[infowarrior] - Part 2 of WaPost picee on DHS: This one is on FEMA-DHS (long but good)
Brown's Turf Wars Sapped FEMA's Strength Director Who Came to Symbolize Incompetence in Katrina Predicted Agency Would Fail By Michael Grunwald and Susan B. Glasser Washington Post Staff Writers Friday, December 23, 2005; A01 < snip > http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/22/AR2005122202 213_pf.html You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - Patriot Act extended for only one month
pdate: Patriot Act extended for only one month December 22, 2005 8:45 PM PST The debate over the Patriot Act will resume next month after all. For the last few weeks, it's been unclear what would happen as the Dec. 31 expiration date neared for portions of the controversial law, enacted a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. President Bush has been pressuring senators to approve a four-year extension of the law without reforms that civil libertarians have suggested. The White House even went so far as to suggest that the president would veto a shorter renewal. But the Senate late Wednesday rejected Bush's entreaty, effectively calling his bluff, and instead voted for a 6 month extension. That didn't work for the Republican leadership of the House of Representatives, which volleyed back on Thursday afternoon with a one-month (actually five week) extension of the 16 portions of the law that are due to expire. Then, also on Thursday, the Senate agreed to the deal. President Bush has indicated he'll sign the legislation. The bottom line? The brief extension doesn't really favor either the Bush administration or the critics who are pressing for surveillance reforms. But it does increase the pressure on Congress to come up with a compromise soon after they return next month. http://news.com.com/2061-10796_3-6006497.html?part=rss&tag=6006497&subj=news You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - TSA Carryon Guidelines (from the Onion)
Some pre-holiday yukks. :) http://www.theonion.com/content/node/43716 You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - The Curious Section 126 of the Patriot Act
The Curious Section 126 of the Patriot Act http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/earlywarning/2005/12/the_curious_sec.html What is it that the National Security Agency began doing after 9/11 that necessitated Presidential authorization for warantless surveillance? We have all learned in the past week that the Foreign Intelligence and Surveillance Act of 1978 contains provisions that allow the government to conduct quick reaction surveillance of an individual and go to the court afterwards for a warrant. So what would the NSA need to do that isn't covered by the provisions of FISA? My guess is the government decided after 9/11 to monitor everyone. Thanks JMC for pointing out that the USA PATRIOT Improvement and Reauthorization Act Of 2005 contains a Section 126, inserted by the House, requiring the Attorney General to submit a report to Congress "on any initiative of the Department of Justice that uses or is intended to develop pattern-based data-mining technology." Data-mining is defined in Section 126 as: "a query or search or other analysis of one or more electronic databases, where-- (A) at least one of the databases was obtained from or remains under the control of a non-Federal entity, or the information was acquired initially by another department or agency of the Federal Government for purposes other than intelligence or law enforcement; (B) the search does not use personal identifiers of a specific individual or does not utilize inputs that appear on their face to identify or be associated with a specified individual to acquire information; and (C) a department or agency of the Federal Government is conducting the query or search or other analysis to find a pattern indicating terrorist or other criminal activity. In English? Congress is seeking assurances that "the privacy and due process rights of individuals" is protected in the course of the government using massive databases of non-publicly available data; both proprietary databases and its own compiled intelligence and law enforcement databases to "search" for terrorists and terrorist connections. In this program, the subject of monitoring is not one individual but everyone. Pattern-based data-mining is used to find links that might indicate terrorist activity. Patterns of activity associated with actual terrorists in the past are derived from investigations and debriefings -- let's say, for example, visas from certain countries, calls from public phone booths to Pakistan, renting of cars with newly acquired driver's licenses, one-way airline tickets. Patterns are used to trigger "tip-offs." Massive amounts of collected data -- actual intercepts of phone calls, e-mails, etc. -- together with "transaction" data -- travel or credit card records or telephone or Internet service provider logs -- are mixed through a mind-boggling array of government and private sector software programs to look for potential matches. In discussing the "Able Danger" program, I previously described how information targeters began data mining in the 1990's to discover new patterns of indicators to identify events of interest when they could not be directly observed. The theory is that data mining techniques applied to the intelligence take, combined with massive "transaction" databases, can uncover clandestine relationships or activities. In Section B above, when the law says "the search does not use personal identifiers of a specific individual or does not utilize inputs that appear on their face to identify or be associated with a specified individual to acquire information," I take it to mean the new computer-based data mining isn't looking for an individual per se, it is looking at information about all individuals (at least all who make international telephone calls or send e-mails overseas or travel to foreign countries according to the government) to select individuals who may be worthy of a closer look. In other words, with the digitization of everything and new computer and software capabilities, the government couldn't go to the Court or the Congress and say, "hey, we'd like to monitor everyone on a fishing expedition to find the next Mohamed Atta." It's one conceivable explanation. If this in fact is what the NSA has been doing since 9/11, perhaps Congress should figure out: one, whether it's legal; and two, how it can be done consistent with the Privacy Act and the Fourth Amendment. Merry Christmas. Happy Hannukah to all. See you for a further installment on Tuesday. