No Agenda 554 - Slave Bracelet

Presidential Proclamation -- Fire Prevention Week, 2013

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:51

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 04, 2013

CHILD HEALTH DAY, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

All children deserve to grow up healthy and safe. And we all share an obligation to ensure our youth have the necessary resources to thrive. This Child Health Day, let us recommit to providing our children with one of life's most basic building blocks -- a healthy start.

My Administration remains committed to seeing our next generation achieve their full potential. Partnering with parents and students, teachers and community members, we have taken steps to help prevent bullying and create a climate in our schools in which all of our children feel safe and feel like they belong. Through First Lady Michelle Obama's Let's Move! initiative, we are working to end the epidemic of childhood obesity within a generation. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, millions of families and children have greater access to affordable, quality health care coverage, young Americans can stay on their parents' health insurance until age 26, and no child can be denied coverage based on a pre-existing condition.

Because clean air and clean water are cornerstones of a healthy lifestyle, I am taking action to reduce pollution, safeguard our environment, and limit our children's exposure to harmful toxins. My Administration established the first-ever national limits for mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants that contribute to higher rates of asthma attacks. I am also putting in place tough new rules to cut carbon pollution, so we can protect our kids' health, begin to slow the effects of climate change, and leave a cleaner, more stable environment for future generations.

Preparing our youth for happy, productive lives is a responsibility we can only achieve together. Whether by providing a balanced meal, encouraging physical activity, or empowering our children to make healthy decisions, each of us can teach our kids about nutrition, exercise, and healthy lifestyles. Leading by example, adults across our country can demonstrate the habits and values of mental and physical well-being that will nurture our next generation throughout their lives.

On Child Health Day, we are reminded of our first, most urgent task -- to protect and develop the health of our children. Today, let us reaffirm our commitment to our Nation's youth and remember our future depends on their success.

The Congress, by a joint resolution approved May 18, 1928, as amended (36 U.S.C. 105), has called for the designation of the first Monday in October as Child Health Day and has requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this day.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim Monday, October 7, 2013, as Child Health Day. I call upon families, child health professionals, faith-based and community organizations, and all levels of government to help ensure America's children stay healthy.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Proclamation -- National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 2013

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:51

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

October 04, 2013

FIRE PREVENTION WEEK, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Fires take more American lives than all other natural disasters combined. They inflict devastating tolls on families and communities, and they cost our Nation billions of dollars each year. During Fire Prevention Week, we pay tribute to the brave men and women who put their lives on the line to pull their neighbors out of harm's way, and pledge to do our part to prevent fires in our homes, our cities, and the great outdoors.

We all have a responsibility to protect our families against fire. We should be cautious while cooking, using electrical appliances, and heating our homes. Those who live in areas prone to wildfires can help safeguard their homes by clearing flammable vegetation, and they should plan for emergencies by building a supply kit and talking with their families about a communications plan and evacuation routes. Every American should install working smoke detectors on each level of their home and remember to test them monthly. It is also essential to develop and practice evacuation plans twice a year. Because fire spreads rapidly and poisonous, disorienting smoke moves even quicker, families should design plans that allow for the quickest possible exit. To learn more about taking precautions against fires, visit www.Ready.gov.

By preventing fires, we can both protect our loved ones and keep America's firefighters out of unnecessary danger. To save people they have never met, these skilled professionals battle walls of flame, put themselves in the paths of unpredictable wildfires, and rush into houses on the verge of collapse. This week, as we renew our commitment to fire safety, we thank these courageous first responders for their service and honor those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States do hereby proclaim October 6 through October 12, 2013, as Fire Prevention Week. On Sunday, October 6, 2013, in accordance with Public Law 107-51, the flag of the United States will be flown at half-staff at all Federal office buildings in honor of the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service. I call on all Americans to participate in this observance with appropriate programs and activities and by renewing their efforts to prevent fires and their tragic consequences.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this fourth day of October, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

m.yle.fi News: Finland celebrates its seniors

Mon, 30 Sep 2013 17:40

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

National Disability Employment Awareness Month, 2013

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By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Our Nation has always drawn its strength from the differences of our people, from a vast range of thought, experience, and ability. Every day, Americans with disabilities enrich our communities and businesses. They are leaders, entrepreneurs, and innovators, each with unique talents to contribute and points of view to express. During National Disability Employment Awareness Month, we nurture our culture of diversity and renew our commitment to building an American workforce that offers inclusion and opportunity for all.

Since the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, we have made great progress in removing barriers for hardworking Americans. Yet today, only 20 percent of Americans with disabilities, including veterans who became disabled while serving our country, participate in our labor force. We need their talent, dedication, and creativity, which is why my Administration proudly supports increased employment opportunities for people with disabilities. To that end, I remain dedicated to implementing Executive Order 13548, which called on Federal agencies to increase recruitment, hiring, and retention of people with disabilities. As a result of our efforts, the Federal Government is hiring people with disabilities at a higher rate than at any point in over three decades. Most recently, we updated the rules to make sure Federal contractors and subcontractors are doing more to recruit, hire, and promote qualified individuals with disabilities, including disabled veterans. And thanks to the Affordable Care Act, States are taking advantage of new options to support and expand home and community-based services.

In the years to come, I will remain committed to ensuring the Federal Government leads by example. This year, as we mark the 40th anniversary of the Rehabilitation Act, I will continue to marshal the full resources of my Administration toward effective and comprehensive implementation.

If we swing wide the doors of opportunity for our family, friends, and neighbors with disabilities, all of us will enjoy the benefits of their professional contributions. This month, let us uphold the ideals of equal access, equal opportunity, and a level playing field for all Americans.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Disability Employment Awareness Month. I urge all Americans to embrace the talents and skills that individuals with disabilities bring to our workplaces and communities and to promote the right to equal employment opportunity for all people.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Arts and Humanities Month, 2013

Presidential Proclamation -- National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, 2013

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:00

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL ARTS AND HUMANITIES MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Throughout our history, America has advanced not only because of our people's will or our leaders' vision, but also because of paintings and poems, stories and songs, dramas and dances. These works open our minds and nourish our souls, helping us understand what it means to be human and what it means to be American. During National Arts and Humanities Month, we celebrate the rich heritage of arts and humanities that has long been at the core of our country's story.

Our history is a testament to the boundless capacity of the arts and humanities to shape our views of democracy, freedom, and tolerance. Each of us knows what it is like to have our beliefs changed by a writer's perspective, our understanding deepened by a historian's insight, or our waning spirit lifted by a singer's voice. These are some of the most striking and memorable moments in our lives, and they reflect lasting truths -- that the arts and humanities speak to everyone and that in the great arsenal of progress, the human imagination is our most powerful tool.

Ensuring our children and our grandchildren can share these same experiences and hone their own talents is essential to our Nation's future. Somewhere in America, the next great author is wrestling with a sentence in her first short story, and the next great artist is doodling in the pages of his notebook. We need these young people to succeed as much as we need our next generation of engineers and scientists to succeed. And that is why my Administration remains dedicated to strengthening initiatives that not only provide young people with the nurturing that will help their talents grow, but also the skills to think critically and creatively throughout their lives.

This month, we pay tribute to the indelible ways the arts and humanities have shaped our Union. Let us encourage future generations to carry this tradition forward. And as we do so, let us celebrate the power of artistic expression to bridge our differences and reveal our common heritage.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Arts and Humanities Month. I call upon the people of the United States to join together in observing this month with appropriate ceremonies, activities, and programs to celebrate the arts and the humanities in America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Substance Abuse Prevention Month, 2013

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:00

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AWARENESS MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Since the passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) nearly 20 years ago, our Nation's response to domestic violence has greatly improved. What was too often seen as a private matter best hidden behind closed doors is now an established issue of national concern. We have changed our laws, transformed our culture, and improved support services for survivors. We have seen a significant drop in domestic violence homicides and improved training for police, prosecutors, and advocates. Yet we must do more to provide protection and justice for survivors and to prevent violence from occurring. During National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, we stand with domestic abuse survivors, celebrate our Nation's progress in combatting these despicable crimes, and resolve to carry on until domestic violence is no more.

Although we have made substantial progress in reducing domestic violence, one in four women and one in seven men in the United States still suffer serious physical violence at the hands of an intimate partner at least once during their lifetimes. Every day, three women lose their lives in this country as a result of domestic violence. Millions of Americans live in daily, silent fear within their own homes.

My Administration remains devoted to halting this devastating violence. To lead by example, last year I directed Federal agencies to develop policies to assist victims of domestic violence in the Federal workforce. Earlier this year, Vice President Biden announced new grants for initiatives that aim to reduce domestic violence homicides across our country.

This past spring, I signed the Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act. The Act provides law enforcement with better resources to investigate cases of rape, gives colleges more tools to educate students about dating violence and sexual assault, and empowers tribal courts to prosecute those who commit domestic violence on tribal lands, regardless of whether the aggressor is a member of the tribe. In addition, VAWA will continue to allow relief for immigrant victims of domestic violence, and LGBT victims will receive care and assistance.

Thanks to the landmark Affordable Care Act, insurance companies will be prohibited from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions, and new health plans must cover domestic violence screening and counseling with no copayments or cost sharing. Millions will have the chance to sign up for affordable care through the new Health Insurance Marketplace by visiting www.HealthCare.gov beginning October 1.

Ending violence in the home is a national imperative that requires vigilance and dedication from every sector of our society. We must continue to stand alongside advocates, victim service providers, law enforcement, and our criminal justicesystem as they hold offenders accountable and provide care and support to survivors. But our efforts must extend beyond the criminal justice system to include housing and economic advocacy for survivors. We must work with young people to stop violence before it starts. We must also reach out to friends and loved ones who have suffered from domestic violence, and we must tell them they are not alone. I encourage victims, their loved ones, and concerned citizens to learn more by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE, or by visiting www.TheHotline.org.

This October, let us honor National Domestic Violence Awareness Month by promoting peace in our own families, homes, and communities. Let us renew our commitment to end domestic violence -- in every city, every town, and every corner of America.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Domestic Violence

Awareness Month. I call on all Americans to speak out against domestic violence and support local efforts to assist victims of these crimes in finding the help and healing they need.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Energy Action Month, 2013

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:08

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL SUBSTANCE ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Today, too many Americans face futures limited by substance use, which threatens health, safety, and academic performance. Substance use disorders are linked to crime, motor vehicle crashes, and fatalities. This month, we recognize substance abuse prevention programs across our country, and we do our part to build healthier neighborhoods and brighter futures.

This year's theme, "Learn it! Live it!" encourages Americans to come together, learn how substance use affects our communities, and live to set a positive example for our families, friends, and neighbors. My Administration's National Drug Control Strategy begins with a commitment to stop drug use before it begins. We have expanded evidence-based national and community-focused programs that work to prevent substance use where young people learn, grow, and play. We support substance-free workplaces, and we provide information on effective strategies to parents and communities nationwide. Through the Affordable Care Act, we expanded substance use disorder and mental health benefits for more than 60 million Americans. And beginning this month, those who have been locked out of health insurance can sign up for affordable coverage by visiting www.HealthCare.gov.

Because adult role models play an integral role in preventing youth substance abuse, we must lead by example, adopt positive behaviors, and talk to our kids about living substance-free. This month, we stand with local coalitions and community organizations as they advance their drive to keep young people, families, and neighborhoods free from drug and alcohol abuse. I encourage parents, schools, health officials, law enforcement professionals, faith-based organizations, workplaces, the recovery community, and all Americans to join in this effort. If we take up the mantle of healthy lifestyles together, we can help our children avoid the devastating consequences of substance abuse and give them the chance to explore their limitless potential.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Substance Abuse Prevention Month. I call upon all Americans to engage in appropriate programs and activities to promote comprehensive substance abuse prevention efforts within their communities.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, 2013

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:07

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL ENERGY ACTION MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

To meet the challenges of the 21st century, we must work to ensure a clean, safe, and sustainable energy future. This National Energy Action Month, we can build on the progress we have made by recommitting to increasing our energy security, strengthening our economy, combatting climate change, and improving the environment.

As a Nation, we are taking control of our energy future, and my Administration remains committed to our long-term energy security. Today, we produce more oil than we have in 15 years and import less oil than we have in 20 years. Since I took office, we have more than doubled the amount of renewable electricity we generate from wind and quintupled the amount we generate from solar energy. We are building our first new nuclear power plants in decades, and we produce more natural gas than any other country. And we have done this while creating hundreds of thousands of good jobs and sending less carbon pollution into the environment than we have in nearly two decades.

While we have made significant progress, more work remains. The continuing cycle of spiking gasoline prices hurts American families and our businesses' bottom lines, and it reflects our economy's outsized demand for oil. To transition to a secure energy future, we must increase our production of clean energy, minimize waste and maximize efficiency, further reduce our oil imports, eliminate inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and continue to develop more energy sources here at home. Because meeting global energy challenges requires international action, we must also engage with partners around the world to reduce carbon pollution, and we must build global markets for new advanced technologies. If we take these actions, we can curb climate change, save money for consumers, and use our resources to create good American jobs.

A clean energy economy has the potential to fuel economic growth for decades to come. But we must invest in the technologies of the future and fund breakthrough research to make these technologies better and cheaper. With the American spirit of innovation powering our progress, our Nation can lead the world in creating green jobs and technologies that are vital to both a clean energy future and the fight against climate change.

