What Adam Curry is reading

Alleged 'Anonymous' members charged in cyberhacking conspiracy.
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  Source: WT news feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:36
  By Bill Mears, CNN
  October 3, 2013 -- Updated 2032 GMT (0432 HKT)
  Washington (CNN) -- Thirteen alleged members of the cyberhacking group "Anonymous" have been indicted by a federal grand jury in suburban Washington, accused of targeting governmental entities, trade associations, individuals, law firms, and financial institutions starting in 2010.
  In a 28-page document, the defendants are charged in an Alexandria, Virginia, federal court with conspiracy. Prosecutors say they "planned and executed a coordinated series of cyber-attacks against victim websites by flooding those websites with a huge volume of irrelevant Internet traffic with the intent to make the resources on the websites unavailable to customers and users of those websites."
  The alleged cyberhacking campaign was purportedly dubbed "Operation Payback."
Bigfoot is real, research teams claim. (video)
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  Source: WT news feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:35
  DALLAS '-- A team of Sasquatch researchers screened what it called "never before seen HD video" of Bigfoot on Tuesday.
  During a news conference, they played several short clips that purported to show various human-like, hairy figures moving about in wooded areas in Kentucky.
  The group '-- led by Dr. Melba Ketchum, a trained veterinarian who founded her own genetics research company '-- has been collecting data and evidence or the past five years. Their effort is known as The Sasquatch Genome Project.
  "This was a serious study," Ketchum said of the program that they said cost $500,000 to complete.
  The exclusive footage came from a similar effort dubbed The Erickson Project, which was led by Adrian Erickson. That group said it captured the "definitive video and DNA evidence from the elusive Sasquatch."
  "Researcher Dennis Pfohl... personally captured video and collected DNA samples from Sasquatch individuals," the Erickson group said in a written statement.
  During Tuesday's news conference, they played several clips '-- most of them very short and grainy '-- that they say is video evidence helping to prove that Bigfoot is real.
  According to the group, footage captured in Kentucky in 2005 shows a female Sasquatch sleeping. An extended version of the video is expected to be released in a future documentary.
  "We've all had experiences that changed our lives," said Pfohl, the Colorado-based researcher. He said that's what has driven him to try and prove what he knows is out there.
  However, relatively rare sightings and a skeptical public mean the group of scientists has an uphill battle in proving their belief.
  E-mail mmoore@wfaa.com
  Watch The Erickson Project documentary trailer
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VIDEO-BBC News - US commando raids: Libya calls for explanation
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  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.
VIDEO-John Kerry says terrorists can't hide | euronews, world news
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:23
  US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is in Bali to attend a meeting of Asian leaders, has said that recent US military action in Libya and Somalia should be taken by terrorists as a warning.
  ''We hope that this makes clear that the United States of America will never stop in its efforts to hold those accountable who conduct acts of terror,'' he said. ''Those members of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organisations, literally, they can run but they can't hide. We will continue to try to bring people to justice in an appropriate way with hopes that ultimately these kinds of activities against everybody in the world will stop.''More about:Al-Qaeda, John Kerry, Libya, Somalia, Terrorism, USACopyright (C) 2013 euronews
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East Africa: Terrorists 'Can Run but They Can't Hide' - Kerry
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  Source: AllAfrica News: Latest
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:16
  U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says the two high-profile raids in northern and eastern Africa demonstrate the unrelenting determination of the U.S. to hunt down terrorists.
  Kerry said Sunday in Indonesia where he is attending an economic summit that the raids in Libya and Somalia Saturday show terrorists they "can run but they can't hide."
  American forces captured al-Qaida leader Abu Anas el-Liby in Tripoli. He is facing charges for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. The attacks killed more than 250 people and wounded thousands.
  Earlier Saturday, a U.S. Navy SEAL team in Barawe, Somalia, targeted a senior leader of the al-Qaida militant group al-Shabab, the group responsible for the recent deadly attack on Nairobi's Westgate shopping mall.
  Several al-Shabab militants were killed in the pre-dawn raid, but it is not clear if the targeted militant was among the dead or wounded. U.S. Defense Department officials say the team failed to capture him.
Turkey: Israel is not meeting all our expectations
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  Source: ynet - News
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 13:14
  Netanyahu already apologized for Marmara incident, but Turkey is in no rush to forgive or forget. 'Israel apologized too late,' Turkish President Abdullah Gul tells Yedioth Ahronoth. Senior Turkish advisor: As long as Erdogan is in power, things will not changeSmadar Peri
  More than six months have passed since Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for the Marmara incident, and relations between the two countries have yet to be fully restored. ''Israel apologized too late,'' said Turkish President Abdullah Gul, in a conversation with Yedioth Aharonoth.
