NSA – Liberty Blitzkrieg

Civil Disobedience in Brooklyn – Artists Mount 4-Foot Tall Bust of Edward Snowden in NYC Park Overnight

April 6, 2015April 6, 2015 by Michael Krieger

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In a creative expression of civil disobedience in New York City, artists installed a large bust of NSA whistleblower hero Edward Snowden in Fort Greene Park in Brooklyn.

This was no simple endeavor. The artists told Animal New York that it took the sculptor nearly 6 months to mold and complete the bust. With the weather finally cooperating, it was installed just before dawn today. Several news outlets have covered the story. First, the Washington Post notes that:

Three artists installed a bust of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden in a Brooklyn park early this morning — fusing the sculpture on top of a memorial to Revolutionary War soldiers, according to Animal New York.

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The FBI Busts Up Another of its Own Terrorist Plots and Politicians Rush to Blame the First Amendment

April 4, 2015April 3, 2015 by Michael Krieger

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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.

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Facebook Does it Again – Company Sends Funeral Home Advertisements to Cancer Sufferer

March 13, 2015March 12, 2015 by Michael Krieger

I don’t know what it’s going to take to get people to stop using Facebook. I really don’t.

Last month, I highlighted an extremely important warning from Salim Varani in the post, A Very Disturbing and Powerful Post – “Get Your Loved Ones Off Facebook.” If you somehow missed that piece, go ahead and read it now. Here’s an excerpt to give you a little taste:

“Oh yeah, I’ve been meaning to ask you why you’re getting off Facebook,” is the guilty and reluctant question I’m hearing a lot these days. Like we kinda know Facebook is bad, but don’t really want to know.

I’ve been a big Facebook supporter – one of the first users in my social group who championed what a great way it was to stay in touch, way back in 2006. I got my mum and brothers on it, and around 20 other people. I’ve even taught Facebook marketing in one of the UK’s biggest tech education projects, Digital Business Academy. I’m a techie and a marketer — so I can see the implications — and until now, they hadn’t worried me. I’ve been pretty dismissive towards people who hesitate with privacy concerns.

With this latest privacy change on January 30th, I’m scared.

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By Demanding Backdoors to Encryption, U.S. Government is Undermining Global Freedom and Security

March 6, 2015 by Michael Krieger

One of the biggest debates happening at the intersection of technology and privacy at the moment revolves around the U.S. government’s fear that the American peasantry may gain access to strong encryption in order to protect their private communications. Naturally, this isn’t something Big Brother wants to see, and the “solution” proposed by the status quo revolves around forcing technology companies to provide a way for the state to have access to all secure communications when they deem it necessary.

Many technology experts have come out strongly against this plan. Leaving aside the potential civil liberties implications of giving the lawless maniacs in political control such power, there’s the notion that if you create access for one group of entitled people, you weaken overall security. Not to mention the fact that if the U.S. claims the right to such privileged access, all other countries will demand the same in return, thus undermining global privacy rights and technology safeguards.

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Edward Snowden Won’t Use an iPhone – Here’s Why

January 26, 2015 by Michael Krieger

Cell phones are tracking devices that make phone calls.

– Jacob Appelbaum

The above line is one of my favorite quotes describing the current world we inhabit. A succinct description of modern civilization; a place where global connectivity has never been greater, but neither has warrantless surveillance.

With that in mind, here’s what Snowden had to say about the iPhone. From Yahoo:

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What 4th Amendment? Police Across the U.S. Are Using Radars to See Inside People’s Homes

January 20, 2015 by Michael Krieger

The intentional erosion of public privacy is no accident. It’s not merely a simplistically stupid overreaction to the dangerous world we live in either. It is a very deliberate and nefarious plan being intentionally implemented by the American oligarchy; i.e., the super rich and the super powerful. This is precisely why the establishment freaked out about the Edward Snowden revelations, and it is why every single minor event is immediately manipulated into an excuse to give the government and intelligence agencies more power.

