Same Surveillance State, Different War — The Atlantic

Same Surveillance State, Different War — The Atlantic - FBI News Review

April 10, 2015

FBI News Review

Same Surveillance State, Different War — The Atlantic
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:20 PM

How government justification for mass surveillance during the war on drugs turned into rationalization for spying on citizens in the war on terror

It's been a long 22 months since the first of thousands of classified government documents became public in what has turned into a drumbeat of astonishing revelations about the scope of mass surveillance carried out by the United States government.

On Tuesday evening, USA Today detailed a massive surveillance operation, run by the intelligence arm of the Drug Enforcement Agency, that began in 1992. The DEA revealed the existence of the now-discontinued program back in January, and USA Today's account offers remarkable details about how it worked.

The program, which enabled the United States to secretly track billions of phone calls made by millions of U.S. citizens over a period of decades, was a blueprint for the NSA surveillance that would come after it, with similarities too close to be coincidental, according to USA Today. Officials didn't collect the content of Americans' calls, the newspaper reports, but it gathered extensive data that enabled agents to stitch together detailed communications records and "link them to troves of other police and intelligence data" from the FBI, Customs, and other agencies.

The latest details are striking, not only because they reveal new depths of secret government surveillance, but also for how they reveal a continuum from the pre-9/11 War on Drugs to the post-9/11 War on Terror. That connection emerged almost immediately after the terrorist attacks—and it wasn't just rhetorical, it was literal: "Since the start of their bombing campaign [in Afghanistan]," The New York Times wrote in November 2001, "allied officials have tried to link the new war on terror to the old war on drugs." Taxes on poppy farmers who supplied Afghanistan's opium trade helped finance terrorist groups, the newspaper reported at the time.

Since then, both wars have become political shorthand. Both are brutally expensive and arguably un-winnable. And in both cases, use of the word "war" is a deliberate and calculated language choice. Americans are taught that a war is something an entire nation must fight, and something that requires sacrifice for the greater good. Considered in the context of government surveillance, both "wars" are euphemisms for a specific kind of government rationalization.

“The government has repeatedly tried to justify its spying activities on national security grounds, but it turns out it was doing much the same thing for years in aid of ordinary criminal investigations," said the ACLU attorney Patrick Toomey in an email via a spokesperson Tuesday night. "These new revelations are a reminder of how little we still know about the government's surveillance activities—including dragnet programs that operated for decades in secret."

We might actually be able to pinpoint the moment—sometime in 2002—when the rhetoric switched from "drugs" to "terror" as a reason officials gave to citizens who might question their actions. Take a look at Google's count of published incidences of the phrase "war on drugs" versus published incidences of the phrase "war on terror" over a 50-year period.

Published Incidences of the Phrases 'War on Terror' and 'War on Drugs' Over a 50-Year Period

It's clear now that officials looked to their surveillance tactics in the 1990s as a playbook for how to carry out—and, crucially, how to legally justify—mass surveillance after 9/11. From USA Today:

Both operations relied on an expansive interpretation of the word "relevant," for example—one that allowed the government to collect vast amounts of information on the premise that some tiny fraction of it would be useful to investigators. Both used similar internal safeguards, requiring analysts to certify that they had 'reasonable articulable suspicion'—a comparatively low legal threshold—that a phone number was linked to a drug or intelligence case before they could query the records.

And in both cases, government officials—first with the DEA and later with the NSA—coerced technology companies to share data about their customers, sometimes even paying them for information. In most cases, they didn't push back. None challenged subpoenas in court, USA Todayreported.

But while the NSA queried its secret phone databases hundreds of times in a given year, DEA analysts "routinely performed that many searches in a day," USA Today found. Over a two-decade period, the DEA and the Justice Department used Pentagon-installed supercomputers to log "virtually all telephone calls from the USA to as many as 116 countries"—the majority of countries recognized by the United States—including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Italy, Canada, Mexico, most of the countries in Central and South America and the Caribbean, plus other countries in western Africa, Asia, and Europe.

What It Takes to Make People Care About NSA Surveillance

"It has been apparent for a long time in both the law enforcement and intelligence worlds that there is a tremendous value and need to collect certain metadata to support legitimate investigations," USA Today quoted George Terwilliger III, the former deputy attorney general, as having said.

Legitimacy, though, is a matter of debate. The government apparently took painstaking measures to keep its actions secret. The DEA was careful to keep the data it gathered out of criminal prosecutions so the program could continue without the public knowing about it. The DEA trained its agents to conceal from judges and defense lawyers the source of their intelligence.

Mark Rumold, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said the government will have a tough time making the case that the DEA program was legal. "Whatever constitutional wiggle room that might exist in the national security context vanishes when the surveillance program is aimed at enforcement of domestic criminal laws, like drug trafficking laws," he told me.

The ACLU is seeking documents related to the DEA's bulk collection of Americans' phone records under a Freedom of Information Act request ("nothing received so far," a spokesman told me Tuesday night). In the meantime, the drumbeat of information about government tracking of American citizens carries on.

"The government short-circuited any debate about the legality and wisdom of putting the call records of millions of innocent people in the hands of the DEA," Toomey said. "This pattern of extreme executive secrecy must come to an end."

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US Government Makes Baltimore Police Keep Surveillance With Hailstorm Device Secret: Report
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:19 PM

(Newser) – Baltimore police are under orders from the US government to withhold information about secretive cellphone surveillance technology from the public and even the courts, and are encouraged to seek dismissal of cases instead of divulging details about the program, according to a confidential document obtained by the AP. The agreement also requires the police department to seek FBI approval before sharing information about the technology with other law enforcement agencies. Baltimore police Det. Emmanuel Cabreja testified yesterday that the department has deployed a device called Hailstorm and similar technology about 4,300 times since 2007. That's believed to be higher than other known uses of similar surveillance equipment by state and local police.The unusual testimony in a criminal case marked a rare instance when details have been revealed about the surveillance devices, which the Obama administration has aggressively tried to keep secret.

The Hailstorm, made by Florida-based Harris Corp., can sweep up cellphone subscriber-identity data by tricking phones into thinking it's a cell tower. That data is then transmitted to the police, allowing them to locate a phone without the user making a call or sending a text message. "This is a very expensive and very invasive technology developed for military use, now used on the streets of America," says an ACLU staff attorney. "The public has a right to know how taxpayer dollars are being spent, and if our constitutional rights are being respected." The FBI declined to immediately answer questions about the case late yesterday. Police nationwide have largely been kept silent on how they use the devices, while judges have pushed back against state and local government agencies in criminal trials and freedom-of-information requests involving the surveillance devices. (The DEA and DoJ tracked billions of phone calls for nearly 20 years.)

Data on police shootings limited
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:19 PM

Yesterday at 4:29 PM

By Ben Poston
Los Angeles Times

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — Since 1985, police in North Charleston, S.C., have recorded four "justifiable homicides" in which a felon was killed by an officer, according to FBI data. All those killed were male. Two were white, two black.

But how does that number (as compiled by criminologist James Alan Fox at Northeastern University) compare with other cities of the same size? And has the number of police shootings gone up in recent years across the country?

Those are important questions, but there is no reliable data available to answer them.

The national uproar over the recent shooting of a fleeing black man in North Charleston has renewed the debate about police use of force. It also is shining a light on the limitations of federal data to track how often police shoot and kill in the line of duty.

During a February speech at Georgetown University, FBI Director James B. Comey acknowledged those shortcomings.

Following the shooting death of teenager Michael Brown -- and the ensuing riots -- in Ferguson, Mo., last summer, Comey asked his staff to tell him how many black people had been shot by police across the country.

"I wanted to see trends. I wanted to see information," Comey said.

"They couldn't give it to me, and it wasn't their fault. Demographic data regarding officer-involved shootings is not consistently reported to us ... because reporting is voluntary, our data is incomplete and therefore, in the aggregate, unreliable."

Such reporting is mandated in South Carolina.

The Los Angeles Police Department files detailed reports for use-of-force incidents to the Police Commission -- a common practice among big-city agencies.

But that level of reporting does not typically occur at smaller departments, said Michael Maltz, criminology professor emeritus at University of Illinois at Chicago.

Each year, the FBI gathers and publishes the number of justifiable homicides reported by police departments. According to the agency, there were 461 justifiable homicides by law enforcement officers in 2013 and 426 the year before.

"There is really no consistent or reliable reporting," Maltz said.

The FBI, Comey said, must improve how it collects and analyzes data from law enforcement agencies.

"I intend for the FBI to be a leader in urging departments around this country to give us the facts we need for an informed discussion, the facts all of us need to help us make sound policy and sound decisions," he said.

To that end, the agency said it would move away from its current crime reporting system to one that collects more detailed information.

The National Incident Based Reporting System, used by about one-third of law enforcement agencies in the United States, will be expanded to better track how often police use deadly force and the demographic breakdown of victims.

"In essence, it's much richer data," said Stephen Fischer, spokesman for the FBI's Criminal Justice Information Services. "We also pitch to law enforcement agencies that it helps them with transparency and accountability."

Also, an FBI board will vote this year on whether to recommend that the agency record data on all officer-involved shootings, including nonfatal incidents, Fischer said.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Recommended Officer-Involved Shootings

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The FBI Busts Up Another Of Its Own Terrorist Plots And Politicians Rush To Blame The First Amendment
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:18 PM

Submitted by Mike Krieger via Liberty Blitzkrieg blog,

Like other recent sensational “terror plots,” however, the criminal complaint unsealed yesterday demonstrates the key role of an undercover law enforcement informant in both formulating and facilitating the alleged plot. It doesn’t appear that Velentzas or Siddiqui actually planned or attempted to bomb any target, nor is there any evidence of discussions about how to create a bomb before the introduction of the informant into their lives.

While Velentzas appeared to have latent sympathy with the Islamic State, contrary to sensational media reports she is not alleged in the criminal complaint to have had any contact with the group.

Their discussions allegedly progressed, with the informant and Velentzas meeting to talk in greater detail about how to create a bomb, using information gleaned from The Anarchist Cookbook, and discussing whether it would be appropriate to target a gathering of police officers with such a device. At several points in the complaint, Velentzas indicates her reticence about doing anything that might harm “regular people,” even criticizing the Boston Marathon bombers for killing and injuring civilians. During this time, the informant also provided both Velentzas and Siddiqui with printed copies of Inspire, including selected passages about how to create explosives.

– From the Intercept article: Informant Provided Bomb-Making Manual to Alleged “ISIS-Inspired” Plotters

What does a government wanting its population to remain in fear so as to justify a total surveillance state, and a military-intelligence industrial complex hooked on billions in wasteful corporate welfare do in the absence of genuine terrorist plots? Create artificial plots, naturally.

This disturbing trend has been covered here at Liberty Blitzkrieg and elsewhere in recent years. Read the following articles for a couple of recent examples:

Manufactured Terrorism – U.S. Officials Claim Credit for Stopping Another Terror Attack Created by the FBI

FBI Moves to Broaden Hacking Authority – Google Says it Poses “Monumental Constitutional Concern”

Moving along, yesterday it was announced that the Feds had broken up an “ISIS inspired plot” involving two New York women, Noelle Velentzas and Asia Siddiqui. While these ladies certainly appear deranged, what is also clear is that they are incredibly incapable. There seems very little chance that they could ever inflict serious damage to American society without assistance and encouragement from the FBI, which is exactly what the agency provided them.

We learn from the Intercept that:

In what has been widely described in the media as the breakup of an “ISIS-inspired” plot, on April 2 the Department of Justice announced that Noelle Velentzas, 28, and Asia Siddiqui, 31, both of New York, had been arrested and charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. The defendants “plotted to wreak terror by creating explosive devices” for use in New York City and sought “bomb-making instructions and materials” for an attack, the Justice Department statement said.

Like other recent sensational “terror plots,” however, the criminal complaint unsealed yesterday demonstrates the key role of an undercover law enforcement informant in both formulating and facilitating the alleged plot. It doesn’t appear that Velentzas or Siddiqui actually planned or attempted to bomb any target, nor is there any evidence of discussions about how to create a bomb before the introduction of the informant into their lives.

It was only after the informant provided the pair with a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook – a manual with instructions on how to create an explosive device — that their amateurish efforts gained any traction.

While Velentzas appeared to have latent sympathy with the Islamic State, contrary to sensational media reports she is not alleged in the criminal complaint to have had any contact with the group.

Over the following weeks, the informant repeatedly met with both defendants, even watching jihadist recruitment videos with them. On November 23, 2014, the informant brought a printed copy of The Anarchist Cookbook for Velentzas, even bookmarking the page containing bomb-making instructions.

At this point, according to the complaint, the informant and Velentzas had a discussion about “what they’re trying to achieve” with all the research about bombs. Velentzas then told the informant that she didn’t have any existing plans to do anything, and that “she would never want to hurt anyone.”

Nonetheless, their discussions allegedly progressed, with the informant and Velentzas meeting to talk in greater detail about how to create a bomb, using information gleaned from The Anarchist Cookbook, and discussing whether it would be appropriate to target a gathering of police officers with such a device. At several points in the complaint, Velentzas indicates her reticence about doing anything that might harm “regular people,” even criticizing the Boston Marathon bombers for killing and injuring civilians. During this time, the informant also provided both

Velentzas and Siddiqui with printed copies of Inspire, including selected passages about how to create explosives.

Around February 22, after months of discussion and cultivation, the informant and Velentzas went to Siddiqui’s residence, where they saw four propane gas tanks. Siddiqui said, “I got everything up in this joint … once we learn … I got everything up in this joint.”

There were no further recorded meetings between members of the group. On April 2, both Siddiqui and Velentzas were arrested and charged with conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction, ostensibly utilizing the propane tanks seen in Siddiqui’s apartment in February.

There are several pretty incredible angles to this story. First of all, these “terrorists” had to be informed about the Anarchist Cookbook by an FBI informant. This is remarkable considering every kid in my junior high school knew all about this book when I was growing up. That’s a clear indication that this “ISIS inspired cell” was completely clueless and nowhere close to being ready to pull off any sort of attack without the FBI’s help.

Even worse, Dianne Feinstein is now calling for tossing aside the Constitution in order to ban this book, which the FBI had to inform the so-called terrorists about in the first place. You really can’t make this level of stupidity up. TechDirt covered this angle well:

Still, politicians never leave an opportunity like this unexploited, and so in jumps Senator Dianne Feinstein, arguing that the only proper way to deal with this is to, of course… censor the internet:

I am particularly struck that the alleged bombers made use of online bombmaking guides like the Anarchist Cookbook and Inspire Magazine. These documents are not, in my view, protected by the First Amendment and should be removed from the Internet.

For what it’s worth, Dianne Feinstein’s “view” is wrong. The Anarchist Cookbook is very much protected by the First Amendment. While the book is banned in other countries, who don’t have the equivalent of the First Amendment, it’s perfectly legal in the US. The FBI/DOJ has extensively investigated the Anarchist’s Cookbook in particular over the years, and as far back as 1997 directly told Senator Feinstein that she could not ban it. This is from the DOJ back in 1997:

Senator Feinstein introduced legislation during the last Congress in an attempt to fill this gap. The Department of Justice agrees that it would be appropriate and beneficial to adopt further legislation to address this problem directly, if that can be accomplished in a manner that does not impermissibly restrict the wholly legitimate publication and teaching of such information, or otherwise violate the First Amendment.

The First Amendment would impose substantial constraints on any attempt to proscribe indiscriminately the dissemination of bombmaking information. The government generally may not, except in rare circumstances, punish persons either for advocating lawless action or for disseminating truthful information — including information that would be dangerous if used — that such persons have obtained lawfully.

The complaint also lists many other books and magazines and web pages that the various people read throughout, and later has one of the wannabe terrorists thanking the undercover agent for introducing The Anarchist’s Cookbook to her.

As for the other document that Feinstein wants to censor, Inspire, is Al Qaeda’s magazine. And, again, reading through the complaint you see that it was actually the undercover agent who brought the magazine. The wannabe terrorist did ask the undercover agent to get it, and eventually it was the undercover agent who actually got it. Velentzas keeps asking the undercover agent to find a copy of Inspire, over and over again in the complaint until eventually the agent complies:

On or about December 24, 2014, the UC visited VELENTZAS and brought the Spring 2014 issue of Inspire magazine, as previously requested by VELENTZAS.

In other words, in neither case did the would be terrorists get the “bad” material from the internet. In both cases it came from the undercover FBI agent.

Yet Senator Feinstein wants to pretend they discovered the information on the internet, so that she can advocate censoring the internet. As politicians know all too well, you never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Particularly if the story can be used to further advance authoritarianism.

Stay scared ‘Merica. The government and intelligence industrial complex is here to help.