  The Turkish president explained, ''In order to end this conflict and difference of opinion between us, we had certain expectations of Israel, Israel responded to part of our expectations, when it apologized (for the raid on the Marmara ship, during which nine Turkish civilians were killed by IDF fire). But this step was taken at a late stage, Israel apologized too late. Some of our expectations were not yet met.''
  Related stories:
  Turkey presented Israel with three demands in order to end the impasse and to restore diplomatic relations between the countries. The first demand, an apology for the deaths of Turkish civilians on the Marmara, was met last March.
  The second demand, payment of restitution to the families of the nine killed '' is still under disagreement. According to one estimation, Israel is supposed to pay the families between $5 and $6 million. In return, legal proceedings taking place in Istanbul courts against IDF officers are to be dropped, and an amendment is to be passed prohibiting Turkish citizens from suing Israeli soldiers and officers in the future.
  A senior diplomatic advisor in Ankara told Yedioth that even though Israel agreed to pay, an agreement still has not been reached regarding how the payment will be implemented: whether it will be "assistance to families" (as Israel prefers), or "restitution for the deaths of nine Turkish civilians" (as Turkey demands).
  Turkish PM Erdogan (L) and President Gul (Photo: Reuters)
  ''The amount of the money is not the problem,'' said Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc, three months ago. ''Israel must accept the fact that it is paying this money as a result of the faulty action it took.''
  The government of Erdogan also insists on another condition for the normalization of relations: the removal of the Israeli blockade on Gaza.
  Due to the differences of opinion between the two countries, the negotiations are at a dead-end.
  On Friday, the Turkish president refused to describe what might bring about a breaking of the stalemate between the two countries. ''Even with the differences of opinion, what is important is that meetings are happening, and the sides continue working,'' Gul said. ''The meetings are happening discretely, far from the eye. You could say that certain progress has been made, and I hope these talks will lead to results.''
  But the Turkish diplomatic advisor estimated that a breakthrough was not to be expected in the near future. ''As long as Erdogan is the prime minister of Turkey, there will not be a change for the positive in relations with Israel. Erdogan has lots of complaints against you already from the period of Olmert. When will a reversal in relations come? Maybe only after the presidential elections in 2014, and the elections for parliament in 2015, which will decide who will serve as the next prime minister of Turkey.''
  Gul spoke with Yedioth Ahronoth after he gave the opening speech at the Istanbul Forum, an annual convention held by the Turkish center for strategic communications. The forum hosts politicians, researchers and journalists, bringing them together for a series of discussions regarding international issues which touch on Turkey and the Middle East.
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m.yle.fi News: Finland celebrates its seniors
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 12:44
  Image: Terri Niemi / YleSunday marks the Finnish Day of Older Persons, a national celebration to draw attention to issues affecting society's elderly members. Sunday also marks the commencement of national Speech Pathology Week.
  The national Day of Older Persons main event will take place in Porvoo on Sunday afternoon. The programme includes musical performances and the awarding of the sixth ever 5,000 euro annual prize for work with the elderly.
  The Day of Older Persons has been celebrated in Finland since 1954.
  Finnish Speech Pathology Week aims to raise awareness of the 65,000 or so Finns who live with some kind of speaking impediment. It highlights some of the solutions and support that can be given to make their lives easier.
  Yle's autumn programme includes the screening of several films relevant to the theme.
  Yle
Rampaging driver shot VIDEO-dead on Capitol Hill: Did cops do the right thing? (+video) - CSMonitor.com
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 05:37
  USA
  The Columbine shootings and the 9/11 terrorist attacks led to changes in police shoot-to-kill policies. The family of Miriam Carey, shot and killed following a car chase, say police over-reacted.
  By Patrik Jonsson, Staff Writer / October 5, 2013
  The family of Miriam Carey, who led police on a rampaging car chase from the White House to the Capitol before being shot dead by police on Thursday, says the 34-year-old dental assistant had problems, but posed no real threat to anybody.
  The deadly shot came after Ms. Carey, with her one-year-old daughter in the back of her black Infinity coupe, crashed into White House barricades, sideswiped at least two police cars, crashed into gates at the Capitol, and then stepped out of her car.
  Diagnosed with mental health issues, Carey had told friends she believed President Obama was stalking her. She was supposed to have been in Brooklyn on the day she rammed the White House gate.
  The tragic shooting, which came during a particularly tense week in a capitol recovering from the Navy Yard mass shooting and as leaders argued about how to end a partial government shutdown, has shined a light on what some say is a troubling progression in ''shoot-to-kill'' police protocol.
Pentagon Tells Civilian Workers They Will Return To Work Next Week
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  Source: Weasel Zippers
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 05:14
  On the heels of a decision by the U.S House Of Representatives to approve back pay for 800,000 federal workers the Pentagon is now issuing statements to its civilian worker population who are furloughed that they may return to work as early as Monday:
  Most furloughed Pentagon civilians ordered back to work http://t.co/JAhG9zlb2Q (via @CBSPolitics)
  '-- CBS News (@CBSNews) October 5, 2013
  This means the Pentagon has been told by a source close to the Senate and the Administration that the Senate will also pass it and that President Obama will sign it. What this really means is that the Democrat lead Senate and President would rather provide for 800,000 workers who are mostly non-essential over children with cancer, veterans and the elderly.
