national security

You know when one of the kids pilfers something out the fridge when they shouldn’t be delving in there and you catch them with the cake crumbs crumbling from the corner of their mouth?

The US is back at it again.

This morning we woke up to the horrible news that hundreds of people had died following the use of nerve gas in an area close to Damascus in an attack that the "democratic" media, and the Qatari mercenaries, scrambled to pin on the Assad regime. Just like in June the US "found" Assad had used chemcial weapons, only for the UN and Russia to accuse the US of fabricating the data, and for the chemical weapon warehouse of the rebels to be uncovered shortly thereafter, which meant the Syria narrative would have to be put on hiatus for a few months: after all the lies were getting perilously close to those used by Bush in the Iraqi WMD fiasco. Well, the administration appears certain enough time has passed by and has relaunched the old "blame Assad" plotline, with the WSJ reporting minutes ago that the US "sees strong indications" that Syria's government used chemical weapons in the attacks. What those are it is unclear as the US does not actually have presence on the ground, and neither have any UN inspectors been able to investigate. But why not go for round two of the false flag fabrication: maybe this time it will fly?

BREAKING: NSA collected thousands of US internet communications over 3 years with no terror connection

— The Associated Press (@AP) August 21, 2013

You know it's bad when Russia accuses Britain of breaking human-rights and freed-of-the-press declarations, but that is what it has done following the revelations that the UK Prime Minister Cameron was behind the decision to 'pulverize' The Guardian's hard-drives in an effort to suppress more leaks. As Reuters reports, two sources with direct knowledge confirm Cameron ordered his top civil servant to "deal with this matter." Falling back on the old playbook, the government defends its actions on the basis of 'threatening national security', and adds, "we won't go into specific cases but if highly sensitive information was being held insecurely we have a responsibility to secure it," with regard the 'pulverization'.

US court martial jails Bradley Manning for 35 years for leaking secret files to whistleblowing website Wikileaks http://t.co/fyUM53TlYA

— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 21, 2013

• Obamacare, tepid U.S. growth fuel part-time hiring (Reuters)
• Cameron was behind UK attempt to halt Snowden reports (Reuters), Britain defends detention of journalist's partner (Reuters)
• Goldman Options Error Shows Peril Persists One Year After Knight (BBG)
• China expresses 'shock' as Japan's nuclear crisis deepens  (Reuters)
• Inquiry into China insurance firm rattles industry (Caixin)
• Cheaper rivals eat into Apple’s China tablet share (FT)
• Exporting fast food: Subway Targets Europe With as Many as 1,000 New Outlets in 2014 (BBG)
• Reserve Bank of India boosts liquidity to ease pressure on banks (FT)
• Justice Department Plans New Crisis-Related Cases (WSJ) - Holder doing his cutest attempt to pretend the TBTProsecute aren't
• Syrian Opposition Alleges Gas Attack, Which Government Denies (WSJ)

Just how far have our countries gone in the so-called fight against terrorism that they have been waging every single second since 9/11?

Numbers, Numbers Everywhere...are any true?

Thanks to more documents leaked by Edward Snowden, this time to the Washington Post, we learned last week that a secret May 2012 internal audit by the NSA revealed 2,776 incidents of “unauthorized” collection of information on American citizens over the previous 12 months. They are routinely breaking their own rules and covering it up. However, although the numbers of Americans who have had their information intercepted in violation of NSA’s own rules seems large, it is actually miniscule compared to the huge volume of our communications they intercept in total! Though it made for a sensational headline last week, the fact is these 2,776 “violations” over the course of one year are completely irrelevant. The millions and millions of “authorized” intercepts of our communications are all illegal -- except for the very few carried out in pursuit of a validly-issued search warrant in accordance with the Fourth Amendment. That is the real story.

In case Ben Affleck was looking for his next Oscar-winning CIA-o-mentary, the Central Intelligence Agency (which alas in a time of NSA permasnooping has become a bit of an anachronism) may have just provided the script, with the first official admission that the flipflops on the ground orchestrated at least one Iranian coup and is ostesnibly behind all other global coups (and non-coups coughegyptcough) in the past 50 years, but until they are confirmed they will remain merely "conspiracy theories."

The daily presidential-tracking poll shows that on Sunday August 18th 51% of US citizens disapprove of what President Obama is doing in the country.

The “cloud” in China is corporate nirvana: a high-growth tech sector in a high-growth country. Or was. And it’s showing up in the numbers.

New Revelations Are Breaking Every Day

Obama must be fuming like a pile of something in the pristine Oval Office today as he hears of the latest Edward-Snowden revelations.

Mission Creep Is Weakening Counter-Terror Efforts