For related articles, see:

Manufactured Terrorism – U.S. Officials Claim Credit for Stopping Another Terror Attack Created by the FBI

FBI Moves to Broaden Hacking Authority – Google Says it Poses “Monumental Constitutional Concern”

FBI Documents Show Plot to Kill Occupy Leaders If “Deemed Necessary” – Yet Details Are Kept From the Public…Why?

The Full Letter Written by the FBI to Martin Luther King Has Been Revealed

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Baltimore Police Using Technology Secretly To Tap Into Thousands Of Cell Phones « CBS Baltimore
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:16 PM

CBS Baltimore

BALTIMORE (WJZ) — Accessing your data. Baltimore City police have been using technology to tap into thousands of cell phones.

Alex DeMetrick reports the secret deal with the FBI even keeps judges in the dark.

Whether we’re talking or texting, it’s computerized data cell phones are transmitting. That includes where they are, and where they’re going.

Normally, it’s the nearest cell phone tower that picks it up–unless it’s Baltimore City police.

An FBI document ended up in a Baltimore courtroom Wednesday, detailing an agreement in 2011 between the then-police commissioner, state’s attorney and the Justice Department.

The deal–track cell phones with technology that mimics a cell phone tower, but lets police listen in. And–don’t tell anybody about it.

“To mislead judges and defense attorneys about how evidence is being collected in criminal cases. That’s just staggering,” said David Rocah, Baltimore ACLU.

While the FBI demanded secrecy, the technology to track is easy enough to find on the internet. The fact that police have used it 4,300 times in Baltimore is now on the street.

“I think it’s a violation of everybody’s privacy to be spying on people’s cell phones and that it’s against our constitutional rights,” one woman said.

The technology not only tracks–it can also call in, opening a phone to what’s inside and not just the suspects.

“It takes over every phone within range,” said Rocah.

The FBI would not comment, but Baltimore police tried to reassure the public.

“This isn’t about reading their emails, seeing text messages, pulling pictures–any of that sort of thing. But this is really about finding some of the most violent criminals in the city, tracking them down,” said Captain Eric Kowalczyk,” Baltimore City Police Department.

How many suspects the technology tracked down and how many were arrested apparently remains classified to protect the technology.

The revelation the police were using the technology secretly was first reported by our media partnerThe Baltimore Sun after a city detective testified about if the first time Wednesday in open court.

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Tells the Facts, Names the Names
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:15 PM

CounterPunch: Tells The Facts, Names The Names

“I predict that we will see a whole new wave of UAVs emerging with payloads more unusual than tasers, dart guns and paintball guns.”

— Guy Martin, editor of Defence Web, BBC News, Jun 18, 2014

Innovation, Edmund Burke reminds us in “A Letter to a Noble Lord,” does not necessarily imply reform. While the peaceful uses of drones are often treated as the benign effects of the security industrial complex, the spill over into more violent deployments has proven unavoidable. What is done in Waziristan against Taliban militants will eventually be done to US citizens on a smaller yet significant scale – the civilian cloaking there becomes as irrelevant in tribal foothills as it does on the streets of Chicago.

The drone monitors have gotten excited by an announcement that Indian police forces will be making use of drones to deploy pepper spray against protesters. Trials were conducted on Tuesday in Lucknow, with the city’s police force anticipating using five such vehicles later this month. “The results,” claimed the jubilant police chief Yashasvi Yadav, “were brilliant. We have managed to work out how to use it to precisely target the mob in winds and congested areas.”[1]

The language used by Yadav serves an important purpose. Drones are weapons of use against that dark, primordial “mob”, difficult to control, unruly of purpose. From the perspective of many state authorities, any protesting group constitutes an unruly “mob”. The idea of a peaceful protest is nowhere to be seen, the greatest of unnatural phenomena. But Yadav insists that, “Pepper is non-lethal but very effective in mob control. We can spray from different heights to have maximum results.”

Controlling protests via the use of drones is at the forefront of new policing technologies, be they used by private entities or more conventional police forces. It is certainly interesting weapons manufacturers, who are lining up their customers. South Africa-based Desert Wolf is one example, telling the BBC in June last year that it had secured the sale of 25 “riot control copters” that would deal with crowds “without endangering the lives of security staff.”[2]

As is the habit of those in the business of providing such weapons, benevolence accompanies the authoritarian, somewhat murderous streak. Using such weapons against dissenting citizens will save, rather than inflict, the loss of life. According to Desert Wolf’s managing director Hennie Kieser, “We cannot afford another Lonmin Marikana [where striking miners were killed] and by removing the police on foot, using non-lethal technology, I believe that everyone will be much safer.” All this, despite the obvious point that using pepper spray, or firing projectiles from the air, can constitute lethal forms of action.

Such octacopter drones brandish the necessary menace that policing authorities will find attractive. They can carry up to 4,000 bullets at a time, as well as sporting the added feature of “blinding lasers” and onboard speakers. The Skunk variety has four high-capacity paintball barrels, each with a firing capacity of 20 bullets per second. The culprit purchasers in this instance came from the mining industry, a sector always keen to iron out protesting strife.

The International Trade Union Confederation immediately saw misty red. Spokesman Tim Noonan deemed the purchases a “deeply disturbing and repugnant development and we are convinced that any reasonable government will move quickly to stop the deployment of advanced battlefield technology on workers or indeed the public involved in legitimate protests and demonstrations” (BBC, Jun 18, 2014).

The police have traditionally felt left out when it comes to the assortment of weapons the military deploy against designated enemies. But the increasing militarisation of the police forces makes waiting for such weapons less of a problem. Military grade weapons are used against petty criminals. They are used in a hopelessly categorised “war on drugs”.

In the apocalyptic language of an ACLU report, War Comes Home: The Excessive Militarization of American Policing (Jun 23, 2014), it is noted how, “Our neighbourhoods are not warzones, and police officers should not be treating us like wartime enemies. An[d] yet, every year, billions of dollars’ worth of military equipment flows from the federal government to state and local police departments.”[3]

Alli McCracken, national coordinator of Code Pink, a body opposed to the deployment of drones, fears the innovations advanced by the Lucknow police force. “We can’t as a world rush into utilising this tech. The police are already so militarised. It’s a matter of privacy and safety.”[4]

The increasing use of drones to carry out policing functions is deemed by such officials as Yadav to be the logical and natural consequence of police work. For him, there is little difference in using such vehicles in monitoring crowds at religious festivals, to then deploying pepper spray when the gathering crowds misbehave.

This cognitive blindness is to be expected from those supporting the machine imperative. Irony proves inescapable, though it is lost on those behind this security push: to humanise policing, machines must be used. To improve public safety, the human element must be removed from the security agent monitoring the ground. Effectively, decisions on life and order are to be made at a location separate and even distant from the protest. This is the gruesome logic of targeting from vast distances.

Where police departments treat protesters as sinister enemies, seeing themselves as protective warriors, problems proliferate. Drone technology desensitises the task of policing, focusing less on public safety than police security. The machine imperative in this regard neuters human judgment. Added to this the attractions offered by weaponized drones, and a world of urban mayhem filled with strafing vehicles and poor decision-making is not so much around the corner as very much pressing against us.

Dr. Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. He lectures at RMIT University, Melbourne. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com

Notes.

[1] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/11521639/Indian-police-to-use-pepper-spray-drones-on-protesters.html

[2] http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-27902634

[3] https://www.aclu.org/war-comes-home-excessive-militarization-american-policing

[4] https://news.vice.com/article/police-in-india-now-have-drones-that-can-shower-unruly-crowds-with-pepper-spray

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ISIS-Inspired Kansas Man Accused of Plotting Another Ft. Hood-Type Attack
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:14 PM

ABC News: U.S.

A 20-year-old Kansas man allegedly joined the U.S. Army last year so he could launch an ISIS-inspired attack on American soldiers like the deadly strike on Ft. Hood, Texas, in 2009, federal authorities announced today.

John T. Booker of Topeka, Kansas, was arrested after a lengthy FBI investigation and was charged with attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction, attempt to provide material support to ISIS, and attempt to destroy U.S. property, officials said.

Booker enlisted on Feb. 7, 2014, and was due to ship to basic training on April 7, 2014. However, his enlistment was terminated on March 24, 2014, at the request of the U.S. Army’s Criminal Investigation Command because of Booker allegedly making statements that he intended to harm federal personnel.

Since then, he developed a plan to launch a car bomb attack on a military installation in Kansas, prosecutors allege.

He's the latest alleged ISIS sympathizer nabbed by the FBI following a string of arrests involving Americans allegedly plotting to join ISIS overseas or launch attacks on their behalf here in the U.S.

It was not immediately clear if Booker had an attorney.

Booker came to the FBI's attention after an unidentified citizen complained to federal authorities about messages he had posted on his Facebook page.

"Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush!!" he allegedly posted on March 19, 2014. "I am so nervous. NOT because I’m scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord."

The next day, FBI agents approached Booker and interviewed him, according to court documents. In that interview, he admitted he enlisted in the U.S. Army months earlier with the intent to commit an insider attack on American forces like the Ft. Hood in 2009, when Maj. Nidal Hassan killed 13 and injured dozens more, court documents show.

Seven month later, an FBI informant began engaging with Booker, and during those conversations Booker "repeatedly expressed his desire to engage in violent jihad on behalf of [ISIS]," the FBI alleges in court documents.

Specifically, on Oct. 10, 2014, Booker told the FBI informant he "joined the United States Army" and "was going to go in there and kill the American soldier," the court documents say.

Booker said he did not want to kill “privates” but hoped to target someone with power, federal authorities allege.

In the past month, with the FBI informant and another FBI cooperator, Booker made two of his own propaganda videos on behalf of ISIS, saying in one: "This message is to America. ... Today we will bring the Islamic State straight to your doorstep," court documents say.

At around the same time, Booker and at least one of the FBI informants allegedly began acquiring components for a bomb. The plan was for Booker to drive the bomb Fort Riley, Kansas, where he would detonate it, according to court documents.

Booker was arrested earlier today outside the military installation, as he was “making final connections” to what he thought was a car bomb, the documents say.

He chose Fort Riley “because the post is famous and there are a lot of soldiers stationed there,” the Justice Department alleges.

Exactly a week ago, FBI agents arrested a Philadelphia woman for allegedly conspiring to provide material support to the group now so infamous for its brutal propaganda videos and the havoc it’s wreaking in war-torn Syria and Iraq. The day before, the FBI field office in New York announced it has arrested two ISIS-inspired women for plotting to detonate a bomb inside the United States.

The week before, two cousins -- one of them a current member of the Illinois National Guard -- were arrested in Chicago for allegedly trying to launch ISIS-inspired attacks in the U.S. and overseas.

A week earlier, a U.S. Air Force veteran, 28-year-old Tairod Pugh of New Jersey, was indicted for his own ISIS-inspired plans. On his laptop, FBI agents allegedly discovered more than 180 jihadist propaganda videos.

In February, three New York City men were arrested on charges they allegedly conspired to join ISIS but also expressed willingness to carry out attacks on the terror group's behalf in the U.S.

Over the past two years, nearly 50 Americans have been charged with trying to join ISIS or are suspected of taking action inspired by the group.

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Florida prison system under fire amid allegations of abuse, fatal shower scalding
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:13 PM

The exterior of Florida State Prison near Starke, Florida. (Reuters)

Florida's state-run prison system is being hammered with allegations that guards abused and even killed inmates -- including one incident where, according to a witness, the skin was scalded off a prisoner's body in a shower -- leaving officials scrambling for answers and human rights groups urging the feds to intervene.

In a stinging rebuke of Florida’s prison system, several current and former inspectors recently went on record claiming workers were routinely ordered to ignore evidence of brutal beatings and other alleged crimes taking place behind bars.

State lawmakers like Republican Sen. Rob Bradley are now backing a bill that would restructure the state’s problem-plagued system by creating an independent oversight board to watch over the Department of Corrections and strip its power to self-police.

“Ultimately, the leadership of our state is responsible for doing what is right and for restoring public faith in our corrections system,” Bradley told <a href="http://FoxNews.com" rel="nofollow">FoxNews.com</a>.

The DOC is Florida’s largest agency with 22,000 employees and more than 100,000 inmates, and can preside over its own internal investigations. The oversight panel, if approved, would have the authority to probe allegations of fraud, inmate abuse and corruption. It would also have subpoena powers.

Bradley said that if the plan is adopted, it would demonstrate the state taking a "hard stand against abuses within our correctional system" and an environment he said has "allowed or disregarded" those abuses.

The problems have been piling on for the FDOC for some time now.

Under its oversight, prisoners allegedly have been gassed by guards, found collapsed, beaten in their cells and tortured by officers who are accused of using scare tactics to keep inmates in line.

In one case, a 50-year-old mentally-ill inmate at the Dade Correctional Institution’s psychiatric ward reportedly died after his skin was partially burned off his body.

Witnesses and DOC documents say Darren Rainey had been handcuffed and locked in his cell the night before. He was taken to the showers as punishment for defecating in his cell and left there for nearly two hours. Rainey, who was serving time over a cocaine possession charge, could be heard shouting as the water -- which was reportedly rigged to a scalding 180 degrees – ripped at his skin.

He screamed and screamed for help.

“I can’t take it no more, I’m sorry. I won’t do it again,” he yelled, according to a grievance complaint obtained by The Miami Herald.

Despite his calls, no one came.

Others heard corrections officers taunting Rainey, asking him how he liked his shower.

When guards finally checked in on him, they found him on his back and not breathing.

According to the May 2014 Herald investigation, a nurse on duty claimed the incident was never properly investigated by the DOC or the Miami-Dade police. There were also accusations that the DOC tried to cover up the incident.

Mark Joiner, a prisoner at Dade Correctional Institution’s psych ward at the time, told the newspaper he had seen the entire incident go down. He said that guards connected a hose from the water supply directly into a makeshift pipe that fed the shower. The controls inside that shower could be activated properly from the inside, he said.

Joiner reportedly said he was ordered to clean up the scene, and saw chunks of human skin in the stall.

Last week, three current and former DOC employees, who were also members of the Ku Klux Klan, were arrested for conspiring to kill a black inmate following his release from prison, Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi announced during a press conference.

Thomas Driver, David Moran and Charles Newcomb were arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to commit murder. The alleged plot to kill the inmate was concocted following a fight between the inmate and Driver. Driver told an FBI informant he would “kick [the inmate’s] freakin’ throat out” and “stomp his larynx closed.”

Driver and Morgan worked at the DOC Reception and Medical Center at the time of their arrest. Newcomb used to work at the same facility, which provides medical care for Florida’s inmates. According to the Bondi, the three men planned on killing the inmate by “injecting him in the neck with insulin” and “in case that didn’t work,” they had a loaded firearm nearby.

Since the Herald’s initial investigation in 2014, human rights groups like Amnesty International, Florida Justice Institute and the American Civil Liberties Union have all raised red flags about the treatment and suspicious deaths of prisoners.

In a July 25, 2014, letter obtained by <a href="http://FoxNews.com" rel="nofollow">FoxNews.com</a>, five human rights groups asked for the federal government to weigh in. They argue in the letter that given Florida corrections officials and other agencies “have gone to such lengths to avoid an investigation that could hold someone accountable for [Rainey’s] death, we urge the U.S. Department of Justice to explore the need for an investigation of the death of Darren Rainey, allegations that scalding hot showers are or have been used as a form of punishment on other mentally ill inmates as well as other forms of inappropriate punishment.”

The DOJ can act if a systemic pattern or practice that causes harm is found in the complaint. If that happens, the DOJ could send the state or local government a letter that describes the problems and steps they must take to fix them. If no common ground can be reached, the DOJ could file a lawsuit in federal court.

The Justice Department currently has open investigations in 20 states including California, Alabama and Pennsylvania.

Earlier this month, the Florida Senate Criminal Justice Committee voted to approve the appointment of Department of Corrections Secretary Julie Jones, the head of Florida’s troubled prison system.

During a committee hearing, Jones, the fifth DOC secretary in as many years, said she was working to “transform the culture” of the department and said that she is making it clear to prison officials that reports of corruption or abuse will be investigated thoroughly.

Jones defended the DOC and pushed back on claims the department had “turned a blind eye.” She said Florida Gov. Rick Scott’s general counsel has looked into “every investigation to make sure there is no stone left unturned and I can assure you that the perception is not reality.”

FDOC spokesman McKinley Lewis also told <a href="http://FoxNews.com" rel="nofollow">FoxNews.com</a> this week that the department “looks forward to reviewing all options put forward by the legislature.”

But some say there have been numerous cases that document abuse in Florida’s prisons, and the DOC should not settle for cosmetic changes.

