The Curious Case of Ms. Rahinah Ibrahim

The story around the detention of Rahinah Ibrahim is so astounding a person of normal cognitive capacity might be unable to actually comprehend it.    She was stopped, detained, searched, hand-cuffed and then placed on a no-fly list back in 2005.   She sued the U.S. government to find out why:

After seven years of litigation, two trips to a federal appeals court and $3.8 million worth of lawyer time, the public has finally learned why a wheelchair-bound Stanford University scholar was cuffed, detained and denied a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii: FBI human error. (link)

The Error:  An FBI agent/investigator named Kevin Kelly was investigating Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 when he mistakenly checked the wrong box on a terrorism form, erroneously placing Rahinah Ibrahim on the no-fly list.   Kelly simply checked the wrong box on a generic administrative form.

What followed is almost nine years of *EXTREME* governmental denial, by some of the biggest well known names in DOJ, NSA, and Homeland Security.   They, on behalf of the U.S. government, used every national security avoidance argument, all of it, all.of.it, simply to cover-up a simple clerical mistake. (more…)

BigfurHat@iOTW Notes the “creepy factor” of the NSA for Kids website.  https://www.nsa.gov/kids/

In my humble opinion, it’s not really all that creepy.

Central U.S. Government agencies have been doing this for years under a few semi-secretive programs that measure IQ, aptitude and propensity for problem solving. In the modern era it’s appropriately called DAAD’s.

What’s new is the platform, the internet.   In the “olden days” it was puzzle books and subscriptions.   Or, sometimes trade craft engagement could come from word of mouth (old school word for networking) inside various educational platforms such as “Spelling Bees”, “Debate Teams” or the various state “science fairs”, the latter still being predominantly utilized today. (more…)

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviewing Congresswoman Jane Harmon about a recent NSA review board determination. The report concluded the NSA collection raises “constitutional concerns” with regard to U.S. citizens’ rights of speech, association and privacy.

Congresswoman Harmon along with numerous representatives from both sides of the political spectrum are highly concerned. The NSA surveillance program is at the top of current concerns for 70%+ of Americans….   Now watch:

He’s not even trying to make the audience believe any more. The Lip-Syncing lip movement is 3 or 4 seconds behind the soundtrack being broadcast.

WASHINGTON DC – In a bid to calm growing privacy concerns about the government’s spying powers, President Obama outlined a series of steps Friday aimed at ushering in “concrete and substantial” reforms to the National Security Agency.

“Americans recognized that we had to adapt to a world in which a bomb could be built in a basement and our electric grid could be shut down by operators an ocean away,” the president said during a major policy speech at the Department of Justice.

“And yet,” he added, “in our rush to respond to very real and novel threats, the risks of government overreach—the possibility that we lose some of our core liberties in pursuit of security—became more pronounced.” (more…)

The New York Times has a lengthy article about the evolution of Obama’s ideology and perspective regarding NSA spying.    However, inside the article there is this admission from White House advisor/campaign director David Plouffe that everyone appears to be overlooking (emphasis mine):

[…]   “When you get the package every morning, it puts steel in your spine,” said David Plouffe, the president’s longtime adviser. “There are people out there every day who are plotting. The notion that we would put down a tool that would protect people here in America is hard to fathom.”

At the same time, aides said Mr. Obama was surprised to learn after leaks by Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor, just how far the surveillance had gone. “Things seem to have grown at the N.S.A.,” Mr. Plouffe said, citing specifically the tapping of foreign leaders’ telephones. “I think it was disturbing to most people, and I think he found it disturbing.”

Yet it is hard to express indignation at actions of the government after five years of running it, and some involved in surveillance note that it was Mr. Obama who pushed national security agencies to be aggressive in hunting terrorists.  (read full article)

Representative Peter King is a fully vested Decepticon.

However, after listening to King’s descriptions of NSA phone spying data use, one could be left with a rather curious consideration.