Years from now, our children may wonder if we did all we could to leave a safe, clean, and stable world for them to inherit. If we keep our eyes on the long arc of our future and commit to doing what this moment demands, the answer will be yes.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Energy Action Month. I call upon the citizens of the United States to recognize this month by working together to achieve greater energy security, a more robust economy, and a healthier environment for our children.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

Presidential Proclamation -- National Cybersecurity Awareness Month, 2013

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:07

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL BREAST CANCER AWARENESS MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

Every October, America stands in solidarity with those battling breast cancer and those at risk for breast cancer. This disease touches every corner of the United States -- in 2013 alone, more than 230,000 women and over 2,000 men will be diagnosed with breast cancer, and tens of thousands will die from it. As we observe National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, we salute the women and men who dedicate themselves to prevention, detection, and treatment; we show our support for every individual and every family struggling with breast cancer; and we pause to remember those we have lost.

Over the past two decades, our Nation has made strides in the fight against breast cancer. While we still do not know the exact causes, we do know that some women are at an increased risk of developing this disease, including those who have a personal or family history, who are older, or who are overweight or obese after menopause. Because early detection can decrease the risk of death from breast cancer, I encourage women to speak with their doctors about recommended mammograms and clinical breast exams. Whether you are looking for information about breast cancer prevention, treatment of metastatic breast cancer, or information about the latest research, all Americans can learn more by visiting www.Cancer.gov.

Last year, my Administration invested over half a billion dollars in breast cancer research. We proudly support studies aimed at discovering better screening methods, developing more effective treatments, and improving our understanding of this disease.

And because everyone should have access to preventive services, the Affordable Care Act requires most health insurance plans to fully cover recommended breast cancer screenings. This law also prohibits insurers from setting lifetime dollar limits on coverage, or from dropping coverage because of errors on paperwork. Beginning in 2014, companies will no longer be able to put dollar limits on annual benefits or deny insurance because of pre-existing conditions, including breast cancer. And starting October 1, Americans can visit www.HealthCare.gov to shop for affordable coverage in the new Health Insurance Marketplace.

This month, we reaffirm our commitment to reduce the burden of breast cancer. We join hands with our mothers, daughters, sisters, and friends. We renew our support for increased access to screenings and care, and we advance the innovative research that will usher in a new era in the fight against breast cancer.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I encourage citizens, government agencies, private businesses, nonprofit organizations, and all other interested groups to join in activities that will increase awareness of what Americans can do to prevent breast cancer.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

National Bullying Prevention Center - National Bullying Prevention Month

Tue, 01 Oct 2013 16:08

The White House

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release

September 30, 2013

NATIONAL CYBERSECURITY AWARENESS MONTH, 2013

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BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

In an increasingly interconnected world, many Americans rely on the Internet and digital tools every day -- from communicating with colleagues, friends, and family across the globe to banking and shopping without leaving our homes. Technology is reshaping every aspect of our lives, and protecting our digital infrastructure from cyber threats is one of our highest security priorities. This month, we expand public awareness about cybersecurity, and we recommit to enhancing the security and resilience of our Nation's infrastructure while maintaining an environment that encourages efficiency and innovation.

Incredible advances in technology also bring increased risk of disruptive cyber incidents. My Administration is dedicated to building a system of protections in both the private and public sectors to keep out malicious forces while preserving the openness and extraordinary power of the Internet. Our national and economic security depend on a reliable digital infrastructure in the face of threats, which is why earlier this year, I signed an Executive Order and issued a Presidential Policy Directive to strengthen this critical infrastructure. In tandem, these actions will enable us to develop and implement a framework of best practices for cybersecurity, increase information sharing between the Federal Government and industry partners, and build collaborative partnerships.

All of us have a role to play in safeguarding the networks we use in our daily lives. Understanding the risks associated with being online can help secure personal information and prevent identity theft and fraud. The Department of Homeland Security's "Stop.Think.Connect." campaign empowers digital citizens with the tools to make smart decisions as they navigate cyberspace. For more information on computing practices, visit www.DHS.gov/StopThinkConnect.

Our digital infrastructure is a strategic national asset, and my Administration is committed to strengthening this vital resource. As we mark the 10th anniversary of Cybersecurity Awareness Month, let us welcome the great possibilities cyberspace provides and continue to invest in the security measures and innovation that will enable us to safely and fully realize those possibilities.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim October 2013 as National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. I call upon the people of the United States to recognize the importance of cybersecurity and to observe this month with activities, events, and training that will enhance our national security and resilience.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirtieth day of September, in the year of our Lord two thousand thirteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-eighth.

BARACK OBAMA

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Possible Clues in Fatal Chase, but No Motive - NYTimes.com

Wed, 02 Oct 2013 13:58

Join the movement!

The End of Bullying Begins with Me: that's the message during PACER's National Bullying Prevention Month in October. It's a time when communities can unite nationwide to raise awareness of bullying prevention through events, activities, outreach, and education. Resources from PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center make it easy to take action.

PACER created the campaign in 2006 with a one-week event which has now evolved into a month-long effort that encourages everyone to take an active role in the bullying prevention movement.

We have a variety of resources you can use during October '-- and throughout the year '-- to engage, educate, and inspire others to join the movement and prevent bullying where you live. Check out all of the different events and activities and make plans to get involved. Remember, the End of Bullying Begins With You!

Coming in October 2013:Would you like to receive updates about 2013 events for National Bullying Prevention Month? Complete the contact form for PACER or add your name to the digital ''The End of Bullying Begins With Me'' Petition.

Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying '' Schools, businesses, organizations, and communities will come together to Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying on Saturday, Oct. 5 in Bloomington, Minn., and at dozens of other locations around the country throughout the month. This fun, active outdoor event increases awareness of bullying prevention and raises funds to support the cause. We have all the tools you need to host a Run, Walk, Roll in your community. Check out PACER's free toolkit which shows you how to plan the event in five easy steps and includes tips, ideas, and resources.

Unity Day: Wednesday, Oct. 9 '' Mark your calendar now and make plans to wear orange on Unity Day. That's when scores of people around the country will join the movement to ''Make it Orange and Make it End!'' In 2011, Ellen DeGeneres promoted the cause on television by wearing orange and reminding millions of viewers about the importance of bullying prevention. Facebook supports the cause during October by providing users with information on PACER activities on its safety, educator, and privacy pages. Again in 2013, students will wear orange and use PACER resources to support the cause, hand out orange ''UNITY'' ribbons at school, and write ''UNITY'' on their hands or binders. Be sure to 'Attend' and 'Share' the Unity Day Facebook Event.

New Student Event ToolkitNeed help planning a student-led bullying prevention event? PACER has partnered with Facebook to create a practical Student Event Toolkit that will make it easier to hold events in your school or community. This step-by-step guide will help you plan, promote, and execute a variety of events throughout the year using Facebook tools.Take a look

Other exciting opportunities:Whether you are an educator, student, family, or individual you can take an active role during the month, ideas include:

''The culture of bullying won't end until people across the country take action and show kids that they care,'' says Julie Hertzog, director of PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center. ''National Bullying Prevention Month is a great opportunity to do that. This is a very real and painful issue that kids are facing but they don't have to face it alone. Bullying can be prevented if we all work together to change the culture.''

PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center provides creative and interactive resources that are designed to benefit all students, including students with disabilities. Middle and high school students can visit PACERTeensAgainstBullying.org and elementary school students PACERKidsAgainstBullying.org for additional ideas on how they can take action against bullying.

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Capitol Sheld-14 DRILL

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:27

The woman who was shot to death after a taut, high-speed car chase through the streets between the White House and Capitol Hill was still in her car, snagged on the curb of a grass-covered median, when the police fired at her, a Senate official said on Friday.

Terrance W. Gainer, the Senate sergeant-at-arms, who was briefed on aspects of the episode, said the woman, Miriam Carey, was trying to make a U-turn between a United States Capitol Police security booth and some planters in the middle of the street on Constitution Avenue when Capitol Police officers and uniformed Secret Service officers shot at the car with semiautomatic pistols.

Ms. Carey, 34, was a dental hygienist who lived in Stamford, Conn. Law enforcement officials said on Friday that investigators found antipsychotic medications in her apartment, potential clues to her actions. Friends and relatives, while portraying her as harmless, also recounted some bizarre behavior.

After collecting items from the Stamford apartment and interviewing friends and relatives, law enforcement authorities were still trying to understand what prompted her to drive to Washington and what she hoped to accomplish when she tried to force her way onto the White House grounds.

Ms. Carey, in a 2001 photo.

Advanced Periodontics, via Associated Press

Questions were also being raised about whether she posed enough of a threat during the fast-moving sequence of events that the police needed to shoot her.

Initially, Ms. Carey was thought to have gotten out of the car when she was shot on Thursday afternoon. Early accounts of such events are often inaccurate, however, and on Friday, new details emerged about the shooting and the woman who was killed.

Most police departments discourage or prohibit opening fire on vehicles. With responsibility for safeguarding two of the county's most significant landmarks, however, the Capitol Police and the Secret Service are particularly attuned to potential terrorist threats.

Car bombs are one concern, as evidenced by the restrictions on vehicles around the Capitol complex, and officials said that by remaining in the car, Ms. Carey might have heightened fears that the car was an explosive threat. No firearms or explosives were found on her or in her car.

A federal agent removed evidence from the apartment of Miriam Carey in Stamford, Conn., on Friday morning.

John Minchillo / Associated Press

Investigators were looking into reports from her boyfriend that she had been delusional and believed that she was a prophet and under electronic surveillance by President Obama.

Another man who knew her, Majestic Steele, who is a neighbor of Ms. Carey's mother, Idella Carey, said that a few years ago he saw Ms. Carey poised outside her mother's Brooklyn apartment, clutching a Bible and wailing at the sky. ''She was saying, 'Help me' and 'I need you,' and she was quoting Scripture,'' Mr. Steele said. ''The way she was speaking, it sounded like she was in trouble.''

In an interview broadcast on Friday night on ''Anderson Cooper 360°'' on CNN, Amy Carey, one of her sisters, said, ''I just know that my sister did experience postpartum depression with psychosis.'' But she said her sister had received ''treatment and medication and counseling,'' and she added, ''She didn't appear to be unstable.''

She and another sister, Valarie Carey, returned to Brooklyn on Friday night. They and the family's lawyer told a crowd of reporters that their sister had recently been weaned off of her medications, but seemed fine to them. But, they said they felt that she had been unfairly maligned as unstable in news reports.

They also questioned why the Washington police had used deadly force. ''Why was my sister shot and killed where her 1-year-old daughter was and she was unarmed?''said Valarie Carey, a former sergeant with the New York Police Department.

''We deserve to know why.''

Her sister had no delusions about meeting Mr. Obama, she added.

As depicted by law enforcement officials, witnesses and video of the chase, the final sequence played out as follows:

Driving a black Infiniti with a young child believed to be her daughter in the back seat, Ms. Carey tried to barrel through a checkpoint outside the White House at 2:12 p.m. She hit an officer who tried to stop her and who rolled over the hood of her car.

She then raced down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol at speeds approaching 80 miles an hour, ignoring red lights and efforts by Secret Service officers to have her pull over. When she seemed boxed in on the western side of the Capitol, officers converged on her with guns drawn. She put her car in reverse and sped off.

In a video of the episode, gunshots can be heard as Ms. Carey raced away. She hit a police car, then hurtled up Constitution Avenue. There, at the security booth, she tried to make the U-turn, heading toward the officers.

They then opened fire. The authorities would not estimate how many rounds were discharged. Mr. Gainer, the sergeant-at-arms, said he believed that five to seven officers had fired.

One officer sustained injuries, which were not life-threatening. The child was not hurt and is in protective custody.

Law enforcement experts outside of Washington said the shooting raised significant issues about the use of deadly force to stop Ms. Carey's car as it traveled along one of the nation's best-known routes, Pennsylvania Avenue between the White House and the Capitol.

The investigation into the shooting, which is being led by the Washington's Metropolitan Police Department, may focus on what threat the officers perceived Ms. Carey posed to them, the public and government facilities. The episode occurred just weeks after a mass shooting at the Washington Navy Yard and in the midst of a partial government shutdown.

Many police departments, including Washington's, prohibit officers from firing at moving cars, even when the car is being used in a threatening manner. The Metropolitan Police rules say that no officer shall discharge a firearm ''at or from a moving vehicle unless deadly force is being used against the officer or another person,'' and it notes, ''For purposes of this order, a moving vehicle is not considered deadly force.'' It is not clear whether the Secret Service or the Capitol Police have a similar policy.

''The question should be, what was the threat that justified deadly force?'' Geoffrey Alpert, a criminologist at the University of South Carolina, said. ''Was there a way to keep her from getting involved in this incredibly dangerous chase?''

He added: ''She had to be stopped. The question is, were there better ways to stop her? I don't know what the answers are.''

Others who study law enforcement said the rules might legitimately be different for officials in Washington.

Chuck Wexler, the executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, which recommends that police departments prohibit shooting at cars, said that constraint might not apply to the episode this week.

''The White House and the U.S. Capitol are both considered high risk targets,'' Mr. Wexler said. ''The people who protect the White House and the people who protect the Capitol are not thinking about your everyday criminal. They are thinking about a terrorist.''

Mr. Gainer, a former chief of the Capitol Police, pointed out that Ms. Carey had tried to breach a barricade at the White House and had fled at a high rate of speed despite being ordered to stop. Such behavior could raise the possibility of a car bomb.

''They did the right thing,'' Mr. Gainer said of the officers. ''It's not our typical car chase that starts out with some traffic stop.''

Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, defended the officers in a speech on the Senate floor on Friday. He said the decision to shoot Ms. Carey was ''understandable'' because the Capitol and the White House were often targets of attacks.