“The only way to fix the toxic culture in the Department of Corrections is to hold people responsible for their actions – including criminal charges for criminal behavior,” Baylor Johnson, a spokesperson for the ACLU of Florida, said.

In March, however, U.S. District Judge William Stanford dismissed a lawsuit filed by six former DOC investigators. They claimed they were retaliated against for exposing a cover-up in the death of Randall Jordan-Aparo, a 27-year-old asthmatic inmate who died at Franklin Correctional Institution in 2010 after being gassed by guards with noxious chemicals.

The case fell short on a legal technicality and was dismissed.

Johnson said the establishment of an oversight board, as proposed in the legislature, would be a step in the right direction but warned it would only be “effective if it is truly independent and comprised of principled people committed to rigorous oversight and capable of resisting political pressure.”

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San Diego’s homegrown FBI hacking hit
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 5:13 PM

#Mobile phone and computer snooping by police, long a staple in the war against crime, got a boost here 15 years ago with the opening of the nation's first FBI-run regional computer forensics laboratory.

#"The San Diego RCFL has been a pioneer in providing top-quality digital forensic services since the year 2000 when the laboratory was launched as a cooperative venture among federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies," noted San Diego Special Agent in Charge Daphne Hearn in an October 2013 news release.

#During 2012, Hearn's statement continued, "Laboratory personnel trained 533 local investigators in various digital forensic tools and techniques and the San Diego RCFL's self-service kiosks were used more than 2,100 times by officers to examine cell phone and loose digital media."

#The laboratories' annual report describes the kiosks as an easy way for local law enforcement to pry into computers and cell phones, unhindered by federal bureaucracy: "Self-service kiosks for cellular telephones and loose media allow investigators to review the contents of mobile telephones and most types of loose media on their own.”

#Adds the report, “The process is simple: investigators make an appointment at [a regional computer forensics laboratory], bring their evidence, use the Loose Media Kiosk or Cell Phone Investigative Kiosk to view the contents, extract data of interest, save it to a report, and burn the report to a CD or DVD. All of this is accomplished without submitting the evidence to the RCFL."

#Now, an audit released this month by the inspector general's office of the U.S. Justice Department has found that the kiosks, widely used by the FBI centers across the country, are too user-friendly, carrying the potential for massive misuse by rogue cops and prosecutors.

#"Kiosks are vulnerable to potentially serious abuse," says the document.

#"During our fieldwork, the FBI did not provide any information to show that...kiosk users were required to sign-in, identify the case related to the evidence being examined, or, as required by FBI policy, confirm that they possessed the proper legal authority to search for evidence on the cell phone."

#Continues the audit, "In addition, the FBI did not provide us with any information regarding controls in place...to ensure that users do not use the kiosks for non-law enforcement matters."

#Auditors found that "It was possible that a kiosk user could use this tool to view private cell phone information for non-law enforcement purposes," the report says.

#"It was also possible for a user to use a kiosk without proper legal authority, thereby engaging in a Fourth Amendment violation."

#The report notes that while "FBI policy requires kiosk users to confirm they possess the proper legal authority for the search of data on cell phones or loose media," enforcement has been lax.

#A form "acknowledging that the user had the appropriate legal authority to use the kiosk for an official purpose" is supposed to be required, but "approximately 24 percent of the entries in the visitor’s log did not have a corresponding Acknowledgment Form and approximately 13 percent of the Acknowledgment Forms did not correspond with an entry in the...visitor’s log."

#The findings of the audit were based on a review of the regional forensics lab in Philadelphia, but apply nationally, according to the document.

#"We believe it is important that the FBI evaluate [regional computer forensics laboratory] implementation of FBI policy for kiosk usage at RCFLs nation-wide and, if necessary, promptly revise controls to ensure compliance with that policy and minimize the risk of inappropriate use of kiosks."

#According to the report, San Diego's unit received 2525 service requests during fiscal years 2011 through 2013, the second largest of the network. Orange County — like San Diego, a center of drug trafficking — was first, with 2703.

#Training of agents regarding use of the kiosks and keeping track of their usage became even more problematic when unidentified hackers attacked the national Training Registration System used by the forensic labs.

#"According to the FBI," the audit says, "in early 2014, TRS was compromised after an intruder gained unauthorized access and it was taken out of service until a more secure website could be deployed."

#"The FBI told us that the [forensics headquarters office] is in the process of building and deploying a new training website. FBI officials also told us that security is a top priority in developing the new system because it will contain the names of law enforcement officers."

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As encryption spreads, U.S. worries about access to data for investigations
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:58 PM

National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers takes questions at the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association's Cybersecurity Technology Summit on April 2. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

For months, federal law enforcement agencies and industry have been deadlocked on a highly contentious issue: Should tech companies be obliged to guarantee U.S. government access to encrypted data on smartphones and other digital devices, and is that even possible without compromising the security of law-abiding customers?

Recently, the head of the National Security Agency provided a rare hint of what some U.S. officials think might be a technical solution. Why not, said Adm. Michael S. Rogers, require technology companies to create a digital key that could open any smartphone or other locked device to obtain text messages or photos, but divide the key into pieces so that no one person or agency alone could decide to use it?

“I don’t want a back door,” said Rogers, the director of the nation’s top electronic spy agency during a speech at Princeton University, using a tech industry term for covert measures to bypass device security. “I want a front door. And I want the front door to have multiple locks. Big locks.”

Law enforcement and intelligence officials have been warning that the growing use of encryption could seriously hinder criminal and national security investigations. But the White House, which is preparing a report for President Obama on the issue, is still weighing a range of options, including whether authorities have other ways to get the data they need, rather than compel companies through regulatory or legislative action.

The task is not easy. Those taking part in the debate have polarized views, with advocates of default commercial encryption finding little common ground with government officials who see increasing peril as the technology becomes widespread on mobile phones and on text messaging apps.

Encryption techniques and the access they give

Apple catalyzed the public debate in September when it announced that one of the world’s most popular smartphones would now come equipped with a unique digital key that can be used only by its owner. Even if presented with a warrant, Apple could no longer unlock an iPhone that runs its latest operating system.

Hailed as a win for consumer privacy and security, the development has dismayed law enforcement officials, who say it threatens what they describe as a centuries-old social compact in which the government, with a warrant based on probable cause, may seize evidence relevant to criminal investigations.

“What we’re concerned about is the technology risks” bringing the country to a point where the smartphone owner alone, who may be a criminal or terrorist, has control of the data, Deputy Assistant Attorney General David Bitkower said at a recent panel on encryption hosted by the nonprofit Congressional Internet Caucus Advisory Committee. That, he said, has not been the “standard American principle for the last couple of hundred years.”

Tech industry officials and privacy advocates take a different view. “I don’t believe that law enforcement has an absolute right to gain access to every way in which two people may choose to communicate,” said Marc Zwillinger, an attorney for tech companies on encryption-related matters and a former Justice Department official. “And I don’t think our Founding Fathers would think so either. The fact that the Constitution offers a process for obtaining a search warrant where there is probable cause is not support for the notion that it should be illegal to make an unbreakable lock. These are two distinct concepts.”

The increasing use of encrypted storage extends well beyond the iPhone or the similar option that Google offers — though not by default — on new versions of its Android operating system. Windows and Apple offer simple settings to encrypt the contents of personal computers, and several cloud storage companies encrypt the data they host with keys known only to their customers.

The Obama administration says it is not seeking to weaken the security tools themselves. “There’s no scenario in which we don’t want really strong encryption,” President Obama said in an interview with the online tech news outlet Re/Code in February. “I lean probably further in the direction of strong encryption than some do inside of law enforcement. But I am sympathetic to law enforcement because I know the kind of pressure they’re under to keep us safe. And it’s not as black and white as it’s sometimes portrayed.”

Until Rogers’s remarks, U.S. officials declined to say how they believed they could guarantee government access to a locked device without introducing security flaws that others could also find.

Academic and industry experts, including Yahoo’s chief of information security, Alex Stamos, say law enforcement is asking for the impossible. Any means of bypassing encryption, they say, is by definition a weakness that hackers and foreign spy agencies may exploit.

The split key approach is just one among a range of options being studied by the White House as senior policy officials weigh the needs of companies and consumers as well as law enforcement — and try to determine how imminent the latter’s problem is. With input from the FBI, intelligence community and the departments of Justice, State, Commerce and Homeland Security, they are assessing a range of approaches, including the regulatory, the legislative and doing neither.

The White House is also mulling options that avoid having the company or a third party hold a key. One possibility, for example, might have a judge direct a company to set up a mirror account so that law enforcement conducting a criminal investigation is able to read text messages shortly after they have been sent. For encrypted photos, the judge might order the company to back up the suspect’s data to a company server, when the phone is on and the data is unencrypted. Technologists say there are still issues with these approaches, and companies probably would resist them as well.

White House aides aim to report to Obama this month, though the date could slip. “We want to give the president a sense of what the art of the possible is,” said a senior administration official, who was not authorized to speak on the record. “We want to enable him to make some decisions and strategic choices about this very critical issue that has so many strategic implications, not just for our cybersecurity but for law enforcement and national security, economic competitiveness overseas, foreign relations, privacy and consumer security. ”

A central issue in the policy debate is trust, said Lance J. Hoffmann, founder of George Washington University’s Cyberspace Security Policy and Research Institute. “It’s who do you trust with your data? Do you want to default to the government? To the company? Or to the individual? If you make a hybrid, how do you make the trade-off?”

The odds of passing a new law appear slim, given a divided Congress and the increased attention to privacy in the aftermath of leaks by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. There are bills pending to ban government back doors into communications devices. So far, there is no legislation proposed by the government or lawmakers to require Internet and tech firms to make their services and devices wiretap-ready.

“There is zero chance of any domestic restrictions on encryption absent a catastrophic event which clearly could have been stopped if the government had been able to break some encryption,” said Michael Vatis, a senior Justice Department cyber official in the Clinton administration and a partner at Steptoe and Johnson. “That is the only way I could even imagine any restriction on encryption being passed by Congress.”

Even if Congress passed such a law, it could not bind device builders and software engineers overseas. Privacy advocates said strong encryption technology is now sufficiently widespread that it is effectively beyond the reach of government control. That is what Britain is discovering, as it has a law that would require any telecom company to give the government access to data, but the law cannot be used to compel foreign firms that lack encryption keys to create them, legal experts said.

The debate in some ways harks back to the “cryptowars” of the 1990s, when the Clinton administration proposed having the government hold a decryption key “in escrow” for law enforcement seeking to wiretap encrypted voice calls. The proposal had its origins in the nuclear bunker where, to avoid the risk of a rogue Dr. Strangelove launching a nuclear weapon, the government required two people, each holding part of a key, to put their parts together to unlock the weapon.

The government lost, primarily on policy grounds. “Fundamentally what bothered me, and I think many people, is the notion that you don’t have a right to try to protect your communications, but are forced to trust a third party over which you have no control,” said Whitfield Diffie, a pioneer of public-key cryptography, who was part of the opposition that killed the proposal.

But the current debate differs in at least one key respect: its global reach. Today, demand for data security transcends borders, as does law enforcement’s desire to obtain the data. Countries from the United Kingdom to Australia to China have passed or are contemplating laws seeking government access to communications similar to that sought by U.S. authorities.

The split key approach floated by Rogers is a variant on that old approach and is intended to resolve some of the policy objections. Storing a master key in pieces would reduce the risk from hackers. A court could oversee the access. But some technologists still see difficulties.

The technique requires a complex set of separate boxes or systems to carry the keys, recombine them and destroy the new key once it’s been used. “Get any part of that wrong,” said Johns Hopkins University cryptologist Matthew Green, “and all your guarantees go out the window.”

Officials say that if default encryption of e-mails, photos and text messages becomes the norm — without the company holding a key, it could, as Bitkower said, render the warrant “no better than a piece of paper.”

Neither Bitkower nor FBI Director James B. Comey, who also has been vocal about the problem, has been able to cite a case in which locked data thwarted a prosecution. But they have offered examples of how the data are crucial to convicting a person.

Bitkower cited a case in Miami in December in which a long-haul trucker kidnapped his girlfriend, held her in his truck, drove her from state to state and repeatedly sexually assaulted her. She eventually escaped and pressed charges for sexual assault and kidnapping. His defense, Bitkower said, was she engaged in consensual sex. As it turned out, the trucker had video recorded his assault and the phone did not have device encryption enabled. Law enforcement agents were able to get a warrant and retrieve the video. It “revealed in quite disturbing fashion that this was not consensual,” he said. The jury convicted the trucker.

Officials and former agents say there will be cases in which crimes will go unsolved because the data was unattainable because only the phone owner held the key. “I just look at the number of cases I had where, if the bad guy was using one of these [locked] devices, we never would have caught him,” said Timothy P. Ryan, a former FBI supervisory special agent who now leads Kroll Associates’ cyber investigations practice.

But, he said, “I think the genie’s out of the bottle on this one.”

Some experts say the challenge of device encryption may be diminished if law enforcement can compel a suspect to unlock his phone. But, they add, that ability does not exist in every case.

Encryption of phone calls is the harder challenge and the one that agencies such as the NSA, which needs to hear what targets are saying rather than gather evidence for a prosecution, are more concerned about. Brute force decryption is difficult and time-consuming and getting covert access through manufacturers requires a level of specificity and access that is not often available, intelligence officials say.

“The basic question is, is it possible to design a completely secure system” to hold a master key available to the U.S. government but not adversaries, said Donna Dodson, chief cybersecurity advisor at the Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technologies. “There’s no way to do this where you don’t have unintentional vulnerabilities.”

U.S. firm helped the spyware industry build a potent digital weapon for sale overseas

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Ellen Nakashima is a national security reporter for The Washington Post. She focuses on issues relating to intelligence, technology and civil liberties.

Barton Gellman writes for the national staff. He has contributed to three Pulitzer Prizes for The Washington Post, most recently the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service.

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FBI Warns of Fake Govt Sites, ISIS Defacements — Krebs on Security
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:55 PM

Krebs On Security

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is warning that individuals sympathetic to the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS) are mass-defacing Websites using known vulnerabilities in WordPress. The FBI also issued an alert advising that criminals are hosting fraudulent government Web sites in a bid to collect personal and financial information from unwitting Web searchers.

According to the FBI, ISIS sympathizers are targeting WordPress Web sites and the communication platforms of news organizations, commercial entities, religious institutions, federal/state/local governments, foreign governments, and a variety of other domestic and international sites. The agency said the attackers are mainly exploiting known flaws in WordPress plug-ins for which security updates are already available.

The public service announcement (PSA) coincides with a less public alert that the FBI released to itsInfraGard members, a partnership between the FBI and private industry partners. That alert noted that several extremist hacking groups indicated they would participate in an operation dubbed #OpIsrael, which will target Israeli and Jewish Web sites to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day (Apr .15-16).

“The FBI assesses members of at least two extremist hacking groups are currently recruiting participants for the second anniversary of the operation, which started on 7 April 2013, and coincides with Holocaust Remembrance Day,” the InfraGard alert notes. “These groups, typically located in the Middle East and North Africa, routinely conduct pro-extremist, anti-Israeli, and anti-Western cyber operations.”

Experts say there may be no actual relationship between these defacements and Islamist militants. In any case, if you run a Web site powered by WordPress — or any other content management system (CMS) — please take a few moments today to ensure that the CMS itself is up-to-date with the latest patches, and apply all available fixes for any installed plug-ins.

The FBI also issued an unrelated PSA advising people to be wary of fake government Web sites set up to take advantage of search engine optimization techniques that try to get the sites listed prominently in search results when searching for government services online. The FBI explains the scam thusly:

“Victims use a search engine to search for government services such as obtaining an Employer Identification Number (EIN) or replacement social security card. The fraudulent criminal websites are the first to appear in search results, prompting the victims to click on the fraudulent government services website. The victim completes the required fraudulently posted forms for the government service they need. The victim submits the form online, believing they are providing their PII to government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, or similar agency based on the service they need.”

“Once the forms are completed and submitted, the fraudulent website usually requires a fee to complete the service requested. The fees typically range from $29 to $199 based on the government service requested. Once the fees are paid the victim is notified they need to send their birth certificate, driver’s license, employee badge, or other personal items to a specified address. The victim is then told to wait a few days to several weeks for processing.”

“By the time the victim realizes it is a scam, they may have had extra charges billed to their credit/debit card, had a third-party designee added to their EIN card, and never received the service(s) or documents requested. Additionally, all of their PII data has been compromised by the criminals running the websites and can be used for any number of illicit purposes. The potential harm gets worse for those who send their birth certificate or other government-issued identification to the perpetrator.”

