’d have to give up cell phones, the Internet, all plastic purchasing cards, newer cars, and avoid going anywhere. In which case, the satellites will still pick up images of you, your property, and movement on your property.
All I’m saying is, a faraday cage or sleeve isn’t going to get anyone the kind of protection they seek. Once we are labeled deplorables/dissidents/racist/insurrectionists, it’s game over for the American plebes.
And THIS is why we have Amendments to the Constitution and why we have the right to free speech and the right to bear arms.
Cell phones are expensive. Our family all share a phone that sits in the butlers pantry or in the car. The data gleaned from that phone is an amalgamation of several people, though the phone was registered to one.
They might probably deduce that the owner smokes and wears Depends. They would be wrong.
My neighbor is a pilot. He offered to fly the phone around the country for a day or so. Sadly, he didn’t offer to fly me anywhere.
Garbage in…garbage out.
Oh….and between us all, we have at least 10 dental appointments a year. That might stick out.
His name was SETH RICH
His name was Duncan Lemp
All your thoughts belong to us! And you thought Hitler and Stalin had you by the chestnuts!
The Guardian article was full of Projection! Azz hats.
If powerful nations can illegally spy on everyone, then more power to other nations who are doing the same.
I hope every DemoCommieFascist “journalist” in the USA and Europe was spied on.
Hammer and Scorecard had a replacement and the CIA was using it. Is Pegasus the product the CIA is using? It always seemed strange to me that the CIA would allow software like Hammer and Scorecard to be taken and later likely used by China in the 2020 election, without having a replacement. Now not so much.
Anyone know, the answer?
Right in the middle of a texting conversation today, my iPhone 11 just deleted selected photos and messages just after they were sent to me. Nothing “untoward” mind you, but they never came back. The sender had to resend 10 messages and pics… they remained in his iPhone text history.
That was willfully done to me. Why and by whom are the questions.
” Access to that database underpins the “Fourth Branch of Government,” the most powerful branch, the
U.S. IntelligenceBranchVampyroteuthis Infernalis, lit. “Vampire Squid from Hell“”sending its tentacles out to any and everything that looks or sounds post Hitler and Stalin and strangling it to death.
I find it hard to believe that Israel would in any way backstab President Trump, given his determined support for them.
Oh, every Judas once loved a Jesus
But oh, betrayal will seize us
We all are caught in the middle
Of one long dangerous riddle
Of who trusts who
Maybe I’ll trust you
But can you trust me?
I’ll have to wait and see.
Leftists suck.
couple of things
allies, all, spy on each other…
remember the famous Reagan quote
“trust but verify”
how do you suppose the verify part actually happens… major super powers are competitive and often do have competing agendas
wrt Israel spying on Trump we have ZERO evidence of that taking place. none.
NGO is without question of a moosad origin, at least when it was first staffed. there is reason to believe it conducts surveillance and does sell products in alignment with the agenda and policy of the state.
but on paper it is a private company. so there is plausible separation
sort of like palantir, or black cube, or EX, etc..all private firms but whom do have contracts with US governments as well as dealing with foreign states too.
I think the issue here is that NGO has been linked to a high profile series of deals involving very oppressive countries with horrid grave results… and questions about how it was that SA acquired the tools that ultimately led to the execution of that “reporter” khasoghi in paki (sp?)
but IF that is moral concern, I just have a few questions for the unguardians:
why not spell out the tools that google created that arm the CCP with surveillance tools used to monitor and persecute any number of people in china?
or why not discuss how Facebook created secret backdoors for the military in Myanmar that first allowed the execution of tens of thousands and then ultimately a military coup?
and why not discuss ATP 28 cozy and some of their tools they sell now
and why not discuss the private arrangements of crowds trike and the DNC and WHY the tools they sold were not capable of detecting the so called hacking?
this story printed by the unguardians is fixed for a specific anti Israel rhetoric…
does Israel and NGO do sketchy tradecraft.
yup
and “we” do too.
welcome to the 2021
Reagan’s famous quote:
trust but verify
how does verify actually happen?
allies spy on each other…often there are competing interests… particularly when different administrations of different ideals and goals push the limits of former alliance.
also, we have no evidence that NGO NOR Israel was spying Trump. IT would be beneficial if they did and certainly irresponsible if they did not. but we don’t know either way.
it’s a hard game of playing for keeps in the world… that’s the reality.
to have a tool that can be used to verify the intentions of your allies and financial partners and not use it would be very nieve, even insane.
you can be 100 percent certain the us IC had ears on Israel. for lots of reasons. constant saber rattling with Iran and later brokering a peace deal would have required more than some sit downs and memos.