  Oh and let us not forget the national parks'...
Al Shabaab leader believed killed by U.S. commandos: NYTimes
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  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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New Fears Supervolcano Eruption Will Make U.S. Uninhabitable - | Intellihub News
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 05:05
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  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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D.C. Man Charged With Possession of Congressional Lapel Pin - The BLT: The Blog of Legal Times
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  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.
VIDEO-U.S. forces take part in 2 Africa raids targeting alleged terrorists '' CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:34
  By Barbara Starr and Evan Perez
  U.S. military forces were involved in two separate operations in Africa - one of them targeting a member of the group Al-Shabaab that was behind last month's Kenya mall attack, and the other going after an al Qaeda leader tied to bombings of two U.S. embassies.
  The Al-Shabaab raid took place in Somalia, where that terrorist group is based, sometime in the past 24 hours, a senior U.S. official said Saturday evening.
  The team of U.S. Navy SEALs had to withdraw before it could confirm whether it killed the target because they came under fire, the official said. The SEALs made the "prudent decision" to withdraw rather than engage in further combat, according to the official.
  The other mission ended in the capture of Abu Anas al Libi, who is suspected to have played a significant role in the August 7, 1998, bombings of American embassies in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; and Nairobi, Kenya, U.S. officials said.
  FULL STORY
Gates Foundation: Common Core Produces Career-Ready Citizens
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  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.
U.S. surpasses Russia as world's top oil and natural gas producer with output at 25 million barrels per day
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  Archived Version
  Source: BlackListedNews.com
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 04:28
  New drilling techniques extract oil and gas from US shale rock formations, putting the country's output at 25 million barrels per day
  The US was on pace to achieve global energy domination on Friday, overtaking Russia and Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil and natural gas producer.
  New estimates released on Friday by the Energy Information Administration showed America pulling ahead of both countries in oil and natural gas production for 2013.
  The rise to the top was fuelled by new drilling techniques, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, which have unlocked vast quantities of oil and gas from shale rock formations '' especially in North Dakota and Texas.
  America was on track to produce just under 25m barrels a day of oil, natural gas and related fuels, the EIA said. Russia was just under 22m barrels a day.
  America had already surpassed Russia in natural gas production last year, pulling ahead for the first time since 1982.
U.S. says captures al Qaeda leader in Libya, also raids Somalia
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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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Tor anonymizer network among NSA's targets, Snowden leaks reveal
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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:
Presidential Proclamation - German-American Day, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:51
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  October 04, 2013
  GERMAN-AMERICAN DAY, 2013
  - - - - - - -
  BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
  A PROCLAMATION
  Since the first German settlers joined the Jamestown colony in 1608, German Americans have helped shape our identity -- the small band of families who left the banks of the Rhine to found Germantown, Pennsylvania; the men, women, and children who fled the tyranny of fascism; the multitudes who sailed across the Atlantic to seek liberty and opportunity on our shores. On German-American Day, we celebrate the vibrant threads of German heritage woven into our national fabric.
  Over the centuries, German Americans have participated in every sector of our society. They have helped steer our Nation's journey -- as artists and scientists, as journalists who tested the limits of a free press, as titans of industry, and as workers who turned the gears of industrial revolution. Today, nearly one in four Americans can trace their ancestry to Germany, and all of us are inheritors to the values and traditions handed down through generations of German Americans.
  As close partners in the global community, the United States and Germany work side-by-side to advance our common interests and common ideals: freer societies, cleaner skies, peoples empowered to choose their own destinies, greater prosperity for our two nations and for the world. Today, as we celebrate the contributions of German Americans across a wide breadth of history, let us renew the bonds of friendship between our two peoples.
  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, 2013, as German-American Day. I encourage all Americans to learn more about the history of German Americans and reflect on the many contributions they have made to our Nation.
  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
Presidential Proclamation -- Child Health Day, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:51
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  October 04, 2013
  CHILD HEALTH DAY, 2013
  - - - - - - -
  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
Presidential Proclamation -- Fire Prevention Week, 2013
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:51
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  October 04, 2013
  FIRE PREVENTION WEEK, 2013
  - - - - - - -
  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
BREAKING: Obama IRS Withholding YOUR Tax Refund During Government Shutdown
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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
  GET ALL OF D.W. ULSTERMAN'S BOOKS HERE
Spacewar! Chinese Satellite Grabs Another in Orbit
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: Defense Tech
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:47
  A Chinese satellite used a robotic arm to capture another in space as part of a covert weapons program, according to a news report.