The FBI advises consumers to use search engines or other websites to research the advertised services or person/company you plan to deal with. Search the Internet for any negative feedback or reviews on the government services company, their Web site, their e-mail addresses, telephone numbers, or other searchable identifiers. Fly-by-night scam Web sites often have little or no reputation — i.e., they haven’t been online that long. A simple WHOIS Web site registration record search will often reveal scam domains as just recently having been put online.

Tags: fbi, InfraGard, ISIS, ISIS defacements, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams, wordpress

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 7th, 2015 at 1:52 pm and is filed under A Little Sunshine,The Coming Storm. You can follow any comments to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed.

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Baltimore Police used secret technology to track cellphones in thousands of cases
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:53 PM

Baltimore Police Used Secret Technology To Track Cellphones In Thousands Of Cases - Baltimore Sun

The Baltimore Police Department has used an invasive and controversial cellphone tracking device thousands of times in recent years while following instructions from the FBI to withhold information about it from prosecutors and judges, a detective revealed in court testimony Wednesday.

The testimony shows for the first time how frequently city police are using a cell site simulator, more commonly known as a "stingray," a technology that authorities have gone to great lengths to avoid disclosing.

The device mimics a cellphone tower to force phones within its range to connect. Police use it to track down stolen phones or find people.

Until recently, the technology was largely unknown to the public. Privacy advocates nationwide have raised questions whether there has been proper oversight of its use.

Baltimore has emerged in recent months as a battleground for the debate. In one case last fall, a city detective said a nondisclosure agreement with federal authorities prevented him from answering questions about the device. The judge threatened to hold him in contempt if he didn't provide information, and prosecutors withdrew the evidence.

The nondisclosure agreement, presented for the first time in court Wednesday, explicitly instructs prosecutors to drop cases if pressed on the technology, and tells them to contact the FBI if legislators or judges are asking questions.

Detective Emmanuel Cabreja, a member of the Police Department's Advanced Technical Team, testified that police own a Hailstorm cell site simulator — the latest version of the stingray — and have used the technology 4,300 times since 2007.

Cabreja said he had used it 600 to 800 times in less than two years as a member of the unit.

Nate Wessler, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, said 4,300 uses is "huge number." He noted that most agencies have not released data.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement says its officers have used the device about 1,800 times. Police in Tallahassee say they have used it more than 250 times; police in Tacoma, Wash., 170 times.

Former U.S. Judge Brian L. Owsley, a law professor at Indiana Tech, said he was "blown away" by the Baltimore figure and the terms of the nondisclosure agreement. "That's a significant amount of control," he said.

Agencies have invoked the nondisclosure agreement to keep information secret. At a hearing last year, a Maryland State Police commander told state lawmakers that "Homeland Security" prevented him from discussing the technology.

Wessler said the secrecy is upending the system of checks and balances built into the criminal justice system.

"In Baltimore, they've been using this since 2007, and it's only been in the last several months that defense attorneys have learned enough to start asking questions," he said. "Our entire judicial system and constitution is set up to avoid a 'just trust us' system where the use of invasive surveillance gear is secret."

Cabreja testified Wednesday during a pretrial hearing in the case of Nicholas West, 21, and Myquan Anderson, 17. West and Anderson were charged in October 2013 with armed carjacking, armed robbery, theft and other violations stemming from an attack on a man in Federal Hill.

Cabreja took what he said was a copy of the nondisclosure agreement to court. It was dated July 2011 and bore the signatures of then-Police Commissioner Frederick H. Bealefeld III and then-State's Attorney Gregg Bernstein.

Defense attorney Joshua Insley asked Cabreja about the agreement.

"Does this document instruct you to withhold evidence from the state's attorney and Circuit Court, even upon court order to produce?" he asked.

"Yes," Cabreja said.

Cabreja did not comply with a defense subpoena to produce the device in court. He said he was barred from doing so by the nondisclosure agreement.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on the technology or the document.

The signatories to the document agree that disclosing the existence of the stingray would "reveal sensitive technological capabilities possessed by the law enforcement community and may allow individuals who are the subject of investigation … to avoid detection."

They agree that "disclosure of this information could result in the FBI's inability to protect the public from terrorism and other criminal activity" by rendering the technology useless for investigations.

The signatories agree that if they receive a public records request or an inquiry from judges or legislators, they will notify the FBI immediately to allow "sufficient time for the FBI to intervene."

Cabreja testified Wednesday that his unit received information about a stolen cellphone. He said detectives obtained a court order to get the phone's general location using cellphone towers from a cellphone company.

With that information, detectives ventured out to the Waverly neighborhood with the Hailstorm. The device is portable and can be used from a moving vehicle. Cabreja likened it to a metal detector for cellphone signals.

The device forces cellphones to connect to it. In this case, it was a Verizon phone, so identifying information from every Verizon customer in the area was swept up.

Cabreja said the data was collected but "not seen." Detectives were interested only in the target phone.

Cabreja said the device allows police to make a stronger signal emanate from the phone to help them find it.

"It, on screen, shows me directional arrows and signal strength, showing me the phone's direction," he testified.

The detectives traced the phone to a group home and knocked on the door. They told the woman who answered that they were conducting a general criminal investigation and asked to come inside, Cabreja said, and the woman agreed.

Seven detectives entered the home, he said. They used the Hailstorm to make the phone ring before anyone knew why they were really there.

Amid growing questions about the stingray, details of the technology have been trickling out of some jurisdictions, and it is now relatively easy to find descriptions online of what it does.

Insley, the defense attorney, called it the "worst-kept secret," and questioned why local police continue to be gagged.

Cabreja took notes with him to court that he said came from a discussion last week in which the FBI coached him on what to say in court.

The talking points included: "Data is not retained."

Cabreja did not refuse to answer any of Insley's questions, but he said his answers were constrained by the nondisclosure agreement.

Defense attorneys and privacy advocates express concern about the scope of the stingray's powers, and whether the courts are equipped to provide proper oversight of the police who use it. They argue that the use of the device amounts to a search and requires a warrant.

Baltimore police obtain court orders under the state's "pen register" statute. Insley says that law authorizes police to capture only the numbers that are called or received by a phone, not the more detailed metadata and location information the stingray collects.

He said those orders also require a lower standard of proof than a search warrant, and judges are not aware of what they are authorizing.

"They're basically duping these judges into signing authorizations to use stingrays," Insley said. "If they can increase the signal strength of your phone or make it ring, they can pretty much make it do anything."

But prosecutors say the language in the orders authorizes real-time GPS location, and Cabreja testified that police only use the stingray to find "target" phones and not to spy on the innocent.

In Maryland U.S. District Court last fall, an argument about the stingray device was cut short when the suspects took plea deals. And on Wednesday, following Cabreja's testimony, prosecutors and defense attorneys entered into plea negotiations instead of debating the merits of the stingray further.

In cases where the stingray becomes a sticking point, Wessler said, "defense attorneys are being able to get really good deals for their clients, because the FBI is so insistent on hiding all of these details."

"There are likely going to be a lot of defense attorneys in Baltimore who may have an opportunity to raise these issues," Wessler said. "They are on notice now that their clients may have some arguments to make in these cases."

jfenton@baltsun.com

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World coalition attacks botnet infecting 12,000
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:50 PM

A graphic representation of the dangers posed by botnets, stealth robotic computer networks that place malicious hardware on the computers of unsuspecting users.(Photo: Europol European Cybercrime Centre)

An international coalition of cybercrime agencies is working to take down a major botnet that has installed malware on the computers of over 12,000 Americans and Asians.

Called Beebone, the botnet acts as a "downloader," installing other forms of malware on victims' computers without their consent or even awareness, Europol's said.

Initial figures show that over 12,000 computers have been infected, however it is likely there are many more.

The United States reports the greatest number of infections followed by , and , said Europol's Deputy Director of Operations, Wil van .

Once the botnet has installed malware on a computer, it allows cyber criminals steal banking logins and passwords, create fake anti-virus programs and activate ransomware.

Botnets are networks of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled surreptitiously by criminals. Victims seldom realize they have been infected. The term "botnet" comes from a "robot network" of computers.

U.S. government groups are involved, as are Europe's Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce and the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unit.

They are teaming up with computer security companies including , Kaspersky and Shadowserver.

Beebone, sometimes called AAEH, first emerged in 2013.

To thwart the network, the coalition has seized 100 domain names used by the botnet and is redirecting traffic from them to internet service providers and country-level Computer Emergency Response Teams internationally, so victims can be informed that their computers might have been compromised

Called "sinkholing," registering, suspending or seizing all domain names with which the malware communicates renders it harmless.

Several companies have released programs to clear the software from users' computers, including , Intel Security, and TrendMicro, Europol said.

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Federal Data on Police Shootings Limited | Officer.com
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:29 PM

FBI, international cybercrime task force beat botnet
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:28 PM

A new group of international cybercrime fighters claimed one of its first kills Thursday, pulling the plug on malicious servers that hijacked at least 12,000 machines, most of them in the United States.

The elimination of the Beebone botnet is an early success chalked up by the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce, a coordination body created last year by the FBI, Britain's National Crime Agency, Europol and host of other international law enforcement agencies.

FBI Assistant Director for Cyber Joseph Demarest, Jr. said, "Botnets like Beebone have victimized users worldwide, which is why a global law enforcement team approach working with the private sector is so important. The FBI is proud to join with our partners at Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, the Joint Cybercrime Action Taskforce (J-CAT), and the Dutch National High Tech Crime Unite to defeat malicious botnets that have the potential to impact thousands."

Beebone acted as a "downloader," which installed other forms of malicious software on victims' computers without their consent or knowledge. An FBI cyber agent told CBS News this type of cybercrime opens the door to malware that can steal your information and your credentials to log into your bank account. It can also cause your computer to participate in other crimes.

Investigators are in the process of determining the number of victims in the United States and around the world that have been impacted by this botnet.

Botnet is the term applied to networks of hijacked machines which criminals or security agencies use to spread malicious software, empty bank accounts and launch attacks.

The FBI, working with foreign and domestic partners, seized approximately 100 domain names used by the botnet. Computers infected with Beebone will no longer report to the criminals responsible for the infection, and will instead feed into a server operated by Europol's European Cybercrime Centre, blocking further malicious activity from those machines and helping to identify victims.

The victory is an illustration of the lengths many hackers go to defeat investigators. Beebone's masters deployed shape-shifting software that updated itself up to 19 times a day. The software's constantly changing form made countermeasures more difficult.

"From a techie's perspective, they made it as difficult as they possibly could for us," said Europol advisor Raj Samani, who spoke to The Associated Press on Wednesday, only an hour after authorities wrested the last rogue server from the criminals' control.

Beebone was modest by botnet standards, but Samani - the chief technology officer of Intel Security's Europe, Middle East and Africa division - said it was state-of-the-art. Beebone relied on a pair of malicious programs that re-downloaded each other, an insurance policy should one of them be removed. Regular tweaks to the software's code made it difficult for experts to blacklist the programs.

"In terms of size this is obviously small, but in terms of sophistication, we're talking about an investment by the criminals," he said.

The move is a big step for the Cybercrime Action Taskforce, set up in September in a bid to go after top-level Internet crime. A host of security groups - including Intel Security, Kaspersky and Shadowserver - provided assistance.

Europol would not name any of the victims of the botnet. Europol's Paul Gillen said there had not yet been any arrests.

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A Former Black Panther-Turned-FBI Informant Brings a Camera Crew to Work
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:27 PM

Colorlines

Saeed Torres is a Harlem-born former Black Panther and self-described “revolutionary” who, while imprisoned in the early ’90s, began spying on his Muslim community for the FBI.

As a freelancer for the FBI Torres says he’s made thousands of dollars and helped to bring in at least five convictions. In 2011, the 63-year-old let photojournalist (and one-time neighbor) Lyric R. Cabral film him on what’s supposed to be his swan song: “buddying up” to Khalifah Al-Akili, a Pittsburgh-based, white, Muslim 37-year-old husband and father who also happens to praise the Taliban on social media. The result is “(T)error,” the first documentary film to go inside an FBI counter-terrorism sting operation.

>As if watching an FBI freelancer work isn’t already mind-blowing, things really get interesting when, unbeknownst to Torres, Cabral and co-director David Felix Sutcliffe start talking to his target, Al-Akili, too.

(T)error” will premiere this month at the TriBeCa Film Festival, which was founded after 9/11 to revitalize Lower Manhattan. Cabral, 32, spoke with Colorlines about a film that’s about the consequences of betrayal including the one leading to Al-Akili’s questionable arrest by the FBI. Here’s an edited and condensed version of our conversation.

Midway through the film and unbeknownst to 20-year FBI informant, Saeed-aka-“Shariff,” you start interviewing his target, Khalifah Al-Akili. How did that even become possible?

You saw my Colorlines photo essay [from 2011] so you know I was photographing and, I’m still working on, documenting the family members of folks who’ve been either accused or convicted of national security crimes. In doing that I was covering the Newburgh Four case. I attended all of the six-week trial. Through that reporting I came to be known in activist circles as a journalist who would be sensitive to issues of entrapment…and a lot of activists added me to their listservs…. So there was that network I had built through that reporting.

We used to read Khalifah’s public Facebook profile and he started making somewhat ambiguous status [updates about being watched] that only made sense to us because we were with Saeed. … Ultimately Khalifah sent out a [general] e-mail articulating how he met “Shariff” and that he felt the FBI was trying to target and entrap him. Some colleagues forwarded the e-mail to me. So once Khalifah sent that e-mail we knew that we could access him without interfering with an active investigation.

So Khalifah’s public pronouncement turned out to be the perfect “in” for you guys to reach out to him?

Yes. Particularly since that e-mail was forwarded to me. It landed in my inbox and I have that documentation so we really felt comfortable going to him because the e-mail in essence says, “Please come talk to me.”

That is extraordinary. I call it serendipity, but that’s really the result of a decade of reporting on the families affected by these counter-terrorism operations.

Another thing, also based on that 10 years of work: Obviously when we contacted Khalifah we couldn’t disclose why we were [already physically] in Pittsburgh. Ironically, because I’d reported on the Newburgh Four… he looked at my previous journalism and sort of presumed that the reason I was there was to continue reporting on Shahid Hussein [an informant used in the Newburgh Four case introduced by Saeed/Shariff to Khalifah as “Mohammed”].

Why was it so important to document Khalifah’s perspective?

Typically the public is never privy to a defendant’s perspective. Terrorism is a grave concern. But, I think as a journalist I owe it to the public to get to root of “radicalization.” If people like Khalifah are the FBI’s greatest fear, and arguably, national security threats, then they should be able to articulate and speak as to why they post these things on Facebook and defend their political positions. We were also very committed to [showing] how it feels to be under surveillance. [It] doesn’t just stop with you, it extends to your friends, family.

One more thing: Khalifah is quite indicative of the individuals the FBI chooses to target. Even though he is a white American he is a convert. Often [targets] are converts to Islam, young, on the fringes of the community, impoverished and unemployed. Khalifah hits a lot of those aspects. …He didn’t have the resources or means to be connected to any type of group. He was really just struggling. And that’s the point at which the FBI found him. He describes himself as a “bottom of the barrel” type guy.

And he’s also the guy who figured out the FBI was watching him by using Google!

Yes, he was very digitally savvy.

Jazz musician Tarik Shah, Saeed’s target from an earlier operation, is midway through a 15-year sentence. His 80-year-old mother says of Saeed (to whom she’d rented an apartment in her home): “What you reap you will sow.” You’ve known Saeed for more than a decade now. Is that true?

Hmm. Yes, it’s true. He’s very isolated. This is someone who has no community, no friends. He’s always looking over his shoulder whether that be from a veritable fear or a psychological one that’s borne of guilt and shame. …Saeed’s a New York native, born and raised in Harlem, proud member of Masjid At-Taqwa—and he can’t go back. That’s painful. … I think in 23 years of [informing on persons of interest to the FBI] I think he’s lost a lot of himself. I think the person he was off the job is no longer. I think those identities have melded and he’s dealing with the consequences now. He’s living a very, not paranoid, but a very timid existence.

At what point did the FBI acknowledge that they knew Saeed had let a small camera crew into his life?

To date the FBI has not acknowledged that they’ve known anything. … In November we reached out for comment … on Khalifah Al-Akili and Tarik Shah, another one of Saeed’s targets. We have yet to receive comment.

Have you figured out why Saeed chose to expose this part of his life to you?

He has a folder of news clippings about the cases he’s made. He highlights his role—“anonymous informant,” “undercover informant”—literally with a pen. … I think he’s always had a desire to go on the record [and over time it increasingly] became OK for him to talk.

Why did Saeed decide to talk to you?