Intel is the highest prized sought after commodity that does in fact define whether your nation is a super power, or an also ran
plenty of leftists there
Israel’s only loyalty is to itself and it’s national interests. Netanyahu certainly tossed PDT overboard quickly during the post election fiasco.
They would backstab their mother for the right price
Regarding the guardian, it is a far left bag of sh!t. I was looking for something on line, I believe it was a cooking recipe. I found an article from the Guardian and below it was a begging message asking for donations. I copied the message and saved it. Read what this hateful b!tch says about President Trump.
Since you’re here …… we have a favour to ask. You’ve read
18 articles (no I haven’t, this was my first) in the last year. And you’re not alone. Millions are flocking to the Guardian for open, independent, quality news every day. Readers in all 50 states and in 180 countries around the world now support us financially.
With the inauguration of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, American democracy has a chance to reset. The new administration has a historic opportunity to address the country’s deepest systemic challenges, and steer it toward a path of fairness, equality and stability.
It won’t be easy. Donald Trump’s chaotic presidency has ended, but the forces that propelled him – from a misinformation crisis to a surge in white nationalism to a crackdown on voting rights – remain clear threats to American democracy. The need for fact-based reporting that highlights injustice and offers solutions is as great as ever. In the coming year, the Guardian will also continue to confront America’s many systemic challenges – from the climate emergency to broken healthcare to rapacious corporations.
We believe everyone deserves access to information that’s grounded in science and truth, and analysis rooted in authority and integrity. That’s why we made a different choice: to keep our reporting open for all readers, regardless of where they live or what they can afford to pay. In these perilous times, an independent, global news organisation like the Guardian is essential. We have no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from commercial and political influence.
If there were ever a time to join us, it is now. Your funding powers our journalism. Make a gift now from as little as $1. Thank you.
Support the Guardian
Remind me in March
It’s the bat again. It turns out that I was looking for a Japanese shrimp recipe. Here is the link to the article. See the hateful begging letter below it. What I want to know is how someone living in a socialist crap hole like the UK can pull down a President who made the strongest economy in world history and made the country energy independent? By the way, I was born and raised in London, I left when I was 21 years old to legally come to America.
Here is the link to the garbage Guardian:
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2019/jan/02/deep-fried-prawn-heads-greasy-gimmick-perfect-bar-snack
As an American who lived in the UK for a while, I understand your exfiltration. The left reveal their narrowmindedness and intolerence in every argument and claim. And talk about projection! It’s the bedrock of lefties and a major part of their hypocrisy.
bet they didn’t use the word “equality”. i’m sure they meant equity.
i thought it was a brit rag, why so concerned with OUR “democracy”?
The world is becoming paranoid, and paranoid countries become dangerous countries….i.e. the US.
The NSA database is only accessed by the Five Eyes nations? How do we know that?
I read that New Zealand is pulling out of the Five Eyes.
Because they gave us their WoRd … you know, the same people who gave us the running joke of “How do you know a politician is lying?”.
You will know a tree by the fruit it bears.
They are liars and the truth is not in them.
Yeah
They’re sucking up to Chyna now
What is worse?
I’ve seen some posts on why there aren’t white hats in the IC.
It’s because the IC is staffed almost wholly by people with this mindset:
I’ve spent my whole career not as a political operative. I’ve never worked on a campaign in my life other than campaigning against Trump. I’m a national security guy. I’ve worked in national security against ISIS and Al Qaeda and Russia, and the number one national security threat I’ve ever seen in my life to this country’s democracy is the party that I’m in, the Republican Party. It is the number one national security threat to the United States of America.
–Miles Taylor
Taylor is the “anonymous” author who wrote an op ed for the Washington Post.
Another way to think about it. The media is staffed by the same people who staff the government bureaucracies. Always in terms of ideology and sometimes literally.
Besides the obvious spying on political opposition and media types they’re afraid of, how much of these spying systems are used for insider trading? There is almost always a financial angle piece to be exploited
The phone you have now – has these capabilities. read some, and learn.
https://gizmodo.com/all-the-sensors-in-your-smartphone-and-how-they-work-1797121002
You digital twin can be prosecuted for falseuploaded-and-attributed activities under your digital ID, of which your physical you will be prosecuted
example – Logging on as Julian Assange, and logging on as Manning – and fabricating a text exchange that is used in an indictment.
