- 'Routine' NSA Email Intercept Leads to Arrests in Britain & Canada; First Reported Bust from NSA Email Snooping
Citing anonymous sources in the British intelligence community, The Sunday Times reported that an e-mail message intercepted by NSA spies precipitated a massive investigation by intelligence officials in several countries that culminated in the arrest of nine men in Britain and one in suburban Orleans, Ontario. It is the first time that routine US monitoring of e-mail traffic has led to an arrest.
Posted Sat 04/10/2004
- Text of FBI Alert on 'Terrorist Use of Almanacs'
The full text of FBI Intelligence Bulletin No. 102, containing the alert to law enforcement to be on the look-out for "potential terrorist use of alamacs."
Posted Fri 01/09/2004
- The Brave New World of Computers on the Battlefield
From Reuters: The blue dots moving on the computer screen are US tanks and Humvees, the red ones are the enemy that American soldiers must kill or capture. This is not a video game but how the most high-tech division...
Posted Mon 01/05/2004
- Leaked: Restricted FBI Surveillance 'Guidance' for Voice-Over-IP Providers
A restricted FBI document has leaked, detailing recent FBI "requirements" for "electronic surveillance capabilities" needed so the Bureau can tap "carrier-grade voice-over-IP" (CGVoP). The document, dated January 2003, was intended to "provide guidance" to "service providers and equipment manufacturers."
Posted Fri 01/02/2004
- FBI: Revealing Info About the Anthrax Probe Could 'Aid Terrorists'
Disclosure of what the FBI knows about the deadly 2001 anthrax attacks could enable terrorists to engineer biological weapons to escape detection, the FBI says in documents filed in response to a lawsuit by a scientist labeled a "person of...
Posted Fri 01/02/2004
- US Using Police Software to Track Iraqi Insurgents
From the Associated Press: American troops battling the shadowy guerrilla insurgency in Iraq have adopted the computer-sleuthing tactics of urban police departments to prepare strikes against rebel fighters and their sources of money and weapons. Military intelligence analysts have adopted...
Posted Fri 12/26/2003
- Nov. Court Ruling Revealed FBI Use of OnStar-Type Services to Spy on Car Passengers
From SecurityFocus.com: An appeals court this week [ca. 11/19/03] put the brakes on an FBI surveillance technique that turns an automobile driver's on-board vehicle navigation system into a covert eavesdropping device, after finding that the spying effectively disables the system's...
Posted Wed 12/24/2003
- ANSWER Coalition Files FOIA Demand for Info on FBI Spying Against Peace Activists
On Dec. 15, attorneys with the Partnership for Civil Justice and the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee filed a Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA) with the FBI on behalf of the A.N.S.W.E.R. (Act Now to Stop War &...
Posted Wed 12/24/2003
- 'Nonexistent' Videotapes Found: Show Abuse of 'Terrorist' Detainees Denied by Feds
From the ACLU: In a surprise development, hundreds of videotapes that were originally said by the Department of Justice not to exist were discovered recently by its own internal affairs bureau and document many of the detainee abuses listed in...
Posted Fri 12/19/2003
- Bush Detention of Jose Padilla Ruled Unconstitutional; Release Ordered Within 30 Days: 'Presidential Authority Does Not Exist in a Vacuum'
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled President Bush exceeded his Constitutional authority by ordering US citizen Jose Padilla held as an enemy combatant without charge or legal representation, and that Padilla must be released from military custody within...
Posted Thu 12/18/2003
- Text of FBI Bulletin Urging Cops to 'Monitor' Antiwar Protests
The New York Times revealed on Nov. 25 the existence of a classified FBI bulletin sent to police departments in October in advance of antiwar demonstrations scheduled in Washington, DC and San Francisco. The bulletin provided details on activist organizing,...
Posted Mon 12/08/2003
- Wal-Mart, Proctor & Gamble Collaborate in Spying on Consumers
From the Chicago Sun-Times: Shoppers in a suburban Tulsa, Okla., Wal-Mart were unwitting guinea pigs earlier this year in a secret study that two of America's largest corporations never expected you'd know about. In the study, uncovered by the Chicago...
Posted Fri 11/14/2003
- Legislation Would Permit CIA Agents to Operate Directly Within Local Police Forces
The JTTF Enhancement Act of 2003 (HR 3439) seeks to ammend federal law to permit CIA agents to be "detailed" to any "local law enforcement agency." It would also permit any state employee and/or any cop to be detailed to...
Posted Fri 11/14/2003
- MATRIX: Text of the ACLU Issue Brief
The full text of the Oct. 2003 ACLU Issue Brief detailing MATRIX (Multistate Anti-Terrorism Information Exchange), a program that ties together government and commercial databases in order to allow the authorities to conduct detailed searches on particular individuals, and to search for patterns in this data that can identify individuals possibly involved in terrorist or other criminal activity.