When I was living in small Harlem brownstone and he was my neighbor, I had no idea what he did. I just saw a well-dressed man leave out the brownstone with a suit and tie, carrying a suitcase. … He began to invite me into his apartment and [it was] during that four-year period that I met Tarik Shah, whom Saeed introduced as someone giving him bass lessons.

So when I asked why did he tell me he said, “Well, I knew you were studying journalism. You weren’t quite biased because you were learning. I wanted to give you a good story and, above all, I knew that you would believe me because you were in the middle of it.”

In the middle of it?

He told me when he made the disclosure about his actual work, he told me that the brownstone was wired with audio and video surveillance. [That] was very repulsive to me because I realized that I was involved, literally. At the age of 19 I arguably had some type of FBI file. I was pissed! … This man is a master of betrayal. I had never been betrayed to that degree. And it was definitely an eye opener.

So you know firsthand what it means to get caught up in an FBI informant’s web. You have something in common with Tarik Shah, Khalifah Al-Akili and their families?

Oh, absolutely.

The film includes a clip of local media coverage of Khalifah’s arrest by the FBI, which comes off as though the FBI had just nabbed Osama bin Laden Jr. Toward the end the reporter says the FBI has “no hard evidence” against Khalifah. Why did you include that clip?

Typically, media reports about terrorism arrests [are] dictated by the FBI press release. We included that [clip] after the audience has seen the nature and breadth of investigation, that even the informant is questioning the validity of the target and telling his handlers this guys is not a threat. The news report is wholly inaccurate. …

Something that’s also interesting about the news reports, too, is that they really set the tone. The jury of a defendant’s peers is chosen after having read these headlines and watched these news reports [and] very few people question beyond the news report. We’ve had people screen the film and still come up after and say [that] they believe the news report. Some people question the film and believe that newscaster. …It’s very interesting the power of the news.

How often in your experience have you seen the FBI arrest and hold someone on tenuous evidence?

It’s difficult to say. …Often you hear about the arrest but rarely do you hear a retraction or a note made in the news that the charges against so-and-so have been dismissed. Accusations are often more prominent than the [defendant’s] innocence.

How has informant spying changed relationships in the Muslim communities you’ve covered over the last decade?

All of the Newburgh Four attended Masjid al-Ikhlas. I visited a year after that [2010] case and people in the mosque didn’t know an informant had been there. One result of these cases is this is a political discussion that is averted in these communities. Even though there’ll be a camera right above the entrance to the masjid, people don’t talk about it. Clearly there’s monitoring but people don’t want to be caught on camera scrutinizing the surveillance. …The inundation of informants in these communities has also transformed mosque attendance. People would rather worship at home where there’s no fear of surveillance.

What was the most difficult aspect of making this film and getting it to the public?

Surveillance. It was really the first film where we felt the need to engage in data protection. Laura Poitras is one of [the film’s] creative consultants and early on she encouraged us to encrypt all our hard drives and materials. We had to enter a new phase with digital protection that we’d never been in before.

What’s your next project?

I’m starting production on a new feature documentary film in Cuba in July. It looks at changing diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba from the lens of American fugitives who are potentially thwarting negotiations.

Will this involve Assata Shakur?

No comment.

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FBI agreement requires police to hide surveillance use from the courts | Politics
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:27 PM

Police agreements with the Federal Bureau of Investigation ask officers to hide the capabilities of high-tech surveillance equipment from the courts and the public, according to records obtained by the ACLU.

Unknown is whether the Tacoma Police Department’s agreement with the feds to operate its cellphone-tracking device has such a provision. But even if it does, police officials say their officers now tell judges when using their device, called a cell site simulator or Stingray.

This week’s release of an unredacted copy of the nondisclosure agreement the FBI makes police agencies sign before acquiring such technology came after a court ordered the Erie County Sheriff’s Office to turn over documents to the New York Civil Liberties Union.

One section of the agreement requires police to keep the use of the device secret, even if judges or defense attorneys ask for more information.

Police in Tacoma and elsewhere have used the device for years. It tricks cellphones into connecting with what appears to be a cell tower. Using the device, police can more accurately pinpoint the location of a suspect by the cellphone he or she carries. The device can also draw in data from all cellphones in an area, though Tacoma Police have said they don’t use it that way.

The Tacoma Police Department’s nondisclosure agreement with the FBI was provided to The News Tribune last year, but it was heavily redacted. In a response to an identical records request to the FBI, the agency would not confirm nor deny the existence of a nondisclosure agreement with Tacoma.

The NDA between the FBI and Erie County Sheriff’s Office tells police to hide the use of cell site simulators from judges, prosecutors and defense attorneys, unless the agency gets written permission from the FBI. The Associated Press has also uncovered an unredacted copy of a 2011 agreement between the FBI and the Baltimore Police Department that has identical provisions.

After The News Tribune reported last year that Tacoma police possessed a Stingray, Pierce County Superior Court judges demanded police to specific in court orders when they intended to use the technology. They also made police promise to not keep data collected on non-suspects.

Tacoma Assistant Police Chief Kathy McAlpine said via email Thursday that the judges’ wishes are being honored: “Cell site simulator is in all of our requests for court orders.”

The department has asked for eight court orders since the beginning of the year, all for TPD suspects, she wrote.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Ronald Culpepper said he has not signed one of the eight court orders, but there are 22 judges and any one of them could have signed orders.

“I have not seen (orders) where we were told this was being used since the story came out,” he said, referring to a story in The News Tribune in August that revealed the police use of the technology.

The Baltimore Sun provided a rare glimpse into how the technology works this week in coverage of a court hearing where a detective described how the Hailstorm, the latest version of the Stingray, works:

[Baltimore Police Detective Emmanuel] Cabreja said the device allows police to make a stronger signal emanate from the phone to help them find it.

"It, on screen, shows me directional arrows and signal strength, showing me the phone's direction," he testified.

Seven detectives entered the home, he said. They used the Hailstorm to make the phone ring before anyone knew why they were really there.

Tacoma police also have the Hailstorm, which the department bought in 2013 for $109,421 from Harris Corp. of Florida.

While there are no laws governing how police in Washington state use cell site simulators, that could soon change. Legislators are considering a bill that would require police to get permission from judges to use the technology, along with a few other limitations.

The Tacoma Police Department says its officers already follow the rules set forth in the proposed legislation.

Kate Martin: 253-597-8542 kate.martin@thenewstribune.com @KateReports

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Fake FBI agent swindled man out of his home: lawsuit
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:25 PM

| Fake FBI Agent Swindled Man Out Of His Home: LawsuitNew York Post

Shady Brooklyn real-estate workers conned a Flatbush man out of his home after one posed as a FBI agent and threatened to arrest him unless he signed over the deed to his home, court papers state.

Daniel Augustin, 66 – who speaks only Creole and does not read or understand English very well – was underwater on his $800,000 mortgage in 2009 when two employees of Park Slope Associates showed up at his door claiming to be from his lender, DLJ Mortgage Capital, the documents state.

One of the men “brandished a business card to prove he was an officer of DLJ morgtgage. [He] introduced the other man as an FBI agent investigating the mortgage,” the Brooklyn Supreme Court lawsuit states.

“The [fake FBI agent then] questioned why plaintiff took a mortgage he could not afford. He threatened that unless plaintiff signed some documents, he would arrest him there and then for mortgage fraud,” according to the papers.

Augustin was afraid and in an effort to avoid being arrested in front of his wife and family, he signed the papers, the suit states.

“Upon signing the documents, plaintiff was assured by his visitors that he was no longer under the fear of arrest. Plaintiff was further warned that unless he kept the event of that night secret, he could run the risk of getting further visits from the FBI,” the papers state.

The suit seeks to toss out the papers Augustin signed the night he got a visit from the fake FBI agent.

Park Slope Associates could not be reached for comment.

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Defense says FBI probe of accused officers was flawed
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:24 PM

Philly.Com News

Jeremy Roebuck, Inquirer Staff Writer

Last updated: Friday, April 10, 2015, 1:09 AM
Posted: Thursday, April 9, 2015, 8:58 PM

After seven days of testimony alleging that an elite Philadelphia narcotics unit routinely cracked skulls, pocketed drug money, and lied on police reports to cover up its crimes, the federal jury hearing the corruption case against six of its members could be excused for wanting answers to a few nagging questions.

Among them: Where were these officers' bosses? And what did they have to say when the FBI showed up on their doorsteps?

The answers, as FBI case agent John Hess testified Thursday, are complicated.

Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey supported the investigation from the beginning, he said.

But agents did not try to contact the drug unit's direct supervisors until earlier this year, well after the six were indicted. And they never reached out to others, including one who participated in some of the drug raids now part of the government's case.

Defense lawyers have pointed to those decisions as signs of a flawed FBI probe. The say agents cut several corners, suggesting they approached their investigation of Officers Thomas Liciardello, Brian Reynolds, Michael Spicer, Perry Betts, Linwood Norman, and John Speiser already convinced of their guilt.

"They didn't want the truth," Reynolds' lawyer, Jack McMahon, has said. "They wanted to knee-jerk accept what some drug dealer said without corroborating it with anyone who might say something different."

Lawyers for the indicted officers plan to call several supervisors, including Ramsey, as witnesses.

Hess, the FBI case agent, and federal prosecutors defended the probe.

"Until the indictment, did you know how high the corruption went?" Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony Wzorek asked Hess. "Did you know how far and wide it went? You didn't know who was involved."

Hess replied: "I still don't know for certain."

Even if he were certain the supervisors had no involvement in the drug unit's alleged crimes, Wzorek asked, "did you expect to get cooperation from Philadelphia police officers against their brother officers?"

Prosecutors have alleged that Liciardello and his codefendants shook down drug suspects for years with gang-like efficiency, often using excessive force and deception to steal drugs and money that they failed to report on police property receipts.

Throughout the testimony of government witnesses, the names of four narcotics unit supervisors have surfaced again and again: then-Chief Inspector William Blackburn, Capt. Chris Werner, Sgt. Joe McCloskey, and Lt. Robert Otto.

FBI agents tried to interview Blackburn and Werner this year.

Hess testified that they said they would talk to investigators only if granted immunity and a guarantee that their statements would not be used as a basis for Internal Affairs action. Prosecutors refused to agree to those terms, and interviews with the men never happened.

McCloskey, the unit's direct supervisor, signed several police reports and property receipts that prosecutors now allege were falsified to cover up theft.

Hess made clear Thursday that his investigation did not turn up evidence implicating McCloskey in any of the crimes alleged against Liciardello and his codefendants.

Prosecution witnesses, however, have suggested that McCloskey may not have been at the scenes of many of the reports that he signed. For instance, he signed a property receipt for $8,500 seized during an April 2012 bust that, unbeknownst to the drug squad, the FBI staged in hope of catching Liciardello and others committing a crime.

Though McCloskey's name appeared on the paperwork for that bust, hidden-camera video of the operation shows no sign he was present.

McCloskey agreed to be interviewed when approached by FBI agents in January, but demanded that the session be videotaped and that prosecutors not use his statements against him in court.

"It's unusual for us to do that," Hess said, "but we agreed to it."

Most puzzling to defense lawyers, however, was the FBI's failure to try to contact Otto, who was once McCloskey's boss. He has since been elevated by Ramsey to oversee other investigative units.

Otto was also present, according to government witnesses, at several of the drug busts in which officers are alleged to have stolen drug cash. According to one police report, Otto made one of the cash seizures federal prosecutors have since characterized as suspicious.

Hess said Thursday he did not believe the narcotics unit members conducted any illegal activity in front of Otto. Still, when asked why the FBI never sought to speak to the lieutenant, Hess was forthright.

"If he were going to tell me the truth, I would have," the agent said. "I didn't think he was going to tell me the truth."

Reached by phone Thursday, Otto declined to comment. Efforts to reach McCloskey, Werner, and Blackburn were unsuccessful.

The trial is set to resume Friday.

jroebuck@phillynews.com

215-854-2608 @jeremyrroebuck

Inquirer staff writer Aubrey Whelan contributed to this article.

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The Boston Bombing: Was Tamerlan Tsarnaev an FBI Informant? | Global Research
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:23 PM

Global Research

Originally published by Who What Why

by Lara Turner

We asked each member of our Boston Marathon Bombing reporting team to share their personal experience or perspective on one aspect of the bombing or the trial. Stay tuned for more personal perspectives like this as the trial concludes.

The entire defense of convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was an effort to avoid the death penalty. Partly for that reason, no attempt was made to address the many unanswered questions surrounding the case, including one that could shed an entirely new light on many aspects of this case: Was Tamerlan Tsarnaev an FBI informant?

Last year, attorneys for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev argued in court motions that his older brother and alleged accomplice had been encouraged to become FBI informants and report on the area’s Muslim and Chechen communities. As the trial drew near, US Circuit Court Judge George A. O’Toole limited the defense’s abilities to discuss in court Tamerlan’s role in the bombing. The discussion of whether Tamerlan was an informant was pushed to the dustbin of case files. It remains to be seen if it will once again appear in the upcoming sentencing phase.

For its part, the FBI has asserted that the Tsarnaev brothers were never sources for the agency nor did it attempt to recruit them as sources.

But, after recent independent investigations, it’s no longer the purview of skeptics to wonder about the true nature of the FBI’s involvement with two young, arguably down-on-their-luck Muslims hailing from a region—Chechnya—rife with turmoil.

In fact, the FBI commonly seeks out these types of young men for help as informants and to lead stings.

In the days leading up to jury deliberations in the Boston bombing trial—two New York women were arrested and charged with conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction, citing the Boston Marathon bombings as inspiration. However, a criminal complaint revealed that an undercover law enforcement informant devised and facilitated the alleged plot. The complaint provided little evidence that the two women knew how to make a bomb before they were introduced to the informant.

The Informants

According to researcher Trevor Aaronson, author of The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI’s Manufactured War on Terrorism, nearly half of the 508 defendants prosecuted for terrorism-related incidents between 9/11 and 2011 were prompted to act by informants—who were paid as much as $100,000 per assignment. Sting operations resulted in the prosecutions of 158 defendants. Among the most high-profile plots of the last decade investigated by Aaronson, only three lacked FBI involvement.

Tamerlan was an out-of-work boxer, married to a nurse’s aide who worked 60 hours a week to make ends meet. How he could come up with $900 cash to send to his mother in Russia two days before the bombings—and afford to buy several backpacks, ammunition, BBs and other supposed bomb-making material—was never answered during the trial. Whether he participated in something illegal or earned the cash in some other manner was not explored.

Also noteworthy was the fact that of all the receipts the average person sticks into his or her wallet while shopping, the only receipts found in Tamerlan’s wallet were those that showed specifically his purchases of materials related to the bombings.

The Bombs

Another issue that was conspicuously glossed over during the trial was the sophistication of the Boylston Street bombs that killed three and maimed hundreds.

Whether or not the Tsarnaev brothers had the money and experience to make such a sophisticated bomb should be questioned.

In court, defense attorneys presented copies of the Russian translation of the Inspire magazine [an Al Qaeda publication] that allegedly acted as the impetus for Tamerlan’s desire to build the bombs and carry out the attacks. The article’s authors included a notation that it was a “good article, but novices will not understand.” This underlined the complexity of the bombs.

The prosecution itself inadvertently advanced the notion of additional, unknown, parties playing a role in the bomb-making. When seeking to justify why FBI agents questioned Dzhokhar for two days before reading him his Miranda rights, the prosecution pointed to the sophistication of the bombs, which had led investigators to believe at the time there were others involved. If they ever explained how they came to determine that others weren’t—or how the brothers acquired that purported sophistication, we missed it.

***

If Tamerlan had made the bombs, one would expect to find at least traces on his premises. Yet the prosecution flip-flopped at least three times on the issue of whether any explosive black powder was found in Tamerlan’s apartment.

During the trial, the prosecution would selectively invoke the powder only when useful for proving that the brothers were the sole perpetrators of the bombing, thereby diverting public attention from the role others may have played in the attack.But when it serves the government’s purpose to raise the specter of imminent danger from shadowy accomplices, the explosive residue conveniently disappears. It reappears again when any hint of accomplices might aid the defense in warding off the death penalty.

The Trip

During the trial, much was also made of Tamerlan’s trip to Russia, from January 21 to July 17, 2012—but only in the context of how that trip may have been used to radicalize the elder Tsarnaev brother. While pre-trial motions and a US Senate investigation by the House Homeland Security Committee pointed to a Russian Federal Security Service (FSB in Russian) report requesting the CIA to investigate Tamerlan in 2011, the particulars of this investigation weren’t brought up in court.

The fact that Tamerlan was allowed to travel at all, despite allegedly appearing on a no-fly list, received little attention during the trial. WhoWhatWhy has long pondered this trip, along with Tamerlan’s dealings with a Canadian terrorist named William Plotnikov.