  The maneuver took place last week and involved one of three small satellites launched in July, according to an article by Bill Gertz, a reporter for the Washington Free Beacon, an online investigative news organization.
  The U.S. Defense Department has been monitoring the movement of the Chinese satellites, according to Cynthia Smith, a spokeswoman at the Pentagon, according to the report. U.S. Strategic Command's Joint Functional Combatant Command for Space has observed the relative motions of the objects, she told the reporter.
  The experimental satellites were identified as Chuangxin-3, which is translated as Innovation-3; Shiyan-7, or Experiment-7, the one believed to have the mechanical arm; and Shijian-15, or Practice-15, according to the article. They were launched in a Long March-4C rocket on July 20 from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China, according to the report.
  U.S. military and intelligence officials are increasingly concerned over China's so-called anti-satellite systems.
  In 2007, China fired a missile into space and destroyed a weather satellite. The incident ''was a seminal event in world attention'' and created some 3,000 pieces of orbital debris, according to the Defense Department's 2011 space strategy.
  October 3rd, 2013 | Space | 2144945 Commentshttp%3A%2F%2Fdefensetech.org%2F2013%2F10%2F03%2Fchinese-satellite-grabs-another-in-orbit%2FChinese+Satellite+Grabs+Another+in+Orbit2013-10-03+17%3A36%3A45Brendan+McGarryhttp%3A%2F%2Fdefensetech.org%2F%3Fp%3D21449
  Tagged as: anti-satellite, China
Statement by the Press Secretary on H.R. 527 and S. 793
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Source: White House.gov Press Office Feed
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:26
  The White House
  Office of the Press Secretary
  For Immediate Release
  October 02, 2013
  On Wednesday, October 2, 2013, the President signed into law:
  H.R. 527, the "Helium Stewardship Act of 2013," which authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to continue to sell crude helium from the Federal Helium Reserve for a specified timeframe; extends payments to certain counties under the Secure Rural Schools program; increases the cap on payments to States that have completed all of their high-priority coal mine reclamation projects; provides $50 million for remediation and reclamation of abandoned oil and gas wells within the National Petroleum Reserve; provides $50 million to the National Park Service for maintenance and infrastructure projects within national parks; and requires the Bureau of Land Management to reduce the royalty on the value of soda ash and certain related minerals produced on Federal lands to 4 percent for a two-year period; and
  S. 793, the "Organization of American States Revitalization and Reform Act of 2013," which promotes reform of the Organization of American States.
PINS-Capitol Police officer injured, lockdown ends on Capitol Hill - Politics Wires - MiamiHerald.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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.
VIDEO- MSM Describes FBI Shutdown Of "Silk Road" Website As "A Major Blow To Bitcoin" - YouTube
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:16
VIDEO- ENTIRE House Of Representatives Gives Standing Ovation To Cops After Killing Unarmed Mother - YouTube
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 03:11
VIDEO- Man Who Self-Immolated On The National Mall Has Died - YouTube
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:58
Important Customer Security Announcement (Adobe Featured Blogs)
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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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VIDEO-Capital Hill Shooting ~ "Shelter in Place" Announcement - YouTube
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  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:40
Adobe suffers major cyber attack, says data on 2.9 million customers was compromised | The Verge
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:37
  Adobe has made the cloud an essential part of its business strategy, but today it's been dealt a major blow thanks to cyber attackers. The company has revealed that an intrusion led to an untold number of Adobe IDs and passwords falling into the hands of hackers. But it gets far worse. Adobe says "certain information" on 2.9 million customers may have also been compromised. Among that data set are customer names, encrypted credit / debit card numbers, and expiration dates. Source code for "numerous Adobe products" was stolen in another recent attack, and Adobe says the two are likely connected.
  Arkin says that Adobe doesn't believe attackers made off with any decrypted financial information. Nonetheless, the company will be notifying the many customers whose credit or debit card information was involved. Those users will be eligible to receive one year of complimentary credit monitoring "where available." Banks have also been notified to be on alert, and Adobe says it's actively assisting federal law enforcement in their investigation. Lastly, the company is in the process of resetting passwords for all impacted customers.
The Woman Who Knows the NSA's Secrets - Newsweek
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sun, 06 Oct 2013 02:28
  Long before Edward Snowden leaked documents showing that the government was collecting every American's phone records, Marcy Wheeler knew something fishy was going on. She was one of just a handful of people who in 2009 suspected that the government was using the USA Patriot Act to collect Americans' personal records in bulk. On June 5, 2013, Snowden proved her right.
  You've probably never heard of Wheeler, a Michigan blogger who plies her trade far away from the closed world of Washington, D.C., but her work enables journalists, lawyers, advocates and experts to unmask the government's secret spying apparatus.
  ''She's really a wealth of knowledge,'' said Amie Stepanovich, who does policy and litigation work on domestic surveillance for the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy group. As a resource Wheeler's blog is ''just horribly helpful.''