Ms. Carey was one of five daughters who grew up in East New York, Brooklyn, where her mother and other relatives still live. Her sister Franchette, who lives with her mother, said she had seen Ms. Carey during the week and noticed nothing unusual about her behavior.

Michael Brown, 33, a longtime friend, said he saw her on Tuesday evening.

He depicted her as generally friendly but not overly sociable. It was not clear where she had been working recently. Dr. Barry J. Weiss employed her at his periodontics practice in Hamden, Conn., for 15 months, before firing her in August 2012. He said she had not been getting along with fellow employees.

''When we confronted her about certain situations within the office, she had a temper,'' Dr. Weiss said.

Ms. Carey did not appear to have any previous criminal history.

Reporting was contributed by Kristin Hussey, Marc Santora, Michael S. Schmidt, Nate Schweber, Michael D. Shear and Vivian Yee, and research by Susan Beachy.

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LAWMAKERS TOLD TO TAKE OFF 'MEMBER' PINS

PINS-Capitol Police officer injured, lockdown ends on Capitol Hill - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com

D.C. Man Charged With Possession of Congressional Lapel Pin - The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:25

A police officer and a suspect were wounded Thursday outside the U.S. Capitol, which was locked down for about 45 minutes after unconfirmed reports of shots fired.

"This appears to be an isolated incident" unrelated to terrorism, U.S. Capitol Police said at a briefing.

Police said they are investigating multiple crash locations. One crash occurred at 1st and Constitution Avenue, where the officer was injured but appeared to be conscious and breathing while being transported to a local hospital. The other crash happened at 2nd and Maryland Avenue. A woman was injured as well.

A Capitol police cruiser had been abandoned in the street, its driver-side door open and the air bag deployed. A rear door had been ripped from its hinges and was lying in the street.

D.C. Police and the U.S. Secret Service are involved in the investigation.

President Barack Obama was briefed on the reports of gunfire on Capitol Hill this afternoon. White House staff are in touch with law enforcement and are monitoring the incident.

Shortly after the reports of shots fired at the Capitol, the Secret Service began putting up metal barricades along Pennsylvania Avenue outside the White House and herding tourists off the sidewalk and into nearby Lafayette Park.

Few knew what was happening and tourists began to congregate, taking pictures of the officers on horseback and as police began moving the barricades into place.

Rep. Juan Vargas, D-Calif., told McClatchy he was walking on 1st Street toward the Capitol when he heard a "pop, pop." A police officer then ran up to him, telling him to stop where he was.

"He told me to take the pin off," said Vargas, referring to his U.S. Congress lapel pin, "and I said 'What's going on?' and he said: 'Two officers shot, two officers down. Take your pin off, you could be a target.'"

During the lockdown, McClatchy's William Douglas reports, news crews were running toward the Hart Senate Office Building, which is near the Supreme Court building. People, mainly tourists, were seen running from Amtrak's Union Station toward the Capitol.

Police outside the Hart Building were scurrying, some with rifles in hand but pointing toward the ground.

At 2:25 p.m. ET, Capitol Police sent an alert:

"SHELTER IN PLACE. Gunshots have been reported on Capitol Hill requiring staff in all Senate Office Buildings to immediately shelter in place. Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows. Take annunciators, emergency supply kits and escape hoods; and move to your office's assigned shelter in place location or the innermost part of the office away from external doors or windows. If you are not near your office, go to the office nearest to you and shelter with that office and then check in with your OEC. No one will be permitted to enter or exit the building until directed by USCP. Staff is advised to monitor the situation. Further information will be provided as it becomes available."

David Lightman, Michael Doyle, Mark Seibel, Anita Kumar, Lesley Clark, Sarah Sexton, and Kendall Helblig contributed to this report.

Producer's account of DC shooting cop

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:45

Last month, U.S. Capitol Police got a call about an assault against a congressman.

The police arrived and asked the usual questions'--name and ID, please. The man standing there in the 100 block of Independence Avenue, near the Capitol, said his name was Jack Kingston, the Georgia congressman, and confessed he wasn't carrying ID, according to court records.

The time: seven minutes before 1 a.m. on Nov. 17. The man gave police a license tag number of the alleged get-away vehicle, but a check of the information did not turn up a vehicle listing. He also told the authorities he was not hurt and that ''the assailants actually never touched him.''

An officer asked the man about the Congressional lapel pin on his jacket. Oh, that thing? The man, according to police, told officers his late uncle, also a reported member of Congress, gave him the pin. (Court records do not name the man's uncle.)

Police soon confirmed the man with the pin was masquerading as a congressman. Jack Kingston, it turns out, is really Walter N. Lewis Jr., 24, of the District. Lewis was arrested and released on a charge of possession of a Congressional lapel pin.

From Capitol Police officer Vennak Pouch's affidavit: ''The Congressional lapel pin is a pin that is issued to members of Congress to bypass security when entering any Congressional building. The defendant was not authorized to have the Congressional lapel pin. It was later confirmed that the Congressional lapel pin that the defendant possessed was in fact an authentic Congressional lapel pin and was not issued to the defendant.''

Unlawful possession of a United States badge carries a maximum six-month sentence and the potential for a fine. Lewis was not immediately reached for comment today. Court records do not indicate whether he has hired an attorney.

The misdemeanor charge can't be all that common, since Lewis, after his arrest, was mistakenly told on a citation to report to D.C. Superior Court for arraignment, court records show.

Angela George, a federal prosecutor in the Violent Crimes and Narcotics Section of the U.S. Attorney's Office, this week asked a judge to issue a summons compelling Lewis to appear Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Prosecutors opted against requesting an arrest warrant.

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Police: Man who set himself ablaze on National Mall dies | Fox News

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Capitol shooting gives new Twitter alert system its first major test

Twitter starts alerts site for governments, law enforcement, emergency services - The Washington Post

Guidelines & FAQ | About

VIDEO-Capital Hill Shooting "Shelter in Place" Announcement - YouTube

TSA's new Pre-Check programs 75 years of prints on record

Gates Foundation: Common Core Produces Career-Ready Citizens

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:47

When the Transportation Security Administration's Pre-Check formally launches sometime this fall, its trusted-traveler program will already have the enthusiastic endorsement of frequent travelers '-- and an equally enthusiastic denouncement from privacy advocates.

Pre-Check offers an appealing shortcut past the often long airport security lines. After you pay an enrollment fee and submit to a background check and interview, the TSA promises to treat you like a VIP. You'll be sent to a preferred line, where you can leave your shoes, light outerwear and belt on, leave your laptop in its case and keep your bag of liquids and gels in your carry-on.

''I can't say enough about how much I love it,'' says Ralph Velasco, a photographer based in Corona del Mar, Calif. ''It's saved me many, many hours. I'd highly recommend it.''

How do Velasco and others know about the benefits of Pre-Check?

Because the agency assigned to protect U.S. transportation systems has slowly rolled out the program in 40 airports since 2011.

Travelers could opt in to Pre-Check through their frequent-flier program or through another government trusted-traveler initiative, such as Global Entry, a similar program that allows travelers to cut the customs line when they return to the United States from overseas.

Velasco, for example, belongs to Global Entry, which is operated by U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

But you might think twice before plunking down the $85 that a five-year Pre-Check membership is expected to cost. Privacy advocates and some consumers are uneasy about government trusted-traveler programs like this one. There's no guarantee that you'll be approved, and if you aren't, you may never know why. And Pre-Check status is no guarantee that you can avoid a standard TSA screening, which includes a full-body scan or a so-called ''enhanced'' pat-down.

''If you sign up, you'll want to keep your nose clean for the rest of your life,'' says Gregory Nojeim, a director at the Center for Democracy & Technology. ''Because that's how long the FBI will keep your fingerprints.''

True, as part of the application process, TSA collects a cache of personal information about you, including your prints. They're held in a database for 75 years, and the database is queried by the FBI and state and local law enforcement as needed to solve crimes at which fingerprints are lifted from crime scenes, according to Nojeim. The prints may also be used for background checks.

''What started as a criminal database to link arrestees to other crimes is being turned into an all-purpose database of fingerprint identifiers,'' Nojeim says.

It isn't what Pre-Check is now '-- we don't really know that yet '-- but what it could someday become that worries privacy-watchers. In the future, it isn't too difficult to imagine a faster line for pre-screened train passengers waiting to board. TSA's roaming Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams already selectively screen Amtrak passengers and attendees at special events such as NFL games and political conventions. It also wouldn't be much of a stretch to see the program requiring passengers to be pre-approved before they can fly.

Source: BlackListedNews.com

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:29

>>The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) have financed a study that claims K-12 teachers praise Common Core State Standards (CCSS) as the perfect way to improve students' thinking skills.

Data for the study was provided by a national online survey conducted by the Harrison Group wherein 20,157 public school educators were questioned in July of this year.

There were 20,000 participants in the study that are educators. The study was published by Scholastic, Inc.

This study states that three-fourths of teachers believe that CCSS improves student's ability to reason and think critically.

With the backing of the National Governors Association (NGA) and the Council of Chief School Officers (CCSS) was introduced in 2009 to states across the nation.

The NGA and CCSS collaborated with experts provided by the BMGF to create CCSS.

President Obama initiated billions of dollars in federal grant money to install CCSS into public schools to create ''collage and career-ready standards '' of educating American youth.

Margery Mayer, president of education for Scholastic said: ''I think that teachers see this as a moment of renewal. They like what the Common Core is asking them to do in the classroom.''

The School Improvement Network (SIN) conducted a survey of 3,077 teachers that claims 81% of CCSS will produce ''an overall positive impact on student preparation toward college and career'' while 79% of participants stated that CCSS has ''become overly politicized and that they do not support efforts by political groups'' to remove the standards from public schools.

BMGF published a document entitled, ''Shifting into High Gear: Accelerating the Common Core through Teacher Networks'' which creates ''robust teacher networks to accelerate the impact of their efforts to support Common Core implementation.''

The College Ready Work (CRW) team is an off-shoot of the College Ready Strategy (CRS) provides ''existing Foundation partners'' to become ''networks'' for educators to ensure that CCSS is implemented ''successfully''.

Last month, Maine Governor Paul LaPage signed an executive order (EO) reiterating that public schools in Maine are locally controlled that student's personal information will not be shared with corporations and federal agencies.

The EO states that ''the Department of Education shall not adopt any educational standards, curricula or instructional approaches that may be mandated by the federal government. That the Department of Education shall not apply for any federal grant that requires, as a condition of application, the adoption of any federally-developed standards, curricula or instructional approaches.''

CCSS is directed at teaching children to gauge their decision-making abilities on the whims of their emotional state by emphasizing personal analysis through consistent multiple-choice testing.

CCSS aspires to ''have set new goals for student learning'' and require ''effective tools and resources to ensure students meet those goals.''

Under the CCSS, new standards of learning have been implemented with the expressed purpose of dumbing down the population. These include:

' Basic knowledge of the ''classics'' without a focus on reading comprehension' Reinvention of writing skill to focus on keyboard and typing skills for college and career readiness' Learning how to speak improperly by integrating slang and other alternative modes of communication' Using media as a form of learning to train students to become dependent on mainstream media for their information while de-emphasizing personal research and independent thought' Replacing cursive writing with courses on keyboard and focus on improving typing skills' Replacing cognitive thought facilitated by mathematics with the broad belief system that illegitimates logic and reasoning

Pennsylvania approved CCSS in 2010; however concerns caused parents to question whether or not there would be national statewide testing, new reading lists and data collection made on students attending public schools.

State House Representative Seth Grove asserted that ''the community is screaming that we need career-ready kids.''

Teachers in Idaho will be using approved ''strategy cards'' to teach students how to drill for a math quiz. The idea is that students will be inspired to find the answer, rather than show children how to work through a math equation.

Memorization is the center of this new way of educating children with a focus on visualization to understand relationships between numbers. This is a technique that supposes the child will eventually come to the correct answer to the question.

By using deduction, the CCSS standard is part of the uniform ''what every child should know curriculum.''

The US Armed Forces applaud CCSS ability to produce automatons as recruits to the military; however the reality is that because of CCSS, there is a 30% increase in new recruits who cannot pass the entry exam.

This is an issue in Tennessee where military families are concerned that the next generation will not be able to function within the military.

The GI Bill and educational subsidies may become obsolete should new recruits not need to learn, but rather acquire a skill.

CCSS emphasizes ''skill that military leaders value and need in our servicemen and women''; however the trade-off are generations that cannot think for themselves, cannot reason independently and are lacking the ability to perform simple tasks such as structuring a sentence.

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Ex-NSA chief jokes about putting Edward Snowden on kill list - The Hill's Hillicon Valley

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Exclusive: Former WikiLeaks Employee James Ball Describes Working With Julian Assange - The Daily Beast

A WikiLeaks Family Feud Erupts on Twitter | FP Passport

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:01

It's now been more than three years since the world saw the horrifying footage of the ''Collateral Murder'' video: civilians mown down in a ghastly battlefield error. Their would-be rescuer'--a father taking his children to school'--similarly shot to pieces by a U.S. helicopter gunship, its pilots chatting and laughing as if playing a video game.

Kirsty Wigglesworth/AP

And for those who kept watching, an aspect of the footage often forgotten: a Hellfire missile fired into a building, with no regard of the passerby just outside. Waiting a mere few seconds longer could've kept him safe'--but no. Amid the revulsion at the earlier horror of the clip, this became a mere background detail.