Tsarnaev family members, however, are adamant that Tamerlan spent most of his time with family, including a distant cousin named Magomed Kartashov, the founder and leader of a non-violent organization called Union of the Just, which often speaks out against US policies in the Muslim world. It seems strange that a person on track to bomb the marathon would associate with an organization concerned with non-violence.

The Others

An important potentially-related situation, almost completely ignored by traditional media outlets, was the relentless persecution, deportation and even killing of many of the Tsarnaev circle. Did this astonishing federal campaign result in any useful intelligence? If so, we haven’t learned of any. Or, was it for some other purpose? Some have charged that the harassment was explicitly accompanied by warnings that friends of the Tsarnaevs not talk to the press.

Three of Dzhokhar’s friends, Robel Phillipos, Dias Kadyrbayev, and Azamat Tazhayakov, were charged with a variety of federal offenses, including making false statements and obstruction of justice. His high school buddy, Stephen Silva, pleaded guilty to drug and gun charges, and then testified, in hopes of a reduced sentence, that he gave the brothers the gun used to kill MIT Officer Sean Collier.

Another of Tamerlan’s friends, Khairullozhon Matanov, pleaded guilty last month in federal court to misleading investigators. Yet another, Mustafa Ozseferoglu, is being threatened with deportation.

But the most high-profile of the brothers’ friends to meet with federal officers is Ibragim Todashev, who was shot and killed in his Orlando apartment by FBI officers after allegedly admitting that he and Tamerlan killed three of Tamerlan’s friends in what appeared to be drug deal gone wrong in 2011.

Todashev’s alleged confession did not match evidence found at the crime scene, and the events surrounding his death are the subject of a $30 million suit filed by his family last month.

That the federal government has so doggedly made sure that so many of the Tsarnaevs’ friends would be unable to speak out about the events surrounding the Boston Marathon bombing only raises more questions about what these young men knew about the Tsarnaevs’ involvement.

The Author

We’re not the only media entity with questions. Author and journalist Masha Gessen ponders the question of a cover-up in her book about the case, The Brothers: The Road to an American Tragedy,released on April 7. According to skeptical book reviewer Kevin Canfield, writing for the Kansas City Star:

“Gessen’s thinking goes like this: Because the FBI questioned Tamerlan Tsarnaev in 2011 and monitored him and his family, agents would have been likely to recognize him in surveillance camera images captured at the site of the bombing, which killed three and injured hundreds. Nonetheless, she writes, agents with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force didn’t initially identify the Tsarnaev brothers.

“A… logical explanation,” Gessen argues, “is that the person or persons who were in a position to recognize the brothers were consciously concealing this fact in order to protect their own or the agency’s reputation—either because it would look like the FBI had fumbled a solid investigative lead, causing tragedy, or worse, because the FBI had considered Tamerlan an informant.”

Even more incendiary is her suggestion that the FBI deliberately kept police at arm’s length as they were pursuing the brothers “because it needed to ensure that no other law enforcement got to Tamerlan Tsarnaev before the FBI had captured—or killed—him. In other words, the explanation that best fits the facts is a cover-up.”

If Dzhokhar takes the stand on his behalf during the sentencing phase of the trial, will the public learn more about his brother’s involvement with the Feds or with other sophisticated international entities? If he decides not to speak, will his defense argue the notion that, while his older brother influenced him, it was someone else who influenced Tamerlan?

Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s attorneys have rested their case, admitted his guilt in opening and closing arguments and scuttled any attempt to use the trial as a truth-seeking mission. In effect, the defense has avoided anything that could offend the Boston-based jury in their bid to save his life. Yet questions still remain, and WhoWhatWhy remains committed to seeking answers.

Read the whole story

· · · · · · · ·

FBI: Man Plotted Suicide Bomb Attack at Kansas Military Base
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:21 PM

ABC News: U.S.

A 20-year-old man accused of planning a suicide attack at Fort Riley was arrested Friday while trying to arm what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb near the Kansas military base as part of a plot to support the Islamic State group, federal prosecutors said.

John T. Booker, of Topeka, was scheduled to appear in federal court in Topeka later Friday. Prosecutors allege that he told an FBI informant that he wanted to kill Americans and engage in violent jihad on behalf of the terrorist group. Court documents allege he told the informant that attack was justified because the Quran "says to kill your enemies wherever they are."

"It was alleged that he planned to pull the trigger of the explosives himself so that he would die in the explosion," U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said during a news conference. "He told an individual that detonating a suicide bomb was his No. 1 aspiration because he couldn't be captured and all the evidence would be destroyed and he would be guaranteed to hit his target."

Grissom said Booker was arrested without incident near Manhattan, a city that borders Fort Riley about 100 miles west of Kansas City. The FBI said there was no breach at the base.

Court documents don't indicate whether Booker has an attorney, and he didn't have a publicly listed phone number.

Booker was recruited to join the Army in February 2014, but came to the attention of federal investigators after posting messages on Facebook. The FBI said a post on March 19, 2014, read: "Getting ready to be killed in jihad is a HUGE adrenaline rush! I am so nervous. NOT because I'm scared to die but I am eager to meet my lord." His enlistment was terminated a few days later at the request of the Army Criminal Investigation Command, according to the Army.

Prosecutors said Booker started meeting with the FBI informant in October. He allegedly told the informant he wanted to make a video threatening Americans and warning them to get their relatives and friends to quit the military. He said his intent was to "scare this country" and to tell the people that, "we will be coming after American soldiers in the streets ... we will be picking them off one by one," according to the court documents.

Booker is charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property by means of an explosive, and attempting to provide material support to the terrorist group. If convicted, he could face life in prison.

Grissom declined to take questions during the Friday morning news conference. His spokesman didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press asking about Booker's religious background and when he may have become radicalized.

The FBI has focused attention in the last year on individuals who profess allegiance to the Islamic State and who either make plans to fight alongside jihadists in Syria or commit acts of violence in the United States. Other cases have involved current or former service members; last month, a U.S. Army National Guard soldier was charged in Illinois after trying to fly to Egypt.

"We face a continued threat from individuals within our own borders who may be motivated by a variety of reasons," Grissom said during the news conference. "Anyone who tries to harm this nation and its people will be brought to justice."

———

Associated Press writers Bill Draper in Kansas City and Roxana Hegeman in Wichita contributed to this report.

Read the whole story

· ·

The CIA gets a makeover
Friday April 10th, 2015 at 4:00 PM

Mike Nova's Shared NewsLinks Review

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10/04/15 12:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
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10/04/15 12:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
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10/04/15 12:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
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10/04/15 11:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
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» Why Obama chose the Iran talks to take one of his presidency’s biggest risks
10/04/15 11:48 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . A handout picture released by the White House on April 1, 2015 shows President Obama and Vice President Biden, with the national security team, participating in a secure video teleconference from the Situatio...

» Rand Paul: Kurds would fight ISIS 'like hell' if promised a country
10/04/15 11:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) says he supports creating a new nation for the Kurds in exchange for their help fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). “I think they would fight like hell if we prom...

» U.S. Advisers May Be Working With Terrorist-Labeled PKK to Fight ISIS - The Daily Beast
10/04/15 11:44 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . The U.S. relationship is informal amid a tangled roster of Kurdish warriors, but the PKK troops are too good to ignore. MATARA, Iraq — On the volatile front lines facing the so-called Islamic State outs...

» China’s March Westward and the ISIS Challenge
10/04/15 11:41 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from International Policy Digest. By Aurangzeb Qureshi for Global Risk Insights In recent years, China is slowly returning to its former glory as the “Middle Kingdom” as it was once was during the 6...

» National View: InsideSources — Cyber security and the importance of investing and innovating - Opinion - southcoasttoday.com
10/04/15 11:39 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . © Copyright 2015 Local Media Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms of Service | Local Media Group Publications Original content available for n...

» Normalization and a De-facto Alliance Between Washington and Tehran | Raghida Dergham
10/04/15 11:35 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WorldPost Blog on The Huffington Post. Within one week, this is what Tehran sowed and reaped: The Islamic Republic of Iran celebrated the opening of a new historical chapter with the United States and the ...

» ISIS 'demand $30m ransom for Assyrian hostages'
10/04/15 11:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Reuters Displaced Assyrians, who fled from the villages around Tel Tamr, gather outside an Assyrian Church in al-Hasaka city. More than 250 Assyrian hostages held by Islamic State could be released in return ...

» Russian warns of ISIS' influence in Russia | News , World
10/04/15 11:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Daily Star >> News. MOSCOW: A senior Russian intelligence official has warned of the potential influence of ISIS inside Russia. Gen. Sergei Smirnov, deputy chief of the FSB intelligence agency, w...

» US bombs ISIS in Saddam Hussein's hometown after Iran-backed offensive stalled
10/04/15 11:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Military & Defense Contributors. REUTERS/Stringer A military vehicle, belonging to Shi'ite fighters known as Hashid Shaabi, burns after being hit by Islamic State militants, during clashes in northern ...

» 2015-04-07#Playlist
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-07 #Playlist Recent Posts Review 2,578,7562,578,7562015-04-04#Playlist Tuesday April 7 th , 2015 at 11:55 PM Mike Nova - Google+ 1 Share 2,578,756 2,578,756 2015-04-04 #Playl...

» 2,594,4272,594,4272015-04-08 #Germanwings
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,594,427 2,594,427 2015-04-08 #Germanwings "If authorities know what might have driven Mr. Lubitz, they have not made it public." - The Mind of Those Who Kill, and Kill Themselves - N...

» 2,600,1462,600,1462015-04-08 #Putin
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,600,146 2,600,146 2015-04-08 #Putin #Tsipras #Greece Putin Meets With Alexis Tsipras of Greece, Raising Eyebrows in Europe - New York Times Putin Meets With Alexis Tsipras of Greece,...

» 2015-04-09"One Love" - but no singing "Kumbaya" Doctrine or Obama in Jamaica:
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-09 "One Love" - but no singing "Kumbaya" Doctrine or Obama in Jamaica: "Push it, push it some more..." Bob Marley - One Love Uploaded on Apr 20, 2010 One love, One heart Let's ...

» 2015-04-09#Obama
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-09 #Obama #Iran In Search of Obama Doctrine - My definition: Speak softly with your foreign opponents and smash the heads of your domestic ones with the Big Stick (e.g. as in M...

» 2015-04-08#Germanwings
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2015-04-08 #Germanwings "If authorities know what might have driven Mr. Lubitz, they have not made it public." - The Mind of Those Who Kill, and Kill Themselves - NYT "If authorities k...

» 2,600,1482,600,1482015-04-09#FoxNews
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,600,148 2,600,148 2015-04-09 #FoxNews Cyber jihadists could target US TV stations, experts warn - Fox News | » Russian Defense Ministry Says No Cuts In Budget, Personnel 09/04/15 23:...

» 2,606,4152,606,4152015-04-09#Putin
10/04/15 11:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Mike Nova - Google+. 2,606,415 2,606,415 2015-04-09 #Putin #Ukraine New Russian Attack on Ukraine Likely as a Frozen Conflict Threatens Putin’s Goals and Interests, Felgengauer Says - by Paul Goble New Rus...

» US military commander: Russian military 'far more capable' than Soviet Union's - Fox News
10/04/15 02:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Fox News US military commander: Russian military 'far more capable' than Soviet Union's Fox News A top U.S. military commander warned that Russia's modern military is now “far more ca...

» Alexis Tsipras in Moscow asks Europe to end sanctions against Russia
10/04/15 02:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. Greek leader’s ‘springtime for Russian-Greek relations’ fails to extend to bailout loans from Vladimir Putin, but he warns sanctions could cause ‘new cold war’ The Greek prime minist...

» Greek-Russian Summit Marks Defiance of EU - Wall Street Journal
10/04/15 02:34 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Wall Street Journal Greek- Russian Summit Marks Defiance of EU Wall Street Journal MOSCOW— Russian President Vladimir Putin and Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras met at a much-antic...

» Russia offers to loan Greece funds for infrastructure and transport works
10/04/15 02:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from - Europe RSS Feed. Russia would be willing to supply loans to Greece for major infrastructure and transport works, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said, as the Greek Prime Minister Alex Tsipras said E...

» How the US thinks Russians hacked the White House - CNN
10/04/15 02:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Bloomberg How the US thinks Russians hacked the White House CNN Washington (CNN) Russian hackers behind the damaging cyber intrusion of the State Department in recent months used that...

» US military tactics falling behind those of adversaries, Pentagon official warns
10/04/15 02:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. Robert Work: ‘Our technological superiority is slipping. We see it every day’ Deputy defense secretary wants to bring US military into ‘post-insurgency era’ A “proliferation of preci...

» Порошенко с Коморовским нашли общий язык в вопросе санкций против России - УНИАН
10/04/15 02:33 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. УНИАН Порошенко с Коморовским нашли общий язык в вопросе санкций против России УНИАН Как передает корреспондент УНИАН, об этом заявил президент Украины Петр Порошенко во время совм...

» World Briefing: Spain: ‘Swindlers’? Roma Say No
10/04/15 02:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. Spanish groups representing Roma people began a campaign on Wednesday to remove a reference to the Roma as swindlers from the world’s benchmark Spanish dictionary.

» Russia To Europe Private Jet Flights Continue To Drop - Forbes
10/04/15 02:32 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Forbes Russia To Europe Private Jet Flights Continue To Drop Forbes Cold relations between the West and Russia are continuing to weigh down Europe's private aviation industry. The sam...

» Russia Cannot Become a Democracy in Its Current Borders, Walesa Says
10/04/15 02:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Staunton, April 7 – Just as the notion of a liberal Soviet Union proved to be a contradiction in terms, so too the Russian Federation in its current borders cannot bec...

» As Russia Improves Its Surface-to-Air Missiles, US Looks To Counter - Defense One
10/04/15 02:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Defense One As Russia Improves Its Surface-to-Air Missiles, US Looks To Counter Defense One It's the latest move in a decades-old chess game between ever-stealthier U.S. aircraft and ...

» Ukraine Live Day 416: POWs Released After 8 Months, But Others Held as DNR Claims Freed
10/04/15 02:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Yesterday’s live coverage of the Ukraine conflict can be found here . An archive of our liveblogs can be found here . For an overview and analysis of this developing story s...

» UN paid Russian air charters hundreds of millions while Putin invaded Ukraine - Fox News
10/04/15 02:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Fox News UN paid Russian air charters hundreds of millions while Putin invaded Ukraine Fox News Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks at a rally marking one year anniversary of anne...

» Islamic State Hacks French TV Station's Broadcasts, Websites
10/04/15 02:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The French television station TV5Monde says hackers claiming to belong to the Islamic State group had taken over its TV channels, websites, and social media pages.

» Russia's Round 2: A New Conflict in Eastern Europe? - U.S. News & World Report
10/04/15 02:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. U.S. News & World Report Russia's Round 2: A New Conflict in Eastern Europe? U.S. News & World Report Russia's effective use over the last year of “little green men" – or forc...

» White House Won't Cite Hack Source Amid Reports Naming Russia
10/04/15 02:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. The White House is declining to name the source of a hack to its unclassified e-mail system amid reports that it came from Russia.

» Russia Could Give Greece Advance for Turkish Stream Gas Pipeline - Sources
10/04/15 02:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. Russia is considering soon giving Greece funds based on future profits it could earn from shipping Russian gas to Europe as part of a pipeline extension, two Greek government ...

» Kerry 'Very Concerned' About Iranian Support for Yemen Rebels
10/04/15 02:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry says Washington is "very concerned" about at Iran's support for Shi'ite rebels in Yemen, after reports suggested an Iranian naval fleet was headed near ...

» Внутренние войска МВД России провели учения «Заслон-2015» - Коммерсантъ
10/04/15 02:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Правда.Ру РИА Новости Внутренние войска МВД России провели учения «Заслон-2015» Коммерсантъ В Северо-Западном федеральном округе (СЗФО) прошли учения «Заслон-2015» подразделений вн...

» Amnesty: Evidence Of Summary Killings By Ukraine Rebels
10/04/15 02:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Amnesty International says it has new evidence of “execution-style killings” by pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine.

» Passenger Train Crashes into Locomotive in Russia's Lipetsk Region
10/04/15 02:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. At least 26 people have been injured after a passenger train traveling from Volgograd to Moscow crashed into a locomotive in Russia's Lipetsk region.

» Pentagon Chief: North Korea Missile Tests Reminder of Danger
10/04/15 02:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, who arrived in South Korea on Thursday, says Pyongyang's recent missiles tests are a reminder of how dangerous the situation is on the Korean peninsu...

» Polish President, In Rada, Pledges Support For Ukraine
10/04/15 02:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski has voiced strong support for Ukraine during a speech in the parliament in Kyiv, and urged other nations to back the country as its ...