  Wheeler, known to her Twitter followers and readers as emptywheel, pores over government memos, transcripts and court opinions in an upstairs room in her home in Grand Rapids. Bookshelves hold the thousands of pages she's read over the years and often returns to when piecing together her investigations.
  The intelligence community's work is shrouded in secrecy, an endless series of documents from legal memos to internal audits, all of them classified. From the outside, the only way to peer inside secret government is to find clues within the documents we do have and begin to connect the dots.
  Experts on domestic surveillance admire Wheeler's ability to connect current revelations to past mysteries. ''You'll read through these dense documents, and it's about one thing; but she'll find a clue in there to something we've all wondered about on something else entirely, and the last citing of that issue was five years ago, and somehow she still remembered,'' said Barton Gellman, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter late of The Washington Post who has worked with Snowden to break stories on the NSA this summer. ''She's indispensable now with the NSA story, which is endlessly complex.''
  The all pervading secrecy of the surveillance state makes the work of outside investigators a guessing game '' one that Wheeler has proved eminently good at. ''When we go after a FOIA [Freedom of Information Act] document, we have to have some proof that it exists,'' said Stepanovich. ''If we can use people like Marcy who have made the connection to establish that proof, then we can go after the document.''
  It's like a neverending puzzle. ''FOIA documents are these disembodied documents,'' said Wheeler. ''You have to put them into the timeline and see what they were responding to. Documents in bureaucracies are always response and counter-response.''
  And she would know. Before she took up blogging, Wheeler spent years as a consultant for corporations on how to decipher complex government documents. So when Wheeler looks at a document dump from the NSA, she's reading them in a different way to lawyers and journalists, and that deeper understanding of what a bureaucratic document really means helps her find or infer information that others often miss.
  This is how Wheeler snagged her most famous scoop. When the George W. Bush administration's secret torture memos were released in 2009, the press came at them from a political angle and they overlooked one important detail. ''Everyone had been looking at those memos for an entire weekend, and I was the first and possibly only one to notice that they talked about the number of times that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had been waterboarded,'' she said, referring to the al Qaeda operative who planned the 9/11 attacks. That number was a startling 183 times in a single month.
  When Wheeler graduated from college, she set out to discover how businesses use language '' a strange pursuit for any 22-year-old, but one she explains by the fact that both her parents worked at IBM. After five years consulting for corporations, teaching employees how to write large documents for business, she returned to school and earned a Ph.D. in comparative literature, where she studied a subversive writing form used in French, Czech and Argentine papers under authoritative regimes. Ultimately, her work lent itself more to blogging and close-readings of government memos than to teaching literature.
  Her return to the real world coincided with a breast cancer diagnosis in the fall of 2002. Needing a job, she returned to consulting, this time for the auto industry in Asia, and slowly fell into blogging. When the Scooter Libby trial over the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame came along in 2005, she got hooked. Her coverage of the trial became a book, Anatomy of Deceit: How the Bush Administration Used the Media to Sell the Iraq War and Out a Spy, and since then she's written about the torture memos, the use of drones and now domestic spying by the NSA. It's not a particularly lucrative line of work, but she says she makes enough that her husband, an engineer, ''doesn't kick me out.''
  Wheeler identifies with the civil liberties camp more than the NSA, and her work has appeared alongside progressive bloggers, including Jane Hamsher, whose website Firedoglake housed Wheeler's blog until 2011. ''I had this very weird moment where I realized I had covered all these people in Argentina who had been tortured,'' she said, referring to her graduate school days. ''I never imagined when I was in graduate school that I would one day be writing about our own country's torture.'' (Several experts who might be expected to have a more critical take on Wheeler's work, or are generally supportive of the NSA's programs, declined to comment for this story. ''I don't typically read her blog. I'm pretty sure she doesn't read mine,'' one responded.)
  Part of what concerns Wheeler about the NSA's bulk data collection is public safety. The NSA's top brass assumes that if a threat does not show up in its databases, it doesn't exist. The next terrorist attack will come from a group that stays offline, she said, ''and we're going to be hit bad by it because we have this hubris about the degree to which all people live online.''
  Wheeler's work stands out because she works independently and is not beholden to an employer or constrained by Capitol Hill etiquette. ''In D.C. culture, you're not supposed to say, 'Dianne Feinstein made a misstatement,' '' she said, referring to the Senate Intelligence Committee chairwoman whom Wheeler tore into on her blog after a September hearing on the NSA. This isn't done much in D.C. because you risk losing access. Since then, Wheeler says, ''Every time I've ever tried to call her office for comment, they don't talk to me.''
  Wheeler's maverick status is more of an asset rather than a liability, allowing her to make educated guesses and put them in the public domain, the kind of speculation and research that is vital to civil liberties groups but something a staff reporter couldn't do without risking the credibility of their newspaper. Her close-reading skills have become even more valuable in the current political climate, in which the Obama administration is cracking down on leaks, making it harder for journalists to obtain information through traditional sources.