That footage was just the start of a string of ever-larger WikiLeaks document releases, reporting, and revelations that shook the faith of many around the world in the U.S. government's activities'--from revelations of death squads operating in Afghanistan, through complicity in torture in the Iraq documents, to evidence of spying on U.N. diplomats in U.S. Embassy cables.

Now, two years after the last release of that kind of significance'--the Guantnamo files'--comes an opportunity to reflect on WikiLeaks; its most famous source, Bradley Manning; and its ever-divisive founder, Julian Assange.

That opportunity is the release of Alex Gibney's We Steal Secrets, a fast-paced, two-hour foray through the story of WikiLeaks, its founder, and what happened next. It's a film that's been roundly condemned by Julian Assange and his remaining supporters long before they've gone to the trouble of seeing it. Why?

One all-too-plausible reason is that Gibney's fil'--spoiler alert, if it's possible to spoil a documentary'--is perhaps the nearest you can come to living the WikiLeaks experience without having actually been there.

Here's an exclusive clip of former WikiLeaks employee James Ball in Alex Gibney's acclaimed documentary, 'We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks.'

For me, the film was more like d(C)j vu'--something I'd lived once already. From summer 2010, WikiLeaks became my life for months. First, at the U.K.-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, I was part of the team working for 10 weeks investigating the Iraq War Logs for Al Jazeera English and Arabic, Channel 4's flagship Dispatches documentary, and iraqwarlogs.com.

I then went a step further, working directly for WikiLeaks for several months on the embassy cables'--analyzing the cables, distributing them to staff, writing press releases, appearing on TV, and more.

It was groundbreaking, important journalism, but it was done against the backdrop of an organization crumbling under pressure, crossing ethical boundaries, and placing people needlessly in danger.

For me, it was too much, and I left. Since then, in a leak of the script of Gibney's film, WikiLeaks has posted that I sold them out for cash (nope), was a wanna-be spy who interviewed for MI5 (nope), and stole their data'--including, bizarrely, my own copy of a gag order they asked me to sign to stop me speaking out on what I didn't like.

Seeing yourself portrayed by WikiLeaks is like walking through a circus hall of mirrors: there's just enough resemblance for you to recognize yourself, but you're seriously distorted'--and usually in a way that makes you look grotesque.

Many made their mind up on Julian Assange long ago'--but here, for the record, is what really happened in those fateful few months.

The honeymoon phase was real: WikiLeaks and its partners were doing important work on revelatory documents, and the reaction against it was often abhorrent'--Assange and WikiLeaks received death threats on U.S. television, were subject to blockades from the world's biggest payment providers (Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal), and underwent U.S. grand-jury investigations.

The pressure and the stress were real, and needless. But the atmosphere of paranoia and defensiveness they created led to WikiLeaks committing serious misdeeds of its own'--too serious to ignore.

One controversy provided the backdrop of all of WikiLeaks' activities during these months: Assange's Swedish sex case. Two women accused Assange of sexual assaults, relating to either tearing a condom or initiating unprotected sex while his partner was sleeping.

Only three people know exactly what happened on the two nights that led to Assange's prosecution, and it's for the courts to establish more. It's not for me or the media to judge Assange's guilt. But the witness statements make it clear this was no set-up job: the accounts are messy, difficult, and the undisputed facts show a picture far more complex than a honey trap. That wasn't enough to stop Assange'--and members of his legal team, through insinuation'--to set the ball rolling on three years of abuse, denigration, and suspicion against his two accusers.

One of the key instigations was this quote: ''I'm not saying it was a honey trap. I'm not saying it was not a honey trap,'' Assange told John Humphreys, the anchor of a major U.K. radio show, initiating an open season of speculation, abuse, death threats, and more against his accusers.

Whatever happened to those women three years ago, they've certainly gone through hell since.

As Assange was remanded in custody for a week in December 2010, Kristinn Hrafnsson, the silver-haired Icelandic journalist who is the second-most high-profile WikiLeaker, and I conferred on how to handle the media strategy, as every mainstream outlet ran the ''Will WikiLeaks collapse without its founder?'' story.

We agreed on a simple line: Julian was WikiLeaks' founder and editor, and had its full support'--but his court issues were a private matter, and we were getting on with publishing 251,000 embassy cables.

That line wasn't acceptable to Julian. Within 24 hours, once he'd had word, he reversed it. Julian's fight was WikiLeaks' fight. This was a freedom-of-speech issue, not a sex-offense trial. We'd just have to live with it. Consequently, for the last three years, huge and significant Internet freedom issues have played second fiddle to one man's melodrama.

All of that is distasteful. But it's not why I quit.

The reason I quit was because of a friend of Julian's whose activities were unstomachable and unforgivable. That man was Israel Shamir. Shamir is an anti-Semitic writer, a supporter of the dictator of Belarus, and a man with ties and friends in Russian security services. He and Julian'--unknown to us'--had been in friendly contact for years. It was a friendship that would have serious consequences.

Introduced to WikiLeaks staff and supporters under a false name, Shamir was given direct access to more than 90,000 of the U.S. Embassy cables, covering Russia, all of Eastern Europe, parts of the Middle East, and Israel. This was, for quite some time, denied by WikiLeaks. But that's never a denial I've found convincing: the reason I know he has them is that I gave them to him, at Assange's orders, not knowing who he was.

Why did this prove to be a grave mistake? Not just for Shamir's views, which are easy to Google, but for what he did next. The first hints of trouble came through contacts from various Putin-influenced Russian media outlets. A pro-Putin outlet got in touch to say Shamir had been asking for $10,000 for access to the cables. He was selling the material we were working to give away free, to responsible outlets.

Worse was to come. The NGO Index on Censorship sent a string of questions and some photographic evidence, suggesting Shamir had given the cables to Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, Europe's last dictator. Shamir had written a pro-Belarus article, shortly before photos emerged of him leaving the interior ministry. The day after, Belarus's dictator gave a speech saying he was establishing a WikiLeaks for Belarus, citing some stories and information appearing in the genuine (and then unpublished) cables.

Assange refused and blocked any attempts at investigation, and released public statements that were simply untrue.

Disturbingly, Assange seems to have a personal motivation for staying friendly with Shamir. Shamir's son, Johannes Wahlstrom, is apparently being called as one of Assange's defense witnesses in his Swedish trial. That's not the only time self has come before principle.

On other occasions, Assange's selfishness needlessly risked WikiLeaks financial future.

When first trying to gain bail money, Assange sought to empty WikiLeaks' bank accounts to pay the cash (a scheme which would never have worked given the rules). But luckily for WikiLeaks, the trustees of the organization's then-main bank account, the Wau Holland foundation, rightly refused the request, which would have all but cleared out the account. Given the duration of the banking blockade, that money eventually had to last around 18 months. Had Assange got his way, the money that got WikiLeaks through the blockade wouldn't have been there.

The final straw was'--as it always is'--the attempted cover-up. In November 2010, WikiLeaks asked everyone who worked there to sign a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) covering the material we were being given access to'--not to sell it, disclose without permission, or similar. Given the importance of what we were working on, that seemed reasonable. Everyone, including me, signed.

By January, the situation had changed. With me and others concerned about what we saw as ethical lapses left, right, and center, Assange produced a new NDA, silencing anyone who signed it for a full decade against saying a word about WikiLeaks activities, on the pain of millions of dollars of penalties.

Faced with the bizarre situation of being asked to sign a gag order by a whistleblowing organization, I, alone, refused. Encouraged by Julian (I later learned), WikiLeaks staffers kept me up until 3 a.m. pressuring me to sign. Early the next morning, I awoke with Assange sat on my bed, pressuring me to sign'--even before I was dressed. I held out, eventually left our remote location, and didn't go back.

This is the mess you get into when you buy into the ''noble lie,'' as Julian willingly does.

Eventually, you've got to back your claims up. And that's what is needed: people to really believe in the principles WikiLeaks supposedly stands for, rather than in a cartoon hero or villain figure.

The consequences of mistakes, of arrogance, of division, are all too real.

Assange isn't entirely venal. His problem is ''noble cause'' corruption: behavior he'd rightly condemn in others, he excuses in himself, because he believes, at his core, he is the good guy.

Myself, I'm reminded of the conclusion of George Orwell's Animal Farm: Julian Assange has become everything he originally, rightly, despised.

There is, though, one happier lesson from WikiLeaks, that is rightly highlighted in Gibney's film: we haven't paid enough attention to Bradley Manning. Manning is too easy to turn into a poster boy, an easy icon, a cause.

Manning the human is more complex, more flawed, more fascinating, and more inspiring.

Gibney's focus on Manning's flaws and conviction alike shows the human story at the center of WikiLeaks. It shows the need to support people like Manning.

And it shows that whistleblowers aren't cartoon heroes made of different stuff to everyone else.

Anyone has the potential to do what Manning did: act on conscience to break the rules in a good cause. And because of that, despite the rows and betrayals, the WikiLeaks story remains one that can give everyone a lot of reason to hope.

Applebaum wiki/guardian/TOR tweet thread

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:55

As revelations about the National Security Agency's intelligence gathering activities continue to trickle out, the ghost of Julian Assange has begun to haunt the activists and journalists fighting back against the all-mighty NSA.

On Thursday, a Twitter spat broke out among a group of former WikiLeaks activists who are now at the forefront of the Snowden revelations, a fight that's exposing the degree to which Assange continues to loom over a new generation of activist journalism. According to Jacob Appelbaum, a former WikiLeaks associate, the Guardian is sitting on a story about how the NSA handles Tor, the premier application for protecting user anonymity online. On Thursday Appelbaum attacked an editor for the paper and another WikiLeaks alum, James Ball, for refusing to show Appelbaum, a Tor developer, the documents behind that story.

What exactly the Snowden files reveal about the NSA and Tor is, at this point, unclear. But recently-released documents show that the NSA has actively worked to undermine tools for anonymous communication online. Tools like Tor, in other words.

With Tor potentially compromised by the world's premier intelligence organization, a minor fight in one corner of the Twittersphere is illuminating just how divided Assange's prot(C)g(C)s are about how to carry out investigative journalism in the digital age. Welcome to the front lines of the war between the fourth and fifth estates.

Here's how that fight played out:

Besides personal animosity, the central question of this debate between two former WikiLeaks employees -- one now reporting on the Snowden documents, the other figuring out ways to protect privacy online -- is animated by the following question: To what extent should journalistic organizations make public secret documents that they have obtained? Over the long course of the Snowden revelations, the Guardian has shown itself willing to redact large portions of the documents it has obtained and has declined to publish others in their entirety. That philosophy deeply rankles activists like Appelbaum and rejects the radical transparency espoused by WikiLeaks.

So why does an internecine fight on Internet politics even matter? In taking his documents to the Glenn Greenwald and the Guardian, Snowden in a sense rebuked Assange and his journalistic methods. By creating a repository for secret, searchable documents, Assange hoped to inspire a revolution in journalism -- but that revolution didn't quite work out as planned. Assange's decision to make public huge troves of sensitive documents tainted him. Viewed as a pariah and an activist unwilling to consider the security implications of publishing secret cables and battlefield reports, Assange's reputation plummeted -- a fact helped in no small part by the sexual assault charges leveled against him. But Assange's methods presented a further problem: Publishing huge archives just wasn't splashy enough, as his audience had neither the attention span nor the expertise to make sense of millions of documents. As made clear by his decision to go to the Guardian, Snowden absorbed all these lessons, taking his documents instead to Glenn Greenwald.

The journalists pushing the Snowden story forward now find themselves in a strange place. Given his central role in helping Snowden attain asylum in Moscow and his position as a founding member of what might be called transparency movement, Assange remains a central figure, especially in light of the revelations about the NSA. He retains the ability to make news and has access to Snowden -- about as hot a commodity possible in the world of Internet activism. At the same time, the journalists reporting on the Snowden documents have largely disavowed Assange's methods. At once, they are both indebted to his work and hesitant to be associated with him. Greenwald, who for years publicly trumpeted WikiLeaks' cause, said in a Tweet to Tom Cooper that Assange's methods are downright "dumb."*

That sense of disillusionment is rampant among the journalists working on the Snowden story. In a May essay for the Daily Beast, Ball, the journalist whom Appelbaum attacked Thursday, described WikiLeaks as "an organization crumbling under pressure, crossing ethical boundaries, and placing people needlessly in danger." Assange, Ball believes, has become twisted by the experience of running WikiLeaks. "Julian Assange has become everything he originally, rightly, despised," Ball wrote.

Appelbaum, however, remains something of an evangelist for WikiLeaks and illustrates the deep divide between establishment journalists and digital activists, a division sometimes referred to as the difference between the fourth and fifth estate. (The forthcoming Assange biopic with Benedict Cumberbatch in the starring role is title "The Fifth Estate.") Whereas mainstream outlets are content to report on the general outlines of government activity and disclose only parts of the documents they have obtained, members of the so-called fifth estate want them to go further and release documents in their entirety. Concessions to government requests not to release certain information that might damage national security are, in Appelbaum's words, censorship.

But for activists like Appelbaum, the stakes of this debate are also deeply personal. For years, they have been engaged in a struggle to set up an Internet free of government surveillance, and documents like those provided by Snowden are key to that struggle. Tor, for example, was recently penetrated by federal agents in taking down the head of Freedom Hosting, which served as a hub for child pornography. In that operation, FBI agents used a so-called "zero day exploit" to compromise Tor's anonymizing features. If the NSA has figured out other ways to do the impossible -- determine user identities on the Tor network -- Appelbaum and his colleague's have a lot of work to do deliver on the promise of their system.