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - NBC Takes Control of MSNBC, Reducing Microsoft Role
NBC Takes Control of MSNBC, Reducing Microsoft Role By THE NEW YORK TIMES http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/23/business/media/23cnd-nbc.html?ei=5094&en=7 7c6ff18cdb9877a&hp=&ex=1135400400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print NBC Universal announced today that it has reached a deal to acquire majority control of MSNBC, the 24-hour cable television news network, from Microsoft. The transaction could be the first step in ending a nine-year partnership between the companies, and puts NBC squarely in control of the network, which has lagged behind the Fox News Channel and CNN in the ratings race for years. NBC said it has an option to acquire 100 percent of the cable channel within two years. The deal comes after nearly a year of negotiations to undo the partnership, in which each side was increasingly frustrated with the other. Within NBC, executives complained that they did not have enough control of the network's budget to hire the right talent and market its programs. Executives at Microsoft have worried that media business is outside their primary mission and may be a black hole. Microsoft sold its stake in Slate, the online magazine, to The Washington Post last year. Without Microsoft, NBC may change MSNBC's direction as well as its name, analysts have said. Earlier this year, executives at NBC had talked about the prospect of renaming the network. NBC, which is 80 percent owned by General Electric, said today it plans greater integration between MSNBC and NBC News. "Acquiring a controlling interest in MSNBC will allow us to fully integrate the channel into our News operations and our overall cable platform," Steve Capus, president of NBC News, said in a statement. "MSNBC is a critical component of NBC News' success and has made some key viewership gains in recent months." But the companies said msnbc.com will be unaffected by the transaction and Microsoft and NBC, which is 80 percent owned by General Electric, will continue to equally own the Internet site. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - Happy Holidays to infowarrior-l folks
Before everyone bails out of the office for the weekend, here's a quick note to say Happy-Whatever-You-Celebrate and to send you and your loved ones my best wishes for this holiday season. You are now free to indulge in the spiked eggnog that you know you want right now. :) Cheers, Rick - infowarrior.org You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place
Bill Would Allow Arrests For No Reason In Public Place http://news.yahoo.com/s/wews/3133362 Mon Dec 19, 7:31 PM ET A bill on Gov. Bob Taft's desk right now is drawing a lot of criticism, NewsChannel5 reported. One state representative said it resembles Gestapo-style tactics of government, and there could be changes coming on the streets of Ohio's small towns and big cities. The Ohio Patriot Act has made it to the Taft's desk, and with the stroke of a pen, it would most likely become the toughest terrorism bill in the country. The lengthy piece of legislation would let police arrest people in public places who will not give their names, address and birth dates, even if they are not doing anything wrong. WEWS reported it would also pave the way for everyone entering critical transportation sites such as, train stations, airports and bus stations to show ID. "It brings us frighteningly close to a show me your papers society," said Carrie Davis of the ACLU, which opposes the Ohio Patriot Act. There are many others who oppose the bill as well. "The variety of people who opposed to this is not just a group of the usual suspects. We have people far right to the left opposing the bill who think it is a bad idea," said Al McGinty, NewsChannel5?s terrorism expert. McGinty said he isn't sure the law would do what it's intended to do. "I think anything we do to enhance security and give power to protect the public to police officers is a good idea," he said. "It is a good law in the wrong direction." Gov. Bob Taft will make the ultimate decision on whether to sign the bill. WEWS was told that Taft is expected to sign the bill into law, but legal experts expect that it will be challenged in courts. http://news.yahoo.com/s/wews/3133362 You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants
EXCLUSIVE: Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants Posted 12/22/05 By David E. Kaplan http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/nest/051222nest.htm In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program. Some participants were threatened with loss of their jobs when they questioned the legality of the operation, according to these accounts. advertisement Federal officials familiar with the program maintain that warrants are unneeded for the kind of radiation sampling the operation entails, but some legal scholars disagree. News of the program comes in the wake of revelations last week that, after 9/11, the Bush White House approved electronic surveillance of U.S. targets by the National Security Agency without court orders. These and other developments suggest that the federal government's domestic spying programs since 9/11 have been far broader than previously thought. The nuclear surveillance program began in early 2002 and has been run by the FBI and the Department of Energy's Nuclear Emergency Support Team (NEST). Two individuals, who declined to be named because the program is highly classified, spoke to U.S. News because of their concerns about the legality of the program. At its peak, they say, the effort involved three vehicles in Washington, D.C., monitoring 120 sites per day, nearly all of them Muslim targets drawn up by the FBI. For some ten months, officials conducted daily monitoring, and they have resumed daily checks during periods of high threat. The program has also operated in at least five other cities when threat levels there have risen: Chicago, Detroit, Las Vegas, New York, and Seattle. FBI officials expressed concern that discussion of the program would expose sensitive methods used in counterterrorism. Although NEST staffers have demonstrated their techniques on national television as recently as October, U.S. News has omitted details of how the monitoring is conducted. Officials from four different agencies declined to respond on the record about the classified program: the FBI, Energy Department, Justice Department, and National Security Council. "We don't ever comment on deployments," said Bryan Wilkes, a spokesman for DOE's National Nuclear Security Administration, which manages NEST. In Washington, the sites monitored have included prominent mosques and office buildings in suburban Maryland and Virginia. One source close to the program said that participants "were tasked on a daily and nightly basis," and that FBI and Energy Department officials held regular meetings to update the monitoring list. "The targets were almost all U.S. citizens," says the source. "A lot of us thought it was questionable, but people who complained nearly lost their jobs. We were told it was perfectly legal." The question of search warrants is controversial, however. To ensure accurate readings, in up to 15 percent of the cases the monitoring needed to take place on private property, sources say, such as on mosque parking lots and private driveways. Government officials familiar with the program insist it is legal; warrants are unneeded for monitoring from public property, they say, as well as from publicly accessible driveways and parking lots. "If a delivery man can access it, so can we," says one. Georgetown University Professor David Cole, a constitutional law expert, disagrees. Surveillance of public spaces such as mosques or public businesses might well be allowable without a court order, he argues, but not private offices or homes: "They don't need a warrant to drive onto the property -- the issue isn't where they are, but whether they're using a tactic to intrude on privacy. It seems to me that they are, and that they would need a warrant or probable cause." Cole points to a 2001 Supreme Court decision, U.S. vs. Kyllo, which looked at police use -- without a search warrant -- of thermal imaging technology to search for marijuana-growing lamps in a home. The court, in a ruling written by Justice Antonin Scalia, ruled that authorities did in fact need a warrant -- that the heat sensors violated the Fourth Amendment's clause against unreasonable search and seizure. But officials familiar with the FBI/NEST program say the radiation sensors are different and are only sampling the surrounding air. "This kind of program only detects particles in the air, it's non directional," says one knowledgeable official. "It's not a whole lot different from smelling marijuana." Officials also reject
[infowarrior] - Pricing of Digital Downloads Is Probed by NYS AG
http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-warner24dec24,0,3015790.story?coll=l a-home-headlines >From the Los Angeles Times Pricing of Digital Downloads Is Probed Warner Music and Sony BMG confirm that they received subpoenas from Eliot Spitzer. By Charles Duhigg Times Staff Writer 6:27 PM PST, December 23, 2005 Eliot Spitzer is taking on the music industry again, this time over the pricing of digital downloads. Warner Music Group on Friday confirmed that it received subpoenas from the New York attorney general as part of a larger industrywide probe into how much they charge for digital music. According to industry sources, who declined to be identified because of the continuing probe, Spitzer is reviewing whether the companies conspired to set wholesale prices. Wholesale digital music prices can range from 60 cents to nearly 90 cents a song, according to industry executives. Operations such as Apple Computer Inc.'s iTunes, the most popular digital music source, then sell songs to users for 99 cents per download. Warner made the disclosure Friday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that said it had received the subpoena on Tuesday. "As part of an industrywide investigation concerning pricing of digital music downloads, we received a subpoena from Atty. Gen. Spitzer's office as disclosed in our public filings. We are cooperating fully with the inquiry," according to a statement released by Warner spokesman Will Tanous. A source at Sony BMG said the company also received a subpoena and said it was cooperating as well. Sources said the other two major music companies -- EMI Group and Universal Music -- either have or soon would receive subpoenas. It is unclear whether the investigation