Scary times!
With control also comes the ability to plant incriminating info on anyone’s phone whom you do not like.
Criminal things like child porn.
With a captive and corrupt prosecutor (DOJ) you’d be able to control even your crankiest critic because EVERYONE has a cell phone.
NOT EVERYONE.
They can’t hide those lying eyes.
However, beyond domestic exploitation, the NSA database is presumably only used by, accessed by and available to, the foreign allies that make up the “Five Eyes” partners. The U.S., U.K, Australia, Canada and New Zealand make up the allies within the Five Eyes intelligence apparatus. These allies have access to the same NSA database as U.S. operatives.
Please, don’t broad-brush the NSA signals intelligence system with such misleading statements. Five Eyes have access to only those parts of the NSA system which have been designated for Five Eyes. There are many other parts of the NSA signals intelligence system, accessible to US agencies, but not releasable to those foreign parties.
“Sir this is an unsecure line” was how we always answered the telephone when I was staff duty NCO. Nothings changed with me since ’97 when I got my first cellular phone. If you want privacy dont do it on a phone.
I noticed to that the focus of the reporting is the sale of the spyware to countries leftists don’t like ignoring the much bigger issue which is a company, that appears to be an extension of Israeli military intelligence (Unit 8200), has developed this spyware with frightening capabilities that even the NSA probably doesn’t have (e.g. remotely turning on your smartphone camera).
Does anyone doubt that Israel itself isn’t using Pegasus to spy on every agency of the US government including the executive branch? Did they infect president Trumps smart phone with this spyware? Do people think they just developed this capability to sell to “rogue” governments?
Israel has a long history of targeting computers of foreign governments with spyware starting with the PROMIS software that Robert Maxwell (Ghislaine’s dad) sold to US government agencies. PROMIS software was used to steal nuclear secrets from Sandia National Laboratories.
How can a company that openly boasts that it produces spyware even exist? Shouldn’t everyone behind Pegasus be on the every US department of Justice and Treasury department sanctions list?
Our “greatest ally” plays for both sides.
It’s astounding that US politicians don’t assume every communication is at least stored for future use by Intel, if not analysed rapidly for immediate use.
A decent VPN and offshore email seem absolutely minimum security. Excellent encryption between linked accounts is available but these clowns don’t seem to believe it’s necessary. Weird.
The solution is easy but are we willing? Get rid of cell phones and email. Meet in person without phones. They have trained us to carry our own tracking devices and we are so attached to them we do so willingly
5Eyes are not our friends. At least 2 of the other 4 interfered in the 2016 election. 2020? In addition, they have engaged in more repression of their own citizens than the US government.
Excellent article but woefully short on actionable measures…
When is some court going to rule this as a violation of our constitutional rights? No unlawful searches and seizures.
Right. The Roberts Court is a disaster.
So how does it get on my cell phone? Any link can be a “malicious link” How do we know it is there? Or do we not? Do we all just assume that it is on our phone? That’s disgusting.
Amazon WEB services, which has a contract for the Intel agencies to do all the data gathering and cloud computing, has just build over a million square feet of server farms in eastern Oregon at two seperate facilities with a third facility on the way. They are using a general contractor called Gray construction. One is in Boardman and you can see it from the I84. The other is in Hermiston. They have more security than employees and cameras everywhere behind the double row of barb wire fencing.
IMO, we are all hoisted on our own petard because who doesn’t love their cell phone?
Is there no way we can defend ourselves from this low class nasty evil program? If the device can listen, it seems to me that our conversations with people we are standing next to can be heard through our own cell phone even though we are not speaking on our cell phone. Can this be true?
I trust our ingenuity. Somebody somewhere has figured out how to stymie this thing. I only hope they tell me.
true, and any device on the same network will have its information captured, so even if you are not on your phone anyone who has a phone on the network is providing the door to identify all devices on the network.
This is precisely why our founding fathers wanted a limited government with several checks on power to all branches of government. They knew how people behaved and naturally tended toward tyranny. As Sundance brilliantly posted, the newly formed IC monster has gotten around the checks and balances of our government by blackmailing the exact people that would check it and by choosing who gets elected to congress, controlling FISA judges & that POTUS’s cabinet appointees are “blackmailable”.
The majority of the worlds population have been under tyranny and misery across history. It is only the exception that we have enjoyed freedom for the last 245 years and why we have been implored to save it with every breath we have.
“… a government of the people (approved by the IC), by the people (approved by the IC), for the people, shall not perish from the Earth.”