As a result of this ongoing debate, the ghost of Assange is hovering the background of the Snowden story. He hasn't completely gotten his way -- his revolution in journalism remains a far way off -- but he's still, even from the confines of the Ecuadorean embassy in London, able to weirdly define the terms of the debate.

At the very least, he's haunting the dreams of intelligence officials scared stiff of what will be leaked next.

Update: Oct. 4, 2013, 9:45 a.m.

In a tweet Friday morning, Greenwald pushed back on this story to say that he remains a supporter of WikiLeaks' "pioneering methods." Appelbaum pushed back as well, arguing that this story did not state why he is interested in the Guardian article on Tor: that a "delay may be harmful to Tor users."

*Clarification: In a tweet describing document dumps as "dumb," Glenn Greenwald was addressing himself to Tom Cooper, not Asher Wolf or Jacob Appelbaum.

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Report: NSA has little success cracking Tor | Security - InfoWorld

NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:41

The U.S. National Security Agency has repeatedly tried to compromise Tor, the government-funded online anonymity tool, but has had little success, according to a new report in the U.K.'s Guardian.

The NSA has tried multiple strategies for defeating Tor, with its most successful method focused on attacking vulnerable software on users' computers, including the Firefox browser, according to the report, published Friday. In the Firefox attack, NSA agents have been able to gain "full control" of targets' computers, said the report, citing documents given to the Guardian by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

[ Learn how to protect your systems with Roger Grimes' Security Adviser blog and Security Central newsletter, both from InfoWorld. ]

NSA documents provided by Snowden, which the Guardian began publishing in June, say the agency is collecting bulk phone records in the U.S. as well as Internet communications overseas.

But in many cases, the NSA has been frustrated in its efforts to target Tor users, an irony because the open-source project is largely funded by the U.S. Department of Defense, the NSA's parent agency, and the U.S. Department of State.

"We will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time," according to one NSA document quoted by the Guardian. "With manual analysis we can de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users." The NSA has had "no success de-anonymizing a user in response" to a specific request, the document said.

Tor is "the king of high-secure, low-latency internet anonymity," the report quotes another NSA document as saying.

Tor routes Internet traffic through a number of relays as a way to keep communications anonymous. The State Department promotes the software to activists in countries with strong censorship regimes, including Iran and China.

An NSA spokeswoman referred a request for comments on the story to a previous statement from the agency:

"In carrying out its signals intelligence mission, NSA collects only those communications that it is authorized by law to collect for valid foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes, regardless of the technical means used by those targets or the means by which they may attempt to conceal their communications. ... It should hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract targets' use of technologies to hide their communications.

"Throughout history, nations have used various methods to protect their secrets, and today terrorists, cybercriminals, human traffickers and others use technology to hide their activities," the statement continued. "Our intelligence community would not be doing its job if we did not try to counter that."

NSA efforts to compromise "anonymous online communication" is justified, U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper said in a statement released late Friday.

News articles on the NSA's Tor efforts "fail to make clear that the intelligence community's interest in online anonymity services and other online communication and networking tools is based on the undeniable fact that these are the tools our adversaries use to communicate and coordinate attacks against the United States and our allies," Clapper said. "The articles fail to mention that the intelligence community is only interested in communication related to valid foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes and that we operate within a strict legal framework that prohibits accessing information related to the innocent online activities of U.S. citizens."

Tor anonymizer network among NSA's targets, Snowden leaks reveal

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:53

The National Security Agency has made repeated attempts to develop attacks against people using Tor, a popular tool designed to protect online anonymity, despite the fact the software is primarily funded and promoted by the US government itself.

Top-secret NSA documents, disclosed by whistleblower Edward Snowden, reveal that the agency's current successes against Tor rely on identifying users and then attacking vulnerable software on their computers. One technique developed by the agency targeted the Firefox web browser used with Tor, giving the agency full control over targets' computers, including access to files, all keystrokes and all online activity.

But the documents suggest that the fundamental security of the Tor service remains intact. One top-secret presentation, titled 'Tor Stinks', states: "We will never be able to de-anonymize all Tor users all the time." It continues: "With manual analysis we can de-anonymize a very small fraction of Tor users," and says the agency has had "no success de-anonymizing a user in response" to a specific request.

Another top-secret presentation calls Tor "the king of high-secure, low-latency internet anonymity".

Tor '' which stands for The Onion Router '' is an open-source public project that bounces its users' internet traffic through several other computers, which it calls "relays" or "nodes", to keep it anonymous and avoid online censorship tools.

It is relied upon by journalists, activists and campaigners in the US and Europe as well as in China, Iran and Syria, to maintain the privacy of their communications and avoid reprisals from government. To this end, it receives around 60% of its funding from the US government, primarily the State Department and the Department of Defense '' which houses the NSA.

Despite Tor's importance to dissidents and human rights organizations, however, the NSA and its UK counterpart GCHQ have devoted considerable efforts to attacking the service, which law enforcement agencies say is also used by people engaged in terrorism, the trade of child abuse images, and online drug dealing.

Privacy and human rights groups have been concerned about the security of Tor following revelations in the Guardian, New York Times and ProPublica about widespread NSA efforts to undermine privacy and security software. A report by Brazilian newspaper Globo also contained hints that the agencies had capabilities against the network.

While it seems that the NSA has not compromised the core security of the Tor software or network, the documents detail proof-of-concept attacks, including several relying on the large-scale online surveillance systems maintained by the NSA and GCHQ through internet cable taps.

One such technique is based on trying to spot patterns in the signals entering and leaving the Tor network, to try to de-anonymise its users. The effort was based on a long-discussed theoretical weakness of the network: that if one agency controlled a large number of the "exits" from the Tor network, they could identify a large amount of the traffic passing through it.

The proof-of-concept attack demonstrated in the documents would rely on the NSA's cable-tapping operation, and the agency secretly operating computers, or 'nodes', in the Tor system. However, one presentation stated that the success of this technique was "negligible" because the NSA has "access to very few nodes" and that it is "difficult to combine meaningfully with passive Sigint".

While the documents confirm the NSA does indeed operate and collect traffic from some nodes in the Tor network, they contain no detail as to how many, and there are no indications that the proposed de-anonymization technique was ever implemented.

Other efforts mounted by the agencies include attempting to direct traffic toward NSA-operated servers, or attacking other software used by Tor users. One presentation, titled 'Tor: Overview of Existing Techniques', also refers to making efforts to "shape", or influence, the future development of Tor, in conjunction with GCHQ.

Another effort involves measuring the timings of messages going in and out of the network to try to identify users. A third attempts to degrade or disrupt the Tor service, forcing users to abandon the anonymity protection.

Such efforts to target or undermine Tor are likely to raise legal and policy concerns for the intelligence agencies.

Foremost among those concerns is whether the NSA has acted, deliberately or inadvertently, against internet users in the US when attacking Tor. One of the functions of the anonymity service is to hide the country of all of its users, meaning any attack could be hitting members of Tor's substantial US user base.

Several attacks result in implanting malicious code on the computer of Tor users who visit particular websites. The agencies say they are targeting terrorists or organized criminals visiting particular discussion boards, but these attacks could also hit journalists, researchers, or those who accidentally stumble upon a targeted site.

The efforts could also raise concerns in the State Department and other US government agencies that provide funding to increase Tor's security '' as part of the Obama administration's internet freedom agenda to help citizens of repressive regimes '' circumvent online restrictions.

Material published online for a discussion event held by the State Department, for example, described the importance of tools such as Tor.

"[T]he technologies of internet repression, monitoring and control continue to advance and spread as the tools that oppressive governments use to restrict internet access and to track citizen online activities grow more sophisticated. Sophisticated, secure, and scalable technologies are needed to continue to advance internet freedom."

The Broadcasting Board of Governors, a federal agency whose mission is to "inform, engage, and connect people around the world in support of freedom and democracy" through networks such as Voice of America, also supported Tor's development until October 2012 to ensure that people in countries such as Iran and China could access BBG content. Tor continues to receive federal funds through Radio Free Asia, which is funded by a federal grant from BBG.

The governments of both these countries have attempted to curtail Tor's use: China has tried on multiple occasions to block Tor entirely, while one of the motives behind Iranian efforts to create a "national internet" entirely under government control was to prevent circumvention of those controls.

The NSA's own documents acknowledge the service's wide use in countries where the internet is routinely surveilled or censored. One presentation notes that among uses of Tor for "general privacy" and "non-attribution", it can be used for "circumvention of nation state internet policies" '' and is used by "dissidents" in "Iran, China, etc".

Yet GCHQ documents show a disparaging attitude towards Tor users. One presentation acknowledges Tor was "created by the US government" and is "now maintained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)", a US freedom of expression group. In reality, Tor is maintained by an independent foundation, though has in the past received funding from the EFF.

The presentation continues by noting that "EFF will tell you there are many pseudo-legitimate uses for Tor", but says "we're interested as bad people use Tor". Another presentation remarks: "Very naughty people use Tor".

The technique developed by the NSA to attack Tor users through vulnerable software on their computers has the codename EgotisticalGiraffe, the documents show. It involves exploiting the Tor browser bundle, a collection of programs, designed to make it easy for people to install and use the software. Among these is a version of the Firefox web browser.

The trick, detailed in a top-secret presentation titled 'Peeling back the layers of Tor with EgotisticalGiraffe', identified website visitors who were using the protective software and only executed its attack '' which took advantage of vulnerabilities in an older version of Firefox '' against those people. Under this approach, the NSA does not attack the Tor system directly. Rather, targets are identified as Tor users and then the NSA attacks their browsers.

According to the documents provided by Snowden, the particular vulnerabilities used in this type of attack were inadvertently fixed by Mozilla Corporation in Firefox 17, released in November 2012 '' a fix the NSA had not circumvented by January 2013 when the documents were written.

The older exploits would, however, still be usable against many Tor users who had not kept their software up to date.

A similar but less complex exploit against the Tor network was revealed by security researchers in July this year. Details of the exploit, including its purpose and which servers it passed on victims' details to, led to speculation it had been built by the FBI or another US agency.

At the time, the FBI refused to comment on whether it was behind the attack, but subsequently admitted in a hearing in an Irish court that it had operated the malware to target an alleged host of images of child abuse '' though the attack did also hit numerous unconnected services on the Tor network.

Roger Dingledine, the president of the Tor project, said the NSA's efforts serve as a reminder that using Tor on its own is not sufficient to guarantee anonymity against intelligence agencies '' but showed it was also a great aid in combating mass surveillance.

"The good news is that they went for a browser exploit, meaning there's no indication they can break the Tor protocol or do traffic analysis on the Tor network," Dingledine said. "Infecting the laptop, phone, or desktop is still the easiest way to learn about the human behind the keyboard.

"Tor still helps here: you can target individuals with browser exploits, but if you attack too many users, somebody's going to notice. So even if the NSA aims to surveil everyone, everywhere, they have to be a lot more selective about which Tor users they spy on."

But he added: "Just using Tor isn't enough to keep you safe in all cases. Browser exploits, large-scale surveillance, and general user security are all challenging topics for the average internet user. These attacks make it clear that we, the broader internet community, need to keep working on better security for browsers and other internet-facing applications."

The Guardian asked the NSA how it justified attacking a service funded by the US government, how it ensured that its attacks did not interfere with the secure browsing of law-abiding US users such as activists and journalists, and whether the agency was involved in the decision to fund Tor or efforts to "shape" its development.

The agency did not directly address those questions, instead providing a statement.

It read: "In carrying out its signals intelligence mission, NSA collects only those communications that it is authorized by law to collect for valid foreign intelligence and counter-intelligence purposes, regardless of the technical means used by those targets or the means by which they may attempt to conceal their communications. NSA has unmatched technical capabilities to accomplish its lawful mission. "As such, it should hardly be surprising that our intelligence agencies seek ways to counteract targets' use of technologies to hide their communications. Throughout history, nations have used various methods to protect their secrets, and today terrorists, cybercriminals, human traffickers and others use technology to hide their activities. Our intelligence community would not be doing its job if we did not try to counter that."

' This article was amended on 4 October after the Broadcasting Board of Governors pointed out that its support of Tor ended in October 2012.

' Bruce Schneier is an unpaid member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation's board of directors. He has not been involved in any discussions on funding.

Adobe suffers major cyber attack, says data on 2.9 million customers was compromised | The Verge

Source: RT - USA

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 19:46

Published time: October 04, 2013 15:04Edited time: October 04, 2013 16:06Top-secret national security documents disclosed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden show United States and British intelligence have long attempted to crack the Tor anonymizer network used by human rights workers, journalists, cybercriminals and others.

On Friday, the Guardian published leaked documents attributed to the former intelligence contractor revealing how the US National Security Agency and Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, have worked extensively towards compromising the computers of people who browse the Internet with Tor, a program that routes traffic through multiple nodes in an effort to help mask the identities of its users.

According to the Guardian's James Ball, Bruce Schneier and Glenn Greenwald, the NSA's ''current successes against Tor rely on identifying users and then attacking vulnerable software on their computer.''

''While it seems that the NSA has not compromised the core security of the Tor software or network, the documents detail proof-of-concept attacks, including several relying on the large-scale online surveillance systems maintained by the NSA and GCHQ through internet cable taps,'' the writers add.

The Guardian has so far published three top-secret government slideshows used to discuss the Tor network and possible vulnerabilities that might compromise users if properly exploited.

