national security

On August 6th, the small town of Deer Trail, Colorado is set to vote on an ordinance that will permit the hunting of unmanned surveillance drones. The author of the ordinance, Phillip Steel, claims the gesture is “symbolic.” A handful of other American states are pursuing measures to limit the spying operations of Uncle Sam’s unmanned aerial vehicles. One has to be either lying or painfully ignorant to believe government will not abuse surveillance drones. State officials have rarely failed to use their capacity to terrify the populace. The prospect of around-the-clock surveillance is a chilling thought and one that should not be taken lightly. Unfortunately the only means to achieve some semblance of privacy requires a luddite approach to technology and a hermit’s approach to community. Otherwise, you avail yourself to the terror of visibility in what should otherwise be, in Thomas Paine’s words, the blessing of society.

Now that Edward Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia and he has been allowed to leave the airport, things are starting to hot up between the US and Russia. 

• Low Wages Work Against Jobs Optimism (WSJ)
• Tourre’s Junior Staff Defense Seen Leading to Trial Loss (BBG)
• Russia gives Snowden asylum, Obama-Putin summit in doubt (Reuters)
• Fortress to Blackstone Say Now Is Time to Sell on Surge (BBG)
• Brazil backs IMF aid for Greece and recalls representative (FT), previously Brazil refused to back new IMF aid for Greece, says billions at risk (Reuters)
• Google unveils latest challenger to iPhone (FT)
• Swaps Probe Finds Banks Manipulated Rate at Expense of Retirees (BBG)
• Academics square up in fight for Fed (FT)
• Potash Turmoil Threatens England’s First Mine in Forty Years (BBG)
• Dell Deal Close but Not Final (WSJ)

When we as a species use language to communicate and engage with one another, we have a certain understanding that certain words mean certain things. That is the entire purpose of language, effective communication between human beings that can be easily understood. As a result, we should be able to assume that when government bureaucrats utilize words that are commonplace within society, that these words represent specific commonly understood meanings. That would be a huge mistake. Jameel Jaffer and Brett Max Kaufman of the ACLU have compiled an excellent list of some commonplace words used by the NSA to mislead us into thinking they aren’t doing the bad things that they are actually doing. Words such as “surveillance,” “collect,” and “relevant.”

Sheremetyevo Airport says Edward Snowden left one and a half to two hours ago

— Daniel Sandford (@BBCDanielS) August 1, 2013

• Headlines only idiots, Schrodinger and Goebbels could love:
  • China Manufacturing Gauge Shows Unexpected Strength (WSJ)
  • China's factory activity shrank for a third straight month in July to its lowest level in nearly a year as new orders fell (Reuters)
• For nuns and analysts alike, bank commodity earnings are a mystery (Reuters)
• US spying comes under fresh attack (FT)
• Summers Backed Yellen for Fed Before Rivals Now Prove More Alike (BBG)
• Good Luck Leaving Your Wireless Phone Plan (WSJ)
• Spain's Rajoy says he was wrong to trust treasurer in party funding scandal (Reuters)
• Shell's Profit Falls on Shale Write-Down (WSJ)
• Why Rand Paul and Chris Christie went to war  (Politico)
• Sony Returns to Profit Aided by TV Business (WSJ)

The Director of National Intelligence released three declassified "in the interests of transparency" documents this morning that authorized and explained the bulk collection of phone data - one of the secret surveillance programs that Snowden revealed. As Reuters reports, much of what is contained in the documents has already been divulged in public hearings by intelligence officials but the National Security Agency's "Bulk Collection Program," carried out under the U.S. Patriot Act, is now in the open. Have no fear though, "Although the programs collect a large amount of information, the vast majority of that information is never reviewed by anyone in the government," the report said. As Senator Patrick Leahy commented, "what has to be of more concern in a democracy is whether the trust of the American people is beginning to wear thin."

Mass Surveillance Is “Killing Our Most Productive Golden Goose”

Just when you believed that the last you were going to hear about Edward Snowden was that he was holed up in the airport in Moscow, living off borscht and blini (obviously topped with caviar) all washed down with the potato drink, the outside world will be gearing itself up to go to the foot of their stairs in exclamations of ‘well, blow me down!’.

Problem ... What Problem?

Last week’s House debate on the Defense Appropriations bill for 2014 produced a bit more drama than usual. Had Amash’s amendment passed, it would have been a significant symbolic victory over the administration’s massive violations of our Fourth Amendment protections. But we should be careful about believing that even if it had somehow miraculously survived the Senate vote and the President’s veto, it would have resulted in any significant change in how the Intelligence Community would behave toward Americans. The US government has built the largest and most sophisticated spying apparatus in the history of the world. Rep. Amash’s amendment was an important move to at least bring attention to what the US intelligence community has become: an incredibly powerful conglomeration of secret government agencies that seem to view Americans as the real threat.

This fall, the US government might go the very same way as Detroit and end up filing for chapter-11 help. In other words, it will end up asking itself to bail itself out.

NSA has free access to your passwords when you back up your account on Google’s ‘back up my data’ featured on Android

It turns out that the National Security Agency of the US can actually locate your cell phone even when it has been turned off and is no longer emitting a signal.

First we had Schordinger markets in which value is either zero or whatever the Fed says it is; then we got Schrodinger economies when China was both expanding and contracting at the same time; now we have Schrodinger military coups which are both a coup and not a coup, at least as far as the US is concerned. According to AP: "The Obama administration will tell lawmakers Thursday that it won't declare Egypt's government overthrow a coup, U.S. officials said." So why will the US claim the obvious military overthrow of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood was a "democratic" process? Simple: it will allow the United States "to continue providing $1.5 billion in annual military and economic aid to the Arab world's most populous country." And why will the US continue providing Egypt with $1.5 billion in annual military aid? Simple: so Egypt can continue buying more Made In Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets to spread the Nobel Peace Prize winner's diplomatic agenda in the middle east. Because one must always think of the children GDP.