» В Петербурге началась командно-штабная тренировка российских и белорусских офицеров - ГАZЕТА.СПБ
10/04/15 02:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. РИА Новости В Петербурге началась командно-штабная тренировка российских и белорусских офицеров ГАZЕТА.СПБ Российские и белорусские офицеры проводят в Петербурге специальные учения...

» Russian Troops Hold Drills Reportedly Modeled on Maidan Protests
10/04/15 02:26 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. Russia's Interior Ministry troops are conducting large-scale exercises involving a "full arsenal" of anti-riot weapons to practice suppressing political protests.

» Russian Interior Ministry Forces Prepare to Counter Maidans across Russia and in Crimea
10/04/15 02:25 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Window on Eurasia -- New Series. Paul Goble Staunton, April 9 – Russian internal troops are currently conducting exercises in six o...

» Колл-центры начали прием вопросов для "прямой линии" с Путиным - ИнфоРос
10/04/15 02:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. ИнфоРос Колл-центры начали прием вопросов для "прямой линии" с Путиным ИнфоРос Новый сайт российского президента работает без сбоев – сегодня он начал принимать вопросы р...

» Russian Olympic Athletes Denounce New Participation Proposal as 'Idiocy'
10/04/15 02:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Moscow Times Top Stories. Four-times Olympic swimming champion Vladimir Salnikov is completely against the idea of limiting Russian athletes to only being allowed to compete in two Olympics in a row, h...

» Рада запретила пропаганду коммунизма и нацизма на Украине - Радио Свобода
10/04/15 02:24 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Радио Свобода Рада запретила пропаганду коммунизма и нацизма на Украине Радио Свобода Верховная Рада Украины в четверг приняла внесенный кабинетом министров законопроект внесённый ...

» Graveyard of emperors: Putin should heed the fates of Russia's leaders - Quartz
10/04/15 02:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Quartz Graveyard of emperors: Putin should heed the fates of Russia's leaders Quartz Russia , of course, denies the engagement, instead accusing the West of stirring protests in Kiev ...

» Russian Military Drills Continue With Su-35 Flight Training, Heavy Weapons ... - International Business Times
10/04/15 02:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. International Business Times Russian Military Drills Continue With Su-35 Flight Training, Heavy Weapons ... International Business Times The Russian military mobilized more than 30 fi...

» US, Russian war games rekindle Cold War tensions in Eastern Europe amid ... - Fox News
10/04/15 02:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Fox News US, Russian war games rekindle Cold War tensions in Eastern Europe amid ... Fox News AMARI AIR BASE, Estonia – Russia is so close that the F-16 fighter pilots can see it on t...

» ‘Perfect Storm’ over Land May Push the North Caucasus into Chaos, Sokolov Says
10/04/15 02:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Window on Eurasia -- New Series. Paul Goble Staunton, April 9 – The “Kavkazskaya politika” portal has launched a new series of arti...

» Interview: Amnesty International Says Separatists 'Executed' Captive Ukrainian Soldiers
10/04/15 02:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Amnesty International says "shocking new evidence" shows pro-Russian militants in eastern Ukraine have killed soldiers in their captivity execution-style.

» Russian Oil Floods Export Market as Teapot Refiners Lose Money - Bloomberg
10/04/15 02:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Bloomberg Russian Oil Floods Export Market as Teapot Refiners Lose Money Bloomberg A gas flare burns at the central processing plant for oil and gas in the Salym oilfields near Surgut...

» Amnesty Says Ukraine Rebels Killed Captive Soldiers
10/04/15 02:22 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Amnesty International said Thursday that it has evidence that Russian-backed separatists in east Ukraine have killed several captured government soldiers in gross violation of internation...

» French Broadcaster TV5 Monde Recovers After Hacking
10/04/15 02:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. A cyberattack by hackers claiming to support the Islamic State militant group had shut down transmission and wrested control of online accounts.

» Анти- и государственные СМИ
10/04/15 02:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Анти- и государственные СМИ Роспечать заподозрена в финансировании «антигосударственных» изданий. Список «неблагонадежных» средств... From: Радио Свобода Views: 0 4 1 ratings Time...

» Порошенко приравнял Сталина к Гитлеру - Дни.Ру
10/04/15 02:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Дни.Ру Порошенко приравнял Сталина к Гитлеру Дни.Ру 16:06 / 09.04.2015 Гитлер, День Победы, Порошенко, Сталин, УкраинаСтремясь любым способом противопоставить себя России, Украина ...

» Patriarchate Aide Pushing Émigré Solonevich’s Ideas about ‘a Peoples Monarchy’
10/04/15 02:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Window on Eurasia -- New Series. Paul Goble Staunton, April 9 – Archpriest Vsevolod Chaplin, a close aide to Patriarch Kirill and t...

» New Russian Attack on Ukraine Likely as a Frozen Conflict Threatens Putin’s Goals and Interests, Felgengauer Says
10/04/15 02:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The InterpreterThe Interpreter. Staunton, April 9 – Vladimir Putin’s goal in Ukraine remains regime change in Kyiv, something he had hoped his intervention in Crimea and Donbass would force the Ukrai...

» Russian troops practise quelling Ukrainian-style revolution
10/04/15 02:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. Stones and bottles lobbed at interior ministry forces to mimic clashes in Kiev

» Из Молдавии депортировали еще одну группу российских журналистов - ИА REGNUM
10/04/15 02:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Зеркало недели Из Молдавии депортировали еще одну группу российских журналистов ИА REGNUM МВД Молдавии отказало во въезде в страну съемочной группе российского телеканала «Звезда»....

» Russian Consumers Reflect the Pinch of Economic Sanctions - New York Times
10/04/15 02:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. New York Times Russian Consumers Reflect the Pinch of Economic Sanctions New York Times MOSCOW — The brand-new Avia Park is a glittering testament to the power of the Russian consumer...

» Порошенко попросил у США помощи в вопросе обеспечения минских соглашений - Взгляд
10/04/15 02:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Gazeta.ua Порошенко попросил у США помощи в вопросе обеспечения минских соглашений Взгляд Украина надеется на поддержку США в вопросах обеспечения выполнения минских договоренносте...

» В Нью-Йорке арестован еще один подозреваемый в поддержке ИГИЛ – гражданин Узбекистана
10/04/15 02:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Голос Америки. В Нью-Йорке арестован еще один подозреваемый в поддержке ИГИЛ – гражданин Узбекистана Гражданин Узбекистана предстал перед федеральным судьей в Бруклине Originally published at - ...

» Пушков встретился с послом США Теффтом - Газета.Ru
10/04/15 02:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Комсомольская правда Пушков встретился с послом США Теффтом Газета.Ru Глава международного комитета Госдумы Алексей Пушков встретился с послом США в России Джоном Теффтом, передает...

» Is the Iran Deal a Game Changer for Russia?
10/04/15 02:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Home - Institute of Modern Russia. On April 2, six world powers signed a tentative deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program. Should it be finalized in June, one of the outcomes of the deal will be the ...

» МИД ФРГ пригласил коллег «нормандской четверки» в Берлин - Белорусские новости
10/04/15 02:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. ЛІГА.net МИД ФРГ пригласил коллег «нормандской четверки» в Берлин Белорусские новости Министр иностранных дел Германии Франк-Вальтер Штайнмайер пригласил коллег по «нормандской чет...

» Продовольственная программа Михалковых
10/04/15 02:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by Радио Свобода. Продовольственная программа Михалковых О планах Никиты Михалкова и Андрона Кончаловского инвестировать 1 млрд рублей в дело вытеснения "Макдоналд... From: Радио Свобода Views: 772...

» Obama To Address Caribbean's 'Economic Achilles' Heel' -- Energy
10/04/15 02:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Latest From the Wilson Center. President Obama is in Jamaica on Thursday, meeting with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller and more than a dozen other leaders from throughout the Caribbean. It's the first...

» Ukrainian Town Cut off By Military Struggles to Survive
10/04/15 02:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. In eastern Ukraine, villages cut off by military front lines are on the brink of a humanitarian crisis. Ukraine's Kyiv government can't seem to get supplies in supplies and pro-Russia sep...

» Putin returns Nazi-looted icon to Greek prime minister
10/04/15 02:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russian news, all the latest and breaking Russia news. A greek icon stolen by German occupiers handed back to Alexis Tsipras in a sign of good will between countries

» Germanwings co-pilot Andreas Lubitz may have spiked captain's drink with diuretic to force him from cabin
10/04/15 02:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from - Europe RSS Feed. Investigators probing last month’s Germanwings crash are trying to determine whether the Andreas Lubitz placed a chemical in the captain’s drink to force him to go to the toilet.

» Nordic nations agree on defense cooperation against Russia - Reuters
10/04/15 02:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Nordic nations agree on defense cooperation against Russia Reuters " Russia's leaders have shown that they are prepared to make practical and effective use of military means in o...

» Молния пробила дыру в самолете исландской авиакомпании во время полета - Интерфакс
10/04/15 02:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Полит.ру Молния пробила дыру в самолете исландской авиакомпании во время полета Интерфакс ЛОНДОН. 9 АПРЕЛЯ. ИНТЕРФАКС — Молния попала в нос самолета Boeing 757 исландской авиакомпа...

» Министр обороны Словении отправлен в отставку - Коммерсантъ
10/04/15 02:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Полит.ру Российская Газета Министр обороны Словении отправлен в отставку Коммерсантъ Парламент Словении в среду отправил министра обороны страны Янко Вебера в отставку. Как сообщае...

» Nordic nations agree on defense cooperation against Russia - Yahoo News
10/04/15 02:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Newsweek Nordic nations agree on defense cooperation against Russia Yahoo News " Russia's leaders have shown that they are prepared to make practical and effective use of military mea...

» Temples Weigh India's Call to Deposit Gold, Earn Interest
10/04/15 02:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai, devoted to the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesha, bristles with closed-circuit cameras and is guarded by 65 security officers. It...

» Nordic Nations Agree on Closer Defense Cooperation Against Russia - Newsweek
10/04/15 02:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Newsweek Nordic Nations Agree on Closer Defense Cooperation Against Russia Newsweek A Swedish Navy fast-attack craft skims the water around the Stockholm archipelago, in Sweden, Octob...

» На Украине возобновлено старое уголовное дело против Игоря Коломойского - Коммерсантъ
10/04/15 02:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Комсомольская Правда в Украине На Украине возобновлено старое уголовное дело против Игоря Коломойского Коммерсантъ Генеральная прокуратура Украины возобновила расследование уголовн...

» ДНР: Армия Украины начала танковый прорыв под Донецком - Московский комсомолец
10/04/15 02:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. Московский комсомолец ДНР: Армия Украины начала танковый прорыв под Донецком Московский комсомолец О том, что вооруженные силы Украины начали мощный танковый обстрел позиций ополче...

» Владимир Путин изобличил виновных в кровавой драме на Украине - SoftСraze: актуально и обьективно
10/04/15 02:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from В мире – Новости Google. SoftСraze: актуально и обьективно Владимир Путин изобличил виновных в кровавой драме на Украине SoftСraze: актуально и обьективно Российская Федерация, как и ранее, выступает решит...

» World Briefing: Italy: Man Kills 3 at Court During Bankruptcy Hearing
10/04/15 02:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > Europe. A man at a hearing in a fraudulent bankruptcy opened fire in a Milan courthouse on Thursday, killing a judge, a lawyer and a co-defendant and wounding at least two others.

» NATO Caps Size of Russia's Mission After Internal Reports of Espionage - New York Times
10/04/15 01:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia - Google News. Reuters NATO Caps Size of Russia's Mission After Internal Reports of Espionage New York Times WASHINGTON — For a year after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization cut back its coopera...

» Obama Set to Engage Cubans in Panama
10/04/15 01:31 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. President Barack Obama has arrived in Panama for a summit at which he is expected to have a historic encounter with Cuban leader Raul Castro. President Obama arrived in the Panamanian cap...

» I killed 15 prisoners of war in Ukraine, claims Russian fighter
10/04/15 01:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Russia | The Guardian. Head of separatist Sparta Battalion says he shot prisoners following the battle for Donetsk airport, prompting war crimes investigation by Ukrainian government. The Kyiv Post reports...

» Secret service supervisor put on leave after accusations of assault
10/04/15 01:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Female employee claims Female employee says senior supervisor Xavier Morales assaulted her after work at the agency’s headquarters The US secret service has put a manager on a...

» Secret Service Supervisor On Leave After Assault Allegation - FOX News Radio
10/04/15 01:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. FOX News Radio Secret Service Supervisor On Leave After Assault Allegation FOX News Radio A female Secret Service agent claims her boss, Xavier Morales, assaulted her after a par...

» Turkmen Embassy In Minsk Hacked Apparently By IS
10/04/15 01:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Turkmenistan's embassy in the Belarusian capital, Turkmenistan's Embassy in Belarusian capital -- Minsk, has been hacked by people with apparent links to the Islamic Stat...

» U.S. man accused of trying to support to Islamic State
10/04/15 01:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An American man has been charged with trying to provide support for the Islamic State militant group, the U.S Justice Department said on Thursday.

» ISIS stone man to death for bestiality while 'Assad spy' has his throat slit
10/04/15 01:29 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. Graphic photos show a man being bombarded with rocks in a remote stretch of Homs province in front of crowds of bloodthirsty onlookers after being accused of having 'sex with animals'.

» Ukraine sets sights on joining NATO
10/04/15 01:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine, locked in conflict with Russian-backed separatists in its east, on Thursday drew up a new security doctrine denouncing Russia's "aggression" and setting its s...

» 'King of Diamonds' named among Hatton Garden heist suspects
10/04/15 01:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from News | Mail Online. The mysterious Panama hat-wearing robber was pictured by CCTV when he took part in a previous £13million robbery at a Graff diamond store in Knightsbridge, west London in 2007

» What Would a World Without Language Barriers Look Like? - The Atlantic
10/04/15 01:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from world - Google News. The Atlantic What Would a World Without Language Barriers Look Like? The Atlantic On its website, in its promotional videos, and at live events, the company has been dwelling on what t...

» Woman may have faked link to victim of Germanwings crash for free flights
10/04/15 01:28 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. German police investigating whether woman falsely claimed to be cousin of one of the teachers killed in plane crash last month German police are looking into whether a woman f...

» Trident is today's hot-button issue – even for apprentices in Nottingham
10/04/15 01:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. If you’re in the audience at a campaign event, there may be times when you sense that the prime minister is talking over your head “It can be a bit baffling, elections,” expla...

» HSBC files: France expands investigation to include global holding company
10/04/15 01:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. French prosecutors widen inquiry after receiving file on alleged tax-related offences of HSBC’s Swiss banking subsidiary French prosecutors have expanded their investigations ...

» Khamenei: Iran Nuclear Deal With West Not Final - Voice of America
10/04/15 01:27 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Voice of America Khamenei: Iran Nuclear Deal With West Not Final Voice of America Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demanded Western and U.N. economic sanctions impos...

» Russia's Missing Article: Censorship, Prudence, Or A Win For Moscow's Troll Army?
10/04/15 01:23 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. A newspaper in the Russian region of Buryatia excised an article about a local soldier who was allegedly severely injured while fighting for the separatists in eastern Uk...

» U.S. Cannot Be Trusted, Iran’s Supreme Leader Says
10/04/15 01:21 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from TIME. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatullah Ayatollah Khamenei warned Iranian diplomats on Thursday not to trust the United States as they try to finalize finalise the nuclear agreement that was reached in Lausa...

» Judge in Aaron Hernandez's murder trial warns of mistrial risk - Reuters
10/04/15 01:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Reuters Judge in Aaron Hernandez's murder trial warns of mistrial risk Reuters FALL RIVER, Mass. (Reuters) - The judge in former New England Patriots star Aaron Hernandez's murde...

» Exclusive: Shipping lines pull back from Yemen as conflict escalates
10/04/15 01:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. LONDON (Reuters) - International shipping lines are being forced to scale back or suspend port calls to Yemen as the conflict gets worse, putting pressure on supplies of food as prices...

» Putin Orders Millions Of Troops To High Alert After US Hypercraft “Attack”
10/04/15 00:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The European Union Times - World News, Breaking News. The Ministry of Defense ( MoD ) (MoD) in an “urgent action bulletin” published today states that President Putin has ordered over 3 million regular and...

» Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: I neither support nor oppose nuclear deal - video
09/04/15 23:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World news + Video | The Guardian. Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, says on Thursday that he neither supports, nor opposes, the nuclear deal between the P5+1 and Iran on the grounds that noth...