In one document, the NSA notes that Tor, or ''The Onion Router,'' enables anonymous Internet activity to Iranian and Chinese dissidents, terrorists and ''other targets too!'' The software has become increasingly used around the globe by privacy-minded individuals of all sorts in recent months. However, previous documents disclosed by Mr. Snowden detailed how the intelligence community have made many successful efforts to compromise other would-be secure modes of communicating.

As RT reported previously, the number of Americans using Tor jumped 75 percent between June 1, just days before the first Snowden leak, and August 27, 2013.

One government document, ''Peeling Back the Layers of TOR with Egotisticalgiraffe,'' suggests the security of some Tor users can be compromised if the government or other malicious actor can exploit bugs in the Firefox browser and other vulnerabilities.

In another slideshow, ''Tor Stinks,'' the government claims it already has access to a select number of nodes which anonymized traffic is navigated through.

The ''goal,'' according to the NSA slide, is to ''expand [the] number of nodes we have access to.'' To accomplish as much, it's acknowledged that GCHQ runs Tor nodes under a program of its own, and that other partners may be able to assist with further efforts to deconstruct traffic patterns to narrow-in on otherwise anonymous users.

Other tools used by the NSA involve collecting cookies from Tor users created when they are browsing the Web without the anonymizer software running. One technique, codenamed ''QUANTUM,'' exists to degrade, deny and disrupt Tor access, according to the documents. Another, ''QUANTUMCOOKIE,'' ''forces client to divulge stored cookies'' which could then further aid investigators attempting to hone in on targets otherwise protected by Tor.

Despite the NSA and GCHQ's efforts, though, Tor itself has proved to be invincible to government attacks thus far.

''Can we exploit nodes? Probably not,'' reads one slide which cites ''legal and technical challenges.''

Still, the government has considered disrupting traffic over the Tor network to likely draw users off the nodes and into a habitat where their actions could be more easily traced. In one slide, the NSA suggests they could ''set up a lot of really slow Tor nodes,'' disguised as high bandwidth, ''to degrade the overall stability of the network.''

Tor documents, courtesy of Glenn Greenwald:

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Important Customer Security Announcement (Adobe Featured Blogs)

Sir Bob Geldof: 'All humans will die before 2030' | Latest News | News | Daily Star. Simply The Best 7 Days A Week

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:40

Cyber attacks are one of the unfortunate realities of doing business today. Given the profile and widespread use of many of our products, Adobe has attracted increasing attention from cyber attackers. Very recently, Adobe's security team discovered sophisticated attacks on our network, involving the illegal access of customer information as well as source code for numerous Adobe products. We believe these attacks may be related.

Our investigation currently indicates that the attackers accessed Adobe customer IDs and encrypted passwords on our systems. We also believe the attackers removed from our systems certain information relating to 2.9 million Adobe customers, including customer names, encrypted credit or debit card numbers, expiration dates, and other information relating to customer orders. At this time, we do not believe the attackers removed decrypted credit or debit card numbers from our systems. We deeply regret that this incident occurred. We're working diligently internally, as well as with external partners and law enforcement, to address the incident. We're taking the following steps:

As a precaution, we are resetting relevant customer passwords to help prevent unauthorized access to Adobe ID accounts. If your user ID and password were involved, you will receive an email notification from us with information on how to change your password. We also recommend that you change your passwords on any website where you may have used the same user ID and password.We are in the process of notifying customers whose credit or debit card information we believe to be involved in the incident. If your information was involved, you will receive a notification letter from us with additional information on steps you can take to help protect yourself against potential misuse of personal information about you. Adobe is also offering customers, whose credit or debit card information was involved, the option of enrolling in a one-year complimentary credit monitoring membership where available.We have notified the banks processing customer payments for Adobe, so that they can work with the payment card companies and card-issuing banks to help protect customers' accounts.We have contacted federal law enforcement and are assisting in their investigation.We are also investigating the illegal access to source code of numerous Adobe products. Based on our findings to date, we are not aware of any specific increased risk to customers as a result of this incident. For more information, please see the blog post here.

We value the trust of our customers. We will work aggressively to prevent these types of events from occurring in the future. Again, we deeply regret any inconvenience this may cause you. If you would like additional information, please refer to Adobe's Customer Support page.

Brad ArkinChief Security Officer

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Sluiting dreigt voor caf(C)s met dronken gasten - BINNENLAND - PAROOL

Pentagon Contract Winners Go Unannounced as Shutdown Lingers - Bloomberg

Pentagon Tells Civilian Workers They Will Return To Work Next Week

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:54

The Pentagon may have awarded millions or billions of dollars in contracts since the U.S. government partially closed Oct. 1.

Who knows?

The exact amount will remain a mystery for now, because the military said this week it has stopped publicly announcing contract awards. And the Defense Department won't resume until the shutdown ends.

''During the shutdown we will not be able to publicly announce contracts,'' Lieutenant Commander Nathan Christensen, a Pentagon spokesman, said in an e-mail. When it ends, the Pentagon plans to catch up with ''one big announcement.''

The military's awards notices, which reveal competitive and sometimes market-moving information, are closely followed by contractors, attorneys, investors and the media. They are among the government data that has disappeared from public view during the shutdown. The casualties include Census data, agricultural price reports and the Labor Department's September payrolls report that was scheduled for release today.

The defense-contracts blackout is ''difficult to justify from a policy standpoint'' and may even be illegal, said Robert Burton, a Washington-based partner at the law firm Venable LLP and former acting administrator of the U.S. Office of Federal Procurement Policy. By law, the Pentagon must publicly announce each day's awards by 5 p.m. Washington time for contracts valued at $6.5 million or more, acquisition attorneys said.

''If they have time to go through the process of making awards during the shutdown, they should make that information public,'' Burton said.

Pentagon FurloughsJames Swartout, a Pentagon spokesman, said the department is aware of the requirements for contract announcements described in the law.

''The personnel that support the announcement of these important contract awards'' have been furloughed, Swartout said in an e-mail yesterday.

Pentagon spokesmen didn't directly answer e-mailed questions about whether the decision to not announce the awards violated federal regulation.

Eric DeMarco, chief executive officer of San Diego-based Kratos Defense & Security Solutions Inc. (KTOS), said the awards notices help his company track what competitors are doing. Investors and industry analysts call when they see the company didn't win.

''They want to know: Why did you lose? What happened?'' DeMarco said.

Big AwardsThe announcements ''give visibility'' into a company's future business, said Sam Pearlstein, an analyst at Wells Fargo Securities LLC in New York.

''Anyone who pays close attention to the defense contractors looks at those announcements,'' he said in an interview.

Pearlstein said some contractors may issue press releases for large awards, which would provide another source for some of the data.

The Aerospace Industries Association uses the announcements to track which defense programs are benefiting from increased spending, said Dan Stohr, a spokesman for the Arlington, Virginia-based trade association. The group's members include Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT), Waltham, Massachusetts-based Raytheon Co. (RTN) and Melbourne, Florida-based Harris Corp. (HRS)

Industry Letter''There's really nowhere else you can get that kind of situational awareness,'' Stohr said. ''If those announcements aren't occurring, we don't have a sense of who is getting what unless the company makes an announcement.''

The shutdown is affecting all aspects of military contracting, according to a letter to Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel from Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association, and retired Lieutenant General Lawrence Farrell Jr., president of the Arlington, Virginia-based National Defense Industrial Association.

The two industry officials said their ''most immediate concern'' is the absence of contract-management inspectors, who normally audit and approve throughout the manufacturing process. Without their review, that process must halt, they wrote in the letter yesterday.

The organizations also were informed that the Defense Financing and Accounting Service will stop functioning next week, Blakey and Farrell said. The effects on credit lines for small businesses and cash flow for larger businesses, will be ''significant in short order,'' they said.

More CompetitionThe Pentagon awarded more than $360 billion in contracts in the year that ended Sept. 30, 2012, accounting for more than two-thirds of government awards. The market has become increasingly competitive as the pool of awards shrinks in part due to across-the-board budget cuts.

On Sept. 30, the last day of fiscal 2013, the Defense Department announced more than $5 billion in contracts, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The winners included top contractors Lockheed, Chicago-based Boeing Co. (BA), Raytheon and Falls Church, Virginia-based Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)

Last week, Lockheed received two more production contracts valued at $7.8 billion for 71 F-35 jets, a program that has been criticized by lawmakers for its rising costs.

During a budget impasse, the military doesn't have to stop awarding contracts. It can use money appropriated by lawmakers in prior years.

Daily NoticesThe Defense Department typically announces awards each business day at 5 p.m. on its website and in an e-mail that goes to subscribers. It stopped those notices on the first day of the shutdown.

Since Oct. 1, some defense awards notices have appeared in a government database called Federal Business Opportunities, available at www.fbo.gov.

It's unclear whether all awards of $6.5 million or more have been posted there. In the past, the military's announcement of awards through the website has been inconsistent, Burton said.

Contracting specialists say they are concerned about the lack of transparency in Pentagon spending during the partial shutdown.

''For the public not to know for days, and perhaps even a number of weeks, about large-scale contract spending is anathema to open government,'' said Charles Tiefer, a former member of the U.S. Commission on Wartime Contracting and now a law professor at the University of Baltimore. ''This is a form of secret contracting.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Danielle Ivory in Washington at divory@bloomberg.net; Kathleen Miller in Washington at kmiller01@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Stephanie Stoughton at sstoughton@bloomberg.net

Pedestrians pass in front of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg

U.S. says captures al Qaeda leader in Libya, also raids Somalia

Source: Reuters: World News

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:26

1 of 4. A U.S. embassy official secures the area around the embassy building after a powerful bomb blast in Nairobi in this file photo taken August 7, 1998. Senior al Qaeda figure Anas al-Liby, indicted by the United States for his alleged role in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa, was captured in Libya by a U.S. team and is in American custody, U.S. officials said on Saturday.

Credit: Reuters/Antony Njuguna/Files

By Mark Hosenball and Phil Stewart

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 5, 2013 11:22pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces launched raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday, two weeks after the deadly Islamist attack on a Nairobi shopping mall, capturing a top al Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, U.S. officials said.

The Pentagon said senior al Qaeda figure Anas al Liby was seized in the raid in Libya, but a U.S. official said the raid on the Somali town of Barawe failed to capture or kill the intended target from the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab movement.

Liby, believed to be 49, has been under U.S. indictment for his alleged role in the East Africa embassy bombings that killed 224 people.

The U.S. government has also been offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program.

"As the result of a U.S. counterterrorism operation, Abu Anas al Liby is currently lawfully detained by the U.S. military in a secure location outside of Libya," Pentagon spokesman George Little said without elaborating.

CNN reported in September last year that Liby had been seen in the Libyan capital, Tripoli. It quoted Western intelligence sources as saying there was concern that he may have been tasked with establishing an al Qaeda network in Libya.

That CNN report quoted counterterrorism analysts as saying that Liby may not have been apprehended then because of the delicate security situation in much of the country, where former jihadists hold sway. It quoted one intelligence source as saying that Liby appeared to have arrived in Libya in the spring of 2011, during the country's civil war.

The Pentagon confirmed U.S. military personnel had been involved in an operation against what it called "a known al Shabaab terrorist," in Somalia, but gave no more details.

One U.S. official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the al Shabaab leader targeted in the operation was neither captured nor killed.

U.S. officials did not identify the target. They said U.S. forces, trying to avoid civilian casualties, disengaged after inflicting some al Shabaab casualties. They said no U.S. personnel were wounded or killed in the operation, which one U.S. source said was carried out by a Navy SEAL team.

SOMALIA FIREFIGHT

A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid at Barawe, about 110 miles south of Mogadishu, was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed. Police said a total of seven people were killed.

The New York Times quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault.

It quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying that the Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago in response to the al Shabaab assault on a Nairobi shopping mall last month in which at least 67 people died.

"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," the official said.

Residents said fighting erupted at about 3 a.m. (8 p.m. EDT on Saturday). "We were awoken by heavy gunfire last night, we thought an al Shabaab base at the beach was captured," Sumira Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters from Barawe on Saturday.

"We also heard sounds of shells, but we do not know where they landed."

The New York Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support.

The paper quoted a senior Somali government official as saying that the government "was pre-informed about the attack."

Earlier, al Shabaab militants said British and Turkish special forces had raided Barawe, killing a rebel fighter, but that a British officer had also been killed and others wounded.

Britain's Defence Ministry said it was not aware of any such British involvement. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official also denied any Turkish part in such an action.

In 2009, helicopter-borne U.S. special forces killed senior al Qaeda militant Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in a raid in southern Somalia. Nabhan was suspected of building the bomb that killed 15 people at an Israeli-owned hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002.

The United States has used drones to kill fighters in Somalia in the past. In January 2012, members of the elite U.S. Navy SEALs rescued two aid workers after killing their nine kidnappers.

Shabaab leader Ahmed Godane, also known as Mukhtar Abu al-Zubayr, has described the Nairobi mall attack as retaliation for Kenya's incursion in October 2011 into southern Somalia to crush the insurgents. It has raised concern in the West over the operations of Shabaab in the region.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart, Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom in Washington and Feisal Omar and Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu; Writing by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooney)

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Al Shabaab leader believed killed by U.S. commandos: NYTimes

Source: Reuters: World News

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 05:12

WASHINGTON | Sat Oct 5, 2013 7:41pm EDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. forces launched raids in Libya and Somalia on Saturday following the deadly attack on a Nairobi shopping mall last month, capturing a top al Qaeda figure wanted for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a U.S. official said.

Senior al Qaeda figure Anas al Liby was seized in the raid in Libya, but no militant was captured in the raid on the Somali town of Barawe, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Liby, believed to be 49, had been indicted in the United States for his alleged role in the East Africa embassy bombings that killed 224 people.