is related to a recent push by music companies for variable pricing in digital downloads. Companies want songs from popular artists such as "Green Day" to fetch more than those of lesser bands. Sources said that proving price fixing is difficult because it requires not only showing that the music companies charge similar prices, but that they secretly agreed to do so. The music industry has been relatively successful in fending off past price investigations. In 2003, companies settled a price-fixing suit involving CD sales spearheaded by a group of state attorneys general. Companies paid $67.4 million in cash to consumers and donated $75.7 million worth of free CDs to libraries and schools. Critics said the settlement allowed companies to dump CDs they couldn't sell anyway, rather than donate quality music. Spitzer already has been investigating music company for allegedly lavishing gifts on radio station employees to influence playlists. Warner Music agreed to pay $5 million to settle charges; Sony BMG agreed to pay $10 million. EMI and Universal are still being investigated. A spokesman for Spitzer's office declined to comment. You are a subscribed member of the infowarrior list. Visit www.infowarrior.org for list information or to unsubscribe. This message may be redistributed freely in its entirety. Any and all copyrights appearing in list messages are maintained by their respective owners.
[infowarrior] - Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report
Spy Agency Mined Vast Data Trove, Officials Report By ERIC LICHTBLAU and JAMES RISEN http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/24/politics/24spy.html?ei=5094&en=efaa31928aa 6c87b&hp=&ex=1135400400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print WASHINGTON, Dec. 23 - The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials. The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said. As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said. The government's collection and analysis of phone and Internet traffic have raised questions among some law enforcement and judicial officials familiar with the program. One issue of concern to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which has reviewed some separate warrant applications growing out of the N.S.A.'s surveillance program, is whether the court has legal authority over calls outside the United States that happen to pass through American-based telephonic "switches," according to officials familiar with the matter. "There was a lot of discussion about the switches" in conversations with the court, a Justice Department official said, referring to the gateways through which much of the communications traffic flows. "You're talking about access to such a vast amount of communications, and the question was, How do you minimize something that's on a switch that's carrying such large volumes of traffic? The court was very, very concerned about that." Since the disclosure last week of the N.S.A.'s domestic surveillance program, President Bush and his senior aides have stressed that his executive order allowing eavesdropping without warrants was limited to the monitoring of international phone and e-mail communications involving people with known links to Al Qaeda. What has not been publicly acknowledged is that N.S.A. technicians, besides actually eavesdropping on specific conversations, have combed through large volumes of phone and Internet traffic in search of patterns that might point to terrorism suspects. Some officials describe the program as a large data-mining operation. The current and former government officials who discussed the program were granted anonymity because it remains classified. Bush administration officials declined to comment on Friday on the technical aspects of the operation and the N.S.A.'s use of broad searches to look for clues on terrorists. Because the program is highly classified, many details of how the N.S.A. is conducting it remain unknown, and members of Congress who have pressed for a full Congressional inquiry say they are eager to learn more about the program's operational details, as well as its legality. Officials in the government and the telecommunications industry who have knowledge of parts of the program say the N.S.A. has sought to analyze communications patterns to glean clues from details like who is calling whom, how long a phone call lasts and what time of day it is made, and the origins and destinations of phone calls and e-mail messages. Calls to and from Afghanistan, for instance, are known to have been of particular interest to the N.S.A. since the Sept. 11 attacks, the officials said. This so-called "pattern analysis" on calls within the United States would, in many circumstances, require a court warrant if the government wanted to trace who calls whom. The use of similar data-mining operations by the Bush administration in other contexts has raised strong objections, most notably in connection with the Total Information Awareness system, developed by the Pentagon for tracking terror suspects, and the Department of Homeland Security's Capps program for screening airline passengers. Both programs were ultimately scrapped after public outcries over possible threats to privacy and civil liberties. But the Bush administration regards the N.S.A.'s ability to trace and analyze large volumes of data as critical to its expanded mission to detect terrorist plots before they can be carried out, officials familiar with the program say. Administration officials maintain that the system set up by Congress in 1978 under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act does not give them the speed and flexibility to respond fully to terrorist threats at home. A former technology manager at a major te