» Obama’s Jamaica visit part of wider outreach to Caribbean region
09/04/15 23:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post. KINGSTON, Jamaica — President KINGSTON, Jamaica—President Obama, launching an effort to reassert close U.S. ties with the Uni...

» US Man Accused of Trying to Join IS Group
09/04/15 23:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. An American man traveled to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the Islamic State group, federal authorities said Thursday. Joshua Van Haften, 34, was arrested Wednesday night at ...

» Wisconsin man accused of trying to join Islamic State group
09/04/15 23:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 10:30 p.m. EDT. MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- A Wisconsin man accused of traveling to the Middle East in a failed attempt to join the Islamic State has been ordered held without bond....

» CSTO Meets In Tajikistan To Discuss IS Threat
09/04/15 23:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Members of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) have met in Tajikistan to discuss the threat posed by the rise of the Islamic State (IS) group in Afghanistan.

» WorldViews: Why Latin America makes a point of not toeing the Washington line
09/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post. PANAMA CITY-- When the Summit of the Americas gets underway here Friday, U.S. officials hoping for a warm reception may be qu...

» French TV Station Hacked
09/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. French broadcaster TV5Monde is working to get its systems back on track after an “extremely powerful” cyberattack by hackers claiming allegiance to Islamic State knocked the company’s ...

» Ayatollah says US distorting nuclear deal
09/04/15 23:47 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News. Supreme leader insists sanctions be lifted ‘on the first day’

» Newly knighted Michael Bloomberg denies he wants to be mayor of London
09/04/15 23:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Anglophile former mayor of New York insists he has ‘zero chance’ and ‘zero interest’ in succeeding Boris Johnson Michael Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, has denied ru...

» Obama says decision soon on Cuba as state sponsor of terror
09/04/15 23:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 10:30 p.m. EDT. KINGSTON, Jamaica (AP) -- President Barack Obama says he'll decide soon whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism....

» Obama: no decision yet on removing Cuba from terror sponsor list
09/04/15 23:46 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. KINGSTON, JAMAICA (Reuters) - President Barack Obama said on Thursday that the U.S. State Department had completed its review of whether to remove Cuba from the list of countries that ...

» WorldViews: If two Russian filmmakers have it their way, it could mean the end of McDonald’s in Russia
09/04/15 23:19 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post. MOSCOW — A pair of internationally-renowned film-director brothers have a strategy to save Russia from the scourge of America...

» Russian Defense Ministry Says No Cuts In Budget, Personnel
09/04/15 23:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Russia's Deputy Defense Minister Tatyana Shevtsova said April 9 there would be no reductions of personnel or funding for the Defense Ministry

» News Analysis: Ahead of World War II Anniversary, Questions Linger Over Stance of Japan’s Premier
09/04/15 23:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. While Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has expressed remorse for the war, suspicions that he remains an unrepentant revisionist have kept Japan from a more assertive regional role.

» WorldViews: Is the New Generation becoming the most powerful cartel in Mexico?
09/04/15 23:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World: World News, International News, Foreign Reporting - The Washington Post. MEXICO CITY -- There's a new name to worry about in Mexico's ever-churning drug war.They call themselves the New Generation o...

» Iran's Supreme Leader Says Sanctions Must Lift When Nuclear Deal Is Signed - New York Times
09/04/15 23:18 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. New York Times Iran's Supreme Leader Says Sanctions Must Lift When Nuclear Deal Is Signed New York Times TEHRAN — Iran's supreme leader on Thursday challenged two of the United S...

» AP investigation details perimeter breaches at US airports
09/04/15 23:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 9:21 p.m. EDT. Several hundred times over the last decade, intruders have hopped fences, slipped past guardhouses, crashed their cars through gates or otherwise breached perimeter secur...

» Germanwings Data Recorder May Hold Few Clues on Cockpit Door
09/04/15 23:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. Investigators probing the crash of Germanwings Flight 9525 may face barriers in reconstructing conclusively what actions the co-pilot may have taken to keep others out of the cockpit.

» Thieves drilled into vault in London jewelry district heist - Fox News
09/04/15 23:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Fox News Thieves drilled into vault in London jewelry district heist Fox News April 9, 2015: Detective Chief Inspector Paul Johnson of the Metropolitan police Flying Squad speaks...

» Opinion: Iran Advances Beyond 'Third Tier' Cyber Power
09/04/15 23:17 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. Even as Iran has applied the brakes to its nuclear program over the past 18 months and provisionally agreed last week to a deal lasting more than a decade, it has continued to advance its...

» Obama to Decide Soon on Removing Cuba From Terrorism List
09/04/15 23:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. President Barack Obama said the State Department has completed its review of whether to remove Cuba from the U.S. list of governments that sponsor terrorism, and his decision may come ...

» Real estate heir Durst pleads not guilty to firearm charges - Beloit Daily News
09/04/15 23:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. Real estate heir Durst pleads not guilty to firearm charges Beloit Daily News NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Millionaire real estate heir Robert Durst, wanted in California on a murder charg...

» Iran aims high ahead of push for final nuclear deal
09/04/15 23:16 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 9:21 p.m. EDT. TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran is staking out a tough bargaining stance for the final phase of nuclear negotiations, with both its supreme leader and its moderate president sa...

» Secret Service suspends supervisor after assault accusation - New York Post
09/04/15 23:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. New York Post Secret Service suspends supervisor after assault accusation New York Post The U.S. Secret Service has put a senior supervisor on leave and suspended his security cl...

» Belgian king's brother likens kin to the Stasi
09/04/15 23:15 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. Prince Laurent, brother of King Philippe, says own royal family have ‘sabotaged and blocked’ his career over years Prince Laurent, brother to Belgium’s King Philippe, has atta...

» Russia Tempts Greece With Improved Trade, But Offers No Aid
09/04/15 23:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by VOA News. Russia Tempts Greece With Improved Trade, But Offers No Aid With Greece locked into tough negotiations with its European creditors, the visit to Moscow by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras...

» Russian Consumers Reflect the Pinch of Economic Sanctions
09/04/15 23:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. The brand-new Avia Park mall in Moscow has 377,000 square feet of gleaming enclosed space. What it needs, badly, is stores and customers to fill it. Moscow's Avia Park mall, Europe's larges...

» Rare black flamingo spotted in Cyprus
09/04/15 23:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by ODN. Rare black flamingo spotted in Cyprus An extremely rare black flamingo has been spotted on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Report by Andrea Lilly. From: ODN Views: 78 6 0 0 ratings Time...

» Islamic State brought Iraq leaders together in common fight: Biden
09/04/15 23:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Islamic State brought Iraqi leaders together in a common fight since the militant group declared a "caliphate" in northern Iraq last summer, U.S. Vice Presid...

» Russia Considers Taking North Korean Migrant Laborers
09/04/15 23:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. Russian Deputy Minister of Science and Education Veniamin Kaganov said testing centers could be opened for North Koreans seeking to work in Russia

» Taliban Attack in Northern Afghanistan Leaves at Least 10 Dead
09/04/15 23:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. In a city known as a model of stability, the Taliban attacked a local prosecutor’s office where militants were disguised as Afghan security personnel.

» Snap back? Not so fast. Sanctions a big issue in nuke talks
09/04/15 23:13 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 9:21 p.m. EDT. WASHINGTON (AP) -- Snap back? Not so fast....

» Russians protest as public mood swings
09/04/15 23:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News. Increase in unrest in recent months illustrates underlying volatility

» Obama hints at Cuba breakthrough as he flies south for Raúl Castro meeting
09/04/15 23:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Network Front | The Guardian. President set to remove Cuba from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism as he prepares for face-to-face encounter with Castro at Panama summit Barack Obama is poised to r...

» Ukraine Bans Soviet-Era Symbols
09/04/15 23:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. Parliament voted to ban Soviet as well as Nazi symbols here, a move that reinforced Ukraine’s recent pivot away from Moscow but raised the prospect of exacerbating the country’s divisi...

» Biden: IS Momentum In Iraq Has 'Halted'
09/04/15 23:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has said the momentum of Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq has stalled.

» Italian right-wing leader says Facebook blocks his personal page
09/04/15 23:11 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. ROME (Reuters) - Matteo Salvini, leader of Italy's anti-immigration Northern League party, said on Thursday Facebook had blocked his personal page for 24 hours because he used the word...

» Iran Leader Lashes Out at Saudi Arabia's Intervention in Yemen
09/04/15 23:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from WSJ.com: World News. Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warns Riyadh that the kingdom’s offensive against Yemen’s Houthi rebels would end in military defeat in his strongest comments on the conflict to date.

» Biden Cites Progress in Iraq’s War With ISIS
09/04/15 23:10 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. In a speech, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said Iraq had halted the momentum of Islamic State fighters with help from the United States and regional allies.

» Iran's Khamenei says no guarantee of nuclear deal - YouTube
09/04/15 23:09 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 9, 2015 Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe A framework nuclear deal reached with world powers last week is no guarantee a full agreement will be...

» Iran's Khamenei says no guarantee of nuclear deal
09/04/15 23:07 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by AFP news agency. Iran's Khamenei says no guarantee of nuclear deal Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe A framework nuclear deal reached with world p...

» Ukraine opens gas sector to investors
09/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News. Parliament shows determination to break longstanding power of oligarchs

» U.S., allies conduct 7 air strikes in Syria, 12 in Iraq: military
09/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S.-led forces targeted Islamic State militants in Syria with seven air strikes from Wednesday to Thursday morning, with Canada taking part in the strikes for t...

» Robert Durst sends bizarre letter to reporter - New York Post
09/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. New York Post Robert Durst sends bizarre letter to reporter New York Post Robert Durst is transported to prison after his arraignment in New Orleans on March 17. Photo: AP. MORE ...

» Biden: Islamic State Assault Was Catalyst for Iraqi Unity
09/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Voice of America. The Islamic State's assault on northern Iraq last summer galvanized the country's rival factions to fight a common enemy and halt the militant group's momentum, U.S. Vice President Joe Bi...

» France's National Front's Le Pen tells father to step down from politics
09/04/15 23:06 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. PARIS (Reuters) - France's National Front leader Marine Le Pen urged her father Jean-Marie to withdraw from political life and said she would begin disciplinary proceedings against him...

» Historic encounter with Cuba's Castro awaits Obama in Panama
09/04/15 23:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from AP Top Headlines At 9:21 p.m. EDT. PANAMA CITY (AP) -- Turning the page on a half-century of enmity, President Barack Obama signaled Thursday he will soon remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors o...

» London police probe massive '$300 mn' jewel heist
09/04/15 23:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by AFP news agency. London police probe massive '$300 mn' jewel heist Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe Thieves may have gotten away with a record ha...

» India's rich temples may open gold vaults for PM Modi
09/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. MUMBAI/NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The two-century-old Shree Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai devoted to the Hindu elephant-headed god Ganesha bristles with close circuit cameras and is guarde...

» Why is ISIS destroying Iraq's cultural heritage? - The Daily Star
09/04/15 23:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. Why is ISIS destroying Iraq's cultural heritage? The Daily Star In recent months ISIS has taken to destroying priceless architecture and antiquities in northern Iraq. Since declaring a...

» Poland's Komorowski in Kiez to show support for Ukraine - YouTube
09/04/15 23:03 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 9, 2015 Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe Ukrainian soldiers fighting pro-Russian separatists in east Ukraine are also fighting to ensure the s...

» Poland's Komorowski in Kiez to show support for Ukraine
09/04/15 23:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Uploads by AFP news agency. Poland's Komorowski in Kiez to show support for Ukraine Keep up-to-date with the latest news, subscribe here: http://bit.ly/AFP-subscribe Ukrainian soldiers fighting pro-Russian...

» Obama administration speaks out against LGBT 'conversion therapy' as Ontario ... - National Post
09/04/15 23:01 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Top Stories - Google News. National Post Obama administration speaks out against LGBT 'conversion therapy' as Ontario ... National Post U.S. President Barack Obama has added his voice to the growing chorus...

» How Obama Is Readying the Way to Meet Castro
09/04/15 22:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from TIME. The United States is not hosting the Summit of the Americas; the meeting of Organization of American States members convenes on Friday in Panama City. But the Obama administration has spent the days ...

» U.S. State Dept. recommends removing Cuba from terrorism list: Senate source
09/04/15 22:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Reuters: World News. WASHINGTON/KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) - The U.S. State Department has recommended that President Barack Obama remove Cuba from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, a U.S. Sen...

» Ukraine’s Parliament Moves to Shore Up Battered Economy
09/04/15 22:54 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from NYT > World. A series of legislative votes came as new evidence emerged of just how badly the business sector has been shattered in the last year.

» Why Obama might not get expected glow at Americas summit (+video)
09/04/15 22:30 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from Christian Science Monitor | USA. Washington — President Obama's trip to Panama Friday for his third Summit of the Americas was once expected to be a victory lap over his move to normalize r...

» Obama set to test engagement doctrine with Cuba
09/04/15 19:02 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Washington (CNN) Emboldened after striking a preliminary nuclear deal with Iran, President Barack Obama heads to a gathering of South and Central American leaders this week prepared to test his doctrine of en...

» Obama’s Moral Equivalence Ignores Islamic Doctrine
09/04/15 17:08 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from The Counter Jihad Report. PJ Media , By Andrew C. McCarthy On February 6, 2015 The insipid moral equivalence in President Obama’s apologia for Islam at the National Prayer Breakfast Thursday morning ...

» Decoding the Obama Doctrine
09/04/15 16:38 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . It’s simple: Warm relations with adversaries, and cool them with friends. J ames Jeffrey , Barack Obama’s former ambassador extraordinary and plenipotentiary to Iraq, has this to say about the adm...

» Obama's National Security Strategy Show's He's a Post-Strategic President
09/04/15 15:51 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from U.S. News - World Report. The coffin is quickly being lowered on President Barack Obama’s most recent National Security Strategy. It arrived with little fanfare, received almost no attention from the...

» Nuclear non-proliferation: A nuclear test for the Obama doctrine
09/04/15 13:53 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BARACK OBAMA came to office with a simple message for his country’s foes: “We will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” He has done a lot of handshaking—with Myanma...

» The Incredible Obama Doctrine - WSJ
09/04/15 13:12 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Last weekend, with the ink on the Iran nuclear deal still being deciphered, the Obama Doctrine fell out of an interview between President Obama and Thomas Friedman of the New York Times . “You asked abo...

» White House Seeks to Soothe Relations With Venezuela
09/04/15 13:05 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BOGOTÁ, Colombia — A White House official said Tuesday that Venezuela was not a threat to the national security of the United States, backing off language in an executive order that had inflamed re...

» Obama on Iran and His View of the World - Video
09/04/15 13:04 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . BY A.J. Chavar, Quynhanh Do, David Frank, Abe Sater and Ben Werschkul | Apr. 5, 2015 | 46:14 In an interview with Thomas L. Friedman, President Obama says that his policy of engagement in Iran and elsewhere d...

» Jewels 'worth millions' stolen from London's diamond district - YouTube
09/04/15 13:00 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 8, 2015 A London jeweller said there was a "big chance" that diamonds worth millions of euros were snatched by thieves from a vault in the city over the weekend. Muhammad Almaf said he was no...

» French government vows to hunt down hackers who targeted TV station - YouTube
09/04/15 12:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Published on Apr 9, 2015 The French government is promising to hunt down "hackers": http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015... who knocked out channels belonging to a French TV station and posted material on it...

» Obama Takes His Hopes for Cuba to Summit Meeting
09/04/15 12:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . WASHINGTON — President Obama ’s push for a historic opening with Cuba faces its first major test this week as he travels to a summit meeting in Latin America, where he hopes to highlight momentum ...

» Obama, in Jamaica, Seeks to Reassert U.S. Influence in Caribbean
09/04/15 11:14 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . KINGSTON, Jamaica — President Obama is expected to use a meeting of Caribbean nations on Thursday to try to reassert American influence in the region and press its leaders to pursue alternative energy s...

» Two Israeli Soldiers Injured In Stabbing
08/04/15 20:59 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story . Two Israeli soldiers have been injured in a stabbing near a settlement in the West Bank, with the attacker killed shortly afterwards, the Israeli army has said. An army spokeswoman said: "There was a stabbing...

» Israeli Soldier 'Badly Hurt' In Stabbing
08/04/15 20:58 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World News - Breaking international news and headlines | Sky News. An Israeli soldier has been "badly hurt" in a stabbing and the attacker has been killed, a security source has told AFP.

» China sentences former mayor to 15 years for graft - U-T San Diego
08/04/15 20:57 from Mike Nova's Shared Newslinks
mikenova shared this story from World - Google News. Channel News Asia China sentences former mayor to 15 years for graft U-T San Diego BEIJING (AP) — A former mayor of the major eastern Chinese city of Nanjing has been sentenced to 15 y...

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