The U.S. government had offered a $5 million reward for information leading to his capture, under the State Department's Rewards for Justice program.

The New York Times quoted a senior U.S. official as saying that a U.S. Navy SEAL team was believed to have killed a senior leader of al Shabaab in a raid on his seaside villa in Somalia but was forced to withdraw before that could be confirmed.

The paper said U.S. officials initially reported that the commandos had seized the Shabaab leader, but later backed off that account.

"The Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago," the paper quoted an unnamed U.S. security official as saying.

"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," he added, referring to a militant assault on a Nairobi shopping mall two weeks ago in which at least 67 people were killed.

The Times quoted witnesses as saying that the firefight lasted more than an hour, with helicopters called in for air support.

The Times report quoted a spokesman for al Shabaab as saying that one of its fighters had been killed in an exchange of gunfire but that the group had beaten back the assault.

The paper said a senior Somali government official confirmed the raid, saying, "The attack was carried out by the American forces and the Somali government was pre-informed about the attack."

Earlier, al Shabaab militants said British and Turkish special forces had raided Barawe overnight, killing a rebel fighter, but that a British officer had also been killed and others wounded.

Britain's Defence Ministry said it was not aware of any such British involvement. A Turkish Foreign Ministry official also denied any Turkish part in such an action.

A Somali intelligence official said the target of the raid at Barawe was a Chechen commander, who had been wounded and his guard killed. Police said a total of seven people were killed.

(Reporting by Mark Hosenball, Phil Stewart, Warren Strobel and David Brunnstrom; Writing by David Brunnstrom; Editing by Peter Cooneyditing by Peter Cooney)

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VIDEO-BBC News - US commando raids: Libya calls for explanation

The long line of conservatives targeted by the IRS - Washington Times

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:28

6 October 2013Last updated at09:02 ETLibya's prime minister has called on Washington to explain a special forces raid on its territory, one of two by US commandos in Africa on Saturday.

Ali Zeidan's office said he had asked for clarification and stressed Libya was "keen on prosecuting any Libyan citizen inside Libya".

The raid captured al-Qaeda leader, Anas al-Liby, whom the US says is "currently lawfully detained outside of Libya".

The other raid was in southern Somalia but failed to capture its target.

The commando raid there was believed to have focused on a leader of the al-Shebab militant group, which says it carried out last month's attack on the Westgate shopping centre in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, leaving at least 67 people dead.

'Secure location'A press release posted on an official Libyan government website read: "The Libyan government is following the news about the Libyan citizen wanted by the US government.

"Since we've heard, we have been in touch with the US government and have asked for clarification on this matter.

Continue reading the main storyAnalysisAnas al-Liby is considered a big catch for the Americans and a blow to al-Qaeda. The man who was allegedly one of the masterminds of the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 is less known amongst Libyans. It's believed that he came back to the country during the uprising that ousted Muammar Gaddafi.

The Libyan government will have to face the public in the somewhat awkward position of explaining why and how a Libyan citizen was picked up and taken out of the country so quickly by the Americans.

The operation is seen by many here as one that undermines the country's sovereignty and an already weak central government.

"The Libyan government is keen on prosecuting any Libyan citizen inside Libya, no matter what the charges are... the accused are innocent until proven guilty."

The statement raises questions about how much, if anything, Libya knew in advance of the raid.

A US official had earlier been quoted by CNN as saying that the raid was conducted with the knowledge of the Libyan government.

Liby, 49, is believed to have been one of the masterminds behind the 1998 US embassy attacks, which killed more than 220 people in Kenya and Tanzania.

He has been indicted in a New York court in connection with the attacks.

Liby - whose real name is Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-Ruqai - has been on the FBI's most wanted list for more than a decade with a $5m (£3.1m) bounty on his head.

A Pentagon statement on Sunday said he was "currently lawfully detained under the law of war in a secure location outside of Libya".

It said: "The successful capture operation was made possible by superb work and coordination across our national security agencies and the intelligence community, and was approved by President Obama."

Continue reading the main storyAnas al-LibyBorn 30 March 1964 in Tripoli, Libya. Also known as Nazih Abdul-Hamed al-RuqaiBelieved to have joined al-Qaeda in 1990sGiven political asylum in UKRumoured to have returned to Libya during 2011 civil warCharged by New York prosecutors in 2000 with involvement in the 1998 Kenya and Tanzania US embassy bombingsOne of FBI's "most wanted terrorists" with $5m bounty for his captureNo American personnel were injured, it said.

Anas al-Liby was seized in Tripoli early on Saturday as he was parking outside his house.

Three vehicles encircled him, his car window was smashed and his gun was seized before he was taken away, his brother, Nabih, told the Associated Press news agency.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the operations in Libya and Somalia showed that the US would never stop "in its effort to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror".

Those who attacked American interests "can run but they can't hide", he said.

'Mission aborted'The US defence department also confirmed that special forces had carried out a seaborne operation in Somalia's coastal town of Barawe on Saturday.

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Libyans took to social networking sites to discuss the raid

Pentagon spokesman George Little said the forces had been "involved in a counter-terrorism operation against a known al-Shabab terrorist". He gave no further details.

Initial reports in the US media quoted unnamed US officials as saying that the suspect had been captured or killed by US Navy Seals in the pre-dawn raid on a villa.

However, the officials later said that the Seals failed to find the intended target, who was not identified.

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John Kerry: "Those members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations can run but they can't hide"

On Sunday, reporters asked Somalia's Prime Minister Abdi Farah Shirdon if he knew of the raid on Barawe in advance.

He said only that: "We have collaboration with the world and with neighbouring countries in the battle against al Shabab."

The raid was carried out by members of Seal Team Six - the same unit that killed al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, a US military official told AP.

The official added that in Barawe the commandos had decided to abort the mission after encountering fierce resistance from al-Shabab fighters.

"The Barawe raid was planned a week and a half ago," a US security official told the New York Times.

"It was prompted by the Westgate attack," added the official, who was speaking on the condition of anonymity.

Al-Shabab earlier told the BBC that "white soldiers" had arrived by boat in Barawe and rebels had repulsed them, losing a fighter.

BREAKING: Obama IRS Withholding YOUR Tax Refund During Government Shutdown

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 22:02

Tea party groups, Franklin Graham, Christine O'Donnell, a pro-marriage group. And now Dr. Ben Carson.

The list of conservatives targeted by the Internal Revenue Service for audits, tax-exempt reviews or tax privacy breaches keeps growing, raising fresh questions in Washington about whether a scandal the Obama administration has blamed on bureaucratic incompetence and coincidence may in fact involve something more nefarious.

SEE ALSO: FLASHBACK: Carson tells Obama at prayer breakfast that country is in moral decline

The latest revelation came Thursday from Dr. Carson, the renowned neurosurgeon who told The Washington Times that he was targeted for an audit just months after he gave a speech in front of President Obama that challenged America's leadership. The agency requested to review his real estate holdings and then conducted a full audit.

In the end, the IRS found no wrongdoing, Dr. Carson said, but it raised his suspicions about being singled out for his speech.

''I guess it could be a coincidence, but I never had been audited before and never really had any encounters with the IRS,'' Dr. Carson said in an interview. ''But it certainly would make one suspicious because we know now the IRS has been used for political purposes and therefore actions like this come under suspicion.''

Melanie Sloan, head of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and a former Justice Department prosecutor during the Clinton years, said she had not been that concerned about the IRS reviews of the growing number of tea party groups but the story of Dr. Carson's audit raised red flags.

''I have not been particularly persuaded in the past with the IRS targeting of the tea party groups. But this one seems a little odd. This certainly raises questions that I assume someone will begin to investigate,'' she said.

Dr. Carson, whose rise from poverty and medical work with pediatric patients were celebrated in the movie ''Gifted Hands,'' is the latest in a growing number of high-profile figures to come forward and claim they were improperly targeted by the IRS.

SEE ALSO: Marriage group to sue IRS over donor leak, says list went to political enemies

The Rev. Franklin Graham and others have said either they or their organizations were singled out by the IRS, while former Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell said she was audited and that someone used the IRS system to access her private tax information.

On Wednesday, the National Organization for Marriage announced that it would sue the IRS, saying it has evidence that someone within the agency leaked the group's donor list to its political enemies in 2012.

As in the other instances, the organization claims no one at the IRS has been held responsible.

Calls to the IRS went unanswered Thursday. Much of the agency's staff has been furloughed as a result of the federal government shutdown.

In the past, the IRS has declined to discuss specific audits, citing privacy laws. Such instances typically come to light only when individuals or businesses divulge that they've been targeted.

That was what happened this week. During a speech in Alabama, Dr. Carson made a vague reference to having his first ''encounter with the IRS.''

The encounter came just four months after his speech in February at the National Prayer Breakfast, an address that brought him into the national spotlight and one in which he decried the ''moral decay and fiscal irresponsibility'' of the U.S. in recent years.

Source: The Ulsterman Report

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:50

The scandal ridden Obama IRS has just announced it is halting ALL tax refund payments to Americans during the government shutdown. What is not halting, apparently, is the hiring and implementation of the thousands of NEW armed IRS agents responsible for Obamacare.

GET ALL OF D.W. ULSTERMAN'S BOOKS HERE

__________________________________________________

(via AccountingToday.com)

''Tax refunds will not be issued until normal government operations resume,'' said the IRS. The IRS emphasized, however, that the underlying tax law remains in effect, and all taxpayers should continue to meet their tax obligations as normal.

''Individuals and businesses should keep filing their tax returns and making deposits with the IRS, as they are required to do so by law,'' said the IRS. ''The IRS will accept and process all tax returns with payments, but will be unable to issue refunds during this time. Taxpayers are urged to file electronically, because most of these returns will be processed automatically.'' LINK

_______________________________________

So individuals and businesses are required to keep sending the government money, but owed refunds will not be processed.

The thing is, the IRS claims it has an automated system that can receive your tax payment. What this notice failed to say is that it is the very same automated system that processes and distributes refunds. There is NO reason to have one and not the other.

The Obama administration clearly wants more Americans to go without, in the hopes their anger will turn against Republicans. Playing politics with the people's own money. That is the Obama way'... -UM

_______________________________________

IN A WORLD GONE HORRIBLY WRONG, AMERICA NEEDS A NEW HERO.

MAC WALKER.

GET ALL OF D.W. ULSTERMAN'S BOOKS HERE

arkOS: Building the anti-cloud (on a Raspberry Pi)

Helium Stewardship Act of 2013

Sat, 05 Oct 2013 17:09

At the start of this year, analyst firm Gartner predicted that over the next four years a total of US$677 billion would be spent on cloud services. The growth of 'things-as-a-service' is upending enterprise IT and creating entirely new, innovative business models. At the same time, social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have built massive user bases, and created databases that are home to enormous amounts of information about account holders.

Collectively, all of this means that people's data, and the services they use with it, are more likely than ever to be found outside of home PCs and other personal devices, housed in servers that they will probably never likely to see let alone touch. But, when everything is delivered as a service, people's control and even ownership of their data gets hazy to say the least.

Earlier this year NSA whistle-blower Edward Snowden offered some insight '' in revelations that probably surprised few but still outraged many '' into the massive level of data collection and analysis carried out by state actors.

arkOS is not a solution to the surveillance state, but it does offer an alternative to those who would rather exercise some measure of control over their data and, at the very least, not lock away their information in online services where its retrieval and use is at the whim of a corporation, not the user.

arkOS is a Linux-based operating system currently in alpha created by Jacob Cook and the CitizenWeb Project. It's designed to run on a Raspberry Pi '' a super-low-cost single board computer '' and ultimately will let users, even of the non-technical variety, run from within their homes email, social networking, storage and other services that are increasingly getting shunted out into the cloud.

CitizenWeb ProjectCook is the founder of the CitizenWeb Project, whose goal is to promote a more decentralised and democratic Internet

"It does this by encouraging developers that work on tools to these ends, offering an 'umbrella' to aid with management and publicity for these projects," Cook says

"Decentralisation rarely gets any attention, even within the tech community, and it was even more obscure before the NSA scandal broke a few months ago," he adds.

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The best way to promote decentralisation "is to provide great platforms with great experiences that can compete with those larger providers," Cook says

"This may seem like an impossible task for the open source development community, especially without the head start that the platforms have, but I believe it is entirely doable.

"We produce the best tools in the world '' far better than any proprietary solutions can give '' but there is a huge gap with these tools that the majority of the population cannot cross.

"When we tell them, 'oh, using this tool is as easy as installing a Python module on your computer,' for us geeks that is incredibly easy, but for most people, you lost them at the word Python and you will never get them back.

"So the momentum toward using centralised platforms will not relent until developers start making tools for a wider audience. Experience and usability is every bit as important as features or functionality."

arkOS is the CitizenWeb Project's first major initiative but more are on the way. "There are quite a few planned that have nothing to do with arkOS," Cook says.

"I've been working on arkOS since about February of this year, which was a few months before the [NSA] revelations," Cook says.

The birth of arkOSThere were two things that spurred work on arkOS

"The first was my decision to set up my own home server to host all of my data a few years ago," Cook explains.

"I had a good deal of experience with Linux and system administration, but it still took a huge amount of time and research to get the services I wanted set up, and secured properly.

"This experience made me realise, if I have background in these things and it takes me so long to do it, it must be impossible for individuals who don't have the expertise and the time that I do to work things out."

The second was the push by corporations "to own every aspect of one's online life."