  Outside the D.C. bubble, Wheeler's days start around 7 a.m. She checks Twitter, maybe writes a post, and then walks her dog, MilleniaLab, for an hour. The rest of the day she's reading and blogging, sometimes late into the night. She'll often cook throughout the day as well, something she does somewhat obsessively. She makes time to watch football, but not much else. There are still times she wishes she had a normal job and the salary that comes with it. ''But I just feel like there's this beat that is there that unless somebody else comes along and picks it up it won't get done, and I think it's really important,'' she said. ''I feel almost compelled to do it.''
LAWMAKERS TOLD TO TAKE OFF 'MEMBER' PINS
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 22:04
  ABC's ABBY PHILLIP and ANNETA KONSTANTINIDES: Frank Schwing, a furloughed employee at the U.S. Department of Commerce witnessed the car chase near Capitol Hill today.''I was 50 feet away, I saw about three or four cruisers chasing a late model sedan. The sedan was stopped by the police, right at the base of the capitol. They surrounded it..pulled their guns'...(and) opened the passenger side of the sedan. They were shouting at the driver,'' he said.
  Schwing then saw the car reverse and slam into a cruiser (which injured one police officer) and drive off. That's when he heard gun shots, and the chaos began. ''There were a lot of tourists there'...It wasn't clear exactly what we needed to do other than get out of the area as quickly as possible'... Initially the capitol police had us get down in place, (then) they huddled us off to the side.''
  ''Immediately things go through your mind about whether this was an isolated incident or something else,'' Schwing said.
The long line of conservatives targeted by the IRS - Washington Times
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  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.
Democrat, Abortion Icon Wendy Davis Running for Texas Governor | TheBlaze.com
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:48
  HALTOM CITY, Texas (AP) '-- Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis declared her candidacy for governor of Texas on Thursday, promising to focus on the needs of average Texans.
  Speaking before a hometown crowd where she received her high school diploma, Davis staked out the middle ground and said she would focus on uniting people to improve public education, economic development and health care to Texas.
  File '' In this July 25, 2013 file photo, Texas State Senator Wendy Davis speaks at a fundraiser, in Washington. Davis is expected to announce her bid for Texas governor on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2013. When she does, she ll be speaking not only to Texans but also national Democratic fundraisering she ll need to compete in the predominantly Republican state. Credit: AP
  ''Texans don't want to sit back and watch Austin turn into Washington, D.C.,'' Davis said. ''State leaders in power keep forcing people to opposite corners to prepare for a fight instead of coming together to get things done.''
  Davis has said that her experience going from being a single teen mother to a successful Harvard-trained attorney informs her political views and her commitment to Texas' middle-class residents.
  ''Until the families who are burning the candle at both ends can finally make ends meet, we will keep going. Until the amazing health care advances being pioneered in this state reach everyone who needs them, we will keep going,'' she said in remarks prepared for the announcement before about 1,500 people at the Wiley G. Thomas Coliseum.
  The Fort Worth lawmaker rose to national prominence in June for her nearly 13-hour filibuster against new abortion restrictions in Texas.
  Davis' opponents plan to use her support for abortion rights to rally conservative Christian voters next fall. About 40 anti-abortion demonstrators marched outside the venue where Davis was speaking Thursday, and Texas Right to Life plans to begin airing an ad over the weekend that calls her an ''abortion zealot.''
  If her defense of abortion rights angered the right, it inspired Democrats who urged her to run for governor in 2014 and reinvigorate a party that hasn't won statewide office since 1994. Her speech in the Legislature also added to her donor list, both in Texas and across the country.
  ''I thought the filibuster was inspiring and it seems like she really cares about people,'' said Amanda Fisher, a 24-year-old from Dallas. Fisher said she was considering volunteering for a political campaign for the first time.
  Davis must raise money quickly to compete with the front-runner for the GOP nomination, Attorney General Gregg Abbott. He has already raised $25 million to her more than $1 million.
  Credit: AP
  Experts say Davis and the political action committees supporting her will need to spend about $40 million to make it a competitive campaign in Texas, where Democrats have not won more than 42 percent of the vote in the last three elections.
  But national Democratic support and changing state demographics give Davis a chance to end the party's 20-year losing streak in Texas, Democratic consultants say.
  Davis' personal story '' from a trailer park to Texas Christian University to the Harvard Law School '' has captured the imagination of many of her supporters.
  She was a successful attorney when she decided to enter politics by challenging a veteran Republican state senator in Tarrant County in 2008. She narrowly won that race and a tough re-election bid in 2012, when most voters in her district cast ballots for GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
  Observers say her ability to win Republican crossover votes will be critical if she expects to beat Abbott, who has the full strength of the GOP establishment behind him.
  Davis originally promised to announce her intentions by Labor Day, but her father became ill following complications from abdominal surgery and died Sept. 5.