Posted Thu 11/13/2003
- Not a Movie: Secret MATRIX Revives TIA at the State Level
Congress killed funding for the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program, hastily renamed the "Terrorist" Information Program by the Pentagon when the civil liberties poop hit the fan. That's the super-surveillance program cooked up by convicted Iran-Contra felon John Poindexter, who...
Posted Thu 11/13/2003
- US Using 'Old Fashioned Torture' at Guantanamo
CANBERRA, Australia Oct. 8 -- The U.S. military has tortured terrorist suspects held without charge at the Guantanamo Bay military prison, an Australian lawyer representing some of the suspects claimed Wednesday. U.S.-based Richard Bourke, who has been working for almost...
Posted Thu 11/13/2003
- Federal 'Data Mining' Has Ballooned Since 9-11
In the 20 months since Sept. 11, 2001, little-known government and commercial databases that track the movements and backgrounds of everyday Americans have steadily ballooned. Developed as counterterrorism tools, the systems are aimed at bridging gaps in information that let the 9/11 hijackers slip past law enforcement. But they also make it easier for the government to gather information about American citizens who aren't suspected of anything criminal.
Posted Sun 05/25/2003
- Perception Management: Pentagon Renames TIA
In an effort to reassure the public and Congress, the Pentagon has renamed its Total Information Awareness program to the Terrorist Information Awareness program. Meanwhile, they have failed to address concerns about data quality or possible abuse of the system,...
Posted Tue 05/20/2003
- US Court Releases 2002 Wiretap Report
The Administrative Office of the United States Courts has released its annual Wiretap Report for the calendar year of 2002. The report summarizes Federal and (in part) states' surveillance of "wire, oral, or electronic communications." The full report is available...
Posted Tue 05/06/2003
- DOJ and Repubs Conspire to Make PATRIOT Act Permanent
Officials from the Justice Department and elsewhere within the Bush Admin are strategizing with Republicans in Congress on steps that would make the USA PATRIOT Act permanent. Currently, many of the most intrusive provisions of the law are set to...
Posted Wed 04/09/2003
- Federal Secret Surveillance Hits Record Levels
Since the 9/11 attacks, the Justice Department and FBI have dramatically increased the use of two little-known powers that allow authorities to tap telephones, seize bank and telephone records and obtain other information in counterterrorism investigations with no immediate court...
Posted Tue 03/25/2003
- 'Someone' is Bugging the EU
The European Union has uncovered a bugging operation aimed at 6 of its 15 member countries, just as it is about to meet about the divisive (and imminent) American-led invasion of Iraq. Sophisticated listening devices were found in its Brussels...
Posted Thu 03/20/2003
- NSA Intercepting UN Security Council Members' Private Communications
The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq. Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves...
Posted Mon 03/03/2003
- Air Orwell: All US Air Travellers To Be Subject to Detailed Background Checks – Including Your Bank Account
The TSA has announced it is beginning a 3 month test of CAPPS II, a super-database which will be used to run background checks of all air travellers within the US — including citizens. Screening will include credit histories, personal...
Posted Sat 03/01/2003
- American Bar Association Urges More Oversight of FISA Court
The 400,000 member American Bar Association (ABA) has adopted a resolution calling on Congress to conduct oversight of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to ensure that government investigations do not violate Constitutional protections. The ABA also urged Congress to...
Posted Sat 02/15/2003
- Congressional Committee Bars Using TIA 'Against Americans'
House and Senate negotiators have agreed that a Pentagon project intended to detect terrorists by monitoring Internet e-mail and commercial databases for health, financial and travel information cannot be used against Americans. The negotiators' decision meant almost complete failure for...
Posted Thu 02/13/2003
- Secret 'Patriot II' Law Even Worse Than the First
The Bush Administration is preparing a bold, comprehensive sequel to the USA Patriot Act passed in the wake of September 11, 2001, which will give the government broad, sweeping new powers to increase domestic intelligence-gathering, surveillance and law enforcement prerogatives, and simultaneously decrease judicial review and public access to information.
Posted Sat 02/08/2003
- Federal 'Internet Monitoring Center' Supposedly Unrelated to TIA
The Bush administration is quietly assembling an Internet-wide monitoring center supposedly to detect and respond to attacks on vital information systems and key e-commerce sites. The center has been in development since October, 2000.
Posted Sun 02/02/2003
- Fatherland Security Bill to Bring Total Surveillance
You know shit is fucked up when William Safire -- one-time Nixon speechwriter/propagandist -- is screaming bloody murder about the Orwellian future a Republican admin is working hard to create. Poindexter protecting his unindicted co-conspirator during the '80s. He has...
Posted Thu 11/21/2002