While we already know a lot about the NSA’s unconstitutional and fascist policies when it comes to the web, the decimation of the 4th Amendment is also being eagerly practiced at a more local level by police departments across the country. USA Today published a very important article on this topic earlier today. Here are some excerpts:

WASHINGTON — At least 50 U.S. law enforcement agencies have secretly equipped their officers with radar devices that allow them to effectively peer through the walls of houses to see whether anyone is inside, a practice raising new concerns about the extent of government surveillance.

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Some Leaks Are More Equal Than Others – Hypocritical D.C. Insiders Line up to Defend General Petraeus from Prosecution

May 27, 2015January 13, 2015 by Michael Krieger

David Petraeus, the person who Feinstein said has “suffered enough,” was hired last year by the $73 billion investment fund KKR to be Chairman of its newly created KKR Global Institute, on top of the $220,000/year pension he receives from the U.S. Army and the teaching position he holds at Harvard’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. Let us all pause for a moment to lament the deep suffering of this man, and the grave injustice of inflicting any further deprivation upon him.

This latest example from Feinstein is one of the most vivid yet. She wanted Julian Assange – who isn’t even a U.S. citizen and never served in the U.S. Government – prosecuted for espionage for exposing war crimes, and demanded that Edward Snowden be charged with “treason” for exposing illegal eavesdropping which shocked the world. But a four-star general who leaked classified information not for any noble purpose but to his mistress for personal reasons should be protected from any legal consequences.

– From Glenn Greenwald’s recent piece: Dianne Feinstein, Strong Advocate of Leak Prosecutions, Demands Immunity for David Petraeus

The decimation of the rule of law in these United States has been the key theme at Liberty Blitzkrieg for several years now. The reason I put such an emphasis on this horrible development, is because I think it trumps all others in significance. While the world will always have crime and corruption, the inability for a society to deal with rich and powerful people who engage in such practices thrusts a spear directly into the heart of any given civilization or society. It results in an exponential increase in elite criminality, and a concurrent death spiral downward into a culture primarily defined by a depraved, unaccountable oligarchy. These are symptoms of a fallen society, and these symptoms are evident all around us.

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Former CBS Reporter Accuses Government of Secretly Planting Classified Docs on Her Computer

October 27, 2014 by Michael Krieger

Attkisson speculated on how the Nixon controversy would have been handled in a world filled with today’s television and social media obsessions.

“Nixon would basically refuse to turn over tapes to Congress, his aides would refuse to testify to Congress or would take the Fifth or would lie to Congress with fair amount of impunity,” she said. “Woodward and Bernstein would be controversialized on social media by special and political interests. … Then at the end Nixon would go on a popular late-night comedy show, during which time he would humorously refer to his attackers as people who were political witch-hunters who believed in Area 51-type conspiracy theories.”

– From the Huffington Post article: Sharyl Attkisson Says Journalists Have ‘Gone Backwards’ Since Watergate Scandal

In case you forgot, Sharyl Attkisson is the former CBS News reporter who resigned from the network in March after expressing frustration that her stories covering the Obama Administration’s role in the Benghazi and Fast and Furious scandals were being spiked due to a desire to protect the President.

In 2013, Attkisson also expressed her belief that her computer had been hacked, which CBS News subsequently confirmed. CBS reported at the time:

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Why You Should Think Twice Before Using Facebook’s Messenger App

August 20, 2015September 15, 2014 by Michael Krieger

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“Messenger appears to have more spyware type code in it than I’ve seen in products intended specifically for enterprise surveillance.”

– Jonathan Zdziarski, expert in iOS related digital forensics and security

Anyone who reads Liberty Blitzkrieg consistently will be aware of my disdain for the company Facebook. There are many reasons for my negative sentiments, but at its core is the company’s complete disrespect toward its own users.

Facebook made major headlines earlier this summer when it was caught in a massive controversy over its decision to intentionally manipulate its users’ feeds in order to affect their emotional state, something I covered in the article: Was the Department of Defense Behind Facebook’s Controversial Manipulation Study?

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