  ''
Police: Man who set himself ablaze on National Mall dies | Fox News
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:47
  A District of Columbia police spokesman says a man who set himself on fire on the National Mall has died of his injuries.
  Officer Araz Alali says the man died Friday night at a Washington hospital where he had been airlifted.
  He says the man was so badly burned that he will need to be identified through DNA and dental records.
  The man poured a can of gasoline on himself in the center portion of the mall Friday afternoon. He then set himself on fire, with passing joggers taking off their shirts to help douse the flames.
  The reason for the self-immolation was not immediately clear and the man's identity was not disclosed. But it occurred in public view, on a central national gathering place, in a city still rattled by last month's mass shooting at Washington Navy Yard and a high-speed car chase outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday that ended with a woman being shot dead by police with a young child in the car.
  He was standing by himself in the center portion of the Mall when he emptied the contents of a red gasoline can on himself and set himself on fire moments later, said Katy Scheflen, who witnessed it as she walked across the area.
  Scheflen said the man was clearly alive as the fire spread, and passing joggers took off their shirts in an effort to help put out the flames. It was not clear who actually extinguished the flames.
  Lt. Pamela Smith of the U.S. Park said she was unaware that he carried any signs or had articulated a cause. Scheflen said she saw a tripod set up near the man but did not hear him say anything intelligible before he set himself on fire. It was unclear if he was filming the incident.
  The Associated Press contributed to this report
VIDEO-NEWSNIGHT: Glenn Greenwald full interview on Snowden, NSA, GCHQ and spying - YouTube
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:27
Ex-NSA chief jokes about putting Edward Snowden on kill list - The Hill's Hillicon Valley
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 21:06
  Former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden joked Thursday about putting Edward Snowden on a kill list.
  Hayden noted that Snowden has been nominated for a European human rights award.
  "I must admit, in my darker moments over the past several months, I'd also thought of nominating Mr. Snowden, but it was for a different list," Hayden said during a panel discussion on cybersecurity hosted by TheWashington Post. The audience laughed, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee who was also on the panel, responded, "I can help you with that."
  Both officials argued that Snowden's leaks about the scope of the NSA's surveillance programs have done serious damage to U.S. national security.
  Snowden, who has been charged with espionage, has been living in Russia since the country granted him asylum in August.
Exclusive: Former WikiLeaks Employee James Ball Describes Working With Julian Assange - The Daily Beast
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  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.
A WikiLeaks Family Feud Erupts on Twitter | FP Passport
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  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.
Pentagon Contract Winners Go Unannounced as Shutdown Lingers - Bloomberg
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  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
VIDEO-Source: Mental health paperwork found at home of Miriam Carey - CNN.com
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:49
  STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  NEW: "We want to know if protocols were followed," the Carey family attorney saysThe papers listed prescriptions to treat schizophrenia and other disorders, the source saysMiriam Carey's boyfriend told police she seemed delusional, a source tells CNNShe died Thursday after a car chase with police near the CapitolWatch an exclusive interview with Miriam Carey's sisters on AC360 tonight, 8pm ET.
  Washington (CNN) -- Authorities searching the home of a Connecticut woman who rammed barricades and led police on a chase near the U.S. Capitol found discharge papers from a 2012 mental health evaluation that listed prescriptions 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.
  Earlier, sources said investigators found medications, but that proved later not to be accurate.
  Carey's boyfriend 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.
  The Carey family is questioning whether shooting her was the only way to end the chase.
  "We want to know if protocols were followed," family attorney Eric Sanders said on CNN's AC360.
  Carey apparently did not have a weapon, but did have a 1-year-old girl in the car with her. The child -- Carey's daughter -- survived the chaos unharmed, officials said.
  Miriam Carey, shown in a photo from Facebook, was driving with a 1-year-old child.
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  The child has been taken into protective custody by the D.C. Child and Family Services Agency. She has been temporarily placed with a foster family, according an agency spokesperson.
  Carey's family has identified the woman's body, said Beverly Fields, a spokeswoman for the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
  Why a new mom might put herself -- and her child -- in harm's way
  Authorities who searched Carey's apartment in Stamford found discharge papers that listed risperidone, a medication to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, a law enforcement source said. They also found paperwork listing 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.
  A few months after her daughter was born, Miriam Carey was diagnosed with postpartum depression with psychosis, her sister, Amy Carey-Jones, said on CNN's "AC360."
  "There wasn't a pattern. It was something that occurred suddenly," Carey-Jones said. "She seemed overwhelmed. There was a lot of stress.
  "There was not moments of her walking around with delusions. That was not what was going on."
  Her sister made progress with the help of counseling and medications. Carey-Jones said her sister recently told her that the doctors said she didn't need the medication anymore.
  "They tapered her off the medications, and she said she felt fine," Carey-Jones said.