If what Rep King says is true, couldn’t the al-Qaeda affiliates wreak havoc merely with ownership of several yellow page books?

All they would have to do is start down the list of random U.S. phone numbers making calls and not only would the NSA would be bogged down, but thousands of U.S. citizens would be automatically subjected to terroristic stalking by their own government.

…. and how do we know they’re not?

“It is not an easy task to unring a bell, nor to remove from the mind an impression once firmly imprinted there*”

“I’m not anti-government …. I’m just pro Freedom”.

-Ladar Levison, (the founder of secure email provider Lavabit, facing a court case because he closed his company rather than hand over encryption keys) interviewed in the interactive UK Guardian piece published November, 2013

Whether or not you think Snowden was a traitor or a hero; the fact remains that “the bell can not be unrung”.

(more…)

Jacob Appelbaum is a US citizen and core member of TOR project (funded originally to provide internet communication security).  He writes open source software, is an independent security software developer, activist hacker and passionate resister to tyranny.
He has stated in past interviews that he believes “personal privacy and institutional transparency are complementary ideas that help to create a free and open society …..Tor is part of an ecosystem of software that helps people regain and reclaim their autonomy. It helps to enable people to have agency of all kinds; it helps others to help each other and it helps you to help yourself. It runs, it is open and it is supported by a large community spread across all walks of life.”
Appelbaum eloquently discusses warrantless or “open writ” dragnet surveillance as “turnkey tyranny” and posits that the black budget agencies that engage in such surveillance are violating the 3rd Amendment Rights of US Citizens, likening the actions of the NSA to de facto “digital soldiers” being quartered in our homes without our knowledge or permission. (more…)

WOLVERINES !!

Tune in to Sean Hannity’s time slot tonight at 10:00pm on Fox to hear details.  [Eric Bolling will be filling in for Sean Hannity who is on vacation.]
WASHINGTON DC – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is leading a class-action lawsuit with hundreds of thousands of Americans against President Barack Obama’s National Security Agency (NSA) over its spying on the American people, Breitbart News has learned.
Sen. Paul will be discussing the lawsuit in an exclusive appearance on Fox News with host Eric Bolling at 10 PM ET on Friday. Breitbart News has learned that Paul will file the class action lawsuit soon in the D.C. District Court and that he will be filing it as an individual, not as a U.S. Senator. For a U.S. Senator to file a such a class action lawsuit against the President of the United States would be extremely rare.
With regard to NSA spying, this is the first class action lawsuit against such activity. This allows the American people to join together in a grassroots manner against President Obama’s NSA for the first time in the legal system, as all other lawsuits have been individuals suing against the agency.  (read more)

For followers of the Libyan fiasco, and we are not talking about Benghazi, the irony behind Dear Leader and Susan Rice’s recent statements on South Sudan is, well, beyond rich.

[…]  In a letter to Congress, Obama said that about 46 U.S. troops were deployed Saturday to help evacuate Americans. That’s in addition to another 45 troops deployed to reinforce the U.S. Embassy in Juba.

[…]  Earlier Sunday, Obama was briefed by advisers on events in South Sudan following a meeting that his national security adviser, Susan Rice, held with national security aides and U.S. personnel still in South Sudan.

[…]  “I may take further action to support the security of U.S. citizens, personnel, and property, including our Embassy, in South Sudan,” Obama wrote. (link)

I’m just going to cut this down to brass tacks.
The latest international storylines seem to be revolving around chaos reigning supreme in South Sudan.    Over the weekend four members of the U.S. military were shot by machine gun fire as they attempted to evacuate the R2P crowd of U.S. do-gooders.

Fair enough.    But why is the media avoiding the brutally obvious?    Oh yeah, wouldn’t want to actually connect dots and seem all conspiracy minded.
Then again, failure to talk about the 20,000+ missing Libyan missiles, and massive stockpiles of missing WMD (gas et al), does not protect you from the reality of it. (more…)