"Regardless of your personal feelings about Google, Facebook, etc., there have been countless examples of these services closing themselves off from each other, creating those 'walled gardens' that give them supreme control over your data," Cook says.

"This might not bother people, until we find out what we did from Snowden, that this data doesn't always rest with them and that as long as there is a single point of failure, you always have to rely on 'trusting' your provider.

"I don't know about you, but I wouldn't trust a company that is tasked to sell me things to act in my best interest."

"All that being said, the NSA revelations have really provided a great deal of interest to the project. In all of the networks and communities that I have been through since the scandal broke, people are clamouring for an easy way to self-host things at home. It shouldn't have to be rocket science. I hope that arkOS can represent part of the solution for them."

The aim of the project is an easy-to-use server operating system than can let people self-host their own services with the ease that someone might install a regular desktop application

"Hosting one's own websites, email, cloud data, etc. from home can be a very time-consuming and occasionally expensive endeavour," Cook says.

"Not to mention the fact that it takes a good amount of knowledge and practice to do properly and securely. arkOS lets you set up these systems just like you do on your home computer or your smartphone, when you install something from an app store. It 'just works' with minimal configuration.

"There is no good reason why server software shouldn't be able to have the same experience."

Making servers simpleThe OS is "all about simplicity" straight out of the box, Cook says.

"For example, on the Raspberry Pi, hosting server software that routinely writes to log files can quickly wear out your SD card. So arkOS caches them in memory to make as few writes as possible, and it does this from its first boot."

The team is building a range of tools that make it easy to manage an arkOS server. These include Beacon, which lets users find other arkOS servers on a local network, and Genesis, a GUI management system for arkOS.

Genesis is the "most important part" of the OS, Cook says. "It's the tool that does all the heavy lifting for you '' installing new apps and software with one click, automatically configuring security settings, giving wizards for navigating through lengthy setup [processes].

"The goal with Genesis is to allow you to do anything you want with your server in an easy and straightforward way, without even having to think about touching the command line. It runs locally on the arkOS server, accessible through the browser of your home computer."

There are more tools for arkOS on the way, Cook says.

"Any one of these tools can be made to work with other distros; the key is that they are available in the default working environment with no additional setup or bother on the user's part."

At the moment the system is still very much in alpha. "It is minimally stable and still getting most of its major features piled in," Cook says. Despite it being early days the reception so far has been "very positive".

"It's been downloaded several hundred times, ostensibly by intrepid people willing to try out the framework and see if they can produce bugs," he says.

At the moment, Cook is leading the arkOS project and also doing the bulk of the development work on Genesis.

"Aside from myself, there are other individuals who contribute features when they are able, like working on Deluge or putting together plugins to use with Genesis," he says.

He is interested in finding more people to help out with the components of arkOS, particularly with Python and Golang experience, which are being used extensively. He's also interested in sysadmins or Linux veterans to help manage repositories, with an to expanding the operating system to other architectures.

"Web design is also a big one, both for the Genesis front-end as well as our Web properties and outreach efforts. Even non-tech people can lend a hand with outreach, community support and the like. No offer of help will be refused so people can be in touch confidently," he adds.

Looking beyond alphaarkOS is under active development but the OS is still at a "very experimental" stage. Most of Cook's time is spent working on frameworks for Genesis, with a goal of completing its major frameworks by the end of this year and releasing a beta of arkOS.

A major sub-project the team working on is called Deluge: A dynamic DNS service and port proxy for users who don't have access to their own domain name or static IPs.

"This would make putting your services online truly simple and hassle-free," Cook says.

"I am working on the security framework right now, allowing users to easily segment their services based on the zone that they should be available to. For example, you can set your ownCloud site that you run with arkOS to only be available on your home network, while your Jeykll blog should be available to everyone.

"Then comes the certificates system, easily making SSL certs available to your different applications."

"Beyond that, most of what I will be working on is plugins that do certain things. Email is a really big thing, something that nearly everyone who asks about arkOS is interested in self-hosting. With the NSA revelations it isn't hard to see why."

Other features to be included in arkOS include XMPP chat server hosting, Radicale (calendar/contacts hosting), automatic backups, internationalisation, Tor integration, "and much, much more."

Website:Arkos.io

Contact Rohan Pearce at rohan_pearce at idg.com.au or follow him on Twitter: @rohan_p

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New Fears Supervolcano Eruption Will Make U.S. Uninhabitable - | Intellihub News

Alleged 'Anonymous' members charged in cyberhacking conspiracy.

Sun, 06 Oct 2013 05:05

Get the Intellihub.com Official Newsletter HERE

Clepsydra Geyser at Fountain Paint Pot in Yellowstone (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Staff WriterIntellihub.comOctober 5, 2013YELLOWSTONE, WYOMING '-- Recently the massive 300 mile wide underground supervolcano and pool of liquid hot magma at Yellowstone National Park has become alarmingly active. So far, mainline scientists and press have kept the cause of the activity tight-lipped, but one thing is for sure, something is definitely going on underground in the region. In fact it has been documented that the ground in and around Yellowstone has risen over 3 inches per year lately, which is scary data to receive for modern researchers.

According to scientists, if the massive Yellowstone supervolcano erupted, it would likely dump up to 10 feet of ash over two-thirds of the U.S., causing such devastation that almost nothing would survive. The entire Continental United States (CONUS) would be engulfed in darkness from the volcanic dust, possibly for days if not weeks and no food would grow or reach the grocery store shelves for that matter. We as Americans would be in the midst of chaos, like never seen before. All of the power and technology would likely be rendered useless and unworkable to any survivors. And this ladies and gentlemen is also why we have to consider the fact that FEMA camps are real and will likely be activated in the event such a disaster were to arise.

Provisions for this type scenario were previously laid out by President Ronald Reagan and Col. Oliver North with the controversial and secretive Readiness Exercise 1984 (REX84) program. Interestingly enough this program was initiated shortly after the U.S. Government and NASA spotted an incoming solar body (i.e. Planet X, Nibiru) with the IRAS satellite in the early 1980'²s. This report was later covered-up and the topic was silenced from the mainline press ever since.

However, most recently with the ramp-up in seismic activity in and around the Yellowstone region, one must question what is truly going on. Recent ''quake swarms'' are to blame, but the source of the earthquakes is baffling to researchers and could be possibly be influenced by a planetary alignment according to some experts and peer-reviewed studies. In mid-September KOMONews.com reported, ''Yellowstone's recent earthquake swarms started on Sept. 10 and were shaking until about 11:30 a.m. Sept. 16.

''A total of 130 earthquakes of magnitude 0.6 to 3.6 have occurred in these three areas, however, most have occurred in the Lower Geyser Basin,'' a University of Utah statement said. ''Notably much of seismicity in Yellowstone occurs as swarms.''

Including smaller events that have not been verified, there were many more quakes, Smith said.

The recent swarms produced roughly four quakes that were large enough to feel.

The first, a magnitude 3.5, struck Sept. 13 about 17 miles northeast of West Yellowstone, Mont. Then, in the early hours Sept. 15, two quakes, a magnitude 3.2 and magnitude 3.4, were detected in quick succession at 5:10 and 5:11 a.m., about 15 miles southeast of West Yellowstone. The magnitude 3.6 that marked the peak of the swarm struck nearby about 4 1/2 hours later.

''They weren't big earthquakes,'' Smith said, ''but they were felt.''

About half a dozen earthquakes are felt in Yellowstone in an average year, he said.

''This is pretty unusual, to be honest,'' Smith said.''

As of yet it is unknown if any of this has to do with Vice President Joe Biden's recent ''CODEWORD'' warning or the defunding of the U.S. Space Fence program as reported by Intellihub.com[2]

Sources:

[1] Triple swarm of earthquakes shakes Yellowstone '' KOMONews.com

[2] Biden's ''CODEWORD'' Warning '' More Than Meets the Eye? '' Intellihub.com

[3] YELLOWSTONE SUPERVOLCANO ALERT: THE MOST DANGEROUS VOLCANO IN AMERICA IS ROARING TO LIFE - EndAllDisease.com

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VIDEO-Source: Schizophrenia meds found at Capitol chase driver's home - CNN.com

VIDEO-Source: Mental health paperwork found at home of Miriam Carey - CNN.com

Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:21

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

NEW: Medications could have been prescribed for postpartum psychosis, psychologist saysMiriam Carey's boyfriend told police she seemed delusional, a source tells CNNShe died Thursday after a car chase with police near the CapitolPolice shot the woman to death; a young child in the car was unharmed, they sayWatch an exclusive interview with Miriam Carey's sisters on AC360 tonight, 8pm ET.

Washington (CNN) -- Authorities investigating why a Connecticut woman rammed barricades and led police on a chase near the U.S. Capitol found medications in her apartment to treat schizophrenia and other mental disorders, a law enforcement source briefed on the investigation said Friday.

The woman, identified by law enforcement sources as Miriam Carey, 34, died after police shot her.

The discovery of the psychiatric medications comes a day after Carey's boyfriend had told police in December that she appeared to be delusional, believing that President Barack Obama had placed Stamford, Connecticut, where they lived, under lockdown and that her home was under electronic surveillance, a law enforcement source involved in the investigation said.

Thursday's incident played out in one of the most heavily policed places in the world, temporarily locked down Congress and sparked anxiety among tourists and staffers alike.

Police say Carey rammed barricades and police cruisers -- actions Washington police Chief Cathy Lanier said appeared deliberate -- and sped down Pennsylvania Avenue before crashing. Two law enforcement officers were injured, and officers shot her to end the incident.

Carey apparently did not have a weapon, but did have a 1-year-old girl in the car with her. The child emerged from the chaos unharmed, officials said.

Why a new mom might put herself -- and her child -- in harm's way

Miriam Carey, shown in a photo from Facebook, was driving with a 1-year-old child.

Shooting on Capitol Hill

HIDE CAPTION

Authorities who searched Carey's apartment in Stamford found risperidone, a medication to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a law enforcement source said. They also found escitalopram, an antidepressant commonly prescribed under the brand name Lexapro, according to the source.

It was not known if she was taking any of the medications, and authorities have not officially linked the incident to mental illness or any other factor.

According to Xavier Amador, a psychologist and expert in schizophrenia and other mental health disorders, it is possible the medications were prescribed for postpartum psychosis, a rare illness that usually comes on suddenly within the first four weeks after birth.

Carey's boyfriend contacted police last winter, when their child was four months old, according to the law enforcement source who told CNN about the boyfriend's reports to police.

He told police that she was suffering from post-partum depression, was having trouble sleeping and was on medication. Carey underwent a mental health evaluation, said the source, who added that the boyfriend has been questioned by federal authorities about Thursday's events.

The source told CNN that Carey left a letter addressed to the boyfriend at her apartment and that it appeared to contain white powder. The letter was being tested for hazardous substances.

A car chase, gunshots

Thursday's drama began around 2 p.m., when the woman steered a black Infiniti near the White House, a U.S. Secret Service source said. She drove up to a barrier at the 15th and E street checkpoint and was approached by Secret Service officers. She hurriedly made an erratic three-point turn, striking the barrier and backing into an officer before driving away, the source told CNN.

Police said the car sped down Pennsylvania Avenue toward the Capitol, where security vehicles stopped it at Garfield Circle.

The woman slammed the car into reverse, crashing into a police cruiser, and tried to get away. At that point officers began firing, a witness said.

Dramatic video footage by a videographer for Alhurra TV, a Middle Eastern news outlet financed by the U.S. government, showed the black vehicle then speeding around a nearby traffic circle with a police car in close pursuit and then heading away. The car crashed into more security barriers a few blocks later, witnesses said.

More shots were fired after the vehicle stopped, and the woman was hit several times, said Metropolitan Police Department Chief Cathy Lanier. Carey was later pronounced dead, Lanier said. Two officers were injured.

A Capitol Police officer whose vehicle crashed during the chase was hurt, authorities said. The officer was released from a hospital Thursday night. The Secret Service did not release information about its injured agent.

Chaos and a child in the car

Inside the woman's car was the 1-year-old child, who was not harmed. The child was taken into protective custody, officials said. Officers didn't know there was a child inside the woman's car during the chase, officials said. Also, the early investigation revealed that there was no evidence that the woman had a gun or fired a shot.

The bedlam from the fatal chase reverberated throughout a U.S. Capital already shaken by the recent mass shooting at the Navy Yard in the city and on edge due to tensions over the showdown over shutting down the federal government.

Authorities locked down the Capitol building and other government facilities in the area.

House and Senate sessions were immediately suspended, with legislators ordered to take cover and keep away from windows. Police also closed Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House.

Sirens blared as people in and around government office buildings reported hearing gunshots. Bystanders hid in fear.

Shemaiah Ofori-Attah and her husband, Edmund, at first thought the speeding black car and sirens were part of a motorcade.

"Then when we heard the gunshots we knew this was something serious, so we just dropped to the ground," she said.

Danny Farkas, the Alhurra videographer, captured the scene. He said he had a fleeting thought that perhaps the driver had explosives in the car.

"I was surprised at the movie-like quality of what was going on in front of me," he told CNN's "New Day."

Michael Pearson and Lateef Mungin report and wrote from Atlanta; Joe Johns reported from Washington; CNN's Deborah Feyerick, Evan Perez, Dana Bash, Mike Ahlers, Ted Barrett, Jake Tapper, John King, Aaron Cooper, John Auerbach, Gabe Lamonica, Brian Todd, Martina Stewart, Rose Arce, Tom Cohen, Jen Bixler and Dan Merica contributed to this report.