  She declined to discuss what medication her sister had taken.
  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; Deborah Feyerick reported from Washington; CNN's Chelsea J. Carter, Joe Johns, 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.
VIDEO- Raw DC Police Car Slams Into Automatic Barriers At Capitol Hill !! - YouTube
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:38
Sir Bob Geldof: 'All humans will die before 2030' | Latest News | News | Daily Star. Simply The Best 7 Days A Week
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  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 20:31
  SIR BOB GELDOF has declared we ALL have less than 17 years to live.
  Sir Bob Geldof based his miserable prediction on the effects of climate change
  The musician-turned-activist reckons the world will end in 2030 - leading to the extinction of humankind.
  Sir Bob, 61, based his miserable prediction on the effects of climate change.
  ''The world can decide in a fit of madness to kill itself," he told a group of youngsters at a summit in Johannesburg, South Africa.
  ''We may not get to 2030. We need to address the problem of climate change urgently''
  Sir Bob GeldofThe former Boomtown Rats singer also warned "the next war will not be a World War One or a World War Two, it will be the end."
  He added: "We may not get to 2030. We need to address the problem of climate change urgently."
  Sir Bob is best-known for his attempts in helping to fight famine in Africa, staging Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985.
  He finished his speech by apologising for being "bloody miserable", but added: "just get on with it".
arkOS: Building the anti-cloud (on a Raspberry Pi)
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  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.
  Atlassian taps crowdsourcing, open source for charityBuilding the tools to build the Internet of ThingsIndie developers take TownCraft to world stage
  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
NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users
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  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.
Report: NSA has little success cracking Tor | Security - InfoWorld
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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."
Possible Clues in Fatal Chase, but No Motive - NYTimes.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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.
Sluiting dreigt voor caf(C)s met dronken gasten - BINNENLAND - PAROOL
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Sat, 05 Oct 2013 14:21
  05-10-13 11:42 uur - Bron: Het Parool
  Archiefbeeld. (C) anp
  Horecaondernemingen waar handhavers een dronken gast aantreffen, kunnen met ingang van 1 november een week worden gesloten. 'We zijn vogelvrij verklaard.'
  De wet bestaat al vele jaren, maar het vooruitzicht dat de gemeente Amsterdam mannetjes op pad stuurt om er ook werkelijk op toe te zien dat die wordt nageleefd, bezorgt de hoofdstedelijke horeca een rolberoerte. Als caf(C)s na 1 november mensen in huis hebben die in kennelijke staat verkeren, wacht ze een week sluiting.
  Bij de tweede keer moeten ze een maand dicht en de derde keer is het met de zaak gedaan. Three strikes you're out is het leidende beginsel van de jongste Handhavingsstrategie Drank en Horeca, die kroegbazen als voorlopig hoogtepunt beschouwen van pogingen hun het leven en werken onmogelijk te maken.
  De Drank- en Horecawet kent al sinds 1964 de zinsnede: 'Het is verboden in een slijtlokaliteit of horecalokaliteit of op een terras de aanwezigheid toe te laten van een persoon die in kennelijke staat van dronkenschap of kennelijk onder invloed van andere psychotrope stoffen verkeert.'
  In de praktijk worden genoemde personen pas als ze (C)cht lastig zijn, dringend op de mogelijkheid van een colaatje gewezen, maar per 1 november vormt de enkele aanwezigheid van een onsamenhangende gast een directe bedreiging voor de horecaondernemer. Als op dat moment met een brevet Drank & Horeca uitgeruste bijzondere opsporingsambtenaren (BOA's) van de stadsdelen binnenvallen, gaat de zaak een week op slot.
  Lees vandaag meer in Het Parool.
  (Door: Albert de Lange)
VIDEO- Israeli Government Paying Students To Make Positive Comments About Israel On Social Media Sites - YouTube
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 04 Oct 2013 23:34
TSA's new Pre-Check programs raises major privacy concerns - The Washington Post
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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.
Capitol shooting gives new Twitter alert system its first major test
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  Fri, 04 Oct 2013 18:28
  WASHINGTON, DC - Oct. 3: Police close in on the U.S. Capitol as people run for cover after reports of a shooting. The U.S. Capitol and the White House were placed on lockdown after an "active shooter" situation was reported. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
  As people turned to Twitter to get updates on the shots fired at the Capitol, the office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms took advantage of a new Twitter tool that allows certain accounts -- such as government offices -- to send push notifications or text messages directly to the phones of followers who sign up to receive emergency alerts. The service started on Sept. 24.
  While several members of Congress, journalists and other eyewitnesses on the Hill turned to Twitter to provide live updates on the event, several official government Twitter accounts, including the official account for the Capitol Visitors Center are not currently being updated, due to the shutdown.
VIDEO-Source: Schizophrenia meds found at Capitol chase driver's home - CNN.com
  Link to Article
  Archived Version
  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.
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  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.